Chapter 44: Luxury
44 44 - Luxury
[Yes Yes! My friends and I want to play the championship that is going to happen, but unfortunately a player is missing. Since you showed me that you have a blessing, you would already be better than the other players that we could get.], Carlos texted, clearly getting more excited.
For people like Carlos who had no Blessing, the game was able to identify this and provide a basic skills kit, such as being stronger, more agile, or have a little control over a generic energy like mana. This was so that even those who did not have a Blessing could play, as the game was based on rankings. When someone signed up for the game, if the person had a Blessing, they would go directly to the Bronze ranking, and depending on how skilled the person was and how powerful their Blessing was, they would move up the ranks. So if a Blessed Rank C registered in the game, he would quickly move up to high ranks, while Blessed Ranks F and E would stay low.
To balance this and to generate money, the company allowed people without a Blessing to move up the ranks and evolve their basic skills kit, but this was not free. While a person Blessed with a Rank C Blessing could move up the rank quickly and without spending anything, each time someone without a Blessing rose a rank, he could evolve his Blessing to match that rank and he could play the game in a more "fair" way, but this evolution cost real money.
While the most famous Blessed Ones had fun in the game and served as free advertising for the game, other people would be tempted to play a game where they could feel like a Blessed One, play with them, or even fight against them, and even without a Blessing, feel that they had power.
That was one of the points that made Noah not even consider trying the game the other times Carlos asked him to play, because he couldn"t spend money buying upgrades for his skill kit while he also didn"t have a powerful enough Blessing to rank up without the need for this kit.
But now it was different. Now, Noah could very well depend solely on himself and the progress he made with the system to get stronger and achieve something.
The championship that was taking place had a $100,000 prize pool for the winning team. Of course, this award was only for partic.i.p.ants up to Gold Rank. For Platinum and Diamond Rank teams, the prize money would have a few extra zeros added at the end.
As the teams consisted of 5 people, sharing the prize money would be $20,000 for each one. For Noah, that $20,000 would already make a big difference; with that money he could already start paying for the beginning of several treatments for Maggy. What he would need from 20 Rank E Fortress raids, he would now just need to familiarize himself with the game and win the championship.
[What do I need to play the game?] Noah asked Carlos curiously.
Hearing what Carlos said, Noah remembered that his cell phone actually came with a HyperSense tiara. Its use was very limited for him, since as he did not play virtual games, wearing a tiara that took someone into a virtual world of games was not at all helpful. But who knew that one day this tiara would be useful? [Okay, I have one at home, so when I get home I"ll let you know to show me the game.]
[Perfect! I"ll wait for your message, don"t forget, when you play, connect your cell phone to the ultra-dedicated internet cable. As the game needs to receive millions of data that your nervous system sends, sending and receiving this data using only the wireless internet would make your Ping get very high, even if your internet is 1Tb / s, playing Valorwatch without connecting the cable does not it will work.], Carlos typed quickly.
Noah read a few more tips from Carlos and went home. As he left, some Blessed Ones from the raid waved at him, others even said goodbye. This was a strange feeling for Noah, who was used to always being treated badly or just ignored. "Well, this is nothing I would complain about," He thought while comparing how good it was to be treated like this with how he has been before.
On the way home Noah did something he always felt like doing - he stopped at a small bakery and bought some hot rolls for himself to eat and regain the energy he spent at the Fortress.
Because he always had to save money, Noah never bought more food than he needed physically, which meant that almost every day he would sleep hungry, so as not to spend money unnecessarily. This was to the point that every time he went to Carlos" house, he always ate until he was full - just as he did the day before, filling a plate with several different types of food to the point of forming a small hill.
"Really, eating after exercising has its own value." Noah smiled with satisfaction when he ate the bread without any filling. It didn"t make sense to some other people, but for Noah, who couldn"t afford this luxury a few years ago, eating bread that just came out of the oven was already delicious.
Arriving in front of his house, Noah didn"t even stop eating his bread, and without worrying about getting the house keys out of his pocket, he just used [h.e.l.l Tunneling] to instantly appear inside. Since the security system knew how to identify him without him doing or saying anything himself, Noah didn"t have to worry about the police being notified of him "breaking into" his own home.
"Truly a useful skill," Noah thought as he a.s.sessed the newly acquired skill.
The feeling of going through h.e.l.l was refreshing for him; it was like a bath on a hot summer day. Noah knew very well that if he managed to go there and stay longer before coming back to the normal world, he would definitely do that even though he was still a little afraid to think about the demons.
"Blehh, I don"t know why I"m afraid of this. Probably in the future the system will give me an ability to summon demons. Who knows, maybe they can even be nice guys?" Noah laughed at how illogical it was, the Descendant of Lucifer the Devil himself was afraid of little demons.
Having eaten a large bag full of bread, Noah was finally satisfied. After taking a shower, Noah went to his room and took out the box where his cell phone came from. Inside there was a tiara with the acronym HS written on it in a sophisticated way.
Noah actually had already worn this tiara once when he had just received his mother"s cell phone, but after what happened to her, he never touched the tiara again.
"Okay, doing this will be good for me and Maggy, since if I win the championship for low ranks, I will have more money to help her," Noah convinced himself and lay on the bed with his eyes closed after putting the tiara on his head.
[User: Noah Stern
Level: 02, 61/400 exp
HP: 12/12
Strength: 12
Agility: 12
Stamina: 12
Skills:
(h.e.l.l Flames Lv 02, 72/500 exp: A technique that consists of invoking the flames of h.e.l.l itself. The flames of h.e.l.l did not differ from normal flames, but after purifying so many sins and so many sinners, it became the most powerful flame, having even burned the flame G.o.d himself, making him beg Lucifer to extinguish those flames before he died.To increase the power of h.e.l.l"s Flames ability, the user must burn sins or sinners.
\ * \ * After reaching Lv 02, the user"s body has adapted better to the flame and the control over it has become slightly more natural, in addition to making it possible to purify humans very corroded by sin. Humans with few sins cannot be cleansed. \ * \ *)
(h.e.l.l Tunneling Lv 01, 15/300 exp: A technique that consists of opening a tunnel to h.e.l.l and leaving somewhere else in a fraction of a second. The greater the distance, the greater the energy used.
h.e.l.l has housed the souls of sinners since the beginning of time for all eternity, and to support the great number of demons and souls, the area there is many times more expanded than the world of the living. Whenever Lucifer pa.s.sed through these tunnels, people a.s.sumed he was teleporting.)]
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