He took an entire day to peruse over three hundred shops in the Vistar Kingdom’s capital. Only after familiarizing himself with the current market did he spend all his money.
Chapter 13
The first thing Jason bought was a basic grade inventory ring for twenty-five silver, otherwise he wouldn’t be able to store anything he purchased. A basic grade inventory ring had five times more space than a crude grade one. An inventory ring was the most useful item an ascender used, as anything that wasn’t alive could be stored inside it. Perhaps even more nifty was that food didn’t age or spoil while inside.
With Jason’s combat experience and knowledge of the tower, he guessed that he would be leveling quickly. Too quickly. It would make whatever equipment he bought obsolete every few days. Buying normal equipment wasn’t wise. Instead, Jason set his sights on an extremely rare set of equipment. Heritage equipment. It leveled up along with the wearer, up to a certain level. Generally, nobody but those rich tycoons would buy this type of equipment. It was just too expensive. With Jason’s current funds, buying even a single piece of heritage equipment was out of the question, so he decided to hold off on upgrading his equipment for now.
The next thing he looked at were skills that he desperately wanted. They were among his bread and butter skills and he had raised them to high grades in the past. Unfortunately, because of how rare they were, even a single one was more than five gold. Unable to buy the equipment or skills he wanted, he decided it was finally time to enact a plan he had put aside.
Jason made his way towards the central district. There, a blue portal hovered off the ground. People could be seen walking in and out of it. For the first time since his return to the past, he left the tower.
Because you haven't unlocked the twenty-ninth floor, this portal will instead take you to the fifth floor, or you can choose to leave the tower.
Fifth floor / Exit
After adjusting to his surroundings, he found himself standing in the middle of a modern city. Skyscrapers over fifty stories high sat like little children around the tower. The tower’s height was beyond what humans could accomplish. It towered higher than the clouds, and even seemed to reach heaven. Thus, the towers were called the Towers of Heaven. People in medieval gear could be seen all around him, as well as people in modern clothes.
Before Jason returned to the past, leaving the tower had meant entering a death zone. Every week, a wave of monsters seeking destruction and death would spawn around each tower. Every week they would grow stronger. Twenty years had already passed with humanity defending against the monster waves successfully, but Jason knew it wouldn’t last much longer.
This was why the time limit he set for himself was five years. After five years, this city would be overrun by monsters. Skyscrapers would fall and nuclear bombs would be dropped. Humanity should have had enough strength to defend itself, but ascenders weren’t united. The strongest ascenders were busy clearing the tower, not defending from monster waves.
Sixty years later, Earth became a death zone. It was filled with millions of monsters, demons, devils, and even dragons. As Jason saw the carefree expressions everyone was wearing, he reminded himself that Earth was currently safe. He relaxed his guard and entered the crowd. His destination was a building near the entrance of the tower that exchanged currencies.
After entering the two-story building, Jason saw a long line of ascenders waiting impatiently. It wasn’t only him who wanted to exchange coins, but everyone here. This was why the building was built so close to the tower. Standing guard were high-level ascenders. The amount of money contained within this building was astounding, so the bank which owned this place spent a vast sum to hire guards.
Around an hour later it was Jason’s turn. He walked up and placed five gold coins on the counter. “United States dollars, please.”
The attendant’s eyes widened slightly before returning to normal. Five gold was a lot, but considering her job, she had seen much more. It only surprised her a little. “That’ll be $40,000 dollars, sir. There will be a five-dollar fee.”
“No problem.” Jason waved his hand dismissively. The fee was inconsequential compared to the money he was about to acquire.
“Here you are.” The attendant swiftly took out four stacks of US dollars from her inventory ring and placed it on the counter. Jason noticed that the grade of the inventory ring was two grades higher than his. He tried to imagine how much money was within her ring and could only sigh at how poor he was. That’ll change soon. He stored the $40,000 dollars in his inventory ring and left the bank.
In the next several hours, he went from one place to the next. He set up a bank account, purchased a laptop and some programs, a disposable phone, and several thousand dollars’ worth of compact food. Finally, he found a library in the city that was lacking in cameras. It took a while, but it was absolutely imperative to his plan. A few days later, he went to the library and began his plan.
He opened up his laptop, connected to the internet, and masked his internet address with a virtual private network. Then he paused. Who should I pick?
He had only just realized, but what he was about to do would change the political landscape drastically. Think about it. He was going to sell a map of the entire thirty-ninth floor to a guild. The map included geography, weather, the types of monsters, the loot they dropped, their respawn time, the location of the portal, etc. As soon as he sold this map to a top-tier guild, they would be able to grow stronger much more quickly and safely.
A top-tier guild had members that were stronger than the vast majority of humans. A single top-tier guild was on par with a country’s strongest weapon: a nuclear bomb. Once he sold a map, the guild he sold it to would immediately grow stronger than their rivals. This meant he could sell it to a top-tier Chinese guild and cause endless problems for the United States. Or he could sell it to one of the African warlords.
As his thoughts reached this point, he shivered. The amount of power I have in my hands is too much. He had never been someone who could think of all the possibilities, so after several minutes of hesitation, he decided to trust his gut.
He pulled up the homepage of a top-tier European guild. Skyfall. Before he returned to the past, he’d had a close friend named Peter who eventually became the guild leader of Skyfall. Right now, he should have a pretty high position in the guild. The Skyfall guild was focused on ascending the tower. They weren’t politically aligned with their countries, unlike some other guilds. If their power grew, it shouldn’t pose too much of a problem.
Jason found Skyfall’s contact information and called their guild’s representative. All of the famous guilds had a headquarters inside the tower and one outside the tower. The one inside would be for the guild members and the one outside would be for public relations and recruitment, among other things.
Chapter 14
“This is Skyfall’s front desk. How may I help you?” a cheery female voice responded.
Jason spoke in an unnatural deep tone. “I want to sell a map of the thirty-ninth floor to your guild.”
“Huh?” The receptionist paused for a moment. If the person she was speaking to had a map of the thirty-ninth floor, that meant he was very strong, so why wasn’t he contacting their guild leader from inside the tower? “Sir, I’m afraid I can’t help you.”
Jason responded as if he expected this response. “I know that there is always a member of the guild stationed outside the tower as a liaison. If something major happened, this member would contact the guild master as fast as possible.”
The receptionist blinked in surprise. She didn’t know this, though she did know how important a map of the thirty-ninth floor was. She responded after a moment. “I’ll forward you to my manager.”
Jason was forwarded to quite a few people before he finally managed to get to the person he wanted to speak to. The liaison spoke with a hint of impatience. “You say you have a map of the thirty-ninth floor? Who are you?”
Ja
son answered in the same deep voice. “Who I am doesn’t matter. Let’s just say I stole it, shall we?”
“Fair enough.” The liaison wasn’t a dumbass. He could tell that Jason wanted to keep his identity a secret, otherwise he would have met with his guild master face to face. “Why should I trust you?”
Jason glanced at his computer. “Send me an email address and I’ll send you a part of the map. You can compare it with what your guild has already mapped out. You’ll find this is no trifling matter.”
“Hm?” The liaison narrowed his eyes. This guy has already planned things out to this extent? Is he for real? The liaison started to take this seriously. “Send it to…”
Jason had spent the past few days making a detailed map on Photoshop. He was no cartographer, so it was a bit messy, but he was quite proud of his work. Because it was a digital file, he cut off a vast portion of the map before sending it to the liaison’s email.
In another building, a brown-haired youth sat in front of a computer. He constantly compared the map on the screen with the map in his hands. After a few minutes, he rose to his feet in shock. “I’ll be right back! I have to contact the guild master.”
He placed his phone on the table before rushing out of the building and heading towards the tower. After entering, he found himself inside Skyfall’s guild hall in the capital of the Troy Kingdom. He quickly pulled out the communication necklace from his inventory and put it around his neck. In his mind, numerous connections formed. When he focused on one, a concerned voice called out. “Danny? What happened?”
“Big news, Walter. Someone wants to sell us a map of the thirty-ninth floor!” Danny clenched his hands in excitement.
“What?!” Walter froze mid-battle. He had to activate a skill to dodge an attack he would have otherwise parried. He quickly pulled back from the monster he was fighting and motioned for his guild members to take over. He was now fully focused on the necklace. “What guild is selling it?”
“That’s the thing. They want to remain anonymous.” Danny replied with a hint of confusion.
“Ah.” Walter nodded slightly. Did someone have a falling out? Or did they steal it? Or does the guild want to keep it a secret? He shrugged. “Have you verified the map?”
“The portion of the map I received only has information around the starting area of the floor, but it's way more detailed than ours. It has information about monster drops, their weaknesses, their stats, their abilities, and how long it takes for them to respawn.” Danny’s face was flushed as he spoke.
“That much?” Walter was astounded. How could they have so much more information than us? Which guild has this much power? Walter forced himself to calm down. “Where are you? I’ll come to you immediately. Before we do anything rash, let’s confirm the information on it.”
“No worries, I already brought a copy.” Danny replied.
Walter left the thirty-ninth floor by using a teleport scroll to the thirtieth floor. He met up with Danny and took the map before heading back to the thirty-ninth floor. He found a random monster and followed the directions on how to kill it. Then he waited for it to respawn. Sure enough, it respawned after thirty minutes. His eyes flashed with glee. This map is legit!
A few hours later, Jason heard a different voice from the other side of the phone. “This is the guild leader of Skyfall, Walter. What should I call you?”
Jason thought for a moment. “Index.”
“All right, Index, you have my full attention.” Walter found the name strange but didn’t give it any mind.
“Are you willing to buy my map?” Jason smiled. The fish took the bait. He knew how valuable a map was, so Walter was almost certain to buy it. The only question was for how much.
“First, I have a question. Have you or are you planning on selling this map to other guilds? How much Skyfall will pay depends on the answer to this question.”
“What if I lie?” Jason chuckled lightly. Before Walter could respond, Jason added. “I plan on selling my maps to Skyfall, and only Skyfall. That is, if you can afford it.”
Maps? Plural? Walter gleaned several pieces of information from this. Jason was planning on continuing business with them, which meant he was confident in procuring maps of higher floors. After Walter realized this, he figured Jason had no reason to lie, or else Walter would lose trust in him. Walter’s heart clenched in pain as he said. “5,000 gold.”
“Deal!” Jason’s face grew red with excitement. “You’re quite sincere, aren’t you?”
“I’m paying for an exclusivity contract,” Walter reminded.
“Of course, of course.” Jason laughed with a light heart. What followed next was an exchange of information. Jason sent Walter his information to make a wire transfer. As a show of good faith, Walter paid half of the payment before receiving the map. This was his pride as one of the leaders of the ascenders. After confirming the payment, Jason sent Walter the map of the entire floor. Walter then paid the remaining amount.
“Excellent!” Walter exclaimed as he inspected the map. He immediately began to print out copies to hand to his subordinates.
“How may I contact you in the future?” Jason asked before ending the call.
“Contact Danny, he’s my liaison with the outside world.” Walter told Jason a phone number.
After all that, Jason ended the call and stretched. He had spent several hours waiting patiently, and it had all been worth it. As he looked at his bank account, he found fifty million dollars sitting there. A mid-tier guild made that much money in an entire year, yet it only took him a few hours. Unfortunately, he would have to wait until the guilds reached the next floor before he could sell them another map. No, wait, the fortieth floor doesn’t need a map. The forty-first floor then.
Jason picked up his belongings and left the library. He stored his laptop and disposable phone in his crude-quality inventory ring where it was promptly shredded to pieces.
Chapter 15
Before going all out in purchasing equipment and skills, Jason did something he had been wanting to do for a while but hadn’t because of a lack of funds. He entered a random store outside the tower and purchased the fireball spell for one hundred thousand dollars. After that, he rode the bus to the nearest airport. A few hours later he landed in Virginia and took a taxi to the suburbs outside Virginia Beach.
Jason stood in front of a small one-story house. Over the years, the weather had torn away the paint and shingles. They had long since needed replacing. Jason sighed heavily as he looked over the patchy front yard and small fence. It’s just as I remembered it.
After a few minutes of reminiscing, he recalled what he came here to do. He strode up to the front door and rang the doorbell. Nobody came. Jason chuckled bitterly. Does he think I’m some door salesman? He promptly rang the doorbell over and over.
A minute later, the door swung open, followed by an irritated male voice. “Who in the hel-”
The man froze when he recognized Jason. He leaned forward in his wheelchair with a frown. “Jason? Did you get plastic surgery?”
As his stats rose, his body had returned to its prime. He now looked like a twenty-year-old. His father had mistaken the fundamental change in his body for plastic surgery. Jason chuckled. “Of course not. Besides, aren’t I a bit too young for that?”
“Huh, is it some lotion then? Damn, technology is really advancing fast these days. Send me the brand name, would you?” Jason’s father moved his wheelchair out of the way. “I didn’t expect you to come over. Why didn’t you call?”
“Ah.” Jason scratched his cheek as he walked in and shut the door behind him. “I wanted this to be a surprise.”
“Well, don’t expect me to cook something,” his father remarked.
As Jason was led into the living room, he inspected his father with tears in his eyes. It’s been so long. He’s still the same. Much like Jason, his father had dark brown hair and eyes, a chiseled jaw, and a muscular physique. Even though his father had been para
lyzed from the waist down, he still worked out his upper body every day. A habit since his military days.
In the original past, not the one he returned to, he had been able to move his father into the tower when Earth had become overrun. He thought his father would be safe there, but he ended up perishing during a floor battle. He hadn’t seen his father in over twenty years. Jason secretly wiped the tears from his eyes and sat down on the couch.
“I tried calling your phone a few weeks ago, but you didn’t answer. I even left a voicemail,” his father casually commented.
“Oh, my phone got destroyed. I haven’t gotten a new one since. Sorry.” Jason had been stuck in Aros’s trial for three weeks, otherwise he would have contacted his father sooner.
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