Chapter 734
Chapter 734 - 720: Losses
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8 min read
Lu Ping’an thought that selling "knowledge" would be a snap, the knowledge would be taken away and he’d get his points.
"Isn’t that how in-game transactions work? All it takes is a click of the mouse."
But once he actually started selling knowledge, he wanted to call a halt immediately...
"... My hands are sore, can we call it a day?!"
"No, once a transaction has started, it can’t be terminated." Chris laughed merrily. She had known this all along and was waiting to see Lu Ping’an’s embarrassment.
In a blank reading room, Lu Ping’an sat at a table, mindlessly and accurately copying at a high speed.
His writing was incredibly fast, leaving afterimages in the eyes of onlookers.
As this was the Taboo Library, "Taboo knowledge" was naturally collected and stored in the form of "books".
Once the transaction was confirmed, Lu Ping’an switched into "automatic writing" mode, not even aware of what he was writing.
"Professional System and Symbiotic Cultivation Experience of the Parasitic Tree", "Cultivation Experience and Functional Characteristics of Thirteen Magic Plants"... Just one glance made Lu Ping’an feel numb.
He was surprised by the amount of miscellaneous knowledge he possessed.
However, he was aware that this was part of the "ritual", packaging his knowledge system related to the "Parasitic Tree" into a "Taboo Book".
There were already six or seven books piled on the table next to him. Apparently, for a third-tier profession, it would take at least a dozen books.
The buyers wouldn’t be able to obtain all of the Parasitic Tree’s knowledge just by reading these books. Reading itself was part of the ritual, a process of "unzipping" these knowledge systems.
Clearly, this was directly linked to the scholar’s abilities. Without the corresponding scholar level, the books wouldn’t sell well. The requirements for buyers would be a bit lower, but the scholar’s tier would directly determine whether they could absorb the knowledge and how long it would take.
However, this was still...
"... Completely crazy. With enough points, you can essentially get anything."
Chris had noticed that although the reading of these "books" also had many prerequisites, in a certain context, this method was circumventing the original conditions of the professions.
Professions that originally required other deities could also be obtained by overlaying the "contamination" of the writer’s profession and "unzipping" it.
Of course, the basic conditions for obtaining the profession are necessary. The profession acquired in this way not only has a failure rate but is also inevitably incomplete... But hey, you can always buy it a few more times.
"... Can it be any faster?"
Lu Ping’an’s time was limited, he couldn’t afford to waste it endlessly.
As a result, he chose the library’s paid service... "accelerated writing".
"You’re already at eight times the normal speed, another multiplication can be made, sixteen times is possible, but the cost..."
"Double it?" Lu Ping’an was getting a clearer understanding of this ridiculous method. Money was required everywhere, even though he had built everything brick by brick himself, he wasn’t offered any discount for being the owner.
The one thing to be thankful for is that most of the fees were treated as "Public Funds". Apart from covering the daily operating costs, they could also be used to purchase rule buildings.
In fact, if it weren’t for the "Public Funds" he had saved up earlier, Lu Ping’an wouldn’t have been able to afford this ridiculously expensive Taboo Library.
But looking at it now, you get what you pay for. With the support of the rule building "Pillar of Time", it could provide accelerated writing and reading services... of course, it was strictly limited to the library interior and was only available in "reading" and "writing" states. In a certain sense, this was a form of ritual acceleration.
Lu Ping’an had purchased a four-times speed service. Adding in the standard double-speed from the Pillar of Time, he had effectively achieved eight times the normal speed, which is why he was able to write so much so quickly.
𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶
Considering his workload, the faster the better, so he asked if it could be doubled again.
The cost for four times the "reading time" was five points per hour. Even if the eight times speed was doubled again, he could grit his teeth and bear it.
"500 points per hour.... Don’t look at me like that, it’s the system’s rules, there’s nothing can be done."
At this moment, Lu Ping’an was prepared to be ripped off, but he couldn’t afford the cost.
He thought even if it was a scam, the most it could be was ten times, but the actual fee was a hundred times the cost.
"This is too much of a rip-off!"
However, it seemed that this is the nature of time abilities. Minor adjustments were reasonably affordable, but when it was raised a notch, the consumption increased exponentially. Examples included the basic ability of the Pillar of Time.
[Function 1, Biological Acceleration: Adjusts the user’s perceived time. There are currently two levels, two times the speed costs 1 life-point every 24 hours, three times the speed costs 5 life-points every 24 hours (Not recommended for lifeforms below Decree-level to activate triple speed.)]
If price could correspond with cost, the increase from the Pillar of Time’s double speed to triple speed was a fivefold increase in consumption. Here, the specified condition of quadrupling the speed was an astonishing hundredfold increase in consumption.
"It doesn’t work that way. The temporal abilities of the Pillar of Time and the Library are of the same origin. You’ve effectively increased the speed from eight times to sixteen times, so naturally, the cost goes up by a hundred times."
"... then I’ll just switch to triple speed at the Pillar of Time first, and then come here for quadruple speed. That would give me twelve times the speed."
As soon as Lu Ping’an spoke, he walked out to make the change.
As for the "Decree-level organisms" basic requirement, neither Lu Ping’an nor Chris, who was not at the Decree-level themselves, took it seriously.
"... It actually works."
The cost had not increased significantly. Comparing the impact with the hourglass nearby, it was indeed accelerated.
However, after writing for a while, Lu Ping’an noticed something was wrong... he felt tired faster and needed more rest and adjustment.
"... The temporal powers of the Pillar of Time and the Library come from the same source, but they employ different acceleration methods. The triple speed of the Pillar of Time is putting too much pressure on you."
Now, Lu Ping’an felt subtle differences. He wasn’t sure which method was faster.
"Tsk, you’ll never outsmart the bank..."
As he wrote, when it felt like a whole day of overtime had already passed, in actuality, only forty-some minutes had passed. Lu Ping’an finally completed his task... he could breathe a sigh of relief.
"Settlement... Good quality. Estimated value: forty-one life-points."
Lu Ping’an opened his mouth, at a loss for words.
These points were probably the worst value for money.
[Obtained ’writing contamination’ profession experience in large quantities, currently Lv22...]
If it was someone else, they would probably rejoice at the massive growth in scholar profession experience, but when Lu Ping’an went crazy last time, he had already pushed it to an exaggerated level. Although he was rewarded with a large amount of profession experience, his level didn’t budge at all.
Clearly, writing a third-tier profession was of limited help to Lu Ping’an’s current situation.
"Do you want to proceed as planned and sell the Runner profession?" Chris laughed mischievously, enjoying the rare sight of Lu Ping’an’s embarrassment.
"No need, I’m almost dead tired..."
Lu Ping’an, of course, didn’t work so hard just for these 41 points. He was just trying out this damn ability. It wasn’t necessary for him to do it now.
Um, this damn "accelerated reading" charges according to your perceived time. So...
"... Did I lose out?" Lu Ping’an was a bit dazed, but at this moment, he couldn’t afford to skimp on these points.
This service was actually "single-threaded". Once a transaction is proposed and accepted, you can’t do anything else until the first one is completed.
Lu Ping’an only wanted to try it out, but ended up getting stuck in it.
"Though it fits my understanding of banks, it really is a rip-off..."
Lu Ping’an stood up and stretched his shoulders.
Next, was the actual experiment to test its ability to create "brand new professions."
— End of Chapter 734 —