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ShangriLa Frontier Chapter 617: There Are Such Creatures Out There As Well, I Guess Part 1

If we all band together and start thinking about a solution for a problem, then surely we will be able to come up with something, because our Intelligence and Wisdom is going to be God-like, don’t you think? And the more people starts to think the better, so the result should be more than spectacular! It’s a simple calculation here, nothing more. You just continue to add more people, and your stats will keep on skyrocketing! So come on! Grow! Grant us the double…… No! Triple or even more of a Godly Intelligence and Wisdom!

But in all honesty, it was by a total accident that I have happened to stumble upon a solution.

When Rust, Rei and I happened to enter the cube all at once, the other three people:; Mold, Survival and Yashiro Bird were left outside of it to observe just how the cube would react to that.

After several tries that were mostly trial and error, we have found that the only one who were able to move inside of the cube pretty much normally were: myself, Rei, Rust and Yashiro Bird. But if that was the case here, then what is the thing that separates our four from Mold and Survival? Or rather, could it be that those guys were actually lacking something that we might have in or on us?

「Surely it couldn’t be about the total combined amount of money, isn’t it? That would just be stupid as all hell.」

「Hahahahahaha……」

「Nah, that couldn’t be it. Now, to properly go back to where we started……」

「…… But what if it is the case here? How about we just go on ahead and leave those chumps behind to fend for themselves?」

Rust, are you absolutely sure that you have a human heart inside of that chest of yours? No, in case of Rust, she might have some sort of a Mecha reactor in there, so it was stupid of me to assume that she would be human in that regard. That being said, I know that Rust is someone who can earn a whole lot of money effortlessly, but I also guess that her point of view is not all that entirely wrong in here.

Myself, Sanraku. Rei-san. Rust. Yashiro Bird. But then we have Mold and Survival.

Now then, thinking about it, there is one particular thing that comes to my mind: the word “Basket” that the “Brave Fish” mentioned earlier. And that particular place somewhere on the map.

Let’s think about it: the first layer of this ship is a labyrinth. The second one is a ranch, or more accurately a meat processing plant. The third layer is nothing more but an entertainment facility. Then if we decide to take a look at this layer as a whole, with the concept of all the previous layers in mind, that answer should come to us pretty naturally and with little to no effort at all.

「–––––– This is a shopping basket.」

「Say what now?」

「There is a clear distinction between us four and you two. Mainly: you did not buy anything in the shop in this layer. Myself, Rei-san, Rust bought ourselves item storage devices, Yashiro Bird bought a Chestoria, while you guys were just the ones who were borrowing money but were not actually spending a single dime from them. That’s the thing that sets up apart in here!」

「…… And how come that makes us stupid?」

Dude, seriously? You are not in any position to talk back regarding that subject.

「So, what does that mean? In other words……?」

「The total amount of money spent here…… Is that what is going to decide in what kind of direction you are going to be heading here?」

「Aaahh, yeah, that’s right. This box right here…… Could it be that it is a combination of a scale and an elevator? You know, the heavier it is, the lower it falls, and the like…… At least that’s the feeling inside of this box. My guess is that from the outsider’s perspective this box must go all the way up to the fifth layer.」

God damn it, if that’s what this thing really is. Because if it is like that, then the thing at the third layer was a complete and utter joke in comparison. And that says a whole lot about the state of affairs here.

I then look back at the hologram displaying the map of this entire place and frown my eyebrows.

「Seriously now, this is…… No matter how I try to think about it, there is no better way to earn money for shopping here than going back to the third layer and earn some big numbers right there.」

「WHAT IS BEING TESTED IN HERE IS YOUR WILL AND DETERMINATION TO GO FORWARD IN THE FACE OF ADVERSITY. SO USE WHATEVER YOU LIKE, ANY MEANS NECESSARY TO MAKE IT HAPPEN……BESIDES, IT IS SO MUCH FUN TO WATCH HUMANS FLAIL ABOUT AND STRUGGLE IN ORDER TO MOVE FORWARD……」

「Hey, Survivor? Don’t you think that this chick sometimes says the lines that would befit the last boss rather nicely?」

「Honestly, I thought that she might be the last boss of this game from the very beginning. And I’m not the only one who finds that theory plausible.」

「Yeah, I can see that! That bastard! She’s been manipulating us from behind the scenes this whole time! And the accumulate score is the evil energy that will bring forth the destruction of the world!」

「No, that’s not it, Yashiro Bird. If anything, trust me –––––– we would not be the ones allying ourselves with the side of justice in this scenario.」

「But wouldn’t an approach like that guarantee that we would all end up as bankrupt sooner or later? And without fail, at that?」

「Hmm, I don’t know. What say you, “Brave Fish”? Care to confirm the assumption? Or maybe you would like to deny it wholeheartedly?」

What I’m trying to say is that it should be a fair deal to just go down back to the third layer and earn ourselves some much needed cash in the entertainment district. I mean, it would be much faster way than trying to earn it anywhere else by other, less effective means. But yes, I also do realize that back there some of us might even go bankrupt again trying to score it big. But that’s life for you, I guess…… You can’t have a cake and eat a cake at the same time.

「But it is going to be useless unless you accumulate a whole lot of money, don’t you think? Besides, we can’t be sure that stuffing our inventories full of items is going to grant us passage, now are we……?」

「…… Mold, there appears to be a separate system window that is dedicated for that issue alone.」

「Huh?」

It’s true, see for yourself. There is a window that appears only in this specific point of the map, one that you would typically dismiss the first time you would see it, thinking that it was nothing all that important.

「SP and DP…… Is SP going to be something alongside the lines of “Score Point”?」

「Then what about DP? What could it stand for?」

「THAT WOULD BE AN ABBREVIATION FOR “DANGER POINTS”, AS A MATTER OF FACT.」

It’s kind of strange to place an ominous-sounding name like that in a place like this…… Score Points are literally score points, and you can think of it as the total amount of worth of purchased items brought into this room. Then, that would mean that this unusually low Danger Point meter is……

「Danger level, perhaps?」

The usefulness of the INVENTORY has been nerfed many times already, but it’s still powerful, to say the least. However, if its physically vicious…… it’s hard to say that it’s more dangerous than any potential weapon out there. The INVENTORY itself is just a forwarding tool, but it is only by human hands that tools can be put to good use. Now, whether it’s being used for good or evil is a completely separate matter, but that’s beside the point for now.