400 Knowledge Processing Center

[ You have managed to obtain over 5,000 SSP! A new branch function of the system shop has been unlocked! ]

'Hmmm?'

Even though I did try to be objective towards the value of SSP, it was still human nature to find smaller numbers less satisfying, so I unintentionally lowered my expectations by impulse.

However, this notif proved these expectations wrong while also proving my original doubt of the change in base value.

Just judging from it being a criteria to a whole new branch of the system shop being unlocked, the total value of the SSP I gained shouldn't be lower in value to the amount of FSP that I received back then, and that was only when taking the possibility of the stage number being a more important criteria into consideration.

Without having the need to continue just guessing blindly, I started to check the normal shop lists that I was familiar with to establish a more accurate value, which wasn't exactly that hard of a task.

Although half the shop list was made out of new items while having lost half of the items that could be found in it before just like what happened in the last stage, some items were still identically there.

For example, the 'spatial ring' line of items was still there in the same sizes, with the price being changed, of course, immediately giving me a window of comparison to reach an approximate value of an SSP…

'So it's about 5 to 1, huh?'

One of the least pricey items, the '10 cubic meters spatial ring' was priced at 55 SSP, which was much cheaper in comparison to the last price of 250 FSP, making an obvious conversion range that was almost 5:1.

Though it made no sense for such random decrease and increase to take place, I gave up on thinking too deeply about it as the system's weird acts as a whole didn't make sense most of the time, but it did remind me of the stat integration process...

Of course, other than just checking the prices, I looked around the list and checked most of the new items in search of stuff that would benefit me specifically or anything that caught my interest, but most of them were simply unreachable.

Especially...

[ System Shop:

1. Skills:

....

\u003e\u003e\u003e\u003e

2. Items:

...

'Dragon Blood Essence' (Random) - 10K SSP

'Dragon Blood Essence Extract' (Random) - 25K SSP

'Roc Blood Essence' (Random) - 9.5k SSP

... ]

Although getting dragon blood essence was supposed to be a top priority of mine, not to mention the extract which had even spare energy for domain travel, I could only stare at them and do nothing. 

Not only were most of these new items pricey, but most of them seemed to have the (Random) condition added to them, pointing out the risk of overlapping in case I even had the points to buy an item like the dragon blood essence.

Browsing the normal shop lists didn't show anything different, so it seemed like it was in a completely different panel that needed to be called out.

'Let's see… new shop branch?'

Feeling that there was no need to ask Long about it, I tried to mutter what came to mind, but that didn't seem to be invoking any reaction…

"Long…"

As I called out his name, the little lizard who was floating around the system space like it was sunbathing on the beach stopped in place and looked lazily in my direction with a somewhat smug face.

Seemingly knowing what I called him out for, I could confirm that Long's persona this time was obviously playful…

"Care to help with opening this new mysterious function?"

Being already familiar with Long's strange impulses, I didn't bother to play the guessing game with him as I asked directly.

'He is definitely entertained for some reason…'

The system space could definitely be described as Long's playing ground so it made complete sense for him to be extremely comfortable within it, not to mention flying he could do a lot more interesting stuff, it probably gave him a fake sense of superiority…

'As long as he does the job, I guess.'

Since long has been quite helpful as a toolbox, and didn't let his weird quirks affect his performance, letting him have his moment wasn't something that I would be against.

As he finally stopped playing around, Long hovered slightly less than two meters above the ground in front of me and brought his little 'dragon' hands together before he started moving them away from each other…

'Interesting…'

A half-transparent ball that had the same blue color of the system panels started to form and grow in size as his palms kept moving away. Long only stopped moving his hands once the blue object reached the size of a soccer ball.

"That's the new branch…?"

"Alright…"

I directly tapped the half-transparent ball that was on the same level as my face, only to be surprised by a familiar voice…

'This is…'

For the first time since I entered the game, the notif alarm sound that I usually received directly into my mind could be heard being produced from that ball as words formed on it, like it was being written in real-time!

[ Welcome! Congratulations for unlocking the Knowledge Processing Center! Please proceed with the brain scan! ]

"Brain scan?"

As I was just wondering whatever that meant, the ball suddenly contracted as its shape started to change to that of a… helmet.

"Computer…?"

'In that case…'

Countless thoughts flowed in my head as I immediately took out the book that I put away earlier…