Ed who was still in the system space awaiting an answer as to why the cost was so high never received one. He could only speculate.
'Price is usually determined by supply and demand, but that doesn't help me here...' There was no demand apart from himself and the supply was a service to which he was providing the resources. In that case, the price could be determined by labor.
If a product had to go through an extremely complicated or resource-heavy process then naturally when that product was sold to the market, it would be at a higher price. Otherwise, the seller would not be able to make any profits due to the cost of resources or simply the time spent.
If this was applied to the human souls, it implied that for the system to use human souls it either consumed many of its own resources or the process was heavily straining. It could also be both, either way, Ed had a high price to pay.
