[Total IDLE Points Stored: 7340/10000]
For more than 10 minutes after ending his fifth run, Aldrin was left stuck staring at that particular line.
More than 7000 IDLE Points... It's already a fortune for his family if he converted all of it to Federation Credits. Moreover, he could still expect more than 1600 IDLE Points harvest from his generator.
As he relished on staring at that abundant IDLE Points, he began budgeting it or rather, allocating it to what he needed.
First on his list, Aldrin set aside 2000 Points for the Federation Credits that he would present for his family three days later. Although he's aware that he could probably earn that amount again by the third day, he wanted to make sure. The possibility of IDLE Database being taken from him at any moment was still there.
Although he would devote himself to utilizing it, he was already thinking of ways to not fully rely on it.
It's also one of the reasons why he wanted to be adept at combat despite having the ability to conjure a Shadow Clone or summon Dimensional Clones that could fight for him at the expense of few IDLE Points and refined energy.
If the IDLE Database disappeared one day, he wanted to be someone who could stand on his own foot.
For Aldrin, he was treating the mysterious program as an Experience Booster that would eventually expire.
With 2000 set aside, he still had more or less 7000 depending on how much he will be able to harvest when midnight arrives.
"First... I needed to upgrade the storage. It will eventually be filled after all. Also... the points needed to reach 50 Small Merchants."
Aldrin then calculated it in his mind setting aside another 1000 and 1600 IDLE Points. 11 Small Merchants would expire right after midnight so he needed 159,350 Federation Credits in total to buy 36 Small Merchants.
Because of the new bonus at 50 Small Merchants, Idle Shopping would begin earning him more than 5000 IDLE Points per day. 6120 if Failure Chance was raised once more and was accounted for. But until he finished realigning their expiration time, Aldrin would be expecting less income.
It's fine for him since he only needed another day to fix it.
After deducting those he listed, that still left him more or less 4300. Still a huge amount.
His outlook truly changed in just a few days. If he was frugal with spending money before because of his dwindling savings, this time, setting aside what would be equivalent to more than double of his parents' annual income was decided in less than five minutes.
"Since I could use my Concept inside the Idle Adventure mode, should I buy a new set of Battlesuit? No... My spherical Energy Quintessence already surprised Janet. If I showed that I already possessed two Concepts and another one that I was close to being enlightened to as well as a complete Basic Refiner Battlesuit, they would begin to suspect that there's something wrong with me..."
If his story was like one of those novels in the ancient era, he could bluff by talking about a hidden master or an inheritance he chanced upon.
Alas, that's something that wouldn't fly when it was easy to access anyone's information in today's era.
In his mind, now that he registered as an Energy Refiner, he was expecting that the association had already done background checks about him. Furthermore, Janet is not Renissa. The fact that he possessed a spherical Energy Quintessence was most likely already reported.
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"Enter."
On the 10th floor of the Refiner's Association, inside the sole room located on it which overlooked the view of the whole Central District, the authoritative voice of the Branch Head rang out.
Soon afterward, the wide door was silently pushed open from the outside, revealing Janet's figure, walking elegantly and stopping a few steps before his table.
"Here is the report about the new registered Energy Refiners in this city for the past week. I implore Branch Head to check the topmost one." Janet placed a tablet device containing the information about the newly registered Energy Refiners from Lonewind City.
Among the more than 20 Energy Refiners that awakened within the week and registered, all of them came from Energy Refiner lineages except one, Aldrin.
"Alright, you can leave now..." With his mind occupied from the shocking audio recording he heard earlier, Matias didn't pay too much attention to the report and thought of skimming through later once he cleared his mind despite Janet's recommendation.
It's normal.
The matter about the Dimensional Rifts opening inside a city protected by Dimensional Disruptor was a heavier subject than the new recruits who would, more often than not, become stagnant after a few months of their awakening.
However, before Janet could even turn around, Matias seemingly remembered something and threw the woman a question.
"By the way, until when will you stay as a receptionist, Janet? Are you still waiting for him to return? I gave that position to you as per your request but things had just gotten a bit complicated. The Association needed someone like you in the forefront."
"... Branch Head. It's not that I'm slacking off, I told you the reason why and you allowed me to... Once a Rift towards that Dimension opens again, you can expect me to be the first one in line to dive in it." Janet answered. "Anyway, whatever complications arose, I believe the famous Bloodied Drake of days past can spread his wings again."
By the tone of her voice, it was easy to see that she's restraining an emotion. In the end, she deflected what Matias said and forced a smile by mentioning the title Matias was better known for.
For her, there's nothing more important than that. Manning the reception desk of the Refiner's Association and teasing those newbies and her colleagues was one way for her to control herself from going berserk from the helplessness she was feeling.
Her brother, someone who was with her ever since they both awakened at the same time became trapped inside a Dimension when his unit entered the Rift to investigate.
It wasn't supposed to happen given the knowledge they had but for whatever reason, the Rift closed while her brother and the members of his unit were still inside.
The last thing she heard from him through the Communicator was that they were surrounded by the enemies and were requesting extraction.
However, with the Rift closed, rescuing them from that place became impossible.
The only hope for them was for a Rift from the same Dimension to open again.
But the trickiest part was... Rifts are most of the time... random. A Rift might open in the planet they are in and the next Rift from the same Dimension might appear on another planet or World Zone.
Nonetheless, Janet was still hoping for a miracle. The Communicator that was directly connected to her brother's Communicator was always at her side, waiting quietly until it rang once more.
"It has been five years, Janet..." Matias sighed and stopped whatever he wanted to say next.
He lowered his head on the table and picked up the tablet device that the woman placed on his table.
"I know and I'm still hoping. Thank you for understanding... uncle." After saying that, Janet turned around and left the room.
Matias watched the forlorn back of his niece before sighing once more. "It's high time for that girl to move on. Even I am not confident to live for five years in the Dimension beyond the Rifts once it closed..."
He shook his head and since he's already holding the tablet device, Matias picked it up and opened the files about the new Energy Refiners.
"Aldrin Fallwater... flawless spherical Energy Quintessence. This... is a good seed to cultivate. It also reminds me of that boy..."
Remembering what Janet said after presenting the report to him, Matias widened his eyes as he immediately pressed a button from his table.
A few seconds later, a holographic screen rose and the face of his assistant appeared on it.
"Draft a luxurious contract that will outclass what the City Hall and the three corporations can draw. We have to get this new Energy Refiner." He tapped something on the tablet device and Aldrin's information flashed on the screen. "Also... Reassign Janet. Put her as one of the instructors for the upcoming Joint Refiner Training Camp."
"I understand. But Branch Head, will Janet comply?"
"Don't worry about it. She needs to go out of her comfort zone or... she will remain stagnant. Training that one might change her mind."
Like Janet told Aldrin, his spherical Energy Quintessence only gave a small surprise to Matias. The reason why he arranged that is because... Janet's brother possessed a similar Energy Quintessence.