"Dear customer, are you not going to buy the information? I am selling it cheaply to you."
The fairy bragged, trying to lure Soma into its trap.
Someone else would have hesitated in Soma's place or given in to the fairy's words by now.
But Soma was too hard-headed and resolute to do that.
He knew that these fairies liked money.
If a price was not market-regulated, it was likely not worth going for. (Especially if the dairy suggested the price.)
"Young man, what do you say? Will you take this deal? It is as cheap as I can go for you."
The fairy tried to get Soma interested in its deal, but Soma was not interested.
He continued to tinker with the system to see if any clue was left behind, but he could not find anything.
The fairy looked annoyed because Soma neglected it, so it decided to lower the price.
"Fine! You don't have to pay me 50,000 coins. Since you are an esteemed customer, I will sell you the information for 40,000 coins. No, how about 35,000 coins? It is a steal at this rate."
The fairy tried to entice Soma into buying information from it.
But the more the fairy tried, Soma pretended he did not care about the fairy's information.
"Is 35,000 still high? Fine! I am willing to do 30,000. I cannot possibly go any lower than this."
The fairy seemed to be begging Soma to buy information from it, and this desperation was what Soma wanted to take advantage of.
"I will consider your deal if you sell me the information at 15,000."
Soma proposed, and the fairy looked struck.
"N-No way! I cannot sell you this information for this cheap. Even I have standards and limits I will not cross."
The fairy was adamant in its words, so Soma did not force it.
He was finally ready to try the combination he had been thinking about.
The fairy's panicked expression told Soma that the combination was not correct.
But it was too late to back out at that point.
He had already cut off one of the six wires.
"So not this combination. Looks like I will have to try again."
Soma sighed before he walked out of the room, and it closed behind him.
The puzzle had been reset for him to retry.
Soma opened the door, and the room was frozen once more.
He used his fire to remove the panel again, and it was time to restart.
"This is your last chance. You want to know the password, then pay me the money."
The fairy taunted, now enjoying Soma's downfall.
"OK, I will pay you 35,000 coins if you give me all three passwords. Do we have a deal?"
"Deal"
The fairy agreed and took the money.
And then it realised that the deal had been for all three passwords and not one.
"Y-You tricked me! How dare you trick someone as noble as great as me? I will not give you the information."
The fairy protested.
"Then give me my money back. A refund is not allowed under normal circumstances, but I will gladly allow you to do this once. Now, hand over the money."
Soma held his hand out, and the fairy noticed this.
It had a conflicted look, but Soma refused to feel bad for it.
"T-The money? A refund? I cannot do that. I cannot-!"
"Then give me the information that I need. The choice is yours to make, so good luck. Just remember, I will not save you from the punishment that will occur."
Soma reminded the fairy, and the tiny thing finally broke down under the pressure of being punished.
"Fine! I will give you the information for the three codes. Here."
The information appeared on the system screen, and since it was given to Soma by the shopkeeper, the chances of it being wrong were close to none.
"You are an evil human being. How dare you try and trick us? We will never forgive you for what you did to me."
The fairy cried out before it flew away.
Soma watched it fly away with a muted expression.
He did not want to waste his precious time thinking about the shopkeeper.
Once he had the code in hand, undoing the first part of the debugging was easy.
The whole zone made cracking noises as Soma unlocked the first switch.
The plate cranked before the floor opened, and a beam of light brightened the city.
[Cleared Gate ⅓. Clear all gates to gain access to the main city gate.]
The instructions were clear enough, and Soma knew what he had to do next.
...
"Why are you following me? Are you trying to mooch off me? I will not allow you to do that."
Two teams walked through the mechanical forest, trying to navigate their way through the forest.
The two leaders of the teams, Elric and Clair, walked in front of everyone else.
However, their temperament was too different to mesh well together even when they tried….
Well, even when 'one' of them tried.
Clari showed a willingness to work with Elric, but the man was not budging even an inch.
"You asked me if I'm following you, and my answer is no. Our destination is the same, so our paths might look the same to you. But I assure you I am taking a different road from you."
Clair assured with a flirty tone.
Her suggestive glances made many of Elric's men blush, and then they averted their gazes as soon as they realised what a shameful thing they had done.
Elric did not scold any of his men because he knew that Clair was pleasing to look at, but he was not happy with her behavior.
'Tsk, she is such a cougar. Unfortunately, we must travel in the same direction. Darn, I wish I could take a detour.'
Elric's unhappiness made him snappy and irritated.
It was safe to say that his teammates had gotten used to his 'not-so-great' mood.
Before Elric could blow his fuse, his party and Clair stopped.
They had reached the city with the central control room, but they first noticed the bacon of light in the sky.
[Cleared Gate ⅓. Clear all gates to gain access to the main city gate.]
The message flashed across everyone's screen, telling them they were late.
"Looks like someone is already here and clearing out the gates."
Clair no longer looked amused at the turn of events.
During this tutorial, she had been aiming to get the 'number 1' spot, but someone else outperformed her.
"This sucks. I cannot believe I was one step behind him again…."
Elric seemed to know the culprit behind this beacon of light, but it was escaping Clair's mind.
She felt the name was at the top of her tongue but could not voice it out.
"Boss, look at the current rankings."
Clair finally looked at the rankings, only to notice that she had slipped past the sixth rank, and Elric was snugly sitting at third.
The second belonged to Angelica, a name Clair knew very well.
But the first belonged to Soma and by quite a large margin.
That man had almost double the points as anyone else in the tutorial.
"Boss, that name…isn't that the person who turned your offer down to join us?"
One of Clair's subordinates asked with a hesitant voice.
He did not want to offend Clair but did not want her to be in the dark.
"Tsk, I noticed that you fool. This is not fair. That man has some kind of insider information about this tower. Maybe he is guilty already, and they are supporting him."
Clair did not want to believe there was so much gap between her and someone else taking the same exam.
It bruised her ego and reminded Clair that she was a support.
Elric was also frustrated but surprised to see Clair taking this all personally.
She suddenly busted out running, leaving her teammates and Elric behind.
"Hey, where are you going? Stop running. You will fall and- hey!"
Elric ran after Clair once he noticed she had taken off.
The rest of the party also started chasing their two leaders.
But they did not get far before fire filled their way, and Angelica stood before them.
"Are you both friends or foes? I will have to kill you depending on the kind of answer you give me."
Angelica's spear was held ready, and it made Elric cautious.
He did not want to fight Angelica, but Clair was different.
"We are not enemies but rivals. Now get out of my way because I need to get into the city."
Clair tried to move past Angelica, but the fire still burned tall.
"I am afraid that I cannot allow you all to pass. I do not want to lose my current rank, and letting you in the city will be a problem."