"Excuse me?"
"What type of Teqx do you want? Is it in the Power, Money, or Fame route?"
Patty sounded like he could just conjure up whatever Teqx he wanted in just a flick of a finger. But that's impossible. Even if somehow, Patty was a secret old Master who had mastered the powers of age regression, he could only ever have one mastery over one fabric of the universe.
Even the main founder of Atlas Incorporated could only give out Power Teqx to his subordinates. Sure, he could give out as many S-class Teqx as he wanted, but that didn't mean he could suddenly cross over to the Money boundary and give out Money Teqx willy-nilly, even if it was only F-class.
You would think that a man that powerful could give out any route Teqx he wanted, but on the contrary, the stronger and higher cultivation a Dreamer had, the more locked in he was at a certain route.
They had to be. To become the pinnacle of something, they must dedicate everything to their dream. To achieve the impossible, Dreamers had to immerse themselves in the universe.
A man who dreams of becoming the fastest sprinter in the world, surpassing even light itself, would have to borrow tremendous amounts of energy from the Power fabric of the universe, further entangling themselves into that route.
So, he didn't know where Patty was going with his question.
"I want to someday be everywhere, anywhere, all at once. There are so many things that I want to do in this life, but I know that my mortal body can't keep up with everything that I want to do."
Patty nodded his head. "Uh-huh. So what route is that exactly?"
Andres knew that he wanted to end up in the Power route. However, his physical education grades were subpar, so he wasn't even considered by any of the Power-route companies. He tried to be an intern bodyguard, a trainer, a sweeper, and even a punching bag, but none of them wanted him.
So, Andres decided to forgo his dream and just join the Money-route Ruobber company. Although it wasn't ideal, at least he would have the chance to continue his dream. He hoped that someday, he would be able to advance in the Money-route and achieve his dream, do the impossible.
"I…I want to immerse myself in the Power fabric."
"Specifically??? Do you have anything in mind," Patty said as he looked at the air and scrolled no air as if he was looking through a computer.
"There's this Teqx that I've been having my eye for since I was a child…It's stupid…it's the D-class Cellular Self-cloning Teqx."
"Mhmmm," Patty said, still looking at nothing but air.
"But that's totally out of reach for me. From what I heard, the only companies that offer that kind of Teqx only exist overseas. I can't even get accepted by companies here, how am I going to compete with people in first-world countries? It's just a silly little dream I have. I'm satisfied with whatever Power Teqx that is available."
Andres felt embarrassed for even discussing this exaggerated dream he had. He wasn't all that great with anything, yet he dared to dream that he got one of the most sought-after D-class abilities in the world.
That Teqx allowed its users to create clones of themselves at will. Of course, at the beginning of their cultivation, they were only limited to one or two depending on their talent and hard work. But once it had matured, then it could help Andres fulfill his dreams by literally being everywhere, anywhere, all at once.
But a dream was nothing more than a dream. Andres knew that he would never even have a chance to see the Teqx in real life, much less get it.
"Okay, I found it," Patty said casually.
"Did you find a Power-route company for me? Wow, Grammo was right, you are good!" Andres was impressed.
"No, I meant I found the D-class Cellular Self-cloning Teqx."
"HUH?! Did you find it? Do you mean to tell me that you found a company here that offers that kind of Teqx? How? I searched high and low for that, but I came up with nothing at the end. Where is it?"
"What are you talking about? I meant to say that I have the Teqx right here."
Andres didn't know how to reply. It seemed like they were talking about two completely different things. He thought Patty was trying to help him find a suitable company he could intern in, or was he?
Then, Patty got an idea. He remembered that he had 5 more coupons that the system gave him. If the original coupon, the death one, gave him an equal reward after he finished that coupon mission, then didn't it mean that he could also get rewards for that discounted coupon?
Patty was tempted to find out. What did he have to lose? After all, he wouldn't die if he failed the mission. And it wasn't like he was going to fail it anyway.
"Here, take this." Patty took out the discounted 'Patty's Do-Everything Coupon' and gave it to Andres.
He took the white paper with embossed golden writing and looked at it. It seemed to be a coupon. But Andres didn't know what it was for.
"Now, ask for a Teqx."
"What is this for?"
Patty gave him an angry look, a look that implicitly said; 'stop asking questions and just do what I say.'
Andres had been scolded by a lot of his superiors too many times to not know that look. He immediately shut up and did what Patty said.
"I want Power Teqx," and as soon as Andres said that, the white ticket suddenly crumbled into ashes in his hands. He was completely clueless as to what happened and even thought that he had done something wrong.
Patty, on the other hand, received a popup message from the system
{Mission}
{Requirement}
Give Andres a Power Teqx
{Reward}
Consumable +10 energy stim
Patty smiled when he saw this. He was right! The reward for completing the mission would give him something completely different but equal to the difficulty of the mission.
If he knew that the reward was +10 energy, or exactly equal to one summon scroll, then he would have given away his discounted coupons a long time ago.
"Okay, this is going to involve my secret, so I need you to sign a contract to keep quiet," Patty said.
Andres didn't have enough time to question Patty's plan, because he was too into his own thing that Andres felt awkward to speak up. He didn't want to be rude after Patty was nice enough to try and help him.
"Okay, what contract–"
Just as he said that, a spheroid ball suddenly appeared in front of Andres. It was shaped similar to the old game of American Football, but this thing/animal had a giant eye in the middle. It floated over to Andres and closed its 'eyes'.
Then, it suddenly dispensed a white paper in legal size. It had a body of text, much of which was some legal jargon that he saw most lawyers use in procedural crime television shows. The football-looking thing acted like a printer that gave out this contract directly to Andres' hands.
This was Patty's minion, the one that he got from his summoning the other day.
[A-class Contract Cataract]
[Description]
The Contract Cataract has the shape of an oval football, with just one giant eyelid-less eye in the middle. The Contract Cataract has no legs or arms because it can hover in mid-air using its magic.
[Ability: Contract]
The user can now create contracts in the real world as long as the two parties consent to the agreement. The Contract Cataract will create a contract between the two parties and will hold for as long as the user is alive.
Since this mission of giving Andres a Power Teqx was related to Patty's secret, he had to bring out this contract. He needed to make sure that Andres wouldn't take the information he learned today and use it against Patty.
Patty didn't want to wake up one day with a SWAT team ready to bust down his door to contain and study him for his system. So, Patty decided to make an unbreakable contract with Andres so that there's no way for Andres to betray him.
"This contract just says that you can't use this information to harm me and stuff like that. It's all very basic contract stuff," Patty said.
Andres skimmed through the contract and verified Patty's words. As long as he didn't betray Patty by using this information against him, then nothing would happen to Andres.
Although, the punishment for breaking the contract was a little weird. He didn't know what 'Trapped in a tower of unimaginable heights' meant.
Was that a new codeword for a prison or something? Andres guessed.
But since everything looked good, Andres signed the contract with the featherless quill that the floating football provided for him. He had to pluck it from the seams of the football, which was the least weird thing about this whole situation.
Once everything was done, the contract was 'eaten' by the floating football and they both disappeared into thin air. He blinked, and it was gone.
"Okay, now I can give you the Teqx," Patty said.
"What do—OH MY SUPREMES"