— — — — — —
Arcadia City — Inside the community building, sixth-floor office.
Ryo sat across from Leticia on the sofa while they talked.
Today Leticia had changed into a fitted suit and short skirt, looking every bit like a professional secretary. Holding a stack of documents, she began her report.
"Your meeting with Ms. Willa, leader of Will-O-Wisp, is scheduled in forty minutes. That's 10:00 AM, and the discussion is expected to last half an hour."
"At 11:00, per your request, you'll meet with Ms. Sala, leader of the Draco Greif Alliance, to discuss alliance matters."
"At 11:30, Mandora of Salamandra will bring Sandora for a visit to discuss rebuilding the alliance."
"At 2:00 PM., Ms. Scáthach has invited you for afternoon tea."
"Also, Ms. Kenshin sent a letter yesterday. She plans to visit around 3:00."
"And at 6:00, Lady Shiroyasha has invited you to dinner at Outer Gate 3345."
"At 8:00 tonight, Lady Athena asks that you leave some time free to meet a few of her allies."
Across from her, Ryo pinched the bridge of his nose and gave a wry smile.
He'd expected things to get busy around the signing of the alliance pact.
But even so, this schedule was worse than he'd imagined.
After everything was laid out, there was barely any time left for himself.
He'd only just received Loki's Spirit Rank from loli Athena and had been planning to study the Authority of Deception and the Authority of Theft on it.
And that wasn't all.
He still hadn't integrated the Mechanical Limit-Authority into his own Spirit Rank. He hadn't even begun researching the poisonous blood of the Scorpio and Pisces Saints.
At this rate, he was going to be completely buried in work.
"The next few days will be a little hard," Leticia said gently.
She stood, walked behind him, and placed her fingers lightly at the pressure points on either side of his head, massaging them softly.
"Please don't worry. I'll stay by your side the whole time."
Ryo sighed. "What about the Gift Game?"
"You're asking about the income, right?"
Leticia had already prepared for that. She pulled out a summary sheet. "Kurousagi asked me to give you this before she left."
Ryo took the paper and glanced over it. His eyebrows rose slightly.
"110,000 spiritual bodies purchased the basic Shinigami Gift. Another 3.19 million people paid one gold coin each to withdraw from the game?"
"Total income: 14.19 million Thousand Eyes gold coins. Even inside Thousand Eyes, that's enough to buy a decent Authority."
Within Thousand Eyes, the standard price for an Authority was eight million gold coins, and you could even choose the specific one.
But those were usually weaker or heavily restricted Authorities.
If you wanted something truly good—or combat-oriented—fifteen million coins was the normal price.
And that was the internal price. Outside buyers usually had to pay two million more.
Considering that a single Thousand Eyes gold coin had roughly the purchasing power of 1,500 USD, the cost of an Authority was astronomical. Even the cheapest one was worth at least 12 billion.
In the human world, there weren't many billionaires who could afford that.
Of course, buying an Authority at that price was still a huge bargain. Because of that, plenty of gods and buddhas secretly traveled between Little Garden and the outside world, manipulating governments behind the scenes. They'd exchange cheap resources for Thousand Eyes gold coins, then use those coins to purchase Authorities.
It was practically standard practice.
But for Ryo, these coins couldn't be touched for now.
He needed them as foreign reserve currency.
Once Arcadia issued its own alliance coins, these Thousand Eyes coins would stabilize the exchange ratio.
Thinking about that, Ryo shook his head.
"No wonder every community in Little Garden is basically a country."
Only nations treated tens of billions like casual accounting units.
Ryo knew full well that the reason he'd made so much in a single go this time was largely thanks to the lower-level gods who'd shown up to watch the show.
Those spectators had practically thrown money at him.
More than three million people had withdrawn from the game, each paying a gold coin.
Three million coins, just like that.
"Not bad," Ryo muttered. "I've officially completed three small financial goals."
If those gods weren't so irritating, he'd almost want them to come play every day.
Of course, that was just wishful thinking.
Right now Arcadia's main source of income was still selling the inheritance of the Bleach world.
Making money was simple: open new sources and cut costs.
Cutting costs wasn't something Ryo needed to worry about. Kurousagi would handle that.
Which meant his focus was expanding revenue.
"Leticia," he said, "have someone run a survey later. Find out which groups are most likely to buy our community's Gifts."
"Understood."
Before stepping away, Leticia casually gave him a quick pat.
Ryo blinked and looked at her strangely.
"You seem like you've become a little… mischievous."
"The leader who dragged me into Kurousagi's bedroom doesn't get to say that," Leticia replied gently.
Her expression was calm.
But her eyes were razor sharp.
"Uh…"
Ryo opened his mouth, then finally shrugged in quiet surrender.
But just then—
Both he and Leticia frowned at the same time.
A vast Buddhist chant suddenly echoed in Ryo's mind.
"Friend Ryo… would you grant this humble monk a meeting?"
Ryo's brow furrowed, irritation flickering across his face.
"Looks like trouble just showed up."
"Leader, why don't you rest for a moment?" Leticia said coldly, already switching back into her usual combat attire. "I'll go send him away."
"Forget it," Ryo replied, shaking his head. " I'd rather not risk you getting dragged into it."
He slowly closed his eyes.
In the next moment, a vast surge of psychic power poured out of him like a galaxy of stars, rushing up into the sky.
...
Above the city—
Before a hundred-meter-tall golden buddha, streams of consciousness gathered together.
Ryo's figure formed out of them, appearing at the same height as the giant buddha.
Looking at the golden figure before him, Ryo frowned slightly in surprise.
"Someone from the Buddhist faction?"
The golden buddha immediately pressed his palms together and spoke with a gentle expression.
"This humble monk is Dipankara."
Dipankara?
Ryo frowned and asked bluntly, "So what exactly do you want from me, Dipankara?"
Dipankara pressed his palms together again and softly recited, "Amitabha."
Then he said, "This humble monk wishes to ask about the whereabouts of a certain person."
"Who?" Ryo asked, though he already had a guess.
Dipankara's voice deepened.
"The Demon Star—Algol."
.
.
.