Chapter 8


    * * *


    The morning began with an itch.


    I scratched at the back of my head with such intensity that it looked like I was about to get a straightforward brain massage. But I had a reason, and it was called "choice of setting.


    Setting?!


    Can I choose the setting? So I''m really going to go to a place where everything... So other worlds actually exist? Whoa. There''s not enough raw data to make a valid conclusion.


    Well, what has changed? First of all, they gave me an "E" rank, I''m a big boy now, and I can earn more money. Second of all, the auction is open. Although with its caveats.


    To begin with, every session was paid for. Two hundred points were deducted. Secondly, each request was also subject to a fee. I looked at the confirmation button and tears came to my eyes. You can not so blatantly milk the staff! I dreamed of a ring!


    So I bought it, and at the same time, I activated it. After that, I had enough system bonuses left for exactly one fifteen-minute session, and I didn''t have enough for a request. I sat on my bed, dragged my finger over the screen, and could not bring myself to do it. What was the point of looking at an empty application if there were not enough points to use it? Finally, I spit and went to bed.


    The morning was greeted with a letter in the application. Blah, blah, we congratulate you, you did a great job and as a reward, you can now work for us twice more for the same money... the last one wasn''t said, but it was easy to guess. But the second paragraph, where they cut to the chase, just caused an intense itch.


    To activate E-rank system tasks, select your preferred setting


    And no options were offered. Only the text entry bar. If everything was in English, you could assume some other option, but in our case, it all made perfect sense. The setting - that is, the world of the game. Or a book. Or any fictional world at all. At best, according to Wikipedia, I was asked to determine the time and place of the unknown.


    So the E-quests are performed not in our world?


    Scratch, scratch, scratch... I''m going to scratch a hole in my skull like that.


    It''s not even supernatural, it''s fantasy, sci-fi at best. Well, at least not isekai.


    I wiggled my finger over the activation button again. I already know: if I press it now, a menu with time bars and a small price tag will appear. The minimum session is two hundred points, and one request is another two hundred. Now in the account, thanks to the accumulated from the magic money, just over five hundred. By the way, less has accumulated than it should, it is exhausting.


    That is, a novice courier even on a simple request must work for more than a day. By the way, how much exactly are they offering for the quest for E-rank?


    To start the application, select your preferred setting.


    Phew on you. I could not look at the usual quests, too, the plate jumped out as soon as I went beyond the usual delivery. Either this is some clever way to screw me, or I did not consider something. And since I did not understand something, I need to consult with people.


    The weather was decent, not hot and sunny; I sat on a bench with a cup of coffee, looking down at the people rushing by and wondering who they were. The scanner wouldn''t turn on, either, without a definition of that very setting. I waited until ten in the morning and rode the slightly unloaded subway.


    You have to travel either before rush hour or after, otherwise, it''s too hard. For the people around me, to whom the fat guy with the not-so-big-but-still-bag interfered with finishing their nap on the way to work. I was standing quietly, plugging in my ears and listening to music. I was surprised to discover that the cheap wired headphones I bought in a shop gave no worse sound than the ones I had spent a month on reviews to choose. I don''t know if it''s a mystery or if it''s supposed to be like this?


    In the seventh hall, all the familiar delivery people have already gathered. So a new episode of our show begins at just this moment. Okay, my line:


    "Ahem! Hello, folks!"


    "We''ve seen better."


    "Hello."


    "Aloha.


    Even Abstinence waved a limb.


    "Question - who can give a hint about the setting?"


    Brute didn''t disappoint: "Here''s a hint - uninstall the app, forget about Delivery, live happily ever after."


    "Why should I?"


    "Since you''re already out on external quests, you have an "E."


    He caught me in the lens and nodded: "Exactly. It''s the first time I''ve ever seen such reactive suicides."


    He''s kind of gloomy. I''m sure he''ll tease me all the way to the end and die saving my life in the final battle.


    "Let''s talk to the point, shall we?"


    "In fact, you''ve in five days reached a level where you start to get into serious trouble. You''re a dangerous man to be around!"


    A goggle-eyed kid sitting next to him asked timidly: "Didn''t you say that the levels are not Systems?"


    Old man replied, putting the paper on his lap: "Levels are not assigned, they are registered. Well, it''s like if you work with your feet, they give you one order, and if you work by car, they give you other orders. Delivery just uses the generally accepted classification."


    "So you can get anyone?"


    Brute started the usual: "If you''re a fool, you can get anyone. Because you don''t really have a car yet. A couple of gadgets is nothing, and you have to drag a lot and in places that are better to skip at speed."


    I tried to bring the conversation back to my topic: "So what places? What''s about the setting?"


    Tomboy, lying on the bench, wiggling her dangling leg, encouraged the conversation: "The external quests lead to..."


    She hesitated, choosing words, and the Old Man pompously prompted: "To the Realm of Chaos!"


    "Well, yeah, roughly. Everything is there, and the path will build for you according to the setting. Not for convenience, but so that you can follow it to the client. That is if you know about hardware, and you choose mysticism, then you''ll run into a door and you can''t find the control panel on it, because you don''t know what it is. And even if you hint at a spell, you won''t understand it. And vice versa."


    The storekeeper looked out at the conversation. I was about to show him my phone and pick up my purchase, but the damn app flashed again and he put away his "thermometer". A knight at a crossroads - that''s me. If you go to the right, you get into trouble; if you go to the left, you get into trouble; if you go straight, you get into trouble. And I don''t feel like going back, because my dad is there, and a boring job at the office.


    "My app won''t open now! Tried to take the bag off - no way!"This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it


    "And you were warned. Smart people advise - don''t run ahead of the locomotive, nothing good will come of it!"


    I could hear the satisfaction in Brute''s voice. I had to object, so he wouldn''t be so cocky: "Then why even come here if you don''t do anything?"


    The question was rhetorical, but the Old Man answered: "The contract requires you to go out at least once every three days. You take the minimum slot for two hours three times a week, for which you are allowed in the seventh hall. Here, as it turns up, you take a simple quest, such as the water, you get for it two hundred points."


    He seemed to be talking to me, but he turned to Goggles. Apparently, I''m already considered a lost cause.


    "Weak water is mostly taken by alchemists, they are safe. More or less. The water that might be a problem is just "E" and deeper quests. Well, you''ve probably heard - "live", "dead". In six months or so you score ten thousand bonus points. You make a system contract with E-rank to buy a "medium healing potion" from the auction. It costs about forty coins and cures just about anything that isn''t lethal in ordinary people. That''s all."


    "What that''s all"


    "That''s all means "that''s all a reasonable person would do". You work eight hours a week, you have a good and steady income. And you also do some good."


    Hmm, well, that sounds logical. But boring.


    The kid with the glasses decided to clarify: "And these alchemists, they can''t brew their own?"


    "Of course, they can. But a local "medium healing potion" will cure a cold or a headache. A potion brewed somewhere in the deep unreal will have completely different properties."


    I mean, I''m kind of in trouble. But not to give up, right?


    "What, all the advice is going to be "sit on your ass"?"


    Tomboy rolled over onto her back and stretched both legs up: "If you don''t want to sit, lie down. As long as you don''t see the unreal, it doesn''t see you. The more you drag, the deeper you sink and soak in. So much so, that after a month you are already comparable to the same "meat" that you used to carry on the "C". And there''s a lot of meat in you, fatty. "C" is the maximum for those who want to live."


    "What about reducing the levels?"


    She spun her legs in a circle, managing to point at everyone present. Uh-huh, I see. There must be some kind of radiation absorbers in here, or the upstairs neighbors would complain not only about noise and cockroaches but about demons, too. And those absorbers clean us, too. Yes, of course, I realized that through the same app they suck up the excess.


    That is, unreal is like a cumulative debuff. And after exceeding it, you are hunted down.


    "Okay, thanks. What about the auction?"


    Asked the question and immediately realized that I should have asked Abstinent specifically, the rest of them would never have an "E" with that approach.


    The warlock didn''t disappoint: "Read the descriptions carefully. Very carefully and think twice."


    "Can they scam me?"


    Brute laughed: "They can do everything just right. Warlock bought mystical vision, but didn''t take into account that it doesn''t turn off."


    Abstinence, only pulled the hood of his cape down further. He seemed to have a sore spot for attentiveness. To the point of soreness in his eyes.


    I looked at the screen again, wiggled my finger, and clarified: "The setting... what else does it provide? I mean, for the pocket?"


    Brute grimaced, the Old Man looked reproachfully over the paper, and Tomboy sighing, dropped all her limbs at once in the image of a starfish.


    And only Abstinence didn''t disappoint: "Do you have an equipment upgrade available?"


    "Yesterday I received a notification."


    "Conceptually - if you decide to improve a cape in a Star Wars setting, you''ll be offered something like "nanofiber-reinforced armor padding". And if it''s fantasy, it''s "durability enchantment". The essence is the same, the path is different."


    "And no surprises?"


    "Except the overpricing. Other than that, the System doesn''t screw around. It needs us alive. And the quests, you know, will be different."


    What should I choose - a day-quest to destroy the Death Star or a week-quest to hike to Orodruin? What am I good at? Maybe I should give up and just go for the gold today and let the wonders wait. It''s good to think on the road...


    I quickly typed four words and pressed enter.


    Buzz.


    The selected setting can be changed through...


    I had to open a calculator, time it, and calculate. In seven months and a penny. I don''t know why that is so long. Probably no one has ever worked more than six months.


    The storekeeper, with a sigh, swiped the reader and ducked behind his canopy, immediately returning. The ring was sealed in a bag with a tag, which I immediately tore open.


    The Ring of Business Invisibility


    Activate it?


    Yes/no


    Following the advice, I carefully reread everything. There were no additions in the fine print, and the ring did exactly what it was supposed to do. The words that I had chosen yesterday as an activator were highlighted next to each other.


    Yes.


    Another animation - my avatar grabbed the ring, put it on its finger (the equipment slot displayed it immediately), then the little man determinedly put the bag on himself, a cloud of words came out of his mouth, and he disappeared. Only to be revealed two seconds later as a small receding figure.


    The principle is clear.


    I opened the tab with the slots and thought about it. Of course, it would be nice to jump right into the adventure, but I still need to test some things, check them out, and get used to them in general. So...


    Click, click - a shift of ten regular orders and one "quest". The last one was unpleasantly disappointing because for a category "D" it offered a third less than yesterday. I flipped through the offers and now I was getting less than a hundred points for a "B"! Somehow this did not make me happy, but to say this out loud in front of these whiners was to call myself a fool again. The principle is clear, so that''s all right. Especially since the "E" with the notation "within the chosen setting" was offered from two thousand System Points. On the other hand, there is a note that "the minimum execution time - from three hours," that is, if I seriously will do the quests of my level, I simply will not have time to earn money in real life. And this is a defeat in an argument with my dad, which can not be allowed to!


    That is tomorrow, everything is tomorrow.


    I turned to my colleagues:


    "Listen, one last question - what if you get under the "discharge"? Will it reset the levels?"


    Everyone reacted, some chuckled, some rolled their eyes: "Do you cut your nails with a chainsaw?"


    "And he goes online by poking electrodes into a piece of silicon!"


    And only Abstinence gloomily explained: "A discharge tuned to you will, of course, lead to a base. But are you sure you''re not living thanks to some piece of unreal? Which will suddenly run out."


    Considering that I came to Delivery already as a "B" ranker... No, that''s not the option.


    "Well, then, I''m off to work. Have a nice seat of the pants!" And before they started throwing things at me, I added a stealth activator: "Good day!"


    Now point your finger under your feet, finger toward the window, step on the blue stain.


    I squinted against the sun, looked at my phone, agreed to the proposed order, and headed for the subway. After all, there was one good thing about this job: there was enough time to think about everything. For example, now I should think of all the horrors that could happen to me within the framework of the chosen setting.


    The choice was obvious. All I''ve ever been serious about in my life is gaming. Mostly RPGs and the like. I played games, I read about games, I watched videos about games, I made money from pumping, reviews, and streaming! It may not be the best choice, but it''s far from the worst. You have to do what you''re good at. My adventure is pretty weird, but why not enjoy it properly? I used to lead a character, now I''m such a character myself - and if I got into the game, what should I do?


    Yes, the same thing I usually do. That is to pump up, develop, stretch up - or down if it leads to victory. The scheme of the game in Delivery is roughly clear, here skills depend on the equipment. Repeat the mistake of Abstinence I will not. Why change yourself when you can have interchangeable sets of gear? Trainee already passed, about unreal I know something, now survive the first quest and then, having filled all the slots, think about the future.


    "Hello, this is the courier."


    The first order is fulfilled, and then the second one drops. I bet ordinary couriers have to wait, but we System people get the best! We''re the elite! Okay, it''s only a twenty-minute drive there, so I''ll use the time to my advantage.


    Activate access to the auction?


    200 points will be deducted.


    Yes/no


    Yes, bloodsuckers!


    The flicker of sparks against the backdrop of a schematic image of something that looked like a cabinet with scrolls arranged in its cells. Finally, the flickering ended, and I began to make sense of the suspiciously familiar interface. It was like some kind of game... Or was it the work of a "setting"? Maybe. "Buy", "sell", "active orders" and other such familiar tabs. Surprised the field to enter a query, it was originally not a line, but a box, which directly hinted at the possible search not just by name, but by description. Finally, it was possible to insert a snapshot from the scanner.


    Okay, how do I check this in my work? What exactly do I know about the auction? You can buy some kind of "average healing potion" here, and I even know the approximate price. That''s what I''ll start dancing around. Except why I want a particular potion, I want more coverage of options.


    ingredients for the creation of medium healing potions


    Enter.


    200 points will be deducted.


    Yes... *whining*


    Sadly looking at the counter, I opened the "buy" tab, which now had two hundred pages. Of course, Delivery couldn''t miss out on its profits. The items were priced in different units - "coin," "power crystal," and so on. There were even lots offered with an exchange of one item for another! But it was possible to move the slider and then everything was counted in System Points, but a small "commission for exchange" was added, from two to six percent.


    On the other side, another tab became active: the auction came with an identifier module, compatible with the scanner. I was able to find out only what was displayed in the search at least once. Not bad, I now have a small database of several hundred different herbs, minerals, and other things. If it''s all available after the session closes, I''ll have to sit around and look for familiar names.


    I think the next query would be something like "ingredients mentioned in the Largest and Most Comprehensible Encyclopedia of Magic".


    And then we''ll see, greedy System, whose kungfu is stronger!


    * * *