— — — — — —
…So the Thousand-Eyes are this kind of community?
Ryo and Leticia both wore the same deeply complicated expression.
Shiroyasha rolled her eyes. "What are you imagining? As rulers of the lower levels, we were the ones who first proposed the whole adults-only regulation. How do you not even know that?"
"Yeah, but this is still way too…" Ryo's mouth twitched.
One of the Little Garden's most infamous perverts—ranked together with the wife-obsessed Deva King, the loli-loving Baron La Croix, and Zeus, who hits on literally anything alive—Shiroyasha, of all people, was apparently the creator of age-restriction and censor laws.
That was… a bit too reality-shattering.
"Hey, brat, what's with your look?"
Shiroyasha's gaze sharpened instantly.
"No, my eyes are just like this. You're mistaken." Ryo denied everything without hesitation.
Orihime tugged Leticia's sleeve while the group bickered and whispered, confused, "What's this supposed to be?"
"It's—"
Leticia didn't get to finish before Black Rabbit lunged over and clamped onto her.
"In short, it's not something kids need to know about!"
Black Rabbit waved her hands frantically, trying to distract Orihime.
"Once you're two hundred years old, you can learn the details."
"Two hundred?" Orihime blinked, stunned.
"Anyway!" Ryo cleared his throat, then looked toward Shiroyasha. "Bottom line, you do have the inspector qualifications, right?"
"Of course!"
Shiroyasha puffed up proudly, grinning. "My certification isn't the highest tier, but I still have one!"
With a flick of her fingers, a pure-white card appeared pinched between her index and middle finger.
"Laplace Test Paper?"
Leticia instantly recognized it and raised her brows. "You actually brought the omniscient test strip?"
"What else? Testing an entire gift system's upper limits without it is a giant headache."
She waved her hand, then pointed at Ryo. "Brat, take out one of those Zanpakutō. The most basic model. We'll test what a standard spirit can reach."
Ryo didn't hesitate. He pulled out a standard Asauchi from his gift card.
"Hm?" Shiroyasha glanced at it, then arched a brow at him. "You made this thing?"
"Yeah."
"Remove the backdoor." Shiroyasha sighed. "Blessings with backdoors don't sell."
Plenty of people in Little Garden loved schemes, but almost no one left extreme failsafes or traps inside gifts granted to others. That was something even certain upper-level beings had mutually agreed on.
Ryo frowned. "The only function is that I learn the Zanpakutō's name once it awakens. That shouldn't violate any rules, right?"
"That's all?" Shiroyasha squinted.
"That's all," Ryo affirmed.
"Then you just need to disclose that when you sell it. Or bury it under a mountain of sales terms. Your choice."
She smirked, took the Zanpakutō, and pressed the omniscient test strip against the blade.
A moment later, a translucent dialogue window floated above the card like something straight out of a sci-fi movie.
[System self-check…]
[Laplace Test Paper, 2011 Edition, at your service!]
[Please input test parameters below:]
"Pretty high-tech," Ryo muttered, a bit impressed.
Shiroyasha had already typed in the prompt: Baseline growth limit of this gift system…
[Calculating…]
[Estimation complete. Based on a standard Laplace-unit lower-class spirit, after 1024 years of intensive training, the user can reach Five-Digit 'Normal'. Probability of success: 87.22%.]
"Five-Digit? That can't be right. And 'standard Laplace' is the basic average value set by the Laplace Little Demons, right? You're telling me even the most ordinary person could break into Five-Digit with this gift?"
Black Rabbit practically teleported to Shiroyasha's side, staring at the display in disbelief.
"Laplace's omniscient calculations almost never fail. I've never seen it get one wrong," Leticia said, then looked at Ryo, visibly surprised. "These numbers are way above what you told us."
The gap between Six-Digit peak and Five-Digit bottom tier looked small at a glance, but the meaning was completely different.
It was like comparing a comfortable middle-class family to the richest person in the country.
"Weird…"
Ryo subconsciously glanced at Unohana Retsu, his expression turning odd. "Didn't you reach the Shinigami limit? How did the Little Garden core evaluate you?"
"Five-Digit Normal," Unohana replied with her calm smile.
"Huh? Miss Unohana already hit her limit?" Black Rabbit gasped.
"Probably a difference in soul constitution between the worlds," Leticia said gently. "Maybe the Little Garden environment is influencing it."
Shiroyasha looked between Unohana and Orihime, then nodded. "Yeah, these two's spirits are a lot more fragile than normal, but the core must've patched some of their defects. If only a handful of geniuses from their original world could reach Five-Digit, here it's probably most of them."
"..."
"A gift system that can mass-produce Five-Digits…" Leticia's eyes brightened slightly.
From her perspective, a heritage-type blessing like this would sell extremely well.
The lower layers were full of useless weak spirits, most stuck at Seven-Digit with almost no chance of climbing up. Many had to rely on joining god-factions, and even then, reaching Five-Digit was nearly impossible.
But if Ryo's Shinigami system could get someone to Five-Digit in under a millennium, it would instantly become the hottest commodity among the lower class.
And the profit… was obvious.
Black Rabbit's eyes were already sparkling; she even rubbed her hands together. "Money~ money~ piles of shiny money~ Finally, we won't have to live like beggars!"
"Isn't that a bit dramatic…?" Leticia gave her a mortified look. Both newcomers were right there, after all.
Ryo could only shrug helplessly at the scene.
.
.
.