' No wonder I felt something was wrong with time here, ' Aiko quietly thought. But the disparity she felt was just several minutes at the time, nothing overly extreme. But this situation could be advantageous to her if she stayed for years in the real world before being interrupted.
Schemes and more schemes just played out in her head.
Once the confusion had dissipated from their faces, coming to terms with their new reality, Katarina finished with a few essential details.
< That being the case, the one in the real world can give up their ruling time... if the situation demands it, but there can only be one such switch per the mansion's week time. >
< Additionally, the one who willingly gave up their time will have to wait until their normal allocations catch up.>
< Before I forget, don't gain weird ideas of not paying back what you owe; the mansion only approved taking you in because of a deity's request.>
...
Katarina took some questions here and there, answered some, and ignored others. When everyone was on board, she pressed a red button and activated the Atomic Splicer.
Above the Mansion, the once clear sky became occupied by dark clouds.
In the distant parts of the forest, a stampede of beasts could be seen, fear evident in their eyes. The smaller and weaker creatures had it rougher than the stronger ones as they got smashed to death.
The world is ruthless, the same way the heavens are ruthless.
The tall redwoods that ascended the sky several hundred meters high swayed back and forth from the rush of strong winds. When the darkest hour arrived, nine dragons purely made from lightning appeared, giving off a strong oppressive force towards the mansion.
And roared.
Their roar was like thunderclaps.
Nathan and Aiko, inside their inference cylinders, could feel themselves being suffocated and violently pushed back. The cold sensation of the glass causing shivers up their body.
In the sky, the nine dragons descended like coiling snakes, tearing the fabric of space in their wake. When they touched the mansion's spire, a tremor ran through the entire estate before it was directed to one underground room.
BOOM!
...
The process of flesh destruction lasted half an hour, before a scanner-like machine approached Aiko's cylinder and scanned her soul body.
The scanner had a 360-degree operation, scanning her from head to toe, then moving on to Nathan's cylinder and doing the same. Once that was done, the 3D printing process of a new body began.
...
This creation process lasted four hours.
In the sky, the continuous bombardment of dragons on the spire was like a deity's wrath. At the same time, deep underground, meticulous attention was being paid as a female flesh body was coming into shape.
It was 5'5 " tall, her bust size was 33 inches, while her waist was a mere 23 inches, slim for the perfect curve ratio.
But her hips were the highlight, spanning an impressive 37 inches, with lustrous silver hair that reached her waist.
Once the last cell was added, Aiko's soul and body disappeared from the mansion.
...
Back inside his room, Tsunami was wearing his clothes, angry about the absurd amount of debt he had just found himself in.
***
Available pleasure points: - 55,050
***
'Damn it!'
'How am I ever going to repay this?... and that 100% interest rate is just insane'
'Even if I were to become a prostitute, how long would it take?' Tsunami started counting his fingers, trying to do the math.
One life essence was equivalent to two pleasure points. During their earlier cultivation with Aiko, the system had awarded them 60% for their performance. A somewhat surprising grade, considering Aiko's performance: it made him question just what the standards were.
But that would be a problem for another time, since the percentages awarded have equal standing correlation to essence shards. It meant that if he had used the 60 shards accumulated earlier to pay his debt, he would have reduced it by only 120 points.
Now, adding the bizarre time disparity, there was absolutely no telling when he would have accumulated enough to become a free man.
Tsunami stared at the mirror, feeling lost and dejected.
'Is this what gamblers go through?'
' At this rate, how many women do I need to sleep with, 100?... 500? '
' And where am I going to find humans in this wretched place?' He couldn't help but sigh. But then a moment of inspiration struck.
' Wait! Pleasure Points are converted from life essence.'
' And there is no rule that life essence must come from dual cultivation only. '
' When I killed those masked men back in the dungeon, I happened to devour their life force.'
' This surely has some relation to life essence... Yes, it must!' Tsunami found a new sense of hope and rushed out of his room.
He was going to figure out how it works and, hopefully, train and become stronger in the process.
...
After Aiko disappeared from the mansion, he had expressed his desire to go and find out what was calling him in the forest.
Katarina had given him a map of the surrounding 10 million miles, which at first scared the shit out of him.
Katarina informed him he could use the mansion's teleportation array, which could send him a one million-mile closer to his desired target.
If looks could kill, the way Tsunami stared at her back then could have killed her dozens of times.
Loan sharks truly had no limits.
With every hour he activated his eyes, the mansion charged him 10,000 points, and clearly, a teleportation of such caliber wouldn't be any less. The mansion clearly intended to make him owe so much that he wouldn't be able to pay it back.
Katarina had told him that, although his debt doubled at the end of every week. He wasn't expected to return all of it by the end of one.
He just had to make sure that he cultivated hard, and 70% of his essence collection would be deducted from his bill.
As long as there was a steady stream of essence back to the mansion, he wouldn't be kicked out even though his debt increased.
The mansion was truly a bastard of bastards.
Simply at that rate, there would be no way he would be able to advance in his favourite journey, because most of his essence wouldn't be for his own use.
He wouldn't even dare to initiate a trial, as it would mean more challenging circumstances, resulting in certain death.
He was not ready to sit around and wait like a duck to be butchered.
His fate was in his own hands.
' A journey of a million miles it is then. '