The Northeast Corridor stationmaster’s office at Philadelphia Station.

After gazing for a while at the sky swirling above West Philadelphia Station, Walfred soon stepped inside.

Then, after brushing the dust off an old chair, he let out the long sigh he’d been holding back.

"Phew."

The snow of pure mana, the Frost Crown Stone, the Spirit King, and so on.

Today had been an unusually eventful day.

The biggest change of all was that his level had shot up by fifteen in a single day. Leaning back against the chair, Walfred opened his status window.

He wanted to check the new functions he hadn’t had a chance to look over outside earlier.

’First, the Eden System’s Trial.’

To reach A-rank as a hunter, you had to pass something called the [Eden System Trial].

So he’d dug through everything, his status window, the notification messages, even the system log, but he couldn’t find a single mention of the trial anywhere.

’...Where the heck is it written?’

Could it be that reaching Level 80 wasn’t enough, that there were additional conditions? But he’d never seen that kind of information in the community.

Walfred sank into thought.

Then he snapped out of it. Tearing his hair out on his own wasn’t going to produce an answer.

’I’ll just ask Margaret tomorrow.’

She was an A-rank hunter, so asking her ought to turn up something. Or he could post the question to the community he was planning to log into later.

After setting his questions about the trial aside.

[System: Hunter Shop]

[Connect now?]

Walfred connected to the hunter shop.

He wanted to look over the [Special Sales] that became available starting at Level 80. The moment he connected, a guide message popped up.

----- 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

[Special Sales]

[This section unlocks at Level 80 and above. One product of at least ’Rare’ rank appears at random each day.]

[Once you purchase a product, no new product will appear until the refresh time passes. When the refresh time passes, the product is replaced.]

※Special Benefit Notice※

[Don’t miss the discount benefit offered only the very first time Special Sales is unlocked!]

-----

"A product of at least Rare rank, huh..."

Even a dud would still be Rare rank.

If he got lucky, he might even lay eyes on a Unique or Legend-rank product. His curiosity piqued, Walfred immediately entered [Special Sales].

And then.

===[Special Sales]===

※First-Unlock Benefit※

[Special Discount Rate: 77%] applied!

[Time remaining until benefit ends: 23 hours]

[Time remaining until product refresh: 23 hours]

[Today’s Special Product]

▶ [Void Exile’s Pocket Watch]

[Regular Price: 400,000 coins]

[Discount Price: 92,000 coins]

=============

Something incredible had appeared.

Incredible enough to make Walfred’s eyes go wide.

"...400,000 coins?"

The regular sale price was a whopping 400,000 coins.

That was a fortune you could only earn by taking down an A-rank Elite Monster four times over. The absurdly steep price drew an involuntary, dry laugh out of him.

’What on earth could this thing be?’

Driven by pure curiosity, Walfred tapped the product name.

-----

[Name]: Void Exile’s Pocket Watch

[Rank]: Legend

[Type]: Artifact

[Special Skill]: Phase Shift

[Pressing the watch’s second hand temporarily isolates the wearer and every target in physical contact with them into the ’Dimensional Fault,’ the rift between the origin dimensional plane and subspace.]

[Targets isolated within the Dimensional Fault cannot interfere with the origin dimensional plane in any way, and conversely receive no interference of any kind (physical, magical, mental, every form of impact) from the real world.]

▷Duration: 30 seconds

▶Cooldown: 48 hours

[Price]: 400,000 coins

-----

"Wow..."

A Legend-rank artifact, no less.

Walfred’s mouth fell open.

The product’s effects were written out at length and in complex terms, but boiled down, it was dead simple.

’Grants 30 seconds of invincibility.’

And it wasn’t just the wearer who became invincible. Every ally in contact with the wearer was granted the invincible state too.

Of course, there was a penalty in that you couldn’t attack the enemy during that time, but still...

’It’s pretty good, though?’

For example, the Bone Drake’s breath he’d fought back at the White Dome, with this watch, he could’ve dodged it without taking a scratch.

’And the price isn’t bad either.’

If it had been the regular price of 400,000 coins, it would’ve been pie in the sky, but right now Walfred had the discount applied for unlocking [Special Sales] for the first time.

There was no way he’d ever be able to buy it at this price otherwise. The only catch was that it would take nearly his entire fortune to afford it, so he hesitated for a moment.

"Hmm..."

So, just in case, he combed through every product in [Regular Sales] and [Limited Sales] too.

But nothing was as tempting as the Void Exile’s Pocket Watch. After a long deliberation, Walfred finally made up his mind.

’I’m pulling the trigger.’

Thirty seconds of invincibility was as good as a spare life in a battle against a powerful enemy.

On top of that, Walfred might cross paths with the Spirit King before long. As a solid insurance policy and the price of his own life, 90,000 coins wasn’t all that expensive.

[Purchase complete.]

▶[Void Exile’s Pocket Watch] acquired!

[Remaining coins: 19,837]

The instant the purchase went through.

The empty air rippled faintly.

And a hefty black pocket watch dropped onto Walfred’s palm.

Thunk!

An exquisitely crafted pocket watch.

It looked high-end at a glance.

After examining its exterior for a moment, he tucked the pocket watch straight into the inner pocket of his cold-weather coat.

With his satisfying bit of shopping done.

’Now, for the last thing...’

It was time to check the community.

He’d heard from Jonah a while back that once you passed Level 80, you could connect not just to the New America Republic channel but to other countries’ channels too.

The moment he connected to the community.

[System: Hunter Community]

[Please select a channel to connect to.]

▷ New America Republic Channel

▶ International Channels: (See more)

A notification noticeably different from before appeared.

Previously there had been only the single New America Republic channel, but now an international channel was active. When he tapped "See more," a huge list of channels unfolded.

The Canada, Japan, China, the UK, and so on.

But there was nothing to do in another country’s channel right now, so for the moment he selected the international channel.

[Connecting to the international channel.]

[Welcome, ’FrozenMan’.]

It seemed nicknames stayed consistent across channels.

With curious eyes, he looked over the categories and boards inside the international channel.

And after a little while.

’The overall structure is about the same.’

He realized there wasn’t much difference between the international channel and the New America Republic channel.

Except for exactly one thing.

-----

[General Boards by Nation]

▶New America Republic

▷Canada

▷Japan

▷China

▷Brazil

▷...

-----

Each country had its own local board.

For a second he wondered what the point was, if this was no different from the New America Republic channel he’d been using all along, but that question vanished quickly.

’The international channel opens at Level 80.’

In other words, every hunter in this channel was a powerhouse of B-rank or higher. With that fresh realization, Walfred’s gaze turned serious.