I Reincarnated as The Protagonist's Best Friend
Chapter 81
[Student Identity Card]
[ID No.: 47382478395994]
[Name: Quash Ogmore]
[Title: The Undefeated One]
[Year: First]
[Enrolled Academy: Null]
[Academy City Points: 9,889,000]
Quash looked at his Student ID card for the third time since getting it. It looked like a normal card with the basic information of the student, but the only difference was that this card also worked as an ATM card.
Despite being Rank 20, he got 10 million ACP.
Top 5000 to 1001 gets 500,000 ACP.
Top 1000 to 101 gets 1 Million ACP.
Top 100 to 11 gets 10 Million ACP.
Top 10 to 4 gets 25 million ACP.
3rd place gets 50 Million ACP.
2nd Place gets 75 Million ACP.
And 1st place gets 100 Million ACP.
Below the Top 5000, everyone gets 100,000 ACP.
A practical system no one can complain about. Because the whole purpose of the Academy City is growth. And maximum growth happens through competition.
If there’s no competition, there will hardly be any growth.
Even though the students below the Top 5000 get 100,000 as a starting point, it is nowhere near enough. Just like now, Quash bought the Precision Skill of Rare Grade and it cost him 100,000 ACP.
The prices were sky-high. And students need to earn Points on their own, by doing something productive or monster hunting. That is why workshops run by students exist—to earn points. The students owning the workshop employ other students.
This creates a loop that is eerily similar to how real society works. And for the students who live off of monster hunting, they sell monster corpses to grow.
It helps them level up, earn Points, and get better gear at the same time. That’s why it is a very famous profession among the students.
And for now, he needed to go to a specific Ruins to get the spirit water he needs.
Quash was on his way to the southern district plaza. Every Academy was located within a 1000 kilometers of each other, so borders naturally exist. And with that, there exists a local plaza aside from the central plaza.
Those plazas are small but useful for many purposes. Flying trains operate only within the 1000 kilometers of Academy City. To travel beyond, travelling services need to be hired.
Those services are run by students as well. Quash was sitting inside the VIP section of the train. There were not many students in the VIP section. He didn’t care and opened the Skill Book. The book looked like an overly decorated, thick book.
The moment he opened the book, the pages started to turn on their own, fast. The book started to glow before it turned to golden-brown particles and got absorbed into his glabella.
After every bit of the particles were absorbed, Quash closed his eyes to absorb the information rushing to his mind.
And after a while, he knew all the stuff about Precision. The skill Precision isn’t a skill that relies on Aura or any other energy. It is a skill that helps the user bring out the maximum of their Dexterity.
More precisely, it teaches the effective use of micro-movements.
Quash didn’t feel any magical changes to his body. He just knew the basic information. He needed to put the skill to use himself and make his body familiarise with it.
Quash opened his eyes again. He clenched his hands into fists a few times but, as expected, there were no changes. But skills from Ancient Grade actually run multiple simulations inside the subconscious mind to create familiarity with the brain. And with that, the body adapts quickly by creating new neural pathways.
Quash wanted to have a look at his status window, but he arrived at his destination. He got off the train and stopped to observe the area for a bit.
There weren’t many vendors here, nor were there any clamours. The students who came here had the same intentions as him: going to a nearby Ruin through the transportation services.
After observing for a bit, he made his way towards the Plaza gate. As he got near it, the sounds of people intensified. Most of the people were here.
When he came to a stop, he felt like he was in a completely different place; there were so many students that the previous scene of the Plaza felt like a ghost town. But regardless, he needed to hire a transport for the whole day. These transports were mini ships with a hot air balloon attached to them.
They were cheap and could only cover a few dozen kilometers in an hour. Bearable for short-distance travel, but absolute hell for long-distance travel. Quash looked around to find smug, rude owners and stressed-out students who just wanted to get to their destination.
Most of the ruins or the dungeons are about 15 kilometers away. They can travel by foot, but that will be extremely time and stamina-consuming. They will already be tired before they reach their destination.
That’s why many party leaders were stressing, because even if the warriors could travel that distance, the healers or mages couldn’t. Their physical stats just weren’t enough.
But the ride captains were relentless about their high prices.
Quash remembered an arc from the novel, where Alan had to confront the mastermind behind this massive syndicate. This type of thing doesn’t just happen here, but all over the Academy. Someone or, more precisely, a group of people has a monopoly over the transport business. That’s why they could be so triumphant.
They have set up many proxies, so even if some students try to bring them down, they will have a hard time finding out who they are.
But Quash already knows who they are from the novel and doesn’t care.
He and them are strangers. He plans to get into the MagiCrafter economy where he has to worry about a different set of people. He had no intention of getting himself into a mess that he had nothing to do with. Alan will take care of this.
After walking around a bit, Quash found an empty ride. He asked the captain if he was available. The captain was, and when Quash asked what the price of hiring him for a day would be, the captain looked at him with disdain, jealousy, and envy and said he would require 100,000 ACP.
Quash raised an eyebrow but agreed. He has a shit ton of ACP and he will earn even more anyway.