Infinity Is My Affinity?!?-Chapter 113: What would you like to name the party?

The thin curtains by the open window swayed slightly in the fresh night breeze, while I sat cross-legged on the lumpy mattress, staring at the floating blue screen with eyes that couldn’t quite decide whether to burn with absolute fury or just go completely hollow.

"Dude..." I groaned, aggressively rubbing my face with both hands. "You are basically selling me a thirty-thousand credit DLC for a quality-of-life feature that should’ve come with the base version... That is just dirty."

-Ding!

{Sue me.}

[Mother-!] My nostrils flared as I forcefully sucked in a deep breath, holding it in for a solid three seconds before finally deflating in a defeated sigh.

And just like a good little addict, I paid to win.

"Buy it."

-Ding!

{Party Module Unlocked.

30,000 Credits deducted.}

And the next instant, a flicker of blue expanded into a wide, two-pane interface that hovered right before me.

It kept the System’s signature translucent blue aesthetic, but with a vertical panel on the left, a massive, empty window on the right, and a simple ’Search’ bar pinned to the top.

But right now, the entire right-hand side of the screen was completely blank, with the only interactive button being a single glowing block resting at the top of the left panel: [Create New Party].

"Alright," I muttered, leaning forward. "Let’s set this up and get Peko on the line."

-Ding!

{Party Registration Cost: 10,000 Credits.

Proceed?}

I stared at it.

I just stared at that blinking prompt, feeling a blood vessel threatening to pop right on my forehead, before violently throwing both my hands up in the air.

"Are you actually kidding me right now?!" I yelled at the empty room. "I just bought the damn module! Why the hell do I have to pay to use a feature I just bought?!"

-Ding!

{It is a one-time fee.}

"I have already paid the one-time fee!"

-Ding!

{All new party creations require a 10,000 Credit upfront fee to prevent abuse and over-reliance.}

"System, I swear to god-!"

-Ding!

{Would you like to proceed?}

I physically deflated once again, my shoulders instantly slumping forward.

What the hell else could’ve even done?

I had already dumped 30 grand into this stupid module, and I desperately needed to establish a System-backed communication line with Peko.

I was basically neck deep in the sunk-cost fallacy of it all.

And there was nothing I could do about it.

"Yes." I let out an entirely defeated sigh. "I would like to proceed."

-Ding!

{10,000 Credits deducted.

What would you like to name the party?}

I stared at the blinking cursor. My expression remained perfectly thoughtful for a long while before slowly dropping into a flat deadpan.

That deadpan then shifted into a completely blank stare, topped off with a faint twitch developing over my left eyebrow.

My exhausted brain had completely stalled out trying to find a worthy name for a party of two impossible Chimeras and the Destine Hero.

"Know what, I have neither the time nor the energy for this," I groaned. "... Just name it ’Party-1’."

The blue screen as though glitched, and the very next second, a brand new golden window popped up directly over the interface.

-Ding!

{

Achievement Unlocked: The Power Of Friendship

Purchase the Party Module and establish your first Party.

Rewards:

Epic-Grade Magic Token x 1

Epic-Grade Skill Token x 1

}

[Ha!] I damn near jumped straight off the mattress before bursting out loud into a disbelieving laugh.

I stared at the glowing text, my brain doing the math in real-time.

Epic-grade merchandise easily pushed past the hundred-thousand Credit mark, meaning I had just traded forty grand for a Party Manager coupled with a system-backed telepathic communication line, and two tokens worth easily quadruple my entire investment.

"Hot damn, System!" I grinned, pointing an accusatory but entirely thrilled finger at the screen. "I took you for a greedy bastard, but you actually turned out to be a saint!"

With a ridiculous, giggly grin stretched across my face, I closed the golden achievement window while taking a slow, deep breath to calm down the butterflies breakdancing in my stomach.

[The tokens can wait...] I reminded myself, forcefully pulling my attention away from the shiny new loot. [Peko is the priority here...]

With the pop-up out of the way, the actual Party Module flickered back up, smoothly shifting from that blank registration screen into a highly detailed, three-column dashboard.

It was clean, incredibly functional, and bathed entirely in the System’s signature translucent blue.

The left column acted as the main roster under the bold heading ’Party-1’. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

And right now, it was just my name sitting alone in a highlighted box, with the title ’Party Leader’ stamped in a smaller font directly beneath it.

The wide middle column was currently just an empty expanse of blue.

"I’m guessing this is where the stat sheets and tactical data pop up once I actually select someone," I muttered, tracing a finger through the holographic air.

The far-right column was entirely dedicated to communications, with an empty group message log and a set of direct-calling icons.

And finally, hovering right above the three columns and acting as the main navigation bar, were four glowing rectangular tabs: [Inventory], [Shop / Crafting], [Logs], and [Funds:0].

"Alright, it’s basically a fantasy clan manager with a shared bank account attached," I noted with an approving nod.

The sheer utility of the module and the simplicity of the layout made that forty-grand price tag hurt a lot less.

And the kiss of those two tokens pretty much made the boo-boo go away like it was never there in the first place.

"So..." I muttered, rubbing my hands together as I leaned closer to the floating blue screen. "How do I actually get them in here? Do I need to search their names or something?"

-Ding!

{You may add members by dispatching direct Invites.

I can send these Invites on your behalf.

The entire [Party Module] features full voice-operation functionality for your convenience.}

"Huh..." I noted with an appreciative nod, realizing I wouldn’t have to poke at a holographic menu in the middle of a life-or-death fight. "That is incredibly convenient."

"Alright then, System..." I said, as a genuinely excited grin crept across my face. "Send an invite to Peko and Nom-Nom."