Chapter 46. Dragon Badge Exchange (5)

In just a brief moment.

In that instant, Yurii and Teresa, Lightning and Shadow, crossed paths.

At the moment of their crossing, golden and crimson eyes met and stared at each other.

Time seemed to flow particularly slowly then.

And finally.

“……”

“……?!”

The two gazes that had met each other drifted apart and moved away.

Rumble-.

With a sound like thunder, the two people who had vanished reappeared simultaneously.

Teresa Winchester appeared where Yurii had been standing just a moment ago.

Yurii was on the opposite side of the stream, where Teresa had first appeared.

The two people revealed themselves in completely opposite locations.

Crack crack-.

“……?!”

Teresa, startled by the sound from behind, quickly turned her body.

Seeing Yurii standing on the other side of the stream, her lips slightly parted.

Yurii smiled and waved at the frozen Teresa.

“See you later, Teresa-senpai!”

With a brief greeting, Yurii slung the wooden box over his shoulder and started to run away.

Teresa, who seemed to have forgotten about chasing him, stood there dumbfounded, watching his retreating figure. A small voice escaped her lips.

“Even in that situation… he managed to take the box?”

She had moved first.

That much was clear.

Yet, the other person had not only moved a much greater distance but also had the leisure to pick up the wooden box.

“……”

Teresa, who had been silent, stared at the thicket where Yurii had disappeared.

The golden eyes she had met in that brief moment were vividly imprinted in her mind.

* * *

The young cadet, who had been brutally beaten, was crawling on the ground in a pitiful state.

“Gasp……”

The boy, seemingly unable to move any further, was only twitching intermittently.

Beside him stood Jerry, the perpetrator who had reduced him to rags.

With his hands in his pockets, Jerry bent down and asked.

“Are you Eric?”

“Ugh……”

“Your expression tells me you are.”

Eric's eyes were filled with injustice and anger.

“What… What kind of grudge do you have against me to do this!”

Jerry shrugged at the angry outburst.

“I don’t really have a grudge against you?”

How could he have a grudge against someone he had just met… or rather, someone he had just encountered a little while ago?

He just had some business to take care of.

“Let’s see, let’s see……”

Jerry rummaged through Eric’s belongings.

A rough cloth bag caught his hand.

Clank-.

“He didn’t cheat, it seems.”

The weight of the solid points brought a smile to Jerry’s face.

Flick-.

As the bag of points flew into the air from Jerry’s hand, a conversation with a certain madman naturally came to his mind.

* * *

“Let’s say the dragon badge exchange is fine, but tell me more about the points.”

At Yurii’s commanding tone, Jerry inwardly sighed.

‘This guy is trying to get a free ride!’

The Cradle was an extremely unfriendly place.

Gathering and using information was considered part of the competition and a measure of one’s ability.

For this reason, the lack of information was the biggest challenge for first-year cadets.

The instructors at the Cradle provided only the bare minimum of information, and it was difficult to even see the seniors who could answer questions.

In fact, it was better not to meet the seniors.

In the Cradle, the cadets were a hierarchy, and the seniors were no different from bullies to the juniors.

Meeting seniors would only result in being shaken down, so the juniors generally avoided them.

Because of this, new cadets spent a lot of time gathering information and adapting to the Cradle.

It was no different for Jerry.

‘I worked my ass off to find this out!’

How could he not be annoyed that a newly arrived cadet was trying to get a free ride on his months of hard work?

Jerry’s face turned sullen, and Yurii’s eyes became sleepy.

“Why? Don’t you want to tell me? Are you annoyed?”

Annoyed.

He really didn’t want to tell him.

He wanted to sit up and yell at the annoying face right away.

But what could he do?

He was still buried in the ground, and the madman had a very good weapon for coercion in his hand.

Crunch- Crunch- Crunch-.

Seeing Yurii’s hand fidgeting with the ant hill, Jerry awkwardly laughed.

“Haha, annoyed? It’s not that hard to tell you this! Ask anything you want. I’ll explain everything. I swear to tell the truth, on the honor of my family!”

“Hmm? From what I saw of your skills, you won’t fail the exams, but if you give false information to someone who will clearly see through it… I’ll be worried about the consequences when we meet again.”

“……”

“Besides, if I tell you everything, it will hurt my pride. Since you’re just a cadet and don’t know much about how the Cradle works, I’ll just let you ask the questions and I’ll answer them. How about that?”

“…This guy is really perceptive.”

Rustle-.

Squish Squish Squish-.

“Ah! A, ants are falling! Shoo- Shoo- Shoo- Shoo- Shoo-! I, I’ll talk! I’ll talk, so take the ants away! Shoo- Shoo- Shoo-!”

Jerry, who had unnecessarily fidgeted and provoked the madman, had to pay the price.

His face turned blue from lack of oxygen due to all the blowing.

Only after seeing Jerry panting did Yurii remove the ant hill.

After catching his breath, Jerry sighed deeply and said.

“Sigh… Fine. I’ll tell you everything I know. And I’ll cooperate fully with anything you’re curious about.”

“Were you trying not to?”

“…You really are a pain in the ass… Anyway, I’ll tell you everything you want to know… In return, promise to let me go. If you don’t, whether you break the ant hill or not, I won’t say a thing.”

“Okay, I promise.”

The ease with which the promise was given made Jerry even more flustered.

“…Really?”

“Yeah.”

“…Really?”

“Do you not want to?”

“N, no way!”

Despite feeling a bit uneasy, getting out of this situation was the priority.

He could think about what to do after he was free.

Clearing his throat, Jerry began to speak.

“Like I said, points are both currency and the sole metric for ranking in the Cradle. Since points have two uses, you need to make the right choice.”

“What kind of choice?”

“Whether to use the points you have to maintain your living or to improve your grades.”

“Does that mean points used to improve grades can’t be recovered?”

“Yeah, improving your grades also falls under the category of ‘point usage.’”

“What happens if you don’t improve your grades?”

“Points are used to conduct the monthly evaluation. Those in the lower ranks face disadvantages.”

“What kind of disadvantages?”

“It varies. A few of the lowest-ranked cadets might be chosen to perform punishments, or in severe cases… they might be permanently expelled from the Cradle.”

“Interesting.”

“You can only say that because you’re skilled. For those stuck in the lower ranks, the monthly evaluation is like a death sentence. Will this month end with just a punishment? Or will they be expelled? And if expelled, will it be one or two people? The Cradle doesn’t give any clear answers.”

“Hmm……”

“The last week of the month, when the monthly evaluation takes place, is called the ‘Hell Week’ by the lower ranks.”

“I don’t really care about that. Do I need to worry about such things? Really?”

“You’re cold.”

“Competition naturally divides winners and losers. Do you think it’s contradictory to sympathize with the opponents I’ve trampled to win?”

“That’s……”

Jerry trailed off.

Currently, Jerry was in the middle of the 49th batch.

Exactly in the middle of the mid-ranks.

Because of this, he often thought while watching the lower ranks suffer every month.

Wouldn’t there come a day when he would be in the lower ranks?

If that happened, wouldn’t he be expelled too?

Because of this anxiety, Jerry felt more grateful and supportive of the lower ranks, hoping they would hold on a bit longer.

So that he wouldn’t end up in the lower ranks.

Yurii seemed to have guessed Jerry’s inner thoughts and hit the nail on the head.

Jerry sighed slightly and admitted.

“Sigh… Yeah, you’re right.”

“Good. So, how do you collect points?”

“Through quests.”

“Quests?”

“Think of them as missions or tasks given by the Cradle. When you complete the given quests, you receive various rewards, usually in the form of points.”

“The amount of points given also varies depending on the difficulty of the quest?”

“Of course. For really high-difficulty quests, you might receive various rare items in addition to points. For example… high-quality weapons or rare elixirs?”

However, according to Jerry, quests with average difficulty only rewarded points.

Yurii stroked his chin.

‘I’m starting to get a sense of how the Cradle operates.’

The core mechanism driving the massive system of the Dragon’s Cradle was points and quests.

Production and consumption.

Encouraging competitive and economic activities.

All of this was achieved through points and quests.

‘I’ll probably understand the quest system better once I experience it myself.’

After that, Jerry continued to ramble on about various trivial matters related to points.

The unit of points starts from 10 and goes up to 50,000.

Points can be carried in bundles by threading a string through the hole in the middle.

The top 10 cadets in the monthly evaluation receive additional points based on their performance.

There’s even a bank on the mainland of the Cradle where points can be stored.

Once the conversation started, it didn’t stop, and Jerry, without Yurii even prompting him, kept talking about everything he knew.

Listening quietly, Yurii was certain.

‘This guy… is naturally talkative.’

If given a topic, he would probably talk for an hour or two without stopping.

The problem was that his stories often went off on tangents, following the flow of his thoughts.

‘Maybe that’s for the best.’

If he kept talking, he might accidentally reveal information he was trying to hide.

So, Yurii enthusiastically chimed in with Jerry’s chatter.

To make him even more excited and talkative.

Among the long conversation, what Yurii was most interested in was the existence of the point shop.

“There’s a shop run by the Cradle?”

“Yeah, although there aren’t many items available for purchase if you’re a low-ranking cadet… it’s still like an oasis in the desert for 1st and 2nd year cadets.”

According to Jerry, the items 1st year cadets could buy from the shop included dried rations, daily necessities, training uniforms, whetstones, and oil.

While they provided quite a variety, the prices were the issue.

“1,000 points for a day’s worth of dried rations? That’s expensive?”

“Dried rations are the cheapest item in the shop, but… a low-level quest that takes about a day to complete usually earns you around 1,000 points. Get the picture?”

“That’s highway robbery.”

If that was true, if he relied solely on dried rations, he would be living hand to mouth.

Moreover, dried rations were the cheapest item in the shop.

Other items would require a huge amount of points, and he would need to use points to improve his grades to avoid the lower ranks.

Now, Yurii understood why Jerry said cadets struggled with points.

Nodding, Yurii tilted his head and asked.

“What about dragon badges? You said they sell dragon badges too?”

“Oh, those? They’re special sales.”

“Special sales?”

“Special sales offer rare items that are usually hard to come by… like high-level potions from the ancient races, original martial arts techniques from the ancient East, or high-level elixirs.”

“Hmm?”

“The items are updated monthly, and sometimes things like the Golden Dragon Badge or the White Dragon Badge appear. Of course, the prices are so high that the desire to buy them disappears.”

The special sale dragon badges were too expensive.

Frankly, at those prices, who would buy a dragon badge when they could buy an elixir?

Muttering curses, Jerry suddenly remembered something and mumbled.

“…Now that I think about it, there was a somewhat unusual rumor.”