One Last System

"How could I gain favor with someone I never ever saw in the first place?" the officer shouted in a baffled voice.

She reacted as if what Mia just said was outright ridiculous and stupid.

'I got you,' Mia thought, pretending not to notice what her eyes just tracked.

And it was dissatisfaction.

The officer didn't manage to hide the small twitch of the corner of her mouth, natural instinct to share how unhappy she was with Mia's question.

Because that question, of whom would this favor be with, forced the officer to come clean and abandon all the ideas of exploiting Arthur later for the few coins worth of discount that she just offered.

"So you can rightfully claim to have done me a solid," Mia changed the wording of her sentence. Using the previous format on her question, the officer would nearly deprive herself of any gratitude, making the deal that she offered extremely unfavorable.

And this wasn't something that Mia could accept either.

Right now, she was in a perfect position to get the winning hand of the deal. By calling the officer out on her attempt to gain favors with Arthur without him even knowing, Mia blocked any way for the officer to get anything out of the help that she offered.

'If I use this situation to the maximum now, I will only make an enemy,' Mia thought as she reached out with her hand towards the middle-aged woman. 'Only by voluntarily giving up some ground can I turn the situation into the breeding ground for an alliance instead of a new enemy,' she thought, feeling how the corners of her mouth twitched.

'Wait, didn't I just think that this place was safe from all kinds of schemers?' Mia asked herself, moving just a tiny little bit to the past with her thoughts.

A smile crept on her lips all on its own.

'Oh, how naive I was,' she thought as she shook the woman's hand.

"Thank you very much for all the help," Mia said, grabbing the officer's hand in a confident hold and shaking it. "I will be sure to pass the word on how grateful I am to you to Arthur on the first opportunity to do so," she promised, looking the woman directly in the eyes.

"That would be..." the officer hesitated before returning the shake. "Much appreciated," she finally admitted, releasing a deep sigh and finally relaxing both her face and her hold over Mia's hand.

It was that simple.

Instead of taking it all, offer some benefits to the beaten opponent in return.

Silently admitting that she was aware of the officer's plot was the attack, the cash-grab move. And in that sense, reaching out and giving up some ground was Mia's attempt at reconciliation.

"Ladies," the receptionist from before has returned, a small, decorated box resting in his hands.

"Are those...?" Mia asked, taking a quick look at the box only to move her eyes at the officer's face.

Mia's face filled with disbelief.

'She already predicted how our negotiations would end up even before we started negotiating?' she thought, amazed by the foresight of the woman. 'I guess I now know why she is a rank higher than this receptionist!' she thought.

In essence, all the information for the officer was there before the entire thing started.

Mia revealed what she came to trade with before the two met. As such, the receptionist had all the time in the world when he went to fetch someone to deal with Mia's request to fill them in about her request.

As for what Mia would like in exchange for the relaxation beads...

It was even simpler.

Just like the officer stated, those tablets were in constant demand. And the reason behind that was simple.

Those who cultivated by relying on the cultivation resources would have their progress limited by their own strength. They would be unable to absorb any more foreign spirituality at a certain point, forcing them to either wait or consume pills like the relaxation beads.

'And that can mean only one thing when someone is willing to part ways with those beads,' Mia thought, her lips turning into a grin all on her own. 'It can only happen in only two scenarios. When some doesn't care about their strength,' Mia thought, opening up the box only to notice an orderly row of spiritual cores and a bunch of spirit stones at the bottom of the box.

'Or when someone didn't have any need for those pills and beads in the first place.'

A strange feeling ran through Mia's system.

'If merchants do know about this quality of cultivation... How come cultivators themselves are unaware?' she asked herself, unable to make any sense of what she just realized.

But this wasn't the right time to think about it.

Mia shut down the lid of the box and looked at the receptionist and the officer's duo. She nodded her head with respect before turning around and leaving the place.

She achieved far more than she expected by coming to this place. But, with the pills in her hands, there was no longer any reason for her to stay in the auction hall.

The second Mia decided to leave, her body followed through. Soon, not only did she leave the place, but her legs also carried her all the way back to the sect grounds.

'Are they going to piss me off?' she asked herself as her eyes ran all over the place to spot anyone who could be waiting for her.

But even after straining her sight for several moments, Mia failed to find anyone who could be potentially waiting for her.

In the end, she only found them when she arrived at the training grounds.

Not a single member of the team that she organized was wasting time waiting for her to return.

They were too busy training and making the most efficient use of the time they had at hand.

"Gather up," Mia shouted silently the second she set foot in the training ground.

She didn't have to wait for long. Even with her entire group focused on the training, they wouldn't miss something as obvious as her appearance.

They simply didn't see a point in stopping training and greeting her before.

Soon, every last one of them received a fair share of the resources that Mia obtained. And from the looks in their eyes, Mia could tell how eager they were to make the best possible use out of them.

"This is what we are likely stuck with until the next distribution day," she announced, looking down at her own hand with the remaining two spiritual cores and four spirit stones. "So, without further ado..." Mia waited for a second before a wide smile appeared on her lips.

"Get the fuck back to training!" she shouted, chasing her companions away.

She waited for a second to confirm that no one bothered to waste time on protesting. She moved to her own training spot only once all four of her teammates diligently returned to the training.

'Well, let's lead by the example,' she thought, squeezing her hand and absorbing the cultivation resources in her hand. She then stood up in a position and threw her first punch.

'Still,' she thought as her body started to overflow with the spiritual energy, 'where did he get his money and fame from, this time?' Mia thought her attention was on the faraway persona she loved.

'Let's just hope he didn't get involved with the brothel again!'