The Place Where Everything Begins

Special Access was a proceeding that a person would be connected to the Store of All Things via an intermediary, the System.

In fact, if Jeremy were in Pantheon, he wouldn't lose any accessing or transaction fee at all.

However, Jeremy had chosen to access it here, in the middle of nowhere, so he ought to pay some extra money for it.

As for how the Store of All Things worked, it literally sold all things as the name suggested. All things... with the starting price of at least one black star...

The shop was operated by someone called Mercury, aka the Great Merchant.. He was a mysterious entity that no one had ever seen his face before.

In fact, people didn't even know what gender Mercury was, but they usually referred to Mercury as a 'he'.

At this moment, Jeremy was finally connected to Mercury as a mysterious voice was suddenly heard out of nowhere,

❰ Greetings, I'm Mercury, at your service. What do you want from my shop? ❱

Even his voice was genderless; it resounded out like a man at times, but also like a woman at times.

That's why people didn't know about Mercury's gender and could only refer to Mercury as 'he'.

Upon hearing so, Jeremy thought briefly before saying into the dark space,

"You can only upgrade a skill to High Advance level, right?"

❰ Correct... ❱

"What is the price?"

❰ Which skill? ❱

"My [Disguise] skill."

❰ Eleven black stars to High Advance and one more black star for a delivery fee. So, it's twelve in total ❱

Upon hearing the price of upgrading only one skill from Mercury, Jeremy suddenly got a bit depressed and thought,

"The Special Access is such a pain in the ass..."

❰ How do you even know about the Special Access anyway? ❱

After hearing Mercury asking him so, Jeremy's eyes lit up before saying with a smile,

"Transaction accepted."

『 Transaction has been accepted 』

Right after Jeremy had accepted the so-called transaction from Mercury, the System's notification suddenly showed up before Jeremy and Mercury as it behaved as an intermediary of this trade.

❰ What!? The trade was accepted...? That means the price is higher than one black star!? ❱

There came a startled voice of Mercury as he didn't know that his curiosity had gotten the best out of him and would make him lose money.

Shortly after the transaction had been accepted, Jeremy finally said his piece,

"I know about the special access because I've been to Pantheon before."

After answering the question, System's notifications suddenly popped up before Jeremy...

...

『 You have received 4x★ 』

『 You have 59x★ and 5x✰ remaining in your star account 』

『 Transaction is concluded 』

...

❰ What the!? Four stars? And how have you even gone... ❱

❰ ... ❱

It looked like Mercury had suddenly realized that he would lose more money if he didn't stop there, so he decided to keep his mouth shut.

So does Jeremy, as he also kept quiet while standing with a light smile plastered on his face,

"..."

❰ Damn it! I've been fooled by a brat! ❱

It looked like Jeremy didn't want to linger around the topic about how he had been to Pantheon, so he promptly changed the topic,

"No more chit-chat. I want to upgrade my [Disguise] skill to High Advance."

❰ ... ❱

❰ Sigh... My money... ❱

Mercury couldn't help it either as he didn't dare ask any more questions for fear that he would lose even more money,

❰ Transaction accepted ❱

After the two sides had agreed to do a transaction, the System notifications promptly showed up behaving as a faithful intermediary...

...

『 Transaction has been accepted 』

『 A total of 11x★ have been deducted from your star account for the trade 』

『 A total of 1x★ has been deducted from your star account for the delivery fee 』

『 You have 47x★ and 5x✰ remaining in your star account 』

『 Commencing the skill upgrading process... 』

『 ... 』

『 Your skill [Disguise] has been upgraded to High Advance level, and the skill name changes to [Perfect Disguise] 』

『 Transaction is concluded 』

...

When the transaction was done, Mercury suddenly spoke up in a bit of annoyance in his voice,

❰ Done! Anything else? ❱

'Hmm... Let's go to my second priority first before deciding about other things...' pondered Jeremy before opening his mouth to say,

"Do you have anything that can forge or show a fake Status Window?"

❰ Yes, I have three things with me currently; I will project their information via the System's notifications ❱

After Mercury said that, a transparent window promptly showed up before Jeremy...

...

『 Mask of a Fraudster (Equipment) 』(17x★)

Ability:

1. Tier-6 Illusion - You can transform your appearance into any organism or object you desire for 15 minutes. (Cooldown 1 hour)

2. Tier-6 Illusion - You can forge and project your fake Status Window. (Once per day)

『 Information Falser (Talent) 』(19x★)

Ability: After being activated, you will be able to project the preset Status Window for others to see. (Number of preset: 1)

『 ???'s Backdoor (???) 』(32x✰)

Ability: ??? (Buy it to know the specific information)

...

'The first one is too lame. Furthermore, I have the Disguise skill already, so I don't need it. As for why its price was so high should be that it was an item and could be sold as a second-hand item.

'Then... the last one, what are those question marks anyway? It's also too expensive that no one in Pantheon could afford it in the first place. Why does he even show me such an expensive item?'

'Whatever...'

'It's been decided then...'

After finishing his thoughts, Jeremy said lightly,

"I want the talent, Information Falser."

❰ Confirm? ❱

"Confirm," said Jeremy in affirmation.

❰ Transaction accepted ❱

...

『 Transaction has been accepted 』

『 A total of 19x★ have been deducted from your star account for the trade 』

『 A total of 1x★ has been deducted from your star account for the delivery fee 』

『 You have 27x★ and 5x✰ remaining in your star account 』

『 Commencing the trading process... 』

『 ... 』

『 The talent, Information Falser has been added into your Status Window 』

『 Transaction is concluded 』

...

After the transaction was complete, Mercury's cheerful voice suddenly resounded out in the black space,

❰ Thank you for the trade! I haven't had such a big deal for quite a while. At most, those people in Pantheon only spend four or five stars at a time lately ❱

Indeed, even for the former sage, Jeremy, the amount of twenty black stars was considered an enormous sum that he didn't dare to spend so casually in his past life.

After all, Jeremy's highest cumulative amount of stars was only thirty-seven black stars and one white star before his death. Such an amount of stars was only enough for Jeremy to buy two or three 'expensive' things from the Great Merchant.

❰ Alright! Anything else? ❱

The Great Merchant's voice echoed within the dark space.