Chapter 595: Information Brokers

Translator: imperfectluck  Editor: Kurisu

Elite adventurers affiliated with our Northlands, the incarnation of a Chaos Main God, a sudden arrival of a suicide squad of Holy Knights… One of these appearing in the Ashen Furnace might still be a coincidence, but when putting all this information together, it would be far too naïve to think that it was all a coincidence.

When in need of information, no organization in the world could possibly compare to the fairies’ information network. I also had a very solid alliance with them…

“This is my Diamond VIP account card. I need the latest information from this region. Yeah, not only for this dimensional level, I also need the recent important information for the entire Chaos Abyss.”

The fairy before me hurriedly invited me inside the store after seeing my VIP account card. Inside, tiny fairies wearing equally tiny red suits were running around everywhere. They appeared just like the fairies in the mortal plane.

The manager fairy ran off with my account card. A few minutes later, he returned with a serious expression.

“…I’m sorry, your limitless information access account has expired. Your Diamond account rights have also been cancelled. You are now a Gold 1 account.”

I was stunned to hear this. Meanwhile, Harloys laughed at me in our soul connection.

“What a solid alliance you have with them indeed. What does it feel like to have them taking advantage of you after they no longer need you?”

“…As expected of the goblins’ distant cousins (okay, I was just making this up). They’re already taking advantage of me so early.”

For a relatively long period of time, ever since I returned to the Northlands, the fairies had established a solid alliance with us, giving me this VIP card that allowed me to limitlessly obtain free information from them.

Although I didn’t particularly trust free information, it would still be a waste not to use it. As time passed, it was proven that their intelligence network’s accuracy and speed had far surpassed those of any other spy organization in the world. Thus, I naturally established a long-term working alliance with the fairies.

“Although you are no longer a Diamond account member, we can still provide any information to you that’s below SSS level. And, we’ll even give you a 30% discount compared to other account members.”

Tsk, I understood quite well what the fairies were saying. The free trial period had now ended. If I wanted to continue enjoying their service, I would have to pay money.

As I looked at this black fairy, I kept feeling more and more like he might actually be related to the goblins. They were all such scammers. When you didn’t need them, you would see their advertisements everywhere, claiming to have all sorts of free benefits. And when you really needed them, they would suddenly raise their prices.

“Your Highness, please don’t think that we are trying to target you specifically. Your Gold 1, 3 star account is still the highest-level customer account with us. It’s just that a while back, we reorganized all of our Diamond accounts. We no longer have any Diamond accounts that can obtain permanent free information from us.”

“A while back? How long ago?”

“Five years ago.”

Oh, so it seemed that I wasn’t the only one whose free trial had expired. Everyone’s free trial had expired, so everyone would have to pay money!

Judging from the time, this happened right after Hell became completely stabilized, which meant that the total destruction end for the world had been averted. Now that I thought of this, it really did seem like the fairies were taking advantage of us after no longer needing us.

“Can I pay in soul coins?”

“Yes, since this is the best currency in the lower planes. We accept soul coins.”

However, I didn’t particularly mind even if the fairies were now charging fees for their services. I even felt somewhat disgusted to be carrying these soul coins I obtained from the dark dwarves.

Now that they were charging fees for their services, I secretly decided to give them more business in the future.

That was because someone like me would feel less assured about using a free service.

This wasn’t because I had any strange hobbies of wanting to spend money. It was because the world was so difficult to survive in. Apart from bait and traps, nothing would be free. I would always be suspicious of anything free.

And even if they truly wanted to help me, owing and repaying favors would be far more difficult than having to pay them money. If the fairies wanted to ask for something of equivalent value sometime in the future, that would be truly difficult to deal with.

And if the fairies had their own motivations and plans, then even if their information had always been 100% accurate before, who knew when they might suddenly give misinformation at a critical time?

I had forever been on guard against these fairies that I didn’t know about enough. It would always be best to use a personal spy network. Relying on a third party’s intelligence would only lead to major trouble sooner or later. Most of the time, I only used the fairies’ information to confirm information from my own sources.

But, I was currently in the Chaos Abyss. I would be unable to access the Northlands’ or Church of Law’s spy networks here. So, I would only be able to rely on the fairies who were everywhere.

I tossed them a sack of soul coins, and watched them work as I tasted their tea. As always, they were outstanding workers. In less than half an hour, the table in front of me had a pile of files with important information from numerous dimensions.

Meanwhile, one of Harloys’ clones finally reached the Dragontail Bar. She told me that Adam and the others had actually arrived already, which was a pleasant surprise for me. However, Harloys had a mysterious attitude as she told me there was another nice surprise waiting for me there.

With my excellent understanding of how much she enjoyed making me suffer, this surprise was probably the type that could scare me to death. When considering my ever more frightening negative luck stat recently, I decided to purchase an escape route from the fairies as I told Harloys to find a way to contact Margaret, who would be more reliable than Adam…

The fairies treated any Gold account customer who was willing to pay money quite well.

However, the very first piece of information I received gave me a tremendous shock…

“A certain Dracon who’s now in the top 10 of the Calamity Rankings has caused another incident which attracted public outrage in the mortal plane. Several dozen Gods and SemiGods have teamed up to hunt him down. He has now vanished from public view.”

Yep, a certain Dracon, who was in the top 10 of the Calamity Rankings now? I would have to be an idiot not to know who that was. Another piece of information I received told me that he had recently been seen in the Chaos Abyss…

“Just what did he do that would make so many Gods ally together to hunt him down…? Forget it, please don’t tell me, I really don’t want to know.”

I laid down on the fairies’ soft sofa as I calculated my odds of “coincidentally” running into that bastard. When considering how gigantic the Chaos Abyss was, the odds logically should have been astronomically small. But when considering my luck stat… I decided to purchase a second escape route. It would be far too humiliating if I died because of being dragged down by Beifeng.

With all the information placed before me, Harloys and I split up and read through it together. The highly useful information wouldn’t always be that easy to discover. I was only memorizing everything as it was impossible to know when some information might be useful. Some information that appeared to be nothing more than unimportant gossip might reveal its importance at a later time.

As expected, there was no specific information about Karwenz, whom I wanted information on the most. The only information available was that he had suddenly appeared and killed an unfortunate Devil Lord. There was no difference from the simple headline reported in the fairies’ newspaper.

For Main God level existences like Karwenz and Donatis, even the fairies who were everywhere would have their limits in obtaining useful information.

But, apart from purchasing information, I also had some errands that I needed the fairies to help me with.

“I have two letters here. This one is for the Church of Law, and this one is for the Southern Sect.”

Since I had agreed to help Snake God Voka and received his payment, it was only natural that I would keep my promise to him.

Actually, I originally had a much easier way to contact the Hell Gods… But when I thought about how that hateful Undead Emperor was still forcibly occupying my personal world, and that she had Main God power level which far exceeded mine, I could only bear with things for the time being.

“Once I gather enough powerful allies, we’re going to attack the Undead Emperor dungeon together as a team!”

I also needed the fairies’ network to start gathering information on top-level resources I could use for my Myth-ranked weapons. Although I didn’t have high hopes, perhaps I would be able to obtain something as long as I offered rewards high enough.

“Resources related to the Concepts of gathering and spreading light. Resources related to pain, despair, and other Concepts of pure negative emotions. Top-level resources related to ice. It would seem that you’re preparing yourself for the final step of Myth rank… Your Highness Roland, if I may be so direct, apart from the final request of top-level ice resources, the others will all be highly difficult to find. And, any ice resources that we find might not be as good as what you can obtain on your own.”

“Just try your best.”

I nodded as this was within my expectations. If spending money could take care of every problem, then there wouldn’t be so many unfortunate individuals out there forever stuck at Myth rank.

The precious resources that could become the core of Myth-ranked weapons would be highly valuable resources sought after by all Myth, Saint, and even SemiGod ranks. If any of them luckily managed to obtain such resources, they would never give them away so easily, as this would potentially strengthen their enemies, even if the resources weren’t fit for their personal use.

Also, powerful existences at that power level would rarely lack money. The most common way of doing things would be to trade an item of equivalent value. But, when considering how rare such resources were and both sides’ mutual distrust, even if both sides had previously traded items before, it would be highly unlikely for any trades to be finalized and succeed.

“Right, also help me obtain some information on this adventuring team.”

I showed the fairy an image of Casio’s adventuring team on a memory crystal. Since their team seemed decently powerful, I figured that they would have at least some reputation and information available.

But this time, this fairy, whose name was Didi, fell silent.

“…Do you need more money for this?”

“No, I’d probably have to pay you money to tell you the information about this team’s arrival in the city. This time, they’ve truly caused great trouble, tremendous trouble. We really don’t want to get involved… As long as you’re willing to resolve this trouble, we’ll refund all your money and give you all the information you requested for free this time!”

“Please don’t tell me, I suddenly don’t want to know at all!”

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