"I think you're offering him an excess of necessities."

"That's the point: necessities. You can't help yourself but bet on those, right?"

"That's probably true..?"

"Which means, you'll spend time to make sure you win the wager."

"That's.. that's true as well.."

"And wasting this one's time will let other adventurers catch up, right?"

"That's.. that's right."

"What if you can't get something you invested your time and effort into?"

"You get annoyed and angry?"

"Exactly," Veilon answered. "That's what I'm after. Once he starts to fall into my pace in this game.. he's done. He will waste his points constantly to try and win bets without stopping."

Kelderian was amazed to hear the head of the Planning Team reason out his actions.

"Squeeze out even the last drops then leave him without a single point."

'This guy isn't a merchant; he's a swindler!'

What Kelderian didn't know was that Veilon already had a long-term plan to rip off customers planned out, not just this single event.

'Well no wonder Corporate either loves you to death or hates you with a passion, but you just made my job a whole lot easier,' Kelderian thought, his respect for the man growing a notch.

"What's in the wager?"

"The content of the wager is always the most important thing."

Veilon always arranges matters so he wins the bet every time – defeat is totally unacceptable.

However, he doesn't make these arrangements in a blatant way that would break the game's balance.

Such bets, even when won, have no sense of achievement and worse, arouse the suspicion of customers that some scheme is going on.

Therefore, people won't take parts in events where they feel that the odds are stacked against them.

As such, Veilon's wagers often look like a close game, but are actually in his favor – which makes customers go for it. They cannot help themselves.

This was how he described the details of his plan to Kelderian.

"Would he accept a wager of this sort?"

"There's no reason not to accept it. Why does he want to increase his mana? Of course it's to take back the town. He is about to join the battle, and we are giving out free drinks. Increasing mana means that it takes a lot of mana for him to fight. No matter how many we give out, he won't be satisfied."

Kelderian now saw Veilon's insight: he had a good grasp of what Jake Smithson needed the most and used it as bait.

"That may be so," he acknowledged, "but do you think he'll bet his Swiftstone Sword? That's not a normal weapon."

Veilon laughed.

"You look like you have no idea what you are saying."

"What?"

"It's not just handing over what he needs. One more thing at the same time to make him take the wager. The desire to win: do you know how scary this is? Is there anyone in the world who doesn't have a desire to win? Maybe. But the ones that grow and grow as fast as this one must have a desire to win. That's the reason behind his fast growth."

Kelderian now saw Veilon's rationale: he considered Jake as a genius, an adventurer who grows so powerful in so short a time can only be explained by this.

However, Veilon didn't think the rapid growth Jake achieved was simply due to talent.

'It's also an innate desire to win.'

Veilon thought Jake would be both a genius and obsessed with winning: both would be a reasonable guess; after all, the adventurers who gained the most power were all the most competitive.

It's not just adventurers; people in general who achieve great success all have a strong and almost pathological desire to win.

It is this mindset that allows one to achieve rapid growth in a short time. True, there are many talented people, but among them, those whose competitive drive borders on obsessivewill regularly make a superhuman effort towards their goals.

"Well," Kelderian asked, already failing to understand Jake's full potential, "what if this guy wins the bet?"

It's natural for him to worry about Jake exceeding expectations next time.

Veilon's reply had confidence, though.

"Don't worry, the Skeleritter's not the kind of disaster-class enemy the previous two were: he's never had any experience battling a two-phase disaster-class boss monster."

Right then, a tone confirmed Veilon's hypothesis.

[Jake Smithson has participated in the event.]

"I knew it! You see? It's the desire to win! It's a basic need! All you need to do is stimulate it," Veilon said, and he laughed.

Kelderian laughed with him, and his laugh wasn't as desperate as before.

***

The impulse took control of him way too easily.

[You have participated in the event. Timeremaining: 72 hours]

Of course, Jake never thinks impulses take control of him, easily.

He thinks he made a very good, well-thought out decision.

'For sale! Limited edition! Only fools won't buy this! And I'm not a fool! Fools who don't buy this are foolish!'

By his standards, not buying limited-sale items is either a very foolish decision, or a really cowardly one.

'I bought a limited sale item to help pay off all my debts?

Is this real life?

Why do I end up tripping on gold bars here?'

By this, Jake realized that he's put in a position where he can kill two birds with one stone.

Can't get any better than this.

Of course, this assumes that he wins the wager.

Therefore, Jake is constantly agonizing over the details.

'I don't intend to easily win the money. I'll do my best.'

Since coming to Nohas, Jake has done his best during every moment, just to be able to shop.

'I've done this before, and I'll do this again. I'll make this assumption a reality,' Jake thought as he began making plans towards fulfilling that goal. 'Okay, first things first: recovery items won't fix everything. You're going to have to play this one smart, Jake.'

Thus, Jake looked in detail about how these recovery items worked, in particular, the restrictions placed on them.

You cannot use these items in quick succession, there is a certain amount of time that needs to pass before you can use the item again: the Magic Infusion is no exception.

'Twenty minutes between drinks, huh?' Jake thought. 'Also, drinking this doesn't give back all of my mana. That means, thanks to diminishing returns, I'll eventually run out of mana.'

'If my calculations are right, I only regenerate about 70% of my mana per Magic Infusion.

Okay, the plan now is to finish the fight before I run out of Magic Infusions.'

Unfortunately, he does not have the luxury of time to prepare for the fight by increasing his total amount of mana, since he has a 72-hour window to clear Brino of skeletons and he doesn't know how long it will take for him to do that.

There is also one, more important, problem: to Jake, limited-sale items are solely for collection purposes, not for usage.

If he uses the Magic Infusion, he can't purchase it again, because it's a limited-sale item.

Its value goes higher because of its rarity, even if it is a consumable.

How can one use these goods and not just collect them? As someone whose addiction to shopping is pathological, this was unacceptable.

He wasn't completely sure he could overpower the skeletons without making use of the item, and it's obvious that he'd run out of mana before his debts can be paid. On top of that, he's not sure he can recapture Brino as well.

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If he fails, Jake loses the Swiftstone – and to Jake, it carries more than just a utilitarian value as a powerful weapon.

At the moment he made the payment and placed the item in his shopping cart, the Swiftstone Sword was the property of Jake Smithson, and nobody else.

'I am really sorry for having to drag you into this stupid wager business.. forgive my limited-sales buying impulse. I have no choice but to use these Infusions..

..but I'm going to keep the last bottle.'

Thanks to the event, Jake got his hand on twenty bottles, and decided to only use nineteen, saving the last one in his inventory for collection purposes.

A limited-sale product like that is not something to be used, but rather kept as part of a collection.

Its rarity and value make the mere possession of it enjoyable.

Pay all my installment debts with only nineteen bottles of Magic Infusion.

Slay the Skeleritter.

'I think I'm going to have to do some hard thinking with this one. Can't just barge in blindly anymore even with nineteen bottles backing me up.'

With the thought of saving his limited-sale consumables filling his head, Jake decided to concoct a plan to be able to do everything he needed at the same time.

'All right, let's gather some points and buy one item before it's go time: this item is critical to my success.'

He went off into the outskirts of Brino, his goal firmly set in mind.

***

Despite the skeletons being undead, they move in organized groups, all under the control of their leader the Skeleritter.

The conquered town was filled with skeletons on patrol routes; even the Skeleritter stood from its throne and walked around the town at random times, its entourage of skeletons surrounding and protecting it from any threats it may run into.

Most of these patrols focused on the front gate of Brino, moving in squads in a grisly imitation of the adventurers that previously called this town home.

But neither the skeletons nor their leader expected someone to simply waltz in through the hole in the wall they made.

"Mike check, mike check, is this thing on? Okay, we'll do it live!"

Looming in the space that the skeletons burst through, Jake Smithson stood, speakers at his feet, microphone in his off hand and the Swiftstone in the other.

"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages: welcome to Jake Smithson's payday party!"

Such a gesture meant that all attention of the skeletons was focused on him immediately.

"And you guys are on the dance card!"

Jake took a deep breath before shouting.

"Which means your ass is grass, AND I'M THE LAWNMOWER! COME ON!"