Chapter 45: Lord of Time and Space—Annoyed
Leon's mystical eyes hovered over the long list of things that suddenly popped up in front of him.
He was truly shocked.
---
[Cosmic System Shop Interface]
– Payment Type: Causality (Registered by System)
– All prices calculated by the Cosmic System based on existential value loss.
– Once a purchase is made, there is no going back.
– Your identity is protected by the Cosmic System.
---
Reading the first part, which looked like a few beginner tips meant to guide newbies, Leon blinked.
Causality.
It wasn't a term unfamiliar to him. He'd read fantasy novels in his spare time every now and then—when life wasn't kicking him too hard. Even without deep knowledge, he had some idea.
'In simple terms, it's like cause and effect. Let's suppose I had a thousand gold coins right now... with that, I could do a lot of things—like plan an assassination on a noble house's heir.'
'If that assassination succeeded, it would shift the future, right? The outcome would be different. And that means those coins were part of a chain of events... a cause.'
'Which means those coins now hold a causality value of their own, depending on what they helped me achieve.'
Even thinking about it twisted his mind. What if the coins were used for something else entirely? What if the assassination failed? How could the system possibly measure their value if the future hadn't even happened yet?
He let the thought trail off.
Trying to figure it out any further wasn't going to help him. The one deciding the "causality value" was the system itself.
'Just from the name alone, I can guess it's tied to the entire cosmos.'
'So whatever outcome those thousand coins lead to... the value must be judged by how much it affects the greater cosmic balance.'
He didn't know if his theory was right or even close. It was too complex to fully understand. But for now, it was the only explanation that made sense to him.
He stopped thinking about it and focused on the item list below.
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1. Chrono-Stasis Ring (Legendary – Item)
Freezes time for exactly three seconds. Usable once every 24 hours.
Price: 9,000,000
Vendor: Lord of Time and Space
---
"Chrono-Stasis Ring! Legendary rank!!!" he murmured, half in disbelief.
He read the description again. Three seconds of frozen time. A reusable item.
'Three seconds... that's more than enough to decide life or death in a battle. That's way too overpowered. Especially when it resets every 24 hours.'
He stared at the price. 9 million causalities. He didn't know how high that was—not yet. He had no comparison. But instinct told him everything he needed to know.
This wasn't going to be cheap.
And then his gaze drifted to the last line. He couldn't help but say it out loud.
"Lord of Time and Space."
The words barely left his lips before the air shifted.
The very atmosphere around him trembled. It wasn't loud. It wasn't violent. But something pressed in from all directions, like a soundless vibration rolling through reality.
It scared him a little.
'What is this? A universal ringtone?'
He tried to laugh it off, but the effect was far from funny. In fact, it was terrifying.
He swore to himself then and there: that he would never speak another vendor's name out loud.
Whoever was selling these items... they were not the kind of entities he wanted looking in his direction.
---
Meanwhile...
In a dimension untethered to physical time—where reality bent and stretched like breath through silk—clock halos drifted slowly in endless space. Some ticked backward. Some spiraled. Others simply hovered, motionless but pulsing with presence.
Amidst them sat a woman. Floating, legs crossed, posture calm.
Silver hair floated around her like fluid light, brushing the air as if it, too, had memory. Her eyes opened slowly—revealing irises etched with countless clock faces, all shifting at different speeds. Her expression was calm... until it wasn't.
A faint ripple of irritation passed over her ethereal features.
Her beauty wasn't mortal. It wasn't even divine. It was impossible. The kind that could freeze a god mid-sentence.
"Who the fuck is calling my name?" she muttered.
She knew instantly—it had to be another Lord. A being of equal or near-equal power. Only something at that level would trigger a ping through her dimensional boundary. As for the weaker ones? She'd long since turned their notifications off.
And the fact that she couldn't trace the face or the source only confirmed her suspicion.
Only one person in existence could do that in the existing Lords.
'That bitch. I told her no pranks while I'm in seclusion.'
Her annoyance simmered.
'When I come out of this in a thousand years, I'm going to spank her through six timelines for this stunt.'
The Lord of Time and Space closed her eyes and resumed her trance.
Unaware that the one who triggered it wasn't a cheeky Lord.
It was just a silver-haired boy on some forgotten plane whose existence was important enough to trigger her senses, or there was something else at play.
Who made the mistake of saying her name out loud.
_____
2. Ethereal Step (Epic – Skill)
Teleport a short distance instantly. Cooldown applies.
Price: 710,000
Vendor: Blink McTwist
_____
3. Inferno Blade (Epic – Weapon)
A sword wreathed in eternal flame. Passively increases fire affinity.
Price: 1,700,000
Vendor: Captain Burnbottom
_____
4. Static Pulse Core (Rare – Item)
Generates a one-time shield that nullifies lightning damage.
Price: 125,000
Vendor: The Current Collector
_____
5. Void Grasp (Rare – Technique)
Immobilizes enemies with a surge of shadow energy.
Price: 200,000
Vendor: Shady Steve
_____
6. Gale Dancer's Cloak (Rare – Armor)
Boosts wind affinity and agility-based evasion.
Price: 180,000
Vendor: Madam Breezy
_____
7. Frost Fang Technique (Epic – Technique)
A deadly piercing strike that chills the target's soul and slows movement.
Price: 910,000
Vendor: Sir Chillington
_____
8. Mana Reservoir Pearl (Epic – Item)
Permanently increases total mana pool by +300.
Price: 350,000
Vendor: Professor Overflow
_____
9. Phoenix Feather Amulet (Legendary – Item)
Revives the wearer upon death, once.
Price: 2,500,000
Vendor: Resurrecto Maximus
_____
10. Elemental Surge (Legendary – Skill)
Temporarily raises all elemental affinities by one rank for 60 seconds.
Price: 3,000,000
Vendor: Lord of Time and Space
_____
11. Seismic Tremor Step (Rare – Skill)
Every footstep sends out shockwaves that disrupt balance nearby.
Price: 190,000
Vendor: Stomp McGraw
_____
12. Mystic Mirror Shard (Rare – Item)
Reflects one spell back to its original caster.
Price: 270,000
Vendor: Reflection Rick
_____
13. Arcane Shackle (Rare – Technique)
Binds a target's mana flow for five seconds.
Price: 320,000
Vendor: Warden Wink
_____
14. Dimensional Pocket Cape (Rare – Item)
A cloak that contains a pocket dimension for storage.
Price: 220,000
Vendor: Hoarder Harold
_____
15. Hourglass of Reversal (Epic – Item)
Rewinds time in a 3-meter radius by three seconds. Single-use.
Price: 120,0000
Vendor: Professor Time-a-lot
_____
16. Mirror of True Self (Rare – Item)
Reveals the target's truest nature. Useful for interrogation or emotional ruin.
Price: 80,000
Vendor: Lady Whatsername the Unstable
_____
17. Feather of Dimensional Drift (Epic – Item)
Lets the user blink into an adjacent dimension for up to 10 seconds.
Price: 950,000
Vendor: Duke of Nope
_____
18. Coin of Absolute Luck (Epic – Item)
Flip it. One outcome brings glory. The other, ruin. No in-between.
Price: 410,000
Vendor: Gambler X of the 7th Table
_____
19. Cradle Seed of Elements (Divine– Item)
Once planted in the body, gradually enhances all owned elemental affinities.
Price: 790,000,000
Vendor: The Keeper of The Dimensions
_____
Many more...
He couldn't help but smile seeing countless items, skills, and techniques listed here as no matter how much he scrolled down it never ended.
Chapter 46: System wants me to be Poor!
Leon read through every single detail of the items, skills, elixirs, and techniques that appeared in front of the first page. The interface shimmered faintly, like sunlight dancing across rippling water, lending the catalog an ethereal aura.
If he had causality, he would want to have every single thing on that list. But he knew he couldn't do that. However, there was one item that caught his eyes and held them fast.
19. Cradle Seed of Elements (Divine– Item)
Once planted in the body, gradually enhances all possessed elemental affinities.
Price: 790,000,000
Vendor: The Keeper of The Dimensions
'A Divine-ranked item that could enhance elemental affinities over time. I have an affinity for every element possible, so this item would be heaven-sent for me.'
He had never heard of a Divine-ranked item before, but he could guess that it had to be higher than mythical.
The problem was the price. It was a staggering 790 million causality to buy, and the vendor was none other than The Keeper of The Dimensions.
This time, Leon was careful not to say the name out loud. Whatever had happened previously when he muttered "Lord of Time and Space," he absolutely hated the sensation that followed. He had no desire to repeat that mistake.
After learning more about these cosmic entities, who might possess unimaginable power, Leon recalled one important detail.
'When I was awakening my class, I had the option to choose between these same classes. They were SSS-ranked like mine. Now I finally understand why those powerful-sounding classes were listed as ultra-rare rather than unique.'
'They were unique classes. But had I chosen them, they would have become ultra-rare—because I would have shared the same class as those entities.'
So that meant his class—Elemental Paragon, an SSS-ranked class—was on the same level as theirs. It didn't take him long to grasp how powerful these entities might be. One of them was selling a Divine-ranked treasure. That same entities Class had been a class option for him. His class had the potential to reach the peak.
He was thrilled to realize this.
There was a search box located in the top-right corner of the golden, shimmering screen floating in front of him. Leon knew he couldn't afford any of these treasures right now. He wanted to find something cheaper—and useful in the present.
He mentally typed the word "Cultivation" into the search bar. A single thought was enough to activate the search, something he quite appreciated—it was such a handy feature.
But no results appeared for what he wanted.
He was looking for a guide that would explain the cultivation ranks above Apprentice rank—or even above that—but nothing came up.
He tried searching various phrases: "ranking of cultivation," "world structure," "cosmos hierarchy," "Earthly Plane progression"...
After two long hours of doom-scrolling through useless entries, he finally found something that genuinely piqued his interest.
#. Self-Biography of the Great Master Longstaff (Rare – Book)
An autobiographical disaster penned by a self-proclaimed genius who claims to have seduced a dragon, outdueled a sword saint, and dated a fairy. Contains far too many shirtless illustrations and footnotes about "techniques" that definitely aren't martial. "My journey from Lowest of the Low Ascendant Realm to Divine Realm."
Price: 100 casualties
Vendor: Master Longstaff the Endlessly Accomplished
Leon knew this book wasn't exactly what he had set out to find, but the last line in the description caught his attention like a hook.
'Ascendant Realm to Divine Realm.'
Those were realms definitely above his current Earthly Realm. And since it was an autobiography, it would likely contain not just cultivation rankings but also hidden insights and obscure knowledge he hadn't encountered before.
The most important thing? It was absurdly cheap compared to everything else—only one hundred causality.
But in order to buy it, he needed to trade something in exchange for causality. One option came to mind. Oddly enough, he hadn't seen a single monster mana core being sold in the shop. That struck him as strange. Selling those would have made things easier—and leveling up would be much faster for anyone who could afford them.
So he decided not to exchange the cores for causality. Instead, the platinum bars seemed like the best choice for a trade.
He took the entire treasure box out of his inventory.
Massive. Ornate. It was banded in glowing gold, etched with elegant silver filigree and ancient runic script that shimmered like morning light touching still water. The aura it gave off wasn't hostile—but it was dense, thick with age and presence, as if it had waited a lifetime for this moment.
Seeing the chest again made Leon feel good. He smiled faintly, satisfied. He was rich—no, beyond rich. He was a billionaire.
He pressed his hand against the treasure chest and summoned the Cosmic System mentally, asking it to calculate the causality value of the item before him.
A golden number began to shimmer above the box. It rose slowly from zero, digit by digit, until it stopped at 289,000.
'It was more than I had expected.'
Then again, it made sense. That much wealth could probably sway the course of kingdoms—or the outcome of wars.
Trying to be smart, Leon decided to take out five platinum bars. That should be enough to live comfortably for a lifetime without ever worrying about food or clothing, assuming he didn't indulge in too much luxury.
However, when he checked the causality value of the box again, it had dropped—to a measly 98,000.
'I just lost almost two-thirds of the original value.'
It didn't feel fair. There were absolutely more than 300 bars in that chest, and taking just five had caused the causality to drop so dramatically.
'That's nasty.'
He returned four of the bars back into the chest and checked again, hoping to regain some of the value.
The result this time: 189,000.
One hundred eighty-nine thousand.
A full hundred thousand less than the original assessment—all because of one missing bar.
'Fuck this system, wanting to see me as a beggar.'
Leon knew he would regret it later. He tried to hold on to one platinum bar—just one—and because of that, he lost a staggering hundred thousand causality. He absolutely couldn't accept that outcome. Even if it meant crying tears of blood, he had to undo his mistake.
With quiet resignation, he lowered himself onto both knees on the cold floor. The weight of his decision pressed on his chest. Carefully, almost reverently, he opened the ornate treasure chest once more and placed the final platinum bar back inside. His hands lingered on the glowing surface of the luxurious golden chest, slowly caressing the etched filigree and softly glowing runes. It was as if he were saying goodbye to an old friend.
His fingers trembled. His eyes shimmered—not tears exactly, but the edges were moist, a vulnerable glaze threatening to fall at any moment.
"Do it. Exchange this with causality," he whispered, barely able to raise his voice.
A notification flickered in front of him, sharp and clinical.
[Are you sure you want to exchange the item for causality?]
"Y-Yes," he replied. His voice cracked slightly, the word catching in his throat like it hurt to say.
'Hah... bye-bye, my dear friend.'
The moment the confirmation passed, the massive golden treasure chest vanished—not in a burst of light, nor with any mystical rumble. No tremor in the air. No flash of magic. No whisper from the void.
It simply glitched.
Like it had never existed.
Gone in a smooth flicker.
And just like that, reality slammed back into Leon's chest like a hammer.
'I'm poor again. I was only a billionaire for one day.'
Another notification appeared in front of him.
[You have earned 289,000 causalities.]
At least that message softened the blow. A little.
Just a little.
But the mark had already been made.
The pain of parting with wealth so immense would linger in the corners of his soul for a long time.