"What’s wrong? Why do you look like you need to take a massive shit or something?" Apparently, I was making a weird face after learning about how I was short half a point when it came to maxing my Meta Physical Stats, so much so that Brenden commented on it.
"Heh, nothing, fucking nothing, why would anything be wrong, IT’S NOT LIKE I FALL HALF A POINT SHORT FOR MY GOAL OF PERFECT STATS, NOooooOoOOOooO~," speaking with an elevated tone of voice, I spun on my heels and began pacing around the command center in a massive circle.
"Oh…it’s the OCD again, gotcha. I don’t see what the big deal is, so what if you are short a bit? I mean, look at me; I fell 5 points short on both my Physical stats, but I’m not complaining about it. After all, my stats are already significantly higher than they were in the Origin Timeline." Munching a piece of red velvet cake, Brenden said, causing me to snap around and talk with a mocking voice.
"Look at meeee, I fell 5 points short FUCK YOU! I DEMAND EXCELLENCE; I DEMAND PERFECTION!" I shouted while flailing my arms around.
"And I demand more cake, *pop*," Making a popping sound with his mouth, Brenden ignored my manic episode and snagged another piece of cake in the meantime.
It wasn’t the first time something like this had happened to me, and by now, Brenden was an expert at navigating the stormy sea that was my "Episodes.", thus he pulled out a comfy chair and continued eating cake while watching me pace around the Command Center like a loonytoon.
It took me around an hour until I finally calmed down enough to have a civil conversation, and at that time, half of my "Birthday" cake had vanished into my gluttonous little brother’s stomach.
Catching me eyeing my half-devoured cake, Brenden was quick to speak up.
"I saved half; you can’t expect anything more from me."
"Gee…thanks," rolling my eyes, I picked back up the plate that I had been eating from before my little meltdown and sat at the main command console.
"Command Center, Training Room, Workshop, Med-Bay, Item Warehouse, Dining Hall, Gravity Training Room…" Clacking away on the massive keyboard-style device, I opened up seven separate windows on the main monitor, each one representing a Facility.
From there, things turned into what you’d expect to see from a kingdom-building video game. Each Facility had different parts that needed to be upgraded, all of which were able to be completed through the Command Console, and each one required two things: an extravagant amount of particle-rich resources and, of course, Ark-Coins.
When each of the windows populated with the upgrade requirements, I heard Brenden inhale sharply, causing me to smile wryly.
"Yeah, if you haven’t noticed by now, Everything is WAY more expensive than it was in the Origin Timeline. I suspect that your Guild Base cost less than 10% of this to upgrade."
"Yeah, all we needed was a thousand High-Alpha Coins per facility and some random materials…this…is absolutely insane."
"I suspected as much, to be honest, it kind of hurts me even to consider this; I mean, just the Grav room alone is going to cost 8k Coins….luckily…." with a wave of my hand, I withdrew a small silver coin and flashed it to Brenden."
"No way….hold on, HOW FUCKING DEEP DID YOU DIVE INTO THAT INSTANCE THAT YOU GOT LOW-BETA-COINS AS A REWARD!" Snatching the coin from my hand and chewing on it to test its authenticity, Brenden screeched into my right ear.
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"Far enough…don’t forget I fought a LITERAL dragon; that bitch wasn’t appearing anywhere remotely close to the gate; regardless, I have plenty of cash on hand to fulfill the coin side of things… it’s just the materials…" My words trailed off as I looked over at my brother, who was still chewing on the edge of the coins.
"Huh, oh, yeah, I got almost all that stuff in the Instance I was in, no biggie…but that *point* that *point* and those *point* are the only things I don’t remember gathering." Pointing out specific items, Brenden scratched his head and not so sneakily shoved the Low-Beta Coin into his pocket.
"Not a problem; I can supplement them with Particle water at a ratio of 10 units to one.
*A/N For those wondering, 1 Low-Beta Coin = 100 High-Alpha Coins, and yes, I have a fuck ton of them.*
With fingers gliding over keys as if I were playing the piano, I systematically input all the proper items directly from the warehouse, which were transferred into the upgrade panels. That was one of the perks of all the facilities being linked to Arkadia.
If I wanted, I could even move stuff directly from my inventory, which was what I did with the Low-Beta Coins, until the progress bars for each Facility were maxed out.
[The Upgrade Progress for all 7 Facilities has reached 100%; when all living beings have Exitied "Gnarnia," the upgrade to Beta-Grade will begin; please vacate the premises in a timely manner.]
"That’s our cue," Placing his hands behind his head, my brother made his way toward the exit, leaving me behind, shaking my head.
"Let me guess, you’ve never been curious about what happens if you STAY during the upgrade…have you."
"Fuck no; I’ve heard one too many horror stories; ain’t no way I’m stayin’ here," Brenden shouted without breaking his stride.
"Pussy."
"THE FUCK YOU JUST CALL ME!" Whipping around, Brenden suddenly appeared on the other side of the Command Console, ready to fight.
"I called you a P~U~S~S *WOOSH*," before I could finish spelling the word, I found myself leaping away from the command console and dodging a Talent-infused punch.
"STAY STILL YOU FUCKING COCKROACH!" Howling in frustration due to missing me, Brenden vaulted over the Command Console and made chase as I bolted off toward the exit.
In truth, if we stayed after the countdown ran out, the only thing that would happen is we would be forcefully removed from Gnarnia by Arkadia and appear in my bedroom…that’s it; however, there were PLENTY of rumors floating around in the Origin Timeline, and with as big of a conspiracy theorist as Brenden is, I felt the urge to tease him a bit.