Rift essence was the true currency within Untainted Paradise.

Learning it wasn’t the only surprise waiting for Keynes. Another one came after reviewing the cluster manager’s duties. While the man signed off rift slot allocations, his decisions were supported by the company’s AI.

It echoed what Alice had said. They didn’t have enough rifts and might never have. This naturally created a situation where every ascender going into a rift incurred an opportunity cost and the competition was fierce. Even 1% of the most valuable employees composed a long waiting list. Previously, all the rift slot allocation decisions had been signed off by humans, which led to the imbalance where less important employees had levelled up. Currently, the biggest chunk of ascenders on the waiting list came from the recent AI-chosen hires.

In other words, after Wagner had begun using the mana-powered AI, things started to shift—rather fundamentally.

I wonder why he omitted it during the meeting? Having a company organised by an AI sounded quite important to Keynes. There were some notes about its role in decision-making with a clear explanation that the final decision was always made by a human. The AI only analysed and reported all the potential outcomes. Why wasn’t this the case when it came to hiring?

Nonetheless, he didn’t regret asking for help with a personal assistant, he needed one more than ever.

He shoved the AI out of his mind and checked how many rifts his company currently owned.

Available Rifts (Currently Unavailable)

Level 1: 40 (32)

Level 2: 17 (48)

Level 3: 10 (39)

Level 4: 22 (16)

Level 5: 2 (32)

Interestingly, his Level 5 special rift wasn’t listed as available which made sense. Each of the available rifts on the list could be booked and delved for essence. His special rift’s modifier complicated things, making it an object of research. That was fine for now.

Out of all the available rifts only 20 Level 4s were located here in the cluster, all other rifts were back in Emerald City. Naturally, this situation was far from ideal but moving rifts one by one wouldn’t be efficient for levelling. It was nice to see that the number of available rifts increased since he had checked last time.

Some of the rifts had rift orbs applied, giving them various modifiers and making managing them a true pain.

Actually, in the future, we may have enough rift orbs applied on these rifts, cutting down their recharge time to minutes. Yes, it would be something to have a rift that took longer to clear than recharge. Again, these kinds of things were far in the future with the current drop rate of rift orbs.

The tablet was a rabbit hole. With Keynes’s level of access, it contained far too much information. After checking the status of his parents, he even found reports about his brother’s movements. It seemed like Harter decided to become an adventurer. There was no mention of his Talent though.

Eventually, the path took Keynes to Haef Hasting. He needed to schedule a meeting with the man. Keynes’s brief visit to Emerald City hadn’t allowed for any meetings bar the monthly founders review. He wasn’t going to return to the city before hitting Level 4 and even then, it would be a short stay.

Nonetheless, Haef was important. He was Keynes’s investment. With the right resources and knowledge, Keynes believed they could produce items that would be ahead of the rest of the world. Keynes had checked on Haef during the meeting but he hadn’t had time to read the report.

He checked it now and it informed him that Haef’s department had met every expectation and demand but produced unusual amount of broken items. Some of Haef’s activities had been flagged by the AI as potential malversation but Keynes didn’t care about that. He believed that Haef had enough common sense to see the futility of short-term gain in favour of long-term opportunities. He dismissed Haef’s performance report and checked on the personal development. Haef had reached the second spiritual stage but had found it impossible to advance to the Medium stage where Keynes needed him.

This was the issue Keynes shouldn’t belittle. Not everyone could learn proper spiritual cultivation and gain spiritual stages. It looked like the System had two major avenues of progress; Levels and Spirit. The former was mindless and easy while the latter required patience, talent and knowledge. Remembering how effortlessly Shaper had dealt with Wagner, Columbus, Esopp, and Keynes in the World Reserve, it was only natural to prioritise spiritual training.

Wagner’s right though, Keynes told himself. Without effective screening and training programmes, we’ll essence-starve ourselves.

Keynes searched the tablet in hope of finding a solution to the problem but no one seemed to be delegated to work on it at the moment. I need my department of knowledge as fast as possible. There are so many issues that have to be researched… eh.

Hm, once I gain Level 4, my spiritual strength should increase quite a lot because of Perfect State… oh, of course! Items with insight properties like Haruka’s Crown of Insight.

Having such an item should make the process of cultivation a little easier. Keynes checked Eteris but to his shock found no such items for sale. That was unlikely. Unfortunately, Eteris didn’t disclose the historical data for the items with such properties and because it didn’t belong to Untainted Paradise, there was nothing he could do to bypass the limitation.

He checked their system, hoping for any snippets of information, he found a high-rank access report warning that some hidden entities were buying out items with insight properties. The report was acknowledged but no comments were offered. What felt off was the report’s importance—it was set as low—despite being under high-rank access, which translated to the heads of departments.

I understand Wagner’s obsession with hard numbers and spreadsheets but this isn’t coincidence. Someone out there—with substantial capital—knows about Spirit and no one in Untainted Paradise gives a shit!

Just another thing to burden his future personal assistant with.

***

In the morning, Keynes made his way to a dome containing the first rift. Once inside—the dome—he heard an argument. A slim blonde in a black wetsuit and heavy boots was yelling at … the cluster manager. He was patiently trying to calm her down but with little effect. Three other people in similar black wetsuits stood behind the blonde while a group that had to be the VIPs stood at the other side of the road that led up to the rift. Among them was Esopp, he pretended to not see anything.

Right, he’s under a fake name as well.

The VIPs wore wetsuits as well but of grey colour. Why wetsuits?

These are not wetsuits, Alice supplied. It is a crafted outfit that together provides +10 to Vitality in case of the grey ones. The black wetsuits give +6 to all attributes.

Yeah, but why wetsuits? Why not something more stylish?

Without his tablet, Alice couldn’t search for an answer and stayed quiet.

Keynes had descended two flights of stairs then walked onto the road. With only occasional personnel moving about—all wearing the same work outfit—his presence was instantly picked up by the gathered people near the rift. He and the cluster manager, Goodman, were the only ones wearing casual clothes. Keynes had also his Cloak of Shadows draped over his shoulders but without the hood.

The cluster manager recognised Keynes from the day before but the angry blonde spoke first.

“Who are you?” she asked, her voice thick with hostility. “This area is closed to unauthorised trespassers.”

She dares… Alice said but Keynes mentally waved her away.

“Natalia…” the black-haired woman from behind muttered.

“How do you know I am unauthorised?” Keynes asked, surprised.

“Because no one is entering these rifts without being vetted and accepted by my team. I’ve never seen you here.”

So there were more rules than Keynes expected. He sighed, giving the blonde a measuring look. She was a rift essence Level 5 ascender with a bossy attitude. She didn’t have any skills or techniques. On the other hand, Keynes’s spiritual aura was tightly wrapped around him, hiding his true Level. To her, he felt like Level 1 but her inability to read him should be a warning sign to her. I wonder how Esopp’s doing it.

He has an item that changes his true status, Alice answered.

An item he wasn’t very forthcoming about…

“Mr Clark,” the cluster manager said, using Keynes’s fake name. Among the gathered, only Esopp knew Keynes’s true identity. “Can I have a word with you?” The cluster manager glanced at the VIPs who were staring at them with curiosity and a hint of annoyance.

“Okay.”

Keynes turned around and walked ten metres away. It would be enough for the VIPs who were Level 4s. Their Perception attribute was only 1 point more than Keynes’s. The black wetsuits were a different story. Being Level 5 and having additional +6 to all attributes, put their Perception at 41 points. A lot of walking to get out of their earshot.

But then, the blonde followed the cluster manager and Keynes so it wasn’t like they were going to hold a top secret conversation.

“Please, let me be blunt,” the cluster manager said, reverting back to his attitude from yesterday. “I don’t know whose ass you’re kissing to get a member of the ONLY carry team in this cluster kicked unceremoniously, without any explanation or further consideration, and it doesn’t matter. We have rules here and those rules keep people going inside these rifts alive. At no point, we’ll allow some outsiders to meddle in our affairs. Until this matter is fully clarified, you, Mr Clark, are blacklisted from the cluster.”

The blonde, Natalia, nodded satisfied while the cluster manager took out his tablet and presumably proceeded to blacklist Keynes from the cluster. Keynes’s first instinct was to punish them for treating him like this. He was a founder of the company and the person who had opened these rifts!

Then he reined in his emotions. They were right here. They did their jobs and were willing to risk their careers to uphold the rules. Still, it wasn’t easy to simply acknowledge it and walk away.

In this case, Keynes couldn’t walk away.

Soon, the cluster manager’s face showed the first signs of consternation as he—most-likely—couldn’t blacklist Keynes from the cluster. It quickly prompted a call to someone. From what Keynes remembered, Cyrano was the manager’s direct superior in the chain of command.

While the cluster manager was occupied, Keynes turned to Natalia.

“So you’re a leader of the carry team?”

Her scowl morphed into a glare. She gave Keynes a piercing look, likely trying to get a better sense of who he was.

“What Level are you?” she asked, a hint of surprise in her green eyes.

He shrugged, wondering how to play this out without revealing his true identity. Neither Wagner nor Esopp had explained why keeping his identity secret was important. Wasn’t this his company?

“Level 3.”

She frowned and he felt her spiritual aura touch him but his spiritual strength was far superior to hers. She must have felt like hitting a wall. Although…

She is close to the Weak stage, Alice said.

Keynes noted the same thing. Natalia’s aura control was really good. Did she have natural cultivation talent or was Keynes looking too much into it? He didn’t know but there was only one way to find out.

“Cease it,” he said, his voice flat and unbothered by her spiritual probing. “It isn’t tactful.”

Natalia withdrew her aura but she was now aware of Keynes’s unusual circumstances.

“Who are you?” she asked, her voice barely a whisper.

Keynes didn’t reply as the cluster manager returned with a pale, sour expression.

“The matter has been clarified, Mr Clark. You are good to enter—” He turned to Natalia and raised his hand, silencing her outburst. “—the rifts. I will move another VIP to a different date. It’s no bother. On the other hand, we need all four members of the carry team inside. You will understand why.”

I would have kicked someone else if I’d known this would stir a hornet’s nest.

“I have an idea who you can kick,” Keynes said, hiding a smirk then pointed at Esopp. “That one.”

Back at you, friend, for not warning me about this mess.