Worth and the Primordial Tower Trade Market

Primordial Tower Trade Market, a privilege unknown and unreachable for many.

It wasn't an organization. Nor had it a definite location, for a Contestant could access this market from anywhere in the Multiverse. No matter whether a Contestant had Mission Credits or not; no matter whether a Contestant was from the 1st floor or 21st, it was available to all.

There was just one condition, and this very condition disqualified over 80% of the Tower's population from accessing the Market.

That condition was — One's Worth must be over 5.

Yes, 5. Quite a small number when one compared it to the average 10 points of an adult Stats, and the further growth by completing the missions.

5 was so small that one could even call it insignificant.

However, would someone dare to call a Worth of 5 insignificant?

From the 1st floor to the 21st, all knew that Worth was the most complex among all the Active and Passive Attributes.

After countless millennia of research and experiments, Order and Chaos' ancient Contestants had concluded that the less the Worth, the lesser would be its growth. In the same light, the more the Worth, the higher would be the rewards related to the Worth and its actual value rewarded.

It was even widely known that those who enjoyed high Worth from the beginning, even their Titles and Milestones diverged from the known rewards, adding Worth as a reward as well.

Even then, some believed that 5 was truly a negligible value.

These people then were reminded that one could get an Ability if one had resurrected with over 20 Worth as the base Stat in the Primordial Tower.

And Abilities made Kings.

There was a myth that Glitched Candidates could gain Worth Points in hundreds as they ascended the floors. None had given substance to this myth, however.

The Primordial Tower Trade Market portrayed the disparity between Candidates having over 5 Worth and less than 5 openly for all.

Here, Contestants could trade just about anything. Information, Items, Mission Credits, and almost everything could be uploaded via Systems for all the Contestants of the Primordial Tower to vie for them.

Unlike the auctions, one need not worry about not getting the worth of their Uploads, either. The Systems turned the worth of everything into an equivalent amount of Mission Credits, letting all parties know how much and what they must invest to obtain that particular Upload.

The only drawback of this Trade Market was that before getting one's hands over the traded Upload, there was no way to observe or analyze it.

Still, those who could access the Market preferred it almost 9 out of 10 times over auctions. The reason? The two Systems.

Order and Chaos didn't play the game of partiality. Nor were they known to be subjected to greed or any emotion. They were the only ones whom the Contestants could trust blindly, perhaps. At least when it came to the Trade of insignificant things.

In the Systems' eyes, what wasn't insignificant?

For Kai to not use this privilege till now had some substantial reasons.

The very first reason was also the most essential.

Primordial Tower Trade Market didn't show the traders' Code Names. However, it did label them with a number. This number was nothing but a Contestant's Worth. Even if Kai knew that none would get to know his Code Name, the sheer chaos his Worth's appearance would cause was nothing to be ignored.

Over a 100 Worth!

How could Kai take such a risk, letting the entire Tower know that such a Contestant was present among them?

No. He'd rather not use the Trade Market by himself.

The second reason was that he had no companions for them to act as a trader in his place. Not until Item-M's appearance. Yet, there was a gigantic problem with her, too.

Item-M was a fallen Contestant, and that meant only one thing. Her Worth was 1. It was a miracle she had survived after failing her mission.

Only later did Item-M tell Kai that failing missions didn't mean death instantly. The Systems deducted Worth Points from the Contestants' Stats in such cases. If such deductions made the Worth fall under 1, becoming 0 or negative, then it meant true death.

Absolute Eradication!

Item-M had been a 13th-floor Contestant when she had failed her mission, and that was the exact reason for her losing all her Worth. If Hastur hadn't accepted her Sacrifice at that moment, then she would have truly died.

There was no way she could have raised her Worth from 1 to 5 so soon if it wasn't for her participation in the Tournament of Worth.

Though Item-M had to give up in the 2nd Stage, she had already gotten an 18th-floor Sponsor, getting quite a few Worth points.

Nevertheless, even she could have never dreamed of the command issued by her master. This command made her realize that Blood Demon was indeed a decisive person, to the extent of being called ruthless.

Today, the Primordial Tower Trade Market was in a tremendous uproar.

A trader had just uploaded a Devil Fruit in the Market.

A Devil Fruit!

"Damn!"

"Don't know the meaning of heaven and earth… shame!"

"How extravagant?!"

"Is it a senior?"

"WHAT?! 5!!! This…"

When the traders saw that a Contestant with 5 Worth had uploaded the Devil Fruit, they instantly made some reasonable guesses.

"Someone just got lucky, and now they can't hold on to it…"

"Sigh! This is good too… Why beckon disaster on oneself, if you can just trade it for Mission Credits?"

None were worried about Devil Fruit's grade, as these weren't Items in the first place.

Devil Fruits, independent of the fact from which Grade of the Mission Difficulty they had been unearthed, were Artifacts one could take out from the One Piece Random World.

Not to mention, these came under the category of Consumable products. So there wasn't any issue of these Artifacts not actually belonging to the eventual buyer, either.

"Which Devil Fruit is it?"

"Telepathy-Telepathy Fruit? Never heard of it…"

"It's a Paramecia-type Devil Fruit. So what if you've never heard of it? Heh! Like you could get your hands on it. Haha!"

"You!!!"

"Go… Hurry… We must get that Devil Fruit. Our Organization's top talent is Comprehending Legilimency using Telepathy. Empty the vaults!"

To a few people's dismay, and almost all traders' misfortune, the Devil Fruit's Uploader wasn't looking for just Mission Credits.

The Systems had valued the Telepathy-Telepathy Devil Fruit at 100 Million Mission Credits. Even so, the trader had put specific conditions for one to trade this Artifact.

"Philosopher's Stone?!"

"Why not just ask for our lives?!"

"Friend, please lower your conditions. I think you do not know what you are asking for, do you?"

"Newbie! Do you not know the difficulty of getting the Philosopher's Stone, no matter the Random World? So what if you have a Devil Fruit? Go fuck yourself!"

"Benefactor, we are willing to trade this Devil Fruit at twice the value."

The trader with 5 Worth rejected all. There was only one demand — Philosopher's Stone!

"Junior who doesn't know life from death! Let your Devil Fruit rot then. Don't let me hear that someone has gained Telepathy-Telepathy Powers recently. Or this old man will directly pay a visit to that Contestant. Humph!"

The trader with 5 Worth ignored everything.

After thousands of threats and even more pleadings, a trader with 30 Worth came forward, shocking the very breath out of everyone.

"This?! 30!!! I am not hallucinating, right?"

The trader with 30 Worth said nothing, instantly uploading 3 nail-sized crystals of Philosopher's Stone.

Eyes popped out of sockets, as the Contestants saw the Systems valuing each crystal at 33 Million Mission Credits.

The 30 Worth trader added 1 Million Mission Credits on the spot.

And the trade ended, leaving behind a deep impression on people's hearts.

**************

AN: Next 13 chapters can be considered one long Chapter, with an average word count of over 2k words/chapter. If you don't get an answer to your doubt instantly, then wait.

On Patre0n, you can already access at least 22k words worth of content ahead of Webnovel (including all the 13 mentioned chapters). If you want to support the work and the author, then do consider becoming a Patron. It will be a great motivation for me.

The matter with these philosopher's stones, and why they were needed, will be dealt after these chapters as well.

Thank you and Enjoy!!!