Maids VS Apocalypse

"How is it an F grade?"

The lowest grade Mark had seen so far was E while the highest was SSS. That gave him the impression that the grading system was limited between those two, but to his surprise, there was an even lower grade than that.

"Obviously because it’s worthless," Franco answered while observing a bracelet he had picked. "This is a Lower Realm, after all. Even the most precious of metals here is worth nothing in the Overworld."

"Nothing?" Mark asked.

"Yup," Franco tossed him the item and sighed. "Nothing."

Mark wasn’t an expert on jewelry or precious metals, but he was sure that the bracelet in his hand would’ve cost him a few grand if he had bought it before the end of the world.

He didn’t care a lot about the monetary value of the item itself, however. What concerned him more was the fact that it was worth even less than the carcass of a Stone Rhino.

’... Huh?’ Mark’s stomach dropped and a chill ran down his spine. ’The Stone... Rhino?’

A strong sense of familiarity shook him as he stared at the System screen, and its source wasn’t that difficult to discern. This wasn’t his first time attempting to sell an item in exchange for Gold, and the puzzlement he experienced was almost identical.

"It’s essentially the same story repeating itself."

Ramsay’s drunk ravings played back in his mind and Mark understood why he felt so disturbed.

’... Nah...’

There was some logic to what his stalker of a superior had said, but yesterday’s events were enough to disprove it.

The loop Ramsay spoke of started with Lara unintentionally causing him to pass out, followed by some peaceful event that led to an encounter with relatively harmless monsters then encountering a more powerful enemy. He would then pass out while attempting to fight it and would be saved by a powerful ally.

The first loop started with Lara’s summoning, though that might not have been the cause behind his passing out. The second loop started when Lara almost sucked him dry.

The third one should’ve started when Lara kicked him into the ceiling, but seeing that he hadn’t passed out, and looking at the events that followed, Mark saw nothing that could be linked to the other events of the loop.

’Either it hadn’t started yet, or there is no loop at all...’

His eyes drifted toward the maid and their eyes locked for a fleeting moment. The one who looked away was Mark, the action driven by the thought that he might need to be careful around the maid.

It should’ve been a matter of course, but something about it didn’t sit well with Mark.

’Maybe the author just sucks...’

Mark had reasons to be careful with how he behaved around Lara, chief among them being his desire to raise her opinion of him. He didn’t want his fear of repeating some abstract sequence of events to be another one.

"Hey! What are you spacing out for!?"

A tremor ran across Mark’s body and he jumped away, reflexively reaching down for his left leg. Elya had approached him without his notice, and going by the way she held her leg out, he realized that she had just kicked him.

"What the hell is wrong with you!!?" He yelled, feeling the pain get worse.

"Chill, I just gave you a light tap."

"You almost blew my leg off!" 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

"Are you that fragile?"

"So what?" Mark fixed her with a glare.

He was barely an average human while she had maxed out her stats after leveling up twenty-five times. There is no comparison between the two of them.

"Okay, I’m sorry." There was no sincerity in that apology. "We want to check other stores so get your ass moving."

"You could’ve just said that!"

Mark almost added that he wasn’t her dense boyfriend when he saw their blonde squadmate stop near the entrance to the store.

"How dare you go shopping without me!"

"You’re back already?" Franco’s question echoed everyone’s surprise.

"Yeah, I just grabbed a bus that was parked nearby." Alex brushed his glistening forehead with the back of his right hand. "Anyway, what are you doing here? You know this stuff is worthless, right?"

"Newbie over here thought he could make a killing." Elya shook her head, the corners of her lips curled.

"Well, a newbie wouldn’t be a newbie if he didn’t make newbie mistakes." Alex pulled his head back and laughed at his own joke. Elya and Franco didn’t laugh outright, though the matter was amusing enough for them to smile.

"It would be great if one of you did me the favor of explaining how the value system works."

"I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but..." Franco let weary breath slip as he shook his head, the motion slow and resigned. "It’s unlikely that you would find anything worth much in this world."

"And why is that?"

"Didn’t he tell you already?" Elya tutted. "It’s because this is a Lower Realm! Were you even listening?"

"Right..."

Worlds were separated into Lower and Higher Realms based on whether they underwent the Awakening process or not, that’s how Natalie had explained it to him.

Funnily enough, even Fallen Worlds are considered Higher Realms, with the Underworld being ranked above the Overworld in the Realm Hierarchy. A lot more went into deciding those matters and learning them required attending the relevant lectures in the Peace Keeper academy.

"Guess we really are at the bottom..."

Mark’s only concern was whether he could sell some of the items he looted to increase his Gold reserves. That would’ve spared him the hassle of having to convert his MP all the time. He expected that items of a higher grade could be sold for much more, but would defeat the point.

"The monster carcasses you gathered earlier aren’t worth much either. Probably."

Mark winced at Franco’s remark. He had gathered some of the dead Exo-apes intending to try selling them as well, but it seemed there would be a long time before he could farm things that could be sold for a decent sum.