"So, Rose," Daz said while he pushed Rose's wheelchair down the street, trying his best to avoid any debris or things blocking their path. Crusher was walking alongside them with a bored look on her face. "What's your weapon?"

"My laptop," was Rose's short reply.

"Your... laptop?" Daz was stupefied. Could a laptop be classified as a weapon? He had encountered a few strange weapons thus far, like Fiona's art pencil or Dorian's umbrella, but a piece of machinery? To sate his curiosity, he immediately used Higher Identification on his sister.

Rose Hamilio's Status Basic Information Name: Rose Hamilio Species: Human Age: 10 Sex: Female Class: Wielder Of Information Affinity: Lawful Neutral Description A prodigy once destined to take over the Hamilio's family business in the stead of her elder brother if he never stopped his rebellious ways. While extremely talented in most things, she was unable to inherit the Hamilio family trait, leading to the inability to use her legs. Energies Lifeforce: 1,000/1,000 Stamina: 1,000/1,000 Stats Wisdom: 10(12) Intellect: 10(12) Processing: 10(12)

'Family trait? What family trait? The doctors certainly did say that they had no idea why Rose's legs didn't work, but a family trait? So is what Cecil said right? Earth has espers on it, and our family is one such group of espers? It would explain a lot...' Daz's mind was spinning and he was excited at this prospect.

His mind soon returned to Rose's status screen. He noticed that her stats hadn't improved at all from the starter ones she got from her class, leading him to believe that she was either hoarding her points or didn't know how to use them. 'She's definitely hoarding them. What for, I wonder? Speaking of this, how did she kill her monsters? The Defense mechanisms? I didn't see any bodies, so maybe it has an auto cleaning function? I never really cared enough to check it out in the past.'

There was one particular thing that drew his interest though, more so than these other points. "Rose, have you checked if the system can restore your legs yet?"

"Naturally," Rose replied while she busily tapped away at the laptop's keyboard which sat on her knees.

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"And? I'm assuming it's possible, so what's required?" Daz asked a bit impatiently. Clearly, his sister's well-being mattered a lot to him.

Rose's beautiful face crumpled into a frown. "Apparently, platinum shop access is required to even look at whatever can heal my legs. And no matter what wording I use to ask, the system won't tell me how to get such a level of access, so I've given up on that."

"I... see," Daz replied 'Platinum access? Going by the way things have progressed thus far, would that unlock at rank one-hundred or higher on the merit ranking list?'

"That reminds me, Daz, what is your weapon?" Rose asked after closing her laptop's screen, clearly quite curious about what weapon Daz had been holding at the beginning of the apocalypse.

"Hahaha, the Lord here, his weapon is a shovel! But despite that, he's crazy strong. weird, huh?" Crusher boomed from the side, completely cutting Daz off from answering for himself.

"'The Lord'?" Curiosity riddled Rose's face at this terminology for her elder brother.

"Ah, you wouldn't know I guess. There's a part of the system that gives you strength from owning or being a Citizen of a base. I'm the Lord of one such base," Daz briefly explained.

Warning! The host's base is being approached by a group of hostile Humans. Would you like to buy the automated base Defense system and make it target these Humans? I would suggest you do so. They have the means to overrun your base without your presence! Please purchase the automated Defense system for your base! The price has been reduced by 70% for this particular occasion!

"... What the fuck?" This notification had quite clearly bewildered Daz. It seemed too personalised to have been created by the usual system, but regardless, he had to deal with the mentioned issue.

Meanwhile, in another plane of existence, a scrawny man in a long, grey overcoat was nervously looking at, what seemed to be a Cyborg of some sort. This Cyborg had his eyes fully open and they were shining like luminescent headlights. A few moments passed before they finally dimmed down to a slight glow.

"Well?! How did it go?!" the man in the overcoat asked with impatience clear in his tone.

"Haste. Unneeded. Higher. Gods. Busy. With. Their. Games. Unnoticed. I. Went. Mission. Successful. Payment. Now. Pala. My. Champion. Also. Concerned. So. Half. Price. For. You," the robotic voice of the Cyborg stated with no emotion in its voice.

"Oh, thank the shovel... if anything had happened, we'd have been ruined. Thank you again, Informazione. We can't afford any mistakes," the God of Shovels said with a both thankful, and serious expression on his face.

"Worry. Too. Much. Champion. Capable. Maybe. Even. More. So. Than. That. Of. The. Higher. Gods'. Champions." Informazione replied word by word. He understood Pala's worries, but he had seen the God of Shovels' champion and he was honestly impressed by how capable the young man was. His cold and calculated side struck a chord with the God of Information, which was the only reason he had agreed to send a distress message to Daz via the system despite the risks involved.

Doing something like that brought a great deal of danger to all of the Minor Gods involved in Pala's plans. Even after barely surviving punishment from the Higher Gods, the God of Shovels still had his hopes of freedom burning brightly within him, and Informazione couldn't help but admire that.

"Bah, there's no such thing as worrying too much. Anyway, here's your payment," Pala said with a click of his tongue before throwing a small sack of what looked like pure white jewels over to the God of Information.

The Cyborg's eyes flashed a deep blue colour when he looked at this bag of gems. "This. Full. Amount. Half. Is. What. I. said. Since. Our. Champions. Are. Connected."

"Bah, I don't need the pity of a Robot," Pala declared before he turned and walked towards the exit of the small pawnshop the two were in. "Besides, I know you've been struggling to make ends meet, so take 'em. You need 'em more than I do."

With that said, Pala walked out of the store. A deep looked entered the Cyborg's eyes. "You. Are. In. No. Better. Situation. Than. I. Old. Friend," Informazione mumbled.

Pala was treading on thin ice. He knew it, Informazione knew it and all of the other Minor Gods working together with them knew it.

Pala could only hope that Daz would continue to grow stronger and stronger and stronger until he reached a point where he could rival the Higher Gods' Champions. It was only by doing this, that Pala could start his grand revolution.

The Higher Gods had gone too far in the past few eras with their treatment of the Minor Gods, and Pala, the God of Shovels, would breathe his last breath before he gave up his hopes for the future of all the Minor Gods.