I Formed a Party with a Girl via an Adventurer Matching App - Chapter 31

 The Deduction Payout System

"The Deduction Payout System? Ah, well. I mean, I’m aware of it, but..."

The Deduction Payout System. It was exactly what it sounded like—a financial mechanism that allowed an adventurer to leverage pending "bounties" or quest-clear rewards guaranteed by the Guild to settle current transactions in advance. It was accepted at high-end, officially registered establishments within the city that maintained brick-and-mortar storefronts. Even if you were completely out of liquid cash at the exact moment of purchase, the system automatically deducted the accrued tab from your next Guild payout, routing the funds directly to the merchant's account.

To put it in simpler terms: it was essentially a state-sanctioned line of credit.

Because merchants required a substantial degree of institutional trust to ensure they wouldn't be left holding an empty bag, the Guild didn't just hand this privilege out to every random mercenary off the street. Consequently, as a mere freelance stray adventurer, I had absolutely no reason to have ever touched such a sophisticated system...

"N-No way……?!"

A sudden, horrifying realization struck me, and I whipped around. Standing right there with a thoroughly tranquil, unbothered expression was Cordelia, casually twirling the tips of her blonde hair as if the entire conversation had absolutely nothing to do with her.

Come to think of it, Cordelia had been living an exceptionally luxurious lifestyle for a greenhorn adventurer. She occupied a high-end apartment in an incredibly premium location, and her daily necessities and combat gear were all top-tier, luxury-grade items. On top of that, she had newspapers and specialized courier deliveries arriving at her doorstep practically every single morning, throwing money around left, right, and center without a single shred of hesitation.

If every single one of those transactions had been charged directly to the "Deduction Payout System"……?

"Y-You absolute brat! I knew you had a ridiculous spending habit, but to think this was how you were pulling it off!"

"My, my. What a thoroughly aggressive way to phrase it. If I recall correctly, you completely replaced your entire combat kit from head to toe recently, didn't you? I believe that transaction was settled via the deduction system as well, was it not?"

"Even if it was, that only cost around 3.5 million Norgle! Looking at the sheer magnitude of this deficit, the staggering majority of it is clearly your personal expenditure!"

"How incredibly rude. You are actively occupying that apartment with me now, and above all else, we are currently a bound party who share a singular destiny. Given those facts, what logical right do you have to single me out for criticism just because I chose to facilitate our standard of living?"

"I have every single right in the world, you lunatic?!"

"Furthermore, the funds utilized via the deduction system were not allocated exclusively to standard living expenses."

"What?"

Setting aside the highly debatable question of whether Cordelia’s various luxury purchases could realistically be categorized as "standard living expenses" in the first place—

"I routinely distribute financial endowments to local orphanages and churches as part of my philanthropic endeavors."

"Why would you do that! Ugh, that makes it so damn hard to criticize you! Giving to charity is fundamentally a noble thing to do, after all!"

"Magnificent, my lady. Truly a display worthy of your lineage."

"And you—don't just blindly shower her with praise, you enabling maid?!"

"Well. I suppose one could characterize it as a classic case of noblesse oblige. The inherent obligation of those who possess wealth, you see."

"We don't possess it! We literally borrowed it against a future payout! That is the kind of thing you are supposed to do after you have secured a comfortable financial surplus for yourself, isn't it?!"

Utterly defeated by her bulletproof lack of awareness, I frantically clawed at my own hair in sheer frustration before barking back at her.

"I respect the noble sentiment itself! But when you don't even have the actual liquid capital to back it up, why on earth are you throwing money around so casually?!"

"But we did have the capital waiting for us. After all, we successfully subjugated the Violet Dragon and conquered the Death Golem Dungeon."

"And because of your little shopping spree, the actual fortune we were supposed to pocket as a reward has been completely obliterated, which is a massive problem!"

"In what universe is that a problem?"

"In what universe? I mean—"

Before I could unleash a torrent of common-sense logic, Cordelia dismissively waved her right hand, cutting me off with an air of absolute boredom.

"There is not a single problem whatsoever."

"……How do you figure that?"

My righteous indignation completely deflated by her sheer lack of compliance, I stared blankly at her elegant lips.

Cordelia was always entirely too confident for her own good, and right now, her mouth was curled into a perfect, smug little crescent.

"If the deduction system diminished our previous payout, the solution is remarkably simple: we merely need to acquire a new one."

As Cordelia delivered her declaration, she slid her hand forward. Securely pinched between her index and middle fingers was an official quest prospectus she had evidently swiped from the boards. Her brilliant crimson nail polish gleamed mockingly in my eyes as she looked up at me with an intensely provocative stare.

"If our current liquid funds are insufficient, we simply need to continuously slaughter increasingly powerful bosses. To that end, I have graciously secured the official documentation for the absolute highest-paying bounty currently active on the market."

I stood there, my jaw practically dropping all the way to the floorboards.

Printed in bold, authoritative lettering across the top of the parchment she was flaunting was a singular directive:

……“Quest: Subjugate the Slime Queen.”

The Slime Queen was a legendary entity of absolute terror—a monster so infamous that even a freelance stray like myself knew the name by heart.

"Are you completely out of your mind? The Slime Queen is an official member of the Demon King's Elite Four."

Exactly.

The Demon King's Army—the ultimate faction of absolute darkness that ruled over every single monster roaming the face of the earth. And the supreme dictator who sat at the absolute apex of that hierarchy had personally designated four elite commanders to serve as his direct generals.

Those were the Elite Four.

And the Slime Queen held the proud rank of third seat among them.

Under normal circumstances, she established her permanent base of operations deep within a localized monolith known as the Tower of the Slime Queen, commanding an infinite armada of gelatinous slimes.

While the Slime Queen herself possessed a terrifying level of personal combat power, the diverse evolutionary strains of slimes guarding her fortress were equally nightmarish adversaries. There were slimes that vomited concentrated torrents of fire, slimes that sprayed lethal coats of neurotoxin, slimes capable of hardening their outer membranes to the density of forged steel, and colossal, cataclysmic anomalies that boasted a physical mass of several thousand tons.

To wage war against a menagerie of that caliber was a tactical nightmare that a single adventuring party couldn't realistically hope to survive. Consequently, despite the fact that the Guild had long since verified the exact coordinates of the Slime Queen’s stronghold, not a single soul had ever dared mount an official raid against it. It was widely regarded as the ultimate, unconquerable death zone.

And that was exactly why I had no choice but to lay down a harsh reality check for a young lady who clearly didn't understand how the real world operated.

"An entity of that caliber isn't something you can just casually stroll out and slaughter on a whim, just because you happen to be running a little low on spending money!"

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