I walked up to the registration desk, hoping this wasn't yet another trap in this absurd world.
A young woman with a bright face and a professional expression greeted me.
She asked for my license.
"May I see your license? Miss." she said, her eyes staring at me like they could pierce through my soul.
I pulled out the Adventure Knight license I had and handed it over, my hand trembling—half-afraid it would suddenly be declared a fake.
She took it and started typing something into a sleek, high-tech device in front of her.
After a moment, she slid a few sheets of paper toward me.
I opened the sheets and read the list of missions—each with a title, short description, and clearly listed reward. But what immediately caught my attention was one particularly glaring column: Death Rate.
Mission titles, short descriptions, and payment. No words like "easy," "medium," "hard," or "impossible." Just cold, hard numbers—statistics of people who had tried and failed, or worse, died.
I furrowed my brow in confusion and asked,
"Why aren't there difficulty levels for missions at the Capital Adventure Guild?"
The woman gave me a thin smile, then replied in a flat tone—like a professor who's explained the same thing far too many times, yet still loaded with meaning,
"Every Adventure Guild is different, Miss Aria. Different leaders, different rules."
She continued,
"In the Astralis Empire, this system was deliberately created to stabilize the economy. We want adventurers—from fresh rookies to seasoned veterans—to have equal chances to find work, so they can afford food and feed to stay alive."
"There are other kingdoms that categorize missions by difficulty," she added,
"But some places just mix everything up. Sometimes, a mission deemed 'impossible' in one kingdom is considered 'easy' in another. It all depends on who's running the guild and what kind of policies they enforce."
I nodded slowly, thinking,
So in this world, the standards for 'easy' and 'hard' are just as ridiculous as road taxes in Matei.
Absurdity really is universal.
Only the packaging changes.