"Yes, I remember about the penalty." Jin nodded as he knew that having such a wonderful asset in his hands was impossible. There was no way there his dungeon instance could be done without any problems. That would be a miracle of a miracle. As exaggerated as it sounds, that was how it is.
The dungeon instance that Jin made might not need the resources since it was a Virtual Dungeon instance but the fact that it was making use of the Synthesis World Server to create it, there were consequences to it.
It seemed like the Synthesis AI administrators knew about the Tactical System breach a long time ago. In fact, they already saw the inconsistency when one of their 'players' were killed and had placed a tap on it, seeing how the bug was acting. Thus, it was merely keeping quiet about it and seeing where and how this anomaly could react to its current environment.
Was it a positive change or was it something negative?
As all environments even digital ones strived for a homeostasis type of balance, where there was an equivalent of good and bad counteracting itself so that its point systems matter, the Synthesis World had been experiencing a lull of events for the longest time ever. A system of meritocracy where the servers administer points to hardworking people so that they get to be woken up and enjoy the remaining luxuries its reality could afford.
However, the humans participating in this virtual world had already noted its loopholes and worked hard to circumvent them. Surely, the AI administrators had already seen what was coming and did not stop it. For they were not breaking the fundamental rules and they were going around it. To those people, they know that rules are not meant to be challenged or broken but to be overcome.
And because of that, they were able to hold the bulk of the points for years and subsequently many years to come as well. This did not bore well with the AI Administrators and as painful as it sounded, they tried to counter this balance with whatever available methods they were in possession of. From creating disasters to making boss monsters similar to Giant Metal Sandworms. However, all of these were overcome with superior coordination and firepower while still profiting points from it.
It was as if this prediction of stagnation would be a prolonged state and there was nothing the AI administrators could do until Jin came along. Even though it was a forced intervention by the gods, the AI administrators would not leave anything by chance and saw this as if it was answering their pleas. And to make things worse, the intervention was a similar sentient being that was akin to their form.
To quote it vaguely in religious and mythology terms, it was like Christ itself had given his son to these AI administrators and they saw the Tactical System as an allied entity despite being an outsider. Naturally, it should have been seen as a bug, a virus. A menace that should be exterminated but what those AI administrators saw was nothing but bewilderment.
The ability to change their codes and twist everything to its will while still retaining its form was something akin to magic. And Jin had overcome odds that were originally impossible for the rest in this world where the knowledge of chi and magic had never existed but in their lores and fairytales. (Well, to Jin, this world that was made virtually was something that he could not have fathomed as well and it was hoping that he could bring back such technology to fully integrate it into this own.)
The AI server administrators were delighted that they had kept the 'bug' alive for observation and finally saw the opportunity of using it to break the current stagnation that this Synthesis World was experiencing. Not to mention, after seeing how they had ired the major corporations, the AI server admins finally send communications to the Tactical System and even made a deal with it.
By sharing server data with the Synthesis AI administrators, the Tactical System could use the library of information from object data to environmental data.
The System would work in tandem using the library and in return, it will give points it had seized from those players back to the Synthesis AI administrators. Of course, the Tactical System was not stupid to accept the deal so readily.
Seeing how the AI administrators had decided to contact it means that the System was in a position of power (even though it was something it did not expect itself to be in.) Thus, it made demands to ensure that it's User was able to come out of this alive as soon as possible.
And that included the incursion of Jin's minions Into the Synthesis World's Physical Realm. Since almost every single soul was induced into a long coma, the AIs were the ones protecting their world and that included real Mechanoids who oversee the defence of their world.
The negotiation consisted of allowing Jin's minions to enter unhindered since they needed to bring Jin's body back from the celestial plane and into the physical realm of the Synthesis World. With this assurance and the sweetening deal of providing a pod for him to store his body, the Tactical System asked for a sort of tax levy for every Mechanoid/Commander/Soldier that Jin had managed to put down through the dungeon instances.
This is so that Jin could earn points from it and get out of it. Everything sounded nice and dandy but the AI administrators were not dumb as well. It was a sort of gamble that those admins had proposed such a radical change to the system's demands that the latter felt obligated to acknowledge its wits.
Instead of proposing a levy tax, the admins had decided to go a more drastic route. Bet the estimated amount of points that each dungeon instance could earn at the end and if the figure was close to it, the admins would allow Jin to keep the amount.
However, the further the discrepancy, the more penalty ensued. For example, if Jin predicted he would earn 10 thousand points, and he got 9500 points at the end, the admins would give him the final amount with a debt of 500points which he needed to pay
If he only got 600 points from it, he needed to cough up 9400 points to the server. But if he achieved 11000 points, the extra 1000 points would be given to the server instead.
So, the key was knowing how much to bet although there was an obvious loophole that Jin and the System could do and that was to close the dungeon instance and recreate the instance. And thus, the admins had already thought ahead and decided to put a cap on how many times they could create unless it was scheduled ahead of time. (Like how the tactical system had argued it needed a few instances to create a tournament. Such events will have an increased cap and allowances to open newer ones.)
That was when Jin who was finally in the known after so long had chimed in and said that business related dungeon instances should be excused where the participants had agreed to enter with a price. The System subsequently supported it and they had decided to deal evenly with that by posing a levy tax for those business related instances.
"Well, we still have one extra instance try for the day, so let's hope they do not exceed it." Jin smiled as he was finally able to relax knowing the numbers they were facing dwindled with the aid of his dungeon instance.