[Reading Leigh’s reply, you smirked.]
[You knew that Leigh had undoubtedly accepted his predicament and would have no choice but to hand over his SSS-rank Wish Maker innate talent to you.]
[Although he admitted that his innate talent was quite powerful, it still faced the problem of taking way too long to have a chance to make a wish.]
[Because of that, Leigh could only accept and cope that becoming an Initial Crystal rank Train Conductor would be enough to not only walk rampantly in most station worlds, but would also be worthy enough to sacrifice his innate talent in exchange for that.]
[Anyway, he already believed that since he had only used his innate talent once since he awakened it, the Initial Crystal power rank might prove to be more useful to him as he’d be able to use it for as long as he and his sister encountered weaker station worlds.]
[Knowing Leigh’s mindset, you didn’t agree to his counteroffer and used Hint Prompt (Gold) just to make sure.]
{Hint Prompt: Leigh has already accepted your offer, but he is just making a counteroffer since he wanted to try his luck. He knew that, regardless, you wouldn’t pull out of the deal since you coveted his innate talent. Since he had nothing to lose from attempting this counteroffer, he dared to try it.}
[’This guy is a piece of work. If not for wanting Loan Shark’s Ledger to screw him over with enough high interest, I would have wanted to cut down the things I’d trade with him.’]
[Although you had such thoughts, you didn’t really do it since the more Leigh courted death this way, the more you could add to the collateral and the faster his innate talent would be extracted.]
{Zenith Zone Zane: Dreaming! If you kept pushing your luck, don’t think I can’t lower my offer to only offering you enough resources to become a Platinum rank Train Conductor.}
{Zenith Zone Zane: However, I can accept this offer if your sister’s S-rank Psychic innate talent was added to this trade. Although her S-rank innate talent isn’t as good as yours and isn’t worth the price, I’m willing to trade these much as a sign of goodwill.}
[You didn’t care if Leigh or his sister were to accept your trade. Either way, you’ll profit.]
[The S-rank Psychic innate talent might not be high-ranking enough, but it’s still a decent innate talent.]
[Moreover, with Unlimited Food Creation (Gold) talent, you could literally create Crystal Gem Fruits without any cost. You’re literally creating them for free!]
[Exchanging a free item for something of value, you will always profit!]
{Wish Upon A Star: Well, it was worth a try. Also, you indeed knew about my sister. I thought you were bluffing. If not for the fact that I am a loner in the real world before the Train Conductor Era, I would have doubted whether you knew me in real life.}
{Wish Upon A Star: I’ll talk to my sister first if she’s willing to accept the offer.}
[While the two of you were chatting, you had already sent the item description for the Crystal Gem Fruit, so Leigh knew that aside from improving overall stats, the Crystal Gem Fruit could also grant Crystal Manipulation and Generation, as well as Gem Manipulation and Generation.]
[In some ways, such innate abilities, and them being two rather than one, were enough to deal with the lack of innate talent.]
[Although in terms of versatility, they would lose to his sister’s S-rank Psychic innate talent. But in terms of combat usage, they were much more superior.]
[At least, the innate abilities granted by the Crystal Gem Fruit were worthy to be compared to S-rank innate talents. It’s also due to this reason that Leigh was no longer whining about being oppressed and losing his innate talent.]
[While you were waiting for Leigh’s response for a minute, he soon responded.]
{Wish Upon A Star: Deal! My sister agreed.}
{Wish Upon A Star: How do we proceed with this offer of yours?}
[Faced with Leigh’s agreement, you immediately replied.]
{Zenith Zone Zane: I’ll clarify from hereon out that anything I give to you will not be a gift but considered a loan. If you accept what I will give you, I’ll consider it as you agreeing to take the loan.}
[Receiving your reply, Leigh pondered for a while before he understood the implications of your message.]
{Wish Upon A Star: I see, so your method requires me to take a loan from you. If I fail to pay the loan on time and accumulate interest, I presume anything valuable I have will be taken as collateral?}
[You didn’t reply to Leigh’s message and merely used your Train Conductor Authority to send him enough Initial Crystal-grade Crystal Gem Fruits in the form of free trade.]
[It’s free in a way that Leigh could directly accept it without having to put up anything for trade.]
[However, it wasn’t a problem for you since the method of transferring the items didn’t matter and wouldn’t affect the loan.]
[As long as you didn’t gift the items but stated beforehand that it’s you lending those items to him, then it would still be considered a loan as soon as he took the items.]
[Knowing that you remained silent, Leigh merely accepted it, as he knew that he didn’t have any other choice. Moreover, it’s not like he was in a losing deal.]
[At least, for the following several months, he and his sister will be the second strongest Train Conductor Duo among the Terrain Train Conductors.]
[Although it wasn’t certain at what time Initial Crystal rank Train Conductors would no longer be uncommon, it would at least still be considered a powerhouse five years from now.]
[At least, the veteran Train Conductors you’ve encountered were mostly Platinum rank Train Conductors. All things they had in common were that even years from now, Crystal rank Train Conductors were still big shots.]
[Perhaps, the most senior Train Conductors, those from the earliest batches, would consider Aether rank Train Conductors as the true powerhouse.]
[However, with your current power rank before, it wasn’t your time to encounter those senior Train Conductors. Even Jade and the others had avoided choosing stations that were multiplayer-type while you and Old MacDonald were busy growing the Crystal Gem Tree.]
[However, now that you were all Late Mythril rank powerhouses, you felt that it should be fine to encounter those senior Train Conductors since you already had the qualifications to confront them.]
[It should be known that while you and your train crewmates progressed power ranks at a tremendous speed, it was mostly due to your Unlimited Food Creation (Gold) talent.]
[As the power rank of Train Conductors increased, the stat attributes to increase ranks became bigger and bigger. Yet, most stat boosting items, especially those that improved overall stat attributes, didn’t improve stats in great quantity but only in minor quantity.]
[Due to that, most Train Conductors would face the problem of having to gather stat boosting items that were biased to a specific stat attribute. Even then, the quantity they acquire must be large enough, and there’s also the fact that the core members of the Train Crew must have enough of those resources.]
[In short, it would take a decade or so for a Crystal rank Train Conductor to even have hopes of reaching Mythril rank.]
[Not to mention, the higher the rank, the rarer those stat-boosting items would become and the more they are guarded by powerhouses in those station worlds.]
[After all, the usage of stat-boosting items wasn’t exclusive to Train Conductors and Train Crewmates, but it was also usable to the native powerhouses in a station world. Just that, the lack of Train Conductor Authority meant that they couldn’t absorb those stat-boosting resources rapidly.]
[’Aside from time, it would also take a lot of luck for Train Conductors to not encounter those certain death danger rating stations.’]
[’Because of that, there aren’t that many powerhouses at Titan rank or even Mythril rank, as not all of them could guarantee they wouldn’t encounter a certain death danger rating station.’]
[’Despite that, most of them would still grit their teeth and keep the grind until they’ll eventually become an Aether rank Train Conductor, where they’d finally achieve freedom from mandatory train stops.’]
[’Fortunately, I don’t have to try as hard as they do in gathering those stat-boosting items since just one copy of it is enough for me.’]
[While you had that thought in mind, you soon received feedback from the Loan Shark’s Ledger that Leigh and his sister had officially taken the loan.]
[Unlike in the previous Loan Shark’s Ledger, you have the right to choose the collateral without prior agreement, to which you chose the SSS-rank Wish Maker and S-rank Psychic innate talents.]
[’Now all that’s left is to wait for several hours, and Leigh and his sister would be deemed unable to pay the debt.’]
[’By that time, their innate talents will be mine for the taking!’]