While the crystal ant picked up the shield breaker and approached the crystal shield, Money Body was wondering if it was the right thing to do to use the Money Enhancement Metac to increase the power of the crystal ant.
He had been certain of himself when he had the idea and when he was doing it. But Ant Hill’s words were making him have second thoughts.
Her words made him reconsider his choice because what she said was reasonable. After all, what the crystal ant needed was stealth. His great power could be detrimental to that.
He said to himself, ’Should I call the ant back now when I can?`
He couldn’t make a decision about that until the crystal ant was gone. With the crystal bug gone, there was nothing he could do anymore. They could only wait for the good news.
A minute went by like this without a result. Then five minutes went by.
Even though Money Bag had said that they could wait a thousand years for a favorable result, both Ant Hill and Money Body became anxious just after 5 minutes of waiting.
In the previous timeline, they had been able to wait ten minutes before they became anxious. But this time, they could only bear half of the usual time before they became anxious. This was because there was more to lose this time around.
If they hadn’t made a bet and signed a contract to enforce the outcome of the bet, the worst that would happen would be that the world would become aware of them, and they would have to force their way through.
In that case, Money Body would have to breach the crystal shield with brute force. This would be dangerous, and it would cost him a lot of lifespan, but Money Body was confident in breaking through the crystal shield.
Since he would be rewarded with mission contribution for breaching the crystal shield, the lifespan that he would have to spend and the danger he would have to take on during the process wouldn’t be so bad.
But now that he had signed a contract and was at the risk of being bossed around by Loki, Money Body couldn’t look forward to the mission contribution that he would earn for breaching the crystal shield. In fact, he was hoping that he would never earn that mission contribution.
The four of them waited in silence. Whether it was by chance or intentionally, Money Body and Nether Flame both stared at Ant Hill while they waited.
They were looking at her because they wanted her to give them some good news as fast as possible. But Ant Hill didn’t know that. She thought they were glaring at her because of the delay.
Only Loki wasn’t looking at her. He was looking at Oceania. This was because he knew that if the crystal ant failed, he would hear the roar of anger from the world.
So he didn’t bother to look at her when he could get the direct answer from the world. However, he wasn’t looking at Oceania with a look of anticipation. Instead, he was looking towards the large blue world with a gaze full of fear and a mind that was regretting that he signed that contract.
He thought to himself regretfully, ’Maybe I shouldn’t have signed that contract. Or at the least, I should have postulated that nothing could be done to help the crystal ant.’
He glanced at Money Body as he said to himself, ’I knew he was a little bit too eager to sign the bet. Who would have thought he had a plan up his sleeve to increase his chances of success?’
’It seems I’m screwed this time around. That’s what I get for trying to take control of the mission. I could have gone along with it in a lower-key fashion, but I had to press my luck.’
At the moment he made the offer and signed the contract, he had been certain that his victory was set in stone. But now that something unexpected had happened, he wasn’t sure of victory anymore.
So he too was anxious. The only consolation here was that everyone was anxious too.
The most anxious one among them was Ant Hill. She was the one who proposed the plan, so if it failed, she would definitely get in trouble with Money Body.
As it stands, she already knows how much trouble she will get into with Money Body. After all, Money Body had been quite clear and explicit about what he would do to her if she failed.
She became so anxious that she began to regret ever speaking up to suggest the plan. She said to herself, ’If I pass this, I will lie low and be more subdued. I will forget about this Gold Body and not let him rile me up again.’
As they waited, minutes went by. They waited for 10 minutes, but there was no news. Then they waited some more.
Time went by slowly as if it were crawling while they waited. 30 minutes of waiting felt like a day of waiting, and one hour of waiting felt like a month of waiting for them.
By this time, all of them had a bad feeling about the outcome of the attempt. Loki thought that everything was going well since the crystal ant hadn’t been discovered despite the tampering by Money Body.
On the other hand, Money Body and Ant Hill thought that everything was going badly. They believed that if the planting of the shield breaker was taking so long, it could only mean that something that should have been simple and easy had become needlessly complicated.
As for the one who didn’t have any stake in the bet, he was disappointed that the crystal ant was failing. Fortunately, he didn’t have any stakes in the game. So he had the leisure to sigh and shake his head in pity.
The other three were not fortunate enough to have the privilege to be detached from the outcome of the bet.