In just a single day, he changed from being a penniless player with barely twenty thousand points to now becoming a millionaire with tens of millions of points.
However, Steven was well aware that this was no different from exploiting a game loophole.
Even if he continued using crops like carrots and beets to trade with other nations, it was unlikely he would be able to rack up the same kind of bonuses again.
The first person to exploit a loophole always benefits the most.
Fortunately, Steven had no intention of repeating this trick.
He couldn't be sure that other countries' official institutions would be as accommodating as the Inquisition, let alone the fact that the Inquisition's leniency was partly due to Iberia's unique national conditions.
After all, a country where most of its citizens struggled to meet basic needs was still a rarity, right?
Using this exploit once was enough—any more, and even Steven would feel it was excessive.
As for the ten million-plus points he now possessed, while the number seemed vast, considering the large-scale mod he was about to activate, Steven felt it was just about right.
"Activate the Equivalent Exchange mod."
Quietly selecting the [Equivalent Exchange] mod from the system options, Steven waited for the non-native system prompt to appear.
Sure enough, the moment he selected it, a warning message popped up in the lower right chatbox.
[Ding! Activating the Equivalent Exchange mod requires consuming 9,000,000 World Acknowledgement Points. Confirm?]
"Confirm."
In an instant, his once eight-digit point total lost a zero, but Steven's expression was one of utter satisfaction—he knew this was a bargain.
If it were any other mod deducting this many points, Steven would've thought the world was run by some scammer of a black-market merchant. But for this particular one? It was absolutely worth the price.
It felt as if some invisible constraint had been lifted from his body, leaving him with a newfound sense of ease.
And then… nothing happened.
This mod wasn't one that altered his body parameters or granted him any abilities—what kind of major change could he have expected?
Steven had chosen to activate this mod immediately, but not because he expected an instant power-up.
The Equivalent Exchange mod, true to its name, simply allowed him to engage in bartering.
Every item in Minecraft had a corresponding EMC value (Energy-Matter Currency) in this mod.
As long as he accumulated enough points, he could use a tool called the Transmutation Table to exchange items.
Likewise, unnecessary items could be converted into EMC points through other tools within the mod.
Since arriving in this Arknights world, Steven had noticed the absence of many common Minecraft resources.
This hadn't been a major issue so far, but if he wanted to play with mods, it would be a serious problem.
For example, some mods required gold as a fundamental material. Yet, Steven had a hard time believing that even the wealthiest nation or organization in this world could casually provide cubic meters of gold blocks in bulk.
And ironically, gold blocks were often one of the most useless materials in mods—just like in vanilla Minecraft, where gold was one of the most worthless ores.
Not to mention rarer items like Wither Skeleton Skulls or Nether Stars—where on earth was he supposed to find those mobs to farm them?
So, Equivalent Exchange had become the most essential and fundamental mod for him to have at this stage.
Of course, part of the reason for its hefty cost was its ability to freely convert materials. But Steven also knew there was another reason.
The late-game gear and weapons that came with this mod were, to put it mildly, a bit overpowered.
Not that he could craft them anytime soon—let alone whether the world's will in this realm would even allow him to wield such game-breaking tools.
He pulled out a Portable Transmutation Table from his inventory, feeling relieved. This thing was so useful in day-to-day play that even when he played vanilla survival, he always carried one.
After all, it was essentially a personal storage unit—he could just pull out whatever he needed on the go.
As expected, however, since this world was not connected to his previous one—or perhaps due to some kind of suppression affecting him—his once overflowing Transmutation Table, which held a ridiculous 2³⁰ EMC points, had been wiped clean to a big, fat zero.
But since all the item recipes were still recorded inside, Steven wasn't too bothered.
He had already decided to start from scratch, so beginning at zero wasn't a big deal.
As long as he was still here, did he really need to worry about gathering EMC points again?
All he had to do was farm World Acknowledgement Points while grinding some extra EMC on the side—it wasn't difficult at all.
In fact, this was part of the fun of being a Minecrafter.
First, he dumped all his useless junk into the Transmutation Table, converting them into hundreds of thousands of EMC points.
At the very least, he no longer had to worry about running out of basic materials anytime soon.
And thank god he had brought along a few stacks of gold blocks—if he had to start from absolute zero, he'd probably have to level an entire mountain just to farm stone for EMC.
That would have been pure suffering.
After testing the Transmutation Table and confirming it could properly convert the items he once had in his Minecraft world, Steven smiled with satisfaction and stashed it back into his inventory.
He'd experiment with the mod's full potential later—right now, the bigger question was what other fun and practical mod he should activate next.
After spending a massive nine million points, Steven's next thought was how to spend the remaining one million as well.
After all, points existed to be spent, right? What was he supposed to do, wait for them to multiply?
Most large mods didn't demand the absurd cost of Equivalent Exchange. With a million points, he could still afford at least one more mod.
The only problem?
Indecision.
Should he continue playing as a cool and dashing swordsman?
Or should he switch things up and try being a spellcasting mage?
Or—if he wanted to go even crazier—why not a modern firearms engineer?
And if all else failed… maybe just become Thanos?
With so many tempting options spread out before him, Steven found himself frozen—unsure of what to pick next.
Sometimes, having too many option to choose from is its own kind of problem.