Lord of the Myriad Worlds

Chapter 306: Gains and Losses

Li Yue was silent for a long moment before she spoke quietly. "Scar Glenn was someone's son — and you, unfortunately, belong to the Commerce Department. After all this, do you think you'll go back without being targeted? I just don't want to wake up one day to news of your death."

"Li Wei's territory personnel arrangements all go through Duke Weir's channels now — priority over the Commerce Department. The moment you choose to stay, you're no longer Commerce Department. So — you should be the one to stay."

"Hmph! Since when are you so generous?" Liang Yuzhi kept her cold smile, staring into the distance, but the resistance was only in her words now.

"I'm not being generous at all. Enchanted equipment needs repairs, and replenishing magical energy is important. I'd rather not have to rely on anyone else's goodwill. Being able to drain your resources openly and legitimately — ha, just thinking about it is satisfying. Go on. You should run into Adai on the road. Don't forget to bring the essentials. Li Wei probably won't relocate the territory 250 kilometers away, but he might move it to the small city base. Talk through the pros and cons with him. Don't rush — there's only one chance. Miss it and you'll regret it for the rest of your life."

"You talk too much. You're like a mother hen." Liang Yuzhi turned and walked away with a flick of her sleeve.

"Likewise!"

Li Yue rolled her eyes. They really did grate on each other — had done so for a lifetime, in that way of plastic sisters who couldn't stand each other but couldn't let go either. Sixty years ago, the three of them had been thrown together in the same rookie mission. What a time that had been — scheming, competing, hidden daggers and open blades, every trick in the book.

But it was only after dying once, after truly losing everything, that they had realized something both absurd and sad: in the end, the only thing they had left to call their own was each other.

Even then, they had kept up the stubborn pretense, almost out of habit, until this boy Li Wei appeared — a buffer who, without quite meaning to, had broken through the ice that had locked them in place for decades.

The care they showed Li Wei — part of it was genuine admiration, a real sense that this place could be somewhere to grow old. But another part of it was simply the affection for each other that neither of them could bring themselves to express directly, quietly deposited in Li Wei's name.After all — they had spent a lifetime fighting. Only I get to bully her. No one else.

What a tangled mess of feelings.

—

That night, around ten o'clock, Liang Yuzhi arrived, road-worn but moving fast.

"Second Aunt — was the road safe? You didn't have to rush. There are still three days until month-end."

"And you know there are only three days left — one of which needs to go toward constructing the special building. Have you decided where to put the territory center? The entire future shape of your territory gets decided in the next few days. I'll be blunt: this is the most important decision of your life. If you mismanage this territory, do you think you'll ever get another chance like this?"

Liang Yuzhi spoke rapidly, looking more anxious than Li Wei himself. She had been thinking through it the entire journey.

"Second Aunt — set that aside for a moment. You saw the territory-wide announcement. I want to formally invite you — or Li Yue — to stay. I think we could work very well together."

Li Wei smiled. He meant it sincerely. Both Li Yue and Liang Yuzhi had their quirks, but they had proven themselves in every way that mattered.

Liang Yuzhi nodded. "Why do you think I rushed here so fast? Xiao Wei — Li Yue gave the opportunity to me. I don't want to owe her that debt." She paused. "So — we need to make this territory work. Which means stop talking about that, and start dealing with what actually needs to be handled. Let's get to work."

"Understood. Second Aunt — do you think we should use the relocation opportunity?"

"Don't ask what I think. I can only offer a suggestion — mine and Li Yue's. She already asked me to pass it along. It comes down to three priorities: stability, longevity, and maximum benefit."

"First, stability. If you keep the current Scavenger Camp as the territory center, that's the stable choice. Nothing needs to change. You just gradually relocate the people from here over time."

"It's the option with zero risk of going wrong, zero risk of being raided."

"But the problem with that location is that it has no mountains, no water, no forest. Resources are limited. In the long run it will become resource-poor. Even with two extra years of development, you'll likely go bankrupt in fifty or sixty years. That's almost inevitable."

"Because no territory lasts forever — just like no company stays solvent forever, no nation endures forever."

"Second, longevity. Li Yue and I both think putting the territory in the small county town where the Flame Duke once ruled falls into this category. Mountains to the north, Base 349 only 30 kilometers away, and over five hundred buildings inside the city — those buildings are a resource in themselves."

"Looking at all three bases we currently control, the one with the most complete facilities, the largest footprint, and the highest defensive rating is clearly the small city base. Can you imagine — during a lull in the Radiation Storm, the elevators in those high-rises were still running?"

"There is one drawback, though not a fatal one: the eight hundred or so natural persons still in the underground base there. They've never had their base breached, and they've never gone hungry. They'll be insular and suspicious of outsiders. If you put your territory there, managing the friction between them and the Freemen you've already integrated will be a significant challenge."

"Xiao Wei — the Humanistic Care requirement protects us, but it also protects those natural persons. That means many things can only be resolved through proper channels, not by force of will. Over a thousand people, many of them scarred by the apocalypse, many with severe paranoia — you may need to make concessions and compromise."

"Those are the first two options. The third—"

"No need to explain. I'm not relocating here. No amount of benefit is worth the risk."

"Fair enough. So it's one of the first two. What's your choice?" Liang Yuzhi nodded and asked.

"I need to think it over a bit more. Second Aunt — is there any way to move these fifty-four elderly, women, and children out of here within three days?"

"Ha. I'm a Second-Order Casting Witch, not a Grand Mage. I can't open an Arbitrary Door from nothing. Wait until next month. I don't need to return for the month-end summary this month. Once the special building is finished, you just need to send me a formal invitation. But before that — which special building do you want to build first?"

"I'm not sure. That's why I'm asking you, Second Aunt." Li Wei genuinely lacked the information to make this call on his own. Liang Yuzhi and Li Yue were his best advisors.

"Then I'll decide for you. Build the One-Star Magic Ore Vein first. It's a magical structure — its primary function is to collect scattered magical particles, refine and purify them into usable magical energy. You don't need to understand the mechanics. Just know that it's an essential building for any territory, and a critical resource for maintaining the Magic Shield."

"The Magic Ore Vein can be upgraded up to Three-Star, roughly doubling magical energy collection. It's also the only way a territory can draw magical energy from the outside world after the Pioneering Card activates into a Magic Shield."

"Of course, that doesn't mean it solves everything permanently. Even a Three-Star Magic Ore Vein can't prevent a territory from eventually going bankrupt — but it's still critically important. Think of it as one of the core talents you absolutely have to unlock."

"Upgrading it isn't cheap, either. One-Star to Two-Star requires five Silver Clearance Tokens or five Level 5 Universal Gold Cards, plus 5,000 standard gold coins. Two-Star to Three-Star requires twenty Silver Clearance Tokens or twenty Level 5 Universal Gold Cards, plus 50,000 standard gold coins."

"That doesn't sound too harsh—"

Li Wei said it almost reflexively. Right now, Universal Gold Cards seemed relatively easy to come by.

Liang Yuzhi shook her head. "Xiao Wei. Tell me — are you still planning to push the difficulty to 180% before next October?"

"Ah — I haven't been thinking about that, actually."

"'Actually'? I'm giving you a serious warning: stop thinking about it. For the next two years, develop quietly. As long as no one comes looking for trouble, we do our part and nothing more. Don't think that because you're strong now, and because you have me as support, you can go chase another special boss. That is an extremely dangerous line of thinking."

"In fact, I'm going to recommend that once this month ends, you keep the difficulty at the baseline — no higher than 30%. Not a point over. If you disagree, I won't stay. And Li Yue will feel the same way. We think you have potential, you keep your word, and we've fought side by side — those are reasons to work with you. But we are not going to team up with someone who can't manage external risk and acts recklessly."

Liang Yuzhi's tone was unusually serious. Li Wei was taken aback.

"Can you tell me why, Second Aunt? Even just a little."

"Of course. It's actually simple. You've stepped on people's toes — taken their share of the pie. You earned it, and for now they can't do anything about it directly. But it's best to know when to stop. Because if you keep pushing, people who can't touch you directly can still trip you up, set traps, work against you in ways you won't see coming."

"And special bosses are the easiest place to do exactly that. I personally know one or two methods that could make a special boss considerably more 'special' than intended."

"So — do you understand? In the first year, a special boss might require 180% difficulty to reliably appear. In the second year, maybe 150%. By the third year, maybe 90% is enough to trigger one."

"That's why this month felt so easy to you — Universal Gold Cards pouring in, almost effortlessly. That's because you pushed the difficulty to the maximum and triggered a special boss. That's the only reason."

"Think about it: if you hadn't defeated that special boss, where would all of that have gone?"

"And consider — across all the other Pioneering branches this month, how many Universal Gold Cards do you think they managed to collect?"

"Take me as an example. In my first year of the Pioneering Mission, I pushed difficulty to 120%. The Radiation Storm was nearly half as intense. That month, I gave everything I had — every trick, every ounce of effort. Do you know how many Universal Gold Cards I ended up with?"

"Not many. Just six. All Level 4. And do you know where I ranked on the Pioneering Scoreboard at the end? Fourteenth. Dead last. Over three years, I never collected more than twenty Universal Gold Cards total. That's how I built my Three-Star territory — five square kilometers, a Three-Star Tavern and a One-Star Magic Ore Vein. And forty years later, after one catastrophic defeat, it all turned to smoke."

"That is what an ordinary, normally-developed Three-Star minor lord looks like."

"Scar Glenn and the other four — they were practically pre-selected. You understand what I mean? We can talk about fortunes reversing and the underdog rising. But some things require us to learn when to compromise and when to protect ourselves."

"That's all I'll say. Get moving — time is short. You need to decide soon."

Liang Yuzhi's words seemed to come from somewhere deep — it was rare to see her this openly emotional. She had clearly paid a steep price somewhere along the way.

"Understood. Second Aunt — stay safe here."

With that, Li Wei took Adai, left the Prestige Card managing the fifty-four Freemen with Liang Yuzhi, and departed — stepping out into the night.