Lord of the Myriad Worlds

Chapter 364: A Murky Road Ahead

Well — he'd run into someone who actually knew her stuff.

He'd made a fool of himself.

Li Wei felt a flicker of embarrassment and glanced at Ron, who was standing to the side watching the show with an air of comfortable amusement.

He thought it over, then produced fifty units of each type as the red-robed witch had demanded — not scraps this time, all three-star quality. This was essentially the bulk of the magical materials he'd gathered along the way over the past several days, aside from the Level 5 mutant rat.

"Not bad. Collecting these materials would take at least ten Level 4 mutant creatures. But the hard part isn't the quantity — it's preserving and cutting off the mana during the breakdown process. That takes real skill. You're a Hunter? Hunter Destiny Grid must be at least 60."

The red-robed witch examined everything carefully, and genuine surprise crept into her voice.

Li Wei smiled and nodded, quietly revising his assessment of this flippant witch upward.

"Alright, alright — I'll take all of it. Including all the scraps. As for the price — I won't cheat you. Ten Level 4 mutant creatures killed by the most brutal method would yield ten four-star Universal Gold Cards — worth ten thousand Standard Gold Coins if sold. But in reality, if you properly break down and process the magical materials from those creatures, the value is far higher."

"In this process, the breakdown and processing technique is where most of the value lies. So if you took this to the Logistics Department's purchasing office in Weir City, you'd typically get around 26,000 gold coins. But as you and I both know, that requires paying taxes. Going by standard Baron territory rates — fifty percent — split between us, half each. So if you're looking to sell, I'll pay you 19,500 Standard Gold Coins. Does that process make sense to you?"

"No — I completely agree." Li Wei said immediately. 19,500 Standard Gold Coins, with 6,500 in taxes to pay later. No problem."Then we're done. Ron — pay the man!"

The red-robed witch finished speaking, scooped up all the materials, and hurried off without even bothering to flirt with Li Wei anymore. She probably needed those magical materials for building the mage tower.

So Li Wei turned to look at Ron, whose expression had darkened slightly. 19,500 gold coins — for Li Wei, it wasn't a trivial sum, but he could produce it without blinking.

But that was all built on having killed four Neanderthal crossers and selling 106 four-star Universal Gold Cards along the way.

Money flowed through his hands like water, and he'd lost track of it.

But Ron?

He almost certainly hadn't sold Universal Gold Cards, had never killed a Neanderthal crosser, and hadn't pushed the difficulty to 180% last year. In short — he had no powerhouse income source.

But developing his territory to this level couldn't have been cheap. The mana well was given for free, but didn't you tip the construction mage a little something?

His mana well had been upgraded to two-star — didn't that cost money?

The Second-Order caster he'd hired — did she work for free?

Even being a second-generation player, he couldn't sustain this kind of spending.

And crucially, the mission was now in its final stretch — there was no longer a way to request money from home through the monthly summary. So he definitely wasn't broke, but being temporarily short on cash was a certainty.

So before Ron's brow could furrow, Li Wei immediately said: "Master Ron, do you have any local specialties? I'd like to buy some to take back."

The moment he said it, he could feel Ron let out an almost imperceptible sigh of relief.

"Specialties? What specialties? Our territories are a thousand kilometers apart, but honestly it doesn't matter — what I have, you have too. What you don't have, I don't have either."

"That can't be right. Nuclear plant component modules, raw material modules, electric trucks — I'm short on all of those. Besides, you're not planning to expand anymore, so you won't be needing them. Sell them to me at twenty or thirty percent of value — I'll take them off your hands." Li Wei said with a half-joking tone.

Ron laughed too. The atmosphere was warm for a moment.

Until his expression cooled. "You're actually still planning to find Hathaway and convince her to become your advisor, aren't you? That's why you want to buy supplies for a Freeman relocation. Li Wei — you're something else, I'll give you that. I knew you were different back in the rookie mission."

"But I don't think your plan will work. You think sleeping with Hathaway a few times means she'll follow your lead? Have you considered — her territory looks the weakest right now, but she actually has a mana well too. And she herself just broke through to Second-Order caster. Her conditions are even better than mine. I had to pay a fortune to hire a caster to help me. So what exactly gives you the leverage to convince her? Your silver tongue?"

"That said, everything I just said is just me talking. I'm actually hoping you succeed — because the greater the threat you pose to Frost Duke, the safer territories like mine become. Frost Duke can't afford to let you kill him in the end. I'd love to see you two tear each other apart, or even shake hands at the end — doesn't matter to me. As long as he doesn't come after me."

As he said this, Ron's face settled into a resigned expression. They weren't weak — they'd simply been dragged into the endgame before they'd had time to develop. What could you do? Protect what you had first.

"Come on — let me show you what you might need."

Ron said with a touch of irony. His territory was locked in place now — no more expansion. The nuclear power plant, the electric trucks, everything from the old era would eventually be replaced by mana.

In fact, his small nuclear power plant had already been shut down — for the safety of the mana well, since they were too close together, and he had no plans to open a branch base.

They descended to the fourth underground level. Ron gestured at the pile of items in front of them. "It's all here. Modular nuclear plant components, raw material modules — take what you want. I'm not giving you that 19,500 gold coins anyway."

"What about an electric truck? Give me one."

"No problem — I've got more than I need. But if you want it fully charged, you'll have to go to a watchtower I built thirty kilometers out. I had craftsmen assemble two steam generators there. It'll take six hours to charge fully. In this season, that'll get you about 750 kilometers. But I can't guarantee you'll find Hathaway before the battery runs out."

"Come on, man — you really have no ambition left? These nuclear plant modules are excellent. Build a fortress twenty kilometers out, use it as a power station — that's a perfectly good use."

Li Wei was genuinely baffled.

Ron let out a cold laugh. "What ambition? I have 500 mu of two-star farmland, two small mines, sufficient water, decent timber, over seven hundred people, a Level 3 wall that's more than enough for defense — and if things get bad, fall back to the main fortress. Weapons are stocked, arrows are stocked, there's a two-star mana well and a Second-Order caster. Even if Frost Duke shows up, he'll have to think twice. Fifty units of mana can reduce an army of a thousand to ash in an instant."

"You ask what I'm pursuing? Right now, because of you, Frost Duke's Ability User squads are scattered everywhere like flowers falling from the sky, roaming all over the place — with Neanderthal crossers hidden among them. One careless moment and you get bitten — you won't die, but you'll be crippled. I don't have your nerve, and I don't have your luck."

"Do you know? Frost Duke's Ability User squads have already put my territory, Socrates's territory, and even Hathaway's territory under surveillance. We don't move, they don't move. We move, and they swarm like jackals. Tell me — how do you develop under those conditions?"

"The mana well is invincible — but only within thirty kilometers. After that? What then?"

"Only you would be crazy enough to think you can talk Hathaway into anything. She's well-endowed, but she's not brainless."

"I'll even bet you this — the moment you drive that electric truck out of my territory, by tomorrow there'll be an Ability User force on your tail. Those people have a particular hatred for old-era technology right now. Good luck to you."

With that, Ron left.

The situation was genuinely grim, and Li Wei had a bit of a headache.

But after thinking it through, he checked the remaining space in his Resource Cards and decided he still needed an electric truck. Taking the nuclear plant was out of the question — even in its compact form, one truck couldn't haul it. But hauling away a steam generator set was entirely doable.

Of course, some of the nuclear plant's critical modules were worth packing up and taking anyway. And the power cells.

Ron had ten electric trucks and buses in total — the result of absorbing another territory. But in practice he only used three to five of them daily. No expansion, no development, seven hundred people, plenty of supplies — the man had even stopped hiring tavern mercenaries. The rest sat in the underground parking lot.

Li Wei didn't stand on ceremony. He drove one out, grabbed thick planks and a pulley-and-hoist setup, and loaded everything himself. The rest of the time was spent removing power cells.

Those could go into a Resource Card — he stripped them all clean. Ron genuinely didn't care. He really had no use for them anymore.

In fact, three years from now, the moment the pioneering city-building mission ended and the Pioneering Card transformed into a magical shield, everything like this inside the territory would become useless scrap.

By the time he finished, night had fallen. Li Wei didn't dare linger. He drove straight to the watchtower thirty kilometers out — and found it completely unmanned.

Ha.

He understood. Completely.

Li Wei cut the lock, started the two steam generators, and began charging the electric truck. At the same time, he assembled two voltage regulators and the associated charging equipment — these could charge the power cells directly.

If the truck ran out of power on the road before he found Hathaway, these power cells would be his backup.

But even if he found Hathaway — could he actually convince her?

For the first time, Li Wei felt genuinely uncertain.