Li Minghui still remembered grumbling to his secretary just a few days ago about how the Alliance was far too benevolent. Yet here they were, barely days later, and his "good friend" had already handed him a massive surprise.
The idlers on Ring Island evidently had too much food in their bellies and nothing better to do. Just because a few people had been burned to death in some backwater ravine not even marked on the maps, they had taken to the streets holding up protest signs against the Southern Sea Alliance's economic cooperation with the Empire.
Fine, the atrocity was indeed outrageous.
Yet this protest truly left him completely baffled.
Reasonably speaking, anyone with half a brain could see who was giving away free money and who was bleeding dry. Yet those idiots somehow managed to interpret it as him acting as the Empire's lapdog.
When he first heard about it, Li Minghui flew into a towering rage, itching to rush straight to Ring Island and knock some sense into that bunch of fishermen.
Twenty billion!
The Southern Sea Alliance was getting twenty billion for free without having to lift a finger!
Didn't they even stop to think with their pea brains where their welfare—which kept them from starving even if they didn't do a stroke of work—actually came from?!
Just look at how the Alliance had spoiled them rotten!
In the end, it was still the Alliance's manager who had real foresight. The manager had seen through Xilan at a single glance, recognizing it as a cesspool, and drew a circle to play his own game without letting them get dragged in.
And then there was the Legion...
Though the Legion was another story entirely. They simply didn't view the people in the zoo as human beings, which belonged in a whole different category.
Human baselines truly differed from person to person.
Just as Li Minghui was stewing in frustration, Si Wen came knocking on his door exactly as expected, glaring at him with an aggressive posture.
"Mr. Li Minghui, I advise you to carefully reconsider your partner of cooperation. We have already suffered enough at the hands of the Church of the Torch... To put it bluntly, a significant portion of the Southern Sea Alliance's citizens do not wish to cooperate with the Empire."
Seeing this guy flip his stance faster than turning the pages of a book, Li Minghui was so incensed his nose almost twisted out of joint.
"Then do you people want to sell him warships or not?!"
"We do..." Si Wen blurted out instinctively, but then curved his tone mid-sentence, "and yet we can't completely sell them either."
"...Why don't you be the president instead?"
Li Minghui shoved back his chair and prepared to storm out. Horrified, Si Wen dashed forward and clutched his shoulders, pinning him firmly in place.
"That won't do! You have to stay in this seat until the war is over! We agreed on this beforehand... Don't make that kind of joke!"
"Then why don't you explain to me how the hell I'm supposed to sell them and not sell them at the same time?" Li Minghui barked out a laugh in sheer infuriation. "Take their money and refuse to deliver the goods?"
He had only thrown that out as an angry jab, never imagining that the fellow before him would nod in agreement on the spot.
"That's not out of the question."
Li Minghui froze.
He had thought he was shameless enough for scheming to strip the warships down into toys, but he had never expected someone could be even more shameless than himself.
Filthy.
So fucking filthy!
Li Minghui stared hard at him.
"...You want to reap all the benefits for yourselves."
"Why not?" Si Wen said, his gaze shifting evasively. "You will be the one signing the procurement approval bill, but the delivery clearance will be signed by your successor... You signed the agreement out of a desire to secure a postwar recovery window for the survivors of the Southern Sea, so no one can criticize you. Meanwhile, your successor will refuse to sign the delivery agreement on righteous moral grounds, and equally no one can criticize him."
Li Minghui let out a long sigh.
"This method of yours is downright bullying."
"What else should we do? Sacrifice ourselves for others? Hand over your ships to them so they can run rampant on our turf? Wake up. You yourself think the Alliance is too soft-hearted, so why are you turning squeamish when it comes to yourself?"
After laying into him harshly, Si Wen continued.
"The Representative Assembly will buy you time. Once you sign the contract, we will respond to the doves' outcry and pass an amendment... You will remain our hero, and you'll even leave a glorious opportunity for the person who follows you."
With that, Si Wen slipped out of the room, leaving behind only Li Minghui and his secretary.
Silence lingered in the office for a long time.
Li Minghui exhaled slowly and turned to look at his secretary.
"Looks like my gut was right after all. We really do need these guys who never shut their traps in meetings... Ahem! Set up an appointment for me with Duke Nihak. Just arrange it here at the presidential residence. Also, fetch me the latest issue of Port French Fries' *Survivor Daily*. I might have use for it."
It was truly impossible to keep a straight face.
Just days ago, he and Si Wen had been going at it tooth and nail, yet in less than a month they had already "shaken hands and made peace" twice.
The secretary nodded, utterly dazed.
"Understood... sir."
Perhaps his own level was simply too low, but he found these figures increasingly incomprehensible...
...
Swords, shields, armor... even the chopping board was fully set. Yet Duke Nihak, upon receiving the invitation, had no inkling that he had already become the fattened calf in the arena, while his newly made good friend was backstage casually twirling a blade to warm up.
Assuming that the supreme war hero of the Southern Sea Alliance had once again remembered his wealthy, mysterious old acquaintance, the duke gladly donned his luxurious dress uniform woven from devil silk and arrived for the meeting.
This was his absolute favorite suit.
The sunlight outside the window was somewhat dazzling.
Li Minghui stood up, strolled over to the window, and gently lowered the blinds to shade the room. After composing his expressions and emotions for a moment, he turned around and spoke sternly to Duke Nihak, who was placidly sipping black tea.
"Mr. Nihak, you people have gone a bit too far."
Duke Nihak frowned slightly.
"What do you mean?"
Li Minghui cleared his throat softly.
"I mean... the newspaper under your teapot."
For the sake of the twenty billion, he softened his tone somewhat. Sure enough, Duke Nihak's brow relaxed, and his eyes dropped to the front page headline of the paper.
Earlier he hadn't bothered looking at the words on the sheet; only after Li Minghui pointed it out did he realize it was a "newspaper."
*The Butcher of Mammoth State: Alaiyang, the Annihilator of a Hundred Thousand "Enemies"!*
[Attached image: The Shitou Village Massacre.]
Upon seeing the headline and photo, Duke Nihak's brow twitched violently. Without even bothering to read a single word of the main body, he offered an explanation with a darkened face.
"We can't interfere with decisions made by frontline generals... He truly acted like a bastard, and we will hold him accountable afterwards!"
That son of a bitch Alaiyang!
He couldn't even take a shit without forgetting to wipe his own ass!
The duke guessed what had happened in an instant. It was nothing more than someone displaying womanish softness of heart, leaving survivors alive who went and spilled everything.
If they had slaughtered every single one of them, would there be this kind of trouble?
Then it wouldn't be called some Shitou Village Massacre; it would be hailed as scorching an army of a hundred thousand!
Of course, "holding him accountable" was purely lip service. Alaiyang was someone he had personally promoted; holding him accountable would be slapping his own face, wouldn't it?
Besides, what business was this of the Southern Sea Alliance?
Li Minghui took a seat across from him, poured himself a cup of tea, and sighed.
"...It's very difficult to manage right now. I don't really want to meddle in such matters, but some residents on Ring Island jumped out to protest against selling warships to you."
No longer selling warships?!
Then wouldn't the ten billion he spent earlier have been wasted for nothing?!
At those words, Nihak's expression instantly changed.
"What do you mean! How can you go back on your word!"
Seeing that the fellow was reacting a bit excessively, Li Minghui hurriedly softened his tone to placate him.
"Duke, you misunderstand. I don't intend to back out, otherwise I wouldn't have rushed to invite you here to discuss a countermeasure."
Realizing there was still room for negotiation, Duke Nihak finally composed himself, and his tone relaxed accordingly.
"Then tell me, how do we negotiate this?"
"The representatives want me to give the citizens an explanation, but to be frank, they don't know shit. They have no idea how important the Empire is to the Southern Sea Alliance. Unfortunately, I'm just a babysitter. Even if I don't want to bother with them, I still have to coax them along." Li Minghui sighed, putting on a troubled face and shaking his head. "If we can't get past them and they replace me with someone anti-Empire, who knows where those warships will end up."
Nihak grew tense all over and said hastily.
"Can't we... get rid of those people?"
As he spoke, his eyes darted from side to side, and his right hand made a subtle throat-slitting motion, the meaning self-evident.
Li Minghui's brow twitched violently. He coughed and said.
"Pl—please act normally... We are discussing very serious matters."
Leave aside whether he could pull that off; not even Chalas could manage something like that. That arrogant, reckless madman could at most declare martial law.
If they truly moved against their own people, they wouldn't even get the chance to be a bunker boy; the battle at the airport wouldn't even have needed to be fought.
Nihak puzzled over it for a long while, not feeling that anything he said was abnormal. Besides, he was merely tossing out a suggestion, not insisting that it had to be done that way.
Seeing that Li Minghui didn't agree, he could only approach the problem from another angle. After pondering for quite a while, he gradually seemed to grasp a key point.
"So as long as we make those representatives happy, everything will be fine, right?"
"Precisely." Li Minghui nodded quickly, his face earnest—or rather, full of eager anticipation. "We are friends. You must help me out here!"
His plan was to get Nihak's side to propose placing the order as soon as possible, finalizing the contract and schematics, and paying down the deposit and advance payments.
Yet in the end, he still overestimated the duke's intelligence. Accustomed to playing the big spender, the latter seemed to treat the Southern Sea Alliance as his own backyard, waving his hand grandly.
"That's easy! I'll grant you another ten-billion-Xilan-coin loan!"
Li Minghui, who was taking a sip of tea, nearly spewed it all over the table. He gave several dry coughs before setting down his cup.
"It's not a matter of Xilan coins... Ahem, of course, we strongly appreciate your willingness to support our reconstruction work, but... we are currently discussing the sale of warships. Do you understand? These are two separate matters."
Why couldn't this guy's brain make the turn?
Staring at the chubby-cheeked, big-eared fellow, Li Minghui didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but he could only patiently explain it to him.
Nihak furrowed his brows and pondered for a moment.
"Mr. Li Minghui, there are no outsiders here. You might as well speak plainly... What exactly do you need me to do?"
Li Minghui stopped beating around the bush. Fixing his bright gaze upon him, he stated.
"I want the order locked in as soon as possible, before those windbags jabbering away in the assembly make a move against our close, unbreakable friendship!"
Upon hearing this, Nihak was overjoyed and rubbed his hands together.
"Wonderful! That's exactly what I was thinking! What is your most powerful ship?"
Seeing that the fish had taken the bait, Li Minghui replied immediately.
"The battleship *Haiya*! It can shoot down a Legion airship in one minute flat!"
Duke Nihak's heart jolted with immense shock. He almost sprang up from the sofa, staring at Li Minghui and exclaiming in disbelief.
"It's that formidable?!"
Li Minghui cleared his throat.
"...You can buy it and try it for yourself."
Truth be told, war was not a game of rolling dice to compare numbers; such a question was fundamentally foolish. Yet there was no helping it; the client loved hearing this sort of thing, so he could only use this layman's analogy.
Sure enough, Duke Nihak's eyes blazed with hunger. His thumb and index finger rubbed together rapidly enough to kick up sparks, and he was nearly drooling with desire.
"How much!"
Looking at the impatient Nihak, Li Minghui's heart also pounded hard against his ribs, but he held his composure and continued spinning his tale.
"Perhaps... one billion silver coins? We will need the blueprints finalized before giving an exact estimate—of course! We support installment plans. Pay a fifty-million deposit, and our shipyard can lay down the keel. Once construction starts, you just need to wire ten million each month until it's fully paid off."
He added that last sentence mainly out of fear that the big fish on his hook might get spooked away.
To his surprise, the fellow across from him wasn't frightened by this astronomical figure in the slightest. Instead, he rose to his feet in sheer ecstasy.
"Splendid! One billion silver coins... Tell you what, we'll take a slight loss and pay you ten billion Xilan coins!"
Hearing that phrase "we'll take a slight loss," Li Minghui almost choked to death on his own saliva. He quickly cut through the duke's daydream.
"Mr. Nihak, honored Grand Duke of the Empire... it cannot be calculated like that. It must be paid in silver coins."
Nihak froze, his brows knitting together.
"What do you mean?"
"Literally what I—"
"We lent you so much money, and you used Xilan coins to buy so many goods from us—tens of thousands of tons of steel, cement, cotton, soybeans, and sugar! Now that we want to buy your goods, we have to use silver coins?! What is the meaning of this?"
Governor Nihak's gaze turned somewhat cold and hostile, a flicker of suspicion rising in his cloudy eyes.
Debts in Xilan coins were to be repaid in Xilan coins; that had been spelled out clearly in black and white.
Did these people even intend to pay the money back at all?
Li Minghui froze as well.
He had just finished sharpening the butcher knife to slaughter the pig, only for the pig to suddenly wake up. He scrambled frantically to patch things up.
"It's not that I don't want to accept them... We naturally would love to take them, it's just..." His mind spun at top speed, and in a flash of desperate wit, he blurted out, "The shipyard won't accept them!"
Nihak blinked, completely bewildered.
"The shipyard?"
How did this get dragged over to the shipyard now?!
"Indeed..." Li Minghui sighed, putting on a helpless expression. "Companies in the Alliance hold shares in North Island Heavy Industry. They audit the books. Furthermore, North Island Heavy Industry has to pay its workers' wages in silver coins... We have our hands tied; we can't force them to take Xilan coins, can we? Forget whether the Alliance's shareholders would agree, the shipyard workers wouldn't stand for it either."
He didn't even bring up the fact that the battleship's electromagnetic cannon came from Shelter 70, which was currently under the administration of Shelter 404, which in turn answered to the Alliance.
However, Duke Nihak didn't press on that. Instead, he pondered Li Minghui's words carefully, figuring that it sounded somewhat plausible.
Though he felt something was terribly off, he couldn't put his finger on where the problem lay.
In truth, using silver coins wasn't an issue either.
Earlier, when the border closure at Golden Gallon Port was lifted, trade resumed between Bolo Province and the inland river and coastal ports of Golden Gallon Port. The monthly cargo throughput even surpassed a million tons!
That meant, on average, every single resident of Golden Gallon Port exchanged one ton of goods each month with residents inside the Empire!
Because the agency entrusted by the Golden Gallon Port authorities collected tariffs on behalf of the Empire, customs revenue soared along with trade volume. Over several months, they had accumulated a floating profit of seventy to eighty million silver coins, which felt far more lucrative than their past slave trade.
Yet as pleasant as that was, the royal court had far fewer occasions to spend silver coins than dinars.
This foreign exchange was mainly earned by the merchants and nobles of Tiger State and Leopard State, and was mostly spent by them—such as converting it into silver coins to purchase Alliance machinery, seeds, fertilizers, and consumer goods.
However, those disloyal scoundrels were hardly good people. Day in and day out, they took advantage of the situation while crying poor to the imperial court, actively expanding their operations while refusing to pay a single copper in taxes.
Rather than letting them squander those silver coins, it was far better to put the money toward doing something truly meaningful for the Empire.
"Fine. How do we pay this fifty-million-silver-coin deposit?"
Suppressing the wild excitement and thrill in his heart, Li Minghui replied with a slight tremor in his voice.
"Same as before... Wire the money to the bank in Golden Gallon Port, and our designated agency will handle the collection on our behalf!"
...
On North Island in the Southern Sea, the northward-facing beach was as lively as ever.
Ever since North Island was captured in early October, the Alliance had designated this stretch of beach as a military training zone, conducting more than a dozen beach-landing assault drills.
It was now mid-November. The situation on the northern front was gradually bogging down into a stalemate, and the Mutual Defense Pact Coalition urgently needed to open a new breakthrough in the south.
This glorious yet arduous task naturally fell upon the Alliance's shoulders.
To ensure complete success and minimize wear and tear on expensive equipment during combat, the players of the Burning Corps were at the top of their game during the exercise.
One by one, "Alligator" amphibious armored vehicles sporting blue digital camouflage burst out of the shallows and charged onto the sand. A short distance away on the rolling sea, six large landing ships floated like towering leviathans, gazing toward the shore.
Upon hitting the beachhead, the armored vehicles immediately laid down smoke screens and launched forward smoke grenades, blanketing the entire beach in an instant!
As the armored vehicles punched into the middle section of the beach, the rear hatches slammed outward to both sides. Infantry in exoskeletons poured out in single file, rapidly fanning out in three-man fireteams guided by the "visualized battlefield direction system" on their helmet visors.
Close behind them ashore came "King Crab" amphibious all-terrain infantry fighting suits, their thick, elongated cannon barrels gleaming with a chilling glint under the sunlight.
From the moment the landing ships came to a halt until all combat units set foot on shore, a mere four minutes and thirty-one seconds had elapsed!
The entire sequence flowed seamlessly without a single hitch!
Aside from officers and staff from Alliance headquarters, quite a few onlookers had gathered behind the perimeter cordon along the shore.
The residents of North Island were already accustomed to the Alliance's exercises.
After all, just over a month ago, these people had staged a "real" one, liberating them from the tyrannical rule of that madman Chalas.
Not to mention that those "Alligator" amphibious armored vehicles were designed by their own engineers, merely refitted with a newly redesigned turret from Goblin Tech to meet logistical needs.
Some local snack vendors had even wheeled out food carts and ice cream wagons, preparing to sell treats to those "wanjia" once their training wrapped up.
Although these soldiers from the Alliance occasionally exhibited strange behavior and spoke Human Alliance language rather haltingly, their discipline was impeccable, and they put on zero airs. The locals harbored little fear toward them and were instead happy to interact with them.
Yet while the island's residents were thoroughly used to the spectacle, the laborers from Mammoth State watched wide-eyed and slack-jawed, every single one of them stunned.
Too powerful!
What on earth was their Emperor thinking, daring to provoke a horde of monsters like this?!
They deserved getting beaten black and blue!
Among the crowd, Weilu, the envoy from Mammoth State, stood with his mouth agape, his eyes glued to those murderous sets of armor.
Was this the full strength of the Alliance?
It was far more staggering than he had ever imagined...
He was one of the officers who had broken away from the Golden Gallon Port militia alongside Laxi, making him part of the cohort of officers with the deepest appreciation for the Alliance's true might.
After all, when the Alliance landed at Golden Gallon Port, he had watched from nearby as the city defense garrison was routed on its own home turf, and seen the subsequent Gray Wolf Army driven into the Yongliu River to do the butterfly stroke...
Back then, he had merely marvelled at the power of technology, lacking a distinct grasp of the Alliance's intrinsic combat strength.
Only now did he realize that the Alliance might not have exerted its full might back then at all.
No—
More accurately, the Burning Corps had not exerted its full might, and the Alliance possessed far more than just a single Burning Corps...
Weilu swallowed involuntarily, forcing down the immense shock in his chest.
If only this army could be invited to Mammoth State...
Of course, that was probably unrealistic.
Still, earning more silver coins to purchase similar equipment to take back ought to be entirely feasible.
Near the edge of the watching crowd, several engineers from North Island Heavy Industry peered through binoculars, chatting with smiles from time to time.
"Is that big crab a creation of Shelter 70?"
"To be precise, it's an improved version based on blueprints from Shelter 100."
"Tsk, those old folks truly have plenty of treasures."
"The landing ships still need refinement... Would releasing the landing craft from the flanks be faster than deploying them from the center?"
"Modifying the production schematics now is probably too late. The Alliance landing force has already commissioned six of them, and the remaining two are due for delivery at the end of the month."
"Having endless resources feels so damn good."
"What about modifying them on the existing basis? For instance, installing a row of elevators along the ship's sides."
"You have to consider the impact of gear changes on soldier training..."
This exercise involved more equipment than any prior drill. Several "Cloud Dragonfly" ornithopters even swept low over the water, while "Lightning" and "Thunder" aircraft patrolled above the clouds.
The opponents were merely a mob of mutants, at most equipped with some weapons bestowed by Chalas. Bringing out so much high-tech equipment felt somewhat like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.
Watching the fighter jets leave trails of white vapor as they roared past at low altitude, the onlookers on the beach cheered and applauded, virtually no one doubting the impending final victory.
Watching the units complete their landing, Lao Bai, who stood observing by the shoreline, checked the time on his VM, grinned, and called out over the comm channel.
"Exercise concluded! Good work, everyone! Remember to pick up your trash before leaving. Rewards will be calculated shortly."
He tended to be stricter when training NPCs, but there was no need for that with players; dying only meant waiting three days to respawn anyway.
The fact that these guys could take the drill seriously without clowning around or dropping the ball was already worthy of great praise.
Without exaggeration, only their Burning Corps and the Storm Corps could pull off this kind of exercise; otherwise, it would have to be handled by NPC corps.
Hearing their leader's voice, the comm channel erupted into cheers of dismissal.
"Shift's over, wrap it up!"
"Shaved ice! I want shaved ice!"
"Dammit, I lost a shoe during that sprint just now. Who's coming back with me to find it..."
"Hahaha! Fuck! You're gonna kill me with laughter."
"Even my dick is laughing!"
"%#$@!"
As the exercise ended, the distant landing ships began turning back toward the harbor on the south side of the island, while players ambled up the beach in small groups.
Catching sight of Lao Bai by the drill grounds, Yin Chai Yang Cuo beamed proudly.
"Boss! How did we do this time?"
Lao Bai chuckled.
"Passable!"
Mei You Jia Ren: "Damn! Just passable?!"
"Don't want it going to your head," Lao Bai said, patting him on the shoulder with a smile. "Though honestly, that score was pretty good."
At a beachside restaurant not far from the exercise grounds and military base, Mosquito lounged on a recliner, sipping coconut water while slacking off, admiring the pretty women strolling past, and occasionally glancing at the copy of *Survivor Daily* he held as a prop.
Goblin Tech counted as one of North Island Heavy Industry's major partners; the 37mm turret and auto-loading system on the "Alligator" had been redesigned by them.
In order not to miss the landing day, he had specifically rushed down from the northern front to the south, leaving the card tournament in Kun Town of Weifu City to be managed by a certain Rat Clan lackey of his.
That young rat-kin fellow was indeed a prodigy. Emulating Mosquito's raspy voice, he ran the duel tournament with tremendous flair, successfully baiting the Wilantes and the slackers from Ideal City into fierce rivalries.
The cards, which cost less than 0.01 silver coins to print, not only sold like hotcakes among NPCs, but some clueless rookie players even began hoarding them as in-game easter eggs.
Of course, these were merely minor interludes during wartime.
No matter how high card prices soared, they could never match the profit margins of the arms trade.
Seeing an old acquaintance lounging on the chair, Fang Chang tossed his helmet aside, casually sat down in the seat beside him, and teased with a smile.
"Aren't you going up for a couple of laps?"
"Nah, flight techniques are already etched into my genetic sequence. I designed that thing myself; practicing or not makes no difference."
"Nobody boasts better than you," Fang Chang chuckled playfully. He gave a nod to the waitress in a maid uniform nearby, took the menu she offered, and ordered himself a mojito.
Lately, North Island had seen an influx of things previously found only in Dawn City. While primarily intended to fleece players of their money, it had certainly popularized the artistic creations from Tengteng's Cabin.
The local residents didn't object much to these foreign cultural elements, whether refined or vulgar.
After all, compared to the high-pressure life under Chalas's rule, every day after the civil war felt as blissfully wonderful as living in a dream.
With a familiar face sitting right beside him, Mosquito felt too embarrassed to openly wink at the NPC ladies anymore. He buried his head into the heavily creased newspaper, putting on an act of reading.
One careful glance at the headline gave him quite a start.
"Holy crap... what a massive move!"
The Xilan Empire was shelling out one billion silver coins to order a hundred-thousand-ton battleship from North Island Heavy Industry!
Good grief, even the Alliance didn't have something that crazy. That old fossil in Bolo Province was actually getting one?!
Of course, the reason the Alliance lacked such vessels was mostly because they had little use for them.
For one thing, through fighting the Legion, the Alliance had developed far more cost-effective tactics, such as phase cannons capable of neutralizing shields and anti-gravity systems in a single blast, terminal low-velocity guided munitions, boarding actions, and so on... Even low-tech balloons could, under specific circumstances, entangle an airship's propellers.
The Southern Sea Alliance's creation of a monstrous oddity like the battleship *Haiya* was purely because they had treated the Legion as a hypothetical enemy without ever engaging them in actual combat.
Objectively speaking, while that weapon was undoubtedly powerful, it was economically impractical.
It was like a broadsword with diamonds embedded in the hilt. It might indeed offer some advantage in a duel—distracting the opponent, perhaps—but the price of a single gem could outfit an entire knightly order.
Fang Chang glanced at the newspaper in Mosquito's hands and said with a smile.
"Did you only find out today? I knew about it two days ago."
Mosquito cleared his throat, trying to save face.
"Ahem... I've been busy with business lately and haven't paid much attention to NPC news. But by the way, why isn't anyone on the forums talking about this?"
Fang Chang replied casually.
"The debate over the power of battleships was settled before the decisive battle on North Island. It proved that the thing could only take a few more torpedo hits than a destroyer. The sinking cinematic was certainly spectacular... Aside from that, what else is there to discuss? High-thrust plasma engines are our real R&D priority; those will come in handy when outer space maps open up in the future. You know that as well as I do."
Ignoring Fang Chang's remarks, Mosquito kept his eyes glued to the newspaper, his gaze growing increasingly thrilled.
"One billion silver coins with fifty million down, ten million paid monthly, plus the authorities secured an increase in the reconstruction aid loan from the Xilan Empire to thirty billion... Hiss, how the hell is this Empire so loaded? Speaking of which, have you really not thought about sticking your nose further in?"
"Why does that sound so sleazy coming out of your mouth..." Seeing Mosquito look over with eager longing, Fang Chang rolled his eyes in annoyance. Pausing briefly, he continued, "Besides, where do you think the Empire got those silver coins?"
Mosquito let out an amused chuckle and took a sip of his coconut water.
"That's no mystery. You guys gave it to them, didn't you?"
Fang Chang smiled faintly.
"Since you already know, why ask?"
Back when they first took Golden Gallon Port, the total annual import and export volume of that "slave port" amounted to only a few hundred million dinars.
Yet once they turned those cattle into human beings, the port's monthly trade volume surpassed that figure, allowing even a blockhead like Wutuo to rake in tens of millions of silver coins in tariffs just by sitting on his hands.
Merely conquering a few patches of land meant nothing. To extract more silver coins from NPCs, one had to turn more NPCs from cattle into human beings.
In fact, that was precisely the hidden "reward mechanic" of *Wasteland Online*. Anyone with even a passing understanding of the game rules Ah Guang designed could easily spot it, and his Baiyue Company had been doing just that for a long time, with decent success so far.
Not just Golden Gallon Port—survivors in Tiger State and Leopard State were gradually beginning to live with a shred of human dignity. While still incomparable to those in Dawn City, their lives were at least starting to resemble something decent.
"...Be that as it may, I always feel that expecting to reform them just by making them wealthy might be wishful thinking. While I haven't been to Bolo Province, I did run into a few folks from there back in the Weifu Wasteland."
Gazing across the sun-drenched beach while sipping his coconut water, Mosquito let out a sigh. For a long time, he couldn't figure out how to describe that young Rat Clan follower he had taken in.
After all, this was an upbringing-style game, so most players treated NPCs pretty well. Tengteng practically raised Huahua like a daughter, even though the latter was far taller. And Brother Luo Yu went without saying; Xiao Yu wasn't even human.
Mosquito was no exception. He had always treated his follower well, frequently looking after the young rat-kin financially. Yet no matter how much savings the guy accumulated, how many books he read, or how many skills he learned, he always gave off an odd vibe—
He didn't seem like a normal person.
"It feels as if... when the programmer wrote his code, they maliciously deleted two crucial lines. Whether it's Xiao Yu or Yinyin, they both consider themselves human, but that fellow has never viewed himself as one. His personality isn't particularly bizarre, yet he just doesn't fit in with his surroundings... Outside of work, of course."
Fang Chang let out a soft laugh.
"You're not his father, why do you care how he lives his life?"
"Yeah, I'm certainly not. I'm just here for the laughs; wherever the fun is, that's where I go." Mosquito grinned, tossing the paper with its sensational headline over to Fang Chang. "What about you? Looking to be their godfather?"
"Or maybe you'd like to guess whether they're buying that toy to fight the Wilantes, or to fight you."
Chapter 783