r18novel Page 324
Page 324
Just as you were about to engage in battle with a half-elf, the protective shield of Titania suddenly vibrated. You frowned, about to raise your spear to meet the attack, when you unexpectedly sensed a familiar presence. You scratched your head, activated the shield, and then a fully armed red dragon plummeted from the sky, yelling and screaming.
[It's Serfa! You were startled and rushed forward to catch her. A series of crackling sounds followed, and a bunch of strange weapons and equipment fell from her body.]
[It seems the Salted Dragon has turned her life around. With great enthusiasm, Serfair removes her armor, revealing a new skin clad in iron armor, and recounts her experiences over the past two years.]
[It turns out that ever since Serfal diligently studied "The Self-Cultivation of a Dragon," she actually returned to Dragon Valley and became a dragon. Not only that, she also made a name for herself by robbing lazy dragons who lacked any ambition, quickly accumulating a large amount of dragon junk.]
[Afterwards, she robbed a group of guys wearing black hats who looked like bad guys, but they were dirt poor and she got basically nothing.]
Finally, she unexpectedly encountered Tina, who was exploring Dragon Valley. After hearing about Serfal's ambitions, Tina pondered for a moment and then took her to the interdimensional traveler's settlement in Dragon Valley to do some trading—yes, they sold all the junk that the other dragons had collected, and ended up with quite a few good things.
[Are you getting dizzy? Serfael and Tina went to set up a stall? What kind of evil dragon is this?]
[You then examined the things she brought back and found that there were indeed many good items, including materials that could repair the Titan Palace—once the palace is repaired, you can begin slowly creating new golems, which is also a good thing for you.]
Although I heard that Serfal is still operating on a random buying and selling model, the results were surprisingly good. Aside from 80% of the junk items, there were even 20% that were usable!
However, the most important thing is an item that Serfal obtained from that Black Hat squad: the plan (2). Yes, although that Black Hat squad didn't have much wealth, they unexpectedly brought you what you need most right now.
[You immediately took out your plan (1) and unzipped it along with plan (2). After a moment, you looked at the unzipped files on the Magic Network interface and fell into deep thought.]
The document provides a map of Dragon Valley's settlement and a general description of the Black Hat organization's presence in the region. The Black Hat members Serfal encountered were secretly researching dragon language magic within Dragon Valley, attempting to enslave dragons using ritual magic and ultimately conquer the entire valley.
The entire plan appears quite simple, merely a scheme targeting a specific Black Hat group that seeks to enslave dragons, with no mention whatsoever of plans for other regions.
You frowned, fiddling with the two project proposals, a sense of unease creeping into your mind. Why would "Your Excellency" keep such ordinary proposals on the bookshelf? Dragon Valley was clearly not the Black Hat organization's stronghold.
Suddenly, you seemed to understand something. You quickly picked up the two documents and examined them carefully for a moment, then smiled with relief.
[Separate decompression means that as long as (1) and (2) are together, decompression can be performed, but no one said that there is only one copy of (2)! "Your Excellency" can put your main plan in (1) and then send different plan documents (2) to different organizational members. When each meeting is held, as long as you have (1), you can start their plans at any time.]
Thinking of this, you immediately relaxed your brow, glanced at the bright starlight shining through the woods in the city, and knew that you had obtained a crucial key.
[Serfar's return is perfectly timed! You couldn't help but pat your silly dragon—no, she should be called the clever dragon now—once she'd spent two whole years studying economics novels, she might even be able to get a pseudo-PhD in economics by now!]
[You originally intended to take Serfael back to the city lord's mansion to give her a good feast, but unexpectedly, she sniffed the air and immediately discovered your plan to fight the half-elf, so she promptly joined the battle against you.]
In this rare moment of relaxation, you feel the shackles on your body suddenly loosen. With the life energy jointly bestowed upon you by the half-elf and the red dragon, you ascend to legendary status, while the half-elf also breaks through her own bottleneck alongside you.
"Eh……?"
Artemis's eyes, which were fixed on Latis, suddenly blinked, and her pointed ears instantly flushed red. She instinctively gripped Latis's hand tightly and said in a panic:
"I... I think I just saw... Miss Serfa and I, with my older brother..."
"hiss……"
Latis gasped, glancing at the half-elf for confirmation. Seeing her nod, Latis finally couldn't help but mutter:
"Why did it have to be this time? Emulator, you've ruined my life again!"
"Hmph...Hmph!"
Artemis snapped out of her daze, raised her eyebrows, blushed, took Latis's hand, bit his arm hard, and said in embarrassment and annoyance:
"Being with...with other girls...that's so embarrassing! Bro, how could you be so mean! You're such a bad guy!"
"...Haha, simulator, you're really annoying."
Latis looked helplessly at the half-elf who was pinching his face and shaking him, let out a long sigh, and muttered resentfully to himself:
"One day, I'll give you a good spanking, you wretched simulator!"
Chapter 326 Life is unpredictable, the Witch God Society
As dawn approached, you finally ended your 1v1 duel with Serfal in the top lane. After returning the two exhausted girls to the city manor and resting briefly, you went back to the square in Titania.
The star-locator lamp that the broker gave you years ago still shines on the street. You stroke your chin. Actually, for the past two years, you've known that besides enhancing photosynthesis at night, this thing is essentially a spatial locator, probably a tool the broker used to assist in casting spells and moving between various factions.
[You suspect that the broker will also use the star-locating lamp to keep track of your Titania city, and will immediately notify the Black Hat organization if you make any move to raise the floating island.]
Despite this, you didn't destroy the Star-Fixing Lamp because as your mage level gradually increased, you discovered that you could vaguely sense fluctuations in spatial positioning through the lamp. Now that you've reached Legendary status, you find that you can use this Star-Fixing Lamp to track down the Broker Lady.
[However, I suppose the broker didn't anticipate this problem. Only mages with a high affinity for magic essence, like yourself, can trace the flow of space through resonance with magic essence. And in this world, you know of only three people with a higher affinity for magic essence than you: Arte, Lady Orianna, and Queen Whiteley.]
After a moment's hesitation, sensing the surging magical power within you from your recent advancement, you decided that there was no time like the present, and immediately set off in the opposite direction to track down the broker's lair.
[You used your mage domain to completely tame the surging magical energy within the spatial turbulence, silently advancing along the reverse-location path to the exit.]
Amidst the cawing of crows, you found yourself in front of an unfamiliar hut. The moment you stepped onto the damp wooden floor, you immediately scanned the surrounding magical energy fluctuations and entered stealth mode.
Fortunately, no one was in the broker's shack at the moment, so you pushed open the door and entered. After passing a pile of messy, colorful underwear, you arrived inside the shack.
[You conducted a brief search, but the cabin didn't store many rare items. It seems the warehouse for rare items is elsewhere. However, you did find a plan (2) among a pile of miscellaneous items.]
[You perk up; your earlier guess had indeed come true. It seems each different black hat architecture has different sub-plans, and you already have their prototypes.]
After a quick review and decompression, you discover that this is a business plan primarily focused on the cooperative and competitive relationships between major economic groups, mainly covering various methods of profiting from information asymmetry.
[The distribution of various supplies reveals that the Black Hat organization is engaged in massive smuggling activities. They exploit the relationships between countries, using their affiliation with no single party to move between them. As you watch, you suddenly realize that the diplomatic negotiations you once participated in might not have such simple underlying issues.]
[You immediately retrieved more detailed information and indeed found that the diplomatic negotiations led by Zerris in this simulation had reached a stalemate due to your absence. However, the civilian population on both sides actually held a generally positive attitude towards the negotiations; the stalemate was only caused by interference from the Black Hat organization.]
After a moment's thought, you understood their intentions. Since the Black Hat organization was guiding things from behind, they must have known in advance how the negotiations were going. By leveraging this prior information and manipulating the prices of smuggled goods through Janium's "illegal merchant club," they could reap huge profits.
Thinking about it, Zerris is really unlucky. Without you, I wonder how many years this will take.
You stroked your chin. "Let him suffer in this simulation for now. We'll help him out in real life, ensuring he has a successful career and can enjoy his retirement. After all, he's your father-in-law; you should at least show him some consideration."
The plan also included schemes such as intercepting food exports to Andora so the Black Hat organization could enslave bloodline warriors, and ceding Dragonhorn Territory to the Witch God Society to restrict the trade routes of the floating island families. In short, it was a list of heinous crimes that were too numerous to recount.
You frowned, silently calculating that if this simulation hadn't fallen into the Black Hat's trap, you'd probably be forced to remain within the Church of Goddess until the final collapse, just like before. These schemes to manipulate the situation were far too ruthless; they treated the humans of Atlantis like walking gold mines.
As for the "Black Hat Coin" project, whose future direction has not yet been fully predicted in the plan, its essence is indeed a plan to gradually replace the real currencies of several major countries through the convenient transactions of several economic groups. In fact, hundreds of thousands of Black Hat Coins have already been issued, and the per capita currency holdings of several major countries have increased significantly, almost affecting the economic situation.
You fell into deep thought. After studying the Black Hat Coins on your magic network's backend, you realized they weren't actually scarce. You could also use your personal permissions to add Black Hat Coins to the magic network by condensing magic power. It was simply an impurity formed by Black Hats inputting shaped magic power into the magic network through some kind of loophole.
[However, it does resemble Bitcoin mining, except that computers are replaced with human labor. It takes an average high-level mage half an hour to condense one Black Hat coin, which is quite troublesome.]
You shook your head. Having been a corporate engineer in your past life, you knew virtually nothing about this area, so you couldn't think of any way to sabotage their plans and had to give up for now. However, it wasn't that you were without options—you decided to go back and ask Serfal. Now a self-taught economics PhD, she might have some unique insights.
[As for the current situation... You glanced at the broker's hut, stroked your chin. Logically, these kinds of project proposals should be in the hands of each team leader or person in charge. For the broker, her person in charge should be Mr. Black Money. Could it be that these two are having an affair?]
You looked around curiously and did see some men's products. Suddenly, a sinister thought popped into your head...
A few minutes later, you left the broker's hut, everything restored to its original state, except for the condoms containing griffin essence that you left in hidden places like the trash can and under the bed...
Back in Titania, you resumed your peaceful life. The parts of the Black Hats' plans you've learned are enough to keep you busy investigating, and you also need to keep an eye on the battle situation with the Church of the Goddess to prevent the situation from collapsing too quickly.
[You told Serfal about the Black Hat's economic plan. After listening to you, Serfal, dressed like a clever young lady by a half-elf, adjusted her glasses and confidently told you to entrust the matter to her.]
[Subsequently, Serfar used your magic network access to create an account and urged you to mine for a week before flying to the United Nations of Yanium with about a hundred Black Hat coins.]
Time flies, and in the third year after the founding of Titania, you hear of two major events.
The first major event occurred during a Black Hat family meeting on a floating island, where you used your Mind Dragon abilities to overhear a high-level discussion about the collapse of the economic plan.
It is said that Mr. Black Money and Ms. Broker had some kind of conflict and got into a fight. After a huge commotion, Ms. Broker kicked Mr. Black Money hard in the testicles, and Mr. Black Money retaliated by selling a replica of Ms. Broker. The two then broke off their relationship, and trading in various regions was temporarily suspended.
Meanwhile, a mysterious red-haired female merchant appeared in the Janium region. She first attracted widespread attention by publicly selling some Black Hat coins at low prices. Subsequently, she sold over a hundred Black Hat coins at extremely low prices in several private meetings, causing some minor trouble.
Fortunately, the market promptly recalled these Black Hat coins, so their value only decreased slightly. However, the red-haired businesswoman took advantage of the Black Hat organization's momentary lapse in attention to exchange large quantities of precious dragon crystals for Gold Houses. In just a short time, she had recovered most of the Gold Houses that had been inflating for years from the hands of the common people.
[Then, something happened, and the Black Hat coins that had just been recalled suddenly collapsed. Although there were only a hundred or so, it instantly shattered the already fluctuating market confidence. Black Hat coins were dumped in large quantities at an extremely low price, until they hit rock bottom, at which point the red-haired woman used her Golden House to buy up all the Black Hat coins being sold.]
Meanwhile, the red-haired businesswoman had already bought up most of Yanium's supplies, dispersing all her Gold House coins and amassing a large amount of Black Hat coins. Terrifyingly, she then manipulated the market, linking Black Hat coins to the supply chain, instantly driving up their value.
Finally, she bought back all the dragon crystals with a low amount of Black Hat Coins, sold off all the cumbersome daily necessities, and left Yanium with a frown, carrying with her the extremely valuable Black Hat Coins, leaving behind only a large quantity of Gold House and priceless daily necessities.
[You listened to the Black Hat's high-ranking officials' report with a completely blank expression, not understanding what Serfal had done at all. For Yanium, it seemed that the total amount of supplies and currency remained the same, except that the Black Hat organization's Black Hat currency had been completely plundered... Wait, does that mean she directly destroyed the Black Hat's international credit?]
[Afterwards, you humbly asked Serfal for advice, but to your surprise, Serfal looked at you blankly and sheepishly admitted that she was simply replicating the same old tricks she'd pulled in Dragon Valley. Previously, with Tina watching over them, they'd just been repeating normal transactions of buying low and selling high. This time, without Tina's help with the calculations, Serfal didn't bother to think and just went all in. In the end, not knowing what to do, she ran away that very night.]
These two factors combined led to the complete collapse of the Black Hat economic plan...
You felt a sharp pain in your head. After receiving the Black Hat coins she transferred, you helplessly let her play with them by herself.
[Like a demon lord descended from heaven, or perhaps a mortal deity, this Serfael...]
[As for the second major event you've heard about recently, it's that the Goddess Church has completely retreated to the top of the floating island, which signifies that they no longer have the resources to manage affairs on the mainland.]
You sighed deeply. Regardless, you still held a favorable impression of the Goddess Church, after all, it had misappropriated so much of the Goddess's authority and had even slept with one of her priests. So, you considered it and decided to visit the Witch God's Guild, hoping to persuade them to stop their relentless attacks on the Goddess Church.
[You activated the Holy Grail energy of Yashutia, transforming into a necromancer dragon and entering the Dragon Horn Territory of the Witch God's Society, quickly locating their headquarters.]
However, after some negotiations, something unexpected happened.
The only legendary powerhouse stationed here by the Witch God's Guild is named Kambinash. She seemed quite friendly upon seeing your undead dragon form. During your conversation about the Goddess's Church, she surprisingly told you that they were at war with the Goddess's Church under the orders of a magic network user named "I Sell Gutters in Atlantis."
[You were immediately shocked. Wasn't that the username you desperately wanted to hide this part of your history? What happened? Even selling genitals is being imitated?]
[Camby Nash hesitated for a moment, but since she was bored being alone here, she started telling you about this past event.]
[It turns out that three years ago, following the guidance of the Witch God's Fate Box, she came to the Kingdom of Norard to find someone who could transmit necromancy through the magic network. However, being unfamiliar with the place and burdened by her necromantic aura, she couldn't get close to Lundia and was ultimately ambushed by the Black Hat Squad, who mistook her for a young lady who had been separated from her family.]
However, it was clear that the Black Hat Squad's attacks couldn't penetrate her defenses. Cambynash immediately subdued them and used necromancy to question them. Surprisingly, he actually managed to find out who could break the magic network.
She immediately sought out the person referred to as "Your Excellency" and asked him if he had uploaded the disintegrated necromancy spell to the magic network. Upon hearing her question, "Your Excellency" silently changed his online name to "I Sell My Crotch in Atlantis," thus gaining her trust.
Later, under "Your Excellency's" guidance, the Witch God Society emerged and occupied Dragon Horn Territory. At that time, the young lord of Dragon Horn Territory almost discovered clues about the ritual magic set up by Black Hat to lure the agent, but he was killed by the Witch God Society. Otherwise, given the young lord's brainless personality, he would have definitely reported this matter to the Floating Island, making the infiltration of the Floating Island system much more difficult.
[Some of the Black Hat organization's technological advancements in recent years are based on the Witch God Society's ability to control monsters. They discovered that cyber police also exist among monsters, and under "Your Excellency's" instructions, they attacked and killed many cyber police monsters, thereby enhancing the Black Hat organization's ability to crack the monster network.]
As you listened, you couldn't help but sigh deeply. It turned out that missing the Witch God Society's search had led to them being used by the Black Hats. Thankfully, this was just a simulation; otherwise, it would have been truly regrettable.
However, even now, you can still find a way to salvage the situation. According to Cambinash, "Your Excellency" has been using the excuse of being too busy to go with her to report to the Witch God's Life Box. You can take this opportunity to undermine him.
Chapter 327 The Past of the Goddess and the Powerful
You managed to find time amidst your busy schedule to visit the Southeastern Continent.
According to Kambinash, the Southeastern Continent is indeed a chaotic region, teeming with fugitives, fanatical cultists, criminal gangs, various undead, and vicious monsters. Unlike the chaotic battles of fragmented gods and humans in Yanium, the Southeastern Continent has only one god: the Witch God.
[Legend has it that when the Goddess of Magic debuted, she annihilated all the gods on the continent of Atlantis. However, even after she ascended the path to godhood and left this plane, she had not truly defeated the God of Sorcery.]
[This wasn't because the Witch God was particularly strong, but because his cunning and treacherous nature, accumulated over a thousand years, far exceeded the imagination of the Magic Goddess, who was just a young girl back then. The Magic Goddess annihilated nine of the Witch God's puppet bodies in one fell swoop, but when she came to her senses, she discovered that there were still nine such bodies left!]
Left with no other choice, the Goddess of Magic banished all necromantic magic to the lowlands of the southeastern continent and used a magical net to tightly seal off all necromantic spells. Thus, the trinity of wizards—alchemists, necromancers, and liches—disappeared from all other regions.
[That is to say, Janium still occasionally comes into contact with the southeastern continent, but the monsters on the southeastern continent often go berserk, so for safety reasons, Janium has gradually distanced itself from it.]
The Witch God was also severely weakened and on the verge of death. The Goddess of Magic, however, possessed a complete affinity for necromantic magic, and her control over necromantic magic was no less than that of the Witch God. To resist the Goddess of Magic's brutal beating, the Witch God displayed all his skills, but the Goddess of Magic, with just a powerful brick, sent the Witch God from using crutches to being confined to a wheelchair.
Over a century has passed. Although the Witch God cannot die, he has gone from being confined to a wheelchair to sleeping in a coffin. Only one descendant of the Witch God still occasionally conveys the will of the Witch God's life casket.