Chapter 24: Keys, Come Forth!
Inside the top-floor main control room of the base camp fortress, the predominantly solid wood furniture and knitted carpet decorations all helped to relax the mind. The vintage record player collected by Li Xiniwei played soothing music.
Su Xiao had already passed his busiest phase; now he had to wait for Kaiser to open up the channel on his end.
For this collaboration, Kaiser had finally made an initial investment for once. In the past, that guy always pulled off schemes with empty hands.
With the previous purchase of pig-heads, Kaiser and the slave trader Azba had established preliminary trust and cooperation.
Kaiser promised that he would fund the construction of two large-scale teleportation arrays himself, connecting "Freedom City" with the "Borderlands Region."
One side of the teleportation array was located inside an ultra-large warehouse on the easternmost side of Freedom City. From now on, the pig-heads would be sent there, then teleported to a mountain cavern space in the Borderlands Region.
Su Xiao had already sent pig-heads to excavate this mountain cavern space, which could be expanded at any time. It was only 700 meters away from their base camp fortress.
As the price for this convenience, the average value of each pig-head was raised to 3 kilograms of living ore. The benefit was that the transport time for the pig-heads was reduced by over 96%.
Su Xiao naturally wouldn't refuse this proposal. Since Kaiser had shown sincerity, Su Xiao wouldn't be stingy either. He would sell the goods obtained from his hunts to Kaiser at market prices. How much Kaiser could sell them for was his own skill.
When he learned about this, Kaiser's eyes almost turned into ¥ signs. That guy vaguely revealed one thing: this time, he had entered this world disguised as an Arbiter from the Apocalypse Paradise.
That wasn't the main point. If a large-scale conflict broke out between local forces in this world, Kaiser's unique ability "Quartermaster" would activate, allowing him to randomly replace a quartermaster.
If Su Xiao and the Vassal Clan went to war, Su Xiao's main fighting force would be the pig-heads. This had a high probability of being judged as a large-scale conflict between local forces, in other words, a historical-level war event.
Assuming Su Xiao's forces VS the Vassal Clan forces, when the historical-level war event triggered, Kaiser's "Quartermaster" ability would activate.
Ask yourself, did Su Xiao's side have a position like quartermaster? The answer was no. He fought using his War Lord title, and the simpler the power structure, the better.
On the Vassal Clan's side, as a well-established major force in this world, they normally had quartermasters, let alone during wartime.
If Kaiser replaced the existence of an enemy quartermaster, that quartermaster would be put into a dormant seal within an independent space, while Kaiser would completely replace his existence. Note: replace existence, not inherit identity.
With Kaiser becoming the enemy's quartermaster and Su Xiao as the highest leader on his own side, if the two of them worked together behind the scenes, one of the three major forces of the Vassal Clan might not die on the spot, but would certainly suffer heavy losses.
Whether this could succeed still had many uncertainties. If it succeeded, that was good; if it couldn't be triggered, it couldn't be called a loss either.
Su Xiao picked up his teacup and took a sip of the steaming maple tea. In his view, the current development speed was still too slow; there were too few miners.
Thinking of this, Su Xiao activated the World Contact Platform, and a prompt appeared.
[Prompt: You have used the World Contact Platform name change permission. Please enter a new display name.]
Su Xiao's current mark was disguised as a mark from the Apocalypse Paradise. This should have been a new naming, but since he had invaded an Apocalypse Paradise world once before, this time it was a name change permission to avoid being detected by the Apocalypse Paradise and expelled from this world.
Noticing that Su Xiao had opened the World Contact Platform, Bubu Wang and Baha, who could also see its content, gathered to Su Xiao's left and right, watching with great interest.
Su Xiao pondered for a moment. This time, he activated the contact platform to provoke Molei and Yueshitu. First, they would "spar" online, then escalate to a real-life PK.
Su Xiao admitted that he wasn't strong at trash-talking. Usually, he just directly took action; if he could avoid talking, he wouldn't bother with nonsense.
He turned his gaze to Baha. This was Baha's turf. Su Xiao decisively authorized the visible rights and speaking rights of the World Contact Platform to Baha. Five seconds later, a prompt from the Reincarnation Paradise appeared.
[Prompt: You have been renamed to "Molei's Old Father."]
Su Xiao was momentarily stunned. This name on the World Contact Platform truly surprised even himself.
"Watch and learn, keys, come forth!"
As Baha's words fell, a virtual keyboard constructed in front of him. As a team battle BB machine, key technique grandmaster, and family tree harvester, Baha was going to make Molei's mentality explode today.
Why Molei? The reason was that Yueshitu, that little rabbit, was very timid. On the surface, she seemed lively, but once she got hurt, she cried the loudest.
Su Xiao opened the contact platform, and the text in the input box began to edit itself. It wasn't the usual mental input; this was Baha using a simulated keyboard to input, meaning Baha was speaking.
Baha was about to start provoking Molei, wanting to arrange an offline PK. Fundamentally, that was impossible; Molei wasn't that stupid. To catch Molei, a more clever method was needed.
At this moment, inside the World Contact Platform.
Deer Brother (Rogue): "Recruiting temporary partner, I'm a tank type (with photo)."
Hao Mei (Fengtian Guild): "Handsome little brother, want to play together?"
Deer Brother (Rogue): "Kneeling steadily to the big shot, please don't tease. Good afternoon, Hao Mei big shot."
Hao Mei (Fengtian Guild): "Trash."
Elder Warlock (Honest Merchant Guild): "Buying all qualities and types of ores, selling resource mining consumables, selling recovery potions, selling..."
Prince (Heavenly Paradise Team): "Hao Mei, 1200 soul coins per day as hiring fee. Big shot, don't run around. Before the World Battle officially starts, it's all hiring period."
Hao Mei (Fengtian Guild): "Got it. You miners talk too much. By the way, last time you were reluctant to spend more to hire me for protection. Why are you willing to go all out this time?"
Prince (Heavenly Paradise Team): "It's a long story. Last time... we encountered someone particularly fierce. They almost scared me shitless. The contractors from the Reincarnation Paradise are too brutal. Even now, my team member Belle still has psychological trauma. But fortunately, this World Battle has nothing to do with us miners."
Hao Mei (Fengtian Guild): "Protecting miners is so boring. Molei, come out and hurt each other~"
Molei's Old Father (Rogue): "She might not be here."
Hao Mei (Fengtian Guild): "Huh? Huh?! This is?"
Hao Mei (Fengtian Guild): "Old Father..."
Hao Mei (Fengtian Guild): "Hahahaha (laughing like a pig squealing)."
Deer Brother (Rogue): "This... brother, you've got something there. This, this, this."
Soul Warlock (Honest Merchant Guild): "Holy shit, this young man."
Yueshitu (Rogue): "This is the name change permission, and they have a grudge against Molei."
Molei (Battle Angel): "I'm so pissed! That dog thief from before, come out!!"
Molei's Old Father (Rogue): "Good daughter, what's the matter?"
Molei (Battle Angel): "Change this damn name right now! Who's your child! Damn it!"
Molei's Old Father (Rogue): "Sorry, the name change permission has been used. Isn't this great? It lets you experience fatherly love for free in the mission world. You should understand my good intentions."
Hao Mei (Fengtian Guild): "Hahahaha, holy shit, free experience of fatherly love. I can't stop laughing, my stomach hurts. Molei, if it were me, I definitely wouldn't be able to take it."
Prince (Heavenly Paradise Team): "Don't say Molei big shot, even a miner like me can't stand this grievance. Suddenly having an extra old father out of nowhere."
[Announcement: Molei has reported Molei's Old Father.]
[Reason for report: Suspected insulting naming method.]
[Verification complete: 'Old Father' is a kinship term, not an insulting remark. This report is invalid.]
Molei (Battle Angel): "I can barely restrain myself."
Molei's Old Father (Rogue): "Bear with it a little more. You'll get used to it soon."
Hao Mei (Fengtian Guild): "Hahahaha (dying of laughter)."
Molei (Battle Angel): "Wow! I'm so mad! Bastard, dare to one-on-one!"
Molei's Old Father (Rogue): "One-on-one? Are you sure?"
Molei (Battle Angel): "Heh~, are you scared?"
Molei's Old Father (Rogue): "Please don't rage impotently."
Molei (Battle Angel): "Time, place, come on! Whoever chickens out is a dog."
Molei's Old Father (Rogue): "Kewabo Ring City, time, tomorrow morning 6 o'clock."
Molei (Battle Angel): "Woof!"
Molei (Battle Angel): "Do you think I'm stupid? I'm not going. Come at me, hit me~, can't hit me~, can't hit me~, lulu~"
Molei's Old Father (Rogue): "Challenge concluded. Molei's side has voluntarily surrendered. This serves as the medium. The residual portion of the old contract has been activated (This is contract content, must be displayed and seen by the other party to the contract to take effect)."
[Prompt: Battle Angel Molei, you once signed this contract, then terminated it. However, during the termination process, due to the 'concealed' interference of the other party to the contract, this contract was not completely terminated, leaving a residual portion. This contract has been in a semi-activated state until now.]
[Using this 'speech-based challenge' as the medium, this contract has been reactivated (When this contract was originally signed, Article 652 stated: Verbal agreements, oral contracts, etc., reached through speech, text, and other communication methods, can all be defaulted as valid for activating this contract).]
Prince (Heavenly Paradise Team): "This... is this a horror movie? My back is cold."
Deer Brother (Rogue): "Same here. This is too terrifying."
Molei's Old Father (Rogue): "Contract, signed (This is contract content...)."
Molei's Old Father (Rogue): "Wait for me. I'm coming to find you."
Molei (Battle Angel): "w(ﾟДﾟ)w"