Chapter 25: The Talent-Rich Wild Boar Legion
The world contact platform, which had been lively just moments ago, suddenly fell silent. No one spoke anymore, all observing the shift in the situation.
Su Xiao wasn’t surprised by this. He closed the world contact platform and tried to lock onto Molei’s location through the contract. The distance was too great, so he couldn’t pinpoint her position for the time being. The contract wasn’t omnipotent and had many limitations.
When had Su Xiao signed this contract with Molei? It was a long story. This was signed in the Tsar World, then dissolved in the Dark Prison World, which was two world progressions apart.
Su Xiao vaguely remembered that when the contract was dissolved, Molei seemed to say something like ‘0.2 points of Charm,’ and as ‘feedback,’ he broke one of her legs.
That contract was the one dissolved back then. It was a permanent contract, and even after dissolution, a backup move could be left behind—namely, the current contract reconstruction.
The reconstructed contract wouldn’t last long, but for Su Xiao, that was enough. He only needed to wait for the contract to stabilize before he could go catch Molei.
There was another thing worth noting. Back in the Demon Spirit Star, Molei and Yueshitu, who already knew each other, met there, and their relationship upgraded from ordinary friends to close friends.
In the World of Paintings, Molei and Yueshitu were inseparable. Although this was related to factions and missions, from a side perspective, their relationship had become very close, upgrading from friends to teammates.
That meant Molei now had a high probability of being with Yueshitu, protecting her development.
Given Molei’s temperament, once she realized she had been forcibly signed into a contract, she would definitely leave the hiding spot alone to avoid dragging Yueshitu into a real-world beating when Su Xiao came knocking.
Su Xiao’s train of thought was clear. For him, catching Molei meant it was only a matter of time before he caught Yueshitu. What he cared about more was not letting Molei escape too far at this stage, otherwise, he’d have to travel a long distance to catch her.
Just as Su Xiao was pondering this, the fortress beneath him trembled slightly. He immediately thought it was an enemy attack, but then realized it seemed to be a minor shake from the fortress itself.
[Tip: The Doom Fortress is about to evolve to T4 level.]
His luck wasn’t bad. The evolution from T5 to T4 succeeded on the first try. Compared to the fortress’s increased size and the resulting larger living space, Su Xiao cared more about the improved drilling capacity and raw active ore processing ability that came with the T4 upgrade.
Mining an active ore vein didn’t mean the ore was immediately usable as active ore. First, it had to be cleaned, crushed, and initially filtered by the symbiotic washing machinery inside the fortress.
After that, the raw ore became ore material, which the fortress itself swallowed. Through deep purification, it gradually transformed into active energy, stored within the fortress.
The ore condensed by the fortress from active energy was the active ore circulating in the market.
This was a multi-purpose ore. It could be used as power fuel, or its internal active life force could be purified. This ‘high-concentration active purified substance’ was the foundation of existing biotechnology. Without it, it was like a computer without electricity or a car without fuel.
2,178 pig-headed laborers worked in the underground mine, with 1,089 working during the day and the rest at night, both shifts lasting 12 hours. The supply of raw ore was abundant. At T5 level, the fortress could produce 1,000 kilograms of active ore per day.
Once the fortress upgraded to T4, not only would drilling capacity greatly improve, but active ore refining would also reach 5,000 kilograms per day. That seemed like a lot, but in the calculations of the vassal merchants, it was only 50 units.
After deducting 40 units for taxes, the remaining 10 units had to cover costs, fortress rental fees, vassal security, and staff salaries. After all these miscellaneous expenses, the net daily profit, while unattainable for ordinary people, was only average overall. Using this to develop a faction was absolutely impossible.
As for the taxes owed to the ‘Vassal Alliance,’ Su Xiao chose to ignore them. The crappy place he was in, even the ‘Vassal Alliance’ didn’t want to mine there, let alone anyone else. So no one would come to collect taxes here.
In other words, aside from paying for food, Su Xiao had almost no costs.
The fortress’s transformation was very fast. Aside from occasionally hearing faint metal friction sounds, Su Xiao, sitting in the main control room, didn’t feel much. The main control room didn’t get bigger, but its height increased.
When the fortress stopped transforming, this massive thing, resembling a black mountain, had noticeably expanded horizontally. Its height had also increased from over 50 meters to 63 meters. Looking down from the control room’s curved window, the view was broader. He could see herds of fat-tailed cattle grazing in the territory of the aberrant beasts.
[Tip: The Doom Fortress has evolved to T4 level.]
[Active ore conversion has increased from 10 units per natural day to 50 units per natural day (1 unit = 100 kilograms of active ore; food and fresh water are converted at a higher ratio).]
[The Doom Fortress’s outer armor defense has increased by 15 points.]
[Due to the fortress’s rank increase, you can choose one of the following three characteristics for the fortress.]