Chapter 102: Sponsorship
The spatial fluctuations subsided, and Su Xiao had already returned to the second floor of the accessory shop in the real world.
Closing the prompt, Su Xiao had anticipated this outcome. The delayed opening of the Treeborn World last time was most likely orchestrated by Huishenshi behind the scenes.
Opening the window to ventilate, the street was very quiet. It was only nine in the morning, and the two groups of "Sunset Red Battle Teams" hadn't arrived yet.
Su Xiao didn't care whether people danced square dances on the street, but his neighbor, Fatty Ma, cared a lot. In Fatty Ma's words, his parrot, Ma Dali, had recently started singing "Little Apple."
As a feng shui master, Fatty Ma handled this noise nuisance with ease. The guy ran a wreath and funeral clothes shop, and leveraging this advantage, he launched a promotional sale for the two "Sunset Red Battle Teams."
At the time, the scene was: in the evening, a group of elderly folks were happily dancing when Fatty Ma approached with an urn to promote his wares. After getting beaten up three times and extorting over 2,000 in total, the two "Sunset Red Battle Teams" stopped coming as often.
Su Xiao still remembered that after Fatty Ma got slapped by an elderly woman, he collapsed on the ground, convulsing and foaming at the mouth. The old woman initially didn't care, wearing an expression of 70% indifference and 30% mockery, until Fatty Ma started bleeding from his mouth and nose. She panicked, knelt down to pinch his philtrum, and cried, begging him not to die.
Fatty Ma scared off the two "Sunset Red Battle Teams," which dealt a devastating blow to Bubu Wang's short video development. The century-spanning battle between the "West Street Senior Dance Troupe" and the "Chemical Industry Senior Dance Troupe" was discontinued, and Bubu Wang's follower count plummeted, now down to just 200,000 fans.
But Bubu Wang's short video journey wasn't over. It had recently set its sights on Fatty Ma's parrot, Ma Dali, causing Ma Dali to make strange calls whenever it saw Bubu Wang.
Understandably so. Bubu Wang had previously put Ma Dali into a spinning hamster wheel, making it run inside. When Ma Dali refused to run, Bubu Wang would invite Beini over. Recently, Ma Dali had lost weight.
A gentle breeze blew in through the window. Exhausted from the training in the Land of All Beings, Su Xiao lay back in a recliner, mentally tallying his gains and losses from this trip to Ser Star.
He was satisfied with most of the other gains, except for the [Active Crystals]. After obtaining over 700 [Active Crystals], he thought he'd struck it rich, but upon returning to Reincarnation Paradise, he realized that wasn't the case.
The selling price was fine, but the problem was that these were [Active Crystals], an ultra-concentrated form of Living Ore. Living Ore couldn't be taken out of Ser Star; it was a unique resource of that world, just like you couldn't take [Ink Traces] out of the World of Paintings.
Although [Active Crystals] were slightly different from Living Ore, their unique nature meant they needed to be fully notarized before being sold to Reincarnation Paradise. After careful calculation, deducting the notarization fees, each [Active Crystal] only netted a dozen or so Soul Coins. From every angle, it was a huge loss, and keeping them for personal use was more profitable.
Su Xiao decided to temporarily hold onto this special resource; it would likely come in handy later.
As for the subsequent Faith Power: Sun, it seemed fine from the current situation. The situation on Ser Star had basically stabilized.
Regarding the [Old Beast King's Essence], he had just used the First Generation Remains, so he needed to wait for the Cyan Steel Shadow Energy ability to stabilize before using the [Old Beast King's Essence] to enhance it.
After thinking about these things, Su Xiao frowned. He felt he had forgotten something earlier, but he couldn't recall it at the moment.
This was very unusual. Su Xiao was quite confident in his memory. If it were something from months or a year ago, and not actively mentioned, he might temporarily forget. But in his impression, the forgotten matter was something that had happened recently.
Su Xiao called over Bubu Wang, Baha, and Beini, and asked, "Have I forgotten anything recently?"
"What thing?"
"Woof?"
"Meow?"
Baha, Bubu Wang, and Beini all indicated they didn't know, which made Su Xiao suspicious. He began to mentally review recent events like a revolving lantern. Suddenly, he remembered that the Traveling Group member he had been fostering, named... Youyouwei, no, Youyou'an, had contacted him.
Thinking of this, Su Xiao felt a bit puzzled. How could he forget something like this? Earlier, Youyou'an said she had something to discuss, but Su Xiao was too busy at the time, so they agreed to talk the next day, and then he forgot.
If there was something to discuss, they could talk in the real world. Su Xiao picked up the phone on the table and dialed a number from his contacts. After a few dozen rings, the other side finally answered.
"Don't you have any decency? Calling at this hour?"
The voice on the other end was very groggy.
"It's 9 a.m."
"I just fell asleep 10 minutes ago!"
"..."
"Alright, what did you contact me about? This also settles the favor I owe you."
The voice of Gulu in the phone became much clearer. Su Xiao asked, "Do you know Youyou'an's contact information?"
"Youyou'an? Who's that?"
"Member No. 11 of your Traveling Group."
"Uh~, I remember now. I've met her several times, even in the real world. I think she gave me her contact info, but I forgot it. By the way, what does she look like? I just remember she's a woman."
"..."
Su Xiao thought for a moment, and the image of Youyou'an gradually became clear in his mind, eventually fully recalling her appearance.
Su Xiao speculated that this was the effect of Youyou'an's talent ability. Given her strength, her own abilities couldn't achieve this; only a talent ability that had initially awakened to S-rank could.
For a Traveling Group member, having such talent wasn't impossible. The Traveling Group never actively recruited talented people, but it attracted them.
In terms of the intensity of this talent, it wasn't a big deal for Su Xiao. He just needed to recall, and he could remember Youyou'an as a person.
But this was based on a huge gap in strength. If Youyou'an interacted with contractors of the same rank, they might forget who she was shortly after meeting.
"I remember now. This Youyou'an has some kind of talent. It's not that she makes us forget her, but that she herself has little presence. Wait, I'll go ask the Witch if she knows Youyou'an's contact info."
Gulu hung up the communication. A few minutes later, she sent a message: a phone number followed by a string of text.
'I went through great hardships to find the Witch's contact info, and then put in a lot of effort to get Youyou'an's contact info, so~, the favor from last time is settled, hahaha.'
From the text, it seemed like Gulu had put in a lot of effort, but in reality, she just lay in bed, scrolled through her phone to find the Witch's number, called, asked for the number, and sent it back.
Last time in the real world, Gulu was unlucky. Su Xiao received a temporary summons from Reincarnation Paradise and went on a mission. Afterwards, Gulu repeatedly emphasized that she would definitely repay this favor.
Now it seemed that Gulu's way of repaying favors was utterly shameless. But if you thought about it deeply, it wasn't a problem. She had even called him "Dad," so when dealing with Su Xiao, any sense of dignity was long gone.
Actually, Gulu wasn't one to default on debts. It was just that after having her leg broken in Canglong Continent last time, she wanted to regain some face.
Su Xiao dialed Youyou'an's number. After it connected, there was first a noisy crowd, then silence a few seconds later.
"Hello?"
"I'm Bai Ye."
"Oh, it's the big sponsor, ah no, cough~, Mr. White Night, hello."
"..."
Noticing Su Xiao's lack of response, Youyou'an tentatively asked, "Mr. White Night, I waited for you all day the day before yesterday. Why... why didn't you contact me?"
"I forgot who you were."
"That's a very direct answer..."
Youyou'an sighed. Ever since her troublesome talent ability awakened, her life had changed. Even her parents would forget who she was. Once, they thought a thief had broken into the house. Her father wondered, how could a thief be so arrogant as to sit on the sofa and watch TV, not even afraid of the butler seeing?
After flipping through the household register, her parents gradually remembered that they seemed to have a daughter like that.
"What do you want? Keep it short."
"Alright, Mr. White Night. I've now advanced to the Second Rank. Because of my good performance in the First Rank, I got the chance to participate in a survival trial."
"Continue."
"It's like this. The rewards for this survival trial are fully public. The first-place reward is a [Basic Passive Skill Scroll Chest]. This chest can yield seven types of basic passive scrolls, corresponding to Strength, Agility, Stamina, Intelligence, Charm, Perception, and Soul."
"So?"
"Mr. White Night, the prompt says that the basic passives from this [Basic Passive Skill Scroll Chest] are all top-tier in potential."
"I said keep it short."
"Alright, Mr. White Night. Our contract stipulates that all resources I obtain related to basic passive abilities belong to you. So I want to apply for an investment to ensure I secure first place."
"How much?"
"Um~, 500,000 Paradise Coins... is that okay? If not, we could reduce it a bit..."
"..."
Without a word, Su Xiao hung up the phone. Such a trivial matter, and she was so hesitant, finally saying she wanted to apply for 500,000 Paradise Coins in funding.
For a top-tier basic passive ability, 500,000 Paradise Coins was nothing. Even an investment of 5 million Paradise Coins was a small matter.
After handling Youyou'an's issue, Su Xiao took a copper ring from a hidden compartment in the armrest of his recliner. This item was called the [Prison Guard Copper Ring].
This was a gift from Brother Wusan a long time ago. At that time, Brother Wusan was hostile to Stan, surrounded by enemies. His contractor friends all claimed they didn't know him, forcing him to hide with his daughter.
Back then, Su Xiao was in a fierce conflict with Stan. After receiving Brother Wusan's call, he lent him his overseas vineyard estate to stay in.
That vineyard was bought at Hai Dong's strong insistence. After the joint purchase, Hai Dong lived there for half a year and never drank wine again.
After Brother Wusan settled down there with his daughter, he sent Su Xiao the [Prison Guard Copper Ring]. Its effect was exceptionally domineering: after use, it allowed a fully open state for 10 minutes.
The so-called fully open state meant that Su Xiao, while in the real world, could use his own active abilities for 10 minutes and retrieve one piece of equipment from his sealed storage space.
Even if it was only 10 minutes, being able to use Cyan Steel Shadow Energy and Blood Spear in the real world, along with holding Dragon-Slaying Flash, made his combat power unimaginable.
In Su Xiao's view, the ideal scenario wasn't settling the score with Huishenshi inside the Treeborn World, but having the other party come to him in the real world. In the real world, Su Xiao had never met an opponent.
Unfortunately, given Huishenshi's intelligence, he would never come. Last time in the real world, Su Xiao had just hunted him down, and the other party decisively retreated.
This was Huishenshi's most troublesome trait. When it was time to kill, he showed no mercy. When it was time to back down, he never stepped forward. Instead, he used others, setting up various schemes to let others take the beating while he reaped the benefits.
For example, on Alliance Star, the scapegoat Xianji was set up by Su Xiao as a public enemy, experiencing several days of orbital bombardment. Huishenshi, who had been "afk" the whole time, snatched the [Death Grail] at the last moment.
It was this scheme by Huishenshi that escalated their relationship from non-aggressive enemies to mortal foes.
Having just one super old yinbi like Huishenshi was troublesome enough, but this time, there was also Shenfu.
Shenfu seemed unremarkable, but on Demon Spirit Star, his final gains were no less than Su Xiao's. That guy used the Sun Baptism of the Sun Holy Land to successfully seize the primordial power of an Ancient God.
This time, Su Xiao entered the Treeborn World with three goals: