Chapter 959
Chapter 959 - 945
1,509 words
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8 min read
"Life and death cycle endlessly..."
Life may not be sacred, but it still holds "value."
A mortal’s life may not be etched in history or create any great feats, but merely by existing, by living their days well, by completing the tasks at hand, they can still leave a mark, they can still generate value...
"...as long as you’re alive, you can make money and pay taxes, become a part of the financial system, and naturally, you have value. Uh, all surplus value has its place to go..."
Lu Ping’an cleared over four hundred points in assets, but in actuality, that person had over a thousand points.
Lu Ping’an originally thought it would vanish with the wind, but his Life Bank turned out to be even more excessive than expected.
"...They’ve been confiscated entirely?"
After a deceased person’s estate goes unclaimed, it naturally falls to "society" and the "state," and at that point, it becomes the "public assets" of the Life Bank.
The good news is that it somehow became Lu Ping’an’s property, at least he shouldn’t need to inject extra money into the rule building he’d built, as the increasingly costly maintenance fees finally had a way to pay for themselves.
Even better news was that Lu Ping’an’s Library and trading columns, among others, would see a lot of new merchandise.
A steady supply of new merchandise can enrich the entire market, and one might even pick up some treasures that directly enhance the "rules" of the courtyard, which would be the best news.
Bad news? There was some of that, too, probably being that if Lu Ping’an really wanted to act inhumanely, his lower limit could drop even further.
For example, deliberately making people go into debt and then sending them to high-risk areas...
"...No, actually it’s a loss. If I keep bankrupting debtors endlessly, the bank will earn a fortune, but I will soon go bankrupt."
Despite how exhilarating Lu Ping’an’s liquidations appeared, if you only looked at his personal private account balance, he had already lost half.
"High-Interest Loans" was his private account, and because Lu Ping’an’s total capital was quite limited, it was only open to Decree-level Big Bosses and above.
And now, for each bad loan, the bank netted thousands in profits, while Lu Ping’an’s principal naturally took a fifty percent hit... He could say it was trading Life-points for speed of growth, but such growth was too expensive, and Life-points had other more valuable uses.
"...Truly valuable things might be rare low-level abilities, special combat skills, or scarce innate abnormal abilities, all worth the investment despite the losses."
Lu Ping’an wasn’t the one who said this... When it came to acting inhumanely, Big Cat was more skilled, and her suggestions were more mature and shameless.
In a sense, the limited total capital also prevented Lu Ping’an from going completely bankrupt.
If he could only recover half, he couldn’t afford the endless deaths of his debtors.
Yet, the bankruptcy liquidation of these debtors still left him well satisfied.
Some things are inherently expensive or high-level, such as rare "High-Level Rules" and powerful characteristics unique to each species.
But something everyone possesses, like "combat experience," is dirt cheap... In actual combat, it’s often the equivalent of blood and tears, extremely "expensive."
It was experience from battles of life and death, the instincts and summaries of blood and tears by fighters who had struggled back from the brink of death countless times, and yet Lu Ping’an obtained it for an incredibly low price.
However, "memory" and "experience" are always a double-edged sword.
"...With the precedent of the Sophist, it’s a good deal, but there has to be a limit." Lu Ping’an shook his head, at least at his current level, he didn’t need to worry about losing himself.
𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂
On the whole, with the significant early investments yielding a "mechanism," Lu Ping’an’s investments finally started producing stable outputs.
Of course, what made Lu Ping’an slightly regretful was that the "plugin" wasn’t perfect, and the "Life Coins" system didn’t come into play during liquidation.
"...At least, I got what I wanted."
Lu Ping’an stroked his chin, quite satisfied.
Zhao Yan was indeed strong, no wonder he placed such importance on intelligence work; his ability had a very potent "first encounter kill" effect, and one could easily suffer greatly on first meeting.
But he couldn’t stop the dead from spilling secrets.
Now, not only did Lu Ping’an have his attack methods and skills, but he even had the "feeling" of taking a hit... This kind of painful sensation, this way of a "torrent" flowing and tearing through the body, was very suitable for analyzing the essence of Zhao Yan’s ability.
"The question now is, how do I pass this information to the hunters..."
Lu Ping’an only paused for a moment before coming up with an idea.
"...Just sell it directly and you can earn some extra points. As for how it was obtained, does it really matter..."
After some thought, he realized this could indeed work, and it would even reinforce the morale of those unlucky ones.
"Ha, I can also mass-produce some targeted weapons, and then mark them up at a high price...."
In the aspect of not being a decent person, Lu Ping’an also didn’t disappoint.
The first hunting failure was a painful lesson for some, and a warning for others.
At the moment Zhao Yan was attacked, he sensed that it was a trap, not a coincidence.... Among the hunters, he saw human figures.
Obviously, compared to the "Feather Tribe" disguised humans attacking, the hunters chose to reveal their true forms... It was not only because they could make better use of their combat power, but mainly to conceal the existence of the "Disguise Ring."
This would lead to a series of chain reactions, something the Pursuing-hunter absolutely could not accept.
And judging from the outcome, this was the right choice...
"Everyone’s dead, all dead."
Zhao Yan’s strength exceeded all the hunters’ expectations; their assessment was roughly the same as Lu Ping’an, viewing him as Rule-level, but incomplete.
The astonishing combat power he exhibited now made everyone hesitate..... They had to consider the backlash if the assassination failed.
If there really was the power to annihilate the first wave of hunting teams in a flash, everyone else piling on might just be gifting themselves to the enemy for free.
Amidst hesitation and unease, they awaited Zhao Yan’s return and counterattack.
What surprised everyone, however, was that Zhao Yan simply vanished.
Did he flee? Merely upon realizing he might be hunted, he escaped without any hesitation?
But what puzzled people even more was that after four days, he came back... brazenly moving into an upscale hotel and enjoying his lavish daily life with money obtained from "spoils of war."
"Are you Mr. Zhao? Haha, Mr. Dao mentioned you to me; with your strength, you are sure to bring me excellent spoils of war."
Lu Ping’an met with Zhao Yan who had come to claim his bounty... Honestly, just going by appearances, he really was a handsome and elegant young man.
"Come, have a look at my museum; you’re sure to find things you’ve never seen before....."
Lu Ping’an happily invited Zhao Yan to tour his estate, and provided an exceptionally rich reward.
".....This is more than we agreed."
Even Zhao Yan was shocked at the gold Kadund cards that were directly tripled in value, along with a bunch of "small gifts" like cash vouchers and coupons.
"Take it; not accepting would be refusing to give me, An Nan, face."
So, after feasting and gift-giving, Lu Ping’an obtained his first "Rule-Level Target" gold coin...he also confirmed that even if one was a true Rule strongman, it would likely be impossible to detect his sinister ability traits.
He was somewhat surprised; Zhao Yan’s first gold coin came to him much more easily than anticipated.
And in their conversation, Lu Ping’an even faintly hinted at the idea of recruitment.
But, he was directly rejected by the other party..... Obviously, Zhao Yan had his own thoughts and plans.
Being a servant of the local (Lu Ping’an)? That was never an option to begin with.
"That’s really a shame..."
While expressing his regret, Lu Ping’an issued a new "Bounty Commission," this time for a Quasi-rule level Demon collector’s item.
At the same time, he directly sold the "Ability Intelligence" of Zhao Yan, indirectly encouraging the hunters.
However, unlike before, he didn’t incite them to start a second hunt; instead, he delayed their progress.
"Low-success-rate assassinations are just a waste of human resources, and they also undermine one’s own morale. Accumulate strength; wait until he’s sunk deeper, then start a one-hit-kill hunt."
— End of Chapter 959 —