Chapter 43: First cultivate the land

Jin Rui extended his hand, wanting to shake Qin Yu’s.

“Pleasure doing business. You didn’t just bring these robots, did you?”

Qin Yu asked after shaking his hand. These Goblins were shrewd; seeing that he had bought so many robots, they surely must have brought other things Qin Yu might need.

“Hahaha, of course! The Lord seems to know us Goblins very well. I wonder what you need—I might just have it on hand.”

“Then I won’t be polite.”

Qin Yu told Jin Rui everything he needed. Jin Rui was overjoyed, as he happened to have brought those very items.

“1 ton of protein oil, 1,000 logs of various tree species, 2,000 steel frames…”

Jin Rui began instructing his men to unload the items Qin Yu requested.

“A total of 100,000 units of protein oil, 1,000,000 logs of various tree species, and 2,000,000 steel frames. That comes to a total of 3,100,000. With the 20% discount from the Platinum Card, it’s 2,480,000~”

“Charge the card.”

Qin Yu’s remaining three million-plus gold coins plummeted to just over 500,000. But that was unavoidable; practicing alchemy was an extremely costly endeavor, and since he possessed Grandmaster Alchemy, he had to put it to use.

“Lord, doing business with you is truly a pleasure~” Jin Rui kept a beaming smile; his harvest on this trip had been plentiful. “Lord, are you planning to use these materials to craft automatons?”

Jin Rui’s question hit the nail on the head. Qin Yu nodded—given how well-traveled the Goblin representative was, it was to be expected.

“Quite a few alchemists have bought these from me before, but none of them purchased in such bulk…”

Qin Yu was only able to make money through alchemy because he had essentially gotten Grandmaster Alchemy for free.

For a normal alchemist, making money was extremely difficult. Passing the certification exams was one thing, but once inside, if you didn’t reach the Intermediate tier, don’t even think about making a profit.

Most normal people reached Advanced tier at best; anything beyond that required genuine talent, though it was undeniably lucrative once achieved.

“I assume you must have a very powerful alchemist here?”

The cunning Jin Rui immediately spotted a business opportunity.

“Ah~ I have to say, your Goblin commercial instincts are razor-sharp.”

“You flatter me. If possible, might I meet them?”

Unfortunately, Jin Rui could never have imagined that the very alchemist he was looking for was standing right before him.

“No need, because you’ve already met him.”

“Oh!”

Jin Rui was startled, genuinely surprised. The Lord himself was an alchemist.

“I plan to craft automatons with these materials. Would the Goblin Chamber of Commerce be interested in acquiring them?”

Qin Yu asked jokingly, though he already knew the answer.

“You jest, Lord. If it were potions or the like, the Goblin Chamber of Commerce would certainly buy them without hesitation. But as for automatons, the Chamber’s internal rules forbid us from acquiring or using them. Furthermore, as an alchemist, My Lord, you should know well that the Alchemists’ Union strictly prohibits any third party from reselling automatons…”

The Goblin Chamber of Commerce’s biggest headache was that their combat robots required manual piloting to function, and they had yet to make any good breakthroughs with an automated combat system.

The Alchemists’ Union’s automatons didn’t have this problem; they could be driven according to the user’s will through special magical runes.

Of course, there was another crucial point: these automatons could be customized in appearance according to customer preferences, completely crushing Goblin robots in that regard.

However, the robot business and the automaton business didn’t overlap too much—one focused on heavy industry and agriculture, while the other focused on daily life and combat.

“Mhm, I’m aware of that. I’ll provide potions to your Chamber when I have time…”

Qin Yu tossed a high-level recovery potion to Jin Rui. “Consider this a gift.”

Jin Rui caught the potion and inspected it closely.

“Lord, your alchemy must be at least Expert-tier. I will visit again when I have the chance.”

Politely bidding farewell to Qin Yu, Jin Rui and the other Goblins boarded their airship. The vessel took off, soaring away from the territory’s airspace.

“Ha~ah…”

Qin Yu and Yin Feixue let out simultaneous yawns, looking at each other in a daze for a moment.

“Servant, I am going to rest. Do not disturb me unless necessary.”

“Alright, I’ll call you when dinner is ready, Xiao Xue~”

Yin Feixue returned directly to the villa to rest, leaving Qin Yu behind.

Without even reading the manual, Qin Yu activated the Goblin robots. Qin Yu already knew how to operate them from his past life: following his programmed instructions, the Goblin robots first moved the materials for crafting automatons into the underground warehouse area, then headed out to the mapped resource points to start mining, plowing, sowing, and logging…

As the saying goes: To develop, one must farm first…

***

Inside the guild territory of Ten Directions Extinguished.

The blue-haired Storm looked at his thriving territory with a surge of wild joy. Just moments ago, his territory had successfully upgraded to Level 3.

Thanks to the support of Dragonia, his guild had grown rapidly. In addition, the guild had purchased a large number of slaves to construct the infrastructure and convert them into combat units to guarantee their fighting strength.

[Territory Combat Power Calculation: Tier 1 = 1 pt, Tier 2 = 3 pts, Tier 3 = 5 pts, Tier 4 = 8 pts, Tier 5 = 20 pts, Tier 6 = 50 pts, Tier 7 = 100 pts.]

[Only the combat power of Tier 7 units is calculated; beings who have awakened their Destined Relics are excluded.]

Storm’s guild, Ten Directions Extinguished, had 230 Tier 1 units, 60 Tier 2 units, 15 Tier 3 units, and 1 Tier 4 unit, totaling 493 combat power, placing them at rank 288 on the territory leaderboard.

While the top 5 territories boasted over 10,000 combat power—those being the work of unhinged “whale” players—Storm couldn’t compete with them.

Still, while falling short of the top, he was well above the bottom. He had already investigated the situation of Don Quixote’s territory: it was only Level 1.

Heh, serves Don Quixote right for playing games without paying. Did she really think you could get by on skill alone?

Storm still harbored a grudge over Don Quixote rejecting him, defeating him in a tournament match, and mocking him in front of all those spectators. Now, he finally had a chance to vent his frustration.

In esports, being bad was a sin.

Qin Yu’s territory was currently Level 1, with a combat power of only 80. Why was it so low? Simply because Luna, Yin Feixue, and the Amazon tribe were not factored into the combat power calculations.

Yin Feixue possessed a Destined Relic and was excluded. Luna, though weakened, possessed a Destined Relic as well, even if she couldn’t use it yet, so she wasn’t counted either.

As for the Amazon tribe, Qin Yu hadn’t rushed to formally incorporate them into the territory yet, maintaining only a temporary alliance because he didn’t want to draw too much attention in the early stages.

“I’ll just go ahead and snatch their Territory Core; I can sell it for a hefty sum, too.”

Storm already planned to send his army to occupy Don Quixote’s territory. On one hand, he would take their Territory Core to humiliate them; on the other, he would plunder their territory’s resources. The Goblin robots they had purchased would belong to him directly—this was the core gameplay of Fate Paradise: the National War, where one plundered others’ resources to strengthen oneself…