Meteor Fall Master in the 'Starry Abyss'
Chapter 256 - 077. If you want to become rich, build more roads; instead of having children, raise more pigs.

Chapter 256: 077. If you want to become rich, build more roads; instead of having children, raise more pigs.

After implanting his Arcane Energy in the remaining 47 players, Li Aozi turned and flew away from the ground.

Even until Li Aozi’s figure soared into the skyline and gradually disappeared from sight, the players still felt quite emotional.

"Li Aozi truly was a good person."

While flying high in the sky, Li Aozi counted: 47 players implanted with Arcane Energy and an additional purchase of 20 Mutation Inducing Potions, with a group discount price of 10,000 Derby.

Total: 94,000 experience points, 200,000 Derby.

With one breath, he earned 90,000 experience points and 200,000 Derby; this speed was much faster than grinding monsters and completing tasks himself.

"Players truly were good people."

Li Aozi always followed the route of small profits but quick turnover and people-friendly affordable routes; as the pioneer of the pathway, Li Aozi nurtured the players as treasures.

It would be best to also establish an arena, let them fight internally, and select the best talents.

Harvesting leeks might be more profitable, but it would affect everyone’s sense of belonging to Li Aozi.

Raising pigs was different; a pig’s life received meticulous care, someone matched the pig’s partners, adjusted humidity and temperature, and the hygiene environment was comparable to a laboratory. They even played music to ensure the pig’s happy growth; feed, meticulously researched by experts, was both tasty and filling. They alternated between eating and sleeping, and when they fell ill, doctors provided free, attentive care without any negligence. Sometimes, to improve the pig’s health, they even provided some exercise. From the body fat rate, pigs were healthier than most humans.

If they didn’t end up being eaten, Li Aozi reckoned most people wouldn’t live as comfortably as pigs.

Reflecting on his operation method, Li Aozi realized it was basically raising pigs.

Leeks were a short-term quick cash-out, but pork represented long-term management. Pigs raised for six months weighed about 250 to 300 pounds at the market.

According to the market price on Azure Star of 20 Derby per pound, a pig could sell for about 6,000 Derby. If he had 10 pigs, he could sell them for at least 55,000 Derby. Deducting the piglets’ costs of at least 1,100,000 for feed, 1,400 for medicine, and 1,200 for utilities, the total cost was 27,200.

Most importantly, no one would always eat leeks, but pork was eagerly awaited by people.

Hand-raising, fattening, and making powerful, distinctive pigs, slaughtering them, and selling them in the market.

This whole process brought a sense of nurturing joy and satisfaction that merely harvesting leeks couldn’t provide.

The nature of the pathway determined that nurturing players into simple-minded, powerful fat pigs was the most cost-effective.

The stronger the players, the more powerful the pathway, and the faster the Arcane Energy developed, increasing Li Aozi’s power. As Li Aozi became stronger, he could expand the pig farm, raising more fat pigs, creating a roughly positive cycle of expansion.

The cohesion brought by the pathway was far more reliable than religion or ethnicity.

After all, companions might betray you, and deities of faith might sometimes fail in miracles, but strength was strength. The hierarchy of the pathway was fought for by oneself and wouldn’t betray them.

In the process of raising pigs—or rather, players—Li Aozi could also provide work-for-debt and work-for-aid methods to motivate players, making them a super-mercenary force.

Li Aozi’s model was actually how Narrative-Level Civilizations handled strong individuals in his previous life.

After all, they couldn’t stop transcendents from seeking to ascend to godhood, but they could establish a mutual benefit and win-win relationship.

No matter how strong an individual was, they were just one person, but Li Aozi controlled an entire pathway. Given enough time, countless stronger individuals would emerge from the massive population.

You would inevitably have desires and needs, which the Narrative-Level Civilization could provide.

To progress further on the pathway, study higher technology, and broaden perspectives, could an individual’s intelligence and creativity compare to the countless possibilities of cosmic civilization?

For those betrayed by all, it didn’t matter; at worst, they could fall into the Lower Starry Abyss. But there were six layers, betraying everyone on each layer seemed a bit...

Moreover, people long had a misconception: individual strength meant civilization must bow to them.

This conclusion didn’t hold in the Starry Abyss because individuals could never defeat society.

Society, as an entire civilization’s citizens, mechanisms, characteristics, and leaders, under a certain extraordinary power’s influence, transformed from an abstract "civilization" into a beast called society.

In other words, no matter how strong an individual was, the same-level society could include tens of thousands or even billions of strong individuals.

Adding to this, society as a creature had at least one "Speaker," an extraordinary individual strongman.

In reality, when same-level individuals encountered society, it was never a one-on-one battle; it was one-on-one plus one plus the entire society’s population...

Society, as a group, was a disaster in the cosmos.

Narrative-Level Civilizations were adept at this; they couldn’t concentrate all power and consciousness like society and instead used the temptation of the pathway as an upward ladder to win people’s loyalty.

Destroyer pathways were popular, followed by Fine Artistry and Redemption.

The Mysterious and Raiding pathways’ Chief Gods were still around, and people competed for the position of Main God’s Apostle.

Li Aozi’s approach always centered around his familiar Meteor Fall Master pathway. He was very familiar with this pathway.

The Sovereign pathway’s Chief God, Morphederia, had been confirmed dead, while the Conqueror, Torchbearer, and Ender pathways were highly competitive. Many aiming for these pathways’ endpoints had accumulated countless years, becoming old monsters. The results of such hotly contested pathways were explosive competition.

Li Aozi stated: "Forget competing like crazy; I can just escape. Why should I get caught in that?"

Increasing the number of Meteor Fall Master players was far easier than vying with those old monsters to get ahead.

The Destroyer pathway was the most outrageous. Despite its myriad schools and infinite derived pathways, its popularity meant anyone mastering a Destroyer pathway would attract countless strong figures.

No one was naive; sticking it out would lead to no good end. Given the available pathways, why strive fiercely for a Chief God position?

Comparatively, the Meteor Fall Master pathway was a blue ocean, free of cutthroat competition, brimming with profit and temptation in a new world.

Just as Li Aozi’s calculations rang out, flying towards the Sky Ring, the world underwent a minor change.

Sky Ring, Nuliang City, District 12.

In a dark street corner, a young man, knocked out during a brawl, suddenly tilted his head.