Meteor Fall Master in the 'Starry Abyss'
Chapter 683 - 296. What does it feel like to have more money than you can spend?

Chapter 683: 296. What does it feel like to have more money than you can spend?

Soon, the effect of enhanced Wealth Luck began to manifest itself.

While Li Aozi was enjoying his dinner and leisurely browsing the forums, a subordinate relayed a message to him.

"Your Excellency the President, Kul, a great Merchant from the Valenkov Civilization, hopes to set up a Magic Guidance material processing factory in our country."

Li Aozi was slightly surprised:

"Kul? He’s a well-known entrepreneur from the Abyss, but what aspect of our planet has caught his eye?"

"According to him, it is because of the potential of the civilizations within the Eye of the Galaxy Starfield to join the Interstellar Alliance in the future; the market prospects are very good."

This reasoning was plausible. After all, although the Eye of the Galaxy Starfield was extremely remote within the Abyss, equivalent in location to the polar regions, it still had the Crystal Tower and the Night Butterfly Federation, two interstellar civilizations.

Such a market could not be offered by a mere Stellar System civilization. To say it had great potential was indeed true, but the problem was also clear: neither of the two civilizations had chosen to join the Interstellar Alliance. The markets were highly autonomous and to put it bluntly, this behavior was essentially no different from shutting one’s doors to the world.

Li Aozi did understand why the Night Butterfly Federation and the Crystal Tower had chosen not to join the Interstellar Alliance—one significant reason was that the two civilizations could not cope with the comprehensive crushing from the high-end markets under the background of an interstellarized market; local markets would be rapidly overtaken, followed by the subversion of economic culture and thought traditions, culminating in conquest.

Especially the three major hegemonies, represented by Narrative-Level Civilizations, pursued their Grand Narratives with fervent zeal, tirelessly propagating their so-called ’Blueprint Dreams’ while attracting powerful beings through their pathways and monopolizing the channels for ascension, causing various small and medium-sized civilizations to be eager to join them.

Of course, joining the Grand Narrative naturally comes with many benefits, especially the improvement of material living standards. Narrative-Level Civilizations hardly have any concerns about conserving resources and can build vigorously.

As for the autonomous star such as the Baizhu Autonomous State that Li Aozi controlled, these were a bit special because their resource output was not sufficient, their manufacturing capacity was quite ordinary, lacking distinguishing features. Ultimately, these planets would choose the path of becoming Mercenary City-States, acquiring resources through wars and conquests, or by selling military capabilities to earn income.

The main force under Li Aozi was made up of players, and awkwardly, because these undead Descenders currently did not have a legal interstellar status, their output was not taken into account in the GDP total.

Yet, as Li Aozi’s ’private soldiers,’ they consumed redistributed income, so the per capita GDP of the Baizhu Star People was problematic and did not represent the actual living standards of the residents.

"To be able to attract foreign capital that is neither from the Crystal Tower nor Narrative-Level Civilizations... hmm, that could work."

Li Aozi nodded his approval and passed the matter to the economic department to handle.

No sooner had he spoken than the X Fleet sent good news:

"Your Excellency the President, our unmanned probes have discovered a ’Golden Planet,’ estimated to yield 4.2 million tons of gold! There are also large quantities of high-value minerals..."

"Excellent!" Li Aozi’s eyes sparkled.

In the Interstellar Era, natural gold was still a precious metal. Not to speak of its utilization in magic civilizations, where gold was considered a ’Supreme Material.’ A large number of rituals, synthesis processes, and enchantments were highly dependent on gold and silver.

Not to mention, gold was required to synthesize superior magic metals like Orichalcum.

4.2 million tons was an immense reserve, equivalent to ten times the reserves of Azure Star. It was a mine that would take at least a decade or more to excavate.

Li Aozi was about to schedule a meeting for the next day to discuss whether to allocate funds to set up an extraterrestrial mining company or to outsource and seek cooperation, when the system popped up another message:

[Player ’Yutianxiao’ requests to trade an item with you: Strange Meteorite]

[Attached message: Li Aozi, while I was working in outer space, this thing hit me. There seems to be a voice inside it, demanding that I hand it over to a person of prestigious status...]

Li Aozi accepted the item, and a lump of irregular stone, somewhere between the state of Ice Crystal and metal, immediately appeared before him.

"This thing... why does it feel somewhat familiar?"

Li Aozi fiddled with the meteorite, continuously feeling waves of a familiar aura emanating from it, as if it contained some kind of radiation. Unconsciously, tiny blue Neural Tentacles extended from the palm of his hand, constantly touching and absorbing the radiative energy.

"It seems to be something from the [Sovereign] series."

His eyes shimmered with silver Runes as he closely scanned and analyzed the meteorite’s structure:

[Eye of Truth]

[Identifying an item...]

[Specialty [Unilateral Action]—activated!]

[Charm Check passed! Great success!]

[Appraisal Completed]

——————————

[Item Name]: Flawless Solid Ice

[Category]: Rare Mineral/Mutation Inducer

[Quality]: "Supernatural Excellence"

[Attributes]:

Limited to [Sovereign] pathway holders

When placed in a backpack: Charm +20

When carried on person: Every seven days, perform a [Mutation] check, if the check is successful, acquire Alpha Stage Arcane Energy—[Cold Release]. If failed, accumulate Gene Fragments;

If [Cold Release] has already been acquired, then every seven days, perform an [Optimized Mutation] check. If successful, [Cold Release] will be promoted until it is upgraded to Omega Tier Arcane Energy—[Heaven-Earth Frost]. If failed, accumulate Gene Fragments;

[Perpetual]: If the holder is above Zeta Rank (6), each pathway promotion will yield additional Gene Fragment rewards.

[Introduction]:

"This frost fragment seems to come from a civilization of the [Sovereign] pathway. However, as the civilization withered away and the planet was destroyed over the long years, it has been wandering in the cosmos for quite some time."

"The craftsman who made it endowed it with the ability to grant Mortals Strength. Although for those who are not mutants, carrying it would only lead to severe frostbite and a chill in the soul, and even the slightest carelessness could result in being swallowed by its frosty power. Nonetheless, it cannot be denied that it is a masterpiece."

——————————

"This thing isn’t bad."

Li Aozi’s eyes lit up. Equipment for the [Sovereign] pathway is quite rare, and such a mutation inducer is particularly useful.

Although Li Aozi now looked down on non-Sequence Arcane Energy, its attached Perpetual Effect could provide quite a few Gene Fragments.

Gene Fragments, these things become harder to obtain later on, as individual’s Strength becomes greater, and the genes grow more stable, making it increasingly difficult to induce genetic mutations.

And to encounter a powerful figure on the [Sovereign] pathway like Canyue in the later stages is not easy; and even if you do meet them, there’s no guarantee you can beat them.

Previously, to synthesize [Sequence 13: Dark Light], Li Aozi had nearly exhausted his Gene Fragments over the past five years.

At least now, he had found a stable way to obtain them.

"Not bad at all—"

Li Aozi smiled, his eyes nearly squinting shut. He safely tucked the item close to his body and was about to continue slicing his steak when his personal communicator rang again.

He had no choice but to put down the delicious food and open the communicator—Olavir, the owner of the ’Heroes’ bar, immediately projected out, gently wiping a glass. He said to Li Aozi:

"Long time no see, Leoz—oh, I forgot, I should call you His Excellency the President now."

"Ah, just the president of a tiny broken ball," Li Aozi laughed and said, "How have you been lately? Boss Olavir."

"I’m doing well. The Radonuo Planet you pointed out to me allowed me to make a tidy profit. I’ve set up the ’Real Murder Competition’ you proposed in the Valenkov Autonomy—it just so happens, I’m here to inform you: the live broadcast rights have been sold to the ’Empire of Heralds.’ I’m here to congratulate you on being elected President and to transfer the program’s royalty earnings to you."

As Olavir spoke, Li Aozi immediately received a notification:

[Abyss Bank Transfer: 136 million Ammonium Gold]

"The original sale was 110 million, minus taxes, and the rest is dividends from the past few years, settled roughly every five years. You just sit back and wait," Olavir explained as he picked up a glass of wine and toasted to Li Aozi:

"I wish you perpetual good fortune, my friend."