Chapter 171 – Florida Man Establishes Meth Factory in Shopping Mall and Offers Meth-Making Master Class as Services.
After building the pylon tower, Leo returned to the store. He visited the alchemy workshop on the fifth floor.
By the time Leo arrived, the mannequin alchemists already found their working place. A couple nerdy alchemist disciples also followed the mannequins and discovered the new area.
"S-Senior Florida Man, what happened here, sir?" One of the disciples asked Leo.
"Nothing much. I just moved the workshops to this place, so you don't have to cramp in a small area."
Leo gazed at the front of the workshops. Instead of calling it workshops, they looked like a tutor center office, where Asian parents imprisoned their kids during holidays because the children failed to become a doctor before the age of 10.
In front of the offices, the walkway balcony was wider than the road behind the general store's building. Measuring with his eyes, it was about 50-60 meters wide, a lot wider than the previous road. Many alchemist enthusiasts could have a BBQ party there instead of cramping or competing to stare at boiling cauldrons all day.
Thinking of the cauldrons, Leo reminded himself of the Floridian Dantian Pills. He entered one of the workshop offices to explore the interior.
As Leo looked around, he noticed that the interior was larger than it appeared from the outside. He wasn't surprised by the special distortion anomaly anymore.
The front office was nothing special. The first noticeable attraction was the front desk counter.
On the right, Leo found a coffee lounge area. About 20 round coffee tables and chairs made this zone look like a coffee shop. As for the left area, blank modern glass showcase cabinets formed a square array.
"A reception area and a showcase area?"
Leo nodded in approval of the system's upgrade. He liked the interior design.
Going further in, Leo followed a corridor. A path led Leo toward the production area of the workshop. As he walked along the way, he found five large rooms. Two of them featured a cauldron at the center while the other three were empty. Every room came with a horseshoe-shaped spectator stand and cushions.
Leo peeked into one of the rooms and found a mannequin alchemist doing his job. He entered the room for a sightseeing.
Upon getting inside, Leo gazed at the spectator stand and measured the room's size. It was roughly 150-200 square meters, and the ceiling featured several air ventilation duct system as it removed the smoke and hot air from the cauldron. The air circulation and the chilling air were better than the former building.
After checking the place, Leo had a rough idea of how this place worked. Next, he inspected the deepest area of this workshop. He expected a storage area or something similar.
At the deepest area of the workshop, Leo found a storage room as he had predicted. Inside the room was the interior of the former workshop's building, where Leo stored some pills and pill ingredients inside.
In the room, Leo found some old pills and random leftover materials from the farmlands. He also located what he had been looking for.
The finished Floridian Dantian Pills had already been collected and stored in a Tupperware box. The 50 black pills inside were two inches thick.
As Leo was about to pick up the box, the alchemy mannequin walked toward Leo and poked him.
"Hmm?"
Leo turned around and found the mannequin menacingly staring at him with red eyes. He poked Leo's skin, wanting something.
Looking at the mannequin, Leo was confused for a moment. A few seconds later, he remembered the trait of the workshop. As Leo had ordered the mannequin to make Floridian Dantian Pills, the mannequin automatically queued the next batch. However, he didn't leave spare materials for the mannequin to continue making them.
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[Alchemy Recipe – Floridian Dantian Pill]
One 9th-grade Monster Core of Horned Caiman
One Drop of Florida Man's Blood
One Piece of Florida Man's Flesh
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The recipe required his blood and flesh. Obviously, the mannequin couldn't find the ingredients.
"I have three more cores with me. Oh, well. I guess I have to hunt a few more to keep the store in stock."
Leo leisurely bit his finger and tore a bit of his flesh and blood for the mannequin. The doll received them and rushed back to work, making a new batch of Floridian Dantian Pills.
After the mannequin was gone, Leo picked up the box and checked the content. As soon as he opened the lid, he received the pending notification message from the workshop.
DING
<You have refined 30 Superior-Grade and 20 Pinnacle-Grade Floridian Dantian Pills.>
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Superior-Grade Floridian Dantian Pill
- Increase firearm weaponry compatibility by 5,000 years' worth of training.
- Increase poison, lightning, and wind element essence by 5,000 years' worth of cultivation.
- Increase lifespan by 1,000 years.
- Grant immunity to Crimson Heaven Tribulation.
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Pinnacle-Grade Floridian Dantian Pill
- Increase firearm weaponry compatibility by 10,000 years' worth of training.
- Increase poison, lightning, and wind element essence by 10,000 years' worth of cultivation.
- Increase lifespan by 2,000 years.
- Grant immunity to Black Heaven Tribulation.
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Leo was disappointed. He thought that it would give him a lot of lifespan for the trouble. Unfortunately, the best pill only offered 2,000 years of lifespan. If Leo consumed everything, he would only get 70,000 YOL back.
He couldn't sell them either. After all, nobody in this world could live more than 1,000 years. Selling them for cheaper than the base value would be a stupid idea.
Since Leo couldn't sell them, he might as well eat them. If he felt generous, he could distribute a few to his promising juniors, such as Gao Yan, Yao Qiqi, and Esen's subordinates.
"I guess it's too late to stop the mannequin. Oh, right. I have three extra cauldrons. I can allocate them for other pills."
Leo stored the pill box in his spatial ring. He walked toward a free cauldron.
As Leo reached the free cauldron, the workshop mannequin was already there. However, it didn't do anything to the cauldron as Leo hadn't assigned this cauldron to make any pill yet.
As true immortal pills granted the same YOL compared to the Floridian dantian pills while they required only a week to make, it would be wiser to invest in true immortal pills instead.
Putting the plan into action, Leo ordered the mannequin to make the true immortal pills.
As soon as the mannequin received the order, it rushed into the storeroom at the back to gather materials. But when it realized that it didn't have enough, it rushed out of the building to visit the warehouse outside.
Seeing the mannequin's frantic action, Leo noticed the inefficiency in the building's settings and location. He opened the domain system menu, hoping to move the warehouses and granaries into the general store.
Unfortunately, both buildings were highlighted in red. When Leo pressed on them, he received a notification message.
<Required Shopping Mall.>
"…"
This message reminded Leo that he could evolve the max-leveled general store into a proper shopping mall. Moreover, the main quest and side quest demanded him to upgrade the store.
Since Leo needed to transform the building, he changed his plan. He pressed on the general store building to see its status.
A [Evolve] button appeared at the bottom. Also, the texts on top informed Leo of a piece of bad news.
Cost – 100,000 Years of Lifespan
"RIP-OFF! THIS IS A SCAM!"
He just spent 100,000 YOL upgrading Pylon Tower to level 10, and the system wanted another 100,000! Leo's kidneys, liver, spleen, intestines, and heart churned upon the fact that everything was expensive.
As optimistic as Leo was, he adjusted his mindset. He counted his fingers and contemplated.
"If a cauldron can make 50 immortal pills every week, I can get about 50,000 to 100,000 YOL of weekly income. But if I assign three cauldrons to make them, my income will be 150,000 to 300,000 YOL! I just need to work hard on eating pills and providing materials for the mannequins! Spending a week's worth of income to invest in something inevitable is not a waste!"
Hyping himself, Leo felt better. He pressed the evolve button.
RUMBLE
The entire building shook. Although the interior didn't change, Leo received a series of notification messages.
<Your Humble General Store has evolved into "Humble Shopping Mall".>
<New Construction Options!>
<The Underground Parking Lot has been unlocked.>
<Underground Storage Warehouse has been unlocked.>
<You can purchase building gacha tickets with your lifespan.>
<You can purchase worker gacha tickets with your lifespan.>
<You can infinitely expand your domain territory with your lifespan.>
<Storage Buildings can be linked to underground storage.>
<You can assign free workers jobs in Humble Shopping Mall, such as Security, Clerk, Manager, Cashier, and etc.>
Looking at the messages, Leo was surprised. He didn't expect to see new toys to entertain him.
Still, Leo didn't get sidetracked this time. As he focused on getting his lifespan back, his mind was full of the pill-making plan and his factory.
He needed to upgrade the workshops.
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Basic Alchemy Workshop Level 10
Active Cauldrons: (2/5)
Alchemist Automatons (1/5)
Production Quality Level – (5/5)
Production Quantity Level – [2/5]
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Leo simply needed to upgrade all workshops three more times. However, he couldn't upgrade it further.
As Leo needed the sub-structures to be at a higher level, he checked the "Shopping Mall" menu if he could raise its level right away.
DING
Humble Shopping Mall Level 10 (MAX)
"DAMMIT!"
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"HAHAHAHA!! KILL!"
Four-armed cultivators emerged from the west. They laid siege to the first coastal city. Although they ran into soul formation and soul transformation cultivators there, these demonic savages outnumbered them.
Within half a day, the defensive arrays crumbled. Hordes of demons entered the city and slaughtered townsmen, commoners, and cultivators.
After getting the city fell, everybody celebrated their success. Men rushed into houses and dragged women outside. A few also abused their perks of war and committed war crimes.
The leader of the Gorr Tribe, Qiang Baidu, was once a cultivator from the Yan Empire. After the sweet dream mushroom incident, Situ Nantian branded them as the "Infected", and their tribe had to be eradicated.
Because of what Situ Nantian did, Qiang Baidu swore to get his revenge. So far, he managed to rebuild his clan and amassed troops of 10,000 demonic cultivators.
His target was the Cauliflower City. However, before he could get there, he needed to travel northeast.
On the way to Cauliflower City, there were multiple cities that he had to go through. The first major city was the lair of the Fatui Cult, the Frozen Fire City. Then, further north, there were small cities on the way.
Magpie City was one of them.
Qiang Baidu gazed toward the northeast. He bellowed, assembling his men.
"We rest for the night! Tomorrow, we head northeast! Our next destination is the Fatui Cult!"
