Chapter 242 – Florida Man Abducted Wild Alligators to Train Them as Soldiers in Preparation for Zombie Apocalypse.
DING
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Entity Fate Crystal Quest – Phase 3/13
Mission Objectives: Complete 10 tasks to complete this phase.
Phase Completion Rewards: 300,000 Years of Lifespan, One Selectable SR Building, Increase the Shopping Mall's max level to 17, Increase the Sub-Building's Max Level to 17, and Enable TOP-UP Feature.
Phase Three Tasks (9/10 Completed)
- Recruit at least 2,000 workers. (Done)
- Complete at least one true fate crystal (Done)
- Successfully defend against an invasion from another player (Done)
- Successfully invade a player's home planet (0/1)
- Embed a true fate crystal to a pylon tower (Done)
- Upgrade 20 buildings to level 15 (Done)
- Upgrade shopping mall to level 15 (Done)
- Get a girlfriend and fail NNN! (Done)
- Manufacture at least 1,000 weapons using strategic resources. (Done)
- Recruit at least 100 immortals as your soldiers (Done)
*For every completed task, you will receive one Lucky Draw (Building), and one Lucky Draw (Automaton).
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Leo stared at the quest system screen and frowned. He found a bottleneck in this phase.
The invasion part was impossible to complete. Leo possessed no tool or the means to invade other players' cities or planets.
'How the hell can I invade another player's planet or city? Should I ask Meowmeow or Kitten for advice again? Eh, forget it. I'll reinforce the infrastructure of my domain first. It's still a mess.'
Leo closed the quest menu and exited the shopping mall. He explored the west slum area.
As Leo had completed the Fate Crystal tutorial quest, he received 777 territory expansion tickets from the system. Each ticket could be used to expand his territory.
In the past, only the territory to the south could be unlocked. But at the moment, the system map changed and allowed Leo to claim any area adjacent to his domain.
Leo counted the number of areas that he could unlock. The west area consisted of one hundred 10,000-square-meter blocks, and each required a hundred tickets or a million years of lifespan to unlock.
The north and south were a lot cheaper. Every unlockable territory was only 100 square meters, and it only required one ticket to use.
As for the east, where the Tang Clan's manor was located, the territory was a lot larger as it was a single block of 1,000 x 1,000 grid. That one-square-kilometer had a whopping price tag of five million years of lifespan or 500 expansion tickets.
Leo counted his fingers and raised his eyebrows. Although the east territory seemed to be more expensive at a glance, the cost-effectiveness was superior to the others. Moreover, by purchasing that area, Leo could double the size of his territory.
'Yeah. The East is cheaper. I'll double my domain's size. As for the leftovers, I'll use them to make a railway system or something… Oh, right! I have that faraway black mountain to the north. I should focus on extending my territory there so that I can establish a long-term logistic route! I'm such a genius!'
Leo snickered. He spent 500 tickets to purchase the whole one-square kilometer to the east. Then, he unlocked a territory to the north to extend his road.
After the new areas became a part of Leo's domain, yin and yang Qi in the air extended toward the new territory. A thin layer of fog crept toward the new land.
As if Leo had toughed everything in the area, the local plants, grasses, trees, fruits, and seedlings slightly mutated. Regular grasses turned into blue spirit herbs while trees and fruits gathered Qi and changed their characteristics.
Meanwhile, in the north, the claimed land was still warm as it was once the territory of lava badgers. The field was calm as the magma slowly lost its temperature.
The northern lava field also got hit by random beams and energy missiles from the invaders. Craters and black smoke could be seen from where Leo was standing.
The local lava badgers were also affected. They hid underground and fled when they saw Leo.
Leo pitied the little critters. He examined the field and found many corpses of innocent creatures.
He also witnessed a sad scene. A group of injured badgers surrounded one of their fallen comrades. One of them shook the body and tried to wake the dead guy up.
'What a tragedy. Is there anything I can do here?'
Leo walked in the air and approached the pitiful group.
The lava badgers noticed Leo's arrival, but they didn't flee. Instead, they hissed at him, trying to protect the corpse of their comrade.
Leo found their behavior admirable and praiseworthy. Their courage moved Leo's heart.
"You guys are a lot better than humans. Very well. I'll reward your courage just this once."
Leo narrowed his eyes and concentrated on his vision and sixth sense. Then, he found a ball of soul, which belonged to the deceased badger. He still hovered around his friends.
"You there. Do you want a second chance in life?" Asked Leo.
The soul paused as if it understood Leo. Then, the ball floated toward him.
Leo opened his palm and allowed the transparent soul to land on it. He lightly rubbed the ball.
"I assume you are willing to take that second chance. Alright, this incident is partly my fault since I failed to protect you. I'll offer you a new place to live."
He let out a long sigh as he thought of the knowledge, which he had obtained from Mao Miaomiao's shadow and Aslan's shadow.
When a cultivator reached a deity realm, he could condense and create a universe inside their dantian to store energy. Once the deity completely condensed a dantian universe and created a habitable planet, they could create new lifeforms to populate their universe. Importing souls from the real universe was one of many ways to quicken the process.
Leo pulled the little soul into his dantian. The little guy vanished into his body and appeared in another universe. The ball of soul automatically flew toward the river of karma and gained a new home.
Leo didn't stop there. He stood up and swept his gaze over the field.
"You poor souls. If you wish to live in a place without conflict in the next life, come to me. I'll bring you to a better place."
As soon as Leo finished speaking, over 10,000 souls of fallen lava badgers floated toward Leo. He took them in without hesitation.
After accepting the souls of badgers into his dantian, Leo turned his attention to the survivors next.
"You guys next. Do you want to serve me as my vessel? I'll provide you a better universe and a planet to live in."
The living badgers couldn't understand what Leo meant. Moreover, they couldn't see the souls of their comrades. Thus, they continued hissing.
"I see. Very well, I'll respect your choice. But I can't leave without compensating y'all."
Leo thought of something and went back to his shopping mall. 30 minutes later, Leo returned with a hundred baskets of yin cabbages. He threw the cabbages toward the surviving badgers and declared.
"My domain has a bunch of food. If you lack food, come find the locals. They will feed you."
The badgers silently stared at the yin cabbages and Leo. Several of them understood Leo's gesture and took the cabbages home. As for the others, when they noticed how their friends accepted the vegetables, they also rushed toward the baskets and picked some cabbages.
In a few seconds, all 100 baskets were emptied. The badgers stopped being depressed and returned home happy.
No one but Leo knew the secret of those cabbages. They were not ordinary yin cabbages that his farms grew. Instead, they came from greenhouses, which Leo had built on top of the shopping mall.
Those were Floridian Yin Cabbages. As for the effects of those cabbages, Leo left it to fate. He could only hope that the badgers would become an asset to his domain in the future.
After dealing with the local creatures, Leo resumed his project. He built a concrete road on top of the claimed land. Then, he unlocked a new block with his tickets and kept proceeding north.
The claimed land was a foot higher than the wasteland. The system automatically elevated the ground and cooled the molten magma. Then, a smooth and seamless concrete road magically appeared and paved on top of the prepared land.
277 tickets were not a lot as Leo could only build a 2.7-kilometer-long road. It was still nowhere near the Black Mountain or Cauliflower City.
Leo was tempted to use his abundant lifespan to buy new territory to expand the road. However, he hated the idea as he could use them to buy something else worthwhile, such as RVs or motorhomes.
'Come to think of it, it has been almost a month since I last visited the Fate Stadium. I should check the cooldown timer.'
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A minute in reality was 1,000 minutes in Leo's dantian universe. The new souls inside him entered Leo's personal karma river and went through a reincarnation process.
One of the habitable planets in the universe was a rainforest planet. However, no creature resided there except fish, lizards, and sea creatures.
The new souls reincarnated as newborn alligators, but they retained their previous life's memory. As they remembered the life of a badger, they adapted to the world faster than regular alligators.
An hour in reality passed by while Leo was busy in the real world. But these reincarnated badgers experienced 1,000 hours and went through a phase of their life.
Because of the local environment and abundant Qi, these young alligators became stronger than their peers. Some of them even attempted to walk on two feet to live on land.
Leo hadn't realized it yet. His action sowed good karma, and these reincarnated badgers would become a huge asset for Leo in the future.
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Ingof Jack knelt inside a tent, bowing his head toward a divine elf woman, who sat at a table full of document papers. He sweated profusely as he feared for his life.
The woman was the 7th princess and a younger sister of Esen. She was Ellen, who held the current title as the crown princess. In addition, her strength was on par with Overlord Mao Miaomiao and Overlord Kishin.
Ellen was a divine elf like Esen. She wore two sets of earrings, and she tied her hair into a braided bun. Her crimson eyeliners highlighted her sharp determined eyes of a fighter and a strong leader. She also wore a crimson military uniform similar to what the 18th-century French soldiers wore.
Behind towers of document papers, Ellen looked at her system screen and flipped through the log files. She glanced at Ingof Jack and scoffed.
"So, you're saying the campaign was not your fault?"
Ingof Jack smacked his forehead to the ground. "Everything happened because Overlord Mao Miaomiao forced our hands. We initially plotted to utilize the guerilla warfare tactic, but Overlord Mao Miaomiao threatened to kill us if we didn't launch a full-scale assault."
"You could have pretended to attack, though."
"B-B-But he was watching our every move."
"So, if he asked you to die, will you kill yourself?"
"T-That's…"
Ellen picked up a pen on the table and wiggled it.
"…"
Ingof Jack stopped moving. His body slowly relaxed as if he fell into a deep sleep while kowtowing. In reality, his soul was ejected from his body and returned to the river of karma.
After cutting Jack's karma string and sending him to the afterlife, Ellen clicked her tongue.
'I don't have much time. Mother will sooner or later try to steal my body and my bone roots. I have to either kill her or flee from here, but I don't know how strong she actually is. Should I go and drag Esen back home or should I force Ester to become my scapegoat? This is a tough choice.'
Ellen had her worries. She thought of her hateful mother who lusted over her physique and talent. She also thought of Eleanor's consorts, especially Overlord Mao.
'From the log file, Overlord Mao's life signature disappears during the chaos. Well, that makes things easier for me if he really died. I can just secretly form an alliance with Overlord Xiaomao and kill mother. Then, I'll be freed! For now, I should go back to Fate Stadium.'
Ellen made her decision. She stood up and opened her system screen menu. Then, she navigated to the Real-Time PVP menu and chose to fight in the Fate Stadium.
WHOOSH
Ellen disappeared from her tent.
She decided to escape from Eleanor's grasp and sought shelter in the Fate Arena.
