Chapter 250 – A Florida Man Penetrated Airport Perimeter to Engage Alien Delegates on Runway for Cannabis Import Negotiations
Leo, well-rested from a good night's sleep, took a leisurely walk through the junkyard to survey the amassed treasures. His expectations were met with satisfaction.
The diligent mannequins toiled throughout the day, managing to haul in two wrecked battleships. Regrettably, these spaceships were too large to fit within the confines of the junkyard. They were left north of the premises.
Showing thoughtfulness, the elves and molgs froze a section of the lava field to serve as storage area for the ships, ensuring none of the salvaged spaceships disappeared into the molten pool.
Leo gathered several pieces of metal hull and components, executing his plan. He transported them to the 5th floor of the shopping mall. Upon revealing them to the blacksmith mannequins, Leo's materials were swiftly retrieved and transported to their workshop's furnace, where they were melted down and refined.
Leo received a system notification message:
DING
<You have discovered Styx Blood Metal.>
<You have discovered Styx Blood Ore.>
<New armors can be crafted.>
Musing to himself, he wondered, "What can these do?"
No blacksmith answered Leo's inquiry. Focused on the furnace, the mannequins threw immortal coal, mined from the quarry, into it, intensifying the flame and generating extreme heat.
As the hive-mind mannequins shared their thoughts, ten junkyard workers brought over components and metal plates from the wrecked ships a minute later. They left large metal scraps in front of the blacksmith before returning to the junkyard for more.
Once again, Leo was curious, peering closer to observe what they would do with the metal plates.
Several minutes passed, and the scraps and junk transformed into ingots. The mannequins cooled them and handed a sample to Leo for inspection.
Leo touched the ingot with his bare hand, anticipating a mutation. Unfortunately, it showed no signs of reacting to his flesh, Qi, or blood.
Failing to get an answer, Leo shifted his attention to the overall levels of every facility in the shopping mall. He upgraded the building and every facility to level 17.
DING
<New construction options!>
Refusing to stop there, Leo opened his inventory menu and browsed the list of new buildings he obtained from the gacha. As most were common ones, he proceeded to build them to fill the shopping mall's empty slots.
Among the common buildings acquired in the previous gacha frenzy were 10 Alchemy workshops, 15 blacksmith workshops, 10 clothing stores, 15 gunsmith workshops, and 10 fast-food chain restaurants. Leo built everything and arranged them within the shopping mall.
Sixty new facilities occupied 60 empty slots in the mall. All workshops remained on the fifth floor, while the rest were placed on the first floor. The additional facilities increased the production rate, prompting Leo to upgrade their levels.
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Basic Alchemy Workshop Level 17
Active Cauldrons: (5/5)
Alchemy Automatons (5/5)
Production Quality (5/5)
Production Quantity (2/5)
.
Blacksmith Workshop Level 17
Automaton Blacksmiths (5/5)
Furnace (5/5)
Product Quality (5/5)
Production Speed (2/5)
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Gunsmith Workshop Level 17
Automaton Gunsmith (1/1)
Automaton Hand Loader (1/1)
Firearm Technology (6/6)
Product Quality (6/6)
Structure Quality (3/6)
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Clothing Store Level 17
Automaton Worker (4/5)
Automaton Weavers (3/5)
Weaver Skills (5/5)
Store Quality (5/5)
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Food Court Level 17
Automatons Cooks (4/5)
Accommodation Size (3/5)
Food Quality (5/5)
Food Variety (5/5)
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Fast-Food Chain Restaurant Level 17
Automatons Cooks (4/5)
Cooking Speed (3/5)
Food Quality (5/5)
Food Variety (5/5)
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The basic facilities nearly reached the maximum level, allowing some of them to commence producing top equipment immediately. However, the increased production came at a cost.
Thirty weaver robots from the new and existing clothing stores rushed to the fifth floor and surrounded Leo, requesting him to donate his flesh and blood.
"Dang it!"
Leo silently cursed the mannequins while reluctantly biting his arms, tearing his flesh and spilling transparent blood for the weavers. The clothing store's weavers retrieved Leo's pieces of flesh and paraded to their stores. Without relying on Leo's instruction, they learned the clothing designs from the existing stores and planned their merchandise.
When everything was over, it was already midnight. Leo rested on the floor, focusing on regenerating his lost flesh and blood. All wounds instantly healed, but the pricking pain annoyed him.
The trouble persisted as new alchemy workshops started operating, and the alchemist mannequins required instruction. They gathered around Leo, pressuring him with their red eyes.
"Okay! Okay! I'll assign you a new task. Jeez!"
Ten new workshops featured 50 cauldrons to work with. To acquire soul stones, he assigned all of them to convert existing essence stones.
The mannequins darted from the fifth floor to the first floor, some taking the elevator to the underground warehouse to fetch materials. After their departure, Leo let out a long sigh of relief, planning to check on the newly unlocked buildings.
However, Leo forgot that other workshops also demanded new jobs. Blacksmiths, gunsmiths, and cooks mannequins gathered around Leo, menacingly staring at him.
"Oh, boy."
.
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3 AM
"Hah…"
Leo wiped his sweat and stood on the rooftop of his shopping mall. He finished assigning new tasks to the mannequins, including placing new orders to craft new weaponry and armor.
The previous prototype M16 was lackluster due to its limited firepower. However, Leo looked forward to seeing the other's reactions when the new weaponry emerged.
Some of the employees still carried flintlock rifles around even though they were obsolete. He took notes to himself that he needed to order everybody to exchange their old weapons with the new ones.
DING
<Insufficient resources.>
"Hmm?"
Suddenly, the system message interrupted Leo's thoughts. He pressed on the notification message screen, asking the system to elaborate.
"What resources?"
DING
<Your fast-food chain restaurant number 6 lacks ingredients to make spicy chicken noodles.>
<Your fast-food chain restaurant number 7 lacks ingredients to make steak sandwiches.>
<Your fast-food chain restaurant number 8 lacks ingredients to make Hawaiian Pizzas.>
<Your fast-food chain restaurant number 9 lacks ingredients to make French fries and salad.>
<Your fast-food chain restaurant number 10 lacks ingredients to make dim sum.>
<Your fast-food chain restaurant number 11 lacks ingredients to make carbonara spaghetti.>
"Holy crap…"
Food suddenly became an issue before the stores could even operate. Leo rushed to the underground warehouse to check the storage in panic. Then, he was stunned.
Half of the shelves and baskets were empty. Even 90% of the fast-grown yin cabbages disappeared.
The self-grown food wasn't an issue since they could be harvested from the farms. However, the meat section was the big issues. All giant potatoes and thunder alligator's meat were gone. No cockatrice chicken remained in the coolers. Only the werewolf meat that the mannequins had extracted from the corpses remained.
"I guess I expected too much from the restaurant department."
At a time like this, Leo wished he could have a business partner who specialized in agriculture to assist him. He hoped that he could import meat, cheese, and other ingredients from elsewhere.
The system store was out of the question. A single cabbage cost over 1,000 YOL a piece. Thus, importing it from the system was money-sinking.
Not all issues were impossible to solve. Leo smiled as he glanced at one of the two new system buildings.
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Trade Center
Max Visiting Merchants (0/10)
Receptionist Mannequins (0/10)
Shipping Size (0/10)
Shipping Speed (0/10)
Price – 10,000 YOL
Can be built in Shopping Mall.
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This was exactly what Leo needed. He hoped that the trade center would help him solve the food shortage issues.
Leo built the new facility on the fourth floor, utilizing this section as an entertainment district and a guest center. He upgraded it to level 17 and operated it to test what it could do.
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Trade Center Level 17
Max Visiting Merchants (5/10)
Receptionist Mannequins (5/10)
Shipping Size (5/10)
Shipping Speed (2/10)
.
The trade center emerged on the fourth floor, boasting an interior far larger than the other stores and workshops.
It housed an entire airport!
Leo hurried inside and discovered an airport terminal with a breathtaking view of a starry sky, intricate runways, a control tower, and endless space beyond the glass.
"What is this place?!"
Five female mannequins materialized from the floor, dressed in blue suits akin to the regular employees. One of them used a sound transmission technique to talk directly to Leo's mind.
"Welcome to the trade center, master."
Leo struggled to acclimate to the talking mannequins, pondering if their intelligence relied on the shopping mall's levels or some other factor.
"Right. Well, what is this place? Where does the space lead to?"
"The airport directly connects to the Orlando Realm, master. Sir Kitten has long secured this area, catering to visitors from other planets. It provides privacy and conceals the true coordinates of our planet from wandering visitors. It also prevents spies, restricting visitors from entering your shopping mall and other facilities."
"Oh, interesting. But what if they want to become my customers? What then?"
"You can issue Visas to trustworthy visitors, master."
"…Oh."
Leo was acquainted with this system, wondering if he'd have to establish a consulate or embassy on alien planets in the future to issue visas.
Before Leo and the mannequins could continue their conversation, the first visitor spaceship suddenly landed at the airport. Leo and the mannequins turned to gaze at the spaceship. When Leo recognized its shape and size, he gasped in astonishment.
It was the same model he had reserved at the Fate Stadium. It bore a striking resemblance to the spaceship he arrived in.
The ship landed, and a hundred humanoid aliens in snug spacesuits rushed out, carrying sci-fi rifles. After securing the landing site, their commander emerged from the spaceship - A human clad in bulky spacesuits and a space helmet.
Leo squinted, attempting to gauge their cultivation base.
"Oh, just a bunch of immortals with railguns," he remarked, relieved.
Leo departed from the terminal, approaching the uninvited guests with the mannequins trailing behind.
As the space soldiers spotted Leo, they aimed their rifles at him, even their leader brandishing a white pistol and a lightsaber handle.
Leo folded his arms behind his back, maintaining distance, and greeted them in English.
"Welcome to my domain. Who are you, and what brings you here?"
"…"
None of the soldiers reacted to Leo's words, but their commander accessed a system screen and tinkered with it. A moment later, he lowered his weapon and spoke in English.
"I'm Caesar Ballers. We're from Planet United Nations."
"United Nations? UN? What the hell? Are you from Earth?"
"Earth?" The commander seemed taken aback. "That was indeed our mother planet. However, we migrated from there several 10,000 years ago."
"…I see."
The commander sized up Leo before asking the crucial question.
"Mister, are you from Earth?"
Leo grinned widely, revealing his identity.
"Yes, I am Florida Man, the last survivor from Earth."
