Chapter 78 – Florida Man Digs New River for Local Alligators, Neighbor Complains
Leo sensed a déjà vu as the "Free Tickets" reminded him of so many ancient mobile games before the nuclear fallout age. It was similar to base-building games and gacha games, which sometimes gave away gacha tickets for players.
But in this case, the "Free Tickets" came in the form of an exchangeable token. It guaranteed that Leo could use it to expand his domain territory instead of spending 10,000 years of lifespan. However, to get them, he had to work for it.
"So, you finally give me a quest after fifty freaking thousand years! Aside from the online shopping system, you didn't even help me or advise me. But now, you are giving me a lot of free tips and quests?!"
Leo was frustrated. He wished the system could have helped him when he needed it the most. Back then, Leo relied on himself and limited information from the ring to survive the harsh environment. He felt like he was a newborn character from a Fromsoft Game, which he could have been killed in one or two hits from monsters.
After complaining to the system, it went quiet. Leo deeply sighed as it was pointless to pick a fight with the weird system. He sat on the mystic realm portal platform and gazed at the rotating ring at the center.
"I guess I have to upgrade you. You're damn expensive, do you know that?"
WHOOM
The ring frame of the portal hummed. It was unknown if it responded to Leo's word or if it was a coincidence.
As Leo had nothing to lose but his lifespan, he upgraded the portal platform to level 8, investing 70,000 years of lifespan in one go.
RUMBLE
The platform shook. Then, changes occurred. The entire structure lifted itself into the air and started floating higher. Its size also expanded, getting wider and larger. Within three seconds, it transformed from a 400-square-meter platform to a 10,000-square-meter flying island.
The four scorpion obelisk pillars at the edge also grew 100 meters taller. No longer showing only a scorpion tail obelisk, the platform created four statues with scorpion tails.
At the top left corner, a 50-meter-tall red wolf with four feather wings sat still, glaring at the top right statue while baring its fangs. The obelisk and the statue were painted red, and the floor around it had the outline of spilling blood. At the bottom of the statue's feet, there was a label [Unfortunate evil overlord who will find a happy marriage life through fateful encounters].
At the top right corner, a massive ball-like creature statue innocently gazed at the portal. It had eight chubby octopus tentacles. Its eyes and mouth looked like something from Japanese anime as it was too cute. However, the obelisk extended from its tail, and everything was painted green. The label indicated [Unfortunate evil overlord who will find true endings through his companions].
At the bottom left corner, a black-winged angel sat on a throne and smirked at the bottom right statue. Three naked women crawled around him as if they were his servants or concubines. In addition, it was the only statue where the scorpion tail was connected to his throne, not his body. Its represented color was black and the label was the strange [Unfortunate evil overlord who will find endless pleasure through hero's ordeals].
And lastly, at the bottom right, a gigantic elderly man sitting and smiling at the portal situated there. His hands held a fishing rod, and he wore a t-shirt, shorts, rubber boots, and a straw hat. No matter how Leo looked at the statue, it looked exactly like an ordinary fisherman in the modern world, except for the scorpion tail that extended from his back. This was also the only statue without a color. However, the label said something else – [Unfortunate evil overlord who will find true happiness through his family].
Leo had no idea what the statues represented. If they showed up as an azure dragon, phoenix, black tortoise, and white tiger, they would have been relatable. However, these statues were too strange.
"Evil overlords? What the hell?"
Unable to decipher the clues, Leo gave up thinking for now. He turned his attention to the floating platform as it started moving.
It had become a flying island!
The island maintained its altitude at 1,000 meters above Leo's store, casting a shadow upon the land below. Then, it stopped moving, stabilizing its location.
PHOOSH
BOOM
Leo sensed that something was shot down from the platform and hit the top of the store. He rushed to the edge of the platform and jumped down to see what the flying platform had done.
There was a long glass tube extending from the bottom of the platform. Judging from the shape and size, Leo could somewhat guess what it was.
"An elevator? The heck?"
Leo entered his store and discovered that an elevator appeared in the middle of the store. He approached it and discovered that it was also functional.
Curious, Leo got inside the elevator and examined the buttons. However, there were only three buttons – Ground Floor, Second Floor, and the Heaven Icon.
Leo shrugged and pressed the heaven icon, which appeared as a building on a white cloud.
DING
The elevator door was closed. Then, it began ascending. Leo turned around and looked through the glass walls, and he noticed that Wu Buyi and the disciples were still in shock.
Leo held back his laughter and looked up, waiting for the elevator to send him to the top floor. It only took him a few minutes to get there.
DING
The elevator door was reopened. Leo walked out and found himself outside the right foot of the wolf statue.
"Oh." Leo looked up and smiled at the wolf statue, "How nice. I don't have to calculate my jump. I can just take the elevator!"
Leo was happy with the new changes. At least, he wouldn't need to worry about intruders messing with the platform or stealing its entrance quota.
Thinking of the quota, Leo managed the status of the mystic realm portal platform, allocating some points to the facility.
.
Mystic Realm Portal – Level 8
Entry Limit (Person) – (3/10)
Portal Cooldown Reduction – (0/5)
Portal Duration – (5/5)
Next Destination: Unknown Low-Mid Plane
[Upgrade] – 10,000 Years of Lifespan
Status: Ready to Open
.
"Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Safety first."
Maintaining the portal activation was the key here. As Leo had never been to the rumor mystic realms, he made sure that he would have enough time to return. With five points to the portal duration, Leo would have 35 days to finish his first exploration.
As for the entry limit, Leo didn't care. It could be used as a bonus for good-behaving workers or a reward for Wu Buyi.
After setting up the mystic realm portal, Leo jumped down and returned to the place, where the platform used to be. Upon arrival, he found a large square hole.
Looking at the remains, Leo dryly laughed. He wondered what he should do to the empty land.
"Should I just make a fish pond here or what?"
Leo thought of the fisherman statue and got inspiration. He wondered what would happen if he kept some fish in the pond without the system's help.
Putting his thought to practice, Leo went to visit the recycling center mannequins.
The yellow-jacket mannequins were so busy that Leo felt bad for them. Everybody had been collecting leaves, branches, and random junk and placing them in the junkyard, waiting for Leo to filter or sort them.
Every mannequin had no "Exhaustion" or "Tired" in their dictionary. They worked like madmen, running around and competing with each other. They also never dropped their yellow helmets even though they sometimes stumbled on a rock and fell.
"Alright. That's enough for now."
Hearing Leo's order, they put their last items in the junkyard and stood in front of Leo, waiting for the next instructions.
Looking at their attentive attitude, Leo loved them more. He tried asking them something irrelevant to the recycling center.
"Say, can you help me dig a fishing pond? You can use that area. The layout is already there."
The mannequins turned right in unison and started running. In seconds, they reached the place where the mystic realm platform once was. Upon finding the place, three of them turned around and rushed to the granary. They picked up farming tools and carried them to their colleagues. After passing the tools around, they started digging.
Leo came to check on them later. When he noticed that they were capable of using hoes and shovels, Leo was relieved.
"You guys are smart. Alright, keep working! I'll be back to check on you later."
The mannequin didn't respond to Leo's words. They ignored him and continued digging and plowing the soil.
That day was the trigger of something irreversible. Leo failed to tell them when to stop. He also forgot to give them the dimension of the fishing pond.
.
.
Meanwhile, the spies and lurkers looked at the flying island with round eyes. None of them could find the right words to describe what they saw.
Because of Leo's activities, they quickly reported it to their headquarters. The Ouyang Clan, Situ Clan, Fatui Cult, and Death Sword Sect received the new intel. As the situation changed, they received a new order.
They wanted hostages! With hostages, they could force Leo to work for them!
This coincided with the spies' intentions. Everybody lay low and get ready for the night raid.
Their targets – The disciples!
