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“What!? What is this nonsense!? Connect me to General Boulder right this instant!” Karl threw the account book across the room and glared at his secretary. The person sitting in the seat across from him shrank back and hunched his shoulders. Karl ground his teeth upon seeing the man’s reaction. He sat back into his seat and harrumphed, crossing his arms over his chest. A new world had been discovered; a somewhat rare occurrence. Karl had seen it on the news, but he didn’t keep any information about it in his mind; after all, why would the discovery of a new world affect him? However, it really did affect him in the end!

There was a beeping sound, and a gruff voice sounded out from the corner of Karl’s desk. “What is it?” the gruff voice asked. “I’m busy right now; I can’t video talk with you.”

“General Boulder,” Karl said, his eyes narrowing despite the general being unable to see his face. “The army of the federation has had a cooperation with our company for over five hundred years. You weren’t even a general when the agreement was formed! How dare you request for an end to cooperation!? Your predecessor must be rolling around in his grave right now!”

The gruff voice became cold. “Watch your tongue, Karl. What’s wrong with getting rid of the old and rotten to replace them with the new and fresh? Seasons change. Years pass. Nothing is eternal. If your company spent its profits on developing better technology instead of padding your management’s pockets, perhaps we, the army, would’ve continued using your products.”

“Old and rotten? New and fresh?” Veins bulged on Karl’s temples and neck, his face red from rage. “A civilization living tens of thousands of years in the past can replace my company’s technology with something better!? If you’re going to lie to me, at least give me a proper excuse!”

An unexpected reply came out of the speaker. “Have you watched Metal Warbots?”

“Metal Warbots?” Karl asked, his vision turning red. Was the general trying to distract him by bringing up a show for kids? “Don’t change the subject!”

“This isn’t a subject change,” the general said. “As I’ve said before, I’m a really busy person. Search up Metal Warbots: Dominator Metal Buttkicker. If your company can take out weapons capable of defeating it, I’ll gladly open up another line of business with you.”

Karl didn’t even get a chance to comment before a beeping sound came from his desk, signaling the end of the call. “Goddammit! You can’t just blow me off like that!” Karl shouted and slammed his fists against his table. Luckily, it was sturdy. With his cultivation level, an ordinary table would’ve been smashed to bits. After taking in a few deep breaths, Karl’s face returned to normal. He adjusted his tie and slicked back the hair that had fallen out of position and stuck to his forehead. He exhaled and glanced at his secretary. “Find all the information about Dominator Metal Buttkicker and send it to me within the hour.” He glanced at the person sitting across from him. “As for you, what the hell are you still doing here? Scram!”

The man bowed his head repeatedly while backing out of the room, acting like a death-row inmate who had been pardoned. Karl snorted and leaned back into his seat, rubbing his temples with his fingers. His company, Mountainback, produced weaponized drones and combat robots. Within this field of expertise, he only had two other competitors: Two-Fah and COAL. However, Two-Fah was the combat robot company backed by the empire while COAL was backed by the coalition. Essentially, in the federation, he had a monopoly! Fire burned in Karl’s eyes as he opened up his personal computer. How could a lowly civilization like the Moon Lotus World possibly step into this kind of field involving advanced technology? It didn’t make any sense!

After a bit of snooping around, Karl identified two important individuals from the Moon Lotus World. The first one was Rachel, an ancestor from the Moon Lotus Sect. By herself, she attacked a military outpost and ripped apart an enemy BAR using only her body, a sword, and a very sharp hidden weapon. Afterwards, she beheaded the soul-seed cultivator piloting the BAR and chopped his body into a fine bloody mist. As for the second individual, he was Elder Vremya, an old man who modified a battlesuit that went on to win Metal Warbots. Coincidentally, when he was about to search more about the modified battlesuit, his secretary sent a file of information over. After reading it, Karl’s expression turned bitter.

Dominator Metal Buttkicker was a combat robot as strong as a soul-seed cultivator. Currently, Mountainback’s mass-produced robots were the equivalent of golden-core cultivators. The specialized robots could reach the peak of nascent soul, but it was common knowledge that robots couldn’t show strength equivalent to soul-seed cultivators. Well, it wasn’t common knowledge but fake news now. Karl’s brow furrowed, and he leaned back. He never cared for Metal Warbots because it was filled with amateurs, and the strong combat robots displayed there weren’t fit for mass production. Only his company, Mountainback, could meet the demands of the military, so why would he care about the competition? A lightbulb appeared over Karl’s head as he thought of a great idea! If there was competition, he’d simply do what had to be done! He was not going to hire assassins to kill Elder Vremya, thereby crippling the Moon Lotus Sect’s ability to create robots. Only idiots hired assassins; a real business leader simply crushed his opponents through money! Wealth was the ultimate power. There was nothing in the world that couldn’t be solved with money. If someone found a problem that couldn’t be solved through money, then they simply didn’t have enough!

***

“Hello? Is this working?”

Grandpa Vremya raised his head. He was sitting in front of a table, whittling a piece of wood with a knife. The room wasn’t that large, but Azalea had insisted on adding another table to it, one which she could use for herself. Currently, she was on the phone. “Sect Leader Michelle?” Azalea asked, the phone practically pressed to her lips. “I can hear you. Can you hear me?”

“Elder Azalea?” Michelle’s voice asked. “It’s good that I finally managed to call you! I kept trying, but sometimes the phone just rang constantly. Other times, people would pick up and say I got the wrong number. Whoever made this faulty product should be publicly executed.”

“Right?” Azalea asked. “These things are useful, but they’re so tricky to use sometimes.” She sighed. “Anyway, what are you calling for? Did something happen?”

“Yes,” Michelle said. “I thought I should inform you guys about your potential enemies.”

“Potential enemies?” Azalea’s brow furrowed. “Why would you know about our enemies?” Did that make any sense? Only herself, Rachel, and Grandpa Vremya were in the capital city of Bread. How would the faraway Moon Lotus Sect learn about danger here? “Oh! Did you develop those things people call satellites?”

“What? No,” Michelle said. “Someone called me earlier. He said he was from the company Mountainback, and he audaciously offered to buy the Moon Lotus Sect.”

“Buy the Moon Lotus Sect?” Azalea asked, her eyes widening. “How dare he!?”

“Right!?” Michelle asked. “That’s what I thought too! What kind of animal guts did he eat to gain so much courage? I told him the sect was going to murder him and his family once I found out where he lived. He didn’t take too kindly to that, so if you see people from the Mountainback company, I think you’ll be safer if you kill them on sight.”

“Oh.” Azalea nodded. “We’ll keep that in mind.” It wasn’t unusual for sects to label other sects as kill-on-sight targets. A company and a sect, there really wasn’t too much of a difference between them. Michelle’s choice was a completely logical one. “Did you hear that?” Azalea asked Grandpa Vremya. “The Moon Lotus Sect has a new enemy. I think it’s time for you to show your domineering side.”

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