Set Out! A Chance to Make a Fortune Is Right Before Us! / Windermere-That Surname Sounds So Familiar

There were no Mobile Cities yet, so the overwhelming majority of farmland was a fixed target for Catastrophes. Growing food was already extraordinarily difficult—where would you find extra land to grow seasonings?

You had to stay alive before you could enjoy anything!

Chapter 32: Setting Out! A Chance to Make a Fortune Was Right Before Him!

Because of Catastrophes and Originium pollution, food production was not particularly high in any country around the world, while the prices of seasonings had soared into the heavens.

As for why Huang Cao had never considered this before?

All he could say was that habits were a truly terrifying thing.

The seasonings he ate all grew from his own body. He had no need to buy them, so naturally, he had no idea what they cost outside.

Although Huang Cao possessed the Originium Database, it was ultimately just a database, not some intelligent personal assistant.

If you did not turn the pages of a book, it was nothing more than a stack of wastepaper.

The residents of his territory did not want to grow seasonings either. Growing food made them feel much more secure.

Back when they had been mercenaries, having something to eat was already a blessing. How could they have had the means to pursue flavor?

That was why they had never told their lord that seasonings were extremely valuable.

"Kaitian Cat, based on your experience, how many years did you say it would take for Mobile Cities to become widespread?"

"My lord, in my estimation, at least another hundred and fifty years."

"I believe you, but for now, let's eat first."

His heart pounded with excitement, and his hands trembled. Wasn't this the money-making opportunity he had been waiting for?

Seasonings were much easier to sell than food, and he could also fleece the nobles for a hefty sum!

The economy on Terra's land had not yet become globalized, but technological development was fairly even. No one had developed Mobile Cities suitable for human habitation.

Growing food could easily result in total losses, let alone growing seasonings. Besides, the conditions for survival in this world were incomparable to those in his previous life.

In his previous life, there had been floods and other natural disasters, but if one place could not grow crops, people could always go somewhere else.

The most important factor was transportation. When Terra's caravans transported goods, they had to worry not only about bandits but also about Catastrophes blocking the roads.

Doing business was practically hell-level difficult. Thus, the development of Mobile Cities was an irreversible trend. Catastrophes truly hindered development far too much.

Since they could not defeat them, they could only flee. Only on safe Mobile Cities could they establish the conditions necessary to grow valuable plants.

After dinner, Huang Cao returned to his room and produced several tons of pepper by rubbing his hands together. He planned to use it as reserve capital for his territory, along with the low-concentration Originium Inhibitor he had prepared earlier.

There was no doubt that these two things could bring in an enormous fortune, but they would also attract the covetous attention of people with ulterior motives.

Huang Cao's base of operations was in Kazdel.

His target customers were Victoria's newly risen nobles. At this time, their foundations were not as deep as those of the old nobility, yet they urgently needed things that could display their wealth and demonstrate their status.

The greatest pleasures in life were nothing more than eating, drinking, playing, and having fun, with eating coming first.

The newly risen nobles could not stand the old nobility eating better food than they did, and enjoying it more than they did.

Thus, Huang Cao's first destination was already clear. He decided to head to Victoria soon and try to open up a new market.

Victoria possessed the most fertile land in the world. Relying on it, the nobles had accumulated enormous wealth, but the conflict between the feudal and newly risen nobles had grown increasingly intense, especially after the war ended.

At least for the next few years, Victoria would certainly be unstable internally. Wasn't that an opportunity for him?

He would make a huge profit there, take their money, and leave without a trace.

As for lowering the prices of seasonings and disrupting the market?

"I'm in Kazdel, and you're still going to lecture me about that? Do you even know what it means to be a Sarkaz?"

"I don't seem to have any obvious traits of the Sarkaz people. Perhaps I can pretend to be another race." Huang Cao continued pondering how to perfect his plan.

Revealing directly that he had come from Kazdel did not seem appropriate. Should he fabricate an identity for himself as someone from Sargon?

Why choose Sargon?

Because the place was remote enough and its society primitive enough. Its technology was roughly on par with that of present-day Siergrag, and it also had plenty of rainforests. Perhaps seasonings even grew from the ground there.

More importantly, Victoria had yet to develop this region. The information gap between the two sides was enormous.

In this era, few people living in Sargon ventured beyond their homeland.

Having no obvious racial features was the best feature of all. Who knew what lived in Sargon's rainforests?

There was no time to waste.

After deciding on his money-making plan, Huang Cao explained all its background and details to Warfarin the next day.

As usual, Warfarin supported him no matter what he did, despite being far older than the young Huang Cao before her.

"I don't care about your plans. Just come back safe and sound."

Warfarin's feelings at that moment were much the same as Lamian's had been ten years ago, but she also knew that a hero's stage was not a gentle haven.

About half a month later, after Huang Cao had dealt with the affairs of his territory, he told everyone that he was about to leave and do business elsewhere.

Before that, however, Warfarin suddenly handed Huang Cao a letter with gilded lettering on its surface.

"A year from now, Theresia plans to convene a Royal Court meeting and discuss the future direction of Kazdel's development with the kings."

"I'm not really the Lord of the Royal Court. Why did this pink-haired one send me an invitation? If I go, all I'll be able to do is wolf down the little fruits on the table."

"I don't know. She probably saw that there is only one lonely Grass-eating Demon left, so she wanted to give you special consideration."

"But the envelope says the invitation is for the Undead Spirit... I almost forgot. Theresia doesn't know that I'm currently managing this land. She doesn't know that the Undead Spirit assigned the task of managing this land to my current identity."

"Fortunately, Lamian knows that I'm managing this land. She can cover for me at the meeting."

It was fortunate that Huang Cao had built a good relationship with Lamian beforehand. Otherwise, explaining things after attending the meeting would have been difficult.

"There's one more thing. After I leave, managing the territory will definitely become a lot of pressure. You can try managing it together with Kaitian Cat. She's quite capable, but you have to remember one thing."

"What?"

"Under no circumstances are you to let Kaitian Cat handle the accounts or manage the income and expenses."

Huang Cao's expression was solemn, as though his words were directly tied to the life and death of the territory.

Warfarin was puzzled. "I think this Feline has a pretty good head for business. She even pointed you toward a major money-making opportunity. How could she lack that ability?"

"You're still too young. Having a good eye doesn't mean someone is good at doing business."

"Anyway, just listen to me and you won't go wrong. With her experience and abilities, she has no flaws except when it comes to handling money."

With that, Huang Cao pulled a small camera from his trouser pocket.

As an influential feudal noble, what was wrong with borrowing something from his own subject?

"You..."

As expected, you had snatched Kaitian Cat's camera away... Warfarin sighed helplessly.

It seemed there was no escaping tonight's dress-up show.

But this fellow was about to go out on business. Life outside would certainly be hard for him, so she might as well let him have a good time now...

Chapter 33: Windermere, What a Familiar Surname

Early the next morning.

Because of the limitations of the era, there were no flying machines or similar means of transportation. Huang Cao could only walk to Victoria, but fortunately, he ran fast enough that the distance was nothing to him.

This trip to Victoria was not merely for money. He also intended to see whether he could use other means to establish himself in the country.

All right, Huang Cao admitted that he wanted to have his cake and eat it too.

Before setting out, he had only planned to make some money in Victoria. But as he walked, he suddenly wanted to obtain something better from it as well.

As he walked, he searched the Originium Database for relevant information, but as it turned out, the thing was not omnipotent.

Some of the data was simply too jumbled. More importantly, the search engine had no filtering function. If his search terms were not precise enough, it would easily dig up all sorts of strange things.

He therefore had to spend time filtering the results. The Originium Database was extremely valuable, but its shortcoming was that it was difficult to use.

For example, if he searched for the manufacturing process of an excavator, he could find the process—but where would he get the materials? He still had to find them himself and make the thing with his own hands.

Unless he could get Presis to modify the thing for him...

Huang Cao had said goodbye to Warfarin and Kaitian Cat that morning. He had delayed a little on the road to observe the surrounding geography, and only reached the outskirts of Victoria's city at noon.

Since there were no Mobile Cities, the centers of civilization in every country had been built in regions where Catastrophes were infrequent. After all, they had to be ready to flee at any moment.

Fortunately, Originium industry was not very advanced yet, so there had not been any cases of Catastrophes chasing after Mobile Cities.

Huang Cao raced all the way to Victoria's most prosperous city.

Only after entering the city did Huang Cao truly feel what the prosperity of Terra was like. Shops lit by all kinds of electric lights could be seen everywhere.

Originium industry had already achieved a relatively basic level of development. Supplying electricity was no problem, and light bulbs had already been invented.

The bustling crowds streamed through the streets, jointly weaving a painting called life. Yet within that painting appeared two different hues, vastly different from each other.

As expected, even without Mobile Cities, even the most prosperous city was divided into an upper and a lower district.

"The lower district will be difficult to work with. The conflicts aren't sharp enough yet, and there are simply too few Infected."

Huang Cao spent most of the day touring the lower district.

He discovered that the conflicts were not as sharp as he had imagined, at least not in the lower district.

Actually, this was easy to understand. In an era advancing at full speed, most people were still doing fairly well and had no worries about survival. Thus, even when conflicts existed, people chose to ignore them.

Gaul was still alive at this point. The era of explosive technological development after the War of the Four Emperors would be when the conflicts erupted most intensely.

Victoria was currently one of Terra's foremost powers. In the original story, it managed to avoid any major problems for the next several hundred years. There was no reason for everything to go wrong just because he had arrived.

But even if there were no problems, he could create some himself~

After arriving in the upper district, Huang Cao changed his outfit and made himself look like a wealthy merchant from abroad.

Since the Goddess had not given him the storage space standard for novel protagonists, he had only brought a hundred gold coins in his pocket.

He could earn more money here. In any case, he had plenty of ways to do so.

The Originium Database had outdated information, because only memories of the dead that had returned to Originium could be recorded. Information could not be extracted from people who were still alive.

After wandering around this prosperous city for several days, Huang Cao truly found a sliver of opportunity.

Victoria had all kinds of commercial associations. These associations were naturally at odds with the court nobles, but they all had one thing in common.

The overall environment encouraged people to invent and create. New patents emerged every day, although most people were only trying to swindle investors out of their money.

Huang Cao also discovered that the country had two patent offices.

One belonged to the Victoria royal family, while the other belonged to the Victoria Commercial Association.

The former clearly belonged to King Aslan just from its name. The latter definitely belonged to the newly risen nobles.

From the game's storyline, it could be seen that in other countries, bloodline theory was an unquestionable objective reality—but this country was different.

The Aslan who had defeated the Red Dragon actually had no bloodline that differed from that of ordinary Felines.

The so-called superior bloodline was merely a smokescreen created by people. If their bloodline had truly been powerful, the later King Aslan would not have been dragged to the guillotine.

However, these newly risen nobles might not know that fact. Thus, they placed their hopes in technology, attempting to use it to defeat bloodlines.

The later ending showed that they had chosen the right path. It simply took another one or two hundred years for it to bear fruit.

Huang Cao did not mind giving them a push or two and accelerating the conflict between the two sides.

"Let's start from here. Stir up national sentiment, gather the market's resources, and then deliver the decisive blow..."

"Invention? My ability is invention..."

Huang Cao revealed a sinister smile, looking exactly like someone whose scheme had succeeded.

The passerby beside him could not help shivering.

"Hey, you there. What are you thinking about? Come with us."

Just as someone was feeling pleased with himself, a strong hand suddenly gripped his shoulder tightly.