Instigator

After Altair returned home, he didn't head straight to the "treasury" to retrieve the materials and prepare the potion for advancement.

Instead, he went to bed as usual. It was already very late, and even though finishing the potion had left him extremely excited, he couldn't do anything about his body's exhaustion. He could prepare the potion tomorrow; there was no need to make trouble for himself over a little time.

After getting up early and finishing breakfast the next day, Altair bathed, burned incense, and went to the treasury to retrieve the materials. Then he headed to his laboratory to prepare the potions for advancement.

The Instigator Potion was made using a ready-made Beyonder Characteristic and supplementary ingredients. The characteristic looked like a sculpture of two exquisite, glossy, tender pink lips.

The finished potion looked like a cup of glossy black water, gleaming darkly and bubbling faintly, as though it held the hidden desires and malice in everyone's heart.

There was no ready-made Beyonder Characteristic available for the Telepathist, so Altair could only use the materials he'd collected to make the potion: the complete pituitary gland of a mature seven-colored lizard-dragon, ten milliliters of Falsman Rabbit spinal fluid, and one hundred milliliters of Pure Water...

The potion's appearance kept changing, its sheen seeming to reflect the depths of everyone's heart.

There was a ready-made Beyonder Characteristic for the Beast Tamer. It looked like a bamboo-jointed object that gave off a dangerous red glow.

The potion was rose pink, resembling wine and tasting somewhat sour. As soon as it was made, it attracted every mosquito in the vicinity.

The Archaeologist Potion was made from ingredients. Its main ingredients were the jawbone of a Digger Worm and crystals from the finger bones of an ancient corpse. Its supplementary ingredients were fifty milliliters of spring water from deep underground, ten grams of the dust of ages, and fragments of faded ancient fabric...

Altair chose the Instigator Potion first and downed it in one gulp. His tongue immediately felt a stabbing pain, then went numb. Finally, his desires began to run wild, and all kinds of emotions, like greed and jealousy, came one after another.

To keep himself from losing control, Altair immediately entered a meditative state. He began to rein in his Spirituality and lessen the potion's influence on him.

Only after the potion's influence had completely subsided did Altair slowly emerge from meditation.

He held out his hands and looked them over. Seeing no changes, he finally relaxed. The Instigator Potion had come with an influence of its own when he drank it, and he'd nearly lost control on the spot.

He turned to look at the three remaining potions and sighed. Now he could only grit his teeth and drink them.

After drinking all four potions, Altair felt the changes in himself and was glad to have endured the pain.

All his abilities from Sequence Nine had been greatly enhanced.

Now, thanks to the four Sequence Eight potions, not only was he more persuasive, he could also observe others and figure out what they were thinking. He'd also acquired quite a bit of knowledge, such as the instinct to tell when a building had been constructed by examining the debris that fell from its walls, and how to drive animals more effectively.

These abilities had been added to Altair as if they were instincts; he didn't need to study them.

Based on his newly acquired abilities, Altair thought, Looks like I'll have to add some new members to the household: an Assassin Cat, a Divination Black Cat, a Spectator Dog... Or maybe I could raise a pack of Warrior Dogs. Start with one person, end up with a pack of dogs. When a fight breaks out, just open the gate and let the dogs loose.

As for acting as an Instigator, Triss's behavior in the original story had already given Altair an idea. The essence of instigation was to provoke conflict, incite people, and bring about disasters through persuasion and enticement.

He could use the Factory Plan to persuade and incite those elders, appealing to their interests, and convince them to join forces with him to reform his family's factories in Bexland or build entirely new ones.

If they wanted to make money, they had to spend money first. Surely they understood that.

By making my standards the benchmark and refusing to involve them if they wouldn't reform, I'm sure they'll be happy to cooperate once they see the cards I have to play.

The new factories would be integrated with and renovated alongside the existing ones, forming an entirely new industrial park. Then, under the pretext of protecting confidential information, each family would be required to provide personnel for semi-militarized management.

This wouldn't just deal a heavy blow to the existing Industrial Zone; it would be a catastrophe for those parasites.

Whether anyone would use this as a pretext to incite unrest was none of Altair's concern. They would handle things properly because they stood to benefit.

As for whether the people at the bottom would be affected, they'd be fine as long as they didn't listen to anyone stirring them up.

For them, it would simply mean a change of environment and a different way of life.

Some ordinary people might lose their jobs during the reforms, cutting off their families' income, among other possible problems. All Altair could do was complete the reforms as quickly as possible.

For the workers at his family's factories, he could provide reasonable compensation. Once things settled down, they could return to work.

During this period, Altair had already asked Hahn to investigate the minimum amount his family's factory workers needed to get by. Ordinary workers needed no more than three pounds a month in compensation, while the management staff needed no more than five.

At the start of the reforms, he would explain that anyone who didn't want to relocate could receive compensation. That money would be enough to live on for three months while they looked for a new job.

As for the other families' factories, he would do his best to persuade them.

Everything was ready; all that was missing was the final push. Once Uncle-in-law Lev returned, Altair would put the plan into action immediately. The telegram from two days ago had said he was on his way back, so there was no need to rush over a few days.

Altair didn't want to think about any of this anymore. He just wanted to wrap up these troublesome matters as soon as possible.

Although he had the Library and wouldn't be directly affected by Cheek, She was like someone who had soaked in a potion. Even the potion itself had become corrupted.

What exactly had You gone through to twist this Sequence into something like this?

Altair was starting to have some strange thoughts. He wanted to carry out the reforms but keep all the compensation money for himself. He felt it was all his—why should he compensate them?

After leaving the laboratory, Altair went to the training ground nearby and began testing his body. His strength, speed, and other attributes had all increased by roughly thirty percent.

But he was still within the bounds of an ordinary person. Compared with the average person, he was simply more like a specially trained athlete, stronger than most in certain areas.

That was to be expected. No matter the Pathway, qualitative change only came at Sequence Seven.

All he had to do was wait for the plan to begin. He wouldn't need to do anything; he could simply wait for the potion to digest on its own, then advance to Sequence Seven.