Petty

Wang Wen took the paper back with a blank expression. He ignored Luo Shan, who had regained his senses and leaned in to ask, "Is it because metal resists the toxic gas? Then why only the pants and not a mask or protective suit?" Instead, he pulled another sheet from a different pocket and handed it over.

Tong Xiaolei gave him a thoughtful look before she began to read the contents.

There were no issues this time. The route sequence started with the Five-Finger Map, passed through the Ten-Step Mountains and Rivers, the Broken Lock, the Chain Silk, and a series of other complex mechanisms, finally ending at the Three Arrows.

It was described in great detail, including the specific solution for every mechanism and clear handling methods for the few variations that might appear.

As the Central Group Leader, Tong Xiaolei's knowledge base far exceeded that of an average person; she was an experienced and formidable Tower Climber in her own right.

The moment she finished reading the entire route, she was already eighty or ninety percent convinced.

If one followed this route, they could finish solving the mechanisms in about four minutes, barring any accidents.

To think the five minutes he mentioned was actually a conservative estimate!

It was calculated purely for a novice Tower Climber.

What exaggerated confidence!

Tong Xiaolei looked up and rolled her eyes at Wang Wen.

He was left baffled by the gesture.

After rolling her eyes, Tong Xiaolei lowered her head to look at the route on the paper again.

A sense of untimely sorrow suddenly welled up in her heart.

Judging by the content, this could almost be called a mature, finalized plan.

It wasn't some stroke of luck.

It was the result of testing paid for with real human lives.

Especially when she saw a mechanism timed down to the millisecond, her eyes even grew hot.

She could fully imagine how many fearless lives had gritted their teeth against the encroaching toxic gas, risking everything to push forward with every millisecond gained.

Setting aside the messy interests behind the scenes.

These were truly admirable pioneers.

Tong Xiaolei suddenly guessed whether his reluctance to enter the tower had something to do with this intelligence.

Was one of his close friends or brothers sacrificed during the process of testing these mechanisms?

Or perhaps, a relative?

As she thought about it, her gaze toward Wang Wen softened.

She meticulously recorded the information from the paper into her Light Shadow Notebook and said to a subordinate beside her, "Have this transferred to the Upper Group for testing as soon as possible."

Immediately after, she cross-referenced the personal code on the paper and transferred the deposit.

Once that was done, Tong Xiaolei handed the slip back to Wang Wen and asked pointedly, "This route, it was tested by your own people, wasn't it?"

"My own people?" Wang Wen took the slip, his mind flashing back to the testers of the First Consortium twenty years later.

He had once been a member of the group himself; he supposed that counted as his own people.

So, he nodded in acknowledgment.

Tong Xiaolei's gaze softened even further. She sighed and comforted him, "The departed are gone. All we can do is make the best use of this plan so their sacrifice isn't in vain."

Wang Wen gave her a strange look. Seeing that she looked like she was about to cry, he felt both startled and afraid. He hurriedly nodded, mumbled a few incoherent replies, and took off running.

The First Consortium of this era was hopeless!

Wasn't it just one hundred thousand Points?

To be driven to tears over a department leader's budget?

How petty!

Before he could finish complaining in his head.

Tong Xiaolei's voice called out from far behind him, "Don't worry, once we finish testing, the final payment will be transferred to your account in full!"

Startled, he quickened his pace even more, performing a sliding tackle as he dove into the portal back to The Academy.

Watching Wang Wen leave as if fleeing a disaster.

Luo Shan asked Tong Xiaolei in confusion, "Leader Tong, aren't you being a bit too polite to that kid? Is this intelligence really worth that much money?"

Tong Xiaolei looked back at him, "If he hadn't negotiated with us privately and had instead put it up for public auction, it probably would have fetched even more."

"No way, right?" Luo Shan's mouth hung open. "It's just intelligence for the 69th floor! Is it really that exaggerated? More expensive than intelligence for the two or three-hundredth floors?"

"A thousand-foot tower rises from the ground." Tong Xiaolei shook her head, thinking of the intelligence she had organized in the past, and sighed, "It is precisely because it is low that it is more lethal."

Seeing that Luo Shan still looked as constipated as ever.

Tong Xiaolei thought that since she had to wait here for the Upper Group's testers anyway, she might as well patiently explain it to him point by point:

"Everyone who wants to sprint to higher tower floors cannot avoid this toxic gas chamber, which causes the most attrition within the first hundred floors. Passing through half-dead versus passing through unscathed are two completely different concepts."

"Four minutes! Any expert on higher floors can solve the mechanisms in one breath without stopping and enter the next floor."

"If this intelligence is verified to be correct, not to mention the whole world, our group alone could produce at least one hundred thousand experts capable of clearing the first hundred floors, and it would even greatly increase the success rate of sprinting to the two-hundredth floor!"

"Just imagine, previously it took an expert of at least the three-hundredth floor to safely pass the Life Reaper 69, but now?"

"It only requires holding one's breath for four minutes. Even I can do it!"

Luo Shan listened blankly, finally realizing the truth. "Oh! So it used to take someone above the three-hundredth floor to pass without injury, but now the threshold for passing the first hundred floors without injury has been lowered to within the first hundred floors!"

Tong Xiaolei wore an expression that said, "You finally get it."

"And they say you Central Group people are smart!" Luo Shan scratched the back of his head with a sheepish grin, but suddenly another question occurred to him, and he hurriedly asked, "He only mentioned the last of his three prices; what did the first two mean? Why did I only get one hundred thousand, but you had to pay one million?"

"Huu..."

Hearing this question.

The smile on Tong Xiaolei's face vanished.

She looked at Luo Shan with a complex expression. Seeing his face full of question marks, she thought to herself that perhaps being simple-minded was a kind of happiness.

"You got one hundred thousand because you didn't understand the value of this intelligence. Since he was willing to sell such intelligence for money, he must have been in urgent need of it and couldn't be bothered to haggle with you."

"As for my million."

At this point, she let out a long sigh, looking in the direction where Wang Wen had disappeared.

"The reason for my million lies in his third price."

"It seems my probing made him unhappy."

"What a petty person."

Luo Shan stood there with his mouth agape, watching the Central Group Leader display a side of a woman holding a grudge that he had never seen before. He felt as if he had just learned something incredible.

When he returned to The Academy, the sky was already dark.

The cafeteria's regular dinner service had certainly ended.

But.

Was this something the current Wang Wen needed to worry about?

Was this something someone with one hundred thousand Points in their personal account needed to worry about?

He grabbed the confused, skinny little boy.

Wang Wen started ordering food directly in the cafeteria!

The fish had to be grilled! At least two pounds!

Braised tofu, braised bean curd sheets, braised eggs, braised beef, braised pig trotters—bring out the whole platter!

Stir-fry the seasonal vegetables! Fresh greens, not dried or rehydrated ones! Must add minced garlic!

And that bottle of whatever wine it was! Staff member, you don't need to introduce it, just swipe the card, can you do that?

Wang Wen wiped the drool from his mouth.

He reined in the wild, exhilarating images in his mind.

He honestly ordered a potato stir-fry from the cold-faced staff member, grabbed a bowl of free soup, scooped up a bowl of cold rice, and began to wolf down his meal at the table.

From time to time, he would urge the skinny little boy, "You eat too, let's eat together."

There was no helping it; the final payment hadn't arrived yet, and he only had one hundred thousand Points on hand. There were too many things he wanted to buy, like a Synchronous Translator, which he would definitely need if he wanted to make a fortune selling intelligence in the future. He couldn't just keep milking his old employer...