Pooling the top-tier resources of both Midnight and Nevernight Palace to build a Mechanical Dragon more powerful than anything ever seen before,
Fang Ran had expected the cost to be staggering, but he had never imagined it would be this staggering.
"Two hundred billion, Mentor? You mean it'll take two hundred billion US dollars?"
And that was only the starting point!?
"What's wrong? Compared to the epoch-making significance it may possess once completed, it's merely less than one-third of a certain country's annual military budget."
Faced with Fang Ran's somewhat dazed confirmation, Mentor took out his pocket watch for a glance and answered lightly, entirely unconcerned.
Then he heard him finish speaking.
"Hm? Fang Ran! Hey, Fang Ran, what's wrong?"
Seeing Fang Ran suddenly topple toward him, Klim hurriedly reached out to support him and asked with concern.
"No, I'm fine. I'm just a little dizzy. Let me catch my breath."
Two hundred billion! And in US dollars!?
And you say it's merely...? Mentor, are you sure you aren't joking with me!?
The number, far beyond anything he had imagined, struck Fang Ran's mind like a blow. Leaning against Klim's shoulder, he let out a frightened scream in his heart.
What kind of concept was two hundred billion?
Even if you earned over a hundred million every month—US dollars, of course—and that income was completely stable, with no risk of losses and no major expenses,
with an annual income of over a billion, you could only save that much wealth within a "reasonably realistic" amount of time.
Well, roughly less than two hundred years.
So that was practically not a level of wealth an individual could possess.
Hundreds of billions were figures only national-level organizations could mobilize in major fields such as military defense.
To use the closest real-world example,