Li Xing sat on the sofa, his expression grave.
As things stood, the Aurora Group was doing well.
It had plenty of money and plenty of strength.
But they shouldn't be spending so much time thinking about money and how to expand the company.
The group's growth should come from research that improved their strength. Its discarded byproducts could then be used to benefit the world.
Pilaf was a genius. He shouldn't keep his eyes fixed on money.
Li Xing wasn't planning to force the idea on him.
All he needed to do was subtly guide him.
He just had to explain that without great strength, they couldn't protect the wealth they'd acquired, and without enough power and a long enough life, they couldn't enjoy that wealth.
Pilaf was clever, and he had such enormous wealth at his disposal.
They'd understand. They'd work themselves to the bone.
That was much better than squeezing them by force.
Still, they needed a catalyst.
Li Xing furrowed his brow.
He had a way to provide one.
"System, status panel!"
Host: Li Xing
Lifespan: 30
Battle Power: 300
Constitution: 2
Mental Strength: 1
Energy: 150
Ability: Devour Ability (LV1)
Those were the changes over five months.
His lifespan had increased by four, his constitution by 0.5, and his energy had risen from 28 to 150.
The improvement was both astonishing and unsurprising.
Most importantly, his constitution had barely improved.
Without powerful opponents who could match him, Li Xing's Devour Ability wasn't very effective at converting what it consumed.
His energy, on the other hand, was a different story. Li Xing had noticed a pattern.
As long as he put his body under strain and kept training in those conditions, his energy shot up.
The methods were simple.
The ocean floor, beneath a waterfall, on a mountain, or in an environment with extremely high gravity.
With the Aurora Group, a super-technology company, at his disposal, it went without saying which method Li Xing chose.
Just as he'd expected, his energy rose quickly, but his constitution didn't change at all.
With this level of strength alone, he'd be sure to win the first World Martial Arts Tournament he entered.
As for the second, Li Xing wasn't so sure.
A butterfly in South America could trigger a massive hurricane in North America.
How could his arrival not have changed the Dragon Ball World?
It would be fine if he just happened to defeat Sun Wukong.
But if he beat him with ease—
Who knew what kind of hellish training Sun Wukong might go through?
If, over the next three years, Sun Wukong discovered the secret of getting stronger whenever he was injured, he could use Senzu Beans to heal himself and then keep brutalizing himself to power up.
He might end up with several million in battle power.
Li Xing had never been careless. He wouldn't base his decisions on the anime he'd watched.
This was a real world. Anything could happen. For all he knew, Frieza could show up on Earth right now.
Besides, the Dragon Ball World had countless parallel worlds.
Who knew if his world was even the one he knew?
In that respect, the Dragon Ball World was no less dangerous than Marvel.
All in all, the Dragon Ball World was hundreds of times safer than Marvel.
Most of the time, even if you died, as long as you hadn't done evil, the main cast could bring you back with the Dragon Balls.
Li Xing had actually spent some time feeling grateful.
Grateful that he'd come to the Dragon Ball World.
If he'd crossed over into that illogical, utterly absurd world of Marvel, he might not even know how he'd died.
The Director of Family Planning was the least threatening of them all.
If Li Xing were an ordinary person, the Director of Family Planning would be nowhere near as dangerous to him as some ordinary person holding him up at gunpoint.
No matter how strong or weak he was, he'd have a fifty-fifty chance of surviving. Later, he could even stay alive thanks to the Avengers' reckless antics.
Li Xing's thoughts wandered as he let the seconds tick by.
"Mr. Li, what is it? My research is at a critical stage. I can't afford to delay it."
Pilaf came rushing in and immediately started firing off questions.
He really was in a hurry. Once he finished that thing, the group would have another product ready to take the world by storm.
Li Xing coughed and stared hard at Pilaf until his voice gradually trailed off.
A little later,
Xiao Wu and Ashu arrived.
Ashu looked utterly miserable. Bandages covered his whole body, and the only visible part of him was his eyes, which looked utterly hopeless.
Li Xing couldn't help laughing.
Over the past five months, Ashu really had been the most miserable of the three.
But he was also the second strongest of them.
"All right, everyone's here. I'll explain what this is about."
"Mr. Li, hurry up. I've got something important to do—there's a lot of money at stake."
Li Xing saw the excitement on Pilaf's face and glared at him.
"Shut up."
After startling the three of them, Li Xing calmed down and carefully explained things to them.
"Is money not enough for you?"
The three were baffled.
They'd been busy over the past five months, but even Ashu, who'd had the hardest time of them, had enjoyed a life of luxury.
It was more than a hundred times better than before.
Money had made it all possible.
And money was always better in greater quantities. Who would complain about having too much?
From the look in their eyes, Li Xing could tell they still didn't understand.
He could only explain things to them from the perspectives of money, power, and strength.
After talking until his mouth was practically smoking, the three of them finally seemed to understand.
"Do you get it now?"
Ashu looked excited.
"Number One, I get it. We need to recruit lots of strong people to protect our property."
That was his job.
He couldn't wait to do it.
As the length and intensity of his training sessions with Number One increased, Ashu discovered something terrifying.
The martial artists he'd recruited were gradually becoming no match for him.
For the past two months, he'd once again become the main sparring partner.
If Number One agreed to recruit a new batch of stronger martial artists, wouldn't Ashu finally be able to relax and enjoy his luxurious life again?
Who could resist that temptation?
Li Xing stared at Ashu, exasperated.
"Then answer me this: what if they try to take your property?"
"Huh?"
The three of them stared at him, dumbfounded.
They'd never considered that possibility.
The entire Aurora Group belonged to them.
Who could take it?
Li Xing looked at the two bewildered men and launched into another explanation about how you couldn't rely on mountains because they'd crumble, or on rivers because they'd dry up.
At last, the three understood.
"But we're already so rich. Why should we suffer through training?"
Li Xing put on a grave expression.
"Are you stupid?
"What does money even matter to us now?
"What's the difference between five hundred billion and five trillion?
"Will your bed change from three cubic meters of gold to five?
"Have you not seen me training all this time?
"Do you know why?"
The three of them had indeed been wondering about that.
"Why?"
Li Xing stared at them and gave a sly chuckle.
"Obviously, it's so I can live longer.
"I can live for three hundred years, but you can only live for a few dozen.
"Come on, tell me: who gets to enjoy life more?
"And with my strength, no one can take my wealth, even if they use planes and artillery. You can't deny that, can you?"
The three nodded again.
They certainly agreed with that.
Li Xing's strength was terrifying.
"Exactly."
"But training isn't realistic for us. Even if we train, we'll never become strong."
Pilaf muttered under his breath.
Li Xing looked at Pilaf, amused and annoyed.
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