The Earning Potential of Citizens!

Unfortunately, while they did exist, all of them had to be purchased with Lord Funds, and their prices were more or less the same as in reality.

Some lower-tier resources, such as Purple Light Dew, Azure Wave Marrow, and Mu Ya Crystals, were extremely common and produced in huge quantities. They had virtually no premium in reality, and their prices in the mall were basically the same.

As for things that were rare in reality, such as Blood Luo Crystals and Beast God's Blood, their production was extremely limited. Even the Virtual Universe Company had to control how much was allocated to geniuses.

Such rare items carried a considerable premium in reality, yet the Lord Mall did not have one. The system seemed to set a relatively fair price based on their effects and uses.

And as long as he had enough Lord Funds, he could purchase mall items without limit!

As long as he had the money, he could buy a hundred million Star Towers!

Not only did the mall contain treasures that actually existed, it even had treasures that did not exist in reality at all and existed only in fantasy!

"Low-tier items are produced in large quantities. It would be better to buy them directly in reality, since the cost is about the same anyway."

"Only relatively precious items should be bought from the mall. That way, no one will know when I bestow them upon my subordinates, so they won't constantly be targeted by others."

"As for this time when I deposit money, I'll directly exchange for ten thousand cubic meters of Universe Crystals. I'll say it was an opportunity I obtained while adventuring in some secret realm. I've gone through secret realm adventures several times before, so it's perfectly normal for me to have acquired some hidden opportunities. There won't be any problem."

Wang Yu carefully mapped out his plans.

During the several-day journey through the Dark Universe, the system sent him several messages in succession.

[One hundred million unranked citizens born. Reward: 1 Origin Energy]

[Purchased 1 billion Apprentice Grade citizens. Reward: 10 Origin Energy]

[Purchased 1 million Planetary-level citizens. Reward: 1 Origin Energy]

[One Apprentice Grade citizen reached a Force Amplitude of 10 times. Reward: 1 Origin Energy]

Wang Yu looked at these messages with great satisfaction.

He knew that citizens would earn rewards through birth, cultivation, and accomplishments, but he had not known exactly how great those rewards were.

Now, he understood quite a bit more.

If a condition was extremely easy to fulfill, then a certain number of people was required before a reward could be obtained.

For example, all of his citizens possessed the worst possible bloodlines. Their initial state did not even count as Apprentice Grade; they were unranked lifeforms who needed cultivation and resources before becoming Apprentice Grade.

For such unranked citizens, one hundred million births were needed to earn a reward of 1 Universe Coin. The same applied to purchasing slaves and freeing them as citizens, which he had tried before.

Fortunately, these requirements did not have to be met all at once; they were calculated cumulatively. For instance, if one hundred people were needed, there would be no reward at ninety-nine, but as soon as one more was added, the reward would be issued.

Although such rewards were not much, as long as he provided a safe, stable, and good environment, his citizens would naturally breed like crazy.

Over time, the returns would still be quite good.

And for now, they merely had the worst bloodlines, so their descendants all started out unranked. But if their bloodlines improved in the future and newborns were directly Apprentice Grade, then the required number would naturally be far lower.

Moreover, the rewards for citizens being born were all small. The rewards for success in cultivation were clearly much greater!

"An Apprentice Grade citizen who reaches a Force Amplitude of ten times earns 1 Universe Coin? That's really not bad!" Wang Yu looked on in satisfaction.

"However, among the ragtag bunch of citizens under me, there must be very, very few who can cultivate to a Force Amplitude of ten times at the Apprentice Grade. They're probably only the selected geniuses who might be able to do it. There won't be many such people..."

In the original work, Babata had once told Luo Feng that the average level of Yun Mo Star's Apprentice Grade 9th Order was a Force Amplitude of ten times.

However, Yun Mo Star was the home planet and headquarters of Hu Yan Bo, who had barely reached Marquis-level. Its standards were naturally different from those of ordinary planets.

For an ordinary lower-tier country, the average level was around six, while an Intermediate Universe Country averaged around eight.

The completely undeveloped indigenous planets under his command had an average level of around three.

Anyone who could cultivate to a Force Amplitude of ten times under the current conditions could be considered an unparalleled genius on those lousy planets!

"Looks like this is a barely promising genius. I'll take another look when I return. If his talent and potential are decent, he might be worth personally accepting as a disciple."

"And if the requirement is only a Force Amplitude of ten times, I can throw in more money. There'll be no shortage of resources or instructors. Training everyone to that level may be unrealistic, but among those selected with slightly better talent, I should be able to raise at least a hundred thousand or even a million to that level..."

"Then, if I expand the scale and increase the number of planetary territories and citizens, the earning potential of my citizens will be quite impressive."

"And there's also buying slaves as citizens. Planetary-level slaves still lose money, and I expect that even Star-level and Universe-level slaves will lose money in the future. But if I train them and their strength improves, then I'll make a profit."

The more Wang Yu thought about it, the better it seemed.

Five days later.

The spaceship came to a complete stop, then gave a slight jolt as it exited the Dark Universe.

After returning to the original universe and activating the exterior simulation, Wang Yu saw a huge and beautiful planet in the distant distance ahead.

That was the Imperial Capital Star of the Blue Silver Empire. It was roughly three times the size of his War God Star, and it had been transformed at enormous cost into an exceptionally beautiful world. Citizens living in such a planetary environment generally possessed better aptitude as well.

Improving aptitude on a large scale did not necessarily require reaching the level of Sitting Mountain Guest transforming Blue Star.

In fact, as long as the environment contained more abundant energy, lifeforms would gradually improve in aptitude and bloodline over generation after generation.

For example, when Luo Feng first entered the universe, he had purchased Purple Light Dew in large quantities to supply several billion people of Blue Star, allowing them to evolve from unranked lifeforms into Apprentice Grade.

Once the parents' strength increased, their offspring would naturally begin at a higher starting point. Then, they might surpass their own parents and give birth to even more outstanding descendants...

Such improvement was feasible, but it was extremely, extremely slow.

Of course, spending money could accelerate it.

And that was exactly what he intended to do.

As the spaceship approached Imperial Capital Star, it received a guidance signal. Under its guidance, the ship slowly entered the planet and landed in a massive docking port.

It was an immensely vast docking port, packed with countless spaceships. The port was divided into four docking areas according to ship grade.

There were quite a few A-grade and B-grade ships. C-grade spaceships were slightly fewer, but there were still several hundred visible at a glance.

For alloy-made spaceships, a C5-grade vessel cost around several hundred million White Dragon Coins, while a C9-grade vessel cost around ten billion White Dragon Coins.

Although C-grade corresponded to Universe-level, Universe-level beings rarely used such cheap spaceships as their personal vessels. They were usually used by geniuses from major powers or children of great families.

Universe-level beings more often directly used D-grade spaceships. For instance, he had a D4-grade ship assigned to him by the Blue Silver Empire. Though it was not given to him and was merely loaned for his use, it would not be too expensive even if he wanted to buy one.

A D1-grade spaceship cost only around one hundred billion White Dragon Coins—just over ten thousand Universe Coins.