Will I Ultimately Become a Capitalist Tycoon?
Author: Hong Ge
Synopsis:
"Look, see what I found. That's a viciously hungry Huihui. We can hire her with a little food and use her as a one-time nuclear warhead."
"Oh, heavens, there's a Naruto up ahead. He can use the Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu. His work efficiency is a thousand times that of a construction worker."
"My God, there's even a Mobius. Why don't we trade a small investment for her future patents?"
"Great Lord! There's also a Talulah from the Reunion Movement. She's Victoria's heir apparent. It's time to follow Lü Buwei's example."
After joining a chat group, Russell obtained a Prompt Device—a cheat that pointed out opportunities.
It was just that the opportunities his Prompt Device identified seemed a little off.
After pondering for a moment, Russell put on a monocle.
Let's see how much surplus value remains.
Volume One
Chat Group and the Surplus Value Prompt Device
St. John's Fort.
The capital of the Ursus Empire.
A place that produced fanatical soldiers, conservative nobles, and foolish bureaucrats.
Russell sat in a restaurant eating beef stew, gazing longingly at the black luxury cars driving along the street.
Russell was a Transmigrator.
Guided by the principle of skipping electives and dodging required courses, he chose to skip class.
The price of skipping class was getting punched into the sky by an Optimus Prime who had appeared out of nowhere, rising shoulder to shoulder with the sun.
When he woke up in another world, his appearance had not changed, but both his identity and the world he inhabited had changed drastically.
Russell was now the owner of a mine.
He held a noble title, belonged to a superior race, and possessed remarkably powerful Originium Arts.
Without a doubt, it was an exceptionally perfect start.
The only problem was—
The mine under Russell's name seemed to have undergone a minor change.
For example, it had exploded.
It had also brought along a few minor troubles.
For example, it had caused a certain degree of urban paralysis.
Ursus was modeled after Tsarist Russia.
In the accursed society of Tsarist Russia, casualties and urban paralysis were not particularly serious matters.
However, Russell's superior—the butler of Grand Duke of Baikal—had sent him a letter.
Honorable Baron, you are required to pay certain cleanup expenses.
The cost was not high.
As long as Russell gathered a large number of miners who neither needed wages nor food and had every mine shaft under his name dug so thoroughly that even rats would weep, he could barely begin rebuilding from scratch.
He cut the beef with knife and fork in an impeccably gentlemanly manner, then elegantly brought it to his mouth.
One's last meal required a sense of ceremony.
After finishing his meal, Russell, who looked even more elegant than the Grand Duke, left the restaurant to look for somewhere shady enough to rot away slowly.
"Dimensional Meetup Group successfully created."
Russell froze slightly. Before he could react, a string of notifications followed.
"Get reincarnated into a good family in your next life and join a chat group."
Holy shit, a chat group?
Russell, who had been looking for a good Feng Shui spot, was instantly stunned.
Ever since starting over, he had been praying for his cheat to come online and save his miserable life.
Now, it had really arrived!
Explosion Magic is Number One: "Welcome. Our ranks have gained another member."
I'm Going to Be the Hokage: "Am I a senior member now too? Awesome!"
I Will Definitely Kill Jackie Chan: "Oh, another new guy?"
Daughter of the Raiden Family Never Loses: "...Welcome."
Tide Surge Halved and Blocked by One: "Welcome."
They were all quite recognizable, since their profile pictures were basically photos of themselves.
Judging from their names and messages, they should be Huihui, Naruto, Valmont, Megumin, and Skadi, in that order.
As Russell looked through the messages in the group, he swiftly identified the other members.
But how should he introduce himself?
Should he put on an air of mystery and call himself the omnipotent Great Immortal Luo?
Should he come clean and become a dependable nice guy in the group?
Or should he kneel and beg the group members to show mercy, grant him travel permissions, and let him flee from his debts?
The last option felt especially tempting.
But after thinking it over carefully, that idea did not seem very workable.
KonoSuba, Otsutsuki Legend, Jackie Chan Musou Legend, Honkai Impact 3rd, and his own hometown.
The worlds inhabited by the group members came in only two varieties: extremely unsafe and unsafe.
Skadi in particular—getting travel permission from her would just mean going from Terra to Terra.
Thinking of that, Russell felt somewhat annoyed.
Why weren't Ant Senpai or Yukino Yukinoshita here?
Living in a beautiful girl's home was a kind of romance.
If that really didn't work, the Great Teacher and that foul-mouthed pigheaded boy would do too. Both of them were fairly pleasant-looking.
No, that wasn't right.
There was something wrong with that line of thought.
As Russell's thoughts ran wild, he cleared his throat and pulled himself together.
It was time to introduce himself.
"I'm Russell, an idle Ursus social—"
Look, see what I found. That's a viciously hungry Huihui. We can hire her with a little food and use her as a one-time nuclear warhead or high-energy explosive.
A line of text abruptly appeared in his field of vision, rudely interrupting Russell's introduction.
?!!
What the hell was that?!
Russell was so startled that he jumped back a step.
Whether it was the sudden appearance of a box in his vision or the contents displayed within it, both were profoundly shocking to him.
Before Russell could react, the box suddenly began flashing again.
Oh, heavens, there's a Naruto up ahead. He can use the Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu. Alone, he can match two thousand miners, and there's no need to worry about him contracting Oripathy!
And all it takes to hire him is telling him some information about Sasuke and giving him twenty bowls of ramen a day.
Huh?!!
Russell's heart was shaken as never before.
Naruto Uzumaki was unquestionably an incredibly famous character.
His signature ninjutsu were the Rasengan and Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu. During the Boruto era, it was mentioned that he could create up to a thousand Shadow Clones at once.
Several hundred Shadow Clones, plus an excellent demolition expert.
If he followed the instructions of this suddenly appearing box, wouldn't he soon be able to assemble an engineering team?!
It seemed perfectly suited to resolving the predicament he was currently facing.
Was this his cheat?
Russell guessed at the nature of the prompt window.
Was its ability to point out ways to use outside help to resolve his current difficulties?
A battle royale Prompt Device?
The very next instant, that thought was dismissed.
In Russell's field of vision, the Prompt Device suddenly doubled in size!
Lord! Look, look! There's an unlucky bastard here working for the Holy Lord. Quickly use him to contact the Holy Lord, and exchange the release of that evil dragon for a method to summon the Shadowkhan Army without wearing the Mask.
Once you reach his world, you can obtain eight entire Shadow Legions capable of working twenty-four hours a day.
Tricking that untrustworthy old demon into trusting you will be difficult, but it will definitely be worth it.
Umm... scamming an ancient demon?!
Russell's brain completely froze for a moment.
While Russell was frozen, the Prompt Device continued operating, evaluating the group members.
Skadi? She looks pretty poor. Let's ignore her.
The box was at least half the size it had been when mentioning Valmont. Its disdain for Skadi was practically overflowing, enough to make one wonder whether the despised Skadi might someday shout, "Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river! Never bully a poor young woman!" before suddenly powering up.
My God! She's the heir of the Raikou family. This little rich girl is lonely and wary. Try to break through the barriers around her heart and become her friend. Then, through her, you can acquire large quantities of modern goods and even Anti-Entropy industry at low prices, striking a heavy blow against Terra's manufacturing sector.
Upon encountering a rich girl, the Prompt Device's box instantly tripled in size, practically begging Russell to become a PUA master immediately and win over that little rich girl.
Looking at the Prompt Device that had assigned roles to every group member one by one, Russell understood.
This thing was not some system for turning adversity around...
It was a fucking Surplus Value Detector!!
Valmont, I'm the Boss!
Master Luo had his mind seized by the Surplus Value Prompt Device, leaving him without a shred of joy.
So much so that after entering the group chat, he had not typed a single word.
"...Why isn't the newcomer saying anything?"
Huihui looked at the newcomer, who seemed to have given no response at all in the group chat, her expression somewhat puzzled.
"That's obviously because he's overwhelmed by my charm."
Before you continue