Ding!
[Private Chat]+1
Another fish took the bait.
A flash of delight appeared in Ethan's eyes as he quickly opened the private message.
["I'm the lord of Region 10, Chomu. I plan to cooperate with you,"] The lord of Region 10, Chomu, came in arrogantly right away, ["Kid, there are tons of people who want to work with me. I'm giving you a chance, you better know how to seize it."]
["Heh! Then thanks so much for your 'chance.' You'd better keep it for someone else."]
Ethan replied without hesitation.
Working with someone like this, by the time they actually cooperated, he might end up treating Ethan like his subordinate.
Clearly he was the one coming to ask for cooperation, yet he made it sound like others were begging him.
Ethan was honestly a bit puzzled…
'How did someone like this even survive until now?'
["Kid, you don't even know what I'm capable of yet!"]
Hearing Ethan's rejection, the lord of Region 10, Chomu, became even more furious, ["Let me tell you, I'm already a warrior now, the kind who can kill monsters with bare hands!"]
["I've taken a liking to you and given you a chance, that's your luck. You'd better not fail to appreciate it!"]
["Heh!"]
Ethan replied with a death-smile emoji and casually blocked him.
Talking to this kind of idiot for even one more sentence made him feel like his IQ was dropping.
———
[Region 8, Inside the Villa]
Luna kept checking the lord channel on her magic book from time to time. Seeing that Ethan still hadn't replied, she grew increasingly anxious.
At this moment, she was practically like a little girl who had just confessed to her crush, waiting for his reply.
Burning with anxiety, yet not daring to say anything or ask.
"Selena, do you think he'll agree?"
Luna kept glancing at the regional channel, then occasionally at the world channel, and then back to the lord channel again.
Even though she didn't want to appear like she cared too much, she couldn't control the urge in her mind to take another look.
So, the interface of her magic book kept switching back and forth between these three channels.
And the speed of switching kept getting faster.
At first, Luna could still read what people were saying in the regional channel.
But later, she had completely lost the mood to read anything. She was only paying attention to whether the name "Ethan" would appear in the world channel.
"He will agree."
Selena adjusted her glasses again, a flash of white light glinting across them.
Although she didn't have any special combat ability, Selena realized that after coming to this world, her intelligence seemed to have improved even further, especially her ability to coordinate and analyze.
Before, her analytical ability wasn't bad either, but it was hard for her to analyze more than three things at the same time.
But now she could, not only could she analyze three things simultaneously, she even had spare capacity to think about other problems.
This feeling was amazing. It was like upgrading from a dual-core CPU straight to an eight-core one. This kind of sensation was something cute, empty-headed people would never experience.
"Why are you so sure?", Luna asked curiously.
"Because in the entire A-zone, aside from Region 1's Shakun and Region 4's Orin, these two lords who each rule their own domains, only Region 2's David and Region 9's lord Duma are somewhat decent."
"The other regional lords are either overly arrogant or completely clueless about their own position. Ethan won't choose them."
"As for Region 9's lord Duma…"
"He'll likely lean toward cooperating with Region 1 or Region 4, rather than choosing Ethan."
"So calculating it this way, your only real competitor should be the lord of Region 2, David. But luckily there are two spots available, so you both have a good chance of becoming teammates."
"Why are you so certain that Region 9's lord Duma would choose Region 1 or 4 instead of Ethan?", Luna tilted her head as she looked at Selena, completely puzzled about how this woman's brain worked.
Why was it that she clearly hadn't even met these people, yet could guess their choices and thoughts so accurately?
"Because Duma can no longer be considered an ordinary player… or rather, not an ordinary lord anymore," Selena tapped lightly on the windowsill as she analyzed, "Because he has learned the skills of a Dustless Master, so he can be considered a mage, right?"
"Someone like that would definitely look down on a 'normal' lord like Ethan."
"And I suspect that even if he chooses to cooperate with the lord of Region 4, it would likely be as an equal partner, like an alliance, rather than becoming a subordinate."
"So he will definitely agree to your request to group up."
[Private Chat +1]
Ding!
Just as Selena finished speaking,
Luna immediately received Ethan's reply. Her eyes lit up as she said, "It's here! It's here!"
"Mm, what did the lord of Region 7 say?"
Luna stared carefully at the magic book and replied, "Ethan said he hasn't fully decided yet, but he can give us a chance."
Selena: "What kind of chance?"
"He said he can tell us a way to survive, and even guarantee that we won't lack food," Luna continued, "But for this opportunity, we have to pay a price, 80% of all our gains."
"Agree to him!"
Selena said immediately.
But Luna hesitated a little, "But he wants 80% of all gains from everyone, including both the people and players. We'd be working so hard and only get 20%… isn't that a bit too much?"
"Not at all," Selena continued analyzing for Luna, "Think about it…"
"If he doesn't tell you the method right now, with the current conditions outside and the upcoming three days of extreme cold polar night, do you have any way to obtain food?"
"If you can't obtain food, then our gains are equal to zero."
"Could we possibly lose more than zero?"
"Well… no, we can't," Luna finally understood Selena's thinking, "But I still feel really unwilling! This guy is way too ruthless. Isn't this just making me work for him? And he's taking 80% in one go, it's outrageous!"
"Just because he sets conditions doesn't mean we can't set ours," Selena smiled, "Agree to him first, then tell him that your people and players don't have enough cold-resistant clothing, so they can't help with this. Ask him if he can come up with a way to solve it."
"This… is that okay?"
Even though Luna said that, she still quickly sent Selena's suggestion over.
Right after that, Luna's face lit up with joy, "Selena, you were right again."
"He agreed, but he said we need to provide the materials for self-heating thermal suits. For each set of clothing, he'll take 50% of the materials as a fee."
"He even sent over the materials list."
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