In an office on the top floor of Dragon Palace Tower in Huaguo.
Zhou Ningdong hung up the phone, a smile on his face.
“Captain, what’s making you so happy?” Liu Hai, who was looking at the data sheets of various members, asked curiously as he saw Zhou Ningdong smiling like a blooming chrysanthemum.
“Haha, as expected, the Americans refused to pay the final installment. But the cut we made was so satisfying, 9 billion US dollars! Combined with the revenue from selling to other countries, our Dragon Palace is finally not so short of money anymore.”
“Not short of money? How much do we have now?” Li Chenxu was stunned, finding it hard to believe that Zhou Ningdong would say they weren't short of money.
“This time, we sold the game guide from that Great God, and our overseas earnings amounted to a whopping 55 billion US dollars. Coupled with our own donation fund and allocations from various national ministries, the total has reached 80 billion US dollars! And the number is still growing rapidly.”
“Holy crap, that much? Didn't our various departments only give us tens of billions of Huabi? How did you get so much all of a sudden?” Liu Hai, who was entering with documents, heard Zhou Ningdong and was so shocked that he dropped the files.
“This is the benefit of having a large population. Our Huaguo has over 2 billion people. Even if each person donated only 10 yuan, that would be over 20 billion Huabi. Add in corporate contributions, and that’s how you get such a large sum.”
Unlike the United States, Huaguo’s Dragon Palace’s finances and actual control were in Zhou Ningdong’s hands. He was directly responsible to Huaguo’s highest institution – the Elder Council – wielding more power than the heads of various ministries.
“Holy crap. I’m so impressed with myself, Captain. I’m going to have an extra chicken drumstick at dinner tonight to take back for my son. You haven’t seen how emaciated your nephew looks.” As the person who orchestrated the fundraising, Li Chenxu himself hadn’t expected his idea to be so successful.
“Get lost, you scoundrel!” Zhou Ningdong kicked him out of the office. As members of the Dragon Palace, their family members were given special care by the state. To allow members to devote themselves wholeheartedly, all members’ families were directly accommodated in the Dragon Palace Tower’s first to fifteenth floors!
Food, drink, and housing were all covered by the state. This guy was actually saying his son, who needed to lose weight to maintain his health, had gotten thinner from hunger. What else was that but asking for a beating?
“I wonder when that Great God will finally accept our invitation,” Zhou Ningdong suddenly thought of Ye Yun and sighed.
He had been instructed to recruit him at all costs, but apart from knowing his forum ID and his in-game talent, he knew nothing else about him.
Ye Yun, oblivious to Zhou Ningdong’s troubles, was currently staring at his talent with a bewildered expression and a head full of question marks.
After more than ten minutes of 'passionate' combat, Ye Yun had finally reset the cooldown of 'Midas Touch' to zero. But upon seeing his talent, he was completely baffled.
max1…
What kind of talent was this? He understood ‘max’ well enough, but what the hell was this ‘1’? If there were 2, 3, and so on, how was he supposed to play?
Despite his complaints, Ye Yun knew that his current talent was incredibly powerful. Even if all the cash in the entire world were converted to gold coins, it wouldn't be enough to upgrade his talent to the divine level. He was already beyond divine!
However, what did this the hell mean? max1?
Unbeknownst to him, as his talent upgraded, a radiance of sun and moon suddenly appeared above his head, like a full moon, suspended behind his head.
“System Notification: Congratulations to player **** for upgrading their talent to Fang max1 level! Reward: 10,000 attribute points. Due to being within the protection period, the server-wide announcement has been canceled.”
“System Notification: Congratulations to player **** for being the first to upgrade their talent to max1! Reward: 50,000 attribute points. Due to being within the protection period, the server-wide announcement has been canceled.”
“System Notification: Congratulations to player for breaking the shackles of the Tenth Dimension Universe, unlocking the Tenth Dimension Universe’s constraints! Reward: 100,000 attribute points, Battle Power Manifestation Card * 1. Due to being within the protection period, the server-wide announcement has been canceled.”
“Special Note: Player has broken free from the Tenth Dimension Universe’s constraints and shattered the Heavenly Dao’s barriers! The Heavenly Dao can answer one question for the player.”
Damn it, am I deaf?
Ye Yun trembled, his lips quivering as he looked at the card in his inventory and uttered, “Holy crap!”
What was this max1 talent, or the 160,000 attribute points? This poker card was the real prize.
It could be said that the value of this Battle Power Manifestation Card alone surpassed all of Ye Yun’s earnings in the entire game!
Because the Battle Power Manifestation Card could manifest 5% of the player’s in-game power into reality! This meant that after using this card, his real-world self would possess 5% of his in-game strength!
Within 'Heavenly Dao,' there were two ways to manifest power. One was to achieve enlightenment in the Dao Realm Pavilion!
For example, from level 10 to 20, as long as one’s attributes met the requirements of the Dao Realm Pavilion and passed the Dao Realm certification, they could manifest 2% of their power.
Each 10 levels constituted a realm, and with each realm passed, the manifested battle power would increase by an additional 1%. Like before, Ye Yun had passed the level 50 Enlightenment Tower certification, and the total manifested power was 1% + 2% + 3% + 4% + 5% = 15%!
The second method was this awesome Battle Power Manifestation Card, which could manifest 5% of one’s power with a single card! Most importantly, it did not conflict with the Dao Realm Pavilion certification. And the Dao Realm Pavilion could only be accessed in the main city after reaching level 30!
In his previous life, Ye Yun had only heard of Manifestation Cards; he had never even seen one! If he could truly manifest 5%, Ye Yun himself didn't know how powerful he would become!
At the very least, he would be invincible globally for a year!
Ye Yun took a deep breath. As a veteran player, Ye Yun knew how terrifying his attributes and potential were.
Perhaps, he could start contacting the Dragon Palace now!
The invasion of foreign races in his previous life had left Ye Yun with severe psychological trauma. They were dense, overwhelming, and powerful plant-like alien races that descended, and humanity was almost completely slaughtered.
Because at that time, the manifested power of humans was mostly around 21%, and even the top experts could only manifest around 40% at most!
At that time, at least a million humans died every second, their bodies being rooted by the invaders, slowly draining the essence from human bodies!
With his current attributes and talent, his strength was comparable to a real person. If he could manifest more power later on, he couldn't guarantee protecting all of humanity, but at least his city could be spared. He could leave some hope for humanity.
The demonic flames continued to burn the foolishly brave artifact race. At this moment, Ye Yun’s demonic flames could kill them twice, and with a sustained ten-second duration, he could kill five waves of them. No matter how they charged, they couldn’t even get close to Ye Yun.
The counter-offensive had begun!
Shaking off the exciting fantasies in his mind, Ye Yun began to sound the horn for the counter-offensive.
At this point, the artifact race also noticed Ye Yun's abnormality! Seeing the sun and moon behind Ye Yun's head, they were greatly alarmed!
“Talent Dao Light! Dao Body Naturally Formed!”
“Quick, quick, send a message to our Lord! Someone among humans has awakened a Dao-breaking talent!”
Talent Dao Breaking was the general term for the top-tier talents in the Tenth Dimension Universe’s myriad races. It was rumored that those who achieved Talent Dao Breaking could suppress the Tenth Dimension Universe, and such talents were rare, numbering less than five even in the Ninth Dimension Universe.
And now, humanity in the Third Thousand Realm, ranked last in the Tenth Dimension Universe, had awakened such a talent. What kind of upheaval would this bring to this universe?
“Can’t get out! What’s going on!” Under Ye Yun’s slaughter, the artifact race could only maintain a population of five to six thousand. Among these five to six thousand, nearly half were newly teleported and confused.
Time ticked by, and the entire hunting ground was littered with charred corpses, resembling a human purgatory. The artifact race, with eyes full of despair, looked at Ye Yun, who was like a god of slaughter, unable to even muster the will to resist.
This human was simply too terrifying.