Territory Shop Upgrade
“You know?” Old Jack stared at Ryan before him, his expression icy. “At first, I didn’t. But now, do you really think I could still not know? What I can’t figure out is why you all took such extreme measures about the Phantom, and why you hid all this from me.”
Ryan was silent for a long moment before replying, “There are many reasons. One is that if I told you, you’d try to stop me. There’s also another reason I can’t speak of.”
Old Jack’s lips curled into a colder sneer. “Can’t say? What’s so impossible to say? Is it that you’re helping the Phantom because you want to use him to turn Goblin Forest into a trade city linking to the Silver Hand? Or is it that, behind all this, you have the tacit approval of your patron?”
Ryan’s face changed, and the aura around him shifted dramatically.
“So I guessed right, didn’t I? What’s wrong? Think I know too much? Want to silence me?”
Sensing Ryan’s mood, Old Jack’s face grew even darker. He tore open his shirt, revealing a savage scar across his chest, strode right up to Ryan, and pointed at it, roaring, “Come on, aim right here!”
Seeing that wound, Ryan’s resolve crumbled utterly. How could he possibly harm Old Jack? That scar was from years ago, when Old Jack had protected Ryan. If not for that injury, Old Jack would not be reduced to merely a ‘forest warden’ now.
“I’m sorry,” Ryan said, slumped in defeat, after a long silence. But it was unclear if the apology was for the wound on Old Jack’s chest, or for something else.
“Don’t apologize to me. Right now, I just want to know one thing. Was that incident with the Phantom your doing?”
Old Jack’s question sent Ryan into a fury. “You actually suspect me of that?”
“If it were the past, I’d never suspect you. But since you started following that person, it’s hard not to doubt.” At this, Old Jack paused, the corner of his mouth twitching into an exceedingly complex smile. “After all, that person ‘for the sake of’ the kingdom…”
“Shut up! Don’t say another word, One-Arm! I absolutely won’t allow you to insult the General!” Ryan’s voice was savage as he cut off Old Jack’s words, the glow of battle energy flickering around him. It was clear Ryan was truly enraged now—if Old Jack kept speaking, he might well attack.
Seeing Ryan in this state, Old Jack chose silence at last. But his face was colder than ever, and the look in his eyes as he regarded Ryan was as if gazing at a stranger.
Time is a merciless force; it takes away many things, and shreds many more. The friendship between Ryan and Old Jack had been torn to pieces by time. Ten years ago, neither would have imagined this day could come.
“In the end, it’s better if we never meet again.” After a long, cold stare, Old Jack broke the silence first, spat out these words, and prepared to leave. As he turned, Ryan finally managed to control his emotions.
“The Phantom is in the hands of that necromancer.”
Old Jack’s steps paused. After a moment, he replied, “I’ll go see him, but I can’t promise I’ll be able to rescue him.”
With that, Old Jack strode out of the City Lord’s mansion without another word.
…
Goblin Forest.
While the city of Moon Worship was stormy with intrigue, Old Jack hurried toward Karen’s domain, where Karen was still busy as ever.
After constructing the Tower of Bones, Karen had begun to lavishly spend territory energy again. This time, rather than converting more undead, he spent forty thousand units of territory energy to purchase two thousand Goblin Mining Picks.
Now that Karen had taken Goblin Forest, his undead miner plan was ready to proceed—after all, it was key to whether he could secure a deal with the Silver Hand.
After spending forty thousand territory energy, Karen assigned two thousand first-tier undead to Ironbone, who sent them to several goblin mines to begin training as undead miners.
With that done, Karen turned his attention to the remaining 231,211 units of territory energy. He was itching to spend them, not to convert more undead, but to invest in the territory shop.
“That last battle was won in part thanks to several products from the territory shop. Now that I’ve got some territory energy in hand, I can afford to invest a bit more.”
With that, Karen opened the interface for the Territory Shop. Feeling flush, he boldly randomized the product catalogue twice right away.
In fact, Karen had intended to do a ten-draw, but alas, after only two tries, he was stuck!
[Ding, you have spent 1,000 territory energy and obtained two random product catalogues!]
[Ding, you have accumulated five product catalogues. Territory Shop upgrade conditions fulfilled. Would you like to upgrade your territory?]
Karen didn’t even have time to see what he’d drawn; his attention was immediately caught by the system prompt to upgrade the Territory Shop.
“Upgrade the Territory Shop? Of course, upgrade it! No hesitation!”
Karen felt no sense of impending doom—he thought his luck was simply good lately, and happily upgraded the shop.
[Ding, Territory Shop upgrade successful. Shop is now Level 2. Functions upgraded!]
[Random catalogue function upgraded: chance to obtain ‘Excellent’ quality products!]
[Shop lottery function upgraded: increased probability and quality of rewards!]
[Ding, you have successfully upgraded the shop. You receive one guaranteed lottery draw!]
Seeing these system prompts, Karen was delighted. Product quality, reward quality, and hit rate were all improved, and he’d even received a guaranteed lottery. His mood was soaring.
But the happiness didn’t last. When he opened the upgraded Territory Shop interface, Karen’s face turned green.
Where once a random draw in the product catalogue cost 500, now it was 50,000!
Where the lottery had cost 50, now it was 5,000!
Karen nearly spat blood. “Isn’t this system just a total rip-off? I finally managed to save up some money, but even price hikes should follow some basic rules, right? Ten times I could accept, but a hundred times—what is this?”
He’d been planning to hit the Territory Shop hard, but now, after this upgrade, Karen had no choice but to kill that idea…