Chapter 75: Monica’s Discovery

Fatty Lei was startled by the System Notification Sound, having no idea what caused it.

“I just teamed up with some people I liked—did that trigger some System rule?” Fatty Lei felt utterly confused inside.

But even if Fatty Lei wanted to figure it out, he couldn’t. So, he decided not to dwell on the problem anymore.

He looked up and saw Bruce the octopus, who was no longer troubled by the fear of death and was now full of hope for the future after finalizing their partnership.

“I hope you’ll be a good partner.”

Fatty Lei smiled and raised his glass.

“For Credit Points!”

Fatty Lei shouted cheerfully.

“For Credit Points!”

Andrew and Bruce also raised their glasses in agreement. The three clinked glasses and drank their beverages in one go.

At that time, Fatty Lei had no idea how deeply this partnership would affect his future. Because the System Notification Sound had only flashed through his mind briefly, he didn’t quite catch the last part of the message… “Faction”…

Since the details of the cooperation were settled, the three didn’t waste time talking further.

Bruce and Andrew returned to their respective shops, leaving early to prepare in their original Worlds.

Fatty Lei, with Wangcai, quickly headed toward his own shop.

“We need to get ready. Our future livelihood depends on this. If we do well, our lives will change completely,” Fatty Lei instructed Wangcai as they walked.

Wangcai kept nodding, occasionally asking a question.

On both sides of the messy street, Merchants with anxious expressions were desperately promoting their goods. They were shouting themselves hoarse, hoping to earn enough Credit Points to survive.

Fatty Lei had no interest in these Merchants. He wasn’t noble enough to help them—he himself was struggling just above the poverty line. Why would he help these guys?

Fatty Lei wasn’t a fool.

Even if a Merchant blocked his path, Fatty Lei ignored them.

“If you can’t earn Credit Points, it’s because you lack skill. That’s just how cruel the Dimensional System is.” Watching the strangely shaped Merchants, Fatty Lei gradually grew colder inside.

“Fellow Daoist, please stop!!!!”

Suddenly, a voice from nearby made Fatty Lei jolt violently.

“What the hell! Am I hearing things?” Hearing those famously lethal words, Fatty Lei’s fat trembled all over.

Looking in the direction of the voice, he saw a Daoist in a yellowish Daoist Robe, carrying a peach-wood sword, with a pointy face and monkey-like cheeks, energetically calling out that phrase to passing Merchants.

“Fellow Daoist, please stop, please stop～”

…

“Whew～～” Seeing that the call wasn’t directed at him, Fatty Lei breathed a sigh of relief.

Fatty Lei knew all too well the lethal power of the phrase “Fellow Daoist, please stop.”

Even if this Daoist wasn’t as unlucky as Shen Gongbao, he was heading toward hope and didn’t want to risk any bad luck.

“Let’s hurry through this area. Whatever you do, don’t pay attention to that guy!”

Fatty Lei instructed Wangcai and then strode forward quickly, leaving Wangcai looking puzzled.

Helpless, Wangcai could only follow behind Fatty Lei.

“Hey～ hey～ hey～ Fellow Daoist, please stop, please stop.”

Unfortunately, what Fatty Lei feared came true—as soon as he reached the Daoist, the man cheerfully stopped him.

Fatty Lei scowled, pushed the Daoist aside, and continued walking without bothering to talk.

The Daoist didn’t get angry after being pushed—he had encountered this situation many times.

To him, it was just another failed attempt to chat, no big deal.

“Sigh～” The Daoist sighed deeply, thinking to himself, “Maybe what I’m saying isn’t welcome. It seems I need to change my approach.”

After some thought, the Daoist decided to change his pickup line in the future.

“Patron, you and I are connected by fate!”

If Fatty Lei knew the Daoist had changed his line to this, he wouldn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Without stopping along the way, Fatty Lei and Wangcai returned to their “Odin Shop.”

“Bang!”

After tightly closing the door, Fatty Lei took a deep breath.

“Master, why did you walk so fast?”

Wangcai came over and asked.

Of course, Fatty Lei couldn’t tell him he rushed back because he didn’t want to hear “Fellow Daoist, please stop.”

So, Fatty Lei made up a random excuse, and Wangcai didn’t ask further.

Just then, the System voice sounded in the Odin Shop: “Bruce requests a transaction, Andrew requests a transaction.”

“Connect!”

Following Fatty Lei’s command, Wangcai efficiently performed his role as Steward.

“These two are really fast—they’ve already finished preparing!”

Fatty Lei was surprised by Andrew and Bruce’s speed, but when he thought about the potential profits of billions of Credit Points per day, he understood.

After the connection was established, a three-dimensional Interdimensional Teleportation live video appeared on the shop wall.

“You two prepared so quickly.”

Fatty Lei said with a smile.

“Hehe, to earn huge profits, we have to be quick,” Andrew replied, his eyes gleaming.

“You know I only have three days left to pay my taxes, and assembling these devices will take some time. So I had to hurry and get Energy Crystals to sell as soon as possible,” Bruce stated directly.

Fatty Lei nodded. “Since everyone’s ready, let’s begin.”

Wangcai turned to Fatty Lei and shouted, “Master, our shop Space is too small. We need to open a cargo channel to send the goods directly outside the Military Outpost.” This reminder made Fatty Lei realize.

“You handle opening the channel. But do we need to pay Credit Points again?”

Wangcai nodded.

“This System requires Credit Points for everything. Damn it!”

Fatty Lei was completely fed up with the System.

“How many Credit Points are needed?”

Andrew, hearing about this, asked.

Wangcai quickly checked and replied, “Three hundred thousand Credit Points to open the channel for one Dimensional Plane hour.”

Andrew’s mouth twitched, but he agreed.

“No problem! I have three million six hundred thousand Credit Points in my account—enough for us to splurge!”

Bruce calculated carefully and said, “Hmm, after paying three hundred thousand, we’ll have three million three hundred thousand. The Interdimensional Teleportation for my equipment and Engineering Robots will cost about two million. That should be enough.”

Since investor Andrew had sufficient funds, Fatty Lei stopped worrying.

“Good! Start teleporting the equipment now. Andrew, get ready to pay the fees.”

“Bzzzz——”

The channels of three shops from three different dimensional planes began to merge, and a dialog box suddenly appeared in front of Fatty Lei.

The dialog box prompted: “Activate Faction Alliance Mode?”

At this critical moment, Fatty Lei didn’t have time to carefully study the meaning of the dialog box.

Wangcai came back and reminded Fatty Lei beside him: “Master, if we don’t activate the Faction Mode, we cannot operate all three shops simultaneously. After all, the investments and equipment belong to different merchants’ transactions.”

Prompted by Wangcai like this, Fatty Lei dared not delay.

He immediately raised his hand and tapped ‘Confirm.’ The dialog box then disappeared, replaced by a triangular frame. The first name inside the frame was ‘Odin,’ and below Odin were the names of two others: ‘Bruce’ and ‘Andrew.’

At the very top point of the triangular frame, two blood-red characters—’Faction’—appeared, flashing continuously.

Fatty Lei was just about to ask Wangcai what this meant when Bruce interrupted his thoughts.

“Equipment transmission starting!”

“Ding dong!”

“A cross-dimensional plane transmission fee is required…” followed by the system’s notification sound.

Andrew immediately began transferring the payment.

Everything proceeded smoothly.

…

Meanwhile, in the world where Fatty Lei was, Monica wandered around the Command Room, feeling utterly bored.

Suddenly, a pile of miscellaneous items caught her attention because it was emitting a strong energy fluctuation.

“Huh? What is that?” Monica, whose gaze was drawn, walked over curiously.

That pile of miscellaneous items was nothing else but the yellow buds that had wrapped the sweet potatoes after Fatty Lei harvested them. Because things had been a bit busy these past few days, they were temporarily piled up here without being processed.

Monica walked over, crouched down, reached out to pick up one of the buds, and examined it in her hand.

“Such intense energy fluctuations… Why does it feel so familiar?”

Holding the bud in her hand, Monica felt the energy fluctuations and tried hard to recall.

“I shouldn’t have seen this kind of plant before, so why does it feel familiar?”

Monica had lived her whole life on this desolate planet and was certain she had never encountered such a plant. Yet, why did this bud give her such a familiar feeling? This puzzled her greatly.

Suddenly, a memory flashed through her mind, and Monica’s body began to tremble slowly.

“Oh my god!”

Monica exclaimed involuntarily.

“It can’t be a Life Bud, can it?”

It turned out the fleeting thought just now was a piece of memory information from her mother, which she had obtained back when she still had the Hive inheritance crystal.

In the Primordial Era, the main food of the Zerg Race was this kind of plant, which contained powerful energy.

However, because this plant was extremely rare, it had been completely consumed by the Zerg Race’s ancestors during the Primordial Era. And throughout the entire universe, no such plant could be found anymore.

Monica carefully fiddled with the bud in her hand, opened it up, and looked toward its center.

A few small crystal fragments, shining like diamonds, grew right in the middle of the bud.

“It really is a Life Bud! My sisters can be saved!”

Monica abruptly stood up and couldn’t help but shout out.

“Hmm… but I need to ask my Master for permission first.”

Monica suddenly remembered that she now had a Master above her, and this pile of ‘Life Buds’ didn’t belong to her.

It must be said that Monica was a good girl; even at this moment, she thought of seeking Fatty Lei’s opinion as her Master, rather than making her own decision. Of course, this was also related to the fact that her crystal had fused with Fatty Lei.

But no matter what, Monica’s ‘loyalty’ to Fatty Lei was a good thing.