Chapter 12.2 - Root of Evil
At that moment, Su, who was riding on the violently shaking speedboat didn’t feel carefree, nor did he feel depressed. After personally seeing Madeline’s body, what filled the bottom of his heart was an icy coldness. It was as cold as this ocean, this rain.
At the bottom of Su’s heart, he was calculating the significance of a million. A million wasn’t a lot, only a portion of what Persephone took on, as well as a tenth of his current debt. After carefully calculating everything, after joining the dragonriders for almost a year, Su himself almost earned a million.
However, a million definitely wasn’t a small amount. This amount was not only used to arm his three subordinates, it was used to establish a hundred man army, and then all of them ended up dying, then rebuilding, before dying off again. It was now a thirty man troop with ample training, but inadequate equipment. If one added a bit more to a million, then it could be exchanged for a single life saving genetic mending medicine. A million was equal to several thousand new era weapons, equivalent to a dozen or so high precision cannons, equivalent to eight heavy artillery cannons, six main battle tanks, five sets of mobile armor, or equal to five hundred evolutionary points of initial level drugs. A million from the Black Dragonriders, was obviously different from the hundreds to thousands types of odd coins that were exchanged in the wilderness. Being able to guarantee this alone already made it incomparable.
However, Su was clear on the fact that in the Black Dragonriders, money and authority were closely interlinked. With his current status and authority, he could convert it to seventh level normal ability formulations, the price varying from a hundred fifty thousand to five hundred thousand or more. Even though there were some eighth level ability formulations that didn’t even reach five hundred thousand, those without the authority of colonel could forget about exchanging for them. The power of heavy artillery, main battle tanks, and even area suppressing systems and other similar heavy equipment would only be fully displayed when used by those with five levels or higher weapon manipulation ability. Meanwhile, for things like mobile armor, without both Combat Domain as a basis and complex weapon system manipulation abilities, one can forget about operating it. As for the initial level genetic medicines for producing evolutionary points, most people would immediately develop tolerance after injecting more than ten of them, requiring advanced medications that possessed even greater medicinal strength. Once one reached the limit of what the body could handle, injecting any more would lead to genetic collapse.
That was why on the topic of this matter, having it might not mean that everything was possible, but not having it was definitely not okay. This was something that was true for both the olden era and the current age of turmoil, something that had never changed.
However, to make a million in three months of time, the difficulty of such a thing was definitely not a normal level of hard. Even if it was Persephone, she might not necessarily be able to do it. As for Su’s current money, most of it actually came from Malim’s body, as well as the Scorpions of Disaster’s intelligence and equipment. These were all one time events.
Su was a smart person. Even though his knowledge on the topic of economics was pitifully lacking, with his powerful calculation ability, he already figured out that if he wanted to make that amount of money in the time given, he had to either rely on equipment manufacturing or war and plundering. There were no other routes. Su didn’t have his own factory, not even a manual workshop. N958 was an excellent ase, but all of the facilities inside were an era behind. It was comfortable if one used it for survival, but if one used it for production, they could only create some ammunition that used firepower as its foundation and mechanical type firearms. At most, they could use Kane’s individual abilities to make a small batch of fine components, but this was like a cup of water on a burning cart of firewood, unable to solve anything.
That was why for Su right now, there was only battle.
Battle, only battle, during the destruction of everything, brings about great wealth.
Perhaps borrowing money from Persephone might immediately solve this ‘small’ problem of a million. However, this thought had never crossed Su’s brain. Su did not wish to harm either Persephone or Madeline who had fought before. Su felt extremely guilty towards Persephone for everything he did for Madeline, especially since he went to fight against Mitchels’ underlings right after they had just formed a more intimate relationship. If not for Dyke Avidar’s appearance, Su naturally understood his own fate of destruction.
Under the control of these two robust men, the speedboat seemed to have started flying as it moved through the dangerous waves. Soon after, they stopped ashore. Three off-road vehicles were already parked at the pier. Peperus appointed one of them for sending Su back to Dragon City, and then she got on an off-road vehicle and left.
It was already approaching early morning when Su returned to Dragon City. Su wasn’t in any mood to sleep, instead choosing to quietly watch the night scene outside the window. Dragon City wasn’t completely dark. Apart from the sparkling lights, in the distant horizon where the ground met the sky, faint green radiance could be seen.
This was the glow of radiation. Even though Dragon City was already remodeled to a state where it wasn’t much different from the olden era, with some constructs that were even far greater than the olden era ones, from a radiation perspective, Dragon City wasn’t much better than the wilderness.
Su sat upright, as if he was a statue without any life force. On his bright and exquisite face that would make most women jealous appeared a faint layer of radiance. This was a reflection of radiation, yet on Su’s skin, it scattered into a dream-like glow. The radiation radiance outside the window wasn’t the only source of light; there was also a dim, dark blue radiance inside the room.
The light source came from a ten centimeter length prism type black crystal. It was precisely the crystal Su gouged out from Sarton’s chest.
With Su’s current level of authority, he already learned that the technology of breaking through one’s ability limits was under development within the Black Dragonriders, and it was also close to coming into fruition. This research was applied most extensively in crystals that could store up energy, change the attribute of energy, or increase and reduction functionalities. Together with the rapid development of biotechnology, the energy crystal could already be embedded within one’s body and used like an organ. There were a few individuals who, due to their overflowing innate talents, when developing abilities would also produce special energy crystals on their own within their bodies. The power of these crystals would be greater than that of those artificially implanted, just like the difference between abilities produced on one’s own and formulated ones.
Another path was evolution. Through an evolution of one’s original tissues, one could even directly produce new organs to break through the limitations of talent. This was much more difficult than using energy crystals, and in the entire history of the dragonriders, there were only a handful of people who succeeded. The overwhelming majority of them, for the sake of breaking through from the eight level to ninth, decided to undergo this process, but ultimately triggered genetic collapse.
These two methods of increasing strength can only be used by those whose natural talents limited them to around six levels or higher. Those with natural talents below six levels didn’t even have the qualifications of increasing their strength.
The statue-like Su finally moved. He slowly raised his hand, placing it on the dark blue crystal beside him. The crystal wasn’t cold and instead contained a trace of warmth. The energy slowly swirling about inside would stimulate Su’s palm and skin from time to time, bringing him a unique type of pleasure. In addition, a nearly unsuppressable hunger could be felt down to a cellular level.
The dark blue crystal was obtained from the body of Sarton who reached seven levels in both Combat and Perception Domains, so the energy contained within was naturally exceptionally abundant. Along with his fast increase in abilities, Su’s desire for power and energy already became a type of instinct, one that was becoming more and more difficult to suppress. However, what coexisted with this intolerable craving was a trace feeling of danger that was becoming hard to detect.
In reality, ever since he could clearly remember, Su had been living under fear and shadows. The indescribable feeling of danger followed him wherever he went without any sign of disappearing. Su didn’t know what he feared, and he knew even less about the source of this fear, but his fear towards the unknown urged him to continuously increase his perception abilities, and from time to time increasing a few Mysterious Fields abilities based on his intuition. However, Su could still clearly sense that as his abilities increased overall, the great unknown danger was currently gradually approaching.
Moreover, the dangers weren’t only coming from the unknown.