Chapter 136
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Chapter 136: The Sly Merchant
Luo Ji’s heart pounded!
Even he hadn’t expected to stumble upon such a massive, pleasant surprise!
Wonders were divided into two types, natural wonders and artificial wonders.
Natural wonders, as the name suggested, were magnificent natural landscapes sculpted by nature’s hand.
Mirror Lake, behind their tribe, was a 2-star natural wonder.
Artificial wonders, as the name implied, were wonders built by human effort, essentially referring to buildings.
These buildings reached an astonishing level of construction difficulty, which is why they were deemed wonders.
Suppressing the excitement in his heart, Luo Ji nodded calmly on the surface.
“Deal.”
The two decisively signed a trade agreement, then opened the trade window to begin the transaction.
In trade mode, even items stored in the system warehouse could be directly retrieved.
To be safe, Zhou Kai, controlling the trade panel, immediately added the ‘non-aggression clause’ and ‘war alliance clause’ as supplementary terms.
As soon as the agreement took effect, Zhou Kai and Luo Ji’s identities would directly change to allies.
If Luo Ji were to violate the alliance terms and make a move, he would face severe punishment from the system!
Luo Ji had no objections and, seizing the opportunity, added a ‘confidentiality clause,’ prohibiting Zhou Kai from revealing anything about this transaction or the great wall blueprint in his possession to anyone.
As for the duration of these clauses, after some discussion, they decided that the ‘non-aggression clause’ and ‘war alliance clause’ would last for three months, while the ‘confidentiality clause’ would be permanently effective.
After all, neither of them intended to be good allies for life.
Incidentally, due to the possibly differing time flows of various worlds, the duration of such clauses and auction times in this game were based on the central region.
The central region in this game was a place similar to a player lobby, and its time flow was consistent with the real world.
With the establishment of this trade, Luo Ji, after confirming that the great wall design blueprint had indeed appeared in his backpack slot, readily motioned for Liu Zheng to untie Zhou Kai.
He had no intention of double-crossing him.
The system’s penalty was very harsh.
A violator who betrayed an alliance would be directly marked with a red name.
The red name would last for one month, based on central region time.
During this month, red-named players couldn’t use exemption cards, and during this period, the profits gained from invading red-named players’ civilizations, and even the final battle score evaluation, would be doubled!
In other words, a player marked with a red name would instantly be targeted by all other players, because fighting red-named players doubled the final battle points, making it easiest to get golden treasure chests!
Zhou Kai stood up and stretched his stiff body, secretly breathing a sigh of relief.
He didn’t want to stay in this place for even a second longer.
Just as he was about to retreat and leave, Luo Ji, standing in front of him, suddenly raised his hand and patted him.
“What are you doing?!”
Although he didn’t think this guy would violate the alliance and kill him, especially with such severe penalties, a hint of nervousness couldn’t help but rise in his heart.
Luo Ji had no particular thoughts about Zhou Kai’s reaction.
Having just acquired the Great Wall blueprint, he was in high spirits.
With a chuckle, he pointed to the twenty-odd people still bound beside him.
“I just wanted to ask you, do you still want these people?”
“If you want to ransom them back, the price is negotiable, you know~”
As he said this, pairs of hopeful eyes instantly fell upon him.
Zhou Kai, suddenly the center of attention, froze, somewhat bewildered.
“Huh? Wait, wait! These aren’t…”
Zhou Kai’s mind was in a jumble, and he stammered for a moment.
In his understanding, once the ‘war alliance’ agreement was successfully signed, both parties’ statuses would naturally change.
Not just him, but his subordinate warriors should also naturally become allies.
However, reality was clearly different.
He quickly opened the attribute panel of his warriors to confirm, and the ‘captured’ status in the status bar seemed incredibly glaring to Zhou Kai at this moment!
“H-how could this be?”
The current situation was clearly at odds with what he had expected, leaving him feeling completely caught off guard.
In reality, no matter where a war was fought, even if formerly hostile parties reconciled, it was impossible to return prisoners for free.
“What we were discussing just now, from start to finish, was solely your own ransom.”
“So, do you want to ransom them back now?”
Looking at Luo Ji’s smiling face, Zhou Kai inwardly cursed him as a sly merchant.
No wonder they said strategists were so devious!
The opponent directly asked this question in front of his subordinates.
If he didn’t ransom them, his image in his subordinates’ eyes would plummet, and it would be incredibly easy for Luo Ji to recruit them later.
Conversely, if he said he wanted to ransom them, he would inevitably be mercilessly fleeced by this sly merchant!
Regardless, he definitely had to ransom them back.
These were all elite warriors from his civilization!
Losing them directly would be too damaging for him!
After some bargaining, Zhou Kai finally ransomed these twenty-odd people for the price of two black iron-grade skill books and one black iron-grade leather armor design blueprint.
He then retreated with a frustrated look.
[System Notification: Congratulations to Player ‘Luo Ji’ for achieving victory in this invasion battle…]
[System Notification: Congratulations to Player ‘Luo Ji’ for acquiring item ‘Silver Treasure Chest ×1’]
Listening to the system notifications in his mind, Luo Ji honestly no longer cared whether the final settlement yielded a silver treasure chest or any other kind of treasure chest.
Because at this moment, the greatest reward was already lying in his backpack.
[Great Wall Design Blueprint (Gold-tier Item) Effect: Upon use, gain a five-star artificial wonder ‘Gold-tier Great Wall Design Blueprint.’ Construction success rate of the Great Wall increases by 40%, construction efficiency increases by 60%, and construction material cost is reduced by 30%]
Luo Ji didn’t intend to take out this gold-tier great wall design blueprint right now.
As a citizen of the Celestial Dynasty, who didn’t know about the great wall?
He could confirm without even looking that such a majestic wonder could absolutely not be built with their currently limited manpower.
Given his current civilization’s development and population, building the Great Wall now would truly be a wonder that ruins the nation!
Thinking this, Luo Ji decisively spent ten thousand civilization points to open a warehouse slot for himself, then stored the great wall blueprint inside.
He probably wouldn’t sleep soundly carrying a 5-star wonder blueprint, so storing it in the system warehouse was safer.
