Chapter 462
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Chapter 462: Back to Old Habits
“Gold-tier Grand Opera House Blueprint…”
A flicker of understanding crossed Luo Ji’s eyes when he saw this. Indeed, it was a peculiar item.
In this war development game, there were roughly two main strategies in the early stages.
One was to fully develop military power, invade others everywhere, seize their resources, and become a warmonger.
The second was to peacefully stay home, farm, stockpile food and resources, train troops, focus on development, and hope for a grand eruption later to crush the entire field.
Luo Ji had undoubtedly followed the second strategy.
However, regardless of the strategy, in the early stages, there wasn’t enough development or production capacity to allocate to cultural and entertainment projects.
Because, wouldn’t it be crazy to focus on spiritual sustenance when your people can’t even get enough food and live in constant fear?
And ‘opera’ was a combination of culture and entertainment, making it even more troublesome to implement.
Therefore, even a Gold-tier Grand Opera House Blueprint had very limited value for Bronze-tier players.
In the early stages, it could even be considered a stack of waste paper.
They wouldn’t build it at all, nor did they have the capacity to do so.
In the Iron Tier, it might gain a bit more importance, but that was still far off.
To exchange a stack of waste paper for six important talents, for Lu Rui, this was undoubtedly a profitable deal.
And for Luo Ji, while he had indeed been working on opera recently, there was no need to directly build a grand opera house!
After spring came next year, he could simply erect a basic shed and stage, which could be done in half a day.
Building a grand opera house, even with the bonus effect of a Gold-tier blueprint, he estimated would take at least 2 or 3 months.
Not to mention, he was still building Azure Water City right now.
Afterwards, Winter City and Ice Bear City were also waiting for him to work on.
The Architecture and Engineering Department simply couldn’t spare more manpower.
Lu Rui probably knew the awkwardness of this blueprint too.
Who in the early stages would have the capacity to build a grand opera house?
However, since it concerned the defending generals and city lords of his three cities, he had to try and bargain a bit more.
As such, seeing the message window remain unresponsive for a long time, Lu Rui could only bite the bullet and send a message.
“Big shot, this Gold-tier Grand Opera House can accelerate cultural dissemination, as well as the development efficiency and influence of opera and related projects. It also comes with +1 livability. The effect is still very good…”
Lu Rui mentally added another sentence to the message he just sent.
“Provided you invest a lot of manpower, material resources, and time to actually build the Grand Opera House.”
This last sentence certainly couldn’t be spoken aloud.
Even if Luo Ji most likely knew it very well, him actively stating it would be another matter entirely.
It must be said, the effects of increasing opera influence and +1 livability did make Luo Ji somewhat tempted.
He wanted to use Beauty and the Beast to promote the integration between humans and beastmen.
What he needed there was influence, wasn’t it?
The greater the influence, the better the effect the opera could achieve, right?
However, for a Bronze-tier player, this was clearly a Gold-tier item that was a huge trap.
If he agreed too readily, it would seem suspicious.
After some thought, Luo Ji replied.
“You know very well what good that Gold-tier Grand Opera House Blueprint is. No one’s stupid. How much manpower, material resources, and time would it take to build such a Grand Opera House in the early stages?”
“If it were really that good, would you offer it as a ransom? To put it bluntly, at this tier, your blueprint is equivalent to a stack of waste paper. It’s useless in your hands.”
“However, considering it’s still a Gold-tier item, with this blueprint, plus two more Silver-tier items, I’ll return the six people to you.”
Luo Ji’s clear understanding of the situation made things particularly difficult for Lu Rui, who was immersed in his own thoughts.
The other side sent three messages in quick succession. When Lu Rui saw the last one, his expression clearly changed.
“Big shot, as you said yourself, it’s still a Gold-tier item. Adding two more Silver-tier items is a bit too expensive.”
The opponent’s haggling was within Luo Ji’s expectations.
He immediately sent his prepared reply.
“The premise is that it has to have value. How much value can a Gold-tier item that’s basically useless in the short term have?”
“Moreover, offering something that looks good but is actually practically useless as ransom, are you taking me for a fool? Or are you trying to trick me? I haven’t even settled that score with you yet!”
Upon seeing the second message, Lu Rui’s face instantly turned pale.
He couldn’t deny that when he decided to use this Gold-tier blueprint as ransom, such a thought had indeed flashed through his mind.
It was a bit of a sly maneuver.
But after this slyness was exposed, and considering Luo Ji’s strength in breaching his three cities in such a short time, Lu Rui’s heart immediately panicked! Even his typing hands trembled.
After several mistyped attempts, he finally managed to send the message.
“No, big shot, don’t misunderstand, I absolutely didn’t mean that! I’ll do as you say. However, when we trade, can we add a 1 year ‘non-aggression pact?’”
“Alright, seeing as I’m in a relatively good mood.”
As if afraid Luo Ji would change his mind, the trade request popped up the very next second after his message was sent.
To be safe, Lu Rui quickly added the ‘non-aggression pact.’
Then, with a slight pang of pain, he placed the Gold-tier blueprint into the trade window.
As he said before, no matter how bad it was, it was still a Gold-tier item.
He had only ever earned one Gold Treasure Chest, which contained this one Gold-tier item.
Now, his only Gold-tier item was about to leave him. To say he felt no pain at all would definitely be a lie.
After a brief moment of pain, Lu Rui’s gaze returned to his item window, and he subconsciously thought about picking two inferior Silver-tier items to trade.
But then he reconsidered; that wasn’t quite right.
The ‘big shot’ on the other side was already a bit displeased.
If he were to throw in two more trash items to fool him, what if the ‘big shot’ got angry and held a grudge?
Even though there was a 1 year non-aggression pact as a guarantee, what about after a year?
After a failed attempt at fooling him, he’d completely offended the ‘big shot.’ If the ‘big shot’ still remembered this after a year, wouldn’t he be doomed?
As thoughts raced, Lu Rui couldn’t help but smack his right hand heavily.
He clearly regretted haggling with Luo Ji earlier.
Why couldn’t he control himself!
“Forget it, consider it paying money to avert disaster.”
Thinking this, Lu Rui clearly had already decided what price he was willing to pay.
This time, it was truly a bloody loss!
