Chapter 95: All Eyes on Me

"Hey, Mom~."

"Oh, yeah, it's me, Su Lin. Phone number? This is my friend's phone—I ran out of battery."

"How long has it been since I last came home to see you? Haha, work's been too busy, I lost track."

"Half a year?"

"Oh oh, alright, I'm doing fine here, uh…"

"Lately I…"

"Agricultural products?!"

"I'm growing agricultural products?!"

"Oh oh, yeah, they're growing pretty well."

"."

In the girl's bedroom, Su Lin hung up the phone, his body half-real, half-phantom.

"My mom says I'm growing agricultural products."

He stared blankly at the girl before him.

"Even if I'm less than a ten-thousandth of my former self, why can't I even locate him? Our connection is severed."

"This isn't scientific!"

The valley… that valley… did I, in my past self, become so overwhelmed by the pressure of reality that I fled into the wilds?!

That doesn't make sense—where's his system?

Su Lin turned on the computer in his room and searched "socially brilliant disorder" in the browser.

He didn't go to the subway to issue a manifesto either…

Strange…

His first ten points came from plagiarizing a video made by Ma Niu Bi.

And it got him pointed at during Spring Festival when he went home…

"We didn't do anything—where's the butterfly effect?"

Luo Shengying sighed helplessly, "The world's mystery—where did Su Lin go?"

She lay on her bed, burying her head in the pillow.

"Brother, help me do my winter break homework later."

"Do it yourself!"

——————————

Su Lin returned from the Clan's World to his own world's Water Mirror Peak; adding global-range teleportation to the floating mountain was just a matter of searching and ordering in the system store.

But he had other matters to attend to.

He didn't linger on Water Mirror Peak—he took the Lust from his extradimensional vault, took a few steps, and entered another teleportation gate.

"Huh, a rare visitor!"

Inside the secret chamber,

Ye Fan was pouring spiritual spring water into three Zui Xian Niu wine bottles.

"Weigong." Su Lin handed the Lust to Weigong Shilang. "Try it."

"You want to invest?" Ye Fan raised an eyebrow. "Su Zongzhu, I'm not saying this to be rude, but your startup phase is already over—haha, if you want to invest now, you'll need at least… you know what."

"I'm only here to provide copyright and patents. You run your business—I just want royalty fees," Su Lin said.

For example, he'd take a cut for every set of the Seven Sins sold, and have nothing to do with the rest of the operations.

"Oh, not impossible." Ye Fan swirled the bottle and put it away.

"You can still eat a bit of tail meat. In another week, we'll have to move."

"For the foreseeable future, we won't be doing business anymore."

Su Lin glanced at the piles of counterfeit weapons around him and asked, "Why? Are you guys taking a holiday for the New Year too?"

Hearing the word "holiday," Weigong Shilang's focus scattered, his analysis interrupted—he had to bow his head and start over.

Su Lin had heard in the group chat that Ye Fan, after disguising himself, took a real treasure artifact and plenty of resources to bribe an old enemy of the Purple Mansion Holy Land—a Dragon Transformation cultivator who had once targeted him.

Since acquiring this shop, they'd begun doing high-end business, and with the involvement of a certain unscrupulous Daoist Priest, this bunch of scoundrels had made a fortune, their bellies overflowing with oil.

They sold both real artifacts and fakes—offering discounts to disciples of Holy Land clans, like 15% off…

Those aspiring Holy Sons and Holy Daughters, noble scions, all thought the shop owner was quite savvy, and publicly declared they'd protect this shop.

Unbeknownst to them, every registered disciple ended up buying fakes.

"We've squeezed every last drop of wool—let them grow a bit longer."

"Weapons and artifacts are necessities, not Consumables. Once a fat sheep buys a weapon he likes, he won't buy again for a long time."

"Unless the weapon breaks," Ye Fan's eyes gleamed as he analyzed with precision. "And most of our customers are low-level cultivators—even if they're backed by Holy Land clans, their resources are usually limited. Only those at the Four Extremes or Dragon Transformation have substantial resources."

"Typically, we prefer dealing with Dragon Transformation cultivators—one order can equal thousands of smaller transactions. Even selling real artifacts won't lose us money."

"We've pretty much squeezed them dry. Even if we cancel the projected weapons, most of them still have enough resources for a second purchase. So, better to rest and recuperate for a while."

"We'll let them keep using the projections for now—after all, they're our customers. If any of them accidentally perish due to artifact issues, that's bad for sustainable development," Ye Fan said with a chuckle.

Su Lin had almost forgotten—this guy used to be a rich man who drove a Mercedes back on Earth.

"It's a bit difficult. Do you have blueprints or related technology?" Weigong Shilang opened his eyes. "And this seems to be a set of weapons?"

"I'll find some for you later," Su Lin said, putting away the Seven Sins: Lust. "I'll see if I can get you an alchemy teacher—send you to Lu Mingfei's world to study for a few months."

"That'd be perfect," Ye Fan said. "While we're closed, you can upgrade your skills."

"." Weigong Shilang raised his hand.

"Go ahead."

"Can I go back to my own world for a couple of days?" Emiya Shirou was homesick; he had almost forgotten what the Holy Grail War even was.

"Can you purify the Black Mud?"

Emiya Shirou shook his head.

"Can you fight your way through the Holy Grail War on your own?"

Emiya Shirou shook his head again.

"Are you confident you can beat Gilgamesh?"

Emiya Shirou shook his head a third time.

"Well, isn't that exactly the point?!"

"Alright, I understand." Emiya Shirou obediently nodded and said to Su Lin: "Sorry to trouble you, Su Lin."

"It's nothing."

*'After all, I want to earn some extra cash too,'* Su Lin thought to himself.

The better the quality of the magic treasures in the sect's stockpile, the happier he was — after all, the sect's stockpile was his stockpile as Sect Master.

As for duties? Weren't those exactly what Lu Mingfei, the future Acting Sect Master, should be worrying about?

Once Lu Mingfei's matter was dealt with, he'd polish him up a bit more; with his rich foundation, he could surely help him cover classes in the future.

Lu Mingfei thought he was deliberately not giving him a mountain peak — that was simply judging a gentleman by a petty man's heart, his vision was too small.

He clearly held great hopes for him!

Once the sect opens... opens for business... ope—

On the day the sect officially began operating, Lu Mingfei would take over Water Mirror Peak, and every student in the entire sect would call out his name.

Lu Mingfei!

And he, Su Lin, would become a figure like a high school PE teacher, occasionally giving disciples and students a class or two.

All the plans were perfect.

"Then I'll head off first." Su Lin went straight through the teleportation gate back to Water Mirror Peak.

Administrator privileges were pretty convenient — keeping a gate open for a long time.

Back at Water Mirror Peak, Su Lin began browsing the Shangcheng, picking out a floating island for Old Lu.

He recalled half a year ago when he was frantic, unable to find points to grind, and had almost couldn't resist becoming an "internet celebrity," shouting on the subway for everyone's eyes to look at him — thinking about it now was truly hard to look back on.

(End of chapter)