Chapter 1010 - One Man’s Trash Is Another Man’s Treasure
"I still refuse." Alex looked at her with a serious expression.
The princess"s body shook. Normally, people would look at her body, but the man in front of her was different. This type of guy could only be seen among the five percent. However, that wasn"t what she wanted at the moment.
If she couldn"t get a hold of Alex, there was a chance for her kingdom to perish. Even if she needed to sacrifice herself, she would do it.
"I…I can do everything for you." She began to become desperate.
But Alex didn"t have a change of expression, telling her that no matter how she begged him, there wasn"t a chance for that.
"Enough with that c.r.a.p." Alex"s voice was stern, echoing inside her heart. "Instead, I have a better proposal for you. As you know, I am just a wanderer and rarely return to a big city. So, I lack information. Give me enough information, I can supply what the city needs."
Alex told her his demand, but he specifically said "the city needs" instead of what she wanted. In this request, he wanted to see whether the royalty also took care of its people. If they were greedy and tried to get all the things from his hand, he would move somewhere else and search for another place to get information.
However, the princess instantly nodded her head. "I understand. As long as it"s not the information that will lead to the total annihilation of my kingdom, I will provide it for you."
There wasn"t a trace of doubt in her eyes. It was different from what she showed him earlier.
Alex couldn"t understand this absurd change, but he decided to pay no heed about it and continued on his demand. "Good. Now, what do you need for this city?"
She thought for a moment and opened her mouth. "Before going into that, I think you have the right to know what happened to this country."
"Ho?"
"I…" The princess looked away and started getting embarra.s.sed after realizing how she acted so differently. Ultimately, she began telling Alex her story.
"I am the second princess of the Rawak Kingdom. That"s not a lie. And our Rawak Kingdom was actually far from here. In fact, compared to this, we were like Heaven. There was no shortage of food, goods, and water.
"Even our soldiers were well known through the land as people who had no fear. I and my brother, who you met earlier, were known as two successors. We both had fought for achievement from this country"s management and wars.
"However, everything came to an end when we found a giant spiral that kept swirling in one place. No one dared to check it for a period of time until the kingdom mobilized its army to check into it, but none came back.
"Instead of them, there were hundreds of worms like the one you killed coming out, decimating the city. We fought them but could only kill half of them before seventy of our forces were wiped out.
"At that time, my father dragged my brother and me to flee along with twenty percent of our force. My brother…I mean, the second prince and the first princess fought to let us escape with the little soldiers they had.
"Night after night, we kept escaping, but the worms still managed to get us. And now, we didn"t even have one percent of our power and needed to settle down in this city, the farthest place in our kingdom"s territory. Even our father… No, his majesty needed to bring up the rear just for us to reach this place."
Alex narrowed his eyes. "So, that"s why this place is so poor. And that"s how the proud princess is reduced to be someone like this."
The princess wanted to rebuke him, but she couldn"t. Alex was simply right and spotted on.
"So, what do you want from me?" Alex asked after confirming that the portal indeed had manifested. It seemed his time would be quicker than he expected.
"I…No, we need daily necessities. But water is fine." She only told him one item because Alex was alone. There was no way he had the ability to bring so many items. At the very least, through her sacrifice, they would get one daily necessity.
Alex closed his eyes for a minute.
"We don"t really need much. There is a pond behind us. If we buy water from another country, it will only be two thousand Bils. After that, you…You can do anything to me." She thought Alex closed his eyes because he couldn"t afford to do it, so she lowered it even more.
At the very least, the pond would let them and the whole city last for a month without needing to worry about water. It was the first step to rebuild their kingdom.
Alex gradually opened his eyes and asked. "Why don"t you ask something from another place?"
"We had. And they also had sent reinforcement. However, their armies were also wiped out, and they finally abandoned us because they couldn"t take it anymore. Some were still hiding under the sand, so we couldn"t really move out of this city easily."
"Hmm…" Alex contemplated for a second.
"Then…As long as you can help us with anything, I…I can still offer myself to you." She lowered it again. This was a normal trick of a merchant, but it also showed how desperate she was in this kind of situation.
"Come back tomorrow, and we can talk about this. I don"t care who is talking to me tomorrow." Alex decided to send her off the room.
Noticing this, the princess looked down. Sadly, the hope that her brother found seemed to be unable to do anything. She was only thankful because Alex wasn"t one of the l.u.s.tful people, so she didn"t need to offer herself for nothing.
However, him asking her to leave also meant that there was a chance for Alex to leave this place during the night.
With a person at his level, there wasn"t someone who could stop him from leaving.
Either way, she had no chance of convincing him. Rather than displeasing him, she better returned to not make their current situation even worse under Alex"s wrath.
After she left, Alex finally had the time to think.
[So, you are going to help them?]
"It"s better this way, right? They are easier to trade than other territories that have abandoned them. In this desperate situation, one man"s trash is another man"s treasure."
[I see what you are doing. Information is the last thing they need, especially on the verge of being destroyed. On the other hand, water bottles, food, or clothes were treasures for them, especially since you have so many of them.]
"Yes. Thanks to a certain someone from giving me this much."
[That someone is your past self, you know. It"s true that I gave you in the beginning, but you couldn"t claim it anymore when the Inventory was opened fully. Everything there was yours to take, including one planet"s worth of water that could last them for thousands of years.]
"Tch." Alex clicked his tongue and sighed. "In any case, they won"t easily suspect me from getting information about this world since I am a "wanderer." Unlike the other countries, they wouldn"t agree with my terms and would surely try to follow my movement."
[Indeed.]
"Hence, I am going to use this place as a base of operation. The investigation will probably take a few days, planting the seal won"t take too long either, and I will do the trial run for two weeks? Anyway, I will round it up to a month."
[Understood. What are you going to do in the meantime? There is no night in this place, you know.]
"Just train until everyone in this place falls asleep." Alex finally closed his eyes for a second while observing the others in this place. After a few hours, the activity started becoming lesser and lesser.
"Still, I am surprised they can make a cool place like this even though they are under the sun for as long as they can remember."
[True. This is an amazing sight to see. And I believe the other side is cold because it never sees the sun. And if we calculate its distance from the two suns, I think it"s the most habitable planet in that solar system.]
"Fair enough. If not, they won"t live in this place. Well, I wonder what will happen during the evolution."
[Many things. The energy becomes far too dense for a normal world to handle, so there will be many disturbances from Fire Disturbances to s.p.a.ce Disturbances. Portals will start to appear and connect the two worlds. Tsunamis, Earthquakes, Volcanoes, and so on. You name it.]
"I see. Natural disasters, huh. There will be typhoons for wind disturbance and so on." Alex nodded in understanding.
[Yep. It"s amazing to see from our perspective, but it"s a nightmare for the people in that world. And after surviving, they need to endure the invasion from other planets.]
"It feels like using this opportunity makes it look like I am fis.h.i.+ng in muddy water."
[You have given them enough benefits that can be equal to when they are living normally. Besides, they indeed need that power if they want to get stronger. At least, strong enough to survive in this cruel world. I mean, the portal will become stable over time, so before that time, the other worlds can only send people at a certain cultivation stage. As you know, you need to consolidate your cultivation after breaking through. That"s the same concept, and it will take a few years or decades, depending on the world.]
"I see. No wonder." Alex nodded and rose from his seat. "I think it"s time for me to go to that pond."
[Alright.]
Alex sneaked out of his room and searched for the so-called pond.
There was indeed a pond, but it seemed to be a bit small.
"Hmm…Around one month of supply if they are using it wisely." Alex calculated the size of the pond.
[I agree. But with people in here not having enough water, they will be a bit greedy in the first few days. So, you need to chip down a few days.]
"Right. It"s the same for a poor person that becomes rich overnight. They will spend many things for the things they don"t need consciously or unconsciously." Alex nodded with a serious expression. "Anyway, I think three Water Tanks are enough."
[Yes. Probably need one or two more gallons if you want to fill it to the brim.]
"We will see." Alex nodded and stepped on the pond. It seemed to be a man-made pond to catch rainwater or something. They even put bricks to make sure the sand wasn"t around it. At the very least, it was good storage unless the people broke in and stole this water.
He waved his hands, summoning three water tanks. The tanks had a shape of a cylinder and contained around thirty thousand liters of water.
Since he didn"t want to make a commotion or a sound, he used his Sound Insulation Array and opened the tanks, pouring the water into the pond.
Luckily, the holes were huge enough, so it only took him two minutes to empty the tanks, and no one saw him doing this.
It was almost full, and just like Lin Xingzhi said, he only needed a few more gallons to fill it. However, Alex didn"t do it because of several reasons.
This water was only him showing his ability. In other words, he only wanted them to know that he had the ability to provide them what they needed. As long as they showed their sincerity, he would give them.
[Today"s objective is complete then?]
"Yep." Alex nodded.
[I bet they will come to you soon.]
"Probably. But let"s see what they have to offer tomorrow." Alex smiled and waved his hand again, retracting the Sound Insulation Array. He then disappeared from the pond, returning to his room.