When the plot-skips players into the game world-Chapter 897 - 269: There is a Genius in the Spirit Summoning Tower

Chapter 897 -269: There is a Genius in the Spirit Summoning Tower

In a room nearly across the entire ship from first class,

a middle-aged man with greasy and messy hair wiped the sweat from his forehead anxiously.

He grabbed a passing blonde youth, who winced in pain, and asked sharply, “Hasn’t Paul been found yet?”

“I told you, no—”

The youth retorted impatiently.

“What do you mean, no?”

...

At that moment, a cold and hoarse voice, slow and dragging, came through.

A chill suddenly seeped into the room. People instinctively looked toward the source of the sound.

It was a man who looked as gaunt as a ghostly shadow.

He appeared to be in his late forties or fifties, his gaze as deep as that of a lone wolf stalking its prey. The man’s back was slightly hunched, leaning on the walls around him as he appeared at the door. Though he wore a neat suit, it was slightly too big, causing it to sag a bit as his shoulders couldn’t hold it up. His eyes were tinged with a yellowish glow, giving him a sickly appearance.

He slowly walked in, and everyone else stopped their conversations and movements, greeting him with respect:

“Professor Laximi!”

“Good afternoon, Professor.”

The middle-aged man known as Professor Laximi just nodded slightly, without responding verbally.

He stared at the man with the messy hair and walked straight toward him.

This content is taken from freёnovelkiss.com.

The man was startled, standing obediently like a student. The blonde youth beside him also showed a look of fear, but dared not to flee. He could only glare resentfully at the middle-aged man beside him and then bow his head.

“What do you mean, no?”

After approaching, Professor Laximi repeated his earlier question in a low voice.

The blonde youth spoke quickly, “Paul is missing, Assistant Mettle asked us to look for him…”

“That’s right, Professor…”

The middle-aged man scratched his head vigorously, shedding dandruff as he quietly said, “Someone saw him when we boarded the ship…”

But before he could continue, Assistant Mettle was interrupted by Professor Laximi: “Paul is missing?”

“…Yes.”

Assistant Mettle, lost for words, just nodded.

“I told you to watch him,” Professor Laximi said slowly, frowning.

“…Yes.”

“So what did you do?”

Professor Laximi whispered softly, as if murmuring to a lover, “Did you let him go?”

Assistant Mettle shuddered and immediately began to explain: “No, no, no, I told you, when the ship set sail he was clearly…”

“—You know he is important.”

Professor Laximi continued to interrupt Assistant Mettle: “More important than all of you combined.”

“Yes, yes, I know…”

Assistant Mettle wiped his sweat, constantly bowing.

At this moment, one of Professor Laximi’s fingers silently stopped in front of Assistant Mettle’s forehead.

Instantly, the entire room turned utterly silent. Assistant Mettle dared not move, and Professor Laximi looked as lifeless as a dead corpse.

Everyone watched the scene in silent awe, and the sound of the waves, previously drowned out by conversation, now seemed particularly clear.

Swish—

Swish—

Perhaps only ten seconds had passed, but to Assistant Mettle, it felt as long as several minutes.

Finally, Professor Laximi’s fingers slowly curled and retracted.

Seeing that Mettle did not die immediately, a sigh of relief echoed almost forming a continuous, audible sigh in the narrow room. But people quickly realized how impolite this was and immediately restored quiet.

Mettle still maintained his previous posture, motionless.

—He was petrified.

Besides turning into a stone statue, being completely rigid and unable to move can also be considered a form of petrification. This is also an application of Preservation Arts—living preservation.

“This is the third time, Mettle. I’ll give your father this face… but there won’t be a next time.”

Professor Laximi’s raspy, unpleasant voice slowly rose: “You better pray I can find Paul.”

He stood with his hands behind his back, his face as cold as a corpse, and scanned the entire room, commanding, “Do what you need to do.”

In an instant, as if the frozen crowd immediately regained their liveliness and energy—

They vigorously moved the tall and heavy barrels to the window, dumping out all the biological specimens from the Holy Nation and their preservation fluid.

Everyone seemed to be trying to show just how diligent and earnestly they were working—even the sound of moving the barrels was so clear.

“—Quiet down, this is a secret operation.”

Professor Laximi’s voice, full of sarcasm, rang out again: “Are you building a tower? Or does someone want to be the foundation? I’ll satisfy them first when we return.”

In an instant, the work quieted down again.

Students worked silently—although soundlessly, they were quite swift.

Professor Laximi frowned and looked around the room, but seemed unable to find another person he was looking for. He raised his eyebrows and silently left.

After he left, the students in the cabin finally breathed a sigh of relief. The speed of their work also considerably slowed down.

After a while, Mettle gradually regained the ability to move.

First, his fingers twitched. Then his eyelids began to blink, and tears streamed from them. After some time, he clumsily knelt on the ground, gasping for air, continuously pounding his shoulders and waist. Yet, no other students in the room paid him any heed.

Students passed by him, but almost none looked at him.

“I’ll help too!”

With that, Assistant Mettle took a breath and stood up, squeezing through on his own.

On the other side.

Aleister’s fingers tapped on the armrest of the sofa, lost in thought.

“More details.”

She suddenly spoke, asking Paul: “What exactly are you planning to do?”

Dimitri intercepted, “We just pour the ‘stranglehold’ we brought into the sea…”

“That’s generally it.”

Paul cut off Dimitri, starting from the beginning: “Normally, we use normal concentration for preservatives. But we always have a job—

“Because Star Antimony and Parthia do not share borders, and the ports are controlled by Goblin Merchants, the ships of Parthian Serpentfolk and Lizardfolk can’t come in. So when we need to trade with Parthians, we choose to do it through the Holy Nation.”

“What trade?” Aleister pressed on.

“Homunculate specimens. We need a large number of non-human specimens… Necromancy studies consume a vast amount of bodies, and Star Antimony even struggles to provide human corpses.”

Paul answered, “But the Holy Nation does not allow the sale of human tissues, nor does it allow slave trading. Therefore, the Parthians adopt another trading mode—they bring some slaves directly to the Holy Nation, and then ask us to turn them into ‘zombie-level’ specimens. That is to say, the service is provided by us, not them… and the Holy Nation permits rituals, Alchemy or Necromancy processing.”

“How do the Parthians profit then?”

Aleister inquired in detail: “They can’t be spending money to give you bodies, right?”

“—Because specimen customization requires a lot of time and effort, and it can also damage the bodies, or fail to maintain the highest standard of quality… The highest quality specimens can be directly used for Necromancy research, or to create high-level undead, which requires very high skill.

“So, after the Parthians give us a 20% ‘deposit,’ we then pay a substantial ‘security deposit’ to ensure their undamaged condition. Because the process is complex and production challenging, the amount of the security deposit is much higher than the deposit… Therefore, in the end, it turns out that we pay the money and bring back the bodies.”

Paul said calmly, “After that… there is no after that. The deposit is just a deposit, and the security deposit ‘remains with them.’ Later, we just need to write a letter back, regretfully informing them ‘all the bodies have been damaged, trade canceled,’ and that’s the end of it. The bodies have indeed been damaged—they have been used to enhance the students’ Preservation Arts and Necromancy skills.”

…Clever.

Aleister exclaimed, “There are geniuses in the Spirit Summoning Tower…”

COMMENT