Chapter 196

Chapter 196: Ascension Tower

The System said, “Rich host, you usually have plenty of ideas, come up with some ideas now. Whatever you need, I will buy them for you, just put it on your tab…”

Fang Ning was speechless at that. He was not about to dispute with the idiot. After all, he did spend much of his time in this place…

He zipped around in the air excitedly, brainstorming ideas.

Among the three objectives, it was actually pretty easy to conceal people and to develop a farm.

They only needed to build a few mansions and stock them with supplies to sufficiently shield people.

As for farming, they could completely outsource the work just by importing some machinery, buying power generators, as well as solar lamps. The soilless culture technology was already sufficient to support that goal.

Fang Ning recalled seeing a video about the Chinese work station based in Antarctica with some sort of a soilless culture technology in place.

In any case, it was a problem that could be solved with money…

Only the second goal, to lure villains who were Pond-level and below for the System to kill was not easy to achieve.

Fortunately, his ideas were pretty abundant after reading countless creativity-laden novels. It can be said that having pored over ten thousand novels, he was brimming with ideas… 1

Before long, an idea popped up in his brain.

He told the System, “I have an idea. Currently, the Celestial Weapon could only let its wielder have a longer lifespan. You should add another function to it so its wielders could ascend…”

The System said, “… I don’t understand, do explain, Mr. Rich.”

Fang Ning clarified, “It’s easy. Just spend a little more experience points on that Celestial Weapon and put a super strong trap on it, send the door outside of China to a place with high crime rate, separate a thread to monitor it twenty-four-seven to only allow villains to come in.

“After every evil person who entered the door and found the Celestial Weapon, we will activate the trap to capture them and chuck them into the Draconic Penitentiary. The whole process should have a visual effect that goes with it to create a sense of ascension like in the movies.

“Oh right, we need to build another building in the prison and call it the Ascension Tower that will only house these villains who jump headfirst into the trap. The current building should be called the Evil Suppression Tower, and will house the villains who were captured by you, sir.”

The System mused, “Heheh, Rich-man Host, you’re a bad, bad man… This is genius, such a genius idea.”

Fang Ning laughed out of pride. “Haha! If that works out, all the evil people will be within our reach.”

After finished brainstorming this idea, Fang Ning was lazy to think about the details.

He had played plenty of resource-management games as well as city-building games, let alone famous games in the genre like Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom, SimCity, Tropico, Prison Architect, and Minecraft.

However, due to his laziness and unwillingness to research whatever efficiency at which his layouts run, all of his creations looked downright ugly…

‘As for details like layouts and personnel, I have money, I’ll just put up a poster…’

‘Wait, what about security issues?’

At the thought, Fang Ning smiled wryly at himself. He still could not change his timid mindset.

Not only was the original intention to lure monsters, even if the secret was out, other people would only know that space belonged to Vigilante A.

The fame of Vigilante A had already gone past the point where he no longer needed to fear even debts or lice 2 . If he was still so fearful of everything, Fang Ning would not be able to carry the title of the Venerable Dragon God…

If even he had to be worried, everyone else would be better off dead…

It should be the villains who were afraid of being targeted…

Fang Ning had wanted to push the whole thing to Zheng Dao, but Zheng Dao was cultivating and almost reached Entry-level after analyzing the importance of Morality.

‘Ah well, I’ll let Anderson take it. They are the actual vice commander with a plethora of talented inmates to order around. Even if they can’t, I could spread it through the internet…’

Arriving at the prison officer’s office, Fang Ning could see that Anderson was browsing the internet, obviously bored out of his mind…

Fang Ning only saw English websites on their screen, with some videos playing in the background.

Seeing Fang Ning’s sudden appearance, Anderson stood up and greeted him, not intending to close the website.

“Mr. Warden, how are you? Do you have any new instructions?”

Fang Ning nodded and said, “So this is the case. I’ve recently discovered an empty arcane realm with only a realm guardian…”

‘Space’ sounded less cool, Fang Ning reckoned it should be called an arcane realm.

He followed with a detailed description of the space, as well as his own request and ideas for it.

Of course, he would not say anything about the System’s intention to farm monsters, but he told of wanting to arrest all the evil beings on earth and leave them to redeem themselves inside the Draconic Penitentiary so they would no longer be bringing calamity to the earthlings, yadda yadda yadda, making things up as he goes…

Anderson themselves was scared as he listened to Fang Ning’s spiel. How would most evil beings have the wisdom and intellect of Vigilante A? Surely, they would be conned into oblivion…

They calmed themselves and said, “Venerable One has already explained it very clearly, so the rest would have been details that are technically not difficult, but do you think I am allowed to tour for a bit?”

Fang Ning was satisfied as he realized even an evil genius like Anderson was scared of his ideas, which was a testament to his wit. ‘Those novels were worth reading after all… I should read more of them.’

He gave it a thought and agreed.

…

In two-and-a-half hours, Fang Ning was playing his game peacefully in the System Cyber Cafe.

Anderson was really a genius technical personnel. They were able to quickly turn his intangible idea into an executable plan.

Most of the technical difficulties had been resolved immediately. They had already placed orders online to purchase all sorts of technological equipment and basic building materials…

On that end, Zheng Dao, the non-technical worker, would not have known all these…

Fang Ning thought as he played his game, ‘I really should induct more minions with special talents. I can assign the minions to execute the details of whatever my ideas are, that’s the life.’

He had been a programmer for many years, he knew that the execution was the killer part…

The clients only needed ten seconds to come up with an idea, with which he needed three days to code, three days to test, and a whole week after that to worry about changes…

Fang Ning was having fun with his game, but the sound of metal clanking kept coming from the building two doors down. Fang Ning knew it was the System smithing the flying sword all night long.

The building next to the System Cyber Cafe was the Lounge, and the other side of that was the smithery that was radiating heat.

He asked casually, “Sir, can’t you move the smithery farther?”

The System said, “Oh, you’re too timid. When we start having more and more inmates, you might start getting nightmares. It’s easier to hide when that happens.”

Fang Ning was lost for words and said, “Thank you for your consideration. Oh yes, don’t overexert yourself. I haven’t seen you rest at all.”

The System said, “Rest? That concept doesn’t exist for me, it’s a thing only you humans need.”

Fang Ning said, “… Alright. Bosses love employees like you.”

The System said, “Mr. Rich Boss, please give me a raise…”

Fang Ning, “…”

…

The next day, the System turned up with a flying sword as well as an armor. Compared to before when it took at least half a year to finish something like this, Fang Ning could only sigh, thinking, ‘It’s so much faster when you throw money in.’

System Notification: [The System consumed 10,000,000 experience points to speed up the creation process and consumed refined iron, skywyrm sand, astral hardwood, jade cloudstone, and other rare materials to create legendary flying sword Soaring Dragon. Effects as follows:]

[1. Speed is 10 km/s. Inscribed with formations to absorb Vitality from the environment. Requires Sword Handling Technique or similar cultivation method to activate.]

[2. When equipped, all sword-based martial arts are powered up by 100%.]

[3. Basic attack power is extremely high.]

[The System consumed 10,000,000 experience points to speed up the creation process and consumed N’gun the turtle demon as well as other materials to create legendary armor Divine Turtle Armor. Effects as follows:]

[1. Additional skill Impenetrable Sheath, powers up Defense by 100% after activation.]

[2. Basic defense power is extremely high.]

[The System searched for cultivation methods relating to handling swords in the Complete Works of Abilities and consumed 3,000,000 experience points to theorize the perfect edition of Heavensward Sword Technique. The technique is highly compatible with the current martial arts system.]

[The System learned rare cultivation method Heavensward Sword Technique at Beginner-level. Effects as follows:]

[1. Sword-based martial arts is powered up by 50%.]

[2. Sword handling speed is raised by 30%.]

[3. Possibility to fuse all sword-based martial arts. Currently possessed 45 sword-based martial arts, fusion beginning…]

After spending the whole night to create the legendary equipment, the experience points should have been cleared. However, in between farming the evil spirits from Spirit Valley and swiping all of their savings, the experience points had been refilled up to two hundred million points. Otherwise, the System would not have spent the points so freely…

It all came down to a modern Chinese saying, one is allowed caprice when they have money.

Fang Ning nodded as he took all those in. “Mm, not bad, you’ve finally collected a full set of equipment and even learned a new technique. Why don’t you just learn the True Bodhi Tactics? You have plenty of experience, it’ll be a waste not to learn it…”

The System said, “Not yet. It was really useful, but it’s slightly lacking in compatibility with my martial arts system…”

Fang Ning asked in puzzlement, “I was lazy to ask, but now that I finally understood what cultivation is, what is this martial arts system compatibility thing?”

The System said, “I’m sorry, I’m not a good teacher. I don’t think I could put it in a way that you would understand, so it’s better if I don’t waste your time…”

Fang Ning was speechless at that, then shook his head while saying, “If you’re not telling me… Huh, the landlord ran out of provisions. I was thinking about lending money to you without interest, but looks like the interest rate had to be raised higher.”

The System stopped him. “Wait a second, Mr. Rich Man. Listen to me. It’s actually fairly easy to understand. Compatibility is calculated with two variables. Firstly, the inherent righteousness of the technique, so those techniques that consume human lives definitely can’t make it. The Atmospheric Morality Technique fits the path of heroism completely, so the compatibility is very, very high.

“Secondly, in the human martial arts system, the more similar martial arts there are, the more compatible they will be. For example, this cultivation-type sword handling technique contains a massive number of sword-based techniques; Dragonization Ability is a neutral martial art, but I know many dragon-based martial arts, like Dragon-seizing Hands, Flame Dragon’s Celestial Punch, and so on. All these can raise a martial art’s compatibility.

“The True Bodhi Tactics is, of course, a righteous technique, but it emphasizes on kindness, forgiveness, and letting go… That contradicts the path of heroism’s motto of avenging grievances and repaying favors. The Buddhism-based human martial arts I have were plenty, but most of them were normal techniques that were unrelated to the True Bodhi Tactics. Adding up the score, its compatibility was still not enough.”

Fang Ning rolled his eyes. “You went on a whole spiel that I could easily conclude with one sentence. Tell me, how much experience points do you need to spend to raise its compatibility enough for you to learn?”

The System said, “Three hundred million.”

Fang Ning nodded. “I knew you won’t be able to do anything without experience points. No matter how big the heavens or the earth are, in your game settings, money is the biggest of them all…”

The System said, “Mm, after the Ascension Realm was built, we won’t have to worry about experience points in the future.”