Chapter 90: Changes
Both of them looked at Qiao Mian with eyes aglow.
They waited for quite a while, yet Qiao Mian remained silent.
“Mr. Qiao?” Wang Lang prompted quietly.
Liang Xiaoyu looked Qiao Mian straight in the eye and said sincerely, “Actually, we’ve gained so much more from the park. We don’t need any gifts.”
She fiddled with the hem of her shirt, too shy to suggest, “A hug as a gift would be nice.”
Wang Lang shot her a sidelong glance and nodded, “Xiaoyu’s right. This is a mutually beneficial arrangement, and, frankly, we’ve gained the most.”
He joked, “To be honest, we even talked about awarding you the Republic Medal.”
The Republic Medal?
Qiao Mian looked at him in surprise.
If he had something like that, his parents would be overjoyed, wouldn’t they? How could they ever scold him or tug his ear again?
“Of course, that hardly captures the respect we have for you,” Wang Lang said. “If you have any requests, just name them, Mr. Qiao. We’ll treat your wishes as the top priority of the Republic.”
Qiao Mian glanced regretfully at the middle-aged man.
He waved his hand and said to the two of them, “No need for formalities. This is just a gift between friends.”
He paused, then added, “I was merely waiting for the gifts to arrive.”
Gifts?
Liang Xiaoyu and Wang Lang exchanged a confused look.
Suddenly, they saw a faint glimmer in the distance.
In a blink, the light grew more distinct.
A rectangular wooden crate, over five meters long and half a meter wide, appeared.
“What’s this?” Wang Lang asked in confusion.
“Ten dinosaur eggs,” Qiao Mian replied.
“I—” Wang Lang was so overcome with excitement that he couldn’t help but salute Qiao Mian. “Thank you, Mr. Qiao!”
“You’re welcome.”
For those ten dinosaur eggs, Qiao Mian had been docked five hundred thousand game coins.
Liang Xiaoyu pressed her lips together, her eyes full of expectation.
“As for you…” Qiao Mian turned to Liang Xiaoyu, then smiled and extended his right hand to her.
Seeing the large hand reaching out, Liang Xiaoyu’s cheeks flushed scarlet.
Her heart pounded wildly.
Had he noticed her beauty?
She felt unbearably shy.
She was just about to place her hand in his when she saw something suddenly appear in his palm.
Qiao Mian flipped his hand and, pinching a small red vial between his fingers, held it out to her.
“This is for you!” Qiao Mian said with a smile.
A hundredfold penalty.
This Blood Orchid Elixir alone had cost him a hundred thousand game coins—enough to buy ten Iron Man suits.
Liang Xiaoyu froze, the blush vanishing from her cheeks.
She seemed crestfallen as she silently took the Blood Orchid Elixir from Qiao Mian’s hand.
“Thank you,” she murmured, head bowed.
Not satisfied?
Qiao Mian was puzzled—did she also want dinosaur eggs?
“This is the Blood Orchid Elixir. It’ll enhance your constitution and add ten years to your lifespan,” he explained.
Liang Xiaoyu looked up at him. “Will it make me prettier?”
“It’ll help, yes,” Qiao Mian assured her.
Wang Lang, standing nearby, was tempted to speak but held back.
Such a treasure, outside, people would fight tooth and nail for it. Those powerful figures with little time left would stop at nothing to obtain it.
If the Academy of Sciences could study it…
He was still mulling it over when he saw Liang Xiaoyu already unscrewing the lid.
Before his very eyes, the reckless woman gulped down the Blood Orchid Elixir in one go.
Wang Lang’s expression was conflicted, his heart aching.
In his vision, Liang Xiaoyu’s body began to change visibly. She seemed to grow younger, and a thin layer of skin peeled off her face, revealing a fresher, more delicate complexion beneath.
…
After instructing Drift to see them back, Qiao Mian left on his own.
He paid little attention to how the employees used their hard-won game coins, and even less to Guo Jing and Wang Lang’s deal. Such matters were trivial in his eyes.
His real concern was the future development of Fantasy Park.
He’d just informed the two that, from now on, the park would welcome a thousand visitors per day.
It was just as well—they could start making preparations.
…
The next day.
New faces gradually appeared in the park.
Qiao Mian had already delegated some of the hiring authority to several department heads.
He didn’t go to meet the new employees right away, merely had Zero collect their basic information.
There weren’t any villains among them.
The people from the Condor Heroes universe had already spent most of their game coins on various purchases: martial arts manuals, special abilities, technological products, or exchanged them with the Rabbit Nation’s government to maximize their benefits.
They had all undergone some degree of change.
Apart from enhanced skills, several of the old-timers looked much younger.
The most dramatic change was in Granny Sun: the wrinkles on her face had vanished, and she now looked like a woman in her thirties or forties, retaining a mature allure.
The number of volunteers also doubled.
Liang Xiaoyu assisted Little Dragon Maiden in organizing a volunteer recruitment fair.
Women only.
No promise of pay.
No provision for food or lodging.
Yet even so, every woman among the volunteers queued up eagerly to apply.
Within half a day, Little Dragon Maiden had selected five.
The chosen five were all older, exuding a composed, steady air.
Since all the volunteers were elites, there wasn’t really much to pick from.
The next day, Fantasy Park reopened as usual.
This time, the number of visitors doubled.
The vast majority of these guests were from the Rabbit Nation.
Of the thousand available slots, the Rabbit Nation claimed six hundred, leaving the rest for foreigners.
The media passes originally set aside were now allocated domestically by each country.
Among the six hundred tickets, the Rabbit Nation put three hundred up for lottery on the “official website.”
Winners would receive their tickets free of charge, courtesy of the government.
Should they wish to purchase more, they would have to pay out of pocket or cooperate with the state or major corporations.
Naturally, many chose to sell their spots.
Entering the park might not change one’s fate, but selling a ticket could easily bring financial freedom.
Qiao Mian paid little attention to the outside world.
For the first two days after reopening, he remained in his office, asking Zero to project surveillance feeds from across the park in front of him.
Despite the increased number of visitors, the park ran even more smoothly.
Now that each area had a person in charge, efficiency had risen noticeably.
However, the purchasing power of the newcomers had not doubled as he’d anticipated.
Currently, his daily income was just over two million three hundred thousand game coins.
Two days later.
At dawn, Qiao Mian slipped into the jungle.
Using the power of the protective shield, he soared up and perched atop a tall tree.
Finding a branch with plenty of forks, he settled into a comfortable position and stuffed two buns into his mouth one after the other.
Once finished, he leaned against the bough, summoned Zero, and opened the game interface.
At present, his game coins had amassed to more than fourteen million.
For days, he had been debating whether to invest this money in further developing his current universes.
For instance, he could improve the benefits and invite talent from the Iron Man universe to form a research team, fusing Cybertronian technology with their advanced science to create new products for sale.
Or he could purchase the items he’d recently re-listed in the store from the Transformers universe.
He had the funds now.
But progress had been slow.
Tony Stark, riding high, seemed to treat him as some sort of Eastern demon, making ridiculous demands with no sincerity.
Qiao Mian decided to wait until the man ran into trouble before approaching him again.
The only thing in the Transformers universe that truly tempted him was that Cybertronian spaceship.
Even with his current fortune, he still hesitated to spend so much on it.
After much deliberation, Qiao Mian decided it was best to purchase a universe incubator and open up a brand new world.