Chapter 109 The Otherworldly Tycoon

Hilda said almost nothing on the way home. She wore the new clothes Hao Ren had bought her, and in the shopping bag she carried was her old, dirty dress—the shopping bag itself being another instance of the incredible, wasteful packaging she’d observed. She stared at the bag in her hand, seemingly lost in thought.

The two of them were walking along a sparsely populated street in the southern suburbs. Since there was no hurry, Hao Ren hadn’t teleported directly back. He thought that letting Hilda experience Earth’s public transportation might relax the worried elven queen and distract her. After all, although Hilda would only be here for two or three days, she was, in a way, touring Earth. But these efforts seemed to have little effect. Hilda had no interest in observing how novel and interesting the things around her were. She frowned for most of the time, raising various questions about the lifestyle of Earthlings, and spent the rest of the time lost in her own thoughts, completely immersed in her worries about her homeland.

During the few days they traveled together in the Dream Plane, Hilda hadn’t behaved this way, because then she and the others were traveling through a wild and barren area, and only spent one night in a simple and cramped lakeside outpost. She didn’t have much opportunity to observe and judge the lifestyle of the Dream Plane’s residents. She had marveled at the Dream Plane’s wide blue sky and large natural forests—but at that time, Hao Ren hadn’t thought much about it. Now, seeing Hilda’s unusual behavior, Hao Ren couldn’t help but ask, "What's your homeland...like?"

He had heard Hilda mention the reason for her crossing over: her homeland was short on resources, and they were forced to use spatial teleportation to find a new world to live in, but the teleportation gate malfunctioned, causing her to be thrown into the Dream Plane. But Hao Ren hadn’t delved into this question at the time.

Resource-strapped, but to what extent?

Hilda was silent for a moment, then pointed to an old iron frame at the street corner that had been abandoned for several years. The iron frame had been placed there as a support for an advertising light box when the southern suburbs were slightly more prosperous: "Do you see those metals being wasted?"

"Oh..."

"We have to re-refine these materials from all kinds of waste slag, and before that, every piece of waste slag has been recycled countless times. The energy and other chemical elements needed for re-refining come from a facility set up near the star, which is called a coronal station. It collects energy and trace elements from solar flares. Every year, radiation and light disasters on the coronal station devour hundreds of elves' lives."

Hao Ren was stunned.

Hilda saw the dazed look on the man's face. She smiled, as if she had expected it: "Unimaginable, right? I was born and raised in that kind of world. I had a slightly higher allocation of supplies than other elves, but until I was teleported to a world with a wide blue sky and fresh air (the Dream Plane), I couldn't imagine what a resource-rich world would be like."

Hao Ren didn't want to admit it, but he really couldn't imagine what Hilda's homeland would be like, so he could only hum vaguely and start thinking about what he could do—as an inspector.

The two returned to their residence in silence. The moment he opened the door, Hao Ren temporarily put these things aside. The Dream Plane, the Day of Return, the Aberrants, the collapsing "wall," and the spaceship whose owner needed to be found—there were too many things that required his attention. Taking things one step at a time was the best way to go.

"I'm home!" Hao Ren shouted towards the living room from the door, and immediately heard Vivian's voice from the kitchen: "You're back? Go rest first, lunch will be ready in a while!"

Hao Ren liked this current state of life very much: the noisy and abnormal tenants in the house were not just living here as tenants. These guys with special identities and sharing special secrets were more like a family huddled together for warmth. No matter who came home, they could stand at the door and shout "I'm home," and then a response would come from somewhere in the house. This was the real meaning of going home.

A few months ago, Hao Ren could only be greeted by a silly cat rolling around on the floor every day when he came home. Now he could be greeted by a table full of good food.

Oh, and a silly husky whose tail was wagging so hard it was about to fall off.

Hao Ren came to the living room, and Lily immediately smelled the scent and pounced over, her target being the bag of snacks in Hao Ren's hand. The dog-girl's tail wagged back and forth as she rummaged through various snacks: "Spicy sticks, where are the spicy sticks..."

"Eat less spicy sticks," Hao Ren sighed. "What if you accidentally transform after eating too much?"

Lily was the first werewolf in history who wasn't affected by moonlight, but would completely transform into a beast if she ate too many spicy sticks—we've mentioned this before.

Lily muttered and ran towards the refrigerator with her precious snacks, but Hao Ren suddenly noticed a girl who looked unfamiliar sitting on the sofa not far away: she was wearing very ordinary casual clothes, with chestnut-colored hair casually draped over her shoulders. Her skin was a healthy tan, and she looked like a mixed-race athletic girl. She was sitting on the sofa watching TV, clumsily fiddling with the remote control. Noticing Hao Ren's gaze, she turned her head and waved hello in a friendly manner.

Hao Ren was stunned for a moment before he reacted: "Becky?"

"Yeah," Becky waved the remote control excitedly. "Speaking of which, this place is really interesting! This thing called a TV...and this remote control! Your alchemy is amazing!"

"Wow, I didn't recognize you for a moment," Hao Ren looked at Becky's completely Earth-like appearance with amazement. The mercenary girl who originally dressed like a fantasy ranger had changed into Nangong Wuyue's casual clothes, her ponytail had also been loosened into a casual hairstyle, and she seemed to have put on a little light makeup (which should have been done by Nangong Wuyue as well). This made her look like a completely different person. "These clothes look pretty good on you."

"Ah, they're pretty good," Becky tugged at the clothes on her body. "But Nangong Wuyue said there's still something missing, and she's going to take me to the streets tomorrow..."

Just then, Nangong Wuyue came over from the side: "Oh, I'm going to buy her two pieces of underwear tomorrow..."

Hao Ren immediately felt embarrassed to continue on this topic.

Becky studied the workings of the remote control and the TV with great enthusiasm. She even wanted to use magic to examine the energy connection between these two "alchemical devices," but after considering that she was penniless here, she gave up the idea that might make her sell herself to pay off debts. She asked Hao Ren curiously, "You must be a very important person here, right?"

Hao Ren was puzzled: "Why do you say that?"

Becky pointed to the TV, and then to the surrounding electric lights and air conditioner: "Look at these, huge crystal screens, magic lamps that don't need oil, and temperature control devices! I've never seen such amazing things even when I went to the Earl's house to take on a mission. You must be a big shot here! And you said you specialize in managing world travel, I think I've latched onto a bigwig..."

Hao Ren immediately coughed: "Cough cough...this isn't the same thing, my job is a classified profession. Also, the things you see here are actually common appliances on Earth. Almost everyone here has them."

Becky's eyes widened: "Are you kidding me! Everyone has these luxuries?"

Hao Ren spread his hands: "Science is the primary productive force, and demand is the dry-daddy of productive forces. If your alchemy workshops over there could recognize the importance of a market economy and industrial transformation, you could also live this kind of life. I know you have a similar technological foundation, but it's all limited to small-scale applications."

Becky stared blankly for a long time, then suddenly reacted and pulled out the "music box" that Hao Ren had given her from her pocket: "How much is this thing worth here?"

Nangong Wuyue, who was watching the show from the side, couldn't help but snicker: the siren girl was mischievous, she had guessed that Hao Ren would soon face this kind of question, and had been holding back until now.

Hao Ren's face instantly turned the same color as Doudou's tail. One sentence swirled in his heart: the otherworlders aren't stupid!

"Okay, you don't need to say anything," Becky could tell what was going on just by looking at Hao Ren's face, but she didn't seem to care much about it, or rather, another, more fascinating idea completely overshadowed the unpleasantness of being deceived. She looked down at the "music box" in her hand and muttered to herself, "One of these things is probably just a toy here, but it can be exchanged for at least several horses over there..."

Hao Ren's ears immediately perked up: "What are you trying to say?"

Becky held the "music box" and looked up with anticipation: "Buy a lot of music boxes from Earth and sell them back home to make money, and then send our worthless alchemical waste slag here to sell as gemstones. I can accumulate a large sum of money within half a year, and then open a trading house in two worlds, monopolize cross-border trade, and hire many, many bodyguards to protect me. In the process, someone might notice my secret and come to provoke me, so I'll use money to turn myself into an unparalleled master to kill them, and then I'll use money to smash every troublemaker to death. By the way, I'll use my unparalleled wealth and beauty to attract many, many handsome guys. I'll be made a countess...or even a duchess...no, I might as well buy a piece of land in the east and build a city and become a king, and then I'll fight against the black forces in the world...if there are no black forces, I'll spend money to build one myself. Anyway, I have to find a way to make myself famous in history...hehe, hehehe...I don't have to be a mercenary anymore, I can eat a bowl of stew and throw away a bowl..."

Hao Ren: "..."

So this girl is the protagonist, right? She's a natural-born cross-border scalper!