Chapter 76: Gains and More Gains!

Dusk.

As the setting sun warmly bid farewell to the desert, two men hanging out back finally completed their exchange of resources.

“Bahaha, it’s great doing business with ya, Steve!”

“Touche. Touche.”

Yu Zhiye watched the happy Jack pocket another two emeralds and similarly felt happy with his own harvest.

The Fisher’s Mining Co. was on track!

Even without a pickaxe, he can mine resources like mining Bitcoin! Sit still and all capital will flow into the money printer’s hands! Mwahahaha!

“Aight, off to dinner we go. The little missy should be waiting for us.”

“I’ll go make a quick deposit run first.”

“Yeah? Aight, don’t sit on the toilet for too long, Steve! Bwahaha!”

“Don’t worry, I’m not ready to be the toilet god yet.”

“Bwahaha!”

Two comrades parted ways and Yu Zhiye went to… the toilet stall—ahem—his base.

This pocket dimension of his was really convenient for storing everything traded and even could produce emeralds to stimulate the economy.

“Hey, now that I think about it, it almost sounds like I am a villager! Do they also have a similar pocket space inside them where they generate everything they trade? Haha. Can’t be, right?”

That sort of game program was certainly another big mystery once projected into reality.

Not that Yu Zhiye cared. There’s only one thing he cared about now!

“Even while fishing on the job, I still earned 11 points today! Add on the 4-point daily passive income, and even with a little invested into the money printers, I still have all the points I need! Resources also meet the requirements!”

That could only mean…

Yu Zhiye rubbed his hands together excitedly and accessed construction mode. His gaze fell on the base foundation of the soul hall.

[Soul Hall (Lv. 0)]

A hall that houses the soul of all contracted existences.

[Build]

x32 wood, x64 cobblestone, x16 sand, 10 core energy

“Hehe. What will it be? Will I be able to summon anime characters from another world? Create and customize my own servants? Contract demons from hell?”

Err… maybe not that last one.

“Anyways, let’s get this up and running! Build!”

A thought set everything into motion!

The construction process was not much different than usual. It’s just that this time, the main palette was stone instead of glass.

Very soon, a little stone ancestral hall took root in his dimension.

[Soul Hall (Lv. 1)]

A hall that houses the soul of all contracted existences.

[Upgrade]

x8 wood, x16 cobblestone, x1 gold ingot, 5 core energy

Nothing much special here, aside from the fact that the upgrade needs an extra specialty just like the observatory upgrades.

What truly caught Yu Zhiye’s interest was what was inside the hall: a shrine table carrying a lone lamp stand.

[Mysterious Shrine Table]

A shrine that has gained mysterious properties by bounding to a mysterious core and taking root in this dimension.

[Effect]

Contract Creation

Soul Beacon

Indestructible

[Available Soul Lamps]

[1]

And the small golden-bronze lamp stand holding an unlit candle…

[Soul Lamp]

A lamp that houses the true spirit of a contracted existence.

[Occupant]

Empty

[Effect]

Contract Anchor

Soul Link

Soul Preservation

The effects hold quite the mystery, but what needs to be done next was obvious. Select the available lamp number option and…

An orb of light flew over the core and magically turned into a parchment atop shrine in front of the soul lamp.

Similar to the contract shown to him by the mysterious wandering trader, this parchment was filled with rune characters he can’t recognize.

But the system’s item analysis gave him a glimpse of what the parchment was for.

[Soul Contract]

A contract to bind any willing existence to this realm.

[Effect]

Enslavement

Soul Assimilation

Undoubtedly, this was the enslavement route!

It wasn’t as cool as summoning existences from the fourth-dimension, but playing collect em’ all was certainly in line with Yu Zhiye’s tastes!

“Sweet! How convenient! I’m not sure if there’s any other effects, but this will definitely solve any trust issues. The plot will certainly get interesting from now on. Hehe.”

And the cost to do all this? Just two core energy. Double the usual, but still cheap and affordable.

The only downside? There’s only a single contract slot.

“Perhaps I’ll unlock more by upgrading the Soul Hall? Hey… guess this will be another building I’ll have to prioritize.”

The requisites weren’t too difficult to collect anyways.

Yu Zhiye recalled that his party did find several gold ingots in the desert temples. If he’s willing to take a loss, he’s merely an emerald away from getting a batch!

Then, if there’s no other bottleneck on those upgrade requirements… mwahaha-MwaHaHAHAH!

Thinking about his evil, evil future, the profiteering devil cackled excitedly!

But that’s for the future. Right now, he must first think about a good scheme to convince his first victim to sign her soul away.

“Speaking of that bitch…”

Yu Zhiye remembered the achievement she got and set his focus on the cookout behind his shack.

There, the sandfish was grilling over the campfire pit.

There’s steamy smoke now, but he no longer saw black mist wafting out from the fish.

“This fish’s been cooking almost all day. It should be safe to eat now...”

Anyways, the guinea pig still looked fine all day! There’s nothing to worry about!

A thought returned his consciousness to the shack and a short distant out brought him beside the cooked fish.

“Eat! For the achievement!”

Om nom nom nom~

“Hey, this actually doesn’t taste half bad…”

And the achievement popping up at the corner of his vision made everything taste even better.

[Monster Feast] Purify and eat a creature from the deep. (3rd) SAN+0.8

New hidden stat—sanity—unlocked!

“This horror-related stat... really gives me some bad vibes, but… it’s better to have it than not.”

If this is the same sanity from horror survival stories, then it will be his last line of defense against inexplicable and terrifyingly evil existences.

Having it doesn’t guarantee he won’t go insane, but those that don’t have it... might not even have the chance to go insane!

“Sigh… the future doesn’t bode well. But at least I got this hideout to squat in.”

As for the other folks? Bless their souls. Whether they go to heaven or hell, what does it gotta do with him?

Unless…

Yu Zhiye remembered his contract scroll and can’t stop grinning the entire way out of his base.

Just when he stepped out from the men’s restroom, he bumped into the classy Chae Yoona in the hall.

There was nobody else around and this naughty seductress can’t help but get up-close-and-personal to tease him.

“Oppa… tomorrow morning… Yoona is looking forward to what we’ve agreed on.”

The devil’s grin grew unrestrained. “Yeah. I’m look forward to it, too.”