Star Odyssey

Mavis Bank

Lu Yin spent a full three days collecting bribes, and gained a substantial return on his time. Five Mavis Bank crystal cards, twelve crystal cards from Yu Imperial Bank, and 200 star crystal cubes had left Xu San gaping in amazement, and even Bronsen’s cheeks were stretched wide at the sight of unprecedented shamelessness. This was the first time the soldier had seen someone visiting people at their homes to ask for money.

The criminal himself was grinning from ear to ear; none of the 10+ courtiers he’d visited in the past three days had given him too much on their own, but it added up quickly into a tidy sum. He had to do this more often, but unfortunately, most of the other courtiers had quickly closed their doors and declined visitors. No hurry, there would be plenty of opportunities in the future.

That train of thought reminded him that he still had to go to Mavis Bank and withdraw some money. It always felt like he was missing something without any on him. As someone who’d just gone from rags to riches, he turned to Bronsen in high spirits, “Set a course for Mavis Bank.”

……

Within the royal palace, a few courtiers were making a joint report to the Emperor, “Your Imperial Majesty, King Zishan is using his identity without restraint to request bribes. Please investigate him.”

“Your Imperial Majesty, please investigate.”

The Undying Yushan lethargically sipped a mouthful of tea, “Did you pay him off?”

“Of course not, Your Imperial Majesty!” one of them grew agitated, “I did not meet him, for I didn’t have the money to bribe him with.”

“Then how do you know that he is asking for bribes?”

Another spoke up, “This humble servant has heard that Lord Bailey, Lord Sicar, and even Lord Garope have been extorted.”

“Heard? Do my courtiers want to accuse King Zishan based on rumors? Did Sicar or anyone else admit it?” the Emperor asked sternly, leaving all of them cowering in silent fear. How would anyone admit to something like that? He took another sip, “I know that King Zishan visited some courtiers, and from what I know, some of them gave him welcome gifts. A welcome gift for a child is not too much, do you not agree?”

“Yes, Your Imperial Majesty, it is not too much.” The ministers didn’t dare to speak further; the Emperor was clearly covering for King Zishan.

“Alright, you can leave,” he waved them off, and they left in a hurry. He couldn’t help a laugh when they were gone, his screen lighting up with information about how Lu Yin had robbed dozens of students in Earth’s trial. He shook his head and smiled, “This kind of lust for money wasn’t Zishan’s style. Perhaps it’s just the youth.”

……

The Mavis Bank branch on the Zenyu Star was actually quite close to the royal palace; these transdomain companies had far greater influence than an empire in a single weave. However, the building wasn’t too tall out of respect for the Great Yu Empire. While it wasn’t even top five in height, however, no one dared look down on it. Anyone who could enter those premises was an influential figure.

As they approached from a distance, Lu Yin noticed that the building was constructed like a large tree, with each branch densely packed with tens of millions of credits. These were genuine notes, some of them even floating down after the occasional gust for people to pick up. The property prices close to any Mavis Bank branch were normally exorbitant, likely even surpassing the royal palace. Countless people strolled around every day, hoping to pick up some free money.

The bank had bought all the land within a thousand miles, planting trees rarely seen in the Outerverse. They had their own specialized security force with Explorers and even greater powers, and some rare creatures flitted across on occasion. Atop the tree was even a space station reserved for the Mavis Family; this place exuded luxury in every way.

A well-mannered young lady walked over to Lu Yin the moment he got off his plane, giving him a brief introduction of the bank before taking him to a counter. When they entered the large tree trunk that led directly to the top floor, he surveyed the dozen counters in his surroundings; there wasn’t much traffic at all. Behind him was a dumbstruck Xu San, wondering if money could just be picked up here. He had already grabbed one note from the floor.

The counter was entirely automated, and the woman only stood nearby and offered beverages and all sorts of other refreshments as she tended to Lu Yin’s needs. He first scanned through all the Mavis cards he’d gotten from the courtiers, acquiring a tidy sum of a little over one million credits. The exchange rate to Yushan credits was ten to one, so that meant he had ten million. It definitely wasn’t a small amount, but it wasn’t enormous either. In addition to the modest 300,000 credits from the Emperor, he drew close to 1.5 million. The Yu Imperial cards also translated to about 500,000 more universal credits, leaving him with a net worth of 2 million.

Lu Yin’s mouth twitched at this number; they were too stingy! One cube of star crystals was normally worth about a million credits, so he didn’t even have 20 cubes’ worth on hand. Still, it made sense once he thought about it. The courtiers hadn’t dared give him too much money to avoid investigation, but star crystals themselves could be crushed to avoid that complication any time.

“Damn, three days of work and this is all I get? Looks like they spent all their money on the star crystals, I should find a way to get some more,” he muttered to himself.

“Boss, where to next? Are we going to continue with the extortion?” Xu San asked cautiously as they walked out of the bank.

“Stop it with the bullshit, those were welcome gifts,” Lu Yin glared back, and the embarrassed lackey giggled. Still, he considered it for a moment but mumbled to himself that he ought to take a break. There was no use in finding all those officials now; no one would open their doors for him. It was time to train his battle techniques.

It was at this point that his hand reached out naturally, grabbing a bill that was floating down from the sky. It was manufactured with a special material, star crystal threads weaved into a special design of the universe on top that made it look elegant while still feeling soft. He looked up and saw the giant tree with countless such bills fluttering on the branches, his gaze filling up with greed. How much would he get if he robbed this bank? He suddenly thought of Lulu Mavis, wondering if she was here.

……

King Zishan returned to his residence, telling Bronsen that he would enter isolation for five days and that no one was to disturb him. The man strangely released a sigh of relief, “Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Boss, what about me?” Xu San asked expectantly.

Lu Yin simply passed a card to him, “Buy me some furniture, whatever you see fit. Don’t train.”

Xu San was puzzled about why he was forbidden from training, but didn’t question further.

Lu Yin was considering whether he should report Xu San’s innate gift to the Empire. That would give this lackey of his a formcast remodeling opportunity, but then he wouldn’t be a lackey anymore. But did that mean he had to raise him forever? He couldn’t stop Xu San from training much longer.

At this point, he thought back to how he’d wasted Gift Copy before, forgetting about Xu San’s Farsight gift. So focused on Bai Xue’s innate gift of Frost, he had forgotten that it wasn’t the only kind.

There were three types of innate gifts in the universe; elemental, biological, and exotic. Elemental gifts were quite straightforward, giving their owner grasp over powers such as ice and fire. They included all sorts of natural phenomena; there were legends of a cultivator who had once awakened an innate gift of Black Holes; they were unequaled for a long time. Biological gifts were related to the vast array of creatures across the universe, with myths of a phoenix that had burnt down the walls of the universe itself. Meanwhile, exotic gifts were the ‘other’ and included modifications to the body, and even things like Lu Yin’s die that could not be explained directly. Xu San’s gift was exotic as well.

There wasn’t a specific hierarchy of the three categories of innate gifts; world-dominating abilities came from all types. This was why the Universe Youth Council allowed such one-in-a-million characters to join their subsidiaries directly.

Lu Yin had originally planned to sell Xu San to some powerful organization, but that was still shortchanging himself. He had already brought the man all the way to the Great Yu Empire, and wasn’t quite willing to let go of him. Money could always be earned, but one couldn’t always find cultivators with innate gifts to follow them. Xu San didn’t know his own importance yet, but he would learn soon enough.

Still, after some thought, Lu Yin sent a message to the Emperor informing him about Xu San’s situation. The reply didn’t take long; Xu San would be given a remodeling chance and entry into Yu Academy. The Seventh Squadron had apparently even indicated their interest already.

He thought back to the introductions from Bronsen. The Seventh Captain was Batson, and his weapon of choice was an antiquated gun. Had he taken a fancy to Xu San’s innate gift?