Chapter 1876 - 516: A Meeting of Equals, Spirits Soar; Worthy Opponents, Tales Aplenty (Part 3)

Players might suck at everything else, but they're good at this!

As for the Horror Demons… send them to be prison guards. Human prisons can also collect Fear Energy, as long as we sideline all the human prison guards.

They won't just avoid harming public security in Thunder City, they'll actually boost it a lot—anyone who's experienced Thunder City's prison once will never want to go back in.

The Demon King's thinking was very flexible; he could even assign Flame Demons to the steel factory and the back kitchen.

Of course, Demons from Hell were still not suited to act openly in broad daylight. He had to sign a contract with all the interns, just like the one he'd signed with the Players.

All Demons must hide their identities and move around in Human form.

The Great Graveyard would only provide them with toilet paper, it wouldn't wipe their asses for them; if they caused trouble, they could go explain themselves to the Holy Light Stick.

Prince Colin would personally take action!

Vivian scratched her head. Although she couldn't figure out what use that bunch of trash could be, she still instinctively believed that her dear elder brother would definitely arrange everything properly.

No need to say anything, just follow along and learn.

Vivian might look mischievous, but she actually studied very seriously. In order to pull off a successful sneak attack someday, she carefully wrote down everything she learned in her little notebook.

For example—

They could arrange for some Blood Race from the "True Colin Duchy" to come to the Thunder County Maze; anyway, her brother knew how to make use of them.

At this very moment, Mia had no idea that Vivian, for some completely nonsensical reason, had basically followed along her line of play and become a true match for her on the chessboard.

The "Padric Faction" and "Orthodox Colin Faction" in the Thunder County Maze were destined to have a bloody storm in that distant Future.

But none of that had anything to do with the two who were currently setting it all in motion.

After finalizing the matter of the interns, Mia's mood clearly improved a lot, and she immediately brought up the second topic.

"Ahem! There's a second thing, which is actually good news too. According to the evaluation of the Demon King Management Department, all the indicators of the Thunder County Maze have already reached the standard for being 'on track'. According to Hell's Law, you may resume paying tribute to the Demon City!"

At the mention of "tribute," Luo Yan's smile grew even happier.

In most people's impression, tribute usually means one-sided exploitation, a display of dominance.

But Councilor Luoyan, who knew Hell's rules inside out, was very clear that this was actually a sure‑profit deal, you could even say it was the Demon God Temple "buying off" the Demon King's forces.

The reason was simple: the Demon City's control over various powers in Hell was far inferior to the Holy City's control over the Human nations.

On one hand, the intricate underground environment drove up communication costs; on the other, there were simply too many Races in Hell.

If you wanted the Hell Dwarves of Catastrophe Castle to bow their heads to the Demon City, there was only one way: have the Hell Dwarves offer up some rat tails as tribute, then have the Demon God Temple send a pile of Gold back.

That way, Hell got to save face, the Hell Dwarves of Catastrophe Castle got their gold, and both Hell Dwarves and goblins could work even more cheerfully.

The things Hell Dwarves offered as tribute were usually parts taken from Ratmen or Dwarves, while the Maze's tributes were generally parts taken from Adventurers.

And this stuff didn't require the Demon King to pay out of his own pocket; he just had to pack up the "spoils of war" left behind by Adventurers who died in the Maze and ship them back.

Those damaged Armor pieces, broken Sword Blades, bloodstained Magic Robes, and even the half‑used potion bottles in the Adventurers' pockets might look like trash to Players, but in the eyes of the Demon God Temple they were treasures showing all of Hell that the Demon Clan's martial virtue was thriving.

Sometimes the Demon God Temple would even put them on display, and would commend the Demon Kings who performed the best among them, granting extra honorary titles that didn't include any territory.

"No problem. This is also my duty as a Demon King, and my honor as well."

Luo Yan agreed just as readily as before.

This was basically a pie falling from the sky. He might not be short on money, but who would ever complain that their Vault was too full?

Besides, Demon King was only one of his many titles. Since he enjoyed the rights, playing along with the Demon City's little formalities was only proper.

However, there was a small technical problem here.

Right now, the Thunder County Maze had too fearsome a reputation. The nearby Adventurers had been scared out of their wits and didn't dare take even a single step into the Maze.

It wasn't that there were no powerful Adventurers, but since the Maze hadn't made any big headlines outside, and no Nobles or groups of citizens had posted bounties, they wouldn't take such a risk for no reason to do those E and F Level little quests… the risk‑to‑reward ratio just didn't add up.

This led to a rather awkward situation—the Adventurers inside the Maze were cowering, even doing business with the Demons in the Maze, so naturally there were no piles of junk "spoils of war" being produced.

Of course, this didn't trouble His Highness the Prince, who understood Human nature so well.

Luo Yan only thought for a moment before he had an idea.

Is there anything the factories in Thunder City can't produce?

If they couldn't pick up wild Adventurer gear in the Maze, then they'd just place orders in Princess Aileen's New Industrial Zone.

Not only could they place orders, there was also equipment already on sale.

Right now Thunder City was undergoing an industrial transformation, and a large number of Adventurers had switched careers to do other work, leaving their gear at home to gather dust.

As long as he set up a purchase point in the city and recycled those old Sword and Shield sets and ragged Magic Robes at scrap‑iron prices, he'd definitely be able to collect mountains of "spoils of war."

By then he'd only need to move things from his left pocket into his right pocket to exchange them with the Demon City for hefty piles of Gold or Demon Crystals.