Chapter 490 - To Be Relevant

The reason why he was here, to begin with, was to tread the safer route of passively gathering information, denoting he won't go out foraging intelligence without sound justification which may make the clan feel threatened. Rather, he would wait until the information comes to him naturally by itself while he gradually becomes relevant to the city and the clan that controls it.

In order to accomplish that goal of becoming relevant to the city, amongst the several options Virus had come up with, Virus determined the most logical and efficient one was the path of earning a lot of money by becoming a businessman within the city boundaries. Overall, money and the level of authority that came with it were going to open many paths and connections for him all over the city.

Furthermore, without money, there wasn't anything he could do really. Even if he wanted to actively dig up some information right now or even later on, that required money, money that he did not have at the moment.

Without money or in this case Qi Ingots, he was no different from a beggar and no one cares enough to talk and share information with a beggar!

By the time he was over going through some of his surface plans, Virus heard a knock on the door. His food was prepared and they were now asking him to come to the dining table to eat it.

Rising to his feet, Virus casually went down to the dining hall as he sat at a random table. Soon, Luca, Luna, Augustus, and Archibald who were long since starving joined him as well.

Looking at the food on the table, other than the cup of tea, Virus could see roasted mutton and boiled fish together with two tankards of cider prepared.

Nodding in approval, Virus tasted the roasted mutton while the two oldies beside him each took a sip of their cider.

"So, boss, what is your following plan? Are we just going to sleep in this place and do nothing?" Archibald questioned all of sudden.

"You must love freeloading like this, eh? But no, we've got so much stuff to do, that's why I'm down here to tell you about it."

"Oh, what is the plan?" With his pupils emitting light, Archibald exhibited his passion. He was looking forward to the adventure and fun this new boss of him would bring to the table.

"I need you four to do one thing before I decide on my following plans." Ripping a bite off a piece of mutton, he continued, "Get me the rough cost of buying and renting a shop in the various parts of the city, come back and report to me when you're done."

"Hmm, is that all, boss?"

"For starters, yes."

"But what are you going to sell by renting or buying a shop?" Feeling lost about Virus' intentions, Archibald interrogated. He was having difficulty understanding the picture Virus had fixed his sight on.

"Just do as you're told. You'll naturally come to be aware of everything later on."

"Yes, sir!"

Afterward, sitting around the same table, the party of five devoured their food before Virus returned to his room while the four left the inn in order to dig out the basic pricing of the stores.

…

A few hours later, sitting on a chair in his room, Virus closed both his eyes as he sunk into deliberation.

What he was contemplating right now was about whether he should consume the Absolute Liberation Leveling pill right now and breakthrough to the ninth level of Liberation or rather leave it for a later time and only use it after he successfully breaks through to the ninth level.

Frankly, to Virus, both options had their advantages and risks.

The advantage of taking the Absolute Liberation Leveling later on when he elevates his cultivation to the ninth level was that he would have a good chance of directly breaking through to the Sublimity Emergence stage. 

Of course, that wasn't guaranteed since it was said the Absolute Liberation Leveling pill was useless beyond the Sublimity Emergence stage so it may just elevate the synthesis rate to one hundred percent in the ninth level and stagnate there.

On the other hand, since the fusion process of the pathways gets harder after each level, it was crystal clear to him that keeping the pill for later on would be a good option.

However, the risk of doing so was connected to the topic of his current whereabouts. Right now, Virus was on an extremely hazardous planet with danger lurking in all directions.

Furthermore, he was at the very heart of the city that was bound to become his enemy and the target of his vengeance considering that they had annihilated the sect and probably harmed one of the few people in the world that Virus cared about, therefore, the level of danger was even higher.

All those aspects considered, the rational approach for Virus was to take the pill right now and be ready for any kind of unpredictable danger that may pop up along the way.

Thus, while one choice was more beneficial for his cultivation, the other could make his life more secure immediately.

'Which one should I pick?' Truthfully, there wasn't much for Virus to sleep on as he made a decision swiftly, "Well, increasing the chances of my survival matters the most, even if by a tiny amount."

'Moreover, it's not like I'm going to be stuck at the ninth level. All I need are more monstrous beasts and Origin will assist me in breaking through fast! So that little bit of inefficiency doesn't really matter at the end of the day.' That also further dissipated any second thoughts.

Then, taking the pill out of the spatial container, Virus was just about to open the case when his doorstep was knocked.

Targh! Targh!

"Hmm, who is it?"

"Boss, we're back to report." Luca's muffled sound came over from the other side of the door.

"Okay, come in." Storing the Absolute Liberation Leveling case within his spatial container once more, Virus allowed the four to enter.

"So, how were the prices?"

"Ah, sir, first about the rent costs, one detail about the rents was that other than the monthly payment, they all required a rather substantial amount of deposit money as well," Archibald reported calmly.

"Okay?"

"And as for the overall pricing of renting, they varied from place to place. At the cheapest districts that we discovered in this short duration, the rent was set at a hundred first-grade Qi Ingots a month plus a deposit of a thousand of them. However, these shops were extremely remote with no crowd to be found anywhere. The shops around that place were totally empty of any potential customers." Shaking his head in disappointment, Archibald was absolutely against such districts.

"And in regards to the uptown and the main market of the city, the most expensive shops could be rented at the prices of ten thousand Qi Ingots of first-grade a month plus a deposit of a hundred thousand Qi Ingots of the same grade." Inferring from his tone, Archibald was more inclined toward the potential of the expensive stores.

"As for the selling price of those locations, just quadruple their deposit cost and there you have it." 

Acting like he was an experienced businessman already, Archibald advised further, "Ah, boss, if you want to have a profitable business, you better rent a shop at the crowded areas where there would be customers around."