Chapter 140: Personal Invite

"You didn’t have to bring food; I can cook," Zane said as he took the bags from Ali’s hand.

"It was on my way anyway."

As Zane put the food on the table, he suddenly paused: "This isn’t an apology dinner like last time, right?"

"No, no, this time, I’m innocent."

Zane glanced at her, and it appeared she wasn’t lying this time. Today’s meal was Chinese food, and as usual, Zane took his Pupu Platter, the pork fried rice, and the beef Lo Mein. Ali had shrimp and rice, steamed vegetables, and a side of crab rangoon.

"Did you see the press conference?" Ali asked.

"I did. They’re not even being subtle about the name."

"You should have seen how the people in the WhatsApp chat were speaking after learning the news. Even some of the elders couldn’t help but say some unsavory things."

"Oh? They hate that Beast so much?"

"Apparently so."

"Have you had any experience with it?"

"Um, there is one, but I don’t know if it counts," Alisha replied. "I once went to DC for a trip and wanted to see the white house. However, as soon as I came near, I had this disgusting and unpleasant feeling in the pit of my stomach. It was truly intense. I thought I was sick until I spoke with Ma."

Zane frowned. "Now that you mention it, I also had an unpleasant experience in DC and the White House with no explanation. However, it was more subtle."

"It’s probably because of it," Alisha said, nodding. "So, are you going to join?"

"What do you think?"

"I’m relieved. I read their terms and conditions, and signing up is like joining the US military, the CIA, the NSA, and the FBI at the same time. Plus, I really think the family will disown you if you sign up."

Zane had no intention of joining, even without the connection to the Beast. The last thing he wanted in life was to further fuel the military-industrial complex. "Take a look at this information and see if it’s useful."

Alisha held the phone in one hand while the other stuffed a piece of shrimp into her mouth. "I don’t understand a thing."

"Oh, right." Zane took the phone back and translated the content. "This reminds me I should buy you a Gremorian Language potion."

"Buy two —one for Ma."

"Good thinking."

Alisha stopped chewing her food and focused on the phone. "Based on these records, it seems potions are the highest-selling items, followed by magic scrolls in close second. They are also the cheapest to manufacture, but the average profit seems to vary a lot."

"Well, they are one-time-use items, and hunters are in constant demand. As for the variation? It’s probably based on the Enchanter’s skills. A good one can succeed in one or two attempts, but the bad ones could need as many as ten trials."

"Alchemists produce the most product variation, with items ranging from as little as a few gold coins to as high as thousands of magic crystals. More importantly, they also make money by maintaining and repairing their product."

Zane nodded. Alchemy was an umbrella term for many professions and fields of study, so the range of products made sense.

"What’s a Module?" Alisha asked, and Zane explained the concept of a Runescribe.

"Their services are the most expensive; they even charge an abnormally high fee for repairing the Rune Diagram."

"They need repair?" Zane knew nothing about that.

"Apparently. However, based on these records, it doesn’t appear to be a frequent thing." Alisha kept scrolling through the phone, analyzing the data.

"Well, what do you think?"

She didn’t immediately answer him. Instead, she asked for a few more clarifying details. "If we’re going by this data alone, your best approach is to first focus on Enchanting. Scroll making has the easiest barrier to entry: all you need is an engraving pen and a magic beast skin. The market is large and demanding enough that if your skills are decent, you can quickly gather capital.

"Then, you can pivot to weapons and jewelry enchanting. Many knights and hunters need weapons, but that shouldn’t be your priority. The key target is jewelry — to be precise, selling it on Earth."

Zane frowned.

"Can normal people use enchanted items?"

"No, they need mana to activate."

"Magic crystals have mana, right?" Alisha asked. "Can’t you build a battery or something?"

"I don’t know about a battery, but there are ways to store mana in an object. However, regular people still cannot control the mana without an awakened soul. Although that issue could be solved if the mental energy is also stored in the item, the only issue is whether it’s possible to program the item to activate on its own using the stored energy."

"If you can make enchanted items that normal people can wear, then the amount of money we can make is, well, generational is not enough to describe it," Alisha explained. "From military contracts to selling to regular and rich individuals — the market is too large to count. However, even if you can’t, we can still sell enchanted items to normal people as long as we market them as luxury items."

Zane nodded. People will buy anything as long as it is marketed the right way; they will even buy ideas or beliefs.

"However, the data you provide is not enough for a concrete plan. I recommend you hold on until we know more," Alisha said as she put a piece of cheese wonton in her mouth.

"The deal with Lysana will provide consistent records, so that shouldn’t be an issue."

"Good."

"So, how about it? Have you thought about starting Kwame Dynamic with me?"

Alisha gently put her chopsticks down and reached for her bag. Holding Zane’s schematic notebook, she caressed it. "I’ve read everything and did my research — the things in here are really extraordinary." This notebook was like a history of technology’s evolution. After her research, Ali realized her brother had predicted most of the world’s major technological advancements since 2010. Although some of his timelines were off, the general directions were always correct.

More importantly, the predictions didn’t stop at the present. After reading the competitive and state-of-the-art sections, she discovered countless companies and labs developing and researching these technologies, and the best of them had the same ideas as Zane. Ali always knew how terrifying her brother’s pattern recognition was. When they were kids, they had to forbid him from predicting the ending or twists of any movies they watched. But this book was something else.

"I’m sensing a but," Zane said.

"If we do this, there will be a lot of risks and unknown variables."

Zane sipped his Mountain Dew. "Ali, the world might be ending in 5- 10 years. If you don’t take a risk now, when will you do it?"

"...You have a point."

"So? Are you in?"

Ali paused briefly. "I can’t fully commit yet. How about we wait next week and see how much money you can make from hunting? Once we know our budget, we can go from there."

"Fine, but how about you start with the paperwork? Maybe even look at office space we can rent?"

"Deal."

Zane smiled. Most of the hard work was done, so it was only a matter of time before Ali joined on board. Although it would take a few rounds of persuasion, he was confident in success. With her handling the business and Zane providing the technology, the world would be their oyster.

"Oh, have you changed your mind for Friday?"

"What’s on Friday?" Zane asked.

"My 10-year high school reunion. I told you about it?"

"You did?"

Alisha sighed. "I know you can be forgetful about things you don’t care about, but I asked you a few weeks ago, and even reminded you the last time I was here."

"Oh, right," Zane said, nodding. "My answer is still no." His 10-year reunion was two years ago, but he was still locked up. Although he knew and was friends with many of Ali’s friends, he had no desire to return to that school—especially after what happened with Judy.

Ali sighed. "You have nothing to be ashamed of; you’re the victim."

Ding!

"That’s easy to say. I —"

"What’s wrong?"

Zane did not answer. Instead, his frown deepened as he read the email. "B.E.A.S.T sent me a personal invitation."

"Oh...Wait, how do they know your identity?"

"There is a military sergeant in my class; he probably ratted me out to his superiors."

Alisha nodded. "You better be straightforward with your rejection."

Zane agreed, so he wrote a rejection. After Alisha double-checked, he pressed send. However, less than five minutes afterward, he received a reply.

"Is that them again?"

"Yes. They offer me a 250K signing bonus and a weekly allowance of 25K or 25 magic crystals."

"A quarter of a million dollars," Alisha repeated, clicking her tongue. "Now, I’m suddenly conflicted."

Zane did not resist replying to a second rejection, but to his surprise, less than two minutes later, they replied with an even higher offer: 330K and 30 magic crystals.

"330 grand — that’s almost twice our savings. Are you sure you don’t want to think about it? Maybe hide it from Ma."

Zane looked at her.

"Alright, I’m joking."

Zane wrote a third rejection email, and luckily, the replies stopped.