Chapter 36: Chapter 35: [The Ever-Evolving Real Estate]
"Right now, all the major real estate developers are scouring for a large number of gifted individuals to be responsible for residents’ safety. For an ordinary residential complex, having even one is considered pretty good. But the housing prices... well, you know how it is.
The places with the tightest security are undoubtedly the villa districts. It’s just that prices have skyrocketed, more than ten times what they used to be. Some of the rich have families to protect too, you know. How many gifted individuals can they really afford to hire as bodyguards?
If they spread their people too thin, the level of security drops dramatically. So, no matter which city you go to, just pick the villa district with the most ridiculously expensive prices, and you’ll be fine."
The man with the earring quickly divulged all the inside information he knew.
"The government doesn’t get involved?"
"Bro, don’t be ridiculous. These gifted individuals aren’t committing crimes; they’re just getting paid to be bodyguards. There’s no law saying gifted individuals will be arrested for finding a job.
Besides, not all of them are rich. An annual salary of a million is enough to make them risk their lives. Plus, the real estate developers will give their families a house, which is a way to ensure their loved ones are safe.
It’s better for these guys to come out and share some of our pressure than to hide in the shadows. As far as I know, in the last six months, there have only been two special incidents in Shanghai’s villa districts, and there hasn’t been a single death.
The unluckiest person just ended up disabled. But at least his life was saved, right? You should be prepared, though. Their housing prices are truly despair-inducing."
He Xiaotian had initially wondered if the developers’ security personnel would be poached by the wealthy.
But when the man with the earring mentioned they were given houses, he dismissed that concern.
’Poach one person, and you have to buy a house.’
’How much would that cost?’
’Aside from a few of the country’s top tycoons, most rich people probably couldn’t afford that!’
"How much are the houses?"
"Starting at three hundred million," the man with the earring replied nonchalantly.
"PFFT!"
Usually, it was He Xiaotian who was twisting the knife, but today, he was the one who got stabbed.
’Son of a bitch!’
’Three hundred million to start?’
’How much money has Dad saved up over the years? A few tens of millions, maybe?’
’Even if we sold the paper mill, we probably couldn’t scrape together fifty million.’
"Oh, right. There’s also an annual security fee of one million."
"???"
"Pretty strange, right? Why spend three hundred million on a villa just to pay another million a year in security fees? If you don’t want to, you don’t have to. But if you’ve got the ability, you can try recruiting twenty gifted individuals yourself to cover the day and night shifts and secure the villa district.
And by the way, you can’t just recruit a bunch of scrubs. You need at least two with healing abilities and two with sensory abilities. That’s the only way to detect evil spirits and other strange entities right away, treat the injured in time, and ensure the residents’ lives aren’t in danger."
"Totally worth it." As exasperated as He Xiaotian was, he could only force out those three words.
’Is a million worth it?’
’Just like the man said, totally worth it.’
"But what I find even stranger is, you guys risk your lives for just ten thousand a month?" He Xiaotian voiced his doubt once again.
To be fair, anyone would know to choose a million over ten thousand.
"Heh, who do you think is more powerful, the rich or the country? Gifted individuals need to train and improve, too. If you join a government department, you’ll be given priority access to resources.
No matter how much money a rich person has, they can’t buy the rare resources needed to increase one’s power. Those things are all tightly controlled by the state. What’s more, the more missions you complete, the more the higher-ups will value you, and the more authority you’ll have.
When that time comes, you won’t have to bow and scrape, even in front of a super-tycoon. In fact, they’ll be the ones sucking up to you. As the saying goes, a great man cannot go a single day without power. Unless, of course, someone is willing to be a watchdog for their entire life.
Besides, in this world that has been turned upside down, strength is the most important thing. Wasting your prime years for improving your strength just for some money would be a truly foolish trade.
The ten thousand a month is just for you to send home to your family. The organization provides you with all necessities, and all expenses during missions are covered by the state."
Hearing this, He Xiaotian finally nodded.
’Now *that* makes sense!’
"By the way, for helping you guys deal with the Zhongcheng Slaughterhouse and the missing persons case... rewarding me with a few hundred million shouldn’t be a problem, right?"
"What?!" For a moment, the man with the earring was utterly dumbfounded.
’How did we end up back on the topic of money?’
"Impossible."
After a moment of daze, he came to his senses and rejected He Xiaotian’s proposal.
’Damn you!’
’A few hundred million? If it were that easy, I’d have become a billionaire long ago!’
"I saved the three of you. It’s only fair I get some kind of reward, right?"
"But there’s no precedent for this."
The man with the earring was in a tough spot. There had never been a case of a civilian gifted individual helping them out before.
"I saved the lives of over a hundred people inside the factory and protected the masses."
"Look, my friend, it’s not that I don’t want to give it to you. Even if you want a reward, you at least have to wait for me to write a report on this and submit it to my superiors, right?"
"Fine, but be quick about it. Tomorrow night, meet me at the most popular lobster stall on Food Street. Come alone." He Xiaotian thought for a moment and felt he had a point. Although the man with the earring looked like some rich kid, plenty of people these days were all flash and no substance.
"..." ’Why does this feel like some kind of shady street deal?’
After saying his piece, He Xiaotian picked up his Big Hammer and left.
’Got so many Experience Points tonight. I need to go back and digest them properly.’
On the perimeter, Director Huang and the others in charge of the lockdown saw him walk out of the factory and couldn’t help but take a few steps back.
They couldn’t help it. The image of him crushing one of the shorties with a single swing of his hammer kept flashing in their minds.
They were terrified He Xiaotian might decide to give them a taste of his hammer too.
"Go on in. The victims are all safe now." Tossing this sentence over his shoulder, he vanished into the darkness.
Ten minutes later, He Xiaotian was back at his residential complex.
First, he hid his twin hammers, then he went to take a shower.
It was a hot day, and he was covered in the stench of sweat.
After living with his cousin for a while, he’d become a bit of a clean freak.
Once everything was in order, he lay on his bed to check his gains.
[Experience Points: 18,000
Function: Scan
Martial Arts: "Fire-refined Golden Body"- 0/6000+ (Mastery: Perfect Top Grade, Sea-Boiling... Expand ↓) "Iron Sand Palm"- 0/500+ (Proficiency... Expand ↓)]
It was a massive haul—17,900 Experience Points.
The Blade of Resentment, the black shadow, and the white specter alone provided 7,100 points.
The rest, aside from the 100 Experience Points he already had, all came from the kappas.
Looking at it this way, those little shorties were actually quite handsome and adorable.
"Huh?" Suddenly, a line of text popped up in the upper left corner of He Xiaotian’s vision.
[Ding! Detected Experience Points have exceeded 10,000. Upgrade now? (Hint: Upgrading will unlock a new function.)]
’Exceeded ten thousand points? Does that mean this upgrade will cost ten thousand points? That would leave me with eight thousand, enough to level up Fire-refined Golden Body once. I could also find a Qinggong manual to use for escaping or chasing enemies.’
’Upgrade!’
’I have to upgrade. I’m loaded, anyway.’
’The Scan function alone let me learn martial arts. The new function might be even stronger.’
[Ding! 10,000 Experience Points deducted... Upgrading... 1%... 5%... 15%... 99%... 100%. Upgrade successful.]
[Please select one of the following four new functions to add, or choose to upgrade an existing function.]
[New Function: Enhance.]
[New Function: Simulate.]
[New Function: Storage.]
[Existing Function: Scan +1.]
He Xiaotian blinked. ’Couldn’t you at least give me a description?!’
’Based on the literal meaning, Enhance could probably strengthen my martial arts.’
’Every martial art has a ceiling.’
’Once you hit it, you can’t improve any further.’
’Of course, it could also be something like enhancing equipment in an online game.’
’Or maybe it does both?’
’Simulate... I can’t figure that one out for now.’
’There are too many possibilities, but it’s more likely none of them are correct.’
’Storage is pretty self-explanatory.’
’But can you tell me how big the so-called storage space is?’
’If I pick it and it only lets me store a toothpick, that would be a huge joke.’
’As for the last one, Scan +1, that’s even easier to understand.’
’It’s an upgrade from the original function that could only scan martial arts.’
’Maybe it’ll be able to scan humans and evil spirits?’
After thinking it over and over, He Xiaotian focused his Spirit and lightly tapped on...
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