Ten years later.
In Purgatory City, at the Shadow Hunter Pavilion:
Maximus looked at the bustling store as he calculated his gains over the past decades.
With the puppet taking care of the shop, he didn’t need to worry about anything else.
He only needed to tabulate the necessary resources and bought them every other day.
During these ten years, the reputation of the shop continued to grow.
Maximus had almost all the monopoly of lower-tier abyss source.
Furthermore, for higher-tier abyss source, although there was a confidentiality contract.
Many keenly noticed that all those who traded with him got what they wanted.
Every year, he could harvest the equivalent of over ten billion system points worth of abyss source just in the shop.
However, fame also came with danger.
Throughout the decade, Maximus and Skye faced frequent attacks from tier 8 squads.
Luckily, there wasn’t any apex sovereign who showed any interest in him.
His wealth still can’t move those apex sovereigns from high above.
After all, instead of arguing with him, they can earn more if they fight honestly.
His wealth is so insignificant that it can’t move their hearts.
Of course, Maximus still had to be careful about everything.
Who knows if there was a crazy lunatic who wanted to play with him?
Just when he was in deep thought, a knock came at the door.
“Come in.”
“Maximus!” Skye closed the door and eagerly came into his embrace.
“What happened? Are you bored with shopping?”
lightsΝοvεl ƈοm “No, I just miss home…” Skye sighed.
What he meant by home is their little manor in the Etherium Realm.
Maximus’ wives and children, the little things.
Skye felt reminiscent for the first time.
“I also miss home…” Maximus nodded sadly.
How can he not miss them after twenty years of not seeing his family?
There are also his grandchildren; he wondered if there were any additions to the family.
Unfortunately, this damn abyss realm is quite difficult; even a bit of communication is not possible.
“When do you think we can go back?”
Although they can absorb and condense their own merits crystal without any interest from the origin will.
The crystal merits they needed are still enormous.
She didn’t know how much Maximus needed, but for her, she needed at least 100 quadrillion crystal merits.
Even with their current profits, earning that amount would take thousands of years.
“Soon… we will come back soon,” Maximus said solemnly, kissing her forehead.
Maximus estimated that he only needed about 15 years to condense enough mana to leave this damn world.
“I hope so,” Skye looked at him hopefully.
“Trust me…”
…
While they were flirting, his token suddenly vibrated.
“Hmm?”
“What is it?” Maximus asked Tintin.
“A mandatory mission, Maximus Shadowcrest, is needed urgently in Gold Hive Outpost,” Tintin replied.
“Oh,” Maximus nodded.
Although his vaquisher status granted him many privileges, it came with corresponding responsibilities.
For example, from time to time, some public or public outposts needed some help.
Vanquishers and Executioners needed to mandatorily help once instructed.
“I need to go first,” Maximus told Skye.
“Hmm, be careful out there.”
“I will.”
…
Getting into the teleportation array, he saw others with the same status as him.
They were also in the city waiting for some task.
After all, staying in the Eternal Ruin Outpost was quite dangerous.
They would rather rot here and wait for mandatory missions from time to time and earn some big money.
As the array lit up, he suddenly felt a spiritual force put a mark on him and disturb the teleportation array signal, wrapping him.
“Ambush?” Maximus hurriedly thought.
Before he could think any further, the teleportation array finished activating.
…
In the abyss wasteland:action
Knowing something was wrong, Maximus didn’t panic and carefully looked around.
This is the first time someone has blatantly tried to ambush him.
“The Thief Saint, Flinch?” Maximus muttered, finally seeing the culprit.
“As expected of a prodigy, you quickly sense me,” Flinch praised.
“I didn’t expect that the Thief Saint was interested in me, a little fish,” Maximus sighed.
Thief Saint Flinch was the god of theft and robbery who hijacked the god’s authority of the previous thief god.
He called himself a saint because he was previously the saint of that thief god.
Maximus could only shake his head at such irony when he had read about it.
“Of course, I would not be interested in a normal little fish.”
“But you are a little fish with a golden body,” Flinch teased.
“So, what is it? What do you want from me?” Maximus asked coldly.
He didn’t look a bit scared.
This Thief Saint was only promoted to a high god in less than an epoch.
It can be said that he was weaker than Lysarian Silverleaf, the newly promoted apex sovereign from the arcane continent.
After all, before Lysarian was promoted to tier 9, he underwent tens or hundreds of epochs of refining.
A mere god who relied on a quick and easy path to gain strength would undoubtedly be weaker.
“Hehe, of course, I want everything you have from now and the future,” Flinch licked his lips.
He had long regarded Maximus as his prey.
The little subordinate he sent to Maximus from the past decade was almost all from him.
To his surprise, Maximus seemed to have an overwhelming strength coming unscathed from all of this.
Looking at the fearless kid, Flinch’s interest was aroused.
Besides stealing what he wanted, the most was to play with these talented prodigies.
While imagining Maximus exploding from anger.
What he received was a nonchalant shake of the head.
“Huh?” Flinch looked in surprise.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, you’re too weak to get anything from me,” Maximus muttered emotionlessly.
“Interesting!” Flinch’s smile was widening.
“Are you a pervert?” Maximus asked, seeing Flinch look at him obsessively.
“Hehe, I’m just romantic, as I would say,” Flinch refuted.
“You’re indeed a pervert,” Maximus said with goosebumps.
“How about we play? I will guess what item I can steal from you.”
“If I’m wrong, I will leave?” Flinch said with a smile as he mobilized the law of thievery.
“Oh?” Maximus looked with interest when he suddenly felt surrounded by the essence of law.
“I guess I will get all your crystal merit!”
Soon, the essence of law surrounding him began to converge, sensing all of his crystal merits.
Of course, Maximus wouldn’t let that pass.
Disguising his crystal merits, he quickly bought concentrated feces and quickly disguised it as crystal merit.
“Then I guess what you got was a piece of shit,” Maximus smiled teasingly.
Before Flinch could react, a massive load of feces was teleported to his face.
However, to Maximus’s disappointment, instead of being angry, Flinch looked more interested.
“Huh~” Flinch’s nose twitched as if he was smelling the feces.
“A feces of a tier 9 Mystic Muskstalker?” Flinch muttered, licking the feces to confirm his guess.
“What a great treasure!” Flinch said happily.
Maximus, seeing this, just rolled his eyes.
What the heck?
Do you still dare to lick it?
Maximus cursed countless times, facing this lunatic.
“Good! Do you still have this treasure?!” Flinch seemed to have found his money bag.
Although the feces of the Mystic Muskstalker were the stinkiest feces of all Etherium Realm, they are an excellent tonic for spiritual plants.
“No more,” Maximus quickly shook his head.
At the same time, he couldn’t help but reflect.
Seeing that it was the smelliest, he brought it without hesitation, regardless of the price.
Who knew that he would face such a pervert?
“Hehe, I think there is more!” Flinch muttered as he mobilized the essence of law again.
“I thought you said if you guessed wrongly, you would leave?”
“Huh, did I say that?” Flinch suddenly stopped.
“Yes.”
“I don’t remember anyway,” Flinch played dumb and came to steal from Maximus again.
Maximus just shook his head and disguised a rock, which was quickly teleported to Flinch.
He can’t invalidate this skill as he still can’t control the power of law.
He can only fool it with tricks.
“A rock?” Flinch frowned in disappointment.
“Kid, what about other things?” Flinch said, urging the essence of law again.
Unfortunately, what he got was another rock.
“I don’t believe it!” Flinch muttered.
Unfortunately, after hundreds of times, what he got was still a rock.
“It’s useless,” Maximus finally smiled.
“It seems that you still have some skill, kid.” Flinch finally gave up using his little tricks.
“Can you send me to the Gold Hive Outpost already?” Maximus muttered lazily.
The Thief Saint’s reputation in the abyss realm is quite extensive.
He steals from all newcomers like entertainment.
The reason he hasn’t been on the wanted list until now is that he never harms those he steals from.
He will groom them like leek, cutting from time to time.
This also made many eager to have Flinch steal from them.
After all, although they will lose something occasionally, they can also have an apex sovereign backer.
“How can I send you back without getting something valuable?” Flinch quickly shook his head.
“Didn’t I give you a valuable shit?”
“That doesn’t count; I got it with my own ability,” Flinch quickly denied.
“What a mess,” Maximus thought.
He really didn’t want to talk to individuals with this kind of weird brain circuit.
Who knew if he could get infected?