Meanwhile, at the Battle Ax Bar.
Seeing a bunch of people teleport in front of him, Malgron raised his eyes.
“You are here…” Malgron said, quickly recognizing them.
“Boss!”
“Malgron!”
“Leader!”
With a tearful reunion, they surrounded Malgron as if they had missed their most beloved person in the world.
“Alright, sit down first and drink with me,” Malgron smiled, taking out his prized wine.
After calming down, they began to reminisce, talking about the old times.
From when they met, fought, and reached the top of the world.
They also told Malgron about their experiences in the Moonlight Empire, showing satisfied smiles.
From their parents, various benefits, advanced technology, etc.
Living in the Moonlight Empire seemed to fulfill their fantasy.
“It seems that Maximus is quite a good emperor,” Malgron nodded in agreement.
Staying in the Shadow Hunter stronghold for decades, Malgron felt that this is how life should be.
It seemed that wherever Maximus went, the place will become a paradise for living.
Even a stubborn individual like him, who only knew how to fight, was quite satisfied.
“However, Valoros…”
Hearing that Valoros’ Battle Will had disappeared, Malgron fell into a daze.
Various dots began to connect in his mind.
Valoros’ weirdness, experiments that he couldn’t remember, his talk with Maximus.
Suddenly, Malgron had enlightenment in his eyes.
Looking at his worried comrades, Malgron just smiled.
“Don’t worry; he is not dead.”
“We will meet again in the future,” Malgron muttered as fighting intent flared in his eyes.
…
After a few days, Maximus finally saw his ever-busy son, Lux.
“Good to see you, Dad,” Lux greeted with a light smile.
“What’s wrong? Didn’t you still have some work to do?”
“A few days ago, we were at a critical moment; I couldn’t leave,” Lux explained.
“Care to enlighten me?” Maximus said, offering Lux a seat.
“Hmm.”
Decades ago, after his father left, Lux continued his business.
The shadow hub and cabin real estate business of Lux was very prosperous.
Coupled with Shadow Hunter pavilions in every city.
Even as time passed, with more and more tier 6 individuals coming from the Etherium Realm, his business continued to rise.
With the secret protection of the Etherium Council, Lux didn’t encounter any problems anywhere.
Apparently, his father gave the Etherium Council a special discount in exchange for ensuring their safety in the abyss.
Knowing this, Lux became more and more bold.
Expanding everywhere, Lux wanted to mark every part of the abyss with the ‘Shadowcrest’ brand.
Unfortunately, even quintillions of crystal merits were not enough to do it.
In front of the abyss, it was a mere drop in the ocean.
Not having enough, Lux conceived a bold plan.
The Abyss Stock Market.
In the Etherium realm, the stock market was so prevalent that even normal people could invest their money.
However, such a thing was not present in the abyss.
It was too chaotic for a normal stock system to work.
Thinking of all the classics he had read and using his unique physique to confirm and analyze, Lux managed to create a working stock market.
The Abyss stock market is not about investing and earning; it’s about gambling and winning.
The ‘gamblers’ were the powerful and wealthy, while the rest were the ‘cards.’
They gambled on each resource point.
Using the resources from the bet, the ‘cards’ could be armed in advance, funding the expedition.
If they succeeded, the resources point would be split to be their profit.
With materials they could buy from his father, building and unmanned resources centers was a cinch.
Having a money generator created for them after only spending some money.
The ‘gamblers’ were addicted.
The ‘cards’ also didn’t care as they could earn much more money in a safer and more efficient way.
Soon, resource point after resource point was conquered.
It even came to the point that the boundary layer was almost being conquered to saturation.
This is also the main trigger of the war.
It’s not that the Etherium council wanted to conquer the boundary layer.
It’s that they almost got all the resource points, that it would be a waste to leave the rest of the land untouched.
Naturally, hundreds of quintillions worth of Crystal merits came to construction, transforming the boundary layer of the abyss into livable land.
With such success, the Abyss stock market, the gambling station of the powerful and the rich, became prosperous.
Hundreds after hundreds of quintillions flowed into it every month, with money continuously flowing into their pockets.
As the creator, Lux also had a fair share, earning tens of quintillions of crystal merits every year.
Lux was so busy a few days ago because of the game they played, conquering dozens of resource points in the middle layer.
Fortunately, they conquered a few, making their gamble worthwhile.
As for the so-called war, for them, it was just a fight for profit.
A war without profit in mind was just mindless brutes quarreling.
“So this is why you’re so busy…” Maximus sighed, hearing Lux’s story.
From a little kid scamming him for money.
Now, Lux was already scamming the whole world.
The abyss was already in so much chaos without even Malgron doing anything.
Hearing Lux earned tens of quintillions every year, Maximus was in awe.
This was already close to what he could earn every year.
If not for reselling resources from the myriad world mall, Lux might even earn more than him.
It’s really the saying that no tiger begets a dog.
“How about it, Dad? If you need money, you can tell me!” Lux said proudly.
“I need money? Haha, you wish,” Maximus muttered, ruffling his hair.
Although Maximus was quite spoken, he didn’t dare to borrow money from his son.
That would be a disgrace as a father.
Thinking that he, their father, depended on handouts from his son, Maximus couldn’t help but cringe.
Thinking about it, in a few tens or hundreds of years, Lux would probably earn more than him.
At that time, Maximus wouldn’t know where to hide his face.
“Hehe, Dad, you don’t need to work so hard. I could take care of Mother and my sisters,” Lux squinted his eyes, saying with a smile.
Looking at his smug face, Maximus felt it was time to put in more effort.
He had the Dimensional Source at his back, giving him unlimited mana and the power of law.
If he couldn’t make more money than his son, Maximus would take it as his defeat and loaf of his son forever.
“Alright, stop making that face. I bet you don’t even have a hundred quintillion.”
“This—”
Although Lux’s business was more profitable than ever, the cost was also overwhelming.
Earning tens of quintillions, Lux also needed to spend the same amount to expand the business further.
“Heh, you think I can’t cure you,” Maximus muttered in dissatisfaction.
If possible, Maximus wanted to show this arrogant son of his the few sextillions in his system panel.
Although Lux almost caught up to his yearly income, Maximus didn’t need to spend or do anything.
The dimensional library printed money for him, and the Etherium Realm gave money to him.
It was an investment-free venture that Maximus didn’t need to do anything for.
…
In the Shadow Hunter Guild Abyss Headquarters.
After talking to his son, Maximus took his time to visit his guild.
Summoning Silas and Andrew, he saw an unexpected person.
“Griffin!”
“Maximus!” Griffin smiled, punching his shoulder.
“Long time no see.”
“It’s been a while; when did you come into the abyss?”
“A few years after you left. Unfortunately, I heard you already went back to the Etherium Realm.”
“Is that so,” Maximus nodded in understanding.
“By the way, how’s the Moonlight Empire? Before I left, the Curse Continent was too chaotic,” Griffin asked with worry.
“It’s alright. Now the Curse Continent is in my hands.”
“Huh?” Hearing this, Griffin’s eyes widened.
Even Andrew and Silar look at him with a shocked expression.
Although they knew Maximus was amazing.
Conquering a whole continent in just a few decades was a miracle.
“What’s wrong? You should call me ‘Your Majesty Maximus,’ you know?” Maximus joke.
Maximus didn’t really care what his friends called him.
For him, being an Emperor was just a convenience.
“Tsk, tsk, you’re really awesome,” Griffin said with a thumbs up. ᴡ ᴏᴠʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛʀs ᴀʀ ᴘᴜʙʟsʜᴅ ᴏ ovl(F)re.et
“What about your family? The Helmsworth Empire already disappeared after I returned.”
“Hey, we may not look like it, but the Helmsworth family is good at escaping.”
“After we saw the wind direction in the Curse Continent was wrong, we quickly went into hiding.”
“No wonder,” Maximus nodded in understanding.
After he returned to the Etherium Realm, a few top empires were missing in the Curse Continent.
Maximus thought the Westle Empire killed them, but now it seems that they were more nimble than monkeys and escaped.
“Anyway, how about the guild in the abyss?” Maximus turned to Andrew and asked.