184: Chapter 184 I'm not stupid...

Hujiang City.

The city that was once reduced to ruins now had a new silhouette.

Unlike other Strongholds that had gathered due to secret realms or various coincidences, they had been here from the start.

Only now, they no longer called themselves the official authorities, but had become "Kindling."

In the central area of the Kindling Organization, a building from the pre-Assessment era was relatively well-preserved; this was the headquarters of Kindling.

On a high floor of the building, inside a spacious conference room.

The long conference table was filled with people, about twenty or so, all middle-to-high-level managers of the Kindling Organization.

The atmosphere wasn't exactly solemn, but it carried a business-like dullness.

Responsible for organizing this meeting was Chen Yitao, who was currently standing in front of the conference table, beginning the discussion on the meeting's theme.

"The attribute potion that can be bought in the mall are becoming increasingly limited in effect. Most potion can only be used once, and those with the same effect cannot work repeatedly."

"We must find other ways to improve the overall strength of the elite combat squads..." Chen Yitao said.

In the middle section of the conference table, near the window.

Tang Ningfei sat there, propping her chin with one hand, spacing out somewhat listlessly.

She actually wasn't interested in these things; as the captain of the combat department, she was just here to listen in according to the rules.

Because of the Assessment, the efficiency of meetings had also greatly improved.

After listening for a few minutes, she roughly understood the content of this meeting.

Simply put, the rapid development of other Stronghold forces had given their organization a sense of urgency.

It was true that their level of organization was higher, but correspondingly, there was a price to pay.

Other organizational forces were in a state of complete chaos and disorder, where the strong preyed on the weak and free competition reigned; whoever was stronger could siphon off the Ability Users below them to make themselves even stronger.

As for them, their higher degree of organization meant they were subject to more restrictions.

So now, large Strongholds like the Xinhuo Stronghold basically had ten to twenty C-rank Ability Users.

Whereas in their Xinhuo Stronghold, it was impossible to invest all resources into those combat personnel, so there were only eight C-rank Ability Users.

Although they developed better overall—for example, their medical and logistics departments were incomparable to other forces.

But in terms of the number of top-tier powerhouses, they were still a step behind the outside world.

So the theme of this meeting was to find ways to improve the strength of those D-rank elite combat personnel, allowing them to add a few more C-ranks so as not to fall too far behind other forces.

After hearing the gist of it, Tang Ningfei continued to space out with her chin propped up.

She was just a combatant and couldn't provide any constructive suggestions.

While she was spacing out.

Suddenly, a message notification popped up in her message box.

Tang Ningfei snapped out of it slightly and looked at Zhou Tunan, who was sitting beside her.

But the other party was still listening intently.

"Hmm?" Tang Ningfei was a bit puzzled; she thought he had found it boring and wanted to slack off and chat with her.

Tang Ningfei curiously clicked open the message box, and Gu Changming's message came into view:

[Do you guys need an Apothecary?]

Tang Ningfei smiled; this was the first time Gu Changming had proactively messaged her.

Glancing at Chen Yitao, who was seriously conducting the meeting, and confirming he hadn't noticed her, Tang Ningfei began to reply.

[If you're coming, we'd definitely be more than welcome.]

After sending the invitation, she continued typing: [What kind of Apothecary?]

As mentioned before, the system of their Kindling Organization was very complete.

While other forces might not necessarily care about classes like logistics and medical, they already had corresponding departments and had trained a large number of related professional Ability Users.

So if it was just an ordinary Apothecary, they might not necessarily accept them.

Unless Gu Changming was willing to package himself in as well; in that case, they could take in as many freeloaders as needed.

[A genius Apothecary.]

Seeing Gu Changming's reply, Tang Ningfei smiled again.

[How much of a genius?]

The next second, information about a potion was sent over.

[Name: dragon blood essence... Effect: After consumption, Strength and Constitution attributes randomly increase by 140-160 points...]

Tang Ningfei scanned it and was stunned on the spot.

Then she leaned in closer to look carefully, and after seeing it clearly, she sprang up from her seat.

The commotion was so loud that it drew the attention of everyone at the meeting.

Chen Yitao also stopped speaking and looked toward her.

"Captain Tang?"

He had long noticed that Tang Ningfei was absentmindedly making small movements below, but since she was from the combat department, it didn't really matter whether she listened or not, so he hadn't cared much.

However, such an abrupt interruption was somewhat impolite.

Tang Ningfei glanced at the information on the panel, her mind still in a daze.

She had taken many potion before, but she was seeing a potion with such an effect for the first time.

Although her head was still spinning, Tang Ningfei spoke up:

"I think I've found a way?"

...

Jiwu Stronghold.

Outside Chen Yiming's potion-making hut.

Gu Changming glanced at the message, then spoke to Chen Yiming, who was inside the hut wearing a pink dinosaur onesie:

"They've agreed. In a bit, add the ID I gave you and have a good chat with them."

"Oh." Chen Yiming nodded.

"Just like how you tricked me back then—don't state all your demands at once and scare them away." Gu Changming said.

He wasn't worried that Chen Yiming wouldn't be able to adapt there; in her previous life, she had been with Jiang Chen's organization, so she would definitely be even more in her element there.

As long as she could demonstrate her talent and strength, the other party probably wouldn't want to let her go when the time came.

Of course, the prerequisite was that she shouldn't spend too many of their points right at the start without giving any feedback, like before. If that happened, it would definitely be hard to get by in the early stages of the organization.

It was precisely because of this that he gave her that reminder.

"Got it!" Chen Yiming replied obediently.

"Alright." Gu Changming nodded, reached out to press down on her head, and gave it a squeeze. "See you next time."

"See you next time!" Chen Yiming waved her hand vigorously.

Because of her personality, saying goodbye was quite easy.

After leaving the Stronghold gates and reaching a place with no one around, Gu Changming had the Mimic Beast transform into a flying exotic beast and jumped onto its back.

Facing the wind, Gu Changming flew toward his new destination.

He hadn't been gone for even ten minutes.

When a new message popped up in Gu Changming's message box.

"Hmm?" Gu Changming looked over curiously; it was a message from Tang Ningfei.

Clicking into it, a massive transfer of two hundred thousand points appeared in the chat box.

[?] Gu Changming typed a puzzled character.

[What's wrong? Did I get the amount wrong?]

Tang Ningfei replied immediately.

[What amount?]

[The transfer fee for that "genius Apothecary" you introduced, and the licensing fee.]

[She told us that to go to our side, she has to give you 150,000 points as her transfer fee. Also, when refining that potion, because you spent money to have her develop the formula, she has to give you a 10,000-point patent licensing fee for each bottle.]

[The extra 50,000 points are for the five bottles of "dragon blood essence" we plan to refine first. Is there a problem?]

Gu Changming looked at it and didn't reply.

Instead, he opened the chat box with Chen Yiming.

[? transfer fee and patent licensing fee? Are you crazy?]

He had just told her to be more restrained.

Old habits die hard?

Chen Yiming quickly replied to the message.

[Yeah! Didn't you say to trick them like I tricked you? I definitely have to raise my own value; otherwise, how would they know I'm a genius and cherish me?]

Gu Changming blinked.

[Is that what I meant when I said that?]

This time, she didn't reply instantly. Instead, there was a pause of a few seconds before a message came through.

[Hehe, I'm not stupid. I know you're good to me.]

[So I'm also earning some pocket money for you to spend.]

Chen Yiming sat on the sofa, hugging her legs as she typed. She knew Gu Changming didn't lack points, but she didn't know how else to repay him.