Building Interstellar Empire With Universal Synthesis
Chapter 91: Spending Money Like Dirt
"I will buy them!"
The words reverberated clearly through the bustling, chaotic market.
Instantly, the entire surrounding market fell completely quiet.
The rich merchants, the arrogant interstellar warlords, and even the heavily armed corporate guards paused their activities, turning their heads toward the young man dressed in extravagant clothing.
The fat slave dealer froze on his luxurious chair, his lazy posture vanishing in a single heartbeat. His jaw practically hit the floor as his beady eyes stared at Neo in absolute disbelief.
"Y-You are joking, right, Young Master These are just a thousand dying rats. They will not survive another week in the deep crystal mines. You actually want to pay fifteen hundred Universal Credits for them?"
"Did I stutter? Or do you not want my credits?" Neo asked coldly as he looked down at the fat merchant.
The female elf attendant stepped forward frantically, pulling at Neo’s sleeve.
"Young Master Garfield, please reconsider! This is a massive waste of your wealth. They are rebels of the fallen Aincrad Kingdom. Their bodies are completely ruined by the royal torture chambers. You will be a laughingstock if you bring corpses back to your estate."
Neo coldly brushed her hand away. "I did not ask for your financial advice. I asked to buy them. Process the transaction."
Whispers erupted among the wealthy onlookers.
"Is this kid crazy?" a nobleman wearing a silk suit muttered to his companion.
Another warlord laughed loudly,
"Ha Ha... He must be a spoiled rich noble from a backwater planet. Spending fifteen hundred Universal Credits on a bunch of corpses. What a complete idiot. His father must be weeping right now."
Neo completely ignored the mocking crowd. He simply raised his wrist terminal, scanning the holographic barcode floating above the massive cage.
[ Ding! Transaction Successful. 1,500 UC deducted. ]
[ Current Wealth: 18,500 UC ]
The heavy iron doors of the cage hissed open. The one thousand starving elves slowly looked up.
Their faces were covered in dirt and grime, but their eyes held a strange, lingering defiance.
They did not thank him. They merely stared at him with cold, dead expressions.
’Fools,’ Neo thought inwardly with a hidden grin. ’My Spirit Eyes show me the absolute truth. Their physical bodies might be broken, but their spiritual foundations are incredibly dense. Once I use Universal Synthesis and my Medical division to repair them, they will become unstoppable elite shock troops.’
"Elena, Dr. Clark," Neo ordered without looking back. "Secure their slave collars to our transport line. Make sure none of them fall behind."
"Understood, Master," Elena replied after she stepped forward to manage the new acquisitions.
Dr. Clark adjusted his glasses, a sinister smile creeping onto his face as he observed the biological trauma of the ruined elves.
Neo did not stop there. He turned his back on the confused fat merchant and walked further into the VIP sector.
Word of his foolish purchase spread like wildfire through the lower commercial rings. Within minutes, the slave market was in a massive uproar. Greedy merchants and corrupt corporate officials began dragging out their absolute worst, most defective stock, placing them right in the path of the wealthy, oblivious young master.
Neo played the part perfectly. He walked with a swagger of supreme arrogance, his chin held high, looking at the market like it was his personal playground. All the while, his Spirit Eyes remained fully active, glowing with a faint, imperceptible golden light.
He was filtering out the truly worthless slaves and scanning only for the hidden gems buried beneath the dirt and despair.
Soon, he stopped in front of a sprawling containment pen. Inside sat three thousand elves with dull, lifeless eyes. Their arms were covered in horrific burn marks, and their fingers were twisted and broken.
The glowing holographic sign above them read: Defective Elemental Archers.
"Ah, the great Young Master Garfield!" a slimy, snake-like alien merchant hissed, then slithered forward with a wide grin.
"I present to you the finest trash in the market. 3,000 elite archers of the Oceron Forest. Sadly, their tendons were severed during the war, and their mana cores were completely shattered by our suppressors. They cannot even hold a spoon, let alone draw a bowstring. But for a man of your unique tastes, I will offer them for a mere two thousand Credits!"
The surrounding crowd erupted into loud laughter. "Ha Ha ha
"There’s no wat he will never buy that. Even a fool knows you cannot fix a shattered mana core."
Neo stared at the broken archers. Through his Spirit Eyes, he saw a completely different reality. Their mana cores were not shattered at all. They were merely sealed by a high-tier dark magic curse that forcefully inverted their natural mana flow, causing immense pain whenever they tried to use magic. It was a vicious method of control.
’With my Godsmith talent and a few cleansing potions, I can easily break those dark magic seals,’ Neo calculated inwardly. ’Three thousand elemental archers for two thousand credits is the steal of a lifetime.’
"Wrap them up," Neo said loudly, "I always wanted a massive garden display. Maybe I will use them as living statues outside my mansion."
""No Way!""
The market went dead silent again. The snake alien blinked its reptilian eyes in utter shock before scrambling to process the payment before Neo could change his mind.
[ Ding! Transaction Successful. 2,000 UC deducted. ]
[ Current Wealth: 16,500 UC ]
The crowd was completely stunned. They watched in absolute bewilderment as three thousand crippled elves were chained and directed toward Neo’s growing transport line.
"He really bought them... This human has too much money and zero brains."
Neo continued his march deeper into the market.
He ignored most of them, whilehis Spirit Eyes scanned the endless sea of magical auras.
Ten minutes later, he found his next target.
It was a deep, underground holding cell covered in thick, transparent runic glass. Inside the cell were five thousand elves curled up on the cold floor. Their pale skin was covered in pulsating black veins, and they were coughing up dark, corrupted blood.
"What is this?" Neo asked, tapping his cane against the runic glass.
The market manager rushed over, wiping sweat from his forehead.
"Young Master Garfield, please step back. Those are cursed magic casters from the forbidden southern swamps. They absorbed corrupted stellar energy and are now suffering from severe mana poisoning. They are highly contagious and will all be dead within three days. We were just about to incinerate them."
"Contagious, you say?" Neo smirked, leaning closer to the glass.
His Spirit Eyes pierced through the black veins. The System interface flickered in his vision. These elves were not dying from a simple curse. Their bodies were undergoing a highly rare, violent elemental mutation. The corrupted stellar energy was attempting to evolve their natural elven bloodlines into something entirely new, but their fragile bodies lacked the necessary physical vitality to survive the transition.
’They only need a massive injection of pure Cosmic Force and high-grade vitality potions to stabilize their mutation,’
’If they survive, they will become dark mages. A class of magic casters that can devastate entire battlefields.’
"I want them too. All five thousand of them." Neo declared loudly.
The manager looked at Neo as if he was staring at a madman.
"Sir, they are dying. They are literal walking corpses."
"I am a man of adventure and rare collections. My personal doctor here loves to study terminal curses. Name your price, manager."
Dr. Clark stepped forward on cue, pushing his glasses up his nose with a sinister chuckle, playing perfectly into the narrative.
The manager swallowed hard. "Three... Three thousand five hundred Credits, sir. For the entire batch of five thousand."
Neo raised his wrist terminal.
[ Ding! Transaction Successful. 3,500 UC deducted. ]
[ Current Wealth: 13,000 UC ]
The crowd was now following him like a massive parade. They wanted to witness the greatest fool in the history of the Elven Star System waste away his entire fortune on literal garbage.
Neo finally reached the very end of the VIP sector. Here, the atmosphere was incredibly heavy, reeking of dried blood and deep despair.
Before him stood the largest containment zone he had seen yet. It was a massive, open-air pit surrounded by high-voltage electric fences. Inside the pit sat a staggering 16,000 heavily armored elves.
Their metallic armor was rusted and broken, their bodies covered in horrific scars.
They were the legendary Griffin Knights of the fallen Aincrad Kingdom. Their majestic flying mounts had been slaughtered in front of their eyes, and their proud spirits were entirely broken.
They sat in the dirt like stone statues, refusing to speak, refusing to move, and refusing to acknowledge the world around them.
The slave master guarding this pit was a towering Orc wearing a tailored, expensive business suit. He puffed on a thick cigar, laughing a deep, rumbling laugh as Neo approached.
"Ah, the famous Young Master Garfield," the Orc boomed, blowing a cloud of gray smoke into the air.
"I hear you have a deep passion for buying absolute trash. Well, human, I have the biggest pile of trash right here in this pit. 16,000 broken knights. They refuse to eat, they refuse to fight, and they refuse to follow orders. They are just waiting for death to claim them."
The Orc leaned over the railing, with a cruel smile exposing his yellow tusks.
"Young master, I will let you have the entire army of 16,000 for 12,00 Universal Credits. Take them off my hands."
"Dammn!!The crowd gasped. 12,000 Credits was a massive fortune, enough to buy a small fleet of standard warships.
"I bet he will not buy them. That is way too much money for broken toys that refuse to fight." a merchant whispered.
"Yes. Even a fool has his limits," another agreed.
Neo looked down into the pit. His Spirit Eyes came to life. What he saw took his breath away. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢
Beneath their dirt, their rust, and their broken posture, a towering inferno of suppressed rage, honor, and fierce loyalty burned within the auras of the knights. They were not dead inside. They were merely waiting for a true king to reignite their flames. They needed a leader who could give them a purpose for revenge.
Neo looked up at the towering Orc, his arrogant smirk widening into a genuine smile of absolute victory.
"You have a deal, Orc," Neo declared with a smile.
The Orc blinked, and the thick cigar fell straight out of his mouth and hitting the floor.
"Wait, seriously?"
Neo did not hesitate. He scanned the terminal.
[ Ding! Transaction Successful. 12,000 UC deducted. ]
[ Current Wealth: 1,000 UC ]
The transaction chime echoed through the silent market like a thunderclap.
In the span of a single hour, Neo had spent 19,000 Universal Credits. He had willingly purchased the diseased, the crippled, the broken, and the dying.
The slave masters and merchants celebrated, cheering loudly as they believed they had pulled off the greatest scam in the history of their corrupt world. They looked at Neo with mocking pity, thinking he was a brainless child playing with his father’s money.
Neo simply turned his back on them, looking out over the massive sea of 25,000 slaves now chained and kneeling under his absolute command.
’Laugh all you want. You just handed me an unstoppable army of unstoppable potential for absolute pocket change. When the Zenith Empire rises, this exact market will be the first place we burn to the ground.’