The next morning, Michael awoke from the best sleep of his life.
Why? Well, let’s see. First of all, the Lunar Celebrations were nothing but a success. The Brownblood Werewolves succeeded in the first tournament, with Sheina showing off her dominant Archery prowess.
And then in the second part of the tournament, it seemed that the Elves stepped in and also did a solid performance. Of course, the tournament still wasn’t over, as there was still the semi-finals and the finals to cover. But Michael had full confidence they were going to win. They hadn’t even used their Compound Bows!
Second of all, they were able to successfully conquer an Ersatz Stronghold! Not just one, but two in a matter of a single day!
It seemed that yesterday, the two Chieftain Orcs purportedly came to report to him about their success. He said purportedly because he doesn’t remember any of that.
Third of all, the Nation of Reborn was just in a general upward trend. Sales were good, their expansion was going great...
And what happened more? Oh and that’s right, he got a kiss on the cheek from Yuna.
Not a big deal. Yep. Michael certainly wasn’t still thinking about it so much that he almost couldn’t sleep last night.
Knock, knock!
"Lord Michael, can we come in?"
The door opened, and two of his most trusted allies came inside. It was Sheina and Castelle, here to give him the general run-down for the Reborn company.
Castelle first bowed at him as she entered the room, before looking up to greet him. "Young Master, good morning— did something happen to you, Young Master?"
She immediately noticed the happy-go-lucky look on his face as if he was some kind of drunk.
"Oh, haha, it’s nothing," he said, waving off her concern.
However, the fact that he was chuckling by himself like a madman didn’t ease the Reborn CEO of her worries
Castelle looked at Sheina, who leaned in and whispered. "It seems that flowers are blooming in the lands of Lord Michael and Miss Yuna."
"What?! How did you find out?"
Sheina proudly lifted up her chin. "I simply just asked Miss Yuna what happened. And besides, Lord Michael, anyone would see that lovesick look on your face from a mile away."
As expected of the sharp Rebornian secretary, nothing would go past her sharp eyes.
"Oh, you asked her... what did she say?"
Sheina smiled. "She said that she..."
Michael stood in attention, waiting for Sheina to say more.
"...she said that you should get up off your bed and go do something productive."
Michael fell face first into the floor. "Are you kidding me."
The white-scaled Dragonborn shook her head. "Nope. Miss Sheina said that she’s already waiting for you back at the Colosseum. The Lunar Celebrations have already started and you are nowhere to be seen."
How could I sleep early after that?
"Alright, alright, I’ll go."
He said that lethargically, but in truth, he was quite excited to meet with Yuna again. The world seemed brighter than it was before.
"But wait, Young Master. We must have some discussions about the Reborn company," said Castelle.
She presented him with a lot of paperwork. He took one glance at them and nodded. "Looks like the expansions of the highway roads and the trailway system has reached Metropolis. Good job."
Finally, the Metropolis expansion project had come to a close. With that territory now connected to the multiple forking road systems of Reborn that connected to every territory in the Lower Queens and the entirety of the Kings region, they would quickly catch up to the Rebornian quality of life.
"Does this mean we’re ready to expand elsewhere?" he asked excitedly.
Castelle bowed. "Yes, Young Master. We are ready to expand to New Sparta. We are building a road there as we speak."
This was very exciting news. Once New Sparta connected to the Rebornian Road System, all kinds of possibilities would be unlocked!
Most of all, the automobiles would finally be able to show their worth! The Metropolitans sure were.
With the roads now fully flattened and expanded, the Nation of Reborn had now finally allowed automobiles to be purchased by the public!
"We have a hundred thousand orders as of today," Castelle said, showing him a graph that depicted their automobile orders spiking up to the top during the first day.
"In truth, we had to limit the amount of sales, Lord Michael. There were some companies who wanted to order a hundred automobiles for themselves, but we limited them to only half of that."
Michael nodded at Castelle’s decision. After all, money was not their goal for making the automobiles public. It was the ubiquity of automobiles. He wanted to see cars speeding down the roads like it was from his previous life. He wanted even normal citizens to purchase their own vehicles with just a few years of hard work.
And besides, gold coins were largely of low use to him now. Sand Dollars were a lot more useful.
"This is really great work, Castelle. I’m really lucky that I have you as my CEO."
Castelle blushed, before bowing almost ninety degrees to Michael. "No, it’s all thanks to you, Young Master!"
Then, Michael turned to Sheina. "And how about our Orcs? What happened?"
Yesterday, he left the Shadow Orcs, the Dragonborns, and Fudge to deal with the Stronghold in New Sparta.
"It was spectacular, Lord Michael. We had fun."
Michael’s jaws opened. "You had fun? " If Katarina heard that, she’d have a stroke!
Sheina then gave him the run-down.
Basically, their operation went the same as it was the first time. The Shadow Orcs infiltrated the Stronghold by inhabiting a single unsuspecting guard, becoming their Trojan Horse.
Then once inside, they began secretly dismantling their defense and alarm systems, crippling them before they even knew they were getting invaded.
And with most of them now becoming Maugnetics, this was a lot easier than it was before.
Then, they were let loose. And by they, he meant the troublemakers.
Fudge and Zion quickly caught their own group of soldiers and began destroying them from the inside. They converted some of them, and made them fight against each other like they were in some psychopathic game. Michael was glad he wasn’t there to see it.
Then, the Shadow Orcs. He thought they’d be quite behaved, given how well they did the first time.
But no. They, too, did as they pleased. With their Ersatz Platinum leader gone, the Stronghold was basically a headless chicken.
And the Shadow Orcs used them as a ball to play with.
According to the reports here in Michael’s hands, it seemed that the Orcs made their non-awakened brethren to fight against the Ersatz soldiers to get them to finally manifest their Diva.
It became like a true Colosseum. With the Orcs cheering on as their fighters fought against the Ersatz soldiers who were promised they’d keep their lives if they won. And not one of them did.
Somehow, this worked. All 1200 newly ascended Orcs awakened their Divas, just like that.
It worked too well, even. As it wasn’t just the newly-turned Maugnetics who were given a chance. Even the mortal Shadow Orcs as well!
Another 1000 Shadow Orcs were ready to become Maugnetics.
They figured this out when they presented them with a GodForge piece. If they hadn’t restrained it, it would have entered into their chest.
"Not only that, Lord Michael. Every single one of the Orcs have found themselves craving for more GodForge pieces as well. The Chieftains, the Elite, and High Penumbras all reported needing GodForge for an advancement."
Michael knew that he should be very happy with this blistering progress, but it was only making his head ache.
Even when he thought he was already quite rich with the Sand Dollars he was earning, something would always come to make him realize it wasn’t enough.
First, it was the Emporium. Now, it was the Shadow Orcs.
He didn’t even want to calculate the amount of GodForge pieces he’d need and its corresponding price.
How was he going to get that much money?
Should I start selling automobiles for Sand Dollars?
He quickly shook his head. That was just being greedy. He needed automobiles to be commonplace, not something that only a select few could purchase.
Wait! But what about sportscars?
Even in his previous life, there were different tiers of cars, some cheap enough to be for the general public, while some were made to be purchased only by the ultra elite!
I’ll have to think of a new version of the automobile. Something made especially for Maugnetics...
But that was a thought for another time.
He looked down at his shadow inventory. He used to have a thousand kilos, now...
[GodForge pieces: 49 kilos]
Sighing, he bent down and picked up the remaining pieces he had.
"Here, Sheina. You better take this for now—"
A single flaming drop of GodForge shot out of his shadow inventory on the ground, heading straight to Castelle’s heart.