Chapter 672: First day of parade
While everyone was preparing for the arrival of the tourists in Metropolis, Michael was focusing extremely far away from it. He was now looking on to expanding his tourist attractions.
’Into Cthulhu’s Void’ was a massive success, earning him a hundred tickets a day at the minimum. Their customer base had been continuing to grow as more and more Mermen found out about it.
Of course, this was all thanks to Reed and his influence. The man followed through with his promise and advertised the rollercoaster to any Mermen that he could reach out to.
On days that he wasn’t accompanying Nixie for her daily therapy rollercoaster guide, he was journeying off to the edges of the shores to find Mermen who came to visit the Royal Continent.
He was sure that he could get 15,000 Sand Dollars in a month if this trend kept going.
But even though that was good, Michael wasn’t satisfied. He knew that he could earn a lot more Sand Dollars if he fulfilled the second theme ride that he’d been planning about.
’Into Cthulhu’s Void’ was something explicitly designed to stimulate excitement and fear in its riders, allowing them to strengthen their Dao Hearts without having to move a single muscle.
But this wasn’t the only to battle the beastfolk’s curse.
As long as they had an extreme emotional reaction, be it either fear, distress, happiness, and even laughter, then they could stimulate their Dao Hearts enough for it to grow and become stronger.
His plan now was to target all emotions, not just fear. So, the second theme ride that he was going to build was one that was a lot slower, but a lot more wondrous in its showing of mermen culture.
He was going to recreate the extinct animals from the sea and stimulate the mermen’s imaginations about life from a few million years ago.
With another rollercoaster, he could effectively double his income!
But in order to do that, he needed to gather a lot of fossils.
Barnaby already gave him some fossils through his connections, but it only contained basic animals and fishes. He wanted something more majestic like the megalodons and colossal squids.
He therefore talked to Reed to ask him about any idea where he could ask for fossils.
"You’re building another rollercoaster? Superb!" Reed exclaimed. "Having another source of nourishment for my daughter will always be welcome."
"Do you know anyone that collects fossils?"
Reed crossed his arms and smiled. "In fact I do. I know just the person who will have a varied collection of antiques that will surely contain sea animal fossils."
Hearing this made Michael extremely glad that he met Reed. "Can you introduce me to him?"
Reed nodded. "Sure! But we need to go back to Metropolis to talk to them. We’ll be able to see them in the parade."
...
...
...
Finally, the day of the parade had arrived.
Michael and Reed were transported into the Reborn headquarters very early in the morning.
And as soon as they landed in Michael’s office, they heard the sounds of rumbling from above them. It sounded like there were thousands upon thousands stomping their feets at the same time.
"Good morning, Lord Michael," Sheina greeted him, who was already up since 3 in the morning.
"What’s going on?" he asked her.
"Thousands upon thousands of people are awaiting the parade, Lord Michael. There are only limited spots in the streets, so many people have been reserving their spot since midnight."
Those were the sounds of people just walking around? We’re ten levels below ground!
Curious, he brought out his Drone and began piloting it up the elevator shaft and out into their main reception area.
And immediately, just in front of their glass doors, he saw people squishing each other together as they tried to fight for their way to the front of the streets for a better view.
The sounds of arguments, excited squeals, and overall conversation from thousands of people was deafening.
He flew his Drone out into a window and continued to fly high up in Metropolis’ skies.
Looking down, he saw a unique sight. There was a visible line of crowd going from the Eastern gates of Metropolis all the way to the Western gates. The people below looked like sardines from up above as they squirmed around and awaited the arrival of the tourists.
And surprisingly enough, things got even more hectic as the hours passed and rumors swirled about the potential sightings of a convoy in the distance.
As the minutes passed, finally, they saw a convoy of carriages riding in the grass plains. The people near the Eastern gates welled up with excitement, shouting at the others and warning them of the tourists’ impending arrival.
Michael used his Drone and moved closer to the carriages to get a closer look.
As he got within a kilometer mark, he got close enough to see the carriages that these tourists arrived in.
Is that...?
He moved closer, wondering if he thought he saw wrong. But his drone’s camera captured everything in crystal clear quality. He saw correctly.
What he thought were carriages turned out to be coffins instead!
There were hundreds of floating coffins slowly making their way towards Metropolis at the same speed as a horse.
He used his Supreme Skill to try and see what was inside. And to his surprise, he didn’t see Light mana anywhere in the coffins! All of them were filled with Necrotic energy instead, which was a combination of Dark, Light, and Poison mana.
This was the exact same energy that Grieve used to keep himself alive!
They’re undead?
He pulled his attention away from the Drone and sought Reed’s counsel. He told him about the coffins he saw floating in the plains.
"That’s the vampires," Reed answered. "They’re undead creatures of the night, so during the day, most of them just travel with their coffins for comfort."
Michael didn’t know much about vampires. The things he knew about them were from his previous life, so he didn’t know if it would be applicable to their species. But it seemed that the rumor about them not liking the sunlight was true.
"Why are there just vampires?" he asked Reed.
"That’s how the parade is structured. Didn’t the Duchess tell you? She and Alaric both decided that it would be best if the tourists went in batches rather than have them go all at once.
If I remember correctly, the first group would be the Vampires, followed by the Elves, then it’s going to be us Mermen, followed by the Werewolves, and finally, the Draconians."
Now that he thought about it, if the people of Metropolis were already this chaotic with only the Vampires coming to visit, then things would truly be crazy if all of them came at once.
"The Vampires, huh... do they... drink human blood?" he asked.
Reed shook his head and immediately explained. "That’s a common misconception about Vampires. They drink blood, but not just human blood. They could totally be fine with just drinking animal blood.
Many books depict them as evil creatures of the night, especially because they have the ’monster’ connotation with their species.
But that’s not true. In fact, one of my best friends is a Vampire. That’s who I was going to introduce to you."