The Orc Chieftains were right. The Ersatz defense was only as strong as their weakest link.
By choosing a relatively weak member and inhabiting his shadow, the Shadow Orcs were able to infiltrate the 'infallible' security systems set up by the Ersatz.
This was perhaps the only breach possible with their kind of defenses. It was only made possible by the fact that the Shadow Orcs all had Aubility Powers that were of the same type: 'shadow'. That was how they were able to multiply their strength to increase their stealthiness enough to fool even a Nascent Spirit-level security system.
And what's even more impressive was the fact that out of those 312 Shadow Orcs (including the two Chieftains), only 12 of them had their own Divas! The 300 High Penumbras were still Pseudo Maugnetics for now, as they had yet to awaken their Divas. They had the Aubility Power, but none of the control needed to wield it.
This meant that Narito, Sasuki, and the 10 Elite Penumbras were able to successfully infiltrate the Ersatz Stronghold all by themselves!
They coordinated the unfocused and unawakened Aubility Power from those 300 and molded it to something much greater!
Because of that, there was now a metaphorical trojan horse filled with 300 Shadow Orcs just waiting to infiltrate their Stronghold.
The Ersatz would have never thought that anyone would infiltrate their hideout in such an ingenious way.
After all, there was no organization in the world who had hundreds of Maugnetics all with the same Aubility Power with each other.
"Our brothers in arms were excited upon the possibility of earning enough merit to get another GodForge piece," Narito said.
"We are all eager to prove ourselves worthy, Lord Michael!"
Well, the Shadow Orcs certainly outdid themselves. They did something Michael would have trouble doing himself! They defied his expectations in the best of ways!
"Take your time and gather as much intel as you can on the Stronghold," he instructed them. "I want the exact numbers as well as the layout of their castle."
"As you command!" Narito saluted.
"We shall inform you once the job is finished!" Sasuki declared.
With the Orcs infiltrated inside, Michael could easily teleport himself to the Stronghold and get the Key himself.
But he hesitated. If things went south, he could confidently deal with the Platinum leader, but he was still not confident that they could fight against possibly thousands of Ersatz Maugnetics.
Even with the help of the Shadow Orcs, they would still be at a disadvantage.
And Michael hated going into something where victory wasn't assured.
He knew he needed something more before attacking. Something that could pad up their numbers to match theirs.
And the answer was right in front of his face.
Mini Drones.
Right now, he only had 14 Mini Drones, which wasn't enough. He needed hundreds more if he wanted to fight an all out war against their Stronghold and come out victorious.
And thanks to the ticket that he got from today's log-in, he didn't have to wait a day before the Mini Drones were created.
Now, he just needed the money.
Thankfully, that wouldn't be that much of a problem. He looked into his mind's eye and saw his Unity Clones back in the Nation of Reborn.
They had been creating Unity Power Sources nonstop. That should be enough to fulfill some backlog orders, as well as new ones.
He quickly teleported himself into the Dwarven Castle, where he was met with excitement. They couldn't stop themselves from praising the phone!
They had been tinkering with the ones they received just a few days ago and were even more amazed by its creation.
And when he told them that he was willing to take on more orders, they were beyond exhilarated!
"We'll buy them!"
In the end, he sold them 500 phones to be delivered in the coming days.
And just like that, Michael was up 5 million Sand Dollars once again. That was equivalent to 500 Mini Drones!
But of course, this wasn't enough for him. He needed 312 Mini Drones just for the Shadow Orcs themselves! 188 Mini Drones were inadequate for this type of mission. He needed more. Much much more.
Next, he teleported himself to Metropolis. One of his most loyal customers was none other than the Duchess Regina herself.
And he did promise her that if there was another batch of phones, he would sell it to her first.
But when he arrived in their castle, she was nowhere to be seen. She wasn't even in her favorite spa back in the Nation of Reborn!
He caught up with her twin children, Prince Harry and Princess Elizabeth. Both were in their mansions in the Nation of Reborn, already fully migrated.
"Ah Michael!"
"Hey, have you seen the Duchess? I thought she'd be with you guys."
The two siblings looked surprised. "She didn't tell you? She said she was going out to visit some friends. We thought she'd be visiting you."
Michael never heard of this. In fact, he didn't even think the Duchess had any friends at all.
Where could she be?
"Anyway, Michael. Are you perhaps… selling more of those phones?" Prince Harry asked.
What a coincidence.
"As a matter of fact, yeah—"
"I'll buy 400 phones!" said Princess Elizabeth.
"Hey! I was going to order first!"
"Sorry, I said it first."
The two dignified, adult, royal siblings began quarreling like little children.
"Don't worry, I can fulfill both of your orders."
The two calmed down after that. As it turned out, they both had some friends of theirs who were extremely jealous of the phones that they showed off during one of their meetings. So now, they were buying it for them so that they could all communicate with each other with no latency.
He sold them both 400 phones each, totalling to 800!
This already reached well above the limit of what he could produce at the moment, but he let them have it or else one would be bitter about the other having more.
All in all, he was able to get 13 million Sand Dollars in total!