Chapter 122: The Caravan

Ou Xiaolu fell silent as he looked at the strand of hair in his hand, which resembled black jade. It had been a whim that led him to ask the Merchant for a hair from the Black Emperor, but he had not expected to receive something like this.

This hair could truly be considered a curiosity. It was as soft as silk, yet as tough as steel wire, and it held a powerful consciousness condensed within it. If it were golden, one could pass it off as a monkey’s hair and people would believe it.

Although the hair could not be converted into a card, holding it gave Ou Xiaolu a different kind of gain. He felt as though he had glimpsed a new direction forward, especially since experience points were hard to come by and leveling up was slow.

After a moment’s thought, he put the hair away and signaled the Merchant: "Are there any prisoners left to trade with? If not, come back."

The Merchant, who had been busy declaring this a great place to make money while simultaneously signaling Ou Xiaolu that he was ready to extract, had spent the time after leaving the Black Emperor to revisit every cell. Finding no further business opportunities, he had been wandering around District D-11, looking to stir up trouble with the prisoners out for recreation. Since Ou Xiaolu had called for his return, the Merchant did not hesitate.

However, an accident occurred while transferring the Merchant and his group out of that world. Two new interfaces popped up.

One was a "Completed World" interface. Unlike the "World Pending Observation" screen, this one indicated that the projection limit for the world had been exhausted and it was truly concluded. The system would no longer observe it, storing it instead in the completed folder. If he encountered a similar world background in the future, it would not be affected by this operation; essentially, this world no longer had any connection to Ou Xiaolu. He didn't find this strange; his previous micro-worlds had been under constant surveillance, yet that hadn't caused any significant issues.

The other interface, however, surprised him. It was a notification suggesting that the "Merchant," "Minotaur," and "Lion" had displayed a high degree of synergy and could form a three-person squad. By formalizing this identity, they could enter worlds as a team, with their combat power consumption calculated collectively.

Ou Xiaolu blinked at this, caught off guard. He wasn't surprised that the three could work together, but rather puzzled by how the "synergy" was calculated. After pondering it for a long time, he suspected it was a random judgment—there was no data support and no one had applied for it, so how could it be considered "synergetic"? Despite his silent grumbling, he agreed to the formation.

The interface transformed, showing the Merchant, the Minotaur, and the Lion together. Ou Xiaolu was then prompted to choose a team name, an emblem, a code of conduct, and set the combat power consumption for world entry. Seeing this, he finally breathed a sigh of relief; the system was merely suggesting an efficient pairing rather than forcing them into a permanent squad.

This discovery led him to investigate the squad mechanics further. It turned out to be simple: as long as three characters completed a world together, the player could decide whether to organize them into a squad based on their behavior. Once formed, they would share a goal and a captain, with all actions directed by that captain. Their combat power would be unified, and entry costs would be deducted from that total.

Of course, once grouped, the player could no longer summon these characters individually to possess them or appear in the real world; they had to be summoned as a unit, which was a minor inconvenience. Squads also had levels—three-person, five-person, ten-person, twenty-person, and forty-person units. Regardless of the player's level, they had to start with a three-person squad and gradually level it up through exploration.

Just as Ou Xiaolu prepared to finalize the team, he noticed a sinister, tiny line of text at the very bottom: "When forming a team, be sure to set a team goal. If there is no goal, the team will suddenly disperse, and the characters within will be scrapped regardless of their remaining combat power."

This scared him, and he patted his chest, saying, "Phew, if I hadn't been careful, these character cards would have been ruined."

With that warning in mind, he studied the settings carefully before establishing the squad. He named it "The Caravan," with the Merchant as captain and the Minotaur and Lion as members. Their goal was to infiltrate worlds to make money. Each time they entered or exited a world, Ou Xiaolu would deduct 10% of their earnings as an entry tax, and they could exchange surplus items for his mystery potions or unused equipment.

When the squad reached ten members, they could rent space from him to establish their own trading post; at twenty members, they could form subordinate scouting and guard squads. Upon reaching forty members, they could expand their rented space to build a marketplace, welcoming other caravans to trade and optimizing resource utilization. In short, it was a sound, commercial model with a single goal: barter, profit, and pay taxes.

With the squad settings adjusted, Ou Xiaolu moved on to the most exciting part: the rewards. As for everything the Merchant had earned in the "Island Prison" world, Ou Xiaolu waved his hand and invested it all into the Caravan.

He had earned a B+ rating in the "Island Prison." The 50 base experience points for a micro-world were granted, plus 35 points for dealing with the obstructive prisoners, bringing his total gain to nearly 100.

He opened the clearance card pack, which flashed with one blue, one green, and three white lights—a standard result.

[Prison Cell (Single): Space Card, Blue. A residential space card that opens a ten-square-meter room for living. Note: Evil-aligned character cards gain a slight increase in strength after residing here.]

[Super Stun Lock: Tool Card, Green. An offensive tool targeting superhumans, capable of emitting a lightning bolt that can stun professional-level superhumans.]

[Toy Doll: Item Card, White. A personal belonging of a superhuman criminal, meant as a gift for his daughter, though it remained undelivered for years. Giving it to someone increases favorability by 25 points.]

[Electronic Eye: Item Card, White. A superhuman criminal's ability. It transforms the user's eyes into electronic ones. If an ordinary person uses it, they can see a digitized world, but they must gouge out their own eyes first, and it only lasts for 15 minutes.]

[Mystery Potion: Tool Card, White. A potion derived from mysterious power; consuming it restores 50 combat power.]