Chapter 497: Chapter 485: Your Empire is Thriving

The communication link cut, and Allen sat quietly in his Meditation chair for a moment.

’An annual revenue of 1.2 billion?’

’Back when I was pulling two classmates together, unable to scrape up even a thousand Magic Stones for a tutoring class, I never imagined a day like this would come.’

Allen stood up and spoke to the person behind him. "No. 18, prepare for departure."

"Our destination is Hub City."

...

With a flash of light, Allen’s figure emerged from the Teleportation Star Gate. Half a step behind him followed a statuesque, cold, and elegant woman with blond hair and blue eyes.

She was dressed in a sleek black inner armor and a light blue outer coat. Her calm gaze swept over the bustling crowd, and her powerful perception system instantly tagged all threatening energy fluctuations within a five-hundred-meter radius.

He looked up into the distance, searching for the direction of the new headquarters based on the coordinates Colin had given him.

"To the southeast, thirty-seven kilometers away, in Sector D-13."

No. 18’s emotionless voice sounded in Allen’s mind. "The area is in the undeveloped outer ring of Hub City. Land prices are relatively cheap."

"Sounds like they’re good at managing their money," Allen remarked casually.

He started walking, blending into the street’s throng of people with No. 18, just like ordinary tourists.

However, when he arrived at "Sector D-13" as guided, he couldn’t help but stop in his tracks.

What lay before him was nothing like the remote and desolate scene he had imagined.

A sizable complex of buildings rose from the ground.

The pure-white main building was aesthetically designed, seven stories tall, its surface covered with a Rune Array that flowed with a faint light.

Behind the main building were five large, starkly designed workshops, constantly taking in and sending out goods. Various types of Alchemy Puppets efficiently transported materials between them.

Farther out, employee living quarters and an independent R&D center were arranged in an orderly fashion, forming a fully functional, self-contained kingdom.

But what made Allen’s eyes twitch was the private transport Star Gate at the center of the complex, slowly rotating and emitting spatial fluctuations.

In a place like Hub City, where every inch of land is worth a fortune, the cost of building a private Star Gate was no less than establishing a new dynasty in a Mortal Kingdom.

"I was only gone for five years, not five hundred."

Allen stared at the buildings before him, feeling rather surprised.

The moment he and No. 18 approached the main gate of the headquarters, two guard-type Golems stepped forward, locking onto them.

But the next second, the Golems’ scanning systems recognized Allen’s top-level clearance. They stepped back in unison and bowed respectfully.

Stepping into the ground floor lobby, he found it as spacious and bright as a palace.

Busy employees hurried back and forth. When they saw Allen, they all froze for a moment before immediately stopping, placing their right hands over their chests, and bowing in greeting.

Their eyes held a mixture of respect and a perfectly measured sense of distance.

Apparently, the company had conducted special training regarding their rarely seen founder; everyone recognized him.

"Boss!"

Vera strode quickly down from the second floor. She wore a well-tailored professional robe, her face filled with unconcealable excitement and pride.

"Welcome home."

She wasted no time with pleasantries, simply turning to the side and making a "this way, please" gesture.

"Let me show you our... phase one construction."

"Phase one?" Allen caught the keyword.

"Yes, phase one." A confident smile touched the corners of Vera’s lips. "We’ll be able to buy the land for the independent Golem testing grounds, planned for phase two, very soon."

Allen remained silent, following behind Vera.

From the holographic sand table in the product showroom, to the Rune Engineers engaged in heated discussions in the R&D center, and then to the spotless employee offices equipped with the latest "Best Helper" workstations.

Allen noticed that the vast majority of these employees were new faces. Many looked very young, their expressions filled with the excitement and drive of new hires. Each of them wore a different model of a "Cyber Secretary" terminal.

He was looking at an efficient, precise, and vibrant commercial empire.

And every corner of this empire was branded with the "Weisren" insignia.

The door to the top-floor office slid open automatically.

Colin and Lina were already waiting inside.

Unlike the fatigue they showed in the communication projection, seeing Allen in person now, all three were practically buzzing with excitement.

"Boss, you’re finally back!" Colin walked forward excitedly, intending to give Allen a hug, but he awkwardly retracted his hands when he saw the blond woman with the indifferent eyes and dangerous aura behind him.

"You’ve all worked hard." Allen’s gaze swept over the three of them.

After five years, Vera’s demeanor was even more sharp and professional, carrying the faint air of authority of someone in charge of a major power.

Colin had lost some weight, while Lina had completely shed her former ingenue-like quality. Her every expression now held a mature charm and the confidence of someone in full control.

"Let’s start with the work reports," Allen said, walking to the massive floor-to-ceiling window and looking down at the burgeoning industrial empire below.

"I’ll go first!" Colin eagerly waved his hand, and a massive holographic screen unfolded in the center of the office.

"As of yesterday, the company has a total of 874 official employees! Among them are fifty-six First-level Wizards and 282 Advanced Apprentices. We even managed to poach a senior Alchemy Master, who is now the director of Workshop No. 5!"

Colin’s voice was filled with excitement.

"To handle last year’s surge in orders, our three large Alchemy Factories in the industrial zone—No. 4, No. 5, and No. 6—all began production simultaneously two weeks ago! Our current total production capacity is fifteen times what it was five years ago!"

The screen switched. Lina stepped forward, and three distinctly colored financial reports appeared behind her.

"The Educational Aids Division has completely cornered the academy market in the twenty-three Planes surrounding Hub City, becoming the top choice for all Wizard Academies when purchasing teaching materials. The business is flourishing. Annual revenue is 320 million Low-Level Magic Stones, with a net profit of 80 million."

"The Environmental Protection Division: our material recycling furnaces operate twenty-four hours a day. In addition to meeting the raw material needs of all our own factories, the high-purity metal ingots we sell externally each month bring us over ten million in pure profit. Annual revenue is 410 million, with a net profit of 230 million!"

The air began to feel electric.

Lina took a deep breath and pointed to the final report, the red one with the most dramatic growth curve.

"The Golem Division. Ever since you launched the ’Ultimate After-Sales’ plan and defeated ’Mechanical Gears,’ we have captured 30% of the low-to-mid-end Golem market."

"We have just broken through the production bottleneck that was holding us back. Current annual revenue is 1.2 billion, with a net profit of 460 million. And there is still significant room for future growth."

’Who could have imagined that in five years, this snowball would have rolled into such a terrifying behemoth.’

"Very good," he said slowly, giving his assessment.

Receiving their boss’s approval, Vera and Colin exchanged a look, both breaking into genuine smiles.

"However..." Lina spoke up suddenly, pulling up a new screen that showed sales data from Omni-Mart. "Aside from these three traditional business lines, this quarter we saw an... unexpected point of growth."

On the screen, a separate product category was magnified.

[Mortal Military Equipment - Heavy War Machines]

Listed below were five Mechas of different designs: Zaku, Unicorn, Gale Red, Eureka Striker, and Gipsy Danger.

"The Steel Knight series?" Allen raised an eyebrow.

These were the very Mechas he had designed for mortals to pilot, fulfilling his promise to the Aiselan Kingdom.

Since he couldn’t be bothered to put any more thought into it, he’d casually had Colin list them on Omni-Mart as well.

"We didn’t do any promotion for them. The product description pages were even auto-generated by Jarvis," Lina said, her speech quickening. "But, the sales have been unexpectedly good."

Colin took over, pulling up Omni-Mart’s backend data. Rows of dazzling sales records cascaded down the screen like a waterfall.

"The ’Zaku,’ which you priced at two million, sold three units in its first week on the market without any promotion. At the time, we figured some unlucky fool had bought it by mistake."

"But starting from the second week, orders began to grow rapidly. Ten units, fifty units, three hundred units..."

"The buyers are from all across the myriad Planes. There are low-level Wizard Mercenary Corps buying them for missions, mining companies buying them for excavation, but the largest group..."

Colin pointed to a customer source area highlighted in red. "Are the Mortal Kingdoms! The ones with no Extraordinary Power but a certain amount of wealth!"

"To them, the fact that an ordinary soldier with just three months of training can pilot a Steel Giant with Quasi-First Level combat power is nothing short of a miracle! They’re using all sorts of purchasing agents and frantically buying up our stock, regardless of the cost!"

"Just last month, shipments for the ’Zaku’ model alone exceeded one thousand units! Even many low-level Wizards and planar merchants have smelled a business opportunity. They’ve started buying in bulk to resell them to Mortal Kingdoms in remote Planes."

Colin added, "Although the profit margin on a single ’Zaku’ is very low—less than fifteen percent—its sales volume is terrifying. Last quarter, the ’Steel Knight’ series alone brought in nearly thirty million Low-Level Magic Stones in additional revenue. And this market... it seems to be bottomless."

Allen watched the report in silence, his gaze profound.

’Developing the untapped lower-end market... this path seems far wider than I ever imagined.’

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