578. chapter 576 575 When I say there’s a big deal, you should

Chapter 576 575.When I say there’s a big deal, you should know I’m not coming from a good place-add more [1730].

(For brother “Huo Zheng is fine” [17/20])
Thicke Flywheel’s past is a mystery, even the only “master of intelligence” that Murphy knows, Mrs. Shani, is not very clear about the details of this halfling engineer who wanders alone in the dark mountains.

His past in Chardonnay Harbor seems to have been erased, but it’s safe to say that the scarred halfling is a businessman.

At least he acted like one.

After hearing that Murphy had asked for all of his stash of arithmetic treasure beads in one breath, Sulphur Flywheel’s face, which always felt clouded with a layer of grimness, instantly revealed a wide smile that was expected of a halfling.

The small man cheered as he tossed aside the coil gun in his hand that could put vampires into a state of paralysis, took out a dusty notebook from the large drawer behind him and flipped it open to look at it, glancing at Murphy who was rubbing his neck to regain consciousness.

He said:

“I’m holding thirty-six thousand seven hundred standard-issue cracked opbeads right now.”

“That many?”

Murphy was taken aback as he asked rhetorically:

“You build guns and cannons as a business, I can understand that, this kind of contraption that is rarely used by other races except halflings is still hard to understand making tens of thousands of them at a time.”

“Hard to understand? Re! Very wrong! This is an investment! Understand? Smart businessmen know that investing in the present is a stupid choice, betting on the future is the only way to make a lot of money!”

Perhaps it was the years of solitude and the horrors of being cuckolded by his brother that caused the old flywheel to be obviously a bit neurotic, and these neurotic guys tend to have their own unique set of logic when looking at the world.

Hearing Murphy’s inquiry, this extremely intelligent and very mercenary and very good at turning the other cheek complex guy instantly blew his beard and rebuked:

“What do you think I sold those three thousand treasure pearls to Marshal Loren at a low price for? His Pioneer Corps can’t complete their military technology upgrades without arithmetic beads, but my stupid compatriots banned the export of that stuff, and I’m the only one on the entire continent who can make it!

Marshal Loren would have purchased my beads on a large scale after trying them out, so I could have made a fortune and smuggled in some more advanced tools to further increase my factory’s capacity.

What a wonderful plan!

I’m happy to hoard a number of arithmetic beads ready to make a fortune, but the result of sitting and waiting for the messenger, right wait also do not come, in the thieves guild to buy a piece of information only to know that all because of you this damned vampire, snatch away that batch of goods directly lead to the subsequent cooperation are blown.

These pearls I am smashed in the hand!
But since you want, then I can also add a few times the price sold to you, just to export gas or something, you are not to do business with me? Doing business does not need to show sincerity? I ask you to eat this arithmetic pearl with twice the price should not be a problem, right?

Just on the basis of the ‘friendship’ that you and I don’t have yet, but will soon have!”

“Thirty-six thousand Operational Treasure Beads, all cracked, right? Very well, I’ll take them.”

Murphy didn’t even cut the price, and agreed in one bite.

This kind of bravado made the halfling stare at him rather suspiciously, and before he could ask, Murphy took the initiative to say again:

“But the built-in functions of this batch of your arithmetic treasure beads are too poor, I need you to help me adjust their ‘factory settings’, since you sell this kind of high-end goods you must have supporting services, right?
I need you to design an information storage and interaction system for my territory based on the arithmetic beads!
With a full permission tree and a built-in real-time real-time response and reply program that’s more office-friendly, and a data lock that’s secure enough that it can’t be broken into by any other halfling, at the very least.

I also have a more ambitious idea, I want to set up a ‘local area network’ within Transylvania.

It must be able to securely store large amounts of information and support privileged access, I want to push my Transylvania to the level of a ‘paperless office’, where the registry information of my territory, the storage of official documents, and even the banking and service industries are all connected to this system!
Although at this stage it’s not possible to guarantee that every resident will have a treasure pearl, in my vision it’s going to cover at least the level of street offices and building managers.

I’m going to make sure that if there’s a problem anywhere in my territory, the administrative office can respond within half an hour.

Oh yeah, and I’m also going to make a separate, similar secrecy system for the Blood Vulture Clan, I’m sick and tired of Shani taking away some classified information every time she comes over to the Blood Vulture Cloisters when we’re not looking.

I’m going to keep that information in an invisible data network so that Shani’s medieval vampire mother who has a good set of skin but refuses to advance will never be able to dig any secrets out of me!
My army does need military technology upgrades too!
But not to the rudimentary degree of the Goldfinch Kingdom that only uses arithmetic pearls for artillery calculations, I want to realize instant communication for the command system!

I also need you to improve this arithmetic jewel again, its current conditions of use are still too harsh, I need it to be usable by those who don’t have any psychic talent as well!”

Murphy said out his thoughts in his head, and then stared at the Sulphur Flywheel in front of him with wide eyes and full of expectations.

The wild warlord of Hungry Mountain, the ruthless man who had been hanging out in the Dark Mountains for over forty years, the insane engineer, and the genius enough to crack the most advanced technology of the Halflings at will, His Excellency Thiuk Flywheel would be dumbfounded.

He looked at Murphy in front of him as if he was looking at a monster, and after nearly a minute of silence, he slammed the laptop in his hand on the ground fiercely, and resumed copying that coil gun and pointing it at Murphy, cursing:
“You bastard! Definitely sent by those assholes from Chardonnay Artisan University to amuse poor old Flywheel! Listen to you with your mouth full of specialized terms, you say! Where did you hear that shit?

That idiot Minx Steam Valve couldn’t reach your level of exaggeration in his wildest fantasies about the future prospects of the Arithmetic Pearl projections!

And an invisible data network that envelops the territory!

Yuck!
Do you know how many Operational Beads would need to be linked together as a data core to achieve that level? I can’t even make a splash in front of this kind of plan with all the arithmetic pearls I have at hand.

The arithmetic power of the general-purpose beads is too low now, unless all of them are replaced with the kind of core beads you’re holding, which is still somewhat possible.

But for that kind of thing, there are less than ten in the entire Genoa Peninsula right now!
You crazy bastard!
If you were a halfling, you’d definitely be the craziest steam engineering professor at the Chardo Artisan University!

But I have to admit, this fantasy of yours might actually be the most appropriate application of the Arithmetic Pearls in the future. An invisible network covering the world, using the power of technology to build a ‘new world’ that only the smartest people are qualified to step into!
Bravo!
You’d definitely have something in common with my mentor, but unfortunately that old man refused to put himself through a secret puppet transformation, so he’s been dead for a long time.”

Thicke Flywheel was a bit lost, he put the coil gun back into the holster on his waist, glanced at Murphy and said:
“I can’t do the kind of thing you’re imagining, but I can help you order the built-in functions of this batch of computing treasure beads, and barely realize a large-scale information interaction system based on the authority tree as the kind of office system you want.

But this will cost extra.”

“No problem, as long as it works well, money is no problem.”

Murphy was instantly very disappointed to hear the flywheel’s answer, but on second thought, perhaps it was true that he was asking a little too much.

“Give me your core treasure pearl.”

Thicke put a special engineering glasses on his head, swished out a triple magnifying microscope, and held out his hand towards Murphy again, saying:
“I need to see what kind of commands you’ve set up in the treasure bead, just now I failed to reboot it remotely, did you put some kind of security lock in there or something?”

“Me? I’m an engineering idiot, it was already like that when I got it.”

Murphy played dumb and handed over his own treasure pearl, Flywheel once again glanced at him suspiciously, but didn’t say anything more, taking the core treasure pearl also didn’t see any special action, the data gem that was set on the panel was easily separated down.

He was like the best gem appraiser observing the spiritual energy factor inside the bead, which was a “code” that only the most skillful office engineers could understand.

He said:

“The psionic factor is completely messed up, this thing should have been scrapped, but it’s working in a way that I can’t even begin to comprehend.

I can probably parse out a few of its functions, such as wide-ranging monitoring of subordinate treasure beads, editing and copying of specific text messages, and a database based on the principle of psychic energy resonance… Tsk, tsk, it’s really rare… Someone has tweaked the system of the psychic energy analog differential machine that my mentor researched to make it work in a kind of overclocked way.

Computational efficiency has increased at least threefold!
I’m now convinced that this isn’t something you could have done, perhaps when Marshal Loren’s spies stole the jewel, Minx gave it a bit of a ‘makeover’, and if it was him hmmm, it’s indeed possible that he could have done all of this.”

Murphy listened to the guy mutter to himself from the sidelines.

He tried to understand but laughed his ass off, the uneducated vampire couldn’t even understand those terms, no wonder people didn’t even guard against it, Flywheel knew Murphy didn’t understand any of this . Ah, this was an egg-citing and embarrassing thing from every angle.

If a person can’t understand what the other person is saying at all, then naturally they can’t tell what the other person is saying or wrong, isn’t that the most brilliant way to keep a secret?

Learned to waste ah, today did not come here for nothing.

“I need to topographize the arrangement of the psychic energy factor in this treasure pearl, it’s very novel and a worthy subject for research.”

Several minutes later, the old flywheel tilted his head, rubbed his eyes, and frowned at Murphy:

“Seeing as you brought this, I can give you a 20% discount on this transaction.”

“Well, that’s a good feeling!” Murphy nodded in satisfaction.

He wasn’t worried that the so-called “Spiritual Energy Factor Sorting” in the core pearl that had been tampered with by the administrator system would reveal his identity, after all, this thing had changed hands, so as long as he bit the bullet and didn’t admit it, Sulphur Flywheel didn’t have much evidence to prove that he had tampered with it.

When he saw the old flywheel skillfully disassembling this thing called “the most advanced technology of the halflings”, Murphy suddenly had a flash of light, he said:

“Since you can batch produce general-purpose arithmetic beads, then this kind of core bead, can you do it?”

“Can’t do it, don’t have that condition you know?”

Old Flywheel replied dryly:
“Even the general-purpose arithmetic treasure bead wasn’t made by me, I just brought the blueprint from my ‘partner’ in Chardonnay Harbor, and then wrote my own internal program before applying it to activate it.

As you can see, in the environment of Hungry Mountain, the most that can be done here is to engage in the ‘basic industry’ of the moment, and I don’t have an advanced laboratory to accomplish technological breakthroughs in cutting-edge fields.

That’s not my area of expertise either.

But what are you trying to do by asking this?”

The somewhat deviant and somewhat neurotic and suspicious Halfling Warlord narrowed his eyes, stared at Murphy, and said:

“You want more Core Treasure Pearls? Aren’t you afraid of getting in trouble with the Steam Lords’ Council?
I’ll tell you, smuggling a little bit of general-purpose treasure beads those old guys can still turn a blind eye, after all, this thing has already been popularized in Chardonnay Harbor, like the Golden Sparrow Kingdom’s kind of volume of external forces, in Chardonnay Harbor there are even special suppliers in the grey area to provide them with this kind of thing.

But the Core Treasure Pearl can be another concept.”

“I mainly think that this thing is very easy to use, I want to give one to each of the important people under my command, it’s much more powerful than the general-purpose treasure bead, and the arithmetic power is even more than ten times as much.”

Murphy said:
“Commanders always need to take on more responsibilities, and in the absence of me as the core, decentralization of authority to them will always keep the whole system from collapsing anytime soon.

Decentralization.
Is that a word you can understand?”

“Nonsense, do you think I’m an ogre that only eats meat? Of course I can understand it!”

Thicke Flywheel grunted as he reached up and stroked his oddly curved goatee, and after a few seconds of contemplation, said:

“It’s true that I can’t get my hands on any more Core Treasure Pearls, which are also cutting edge technology in Chardonnay Harbor, but I know that idiot Minx did a lot of experiments to make Core Treasure Pearls, and the semi-finished products from those experiments need to be destroyed according to the process.

But I can make some connections and get those ‘semi-finished products’ for you.

Functionality is definitely not as good as the genuine 4th generation Core Treasure Bead, it can barely be counted as a 3rd generation and a half, but it’s definitely much better than the general-purpose Arithmetic Treasure Bead.

I can also help you rewrite an extra set of Spiritual Energy Factor Sequencing to make them as close as possible to the functionality of this treasure bead of yours.

But for a price.
I see that you are also a sincere person, and we have a good chat, I rarely meet a vampire who has some understanding of the future of engineering, this order will not make money, just as a friend.

I’ll charge you 100,000 gold coins for each third-generation pearl, isn’t that expensive?

How much do you want?”

“Then of course the more the better, money is not a problem!”

Murphy patted his chest.

His bold stance at this moment was just like princes wearing turbans and robes in the eyes of Thicke Flywheel, it was called a golden light!
Such a superb fat sheep was not easy to find nowadays!

So Thicke Flywheel’s eyes rolled and he stood on the chair more enthusiastically and said:
“I know the situation in your Transylvania, and I can probably guess what you’re doing here in my place, I can sell you those weapons currently in stock in my factory at a friendly price! I mean, sell them all to you.

Armor, cold weapons, and a portion of my own design of halfling firearms, which definitely work better than those outdated muskets of the dwarves, plus dynamite and explosives, of which I have plenty here as well.

It was originally intended to be used for self-protection in the war, but if you’re interested, we can talk about that too.

Even the ogre and bear goblin armies under my command you know, it’s hard for me to raise them now that the army is in shambles, these guys are on the verge of becoming a negative asset for me.”

“All of them all of them!”

Murphy said with a big wave of his hand:
“Your inventory, your mercenaries, even your raw materials and a few production lines in that factory, I want it all! I know you must still have complete sets of firearms production lines, I’ll take those as well, the price is all good.”

As these words came out, Thicke’s expression grew more and more subtle.

The information he had learned from the Thieves Guild showed that Murphy was the governor of Transylvania and a core member of the Blood Vulture Clan, and was suspected of maintaining an impure relationship with the Blood Vulture Archduke, which meant that the young vampire in front of him did have a lot of resources at his disposal.

But Transylvania is a poor place, even the real governor could not spend money so lavishly, Murphy’s behavior this time can not be described as “tycoon”.

Thicke Flywheel even felt like Murphy came to smash the scene.

He felt a little uneasy, so after a few seconds, he tentatively asked:

“So, His Excellency the generous Governor, look, our big business is done, you haven’t told me what you are going to pay with? Gold? Or take the taxes of your territory to cover the debt?”

“Ah, the taxes of my territory are going to be taken to pay off the loan that Her Majesty, the Wolf Woman, gave us in Transylvania.”

Murphy waved his hand and said:

“As for the gold of the Blood Vulture Clan, it was also long ago taken by me to purchase various tools in the halfling factories in the Genoa Peninsula, I don’t have much money on hand, in fact I’m turning into a pauper.

This is a deal I do not intend to pay for!

And I’m certain that you’ll be willing to sign our agreement happily and transfer the industrial industries and production lines you have on hand to me at a very affordable price.”

“Bad luck, met a crazy vampire, it’s a fucking bad day! Jasmine! See them off!”

When Thicke Flywheel heard this, he instantly coldly lowered his face.

He yelled out for his magical puppet bodyguard to ask the daydreaming vampire lord to get the hell out of there, which was a waste of his time.

However, the moment that peculiar magical puppet bodyguard walked into the lab, Murphy coughed, stood up and took out something from his psionic bag and threw it to Thicke Flywheel.

He said:

“I’ll pay with this! Surely a master engineer like yourself knows what it is, right?”

“?”

Thicke took the small black pouch and very vigilantly used a pair of tweezers to pinch out the contents, Thicke Flywheel’s scarred eyes going wide at the sight of the strange, crystal-clustered stone.

“Burning gold raw stone?”

He looked up at Murphy, who gave a flawless fake smile and said:

“Transylvania has just discovered a gold-burning mine, and I can give it to the Hoffman family to mine, or, alternatively, I can trade it to Transylvania for what it needs most.

Want to get rich?

I mean, Lord Flywheel, as I said earlier, I’m here today to talk to you about a really ‘big deal’!”

(End of chapter)