Ch 25 – Planning and Investment

"Hmm…" Wearing a wide-fitting white robe, Kaleido hummed in interest as he leaned back on his brown wooden chair and stared at the poster grasped by his hand with gleaming eyes.

"While this is enticing," Kaleido paused, a small smile appearing on his face as he continued, "There are still some latent risks in joining this tournament."

'A chance to become an external elder of Lo Clan, that is certainly a desirable position to be in. Unfortunately, being well-known also has its downsides.' Kaleido placed the poster down on the table in front of him, closed his eyes, and whistled a certain tune.

'Fame and glory aren't all good, it also has its relevant problems that most would ignore. Being in the public eye while having "It" constantly hanging around my throat is definitely worse than now.' Kaleido sighed unknowingly, reminding himself once again that life is hard with his own Sword of Damocles.

'While I still don't know how "Its" power works, I can still try and theorize some general rules, and most of my own hypotheses pinpoint that being in the spotlight is a bad thing, especially with my real identity. Fortunately, I can risk it with a simple solution…' Kaleido stopped whistling, opening a slight slit in his closed eyes, and continued his thought, 'I can just create a new identity!'

'Hehehe, ever since young, I always enjoyed the idea of having different identities, now I can make it come true! Considering no one knows about my true capabilities, I can disguise myself to mask the truth and keep my true identity safe. Of course, considering "It" is highly likely to be powerful as fuck, it probably won't matter much on a larger scale, but it's better to be cautious than not.'

Kaleido obviously knew that a disguise won't work against "It" in a direct confrontation, but from a few of his general theories, he considered that "It" can only influence people through subtle means and not directly with beasts that were generally dumber compared to humans.

If "It" requires certain conditions to have humans do its bidding, then Kaleido might as well obstruct it from doing so even if it's uncertain whether it would work or not.

"Caution is key in this cruel world," Kaleido opened his eyes fully, staring at the ceiling as his gaze seemed to pierce through it, the floor above him, the roof of the hotel, and onto the boundless blue sky littered with clouds.

'Though I still have quite some time before I need to worry about the disguise. I already have a preliminary idea as to what my new identity would be, so I don't need to think too deeply about it.' Kaleido leaned forward, activated Displaced Domain Gu, and teleported a piece of paper and pen onto the desk in front of him.

Grabbing the pen, he slowly and elegantly wrote down words on the paper in front of him as a strange glow flashed in his heterochromatic eyes of white and black.

'While Lifespan Gu does exist in this world, meaning in theory, I can live for a very long time, there is still the possibility that I would grow old and feeble while remaining stuck in this world with no way to escape. If that is true, and I don't reach the level of those mysterious Gu Immortals, then I might die of starvation as an old man instead of being directly killed by "It" which is a lot more pitiful.' Kaleido wrote down more and more words precisely and methodically, creating what appeared to be a list.

'In essence, I still need money in this world if I want to have one less worry. With my transmigrated body and soul, I obviously have a lot of references back from my original world—Earth—which gives me plenty of ideas to create a business empire.' Klein smirked, envisioning himself swimming in a pool of primeval essence stones like a certain anthropomorphic duck.

'But unfortunately, with the way things are now…' Klein's illusionary daydream shattered as he saw a fiery ball of heat appear from the sky out of nowhere, blowing him up along with his mountains of primeval essence stones. '"It" continuously interfering means that my chance of successfully creating a business empire is close to null. Though maybe…'

A certain image of a man appeared in his head, with bronze-colored skin, wearing a white apron and a tall white hat, tossing and dicing vegetables and pouring them into a boiling hot pot.

'Maybe a miracle might just occur with the help of a potential otherworldly soul's descendant and ramen.' Chuckling to himself at this ridiculous idea, he muttered with a faint smile, "Well, a hundred primeval essence stones to invest isn't that big of a deal. If it succeeds, then yay, if not, then boohoo."

Dismissing his fantasies, Kaleido instead moved on to another topic that worried him, 'While I have many "hacks" that increase my survivability in this world, there is still one thing that is an obvious flaw of mine.'

Staring down at his feeble body of flesh and blood, he grimaced, 'I don't have any direct way to heal myself.'

'While I can find more ways to increase my defensive capabilities or increase my escaping methods, the ability to heal myself is way better.' Kaleido couldn't help but rest his face on his hand, staring dazedly at the wall in front of him.

'While I can explore around Space Cave again, those unknown entities that may just be desolate beasts are still lurking everywhere. No, they might very well be desolate beasts! Space Cave is at the same level as the River of Time, meaning it having desolate beasts is the norm!' Kaleido clicked his tongue, showing his annoyance at the situation.

'Because of that, and "It" continuing to pester if given the chance, I should avoid exploring Space Cave for now until I have sufficient strength. This means that I'll have to find and amass my repertoire of Gu through other means.' Kaleido's eyes flashed, his mind producing a vivid image of a certain city's map at crystal-clear quality.

On a certain part of the city, a clear description appeared that made Kaleido gradually feel excited, 'Lo Clan City's own trading sector. A lot of Gu Masters set up their own stores there, and with space and time path Gu being quite popular paths, it wouldn't be that far-off to find a healing-type space path Gu!'

Letting his thoughts run wild, he held in his bustling emotions and stared at the paper in front of him.

'A disguise, investing in No Del's business, and buying and getting new Gu. Other than that, there are some other miscellaneous tasks I have to complete before the tournament begins.'

…

A Few Days Later.

As the sun rose over the horizon, Kaleido stared at the sky that slowly got dyed by the color of orange.

He wore a simple white robe and held a pouch brimming with primeval essence stones, feelings its hefty weight, and sighed, 'Because of being busy creating and amassing my own primeval essence stones reservoir, I haven't had the time to cultivate. Maybe if I did, then I would already be at Rank 2 middle stage.' Kaleido ruffled his still-wet hair and stared at his strands of white hair with interest.

'Heh, now I look like an edgelord anime character with a tragic background. Even my hair changed color.' Kaleido chortled in a self-deprecating manner and turned around towards the entrance of his room.

Opening the door, he headed down the flight of stairs briskly but gracefully, bearing the status of a Gu Master.

Arriving at the receptionist, she called out with a smile, "Good morning, Kal Eido!"

"Good morning, Yin Xiu!" Kaleido responded with a smile, waving his arm and bidding farewell.

Leaving the premise of the hotel, he walked down the path he was most familiar with and slowly neared No Del's small little shop with very few customers in sight.

'It's early in the morning, so most wouldn't be even awake at this time. Fortunately, No Del is diligent and has already set up shop by this time.' Walking down the empty road with hurried steps because afraid of the idea that "It" might cause a conflict out of nowhere, he promptly arrived at No Del's store in just a few minutes without finding himself in unnecessary trouble.

"Kal Eido, good morning," No Del greeted with a smile, seemingly surprised to see that Kaleido was already here so early in the morning.

"Morning, No Del!" Kaleido beamed with joy upon seeing the bronze-skinned man and went up to sit down on one of the store's chairs.

"What can I get for you today?" No Del asked, as usual, not finding it all that strange that Kaleido was here surprisingly early.

'Maybe he has to go somewhere early in the morning and doesn't have the time to eat anywhere else or cook for himself. I am fast in terms of cooking a bowl of ramen.' No Del assumed in passing as he prepared to listen to Kaleido's orders.

"Well, the thing here is that… Is that I have a certain business proposal for you, No Del," Kaleido explained slowly and gently so as to not shock the aged man.

"W-what?" No Del questioned, wondering if he has misheard what the man with black and white hair, heterochromatic eyes, and wearing a wide-fitting white robe, said.

"As you know, we Gu Masters are quite wealthy individuals. I myself am pretty well-off in terms of wealth, but you know, overabundance is still better than being poor. After being your long-time customer, I can see the potential you and your store have," Kaleido grinned, uttering pleasing words like dripping sweet honey into No Del's ears.

'Heh, I'm sorry No Del, but I must go all out and exude my limited charisma to have you become my business partner!' Kaleido continued to explain his general purpose, causing the man to become more and more teary-eyed.

"Are you really willing to help me out?" No Del asked, fearing that all of this was a dream.

He can't believe it, this random customer of his whom he got to know well over the course of days and weeks, was actually planning on helping him spread the legacy of his family!

Even after working hard for three generations, No Del only saw minimal success in his family's "restaurant."

But now, he can finally see the hope that ushered from the man in front of him. It was as if his hard work, his father's hard work, and his grandfather's hard work is finally being given its proper reward!

At this moment, Kaleido's heart was pounding madly as if it was about to explode. 'Holy crap, this is so hard to do!'

'It feels like I would just make a mistake at any given moment. Why am I even feeling so nervous?! Is this what every dude who is about to present a business idea feels like? Is this what it feels like to sell a house and fool a bloke? No, No Del's not a bloke, he's my valuable business partner and my path to splurging with wealth!'

"Yes, and I'm even planning on helping you expand your business," Kaleido paused, grabbing No Del's attention.

"Don't you want to see your grandfather's original recipe be beloved by people all throughout this entire world? When they think of the word noodle, they would think of you, No Del. They would think of your father, No Dil, and also your grandfather, No Dal!"

Kaleido stretched out his arms in an explosive manner, and excitement welled up in No Del's heart.

"Success and glory are given to those who work hard, and No Del, it is time you attain your deserved justice! Come, come and take my hand and we will break the cruel strings of fate! Let us grasp victory with our own two hands and defy the arrangement of heaven's will!"

At this very moment, both of Kaleido's heterochromatic eyes of black and white shone with an ominous luster, and his grin rose drastically as if dazzling the world with his brilliance.

AN: This chapter has 2045 words.

When you read this chapter again after a certain point in the novel, then you'll realize how much I foreshadowed in this chapter.

And yes, I fucking love writing time-related powers because I can mess with a lot of things and say "IT WAS ALL ACCORDING TO KEIKAKU" shamelessly. I mean, the entire galaxy brain scheme this volume has was literally created by pure coincidence, but I'm still gonna say it was because of how much of a genius I am.

Anyways, I did a little something yesterday and now I hate myself for it, so here's your chapter. I was supposed to be on hiatus till sunday but eh, you reap what you sow, and I sowed a little bad seed.

New rule to spice things up a bit so that I can punish myself, I will upload an extra chapter if I were to fall into the abyss.

Remember to save the book to your library if you like it, comment your thoughts, and send some power stones.

(January 28, 2023 – 429th day of writing)