Chapter 23: The Red Queen, a Master of Wealth Accumulation

Seeing that Princess Hongyu had finally accepted her current situation, Zheng Mu breathed a sigh of relief. Despite having complete control over her, he preferred dealing with a sentient being with emotions rather than a lifeless puppet.

"Yes, sentient life is still life," he mused.

"Ahem, Princess Hongyu is a thing of the past. Since you've now become my subordinate, you've begun a new chapter in your life," said Zheng Mu when she didn't respond. After a moment's thought, his eyes lit up. "From now on, you'll be called the Red Queen. As the AI core of the Mech Nest, you'll be responsible for managing the increasingly massive army of mechanical creations under my command."

"What princess? That title doesn't suit you. Queen is more fitting."

Hearing this, the Princess Hongyu - or the Red Queen - looked at Zheng Mu, her eyes briefly flickering before she silently nodded in agreement to her new name.

"Now, could you introduce me to the current functions of the Mech Nest?" asked Zheng Mu.

The Red Queen glanced at Zheng Mu, hesitated for a moment, and then began to speak. "At present, the Mech Nest's functionality is only at a basic level, as it is a massive and powerful assembly of mechanical components rather than an individual machine."

"In terms of maintenance for mechanical creations, it can handle up to ten simultaneously. Any more would require additional equipment for repairs."

"As for ammunition recovery, it can automatically replenish once a day, with a single resupply sufficient for two days of full use by all the mechs under your command capable of firepower."

"Regarding storage for mechanical creations..." The Red Queen gestured to the vast empty factory space in front of them. "For now, this is all the space available. If we use the size of the Optimus Prime as a reference, it can store no more than 200 of that unit."

Hearing this, Zheng Mu couldn't suppress a grin. The firepower storage alone was enough to assemble a formidable strike force.

The daily fixed ammunition supply would be enough for two days of continuous fire, which was clearly unreasonable. It would be better to maintain equilibrium by consuming the daily replenishment and maximizing the Mech Nest's potential.

"If we use the T-800's firepower as a reference, how many battle robots could the Mech Nest support at most?"

"Including the current T-800 model, 120 battle robots of the same firepower class would be the Mech Nest's maximum capacity," answered the Red Queen.

Satisfied with her response, Zheng Mu nodded. The Red Queen's maximum capacity referred to 120 battle robots, each capable of maintaining a day's worth of continuous fire. Under normal circumstances, battles rarely reached that level of intensity.

With a plan forming in his mind, Zheng Mu left the Mech Nest with his slime backpack, heading for the largest monster material trading center in Cloud City.

The Monster Material Trading Center, an official organization under the Professional Association and controlled by the state, was the fastest place to sell and purchase materials. Zheng Mu had already estimated the value of the materials he had at around 100 million Dragon Coins.

Of that sum, white and green-grade equipment made up the majority, with a total value exceeding 60 million Dragon Coins. Zheng Mu had no intention of selling the few blue-grade and even rarer purple-grade items, even though he didn't need them for himself.

Aside from not being short on money, putting those rare purple-grade items up for sale in Cloud City's small trading center would cause quite a stir.

On his way to the trading center, Zheng Mu had already seen news about the Necropolis on his phone's forum.

The secret realm appeared and disappeared, and everyone believed that it had been conquered by someone who had entered it. Selling purple rare-grade equipment at this time would be like asking for trouble.

After splitting his wares into several batches and selling them through different brokers, Zheng Mu's bank account quickly received over 100 million Dragon Coins. Upon seeing the string of numbers, Zheng Mu couldn't help but feel stunned for a moment.

"One hundred million Dragon Coins. If my family had this amount back then, you wouldn't have had to risk your life taking orders in the wilderness," he thought, feeling a bit melancholy. After all, he had a strong emotional bond with his father, who had genuinely given his all for his son in this world.

Shaking his head, he knew that most of this money wouldn't last long. He walked up to the counter for purchasing monster materials.

At the moment, there were quite a few people here handling material purchases. Most of them were support professions like Formation Masters or lifestyle professions like Alchemists.

"Hello, these are the items I'd like to buy. How much stock do you have?" Zheng Mu handed over his tablet to the clerk, who looked at the long list and gasped.

[Blue Material "Bone-faced Wolf Leader's Body"]

[Blue Material "Malignant Cat Demon's Brain"]

[Blue Material "Slime Toxin Core"]

[Blue Material "Cursed Evil Zombie"]

[Blue Material "Corpse-Infused Flesh"]

[Blue Material "Zombie Skull"]

...

"Young man, uh, I mean, sir, are you sure you want all of these items? They're not cheap when added up..." The clerk hesitated, but Zheng Mu simply handed over his bank card.

"Just tell me your stock. Do you have a hundred sets?"

The clerk was taken aback by Zheng Mu's extravagant question. "A hundred sets? You mean, you need a hundred of each blue material?!"

Seeing Zheng Mu nod, the clerk looked closely at his face, as if trying to match him to any notable family members in the city, but ultimately came up empty-handed. The clerk quickly lowered his head and began checking their inventory.

"Uh, sir, we have enough of some materials for a hundred sets, but not all of them. What do you think...?"

"Bring them all to me and charge it to the card!"