Soren André wasn't particularly interested in magic dueling. Instead, his attention was drawn to the controllable plants.
"That plant—also from your flower shop? Why haven't I seen you sell it?"
"That one's not for sale," Ron André replied.
The Heartvine was essential to the assembly-line production in his factory, so he had no intention of putting it on the market.
While Heartvine was indeed extremely convenient, rapidly popularizing it could easily lead to large-scale unemployment.
A sharp increase in productivity would inevitably bring growing pains for ordinary people.
As a system-derived creation, Heartvine wasn't a natural advancement of this world's productivity. Promoting it recklessly would bring more harm than benefit to Ron.
The same applied to most system plants.
So far, aside from system-mandated sales like Nether Orchid, Crimson-Gold Chrysanthemum, and Scalevine, Ron had only released limited quantities of pine-needle tea and Scalevine leaves.
Spice Pine seasoning was supplied only in small amounts to Mia's hot pot restaurant. The powerful, syrupy resin was used strictly in-house.
Chameleon Radish and Heartvine followed the same principle.
As for Emerald Cypress parasitic wood, Ron had only used it on the Puppet Tree and Divine Tree.
And the Puppet Tree itself—aside from two lifelike puppets gifted to Yuna—had only been used by Ron personally.
As for the Element Potato, it was still in the experimental phase. Ron had no plans to sell it anytime soon.
Of course, Soren André didn't know any of this. He was only interested in one thing:
"That suction ability… interesting. Haven't you thought of any… fun uses for it?"
Seeing the lewd look on his face, Ron took a step back.
"What exactly are you thinking about…?"
"I didn't even say anything," Soren André rolled his eyes. "You're the one jumping to conclusions."
While they were talking, Andy had already defeated the first challenger on stage.
A large display board flipped to show a bold "100," with the word "copper coins" written in much smaller text beside it.
A clever trick.
By using copper coins as the unit, the prize pool appeared a hundred times larger.
Shrinking the unit text made the number stand out even more—heightening excitement.
At Betty's announcement, the next challenger quickly took the stage.
With only five seconds to play each move, the pace accelerated dramatically—and the difficulty of commentary increased exponentially.
Fortunately, the audience wasn't too picky yet. Combined with Betty's noble status and charming voice, she was easily adored.
This gave her room to gradually refine her commentary.
Unlike Betty, who needed time to adjust, Andy had already demonstrated astonishing adaptability to the five-second format from the very first day.
Perhaps driven by the lure of money, even under such pressure, he maintained a composed, strategic demeanor.
It was as if the time limit didn't affect him at all.
Yesterday, in just one hour, he played over thirty matches—undefeated—earning more than thirty silver coins.
Today, while challengers were still struggling to adapt, Andy was already asserting overwhelming dominance.
In just ten minutes, he had defeated nine opponents—faster than the previous day.
Beside the stage, the three red lights representing challengers kept flashing on and off, accompanied by buzzing sounds.
Some spectators couldn't help but clap and whistle.
At that moment, Nora found Ron in the crowd and approached quietly.
"Boss, do you see anything that needs improvement?"
"It's already quite good," Ron said, shaking his head. "But tonight, try drafting a survey."
"Ask customers about the strengths and weaknesses of the ring match."
"Sometimes we can't see the problems—but the players can."
"Once we gather feedback, we'll know what to improve."
Nora nodded seriously and jotted it down.
After that, she reported on the ring match and recent business performance.
Once they finished, Ron pulled Nora closer and glanced at Soren André—
Only to find that this man, who had claimed disinterest, was now completely absorbed.
Soren André listened intently to Betty's rapid analysis, watching the oversized Element Cards flip through the air, occasionally nodding.
When Andy delivered a decisive finishing move, Soren André even joined the crowd with a loud "Whoa!"
During a break, he noticed Ron's amused gaze and coughed awkwardly.
"So?" Ron teased. "Feeling the charm of this kind of competition?"
"It's nothing special…" Soren André tried to act tough, but eventually raised his hands in surrender.
"Alright, fine. I admit—it's pretty addictive."
"No idea how your brain works, coming up with stuff like this."
"The combination of visuals, sound, and crowd energy—it's too easy to get swept up."
Ron shrugged. "That's what I'm interested in. Not like certain people who only care about women."
"Tch." Soren André ignored him and went back to watching.
Ron left him there and took Nora upstairs to the booth area.
For now, the ring match was already quite refined.
But compared to Ron's ideal vision, it was still far from enough.
Having grown up in the internet age, this scale didn't impress him much.
At the very least, it needed projection effects for magic visuals.
Imagine playing a Legendary-tier spell like Blazing Cloud Inferno—and seeing a full illusion of it appear around the stage.
That would be truly spectacular.
Add sound effects—and it would be perfect.
In theory, it wasn't impossible.
But Illya was currently focused on researching the Element Potato's underlying principles.
And full projection—essentially holography—even for magic, would be difficult.
It required advanced light-element magic—something easy to learn but hard to master.
Simple devices like the red lights were one thing.
But recreating full magical imagery required a deep mastery of light magic.
So Ron wasn't in a rush.
The popularity of magic dueling was already rising.
Projection would be great—but not essential.
At the very least, completing the main objective seemed well within reach.