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In the world ruled by Indra, King of the Devas.
The first-generation Sun Wukong sat lazily smoking a pipe.
His body looked thin and frail, but no one would ever doubt his seniority or his power.
"White Dragon, what do you want with me?"
The old monkey glanced toward the sky.
There, a massive green dragon hovered.
It was one of the five Dragon Kings still existing in the world, the Jade Dragon.
"Yeah, monkey, I did come looking for you."
The Jade Dragon's enormous body gradually shrank until it was roughly human-sized, landing beside Sun Wukong.
"Do you know where Indra has been lately?"
A deep emerald light flickered in the dragon's eyes.
"You noticed it too, huh?"
The old monkey grinned, tapping the ash from his pipe.
"When I went out chasing that brat Bikou last time, he complained to me the whole way while running."
After tapping the pipe, he slowly refilled it with tobacco.
Smoking had long since become one of his daily habits.
His descendants were just as unruly as he had been in his youth. Recently he heard one of them had started hanging around with the host of the White Dragon.
And when he tried to drag the kid back home, the brat had bolted. Before running off, he even had the nerve to complain that the Indra kept wandering off instead of staying put.
Apparently, they had accidentally run into him during one of his trips and had nearly been beaten half to death in what Indra called a "friendly sparring session."
That was how Sun Wukong learned that Indra had been traveling.
He used to leave from time to time, but never for this long.
"So there's only one reason he'd stay away this long, right?" the Jade Dragon sighed.
Everyone in their pantheon knew exactly what that reason was.
Shiva.
"Looks like once news spread that Shiva vanished from the Hindu pantheon, Indra couldn't resist chasing after him," Sun Wukong said, blowing out a ring of smoke.
The disappearance of Shiva had happened much faster than Indra's.
And oddly enough, the Hindu pantheon itself did not seem particularly shaken.
Then again, Shiva the Destroyer, Brahma the Creator, and Vishnu the Preserver were all top-tier transcendents. Even if Shiva died, their pantheon would remain incredibly stable.
But things were different here.
With both Shiva and Indra effectively gone, everyone knew why Indra had disappeared.
He had gone looking for Shiva.
Indra had been raising Cao Cao precisely so that one day the man might grow strong enough to restrain Shiva.
Now that a chance for a proper battle might exist, how could Indra possibly ignore it?
As for Cao Cao… well, he preferred developing on his own anyway. Indra could deal with that later.
"Yeah… that shiny bald guy is definitely going to stir up trouble," the Jade Dragon muttered.
"I'm starting to worry about that island nation in the Far East," he added. "If they fight there, the tsunami alone could cause a disaster."
The first Sun Wukong continued calmly puffing on his pipe, his expression completely disconnected from his words.
The reason he mentioned the Far East was simple.
Recently, an enormous surge of dimensional energy had appeared there.
It was the biggest event in centuries.
That mysterious power, capable of overwhelming even the Red Dragon Emperor, was something every powerful being in the world wanted to investigate.
The world looked peaceful on the surface.
But in reality, countless powerful figures had already turned their attention toward that place. Some had even gone there themselves.
…
The one responsible for all of this was no longer in that world.
Anos had successfully determined and improved the new Divine Wine formula and was preparing to return to the Dungeon world to start brewing it.
Determining the perfect formula had taken enormous time. He had spent the entire three days available to him analyzing the components before finally succeeding.
Brewing the wine itself would be simple. Magic could accelerate the process.
The real challenge had been identifying the formula.
Now the hardest problem has been solved.
Next came mass production… and collecting money.
At the same time, during those three days, the weapons Anos had requested had also been gathered.
After ordering his network to acquire firearms continuously, he transferred all the weapons to a hidden location in the Akame ga Kill world.
That world already possessed firearms and relatively advanced biotechnology, so their presence there would not seem unusual.
It would serve as Anos's transit hub.
Passing once again through the gateway to the Dungeon world, Anos finally returned.
Because obtaining materials from the shop had taken too much time, it was already evening by the time he arrived.
"Well then… let's go see how much I earned today."
Seeing that the timing was right, Anos headed toward the Guild.
He already knew who had purchased his map.
Loki Familia.
The twentieth floor was not especially deep, but if a Familia monopolized an entire floor's monster spawns, the profits would still be impressive.
Today's income for Anos would be ten percent of Loki Familia's harvest.
Today.
His cut would not stay that low forever.
According to his calculations, once they became fully accustomed to farming monsters using the map, their income would rise to three times the normal amount.
If his share remained only ten percent, then wouldn't that be a terrible deal?
"Let's see how much they earned today…"
After a brief calculation, Anos immediately knew the answer.
One hundred and fifty percent of their usual income.
Not bad at all.
Which meant his share equaled fifteen percent of Loki Familia's normal earnings.
And all of it… essentially free money.
As Anos stepped into the Adventurers Guild, he raised an eyebrow.
He saw members of Loki Familia standing at the counter talking with Eina.
More precisely, while Eina and Misha were busy calculating the quantity and quality of the magic stones, the adventurers were chatting idly nearby.
"Miss Eina, that thing was incredibly useful!"
Tiona spoke excitedly.
Today they had targeted monster spawn points.
The moment monsters appeared, they either ambushed them, triggered traps, or unleashed pre-aimed magic attacks.
The result was dramatically higher efficiency and dramatically lower risk.
They spent far less energy than usual, and even after paying for the map, they still earned more than thirty percent extra profit compared to normal.
It was an incredible deal.
And that was not all.
Today they were still unfamiliar with the method, so their hunting efficiency had not yet reached its peak.
But tomorrow, if they could get another map, they were confident they could push their profits to one hundred and eighty percent of normal.
"That really is wonderful news," Eina said with a polite smile.
Loki Familia might be thrilled.
But she certainly wasn't.
Because if Loki Familia earned more money, it meant her workload increased.
And her salary… did not.
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