Ten thousand I am across the heavens

The obsession with repeatedly revisiting events and gathering intelligence time and again likely indicates that the Ghostly Demon Lord is cultivating someone with the talent to efficiently acquire information and make optimal decisions through repeated time rewinds. This person, through covert influence, could potentially overturn history, like dominoes, driving and shaping future developments.

Such talent is not something everyone possesses. Nor can it be mastered from the outset. It requires innate ability, as well as practice and experience accumulation; one could even say it could be a discipline in itself, named the study of rebirth.

In a world where time is constant, such training might simply be a test of character or an opportunity to develop subordinates' abilities. However, in this world where time travel and the ability to go back in time and alter history exist, the significance of selecting and training such talent is vastly different.

Xu Duo's talent in rebirth and changing history was only average. Even in his second life, there were still too many secrets he hadn't uncovered. For example, he hadn't thoroughly investigated many historical legends. He also lacked sufficient understanding of the organizational structure of Konoha Village. His overall understanding remained superficial and was limited by his previous life, exhibiting a serious path dependency.

Generally speaking, path dependence isn't a particularly serious problem. If one's abilities are strong enough, even if a ninja world war were to break out in the near future, they would still have enough power to accumulate. But he simply isn't that type of person with strong abilities. Forcibly changing his path, wanting to adopt a more conservative, farming-oriented approach, naturally leads to his demise.

This is roughly the assessment given by the Ghostly Demon Lord behind the scenes: Xu Duo has some potential and demonstrates considerable decision-making ability when facing crises. However, he's not outstanding. Someone of his level would barely be considered in the top 10% of everyone. Naturally, he can't be considered a genius. Even when testing a Gu Master's cultivation talent, the top 10% are roughly equivalent to a C-grade talent or higher; to achieve A or B-grade talent, one basically needs to be in the top 1%.

Xi You was such a Gu Master with exceptional talent. His origins were also not particularly distinguished; before the technology spread, he was merely a farmer in a village. He cultivated small oases in the vast desert, rarely even seeing a true Gu Master. If history had unfolded normally, he would likely have continued to toil in his small village, living a mundane life until his death.

But the diffusion of technology brought about tremendous changes. Factories sprang up in the desert. Large numbers of people began to migrate to towns surrounding the factories. The massive labor shortage forced the Gu Masters to send people to search for people in all directions.

He was rather unlucky. He was targeted by a group of demonic sorcerers. He was almost killed and had his soul refined. If it weren't for the fact that prices were rising at the time and labor-intensive industries were profitable, and those powerful demonic cultivators hadn't casually thrown him into a sweatshop, he might have died then and there.

Xi You's life took a turn at this moment. Although the sweatshop essentially treated them, ordinary people, as expendable resources, it at least had a relatively stable organizational structure. This guy's learning ability was unexpectedly fast. He learned the assembly line operations in no time, and even had time to help his colleagues.

Over time, he established authority among the cattle and horses in the same factory. He was also extremely adept at reading people and discerned the preferences of the foreman in charge of their area. After several attempts to please him, he secretly made a deal with the foreman, claiming he had found a way to improve the production process and save costs to some extent, but he didn't want to report it directly; instead, he wanted to implement it first in his own factory. He and his workers colluded with the foreman to deceive their superiors. They kept the quoted price unchanged, resold the saved materials, and split the profits 50/50 between the foreman and the workers.

Considering that these workers could report him at any time, and that he had to rely on them for production, the manager eventually agreed to the deal. Everyone is greedy for money.

Because the workers had earned significantly more money in this transaction, his prestige among them grew even higher. He then secretly shared his money-making secrets with them, encouraging them to keep quiet if anyone discovered new ways to save costs and improve efficiency, promising to use those methods to share even more profits with them.

After repeated successes, he had accumulated enough prestige that when he announced that the next extra profits would belong to the public and be temporarily kept by him for unified allocation to do some important things, no one objected anymore.

So he used the money he had saved to pull strings and contact the foreign trade department. He secretly contacted the factory's purchasing department and took on a batch of private jobs. For these private jobs, they used the raw materials they had saved and the factory's equipment to produce the goods. All the extra profits from the sales went to them. As a result, his wealth increased exponentially in the blink of an eye.

Originally, these ordinary people who were thrown into the sweatshop were treated as disposable items, to be used and then discarded. But he, along with his own people, gradually began to live a relatively comfortable life, even becoming rich enough to exchange for Gu worms.

Given enough time to develop, Xi You might actually have the potential to achieve great things and become a legend in the desert. After all, with his abilities—his ability to read people, discern right from wrong, and his silver tongue and skill in forming alliances—there's a real possibility he could unite many and build his own empire.

However, fate is unpredictable. Just as his career was flourishing, everyone on the entire continent was forced to travel through time.

When he awoke, he found himself in a world that resembled a zombie apocalypse. People lived in cities with towering walls, in a society that had only recently undergone the Industrial Revolution but possessed a steampunk aesthetic.

Outside these cities with their towering steel walls, the land is teeming with infected people. Their skin is bluish-black, and their bodies are incredibly resilient; ordinary firearms struggle to destroy them. Even when hit, they retain their mobility, only killed by a bullet to the heart. However, their hearts are protected by a membrane as tough as steel, making them extremely difficult to deal with. The city's inhabitants call these monsters Kabane. Once bitten, a wound can lead to viral infection, and those infected can potentially transform into creatures like these monsters. Many attempts have failed because of inadvertently harboring infected individuals without proper identification, resulting in total annihilation.

The towns were connected by heavily armored steel trains, ensuring the transport of supplies and allowing trade between them to proceed smoothly.

After Xi You transmigrated, he was just an ordinary worker, responsible for repairing the railway—one of the most dangerous jobs. He and his colleagues had to drive small engineering vehicles to the railways outside the city to repair any that might be damaged. This meant they were constantly exposed to Kabane attacks, making them one of the engineers with the highest casualty rates.

He never imagined that just as he was about to escape the life of a slave in the sweatshop and become a well-known entrepreneur in the surrounding villages, he would be thrown into another world, into a position where life and death hung in the balance.

Fortunately, the eloquence and skills he honed before his transmigration remained. Working in a sweatshop wouldn't normally offer much learning opportunity; after all, workers are simply performing endless repetitive labor in one position, doing the same thing over and over again. But being an ambitious individual, he diligently observed the various positions on the assembly line, learning the operational methods of different roles and the principles of the production equipment. He gained a fairly good understanding of them. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to successfully offer suggestions for improvement and thus earn his first pot of gold.

He now possesses some mechanical knowledge, which, combined with his previous learning and understanding, makes it easy for him to handle his current job. However, his immediate priority is undoubtedly to escape this dangerous position. In his view, this isn't difficult; a sum of money is all it takes. Engineer rotations are decided by those with money and power backing them, but the actual procedures are carried out by ordinary civil servants. Bribing them doesn't require much money, but it can get him transferred out of this deadly position. The problem is, he doesn't have the money.

Earning your first pot of gold is the hardest part, and it's also when you need to fight tooth and nail the most after you've just arrived. If you think you can simply survive by repeatedly trying to stay alive in dangerous environments, that's like boiling a frog in slowly heating water—a slow death in this zombie-infested world.

He couldn't improve the technology in the short term. But he had mastered many unorthodox methods to make his first fortune; for example, the materials piled up next to the warehouse were excellent targets for sale.

These items were, of course, under someone's watch. The steel rails, in particular, were not for sale; they were too heavy and their value was low. Even if they were sold, there was nowhere to buy them. But the valuable brass parts were clearly a different story. However, handling such matters required bribing everyone involved. Initially, as long as one's colleagues were appeased and the distribution of profits was agreed upon, the matter could be accomplished.

However, if you want to earn more money in the future, you must also maintain good relationships with your superiors. Having your own network of connections within the organization is essential to ensuring you can continue committing crimes without being exposed.

He was already an expert at this. His ability to judge people was almost innate. Among the engineers he worked with, he could clearly tell which were honest and wouldn't steal, which were cunning and would stab someone in the back, and which had the desire but not the courage, and needed someone to lead them.

So, during one shift, after confirming that he could persuade everyone in the vehicle, he frankly revealed his plan to them. No one wanted to die, although stealing materials was risky—getting caught could mean death—but if they covered for each other, the risk was actually quite small. With enough money to grease palms, they wouldn't have to continue working in this deadly position.

He persuaded these people with his eloquence, quickly securing the first batch of goods and earning his first pot of gold. He then distributed the goods fairly among everyone. While the tactic of winning over and dividing is indeed necessary, it's clearly not suitable for the early stages of a business. When the number of people is below 20, humans are capable of great unity. There's no need to force a divide and conquer.

After accumulating his initial wealth, he quickly cultivated relationships with superiors and subordinates to replace several people in the most dangerous positions. He did it all seamlessly, making it appear as a normal job rotation.

Next, he paid close attention to the official gazettes exchanged between cities, which were only followed by a select few, trying to understand the situation. He wanted to know how he could profit from trade between cities.

They quickly began to focus on the price fluctuations of various goods within the town, as well as the situation regarding the goods transported by train.

It was then discovered that the prices of various goods within the city fluctuated considerably, because the town's own output was limited. It was highly dependent on the supply of goods from outside and on trade between towns.

This means there's a profit to be made: buy low and sell high, or sign a lease agreement at a price high, sell the item immediately, and then buy it back at a price low to return it. This achieves the effect of short selling. With such operations, even a small initial investment can multiply several times over.

The prerequisite is knowing how these items' prices fluctuate. In extremely large markets, such fluctuations are very difficult to predict, making it virtually impossible to profit from such a market.

However, if the situation is limited to just one city, then simply obtaining information beforehand about the types of supplies the train is transporting is sufficient.

So all you need to do is manage your own affairs on the truck, know which supplies need to be transported in, and which supplies might be in short supply in the coming period, and you can make a fortune.

The small team that started at the beginning is now proving its worth. Under his arrangement, three people were assigned to the trains as mechanics to learn about the cargo carried on each train. They would then use telegrams and other means to arrive at the trains ahead of time and relay the information back to him, thus helping him decide what to buy and what to sell.

By repeatedly performing these maneuvers, he actually managed to amass a large fortune in a short period of time using these methods. He was also marked as a promising talent in the backend system.

[To be continued]

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