Unable to repay my student loans, I had no choice but to work part-time as a demon hunter.

Not only was Luanna surprised, but Charlotte also turned her head.

"Oh?" Luanna couldn't help but laugh.

The Ravenhurst family is a multinational financial magnate that has expanded its business all over the world.

They hold shares in more than half of the banks on the Provence continent, and their family has a presence in some of the world's most lucrative industries.

And now, Gordon is saying he has things they can't afford.

Luanna's interest quickly cooled, and she couldn't help but feel a sense of disappointment towards Gordon.

"The Ravenhurst family has a lot of assets, Mr. Vic. It seems you have no idea."

unless……

Gordon offered the Crimson Alchemy in exchange and agreed to serve as Luanna's personal alchemist long-term.

Only under these conditions could she reluctantly acknowledge even a sliver of value.

Nothing else could move her; even source matter required a sufficient quantity.

"Okay, I'll make something you can't afford right now."

Gordon walked to Luanna's little bar.

He examined the various materials and found that Luanna had quite a few good things.

Besides the usual cocktail ingredients, there were also some imported spices. I wonder how long she entertained herself in that little room.

"I've drunk all sorts of wines, and let me make it clear beforehand, none of your wines will impress me," Luanna said.

"It has absolutely nothing to do with alcohol."

Gordon prepared two large spoonfuls of white sugar, put them into a copper pot, and heated them over a lamp until they turned into a dark brown syrup. He then added a little water to dissolve the syrup and turn it into a caramel color.

Next, squeeze in lemon juice, scrape some zest from the orange peel, find a pinch of cinnamon and cloves, and add a small cup of strong coffee...

The syrup, with its strong sweet and sour flavor, then takes shape.

[A syrup mixture. Drinking it will leave a cloyingly sweet taste in your throat.]

Gordon turned on the soda maker, poured sparkling water into the cup, and dissolved the syrup.

Fine bubbles then rise from the cup, forming a layer of light brown foam, with the aromas of sugar, spices, and coffee mingling together.

But... that's not enough.

Because Gordon was only acting based on experience and impressions.

:

[Reserve soft drinks. May cause diarrhea and other accidents.]

"Come on, Charlotte, give Luanna a live performance."

"I am coming!"

Charlotte rubbed her hands together.

The poor-quality beverage instantly changed color, and the concentration of sweetness, sourness, and aroma was blended to the most suitable ratio.

[A delicacy hidden in a cup. Thicker than wine, brighter than blood, everyone who tastes it will feel it is the flavor they miss most, but they don't know they miss it before they drink it...]

That's when it started to resemble a high-class beverage.

"Try it." Gordon picked up the glass.

"?" Luanna smelled it, then observed the bubbles in the glass. "I hope there's nothing wrong with this."

"There's a problem. As a medical researcher, I'm telling you that it's not advisable to consume large amounts of sugar, caffeine, and carbonated drinks."

"Then everything's fine." Luanna took a sip.

Ok? !

What does this taste like? It's both sweet and sour, and the bubbles are assaulting her tongue.

She took another sip, slowly getting used to the complex and sweet aroma; the caffeine was making her senses a little excited.

After finishing one cup, she wanted another.

"Give me more!" Luanna's tone was already urging.

"Me too! Me too!" Charlotte chimed in.

"Yes, yes, we have them all." Gordon made another big glass, poured one for each of them, and one for himself, this time with plenty of ice.

After Charlotte blessed the three drinks, each emitted a fragrant aroma.

"Wow!" Charlotte was delighted after drinking it; she had no idea that this stuff would taste so good when pushed to its limit.

"Phew...! What is this?" Luanna felt that the sweltering summer night had become much cooler, and her gaze kept turning to Gordon.

"Master's soda, master's happy water. Obviously." Gordon drank a glass himself, almost in tears.

That is……

:

It tastes like it did a very, very long time ago.

Now he wants to use his own hands to bring that scent back and sell it to the world.

"Happy water!" Luanna was indeed very happy.

Even now, she still doesn't understand.

"But is this cup really worth more than I can afford? Even with the recipe... as you can see, it requires Charlotte's power." Luanna was full of doubt.

"The beverage recipe can be adjusted gradually. Charlotte can help me understand what the best state of this thing is like. Next is the issue of controlling the ingredients and proportions, and that's what's important."

Gordon asked for paper and pen and quickly wrote down the business plan.

The secret to the soft drink industry lies in the raw material.

He wants to establish a core pulp factory to deliver the precious pulp to various places, allowing distributors to add sugar and soda water according to the formula. It's that simple. One barrel of pulp can be turned into thousands of bottles of beverage.

A bottle of wine costing 88 gold pounds can only be sold to a select few nobles.

And how many bottles of cheap soda do the hundreds of millions of people in the world drink each year?

People will always need happiness.

After writing the business plan, Gordon still felt it wasn't enough, so he added his emphasis on glass bottle and cap technology, his proposal for building a distributor network, and his insights on water purification projects. Then he took the six pages to the scales and placed them on one side.

He was trading a new business opportunity that could be sold to everyone in the world and marketed globally.

Boom!

The scales immediately sank.

Six light pages of paper weighed down one side of the balance and prevented it from moving.

The power behind the scales reveals countless hands reaching out to them in the future.

"Alright, let's see how much you want to pay," Gordon announced.

Luanna put a check for 300 gold pounds on the scale, but it didn't budge.

600 gold pounds? Still not enough.

She frowned, took out 1000 gold pounds and put them on, but still couldn't sway Gordon's grand ideas about the Happy Water.

She even took off the black diamond she was wearing and put it on the scale, but the scale didn't change at all.

This was the first time she had encountered a price that even her own diamonds couldn't match.

How much is this actually worth? All my thoughts on this soda...

:

Charlotte was very happy.

She liked Luanna's previous arrogant, all-consuming attitude. But she liked Luanna's anxious demeanor even more.

"Tsk." Luanna had no choice but to use her last bargaining chip. She placed her hand on the scales, "...I trade: Luanna Ravenhurst's virginity!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Gordon saw a dark red light emerge from her lower abdomen and float onto the scale.

The scales clearly swayed, suggesting they held considerable value.

Charlotte was clearly shocked and almost crushed the cup in her hand.

"What are you doing?" Charlotte asked.

"Stop arguing, that's not enough!" Luanna gritted her teeth. "My marriage contract, my lifelong exclusive right to my body..."

Gordon saw more eerie, malevolent lights appear, and Luanna even planned to give Gordon the next few decades of her life.

As the scales began to tip, Gordon felt his knowledge and memories of Miaomiao soda starting to waver.

It's as if a mysterious hand has already seized them, and once the transaction is complete, this knowledge will truly leave him, completely severed away as part of the transaction.

"By the way, I can have heirs, one, three, ten..." Luanna continued to propose the deal.

"Pause, pause." Gordon took his plan back from the scales.

The scales lost their balance, and the light on the other side gradually faded.

"What's wrong?"

"I don't think the so-called bargaining chips you've offered can buy my trade secrets," Gordon said seriously.

How can something that can be obtained through romance be traded for a priceless business plan?

This is not in line with Gordon's usual practice.

"So what are you going to do?"

"Luanna, I've proven I have something you can't afford. Now let's talk about the real deal, what I really need." Gordon took a deep breath.

He revealed the true details of the deal he had made during the trip.

A small-scale source material, "The Blind River's Gaze," an opportunity to identify source materials, and an opportunity to guide the Ravenhurst family alchemists in the refining process.

They were placed on the other side of the scale.

"Then, I need some materials." Gordon listed the materials needed to forge the Thunder Spear.

The finest gold used to withstand lightning, mithril with excellent spiritual conductivity, copper from the depths of the earth, and pure meteorite iron...

:

He meticulously adjusted the quantity, constantly changing the numbers.

In the end, Gordon obtained enough materials to forge a powerful enough lightning spear, which he could use repeatedly and upgrade over time as another of his personal treasures.

This was enough to make Ningning feel that her skills had not been wasted on a pile of scrap metal.

"So many materials, hmm... I think I can gather them in about two days," Luanna observed.

She had offered enough, yet the scales were still unbalanced.

One of Gordon's guidance and one of his appraisals were judged by the scales to be of extremely high value!

Gordon plans to ask for some more materials.

"...Wait, the restocking quantity of these items is limited. Even if I buy them, it will take shipping time to get them from other markets," Luanna interrupted when she saw that Gordon was going to increase the quantity further.

"Then I also need source matter that can be used for calculations and deductions," Gordon said to Luanna.

"no."

"Midas Industries must have it." Gordon looked directly into her eyes.

"Who told you that?" Luanna frowned.

Gordon had heard the shoemaker mention it, and he had also heard Sinclair mention it.

This matter was considered a secret of Midas Industries, but he was already in the know.

"That's the truth, Luanna. The Ravenhurst family is the company's biggest financial backer. You couldn't possibly not know that. Don't hide it from me. Don't forget what you said yourself: everything in this world can be traded."

Luanna smiled. Indeed.

"Then let's consider this part of the deal." Luanna thought for a moment and decided to let Gordon test the waters of Midas Industries.

She walked to the locked cabinets, found several secret reports, placed them on one side of the scale, and the entire scale immediately began to shake, achieving a strange balance.

The transaction was confirmed by both parties. The appraisal opportunity and refining guidance opportunity promised by Gordon were transformed into a mysterious mark and disappeared into the air, recorded by a high-level being that Gordon could not yet identify.

Sure enough, even abstract things can be traded... Gordon silently observed.

It doesn't feel like something that should exist in this world.

He took the report provided by Luanna and examined it briefly.

"Midas Industries is trying something ingenious that will bring many incredible changes to the world. For this, they've gathered all the kind of source matter you need that you simply can't find anywhere else." Luanna sat down on the sofa.

"A super loom?"

"Much more complicated than that."

:

"Difference engine?"

“We’re getting closer.” Luanna’s smile widened. “In short, they have an oracle machine that can calculate fate.”

: