Published at 12th of December 2025 8:15 am

Chapter 1816 A wake up call

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"How many Greed Crucibles do we have now?!" Jabba asked rapidly, his voice carrying both urgency and a faint edge of disbelief.

"Only two," Zara answered with full sincerity. "No one but me can draw the crucible patterns. They're crafted from the living Shaping Law merged law that are incredibly difficult to understand or replicate. This makes producing more, especially in a short timeframe, quite challenging... and each crucible requires raw materials worth up to two billion, that's if we find them."

"Two billion each?!" Jabba's eyes widened, stunned. "But all the components are materials above the fourth grade, right? How in the world did the cost reach that number?"

The barrier between the Young Belt and the medium belt was more than a simple border-it was a living authority with multiple powers. One of these was its strict inspection of spatial rings and starships, searching for any trace of fifth-grade ore entering the Young Belt's planets. Any such ore would create an overwhelming advantage, so the barrier would instantly destroy the material- or even kill the individual daring to smuggle it through.

This was why, during Robin's very first journey, he had seen people entirely immobilized inside the isolating wall, and others being violently attacked. Most of them were almost certainly attempting to smuggle precious, forbidden materials.

"It's true that we don't use anything fifth-stage or above-those resources are rare even in the medium belt," Zara continued with a weary sigh. "But we rely on substitutes that are just as expensive, if not more so. Just like how we can draw the Space Portal Runes-normally requiring fifth and sixth-stage resources-using only third and fourth-stage inks, we can apply similar methods to the rest of our work. However, the special blend that allows us to 'jump levels' is anything but cheap. Honestly, it's even more expensive than acquiring a direct piece of fifth-grade ore. The Shadow Swords search for this mixture everywhere and are willing to pay utterly outrageous prices for even a small quantity!"

"The Space Portal is a unique case," Jabba muttered, shaking his head in admiration. "It's the masterpiece of the Behemoth Interas-an absolute stroke of unrivaled genius. Are you saying you can recreate something like that?"

"Of course," Zara replied confidently. "My father used this core idea in his earliest designs, and we've refined and expanded it greatly over the years." She smiled slightly. "Haven't you seen the Black Wasp Regiment armor sets, the Second Army's equipment, and the sets used by the Shadow Swords? Each of them originally required fifth-stage raw materials as their foundation. We've been doing our best to compensate for that limitation... and it's also why we still can't produce high-tier epic armor sets. That gap is simply too large to bridge with modified inks and adjusted materials-at least for now."

"..." Jabba raised his eyebrows, deeply astonished. Sky Opening City had truly reached a terrifying, almost unreal level of applied scientific advancement. He let out a long breath, then turned toward the Note of Destruction-Gen4 starship, which had begun moving with deliberate purpose toward a specific direction-most likely heading straight for the Greed Crucible. "I'm not sure about the materials themselves, but I think there's a very simple solution to the ink problem..."

"What is it?!" Zara asked immediately, almost jumping on the words. If even half of the issue could be solved, the city's scholars and arrays could analyze and resolve the rest with ease!

"It's the Master, of course," Jabba said with dreamy eyes, as though slipping into a pleasant daydream. "He's the one who placed the final cornerstone in the Body Path after only a handful of strokes from the Seraphim Quill. Send him what you need-he'll absolutely be able to help you."

Zara tilted her head slightly, puzzled. "...The Seraphim Quill?"

"Ah, that's a long story," Jabba chuckled lightly. "What matters is this-he can resolve the issue with almost no effort. Just send him your latest findings, and trust me... you won't regret it."

"..." Zara nodded gently, her expression softening. "I just... hope he doesn't interpret any of this as negligence or inadequacy on my part."

""

Those simple words pierced Jabba's heart like a sharpened dagger. This woman had carried Sky Opening City to heights no one had imagined possible under her oversight. She had created something as outrageous as the Greed Crucible purely through her own talent and unwavering perseverance-yet she still dared to speak of falling short? If what she had accomplished counted as insufficiency... then what did that say about him? What could he call his own contributions compared to hers?

"Ugh..." Jabba rubbed his eyebrows with visible frustration, as if trying to massage away the guilt crawling under his skin. "The work on the body arrays and the training of the workers is almost complete. So... can I help you with producing more Greed Crucibles? I have a feeling that even these supposedly useless eyes of mine might actually prove helpful for once."

"Really? That would be absolutely amazing!" Zara clapped with genuine enthusiasm, her eyes lighting up. The idea of having a capable partner- especially one who understood the city's systems-would make the entire task dramatically easier and far less exhausting.

Jabba released a slow, steady exhale. He knew full well that offering help meant delaying his trip to Medium Sector 100, postponing the creation of his own independent city there. But compared to the broader picture, producing more Greed Crucibles was simply too crucial. Once these vessels appeared on the battlefield, their effect would be seismic-something that could reshape military strategies across entire belts.

Then, as though something struck him suddenly, he asked, "What about the Flood Note-4 and the Supremacy Note-4? Has there been any real progress on either of them?"

"More or less..." Zara admitted with a shy smile. "Flood Note-4 is currently being worked on by the city's teams. But the Supremacy Note-4 -the mother ship- will require more time. And leaving aside the fact that Supremacy Note-3 hasn't even been built yet, the preliminary designs for Supremacy Note-4 are... on a different level entirely. We might need to wait a few decades before the first completed vessel finally emerges."

"Decades?!" Jabba stiffened, nearly jumping. "Why would it take that long? Aren't the same base designs applied across all ships?"

"Hmm, yes, that's the theory," Zara sighed, rubbing her forearm lightly. "But what value would we add if all we did was replicate the same thing over and over? No... we're aiming higher. We want a single cannon array capable of holding one hundred thousand martial emperor level soldiers instead of just ten thousand. That's the bare minimum we're trying to achieve so we can feel like we've genuinely contributed something meaningful!"

"One hundred thousand?!" Jabba's eyes widened to their limits. "Then that would mean... a single blast could reach Nexus State levels of destructive force? And all of that using substitute inks and alternative raw materials istead

of the proper ones?!"

"Mm, that's the plan," Zara confirmed, nodding with quiet determination. "But to do that, the vessel will need to be much larger yet still agile enough to evade incoming attacks. And expanding the array to handle such a massive surge of energy isn't trivial-it's going to take time, careful refinement, and endless testing. Honestly? I'm not even confident that fifty years will be enough." "...Heh-" Jabba sighed deeply, half in amusement and half in despair. "Sister Zara, you're making things incredibly hard for me and Shaddad. If I don't manage to create something noteworthy soon, I'll probably have to dig myself a hole and bury myself alive."

"Hehe, you're exaggerating, Brother Jabba," Zara said, covering her mouth as a soft but heartfelt laugh escaped her. It felt unexpectedly comforting-almost emotional-to hear someone acknowledge how overwhelming her

responsibilities were.

"...No, truly," Jabba muttered as he stared into the distant horizon, his brows furrowed tightly and his eyes subtly trembling. "...I need to create something too. Something worthy."

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