Evolving My Undead Legion In A Game-Like World

Chapter 1297: Development In The Origin Battlefield [4]

"Ouch!"

Lily covered her forehead at once and glared at Michael.

"Silly girl. Who said you’re paying them out of your own pocket?"

Michael shook his head.

"They’re the ones who are going to work for you."

His words only confused Lily further. Michael decided to make it simpler.

"What do you have that they don’t?"

Lily frowned and began thinking.

Her equipment? No. It shouldn’t be this.

Was it strength? She was stronger than most of them, but that was probably hardly what Michael meant.

After several seconds, Lily’s expression changed.

"The Cornerstone?"

Michael nodded.

"Exactly."

Lily glanced toward the native Awakeners again. She understood that her Universal Cornerstone was valuable. She had already seen enough of its functions to know that. But she still did not completely understand how that solved the problem.

"Is it the exchange thing..."

"The exchange system," Michael corrected.

"That’s what I meant."

Michael gave her a look before continuing.

The Universal Cornerstone already possessed something far more useful than a pile of gold coins or treasures Lily could hand out. It had an entire exchange system: resources, knowledge, equipment, skills, items. Even things that were difficult or impossible for ordinary people to obtain elsewhere could potentially be acquired through it.

More importantly, Lily did not need to personally own those things beforehand.

Michael looked at her.

"You don’t need to pay two thousand people from your personal wealth. Make the territory pay them."

Lily’s eyes narrowed slightly as she tried to follow.

Michael continued.

"They assist you in developing your territory, and in return..."

Lily finally began understanding.

"They get things from the Cornerstone?"

Michael nodded.

"Now you’re getting it."

The arrangement could be made far more sophisticated later.

In fact, Michael doubted he was the only Universal Cornerstone owner who would eventually arrive at something similar. Putting aside the subsidiary station and everything it made possible, one could argue that the next greatest function of a Universal Cornerstone was its Trade Hub.

For some owners, it might even be the most important function.

The variety of things available through it was staggering. But there was an obvious problem.

Origin Points.

No matter how powerful the owner of a Universal Cornerstone was, surely they were not expected to personally run around the Origin Battlefield every day, hunting monsters and gathering herbs or ores just to exchange everything for Origin Points.

Michael certainly had no intention of doing that.

And that was where the people under a Cornerstone owner became important.

There were currently four kinds of resident designations available through the Universal Cornerstone: Commoners, Privileged Residents, Registered Lords, and finally, the Owner.

Commoners occupied the lowest position, but even that designation was useful. Once properly registered under the territory, they could treat the Cornerstone territory as a safe point within the Origin Battlefield rather than constantly being thrown somewhere random whenever they entered.

They could also make use of the Trade Hub.

Privileged Residents went a step further. Michael viewed them as something closer to trusted staff or officials. The exact authority attached to the designation depended heavily on the owner, because Michael could decide how much control and access he was willing to grant them.

Then came Registered Lords.

Registered Lords were individuals who had claimed Universal Cornerstones of their own but voluntarily submitted those Cornerstones beneath another.

At first glance, the designation offered almost nothing. It seemed more like a formal confirmation that one lord had acknowledged another as superior.

Only after Michael linked Lily and Arianne’s Cornerstones beneath his own had he discovered one of its more interesting functions.

It could share the special buildings of linked Cornerstones.

Michael’s Awakening Temple was currently unique to his territory among the three of them. However, after Lily and Arianne became Registered Lords under his main Cornerstone, the blueprint for the Awakening Temple became available to their territories as well.

That did not mean they could simply summon another Awakening Temple for free. They still needed the necessary resources to construct it.

But the possibility existed. If Lily gathered everything required, she could theoretically build an Awakening Temple inside her Zeroth Layer territory. The same applied to Arianne.

Michael could also restrict such sharing. After all, special building blueprints were clearly valuable. Michael suspected some might only become available naturally once a Cornerstone reached Level Two or through other rare opportunities.

There was no reason an overlord would necessarily want every subordinate lord to possess everything he did.

Still, the discovery had shown Michael why someone who already possessed a Universal Cornerstone might willingly submit to another Cornerstone owner.

The relationship did not necessarily need to be one-sided. There could be tangible benefits.

Registered Lords also possessed the privileges of Privileged Residents, while Michael himself naturally stood at the top as Owner.

Every one of these groups could potentially access the Trade Hub.

Potentially. Because as Owner, Michael could restrict that access.

That was where the system he envisioned began taking shape.

Suppose a Fireball Skill cost one hundred Origin Points inside the Trade Hub. While Michael had no ability to change that price, that did not mean one of his residents needed direct access to the Trade Hub to get it.

Michael could establish an intermediary between the residents and the Cornerstone.

A territorial exchange system.

Suppose one of the native Awakeners wanted that Fireball Skill. Michael could price it in a way where he’d be getting one thousand Origin Points from the Awakener, who would earn those points by contributing resources and completing work for the territory.

Imagine someone brought back a Level Ten monster corpse, which the Cornerstone might value at fifty Origin Points. The Awakener did not need to know this, since they could not get anything from the Origin Store without going through the intermediary.

This intermediary would exchange the corpse with the Trade Hub, gaining the fifty Origin Points, while the person who brought it back received ten points.

The Fireball costs one hundred Origin Points from the Cornerstone, but this way, the owner could price it at five hundred Origin Points to the Awakener instead.

It also didn’t matter if the Awakeners knew the true price. If they wanted to get something from the Cornerstone, they needed to keep working until they had enough to exchange with the territory’s pricing.

Of course, Michael had no intention of blindly using extreme ratios for everything.

That would be stupid.

If the residents felt the system was exploitative, they would eventually look for ways around it, like going to other Cornerstones open to the public for exchange, and simply stop contributing.

The numbers needed to be adjusted to a level both parties were happy with.

The exact structure still needed work.

At present, it was admittedly shaky. But Michael could see the potential.

If it worked, it would also prove that the vision he had of Origin Points becoming a universal currency could come true.

* * *

A/N: Had my wisdom tooth removed today. Posted the pic on Discord! Really sorry for the low update, but don’t worry, this is the only time before the end of the month we’ll have a single update. I really couldn’t handle the pain any longer. It was just my bad luck this eruption wasn’t like the last ones, which were temporary, and it came right after a cold too.

Thank you for the continued support! If you have any thoughts on what could perfect the system, please share, as I read every comment when I have time!