Chapter 9

Hundreds of years ago, there was an old movie, and one of the lines seemed to be Li Dalong's, "Dingdingyu really didn't believe Li Dalong could come up with something sophisticated. At least in terms of mining tools, he hadn't heard of anything like 'take your life three thousand.'"

At this moment, Li Dalong stood tall and proud, full of spirit. He pointed to the side with a grand gesture, "Stand back a bit!"

Dingdingyu cooperatively put his hands on his head and took a few steps back. Li Dalong continued his pose, "A bit further!"

Dingdingyu had already retreated over ten meters. At this point, he expected Li Dalong to pull out a rope with a melon knife, iron chain, sulfuric acid, poison, pistol, grenade, and other assorted items. Each item could stand on its own, and now they were all together, just to see if you were afraid.

But he was wrong. He saw Li Dalong pull out something white. Since the item was too small and the cave was dark, he couldn't see it clearly.

Anyway, when Li Dalong threw the white thing at the cave wall, Dingdingyu's eyes couldn't take it. A large ball of bright fire appeared, followed by a loud "boom." The sound was too loud due to the proximity, and his ears rang with a "buzz."

Before he could react, Li Dalong rushed into the smoke, swinging a shovel and entering "mad dog mode." By the time the smoke cleared and Dingdingyu's vision returned to normal, he saw Li Dalong standing on a pile of rubble, playing with a silver ore the size of a jump chess piece.

This time, it was Dingdingyu's turn to be dumbfounded. "Damn, this can't be! In less than a minute, he got a silver ore. This guy's luck is just insane."

The key was the method. It didn't seem like a mage's fireball spell but more like an explosive device.

This time, he guessed right. When Hound left, he left Li Dalong seven portions of gunpowder. Then Li Dalong went to the general store and bought paper, fuse, flint, and plastic containers.

Yes, he used these things to wrap the gunpowder and make firecrackers.

The power of these was no longer in the category of firecrackers but belonged to homemade bombs.

As for why Li Dalong was so familiar with the method of making homemade explosives, that was something Dingdingyu couldn't know.

Anyway, a large part of the cave wall had been blown away. Upon closer inspection, the cave had caved in at least three meters, and the rock fragments were scattered everywhere. This made mining much more efficient.

Dingdingyu stood there, dumbfounded. He wasn't just shocked but also frustrated.

He thought his machine was pretty cool, digging over ten meters in the morning. But Li Dalong had only been there for less than a minute and had already blown in three meters and found a piece of silver. The difference was...

Sigh, comparing people can be frustrating, and comparing goods can be even more so.

"Brother Gua..." Dingdingyu cleared his throat and approached. This time, he didn't have that teasing and self-satisfied look but instead put on a serious expression, though it was clearly fake.

Seeing his cowardly appearance, Li Dalong couldn't help but be sarcastic, "I'm busy now. I'm making millions every second. Don't bother me."

"Cough, cough!" Even with his thick skin, Dingdingyu's face was heating up, but he still had to speak up, "Brother Gua, can we talk about something?"

Li Dalong said casually, "If it's a good thing, we can talk. If it's a bad thing, forget it."

"Good thing, definitely a good thing!" Dingdingyu looked excited.

"Oh? Tell me more."

Dingdingyu smiled awkwardly, "Brother Gua, you have this amazing tool, and I have the excavator. If we work together, wouldn't we be invincible in the mine?"

Li Dalong, of course, understood his ulterior motives. This guy was envious and wanted to team up.

"But..." Li Dalong seemed hesitant.

Every time he saw this expression on Li Dalong's face, Dingdingyu would panic, "Brother Gua, name your price. I won't take advantage of you."

"Hmm? Well, making these homemade bombs is quite a hassle. What do you think..." Li Dalong had a typical businessman's look.

Dingdingyu gritted his teeth, "How about this: for each bomb, I'll pay you 5 silver coins, and if we find ore, you get 60%, and I get 40%. How about that?"

Hmm, this deal seemed good. He could get ore and make money. Not bad, not bad at all.

Just as Li Dalong agreed, Dingdingyu added another condition, "But, for every 5 bombs, you give me one for free, okay?"

One free bomb? This sounded familiar.

Actually, Li Dalong only had 6 bombs left. Using gunpowder to mine was a good method, but the efficiency depended entirely on luck. It was essentially gambling.

The problem was that Li Dalong wasn't someone who let others take advantage of him easily. He could give one free bomb, but you had to provide some raw materials from your warehouse. Do you think making these homemade bombs was easy?

Dingdingyu had to grit his teeth and agree. He had already been drained of money by the magic crystal from yesterday, so he had to find friends for "emergency help" overnight, borrowing money and getting the machine. All his hard work ended up in Li Dalong's pocket.

This showed that being a magic master was useless; mastering a skill was the key. Dingdingyu thought about learning from Li Dalong, who was strong and had connections.

While he was lost in thought, Li Dalong had already lit the second bomb and thrown it in.

Unfortunately, this time, nothing came out, and it even attracted Violent Bloodblade.

"What are you doing? Why are you making such a big noise?" Violent Bloodblade looked displeased. "The boss told me to come and kick you out."

Faced with this person, Dingdingyu was too scared to speak. Just the sharp scythe was enough to make anyone shudder.

He wanted to fight, but did he have the means?

However, this didn't stop him from admiring Li Dalong. After Li Dalong whispered a few words to Violent Bloodblade, Dingdingyu's eyes widened again. The originally fierce Violent Bloodblade became submissive to Li Dalong, even bowing.

"Brother, I'll go out first." Violent Bloodblade smiled, "Take your time digging, dig well."

At this moment, Dingdingyu was utterly in awe of Li Dalong, "Brother Gua, you're amazing. Do you know their boss?"

"No! No! No!" Li Dalong waved his hand proudly, "It's my personal charm."

Dingdingyu wouldn't believe such nonsense. He guessed Li Dalong was probably a newcomer from a powerful family. But it was strange that a newcomer from a prestigious family would be born in the rough village of the Exile Land. Could it be that the main system of the Federation government was malfunctioning again?

While he was lost in thought, Li Dalong had quietly told Violent Bloodblade, "You go first. When I come out, I'll give you an extra 20 silver coins. Don't tell anyone, just you and I know."

Violent Bloodblade understood and smiled strangely. Li Dalong was thinking about the 5 bombs and 25 silver coins. Since he wasn't paying, it was more like using money to make things easier.

As for personal charm, a level 1 mad dog like Li Dalong had none. If he had any, it would be 100 points of being a scoundrel.

After Violent Bloodblade left, the two started setting off bombs again.

Li Dalong's luck was starting to decline. The third, fourth, and fifth bombs yielded nothing. The cave had been blown in nearly 20 meters, but not even the cheapest sulfur ore had appeared.

Dingdingyu was anxious, but Li Dalong was even more anxious because he only had one bomb left.

If this last bomb didn't yield anything, from an economic perspective, he would be operating at a loss, leading to negative side effects, a severe vicious cycle, and ultimately bankruptcy, hanging himself, but failing, and finally starving to death on the street...

It all came down to this one shot. Li Dalong struck the flint, struck a "fairy picking peaches" pose, and threw the bomb out, maintaining the throwing pose for three seconds. It was truly unique in its rustic charm.

With a "boom," the cave collapsed again, "crashing" and "rattling" more loudly and longer than before. The cave had been blown in at least six meters.

This was strange. Li Dalong felt there was a problem. The same quality of explosives shouldn't suddenly become more powerful, but now wasn't the time to think about it. With two pleasant "ding" sounds, his luck finally paid off, and ore appeared.

Both rushed into the smoke, but Dingdingyu's small body and mage attributes couldn't match Li Dalong's strong innate attributes.

Before he could see how Li Dalong picked up the ore, Li Dalong started laughing wildly. In his hands were two purple magic crystals, one large and one small. The smaller one was even bigger than yesterday's, and the larger one was almost the size of a fist.

Dingdingyu's eyes turned green. "You're too strong. No one who has mined here in recent days has found such large magic crystals. You found two, how can others live?"

"What's the quality?" Dingdingyu's breathing was rapid.

"21, 18!" Li Dalong said while opening the trade window, "As agreed, the smaller one is yours! Pay up!"

At this moment, Dingdingyu not only admired Li Dalong but also respected him.

In theory, Li Dalong could have turned on him and openly kept both magic crystals. After all, it was a verbal agreement, and Dingdingyu hadn't contributed much during the mining. But Li Dalong still kept his word and traded the item.

How many players in "The Ninth Continent" could do that?

Actually, he was wrong again. Li Dalong wasn't thinking that way. He was just vain. To some extent, Li Dalong was a fanatic, someone who wouldn't stop until he achieved his goal. As for keeping promises, he didn't care about that.

So, Dingdingyu unhesitatingly put up 25 silver coins.

But as soon as he did, the entire cave started to shake violently.

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