I became a god by treasure hunting after arriving 500 years early

Lu Yuan muttered with half-closed eyes, on the verge of falling asleep at any moment, "That... Green Grass Paradise, did you record the data?"

"Yes, recorded. From now on, even if we run out of materials, everyone can still maintain their touch in Green Grass Paradise."

"However, right now it's limited to mimicking Rare Level materials, the Opium poppy is powerless when it comes to higher-level ones."@@novelbin@@

"Not too bad, though..."

Upon hearing this news, Lu Yuan couldn't hold out any longer and closed his eyes, falling asleep in an instant.

He was truly exhausted, with both his body and mind's fatigue converging at this moment after six straight months of hard work.

And that was while creating "Superior Level" works without much inspiration, which was indeed no easy feat.

But he took joy in it.

Lu Yuan really loved the feeling of creation, the happiness in unleashing his Craftsmanship, watching the materials in his hands gradually take shape into what he wanted, and even adding some underlying meanings, like God creating humans, was a form of great freedom, great joy.

If someday humans came close to extinction with no "Luck" to draw from and no inspiration, the pain would truly be indescribable to others...

On the other hand, humans were very poor.

This over six months of practice, even with the Shu Mi Dam Civilization paying a 10% premium on their purchases, the human side was still mostly at a loss. If they completely wrecked a piece of expendable material, the rat people certainly wouldn't reimburse it, and humans had to bear the loss themselves.

It was only later on that they slowly broke even, and only in this last month, including two hundred for Superior equipment, did they make a small profit of about three hundred Spirit Essence...

"Poor..."

Seeing Lu Yuan fall asleep, Old Cat sighed and swiftly left the room.

In its movement, it appeared somewhat light-hearted.

Outside the room was a rat person named Shu Gongye, a famous master who forged Epic Level equipment!

His six whiskers trembled slightly, with an anxious expression, "How is it? What did Master Lu say, did he agree?"

"He would, of course, agree, but he's afraid of offending your king and concerned he won't let them go."

"The king knows we're not happy living on the shell of a turtle, I've convinced him. A thousand Spirit Essence as a deposit per person, and he'll let them go straight away," Shu Gongye said proudly while stroking his beard.

"A thousand per person?!"

Old Cat was shocked. For thirty-one people, wasn't that thirty-one thousand?

"Yes, it's a deposit. We'll return the money to you the day we go back. That's what the king said..."

Humans had to wrack their brains to get this batch of Spirit Essence!

But truly, thirty-one craftsmen with Divine Skill, a thousand each was really... not expensive!

Among them were five Craftsman Masters; just one burst of Inspiration creating Legendary Level equipment would immediately earn back their own value.

The condition was... Inspiration!

Being in the Shu Mi Dam Civilization, they definitely couldn't have a burst of Inspiration...

Old Cat thought for a moment, "Can you give a discount? Mouse Master, how about a ten percent discount?"

"Three thousand one hundred, we might be able to stretch to that, but thirty-one thousand, you'd have to knock the marrow out of Lu Yuan's bones; he couldn't come up with that much."

Shu Gongye's old face crumpled up, damn it, there was no bargaining like this.

I know you humans are poor.

But a ten percent discount, isn't that effectively declaring war?

Old Cat was indeed a clever creature, rolling its eyes, "How about this, the first time they have an Inspiration outbreak, it belongs to your Shu Mi Dam Civilization, how's that? Whatever is created, you own that as well."

"Of course, you'll have to provide the materials yourselves." Experience more content on My Virtual Library Empire

"Good, good, good, that's a great idea. I'll contact the king right away!!"

...

For Shu Huangfeng, this was the most terrifying day in history, perhaps second only to the day the Epoch Disaster occurred.

Thirty-one craftsmen planning to collectively escape!!

It was simply... inexplicable!

He felt an infuriating rage for no reason.

But the other party's offer hit right at his heart.

If there were 31 inspirations and a few pieces of Legendary and Epic items were crafted, that wealth... it would be like money falling from the sky!

"Great King, should we accept? We..."

The opinions among the rat people were not unanimous.

"Let them leave if they want to," one of the yellow-clothed rat people snorted coldly. "These guys do nothing but eat and sleep, they don't care about anything else, nor can they create anything good. They're just a bunch of waste."

"It would be better to let them try their luck with other civilizations!"

His voice softened slightly, "The first burst of inspiration belongs to us, if they could create five pieces of Legendary Equipment, we would at least make back their worth."

Another ratman said, "That's not the right way to talk about it; the Divine Skills they possess are worth five hundred each..."

"We have to provide the materials ourselves, this is basically freeloading and they're making us help count the money too. If the humans run off, where would we find them."

"SILENCE!!"

Shu Huangfeng slapped the table, "We've lived until now, old bones as we are, our ability to save our own skins is still quite good, so there's no need to worry that they'll be killed without any reason."

"Moreover, we are now an Alien Civilization, without the ability to reproduce, nor can we develop and expand."

"It's only natural for us to scatter..."

"What civilization, what compatriots, it's just chasing after a trace of the past, we'll never be as we were before."

Everyone sighed deeply.

Shu Huangfeng's eyes were sharp, "So, trying our luck isn't such a bad idea, let the humans put some chips on the table!"

"At least they need to put down a part of the deposit!"

...

...

This time, Lu Yuan slept like a log, even counting his pennies in his dreams.

It was the Conch Girl who "huffed and puffed" as she moved him back to the comfortable painted-skin bed.

He slept for three whole days and nights, and when all the physical and mental exhaustion had been ventilated, Lu Yuan slowly woke up, stretched lazily, and felt indescribably refreshed.

There was a piece of bread, an egg, a glass of milk on the bedside table and a note saying, "Remember to have breakfast."

"Huh..." Lu Yuan took a deep breath and wolfed down his food.

For now, crafting equipment was put on hold temporarily.

He had developed a sense of mechanical fatigue from working; to create anything further would only waste materials.

Lu Yuan first entered the Green Grass Paradise and dealt with some official duties. Actually, there wasn't anything particularly special happening; Human 18th Civilization had already entered the right track and didn't require drastic reforms anymore. He just needed to slightly adjust the direction.

Schools, with a pace of a thousand children a year, were quite stable in their education.

The Great Academy of Sciences and the Great Engineering Institute were stimulated by the craftsmen, and numerous reform measures and promotions were proposed within half a year to create outstanding achievements.

As for the military and the engineering corps, of course, they weren't idle either...

"Commander Lu, we've completed a thorough investigation of the Sky Pit!"

A video appeared in Green Grass Paradise, led by Sha Kan'er, with over a hundred engineers and soldiers completing the entire investigation.

"This Sky Pit was indeed created artificially; in the southeast corner, there might be a hidden Different Space that once housed a large population."

"But as time passed, we don't know what catastrophe occurred, the Different Space collapsed, all life inside died, and the Anomaly began to wreak havoc."

An expert pointed to some of the blurry engravings on the wall.

Lu Yuan had not noticed these details originally.

"We've found that this mountain, too, was artificially made."

"We took a sample of the wall's material and found it contained components of bone. We tested the DNA of one part and found it extremely complex, with suspicious human DNA and more than ten unidentified species..."

"There are some blurry murals here too, depicting strange and bloody rituals. Many 10-meter tall giants shaped beings toiled with their bodies to create this mountain."