There were only a few more days until the results of the tournament would be announced and Li Xin had decided to pay Baron and his friends a visit. As soon as he went to their HQ, he was greeted by Baron himself who welcomed him in without a second thought. Though the two of them haven’t been with each other all that much, Baron had always held Li Xin in high regard after he took the time to help a lost Baron. Currently, only Baron and Roxi were at the HQ and all the others were busy dealing with their own business. Roxi was still tinkering in her newly made temporary R&D room.

(LX) “So, Baron, I have some rather surprising news that I must tell you. It’s about the tournament that you and the others participated in just a few days ago.” Li Xin said with a face full of vigor that Baron had never seen him in before.

(BM) “Tell me. I’m dying to know what fortunes you have come across.” Baron said while sitting right next to Li Xin.

(LX) “Well, do you remember that time in the tournament that you fought against the all-stars of Lian Po?”

(BM) “I have, they were something that I cannot really touch at the moment. They are way too strong not to mention their insane numbers of troops.”

(LX) “Well, there are a lot of betting houses that set up all sorts of gambling opportunities all throughout the tournament. Well, I bet on that battle and it turns out I was the closest in terms of accuracy of my bet and the runner up was not anywhere near where I was so I really made a huge winning this time. I made nearly 30 million gold coins.”

(BM) “No way, that’s fantastic. What are you going to do with it all?”

(LX) “Well, as a sign of goodwill, I hope you can accept a small gift of a million coins.” He said as he handed Baron a sack of many sparkling coins that could contain any amount of coins within it.

(BM) “One million coins is no small sum. Are you sure that you don’t have anything else you would rather spend this on?”

(LX) “Not to worry, I spent only 20,000 coins to get 30 million. Quite the investment I would say. If I had lost that bet, then I would have only lost 20,000 I have much more in reserve even without this sum I just won.”

(BM) “Why did you think we would be able to take out so many of the all-stars troops when it was mainly the Bair fighters doing?”

(LX) “Well, I don’t really want to admit this but I am notoriously bad at gambling and that is why I have only ever been in a bet 5 times before. I lost over 100,000 coins the first 4 times and won 30 million on the fifth time. To be perfectly frank with you, I tend to overthink things and I have a very unique way of getting to a conclusion of a battle that is not very accurate most of the time. This time was the exception, not the rule.”

(BM) “Well, that is rather interesting. I think I will accept your gracious gift. After the Grand Auction that the Sun Alliance held decades ago, we haven’t really been generating a lot of income so this will be one thing that we will not have to worry about for quite some time.”

(LX) “Where is Guan Yu, Yue Fei, the Meng duo, and the other 3?”

(BM) “Our two elders are out trying to up their rank again in the elder rankings. the Meng duo is with the Men of Meng faction doing something that requires all of them, they did not relegate any details to me. The other 3 are in the Australian community trying to get them to force William Bridges back. We hope to split up Wang Yi, Eumenes of Greece, and William Bridges so that we may have a higher chance of winning the aerial portion of the faction selection tournament.”

(LX) “Oh, do you think you have a spot for me? Now that I have enough money, I feel that staying with the Sun Alliance will not really benefit me all that much anymore.”

(BM) “Of course. Even more so now that you have contributed so much to our treasury. You will always be welcomed here.”

(LX) “That is good to hear. I really hope that everything works out and we can be war buddies with each other. Anyway, I have to get going now, I have many things that I have to attend to that cannot wait any longer.”

(BM) “Of course. Travel safely.”

After this, Li Xin left Baron’s HQ and made his way to do whatever he needed to do. Baron then proceeded to where Roxi was to inform her of the good news.

(BM) “Roxi! Good news. We just got a lot more funding.”

(RB) “Does that mean that I will be able to train more R&D?” Roxi asked with a bright smile on her face.

(BM) “Yes, it does. I think we will be able to hire a mid-tier R&D specialist even without the help of Madam Zheng. We should still wait a little while longer though.”

(RB) “That’s fine. I’m content with everything the way it is now. I feel that I’m still in the discovery stages where I have a lot of ideas that I want to try out. Give me a few more weeks and maybe then a teacher is warranted. This isn’t my first time doing this I’ll have you know.”

(BM) “I know. Just be careful and get a breather every now and then. Even if you don’t need sleep or food, it will still be mentally taxing to do the same thing for long periods of time.”

(RB) “Don’t worry about me. I am very happy with where I am right now. Shoo! Let me work in peace.” With that Baron left.