Chương 178: Chapter : 178

Ken stepped into his small, dusty bedroom and clicked the lock on the door. The moment he was entirely alone, the goofy, energetic smile faded into a relaxed, incredibly peaceful expression. He tossed the water bottle onto his small wooden desk, kicked his cheap shoes into a messy pile in the corner, and collapsed onto his lumpy mattress. But he didn't go to sleep. Instead, Ken reached under his bed and pulled out a massive, incredibly thick textbook. The cover of the book was a dull, boring gray color.

The title, printed in large block letters, read: Microeconomics: A Comprehensive Guide to Market Stability and Growth. Ken sat up against his pillows, clicked on a small reading lamp, and opened the massive book to a bookmarked page in the middle. To anyone else in the 13th Unit, seeing the lazy, careless farm boy reading a highly complex college-level textbook on advanced economics would have been the most shocking thing in the world. They thought he spent his free time reading silly comic books or taking naps.

But Ken took this book incredibly seriously. This textbook was a vital, crucial piece of research for his ultimate dream. He didn't care about the Royal Succession War. He didn't care about politics, magical artifacts, or who became the next Emperor. His only goal in life was to survive this chaotic tournament, save up enough money, and move far away to the peaceful countryside to start a quiet potato farm. But Ken knew that running a farm wasn't just about throwing seeds into the dirt.

It required a solid, bulletproof business plan.

"Okay, let's look at the supply and demand charts again," Ken mumbled to himself, tracing his finger down a complicated graph on the page.

"If I buy a plot of land in the eastern province, the soil quality is great. I could produce a massive yield of premium potatoes. But the transportation costs to get those potatoes to the city markets would eat up at least twenty percent of my profit margins." He tapped his chin thoughtfully, totally engrossed in the math.

"If I am the only guy selling premium potatoes in that specific sector, I hold a localized monopoly," Ken reasoned silently.

"I could set my own prices. But if I price them too high, the commoners won't buy them, and they will rot in the storage bins. I need to find the exact, perfect price point where I make enough money to live comfortably without having to do any extra marketing. Marketing requires talking to people, and that sounds completely exhausting." He flipped the page, diving deep into a chapter about agricultural tax rates in the Belmontia Empire. This was the kind of stuff that actually excited him.

It was peaceful, logical, and had absolutely nothing to do with giant snake monsters or arrogant nobles. Ken read for nearly two hours. The estate was totally silent around him. He was just reaching a very interesting section about crop rotation cycles when the temperature in his bedroom suddenly shifted. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. The air didn't get freezing cold, but it felt incredibly dense. Ken paused his reading. He didn't look up from the book right away.

He just let out a long, highly annoyed sigh. Right in the middle of his wooden floorboards, a glowing magical summoning circle slowly materialized. The lines of the circle shone with a bright, pulsing red light.

"Are you kidding me?" Ken complained out loud to the empty room, marking his page with a piece of scrap paper.

"I was just getting to the good part about fertilizer costs. Why does everyone insist on bothering me when I am trying to study?" He closed the massive economics textbook, setting it gently on his nightstand. He looked down at the glowing red circle on the floor.

"Summoning request accepted," Ken muttered lazily, resting his chin on his hand. The moment he spoke the words, the glowing red lines of the magical circle instantly shifted to a vibrant, brilliant shade of emerald green. The light flared upward, illuminating the dark corners of the dusty bedroom. Stepping smoothly out of the green light was a tall, strikingly handsome man. The man had sharp, aristocratic features, piercing silver eyes, and short, perfectly styled dark hair.

He was wearing a sleek, tight-fitting black tactical jacket over a dark shirt, along with dark trousers and polished combat boots. He looked like an elite, highly dangerous secret agent from a spy movie. This was Karna. Karna was another one of Ken's secret, overwhelmingly powerful contractual spirits. While Ryu acted as the loud, dramatic muscle, and Leviathan acted as the terrifying, manipulative assassin, Karna served a completely different role. Karna was Ken's primary intelligence gatherer.

He was a master of stealth, espionage, and uncovering secrets that the rest of the world wanted to keep buried. Karna stepped out of the circle, the green light fading away into nothingness behind him. He looked around the messy, tiny bedroom, his silver eyes landing on Ken. Instead of dropping to his knees and shouting dramatic praises like Ryu always did, Karna simply stood straight, placed his right hand over his heart, and offered a crisp, perfectly professional bow.

"Good evening, Boss," Karna said. His voice was smooth, calm, and incredibly polite.

"I deeply apologize for interrupting your reading schedule at this late hour. I know you value your quiet time."

"It's fine, Karna," Ken sighed, stretching his arms high above his head and letting out a loud yawn.

"But this better be a good report. I was right in the middle of calculating the profit margins for a root vegetable business. What do you have for me? Did you find out what is going on past the borders?" Karna lowered his hand, his expression turning completely serious. He did not have a playful or dramatic personality. He dealt entirely in facts, and the facts he had brought back tonight were not good.

"I have returned from my infiltration mission in ZulFarah, Boss," Karna reported, keeping his voice low so it wouldn't carry through the thin walls of the estate.

"I spent the last two weeks deeply embedded in their capital city, observing their military movements and intercepting their secure communications. And I must report that the situation there has escalated into something highly disturbing." Ken stopped stretching. He slouched his shoulders, resting his elbows on his knees, and gave Karna his full attention. ZulFarah was the rival nation sitting right on the borders of the Belmontia Empire.

The two nations had a long, violent history of war, though things had been relatively peaceful for the last decade.

"Disturbing how?" Ken asked casually.

"Did they build a new type of tank? Are they gathering troops at the border?"

"No, Boss," Karna shook his head slowly.

"It is much worse than traditional weapons. ZulFarah has recently lost a series of minor border skirmishes against Belmontia's automated defenses. Their military commanders are growing incredibly desperate. Because they cannot win a direct, physical war, their government has decided to change their tactics entirely." Karna took a slow step forward, the dim light of the reading lamp catching the serious lines of his face.