The confrontation with Jin Long left Ye Xia feeling strangely liberated, but also exposed. She had openly declared herself an independent agent, a rival to two of the most powerful men in Asia. The wolves, as he had predicted, would now circle with renewed ferocity.
She needed to take stock. Not just of her financial and cultivational strength, but of the physical assets she had accumulated. For months, the system's primary function had been to convert wealth into Kai. But in the beginning, and even recently to fulfill quotas, she had purchased a mountain of things. It was time to see if her "waste" could become a weapon.
She visited the massive, anonymous storage facility where crates upon crates of her purchases were gathering dust. With Silas's help, they began the mammoth task of inventory. It was a bizarre treasure trove of pointless consumption.
There were the ten cheap MP3 players and expensive scientific calculators from her first days. Useless. There were the bulk school supplies, the unopened tablets, the high-end sporting goods. Then there were the larger items: the unridden racing bicycle, the set of premium golf clubs, the crates of exotic fruits that had long since rotted.
But nestled amongst the junk were gems, purchased for their price tag with no thought to utility, that now glimmered with potential.
"Silas," she said, pointing to a crate. "Those high-powered, long-range walkie-talkies I bought for that failed Arctic expedition simulation. Can we modify them for secure, encrypted communication? Something outside normal channels?"
Silas, a man who could turn a paperclip into a lethal weapon, nodded. "Easily. Their hardware is excellent. I can create a mesh network for our security teams."
Next, she found the crates of high-end camping and survival gear: portable water purifiers, all-weather shelters, advanced first-aid kits. "Distribute these to the Yun family guards stationed at remote assets, like the jade mine. It'll boost morale and preparedness."
Then she found the motherlode: the box containing the ugly, outrageously expensive structured tote bag and matching wallet from the designer boutique. She had bought them purely to waste 50,000 RMB. Now, she examined the bag. The leather was thick and tough, the structure rigid.
"Can this be lined with the thin, lightweight armor plating from that batch of 'failed' experimental body armor I funded?" she asked.
Silas raised an eyebrow. "You want a bulletproof handbag?"
" I want an armored briefcase," Ye Xia corrected. "Something to carry my tablet and important documents that can also stop a knife or a low-caliber round. It's about plausible deniability. No one suspects a designer bag."
It was a start. She was looking at her past waste with new eyes, seeing not pointless expenditure, but a vast, unorganized arsenal waiting to be curated.