Last time Byron came, he sensed that the remaining Crystal Skulls were all in the Southern Continent’s [Hundred Beasts Paradise], but he himself had never had time to go search in person.

So he lent the [Desire Compass] to Atahualpa and had the King of the Sun Empire help him search.

What Atahualpa was holding right now were exactly the No.7 [Wind Deity] and No.11 [Warlord] that he had found recently—only the No.9 [Death God] was missing to complete the set.

"I’ve been too busy lately. There are still a few days before the Living Hatch at the end of the month opens; Aya and I will relax for a bit in Hot Spring City first, and wait for His Majesty, the Lord of Heaven to show up.

If he finds out how fast I’ve advanced, he’s definitely going to be scared out of his wits.

A year ago he’d only just advanced to the Fourth Order not long before; getting left in the dust by me this time will probably make him a bit upset.

But it’s fine. Besides the two Crystal Skulls I’ve got here, I also have his favorite Healing Elixir, which is also the first pot of dirty money I made after experimenting with the pyramid scheme.

Once he sees that, he’ll definitely cheer right up again."

The young King’s face was glowing, like a kid who’d gotten a fun new toy and couldn’t wait to share it with his best friend.

But just then, a shrill whistle suddenly tore through the air.

Fwoosh—!

Atahualpa’s heart clenched; he yanked the Golden Scimitar from his waist and raised it in front of him, the tilted blade knocking aside a blue, poison-tipped blow dart.

He snapped his head up toward the direction the blow dart had come from, and saw two half-human, half-rat figures silently emerge from the lake water ahead.

Behind them, hundreds of Ratmen surged up from underwater like a tide, hurtling toward the shore at high speed.

"You two, the Gold-Eating God brothers?

Aren’t you supposed to be south of the Ring of Fire Mountain Range? How did you suddenly end up here?"

At the same time Atahualpa’s pupils shrank, a bead of cold sweat quietly slid down his temple.

He cursed himself inwardly:

"Careless, how could I have forgotten about them."

Thinking only that his own base camp wasn’t as complicated as the power web in Cusco Royal City, he’d come out to have fun without bringing many royal guards.

And in doing so, he’d forgotten that this particular "creditor" could burrow through earth and turn stone into mud.

He and Queen Aya might both be Fourth Order Mythical Creatures, but she was pregnant and definitely no match for two powerful beings of the same rank.

To be fair, this was all really the pyramid scheme’s fault.

The [Hand of Wealth] title effect: "Possesses a Fate of lifelong good fortune in wealth, never plagued by money troubles.

Money on the ground whenever he goes out, guaranteed hit on any lottery, guaranteed profits on any business, from then on living the life of a super tycoon, squandering fortunes only to have them come back again."

As long as Atahualpa wanted to make money, he’d definitely find opportunities.

Earlier, he didn’t dare run this operation directly inside the Empire, so he planned to find a place to test how effective a pyramid scheme would be.

By chance, the [Totem Gods · Gold-Eating Gods] brothers and their burrowing Plague Rat Underground Kingdom in the south of the Empire fell into Atahualpa’s sights.

The relatively closed social structure of the Underground Kingdom would prevent the power of this financial Bomb from infinitely spreading out, and it was convenient for keeping things secret—perfect for this sort of sociology experiment.

Plus, that Ratmen faction had long since pledged themselves to the Church of the Old Gods, the [Gluttonous Prince Beelzebub]; they often came crawling out of their holes to eat Humans, so even if they all died, he wouldn’t feel the slightest guilt.

Most importantly, Ratmen who spent all their time digging random tunnels underground actually had money; "rolling old debt with new loans" could keep the game going a lot longer.

And tricking them into it was even easier—there are still plenty of people getting scammed in our highly connected modern world, never mind a bunch of bumpkins like these.

And then...

Only Atahualpa at the top of the Pyramid ended up feasting till oil dripped from his mouth.

The Ratmen, on the other hand, couldn’t even make it through the year.

The only thing he failed to account for was that when he sent the Heavy Composite Regiment to go after the Ratmen, he didn’t manage to wipe out all his creditors—and instead they had tracked him down.

Which had led to the current situation.

The leading Totem God swung the blow dart quiver in his hand, made from Human bones, and screeched:

"Squeak—! Give back our Gold and the 25% annualized returns!"

Crash...

A huge crowd of Ratmen surged toward the shore of the Volcanic Lake like a tidal wave, and all the Maids accompanying them were so terrified by these giant rats that their faces went pale.

At that moment, sweat beading in his palms, Atahualpa felt a deep, heartfelt recognition of how right the saying "established by thirty" was.

If only he had just a teeny bit more of those Heavy Composite Regiments in his hands, how could he have ended up in such danger today?

After sending out a distress signal, he grit his teeth and was just about to raise his blade and go all out.

When a pleasant voice suddenly rang in everyone’s ears:

"I heard that in the Hundred Beasts Paradise, everything is extra large. I didn’t expect even the rats to be this big.

Byron, if we opened a biological pest control company here, we’d definitely make a killing."