Demons Beside YouDemons Beside You
“You bought it? How much did you spend?”
“Four hundred thousand dollars.” West shrunk back, voice turning smaller.
He spent $400,000 to buy this ancient thing?
Chen Zhao was speechless. Glancing at West, he said, “You already signed the contract? Can you destroy it? How about we send some evil spirits to terrorize the seller?”
“President, we’re a legit government department.”
“Fine.” Chen Zhao’s heart felt dead.
“President, there are a lot of caves in the mountain behind it,” West explained. “It can act as a residency for the evil spirits. They can help train our members and also participate in our future missions.”
“Fine, fine.” Chen Zhao was annoyed. His plan to get himself a pretty office was ruined now.
“This place is really big. Not only did we buy the land, but the forest belongs to us now too. We can build more infrastructure here.”
“Where’s the money?”
“President, we succeeded in Mapleville, so we’ll get this year’s funds within ten days.”
“How much?”
“Five hundred thousand dollars.”
“How come it’s only $500,000? Didn’t you say we get a few million dollars each year?”
“The funds are given per season.”
“Then, won’t they compensate us for the missing funds from before?”
“President, you’re overthinking.”
“Let’s go take a look.”
Chen Zhao took in the headquarters. Even though the building was old, it was quite big and had quite a lot of rooms.
There was a big yard in the back. A group of people were practicing magic there.
Ugh, how about no.
Chen Zhao felt annoyed when looking at his subordinates.
“I think that we should find our own profitable business,” Chen Zhao said seriously.
“Such as?”
“Such as licensing or something. We can evaluate supernatural figures and charge them for it.”
“Huh?”
“What? Is my suggestion bad?” Chen Zhao glared at West.
West forced himself to look at Chen Zhao. “Good, it’s obviously good, but we don’t have any standards.”
“Then, create a standard now.”
“President, are you serious?”
“Yeah, do I seem not serious?”
No one had ever evaluated supernatural figures. West found it weird.
Plus, their committee wasn’t a really authoritative organization either. How could they rate others?
“Jolag, come here.”
“President, you’re calling for me?”
“Can you make a tool for measuring magic?”
“Huh?”
“What? Can you or not?”
Jolag thought about it and said, “Technically, I can, but I’ve never tried it before.”
“Then, try it.”
“I need material,” Jolag said, looking at Chen Zhao.
“Take whatever you need from the warehouse. If you can’t find it, have West buy it.”
“Sensory Rockwood.”
“Why do you need Sensory Rockwood? That thing’s expensive.” West immediately showed his stingy side.
“It can sense magic. If I use that and connect it with some circuits, I can create the simplest tool for measuring magic.”
“Do we have any in the warehouse?” Chen Zhao asked.
“Yes.”
“Take it out.”
West unwillingly took out a thing that looked like wood and rock but also like neither. It was the size of a fist. It was gray and pitted all over.
Jolag took the Sensory Rockwood and started creating the magic tester.
He needed some more material too. Chen Zhao and West just looked on from the side.
They didn’t know what Jolag was messing around with.
Finally, after half an hour of work, a crude magic tester was completed.
It was like a scale but with an extra Sensory Rockwood ball. It also had a dashboard.
“President, Mr. West, it’s done. Do you want to try?”
“How does it work?”
“Put your hands on the ball. The Sensory Rockwood can sense the user’s magic.”
West walked over and held the ball. The needle on the dashboard started jumping.
But there were only tick marks and no numbers.
“Why aren’t there any numbers?”
“President, I don’t know the standard for measuring magic.”
“We’ll set our own standard,” Chen Zhao said. “Call the others over. We’ll discuss it together.”
West saw that Chen Zhao seemed to be pretty serious. He didn’t look like he was joking at all.
After everyone gathered over, West explained to them.
Chen Zhao suddenly thought of something. “Ados is a normal person. Does he have magic?”
Everyone looked at him. He felt speechless. “I can’t have magic, right?”
“Come try.”
Ados held the ball with both hands and the needle moved slightly.
“Regular people have magic too, but it’s very weak.”
“How about we use Ados’ magic as the standard’s 1?” Chen Zhao suggested.
No one had objections. Chen Zhao was right, no matter what.
Everyone was quite interested too. They wanted to know what level they belonged to with their skills.
Jolag made some slight changes to the tool and quantified it.
Finally, after the second revision, Mana Tester 1.0 was officially complete.
Ados’ measurement was one. He would also be the standard. The full name of the quantified magic value was “Ados Standard Mana 1.”
“Who’ll try first?” Chen Zhao looked at everyone.
“I’ll go first,” Jollinash said. She walked forward and held the ball.
The needle shot up instantly and finally stopped at 75.
Jollinash looked around. She wasn’t sure if her mana was high or low.
Baliya was second. Her mana was 95.
Jollinash wasn’t happy. Someone had higher mana than her.
However, Baliya wasn’t a fighter and her combat abilities weren’t as high as her, so she could manage to accept this.
Third was the old man Bir. His mana was 102.
Jollinash’s face darkened, but okay. He was old, so it was normal that he had higher mana.
Fourth to test was Moore. His mana was 74.
Fifth was Morid. His mana was 76,
West, 85.
Jolag, 58.
Patilu, 40.
Engelite, 99.
Ados, 1.
Jollinash was unhappy. She realized that her mana was only second-tier.
But now, everyone looked at Chen Zhao.