Chapter 1914: A Deal

"Sir Blackfang," Sharron said quickly, standing up. "How have you been?"

"Great!" Ning said. "What about you?"

"Better than I could hope for," Sharron said with a smile. "I’m sorry I kept you waiting."

"That’s fine. Your work is important after all," Ning said, looking at the vials. "What are those?"

"Secret," she said with an apologetic smile. "I can’t tell you right now. If there is any success in the next two months, you may find out in the future."

Ning was curious, but he didn’t force her. "What about everything else? How’s the progress since I left?"

"Well, the manufacturing process has begun at full speed for everything, so there is progress. I can’t go into details, but we have been doing better."

"Is it still human trials?" Ning asked.

Sharron grimaced slightly. "We don’t know how else to test these things. Animals don’t have powers, so we can only test on humans. We’ve tried to get the worst of the worst out there to do experiments on, but I do understand your concern. It’s not very... ethical, is it?"

Ning nodded. "It is unethical, but I won’t hold it against you. I can’t come up with any way to help you either."

Sharron gave a meek little smile.

"Anyway, I asked to meet you for something besides just wanting to see how you were doing," Ning said.

"Oh, what is it?"

"What’s the situation on the Awakening serums? More specifically, are there any backlash effects?" Ning asked.

"None at all," Sharron said. "We try every batch and none has shown any adverse effect."

"Great. Can I have some?"

Sharron’s expression went blank for a second before carefully returning to neutral as she put on a professional front. "I’m sorry, but I can’t authorize any distribution outside the program, even if it is for you, Sir Blackfang."

Ning narrowed his eyes. "You can’t... or you won’t?"

Sharron hesitated, feeling as though she was betraying a close friend. "Can’t. I can only work on them. I can’t help you get any."

Ning understood. "So you do not have permission to share them, is that it?"

Sharron nodded.

"Great, then who does?"

An hour later, Ning stood before the president’s mansion. Someone came to receive him and take him to the president’s office. Helen Morstell was on the phone when he walked in, and she quickly ended the call to deal with Ning.

"When did you arrive?" she asked.

"To the city? A few hours ago. Here, just now," Ning said.

"How was the work? Difficult? I’ve heard a lot of complaints from the others. Surely you’re not here to complain yourself as well, are you?"

Ning chuckled. "Though I do agree with the others when speaking about the difficulty of the task you’ve given us, that is not why I am here."

The woman grew curious. "Then why are you here?"

"I need something."

Helen rested her chin on her hand. "What do you need?"

"I was at the research facility and heard that you’ve begun manufacturing the Awakening serums. I want to purchase some."

Helen paused for a moment before answering matter-of-factly. "They’re not for sale."

"I know, but you’re the one who decided that. So you can change that decision too. You are the president after all."

Helen chuckled and leaned back in her chair. "What do you even need them for? You’re already the strongest hero out there, aren’t you?"

"They’re not for me."

"Oh? Then for who?"

"Some friends of mine," Ning said. "I realized they could use some powers."

The president shook her head. "That’s not a good enough reason for me to authorize the sale of something like that. I gain nothing in return."

"Aren’t you selling them anyway?" Ning asked. "Sell them to me. I’ll buy them."

"Do you have the money?" Helen asked. "I don’t mean to say you’re poor, but you only started a few months ago, and each of the serums is going to cost upward of tens of millions of jorans. Can you buy them?"

Ning’s eyes widened. "That expensive?"

"Of course," the president said with a light chuckle. "Surely you weren’t expecting them to cost mere thousands, were you?"

"But... you have so much Aullazire coming into that facility. How is it that expensive?" Ning asked.

"Because we spent billions and more on research. We have to recoup our costs. Most of the Aullazire goes into the suppression technologies anyway, which we can’t ask for much for or it just won’t sell," Helen explained.

"So only a small portion of it is being spent on the Awakening serum, huh? You’re manufacturing scarcity," Ning said.

Helen smiled slightly. "Well, you understand well enough. So... can you pay?"

Ning shook his head. "I can’t," he said. "But maybe we can come to some other deal?"

Helen didn’t seem interested, but she still chose to listen to Ning just in case. "Go on."

"I spent three days watching the extraction teams," Ning said. "And I can tell you, they’re very slow."

Helen frowned. "They’re the best we’ve got. If they are slow, then that is because it cannot be much faster. We can’t have it be crowded, and the machines are already the best we can use."

"I understand. You are using the best technology you have, but it is still slow," Ning said. "Because I can do it much faster."

Helen remained silent for a while as she considered what he said.

"You say you can do better than those miners?" she asked.

"Yes," Ning said.

"All by yourself?"

"Absolutely."

Helen genuinely considered it. "And you want the serums in exchange?"

Ning nodded.

"Fine. Let us see if you’re all talk or not. I’ll give you a week of unrestricted access to the mines. Since the average Aullazire mined in a week is no more than 60 kilograms, for every 50 kilograms you can mine all by yourself, I will give you an Awakening serum for free," Helen said. "How does that sound?"

Ning grinned. "That sounds like a deal."