Empire Building With Infinite Warehouse-Chapter 100: Zero Point Drain

"I originally came all the way out here because I wanted to invade the military camp to find the exact location of the green gate," Maya explained, keeping her voice low so the sound would not carry outside the empty concrete shop.

"But their market leader, Ken, was badly wounded while I was scouting the outer perimeter in the ruins. I decided to take a huge risk and just helped him up, using his gratitude as my free ticket to get directly inside their heavily guarded walls."

"Since Lena immediately sensed my high power level the second I walked into her territory, she did not bother asking too many questions about my background for now."

Maya continued explaining the layout of the heavily fortified base, detailing exactly what Julien was walking into.

"I have already been to Gate Seven, and their guards are incredibly strict about who comes and goes through that specific checkpoint. Also, these people apparently pray to some weird, twisted statue that they dragged out of a high-tier dungeon gate a long time ago. The entire military camp is basically a cult that is always on extremely high alert, making it an incredibly dangerous place for outsiders."

Julien was completely lost in his own thoughts while she was talking, trying to figure out how he was going to navigate a religious military cult while simultaneously trying to break out a ghost’s missing brother.

"Are you even listening to me right now?" Maya asked, crossing her arms and giving him a very sharp, commanding look.

"Yes, of course I am listening," Julien replied quickly, rubbing the back of his neck to ease the tension.

"I am just thinking about how we are actually going to get through all of those heavily armed fanatics without starting a war, that is all."

"You have to prepare a few high-quality potions tonight so Lena will actually grant you official access to the inside of the base tomorrow morning," Maya instructed him with a highly serious expression on her face.

"She will probably just take you straight to Camp Five since that is where most of their approved merchants are located. You are going to have to take it from there and figure out the actual prison layout yourself."

Julien nodded slowly, feeling a wave of reassurance washing over his chest just knowing that Maya was going to be inside the camp with him to watch his back tomorrow.

He looked right at her and wanted to ask if she had actually found the location of the green gate yet, but Maya just looked away at the dusty floor and did not reply at all.

Julien could probably use his Streetwise or Examiner system skills to completely pinpoint the location for her in seconds, but he decided he did not want to involve himself in her personal business unnecessarily if she was not ready to share the details.

Before they could discuss the prison breakout plan any further, Lena and Ken walked out from the nearby canvas tent where they had been finishing their private discussion.

Lena immediately spotted Maya and Julien standing inside the dusty shop together and walked right up to the open doorway.

"You two seem awfully close for a random encounter in a dirty scavenger camp," Lena pointed out, her cold gold eyes narrowing suspiciously as she looked back and forth between them. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

"Well, she was actually my very first customer back when I started trading in the main districts," Julien lied smoothly, putting on his absolute best customer service smile to hide his racing heartbeat.

"It is just really nice to see a familiar face out here in the middle of nowhere."

Lena’s eyes stayed perfectly narrowed, clearly not buying the entire story, but she decided to drop the issue for the moment and kept walking past the dark shop.

"Come to the front gates tomorrow morning," Lena ordered without looking back at him.

"I need at least ten different potions to review, and my perimeter guards will do a very heavy check-up on you and your cart. Do exactly what you are told and stay exactly where you are told, or I will kill you myself."

Maya gestured silently that she had to follow the dangerous military commander, giving Julien a quick, reassuring nod and whispering that she would meet him tomorrow before she disappeared into the crowded market.

The night came quickly after that, making the ruined stadium into dark shadows lit only by a few sputtering gas generators.

Julien sat inside the empty shop with Kyle heavily guarding the front entrance, spending his time carefully picking out potions one by one from his infinite system inventory.

He did not want to show up with ten flawless, overpowered elixirs because Lena would instantly kidnap him and force him to work in a military lab for the rest of his life.

He pulled out a [Blood Circulation Potion] and a [Mana Heart Potion], setting the glowing glass vials down on a cracked wooden crate and ending up taking out twenty different potions in total, making sure that most of them were basically useless, low-tier garbage, so Lena would not think he was some kind of irreplaceable alchemy genius.

While Julien was rigorously working on sorting his fake inventory in the dark room, Eric suddenly walked right into their shop with that same creepy, highly polite smile plastered on his pale face.

"I see you are working very hard tonight," Eric said softly, looking at the glowing bottles lined up on the wooden crate.

"Will you supply your unique products for our market too? We will gladly pay you whatever price you ask."

Julien did not have any real reason to dismiss the lucrative offer, and he actually wanted to use this specific opportunity to test out something important.

"I will gladly supply your market if you buy something from me right now," Julien said, holding up a small blue vial filled with swirling liquid.

Eric looked slightly surprised by the sudden, aggressive sales pitch, but he quickly recovered his polite smile and said he would surely buy the item.

Julien handed over a basic mana circulation potion, and Eric immediately handed him a thick stack of digital market credits to officially complete the transaction.

This was exactly what Julien was waiting for all night.

The second the physical trade was officially completed between them, his special commission skill finally triggered in his mind.

He had the unique system ability to copy a skill from anyone he completed a business transaction with, though he knew he would have to let go of one of his current skills to actually make room for it in his limited slots.

He eagerly opened the glowing blue system window in his mind to see exactly what kind of crazy power the creepy market boss was hiding.

But the second he read the glowing blue text floating in the air, his entire face went completely pale.

[Zero Point Drain]

[Ability to suck all of a person’s mana upon physical contact.]

Julien stared at the floating words in absolute horror as he finally realised exactly how Eric had knocked that poor woman out earlier just by gently touching her shoulder.