Chapter 109: The Name of the Organization

Speaking of which, besides selling magic boxes, the system actually offers several other items for sale.

For example, resurrection coins.

Luke’s distrust of these coins stemmed from their blatant pricing: one thousand dollars apiece. It was just too... cheap.

A thousand dollars for a life—would you believe it?

That’s why Luke was willing to bet his own modest stake that there was something fishy about this worthless junk.

Then there were the handmade cakes by Celia, also sold in the system’s store.

The price wasn’t expensive, fifty dollars per piece, matching the size and taste of those drawn from the magic boxes. Luke had tried them, but found the flavor rather ordinary—nothing as delicious as imagined. At best, they were on par with military rations.

What Luke valued most, however, were the costly gift packages in the system’s shop.

These large gift bundles appeared irregularly and took various forms. After more than a year of observation, he concluded the refresh pattern was seemingly random. Yet, every holiday, the system would inevitably offer these gift packages.

The sales period was always short: some lasted only a day, the longest he’d seen lasted a week. Getting one—let alone encountering one—depended heavily on luck. Of course, the prerequisite was having the money.

As for the price, mentioning it brought a bitter smile to his face. The cheapest large gift package he’d ever seen started at a staggering one billion dollars!

Luke deeply felt the system’s malice, suspecting the very existence of these packages was just to tease him.

Why would a system need so many dollars anyway? Toilet paper?

Luke was at a loss for words.

Thus, even now, he had yet to catch a glimpse inside one of these gift packages.

According to Lotus, each large package guaranteed several epic-grade items—awakening skill books, powerful recipes, equipment blueprints, and other rare treasures. Hearing this made Luke salivate.

But envy was useless; he had to work hard to earn money.

Recently, he had been considering selling some military supplies to raise a bit of cash. After spending nearly ten million dollars on medical bills for the big dog’s owner, he was running low. Christina had warned him several times about the financial crunch.

Cutting expenses was impossible. Christina had launched so many projects, each with enormous costs. A few key large-scale projects might not be obvious early on, but overall, the numbers were astronomical.

He had to find ways to increase income. Otherwise, soon he might not even have milk for breakfast.

“What to sell? Selling technology directly isn’t as good as selling finished products. Learn from Stark Industries and make weapons? There’s a lot of complexity there. If I really want to do it, better find a partner. Justin Hammer is in trouble now... or maybe buy shares in Hammer Industries?”

Luke’s mind flew freely, ideas coming one after another, though whether they were feasible was another matter. Only experiments could prove that.

He knew well that in his previous life he had been a shut-in who wasn’t good at stock trading, let alone capital management.

“Fortunately, Christina’s helping me, or I’d be completely lost. I really envy those all-powerful big shots,” Luke sighed, thinking how frustrating it was to compare himself to others. Not all travelers across worlds were equal—he might be the shame of them all.

Soon, the delivery arrived.

The restaurant, no doubt encouraged by the 50% tip, cheerfully brought twenty pizzas.

Luke couldn’t let them enter the house; his foster parents were downstairs watching TV. So he climbed out the window, jumped down, and secretly met the delivery person outside.

Under the streetlamp, they exchanged money for goods—a midnight transaction that looked suspiciously like a drug deal.

Back inside, the Four Roses immediately swarmed around, their eyes shining with joy. It had been a long time since they had a real full meal. The four girls eagerly devoured the pizza, praising its taste.

Luke ate a few slices himself, finding it decent enough. Seeing how famished the girls were, he felt a pang of pity.

“Am I really their great general?”

Looking at them, Luke still pondered this question.

In DNF, he indeed had a male gunslinger character, though poorly equipped, stuck with the ancient Time Trace set.

“Could these four girls be the Black Rose Special Forces from my gunslinger alt, somehow crossing over from the game? That would be incredible...” Luke found it hard to believe.

But then again, he himself was a crossover who brought various game skills into reality and used them. If his Black Roses had come through the same way to find him, why not?

After much thought, he still wasn’t sure. He shook his head with a wry smile.

“Anyway, the Four Roses have officially joined the organization now. They belong to me. Don’t worry, I won’t mistreat you anymore.” Watching the girls wolf down their food, Luke smiled and silently vowed.

Half an hour later, seeing the satisfied Black Roses full and happy, Luke clapped his hands and said, “It’s time to give the organization a name.”

“Organization? Aren’t we called the Black Roses? The Black Rose Special Forces,” Anaka blinked her big eyes in confusion.

“Of course, your code name stays the same. You will always be the Black Rose Special Forces. But I mean, as we traverse this brand-new world, we need a louder, more inconspicuous organization name!” Luke declared firmly.

“What should we call it?” Rosanna immediately started thinking.

The other three girls also pondered, deep in thought.

The great general’s will was their mission. As always, they never questioned any of Luke’s orders.

Even if it meant going up volcanoes, down to the deep sea, or fighting all sorts of monsters, they never hesitated.

Among the Four Roses, Amytan was the most adept at offering strategies. The others? Not so much.

As Anaka put it, their intelligence used to be stored in the upper body fat. Now that they had mysteriously become children, their IQ hadn’t returned, and the fat was gone—a big loss.

“The great general is truly the battlefield ruler of Arad. How about we name the organization ‘Arad War Gods’?” Amytan giggled.

“Awesome!” Rosanna and Anaka cheered.

[Nods]

From Obia.

“‘War God’?” Luke made a strange face.

That name felt unlucky.

“No, no. We can’t call it that. That’s just asking to go down the drain,” Luke shook his head and waved his hand. “Come up with another one.”

“The great general doesn’t like it?” Amytan propped her cute little chin on her hand and continued to ponder.

The other girls also helped think, just for show.

Luke smiled and shook his head. He thought names didn’t have to be ostentatious; going too far made them ridiculous—like the disastrous ‘Emperor’s Blood’ example.

To him, a good name expressed meaning and evoked imagery.

Like the Avengers: their meaning was to avenge against extraterrestrial threats, their vision lofty—they were Earth’s mightiest heroes and protectors.

Even the Defenders, a weaker team, at least had a grand-sounding name.

Could his own group really only be called the ‘Short Legs Alliance’?

Luke shook his head in denial. “That won’t do, too unserious. Since we decided to only accept females, how about ‘Cherish Milk Pavilion’? No, that’s too tacky…”

“Nasalick”… better not.

“Burning Army”… no.

“Dawn”… no, that’s copyrighted.

Suddenly, Luke thought, “How about ‘The Yingxiong Alliance’?”