Starting from scratch, Batman crushed my dream of getting rich

Chapter 510 The Most Cost-Effective Way to Build a Team

Upon hearing that the girl had learned the Japanese syllabary (hiragana and katakana), Ma Zhaodi clapped his hands.

"Ha, that makes things easier. You know how to use a cell phone, right?"

The girl nodded again.

Ma Zhaodi handed her a cell phone with a draft text message on it, and the input method was switched to Japanese. He asked, "Can you type on a cell phone?"

This time, the woman didn't nod. Instead, she took the phone, slowly typed out Japanese on it, and showed it to Ma Zhaodi.

"meeting."

"Great, let's communicate like this from now on."

This series of actions left Franky, who had been watching the two of them, speechless. He was always the most quick-witted person in the team; otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to come to New York from Russia alive, nor would he have been able to survive in the underground industry for so many years.

But he hadn't really considered this way of communicating, or rather, none of the people in the team understood Japanese, and neither of the other two had considered how to communicate with the girl; they didn't intend for her to be their teammate.

Therefore, only Ma Zhaodi and Frankie would put effort into this.

"Why can you understand what she's typing? Do you understand Japanese?"

When faced with Frankie's question, Ma Zhaodi shrugged.

Yesterday he spent 1,000 asset points to learn intermediate Japanese proficiency, which wasn't too expensive—although he felt he might not use this skill most of the time in the future, he really needed it now.

"I bought this phone yesterday along with some books when I went out. It has a SIM card, and I also installed a translation app on it so she can communicate with you—wait, isn't the app open?"

Ma Zhaodi reached out and tapped on the phone. After restarting and opening the system, the girl reopened the draft, and two more buttons appeared next to it: a translation button and a play button.

"The translation button is easy to understand; it translates the Japanese she types into English. However, because it's machine translation, there can be ambiguity sometimes, so this function is just a backup. When I'm around, I usually do the translation myself."

"The play button is easier to understand now. You can select the Japanese or English part to be read directly by your phone. This function is to prevent you from being too far apart and needing to communicate remotely. But to be honest, if you are really too far apart, you can also send a text message, so this function is also a backup."

The girl started typing on her phone. She seemed to have not used a phone in a long time, so her movements were clumsy and slow. It took her more than ten seconds to turn the phone over.

There was a line of Japanese text displayed above, followed by a machine-translated English text.

"Thank you."

"grateful."

Ma Zhaodi glanced at Frankie beside him; his expression was excited, probably because he could finally talk to the girl.

"What's your name?" Ma Zhaodi asked. "Type it out. We can't keep calling you a girl."

Another ten seconds or so of typing time.

"My name is Kimiko."

Ma Zhaodi nodded to her, and seeing that Frankie next to her was already excited about being asked her name and was talking non-stop, she stopped interrupting their conversation and turned to go into the kitchen.

Uniting people's hearts is not an easy task, but he didn't want to forcibly chain Kimiko up. In order to prevent her from having the intention to escape at any time during the group's activities, he had to do the most basic work of appeasing her.

In this respect, a meal often has more power than any deception or coercion.

He took out the corner of abundance and began to cook.

Outside the door, after comforting his wife and child, he stood up. He saw Shirley, looking jealous, join Frankie and Kimiko's conversation, and he also saw Butcher staring blankly at his phone book, perhaps thinking about the past. So he simply went straight to the kitchen door and said, "Old Ma, do you need me to help with the cooking?"

"No need, I'm used to cooking for myself."

Ma Zhaodi casually poured some rice into the basin with the corner of his hand, and the white rice grains poured out with a gurgling sound: "I'll be very efficient, we'll be eating in a little while."

"wait."

He rubbed his eyes and looked at the basin in Ma Zhaodi's hand, which was now half full of rice.

"Where did you get this rice from?"

“It’s magic.”

As Ma Zhaodi spoke, he took out a few small potatoes from the corner: "What's the problem?"

"Where did you get your potatoes from?!"

“It’s magic.”

"Who the hell would believe that! It must have just appeared out of thin air!" "What nonsense are you talking about?"

Ma Zhaodi laughed and said, "There's no such thing as a superpower that can create food out of thin air. Have you been reading too many fantasy novels or playing too many games?"

As he said this, another winter melon suddenly appeared in his hand.

"Damn, bro, this thing can't possibly be conjured up by magic! Where on your body could you possibly hide something like this?"

"Speechless. This is typical Earthling thinking. I can't have a conversation with you at all."

The breast opened its mouth, and when it turned around to call the others to come and see, it found that there were already four more heads beside it.

"It absolutely cannot be magic. I've studied magic; this should be called sorcery."

This is Frankie.

"I've heard that the mysterious power at Dongda University is quite special, and seeing it today, I can confirm it's true."

This is a butcher.

"Can you conjure up gold?"

This is Shirley.

"I want to eat meat."

This is the electronic voice from the Kimiko mobile phone.

"There's meat in it."

Ma Zhaodi casually pulled out a few seafood items from the store: "Do you want tempura or sushi?"

Kimiko's eyes lit up immediately. She stared blankly at the shrimp and fish that had appeared out of nowhere, and swallowed hard.

"I've never eaten it before."

Ma Zhaodi raised an eyebrow; it seemed that Kimiko's family wasn't very wealthy.

"Then let's make it with fresh glutinous rice."

"I, I'll help you too—"

"Frankie, you're in charge of chatting with Kimiko."

Ma Zhaodi stopped Frankie, who wanted to help: "I'll make you a stew as payment."

"Dude, you're absolutely amazing!"

The breast milk couldn't help but ask, "What will I eat?"

"You two eat whatever they eat, otherwise we won't be able to finish the food."

The breast milk stopped responding.

"I won't eat it."

The butcher suddenly spoke up: "I have something to do, I need to go out and meet someone first."

"Now?"

Ma Zhaodi's hands never stopped moving; cooking was as pleasing to the eye as playing music. "At least let's wait until after we go to Samaria tomorrow before we meet again, shall we? Is the evidence we have now sufficient?"

"Do you know who I'm going to meet?"

"Is it hard to guess? I noticed this morning that compound number five was missing one atom."

"Don't worry, it's just a preliminary discussion; at least the terms will be agreed upon first."

"Don't bring up unrealistic conditions. The CIA won't target Homelander unless they're absolutely certain."

The butcher remained silent for a moment, his eyes flashing with resentment and anger.

But he still answered, "I understand."

(End of this chapter)