Sir! Don't close the net!

The next day, as soon as Li Yili stepped into the minister's office, Alma rushed up to her with a newspaper, ready to unleash a torrent of abuse, but Li Yili stopped her with a serious expression.

"Wait a minute, Secretary Alma! Don't move!"

Because Li Yili's expression was really serious, Alma subconsciously stood still.

Li Yili calmly pulled a measuring tape from her pocket, squatted down in front of Alma, and measured Alma's skirt with a ripping sound. Then she stood up, raised her hand, and patted Alma's shoulder. "Hmm, not bad. My opinion of you has changed, Secretary Alma."

Elma's forehead veins bulged as she suppressed the urge to swing the newspaper at Li Yili's face and unfolded it, saying, "Look at this!"

Li Yili glanced at the headlines of the newspaper, smiled calmly, sat down in her boss's chair, and casually picked up a pen and started twirling it.

"I made the headlines on the first day. Looks like my marketing was pretty effective."

"Wow, that's impressive—" Alma gave a rather perfunctory compliment before slamming the newspaper down on the table and glaring fiercely at Li Yili. "My foot! The whole of Instas is laughing at you now!"

"Is there?"

Li Yili raised an eyebrow. To be honest, compared to the pure false accusations and shocking news he had seen on Earth, the content on these headlines was somewhat literary and euphemistic. It couldn't be said that it was completely harmless, but it was just that it had no destructive power at all.

Ok?

Wait a moment……

Li Yili raised an eyebrow, picked up the newspaper that Alma had slammed on the table, and turned her chair so that her back was to Alma.

"Wow~"

“Now you realize how serious the problem is,” Alma sneered.

“The problem is indeed very serious, because I’ve come up with some unethical solutions and I’m tempted by them,” Li Yili said, raising her finger and waving it from side to side.

"what?"

“But that’s not important,” Li Yili casually tossed the newspaper aside, turned back, and looked at Alma with a smile, her fingers interlaced. “What’s important is whether Miss Alma has any good news to tell me.”

Alma's lips twitched. She really wanted to point her finger at Li Yili and yell at her for being an idiot who would pay for her plan. But the reality was that Josephine not only paid for it, but also squeezed out all the materials needed to build the underwater park overnight, as if she was afraid that Li Yili would regret it. They were now being transported to the Sheep Village Logistics Building.

Because there is no record of an underwater park ever being built, there will inevitably be omissions, so...

Josephine even specially approved the funding with a stroke of her pen.

Alma lowered her head, her face full of humiliation. "We already have enough materials to build the underwater park. They will be delivered to the Sheep Village Logistics Building today. Minister Josephine was worried that something might be missed, so she approved the funding for you."

"Eh……"

"Hey, what do you mean?!" Alma suddenly sat up, arms crossed. "You don't have a chance to delay this project! We have enough supplies, you have to start building the underwater park immediately! Quick, tell me how you're going to build an underwater park in the Dead Man's Sea!"

"Secretary Alma, I think... never mind..."

Li Yili wanted to remind Alma that she had said not to ask him why he did things, which of course included urging him to do things, but considering that Alma had actually shortened his skirt, Li Yili decided to forgive Alma.

Li Yili raised one finger.

Alma's lips twitched violently. "Fine!"

It's just shortening the skirt by one centimeter! Her skirt suit can be shortened even further!

“Secretary Alma, I like your straightforwardness,” Li Yili stood up, straightened her clothes, and waved to Alma. “Let’s go to the beach.”

"Why are you going to the beach?" Alma asked warily.

“Of course, we’re going to find someone who can navigate through a sea of ​​dead bodies,” Li Yili said, walking down the stairs without looking back.

"Find someone who can navigate through a sea of ​​dead... Hey! Wait a minute!"

Seeing that Li Yili had no intention of waiting for her, Alma quickly followed. After catching up with Li Yili, she stood to Li Yili's right rear and muttered, "Are you looking for those fishermen? No way, those fishermen all listen to Austin. If you had visited Austin yesterday, there might have been some chance, but there's absolutely no chance today. That headline was Austin's doing!"

"El, has the money from the Fire Elf arrived yet?" Li Yili ignored Elma's mutterings and waved to El, who was directing the others.

“Yes! It’s already in Sheep Village Logistics’ account,” El nodded hurriedly.

Li Yili nodded. Even someone as composed as El was so excited; it must be a huge sum of money.

"Okay, take out all that money."

"I understand, I'll get on it right away."

El nodded without a trace of doubt, then turned and led a few people out. It was a large sum of money; he couldn't possibly carry it all out by himself.

"Hey, what do you want to do?" Elma had a very bad feeling. It was a huge sum of money, so much so that the fire elf simply transferred a string of numbers to her.

Gold notes are not ordinary paper money, but are made from Rhine gold, an inheritance. They are essentially a precious resource. To give an example, if all the residents of Instasus were to withdraw money from the Nibelungen Bank in Instasus in the form of gold notes, less than half of the residents of Instasus might actually receive the gold notes.

Of course, as the largest seaport in Nibelungen, Instas has a terrifying gold reserve that even the Fire Spirits, Instas' largest steel mill, cannot shake.

Now that Li Yili has directly asked El to withdraw such a large sum of money, she is worried that Li Yili is going to create some kind of terrifying trap. After all, the one who is paying the price for all of Li Yili's actions is the Flame Elf!

"If you want to buy something, just let the Fire Sprite pay, or just transfer the money to your account! What do you need so much cash for!"

“Of course, we’ll do business that can only be done in cash,” Li Yili said, turning her head and revealing a bright smile.

A business that can only be transacted in cash?

Alma was taken aback, and in that instant, she thought of many shady deals.

Speaking of which, the guy in front of me is the head of logistics in Sheep Village, and also the head of the black goat cubs.

Although the Black Goat's offspring are at the bottom of the hierarchy, the rest of the hierarchy is a group of complete lunatics who just behave normally most of the time. Whether it's luck or not, the city of Guoweidun, where the Black Goat's offspring are located, has become a dead city.

Watching Li Yili's retreating figure, Alma subconsciously swallowed.

What does he want to do?

Chapter Eighteen: Sir, congratulations, you've been kidnapped.

"This is... the business you were talking about, the one that can only be traded in cash...?!"

Alma's expression twisted in pain. If you're wondering why, the answer is now! They've been kidnapped by pirates!

No, that description is a bit far-fetched. A kidnapping should be an accident that happens during the course of something, and only when someone is taken away can it be considered a kidnapping. But they went straight to the large pirate ship that was still docked on the coast of Dead Man's Sea, and were surrounded by pirates.

Delivered to your door...

It could be considered that I was kidnapped.

She thought of many shady deals that required cash, including, but not limited to, bribing fishermen.

Your trading partner is a pirate?!

If they weren't completely surrounded by pirates, Alma would definitely be grabbing Li Yili by the collar, shaking her violently, and loudly questioning her.

Alma instinctively shrank behind Li Yili. Although she had seen them many times, this was the first time she had seen these pirates up close. They had narrow, flat foreheads, protruding eyes that were almost three-dimensional, many wrinkles on their faces, and their heads under their headscarves seemed to be bald. Their shoes seemed to be ill-fitting, bulging and bulky.

They had always lived in the same seaport.

Alma suddenly felt a chill.

“Kid, you’re the first person to have the guts to bring a burden onto our Mercury Queen,” the lead pirate said, licking his blade with his tongue.

The viscous liquid flowed down the gleaming blade, and Alma felt a chill run down her spine. The saliva dripping from the pirate's tongue was incredibly viscous and pale yellow, unlike human saliva at all; it looked more like some kind of oil.

Are you crazy to actually make a deal with these guys?!

Hiding behind Li Yili, Elma punched Li Yili's waist in frustration, but Li Yili seemed not to feel anything. She crossed her arms, looked around, and then fixed her gaze on the pirate licking his knife in front of her, raising an eyebrow slightly.

He spoke first, and the other pirates didn't say anything except for strange laughs, clearly indicating that he was the highest-ranking pirate among those surrounding them.

“Of course, my name is Jones, the owner of this Mercury Queen,” the pirate who licked his knife chuckled coldly. “You don’t seem worried at all. Looks like I’ll have to let you know what we are—”

“No, I just have facial paralysis,” Li Yili complained, raising her hand. “Actually, I can’t even stand up straight right now. If it weren’t for my secretary supporting me, I would be sitting on the ground right now.”

Alma, who was hiding behind Li Yili, was stunned. When all the pirates looked over, Alma realized what was happening and her eyes widened.

Jones remained silent for a while, licking the knife, before grinning to reveal his iron-black teeth. He opened his mouth, bit down, and blew, sending sparks flying. The blade, dripping with viscous liquid, was instantly engulfed by the flames.

"Then you still dare to come to the Mercury Queen? We've really been underestimated!" Jones grinned menacingly and handed the blade of his fire knife to Li Yili.

"I'm here to do business with you," Li Yili, maintaining her poker face, raised her hands above her head. "I need to do something in this sea of ​​the dead, and for that..."

Those who know about the Sea of ​​the Dead.

"Business? Looking for us pirates? Hahaha—"

Jones burst into laughter, and the pirates around him joined in, clutching their stomachs and laughing heartily.

Alma, exasperated, tugged at Li Yili's clothes from behind.

Why do you need to come in person to do business with pirates?

“We pirates only do our own business,” Jones’s smile vanished instantly. “Sir, congratulations, you’ve been kidnapped.”

See?!

Alma raised her hand and slapped her forehead hard.

After a brief silence, Li Yili covered her mouth in surprise.

"Eh—I've been kidnapped!"

“Sir, you seem quite surprised. This is the Mercury Queen,” Jones smiled smugly. “Or are you some big shot in Instas? Do you think we wouldn’t dare touch you?”

Alma glanced sideways; now that things had come to this, Li Yili should understand how foolish it was to make a deal with pirates.

Although the pirates have a pact with Instas and will not commit crimes in Instas.

But this contract doesn't protect fools like them who walk right into their trap and get kidnapped. Now they can only accept their bad luck and pay the ransom. Fortunately, the pirates don't seem to know their true identities, so their demands won't be too outrageous.

Just as Alma was calculating how much she would lose this time, Li Yili raised her hand to her chest and met Jones's gaze with clear eyes.

"I am Levi-Ist. Richard, also known as Levi-Ist. I am the Minister of Logistics in Sheep Village. This is my secretary, Alma. Come on, Alma, say hello to everyone."

As she spoke, Li Yili raised her hand and patted Alma on the back. Alma, who was still calculating the losses, subconsciously raised her hand and waved to Jones in front of her. The pirates' increasingly strange looks made Alma react in an instant, and she stiffly turned her head to look at Li Yili.

You bastard...

“Mr. Li Yili,” Jones said, arms crossed and leaning back tactically, “were you the one who was throwing money down the street yesterday?”

“My family gave me some pocket money, which I can’t use up,” Li Yili shrugged.

“Mr. Li Yili, you’ve been kidnapped,” Jones said with a bright smile, patting Li Yili on the shoulder before turning to Alma with a friendly smile. “Miss Alma, please inform Sheep Village Logistics to prepare the ransom. It’s not much, just two hundred thousand gold coins.”

"Wait a moment?!"

Before Alma could speak, Li Yili raised her hand with a serious expression and grabbed Jones's wrist. In an instant, all the pirates around them took a step back and raised their weapons, pointing them at Li Yili and Alma. Jones's eyes narrowed slightly.

"you think……"

"Am I only worth two hundred thousand gold coins? That's underestimating me," Li Yili sneered.