Chapter 493: Intense Work
Mike couldn't help but return to the Masonic secret realm from Foley Manor. He walked quickly towards the meeting room and asked Zhou Hong urgently:
"Are you sure?"
"Of course, I have already set an anchor in Draco Malfoy's mind, and now he is completely our spy." Zhou Hong was also extremely excited at this time. He rubbed his hands and laughed, "And according to the feedback he gave me, Voldemort has now confirmed the role of the Vanishing Cabinet and is gathering people to prepare to attack Hogwarts!"
"What about the time? When are they going to launch the attack?"
"December 25th, Christmas Eve at 8 o'clock. This time happens to be the climax of the Christmas dinner at Hogwarts."
Mike nodded and said,
"We still have time. Let Franklin do it. We are going to start moving the Vanishing Cabinet."
"Understood!"
"Are there any other problems?"
Mike just asked casually. In his opinion, his arrangements were already perfect and it was unlikely that anyone would have any problems.
But Zhou Hong was embarrassed when he heard this, and said in a strange way:
"Well, there is no big problem in other places, but the Muggle Prime Minister..."
Zhou Hong's voice suddenly weakened halfway through and finally disappeared.
Mike's eyes were stern when he heard this, and he turned his head and frowned and said:
"What? He doesn't want to send troops?"
"It's not... it's just..." Zhou Hong couldn't explain it with a strange look on his face, and finally pointed to the conference room not far away and said, "Anyway, I can't explain this matter clearly, why don't you go and talk to him yourself, the two-sided mirror has been prepared for you."
Mike didn't ask any more questions after hearing this, but walked into the conference room quickly.
There were not many people in the conference room at this time, only Benjamin and Penelope were there, and a huge full-length mirror was erected on the conference table, facing Mike's first seat.
Mike felt that something was wrong as soon as he walked into the conference room, because Benjamin and Penelope explained with serious faces at this time, as if they had encountered some very serious problems.
"Boss!"
"Mike!"
Seeing Mike appear, Benjamin and Penelope both stood up. The latter looked guilty. She was the only one who had problems with the task, which made her very uneasy.
She was about to come over to explain, but Mike shook his head, touched her cheek to comfort her, and then sat in front of the two-sided mirror.
Mike moved his wand slightly, and the picture on the mirror in front of him began to ripple, and finally reflected the appearance of the Muggle Prime Minister.
It was afternoon, and the Muggle Prime Minister seemed to be enjoying afternoon tea. The changes on the two-sided mirror scared him, and he almost sprayed the tea in his mouth all over the desk.
"Cough cough cough!" The Muggle Prime Minister coughed violently, and wiped his mouth only after his breathing became smoother. He looked at Mike in the screen with a smile on his face, "Mr. Townley, we meet again. It's really like a day without seeing..."
"Okay, no more nonsense!" Mike interrupted him with a gloomy face, "I need your military support now, will you give it to me or not?"
Mike's attitude was very bad. He felt distressed when he saw Penelope's aggrieved look. Although he did not show it, he was already full of anger towards the Muggle Prime Minister at this time.
But the Muggle Prime Minister opposite didn't care. He continued to maintain that perfect smile, shook his head gently and said:
"Mr. Townley is such a straightforward person, but you don't need to be so anxious. First of all, of course we can provide military support, after all, this is something that has long been written into the contract in black and white, but I really can't meet the scale of weapons and the number of soldiers you need! You must
know that you are so powerful that you don't care about the sanctions of the International Confederation of Wizards, but I am different. I am just an ordinary person. If those wizards know about this, I will be finished if they send a few people over! Maybe they will put me in that wizard prison called Avakaban. I heard from other wizards that there..."
"Enough!" Mike rubbed his eyebrows and shouted impatiently, "How many people can you send?"
The Muggle Prime Minister raised a finger to signal Mike to wait, then he turned out a piece of white paper, coughed twice and read:
"A team of ten, all composed of the most elite members of the 'Royal Navy Special Boat Regiment', and equipped with the most advanced thermal sensing night vision goggles, L119a1 rifles..."
The Muggle Prime Minister rattled off a bunch of fancy terms, which made Mike stunned.
But he was not a fool, and he finally understood after listening to the end.
It seemed that the other party was only willing to send ten special reconnaissance soldiers, and nothing else.
Michael was really angry now, but he didn't lose his temper. Instead, he calmed down and looked at the Muggle Prime Minister coldly and said,
"I want a ground force of about 70 people, including at least 40 armored troops, plus 4 Savage helicopters and 5 Sky Fighters."
"That's impossible!" The Muggle Prime Minister shook his head like a rattle, "I can't do that! Such a large-scale mobilization of armed forces will definitely be discovered by the International Magical Confederation. By then..."
"You are so afraid of the International Magical Confederation, but you are not afraid of me at all?"
Before the Muggle Prime Minister finished speaking, Michael's faint voice came into his ears.
His face froze, and he looked at Michael's equally cold expression through the cold mirror, and his body shuddered suddenly.
Michael's words without a trace of emotion confirmed one thing, that is, Michael was serious. This kind of person who dared to ignore the international confidentiality law to deliver potions and magic items to Muggles really dared to assassinate the Prime Minister of a country.
The Muggle Prime Minister swallowed his saliva, and said weakly with an aggrieved expression:
"They are all the people of the Great Ying Empire, the pillars of the country carefully cultivated by taxpayers with huge amounts of tax money."
Mike rubbed the blackthorn wand in his hand and said impatiently:
"So what?"
"It costs more!"
Half an hour later, the image on the two-way mirror finally disappeared. After fierce bargaining, Mike finally rented the command of the troops he needed for a total of 10 days at the cost of 5 bottles of truth serum, 5 bottles of polyjuice potion, 1 small bottle of Felix, 100 bottles of powerful healing potions and 10 sets of invisibility cloaks.
In addition, Mike only obtained the right to rent. If these people and machines were damaged or destroyed in the battle, Mike would provide additional compensation. Of course, the specific price has been negotiated. Converted into gold galleons, the pension for each soldier is about 100 galleons, the Sky Fighter is 10,000 galleons, the Savage Helicopter is 5,000 galleons, and armored vehicles are not included.
At first glance, this deal seems to be a disadvantage for Mike. After all, the various potions required by the other party are difficult to deal with. Advanced goods, and if the battle does not go well, Mike will also need to compensate a large amount of supplies, which are even difficult for the Los Santos Group to get.
But in fact, Mike feels that he has made a lot of money!
You should know that the manufacturing unit price of the Savage helicopter has reached an astonishing 4.5 million pounds! As for the Sky Fighter, it is even more exaggerated, and the cost of each one is more than 17 million pounds!
To be honest, the Muggle Prime Minister has asked for very few such precious war machines. As long as he has these things, Mike even dares to go to Voldemort!
On the other hand, the Muggle Prime Minister did not feel that he was at a disadvantage. After all, these things are old things left over from decades ago. The son does not feel sorry for selling the father's land. The current Muggle Prime Minister who has not experienced that war era does not look down on these things at all. What he cares about is those precious magic potions and magical props!
In his eyes, this is the future!
So in general, this is a deal that both parties feel they have made a profit, and everyone is happy!
Penelope and Benjamin, who have been watching from the sidelines, are now completely confused. They never expected that the Prime Minister of a country could bargain with Mike like an old lady who went to Portobello Road Market (a famous large flea market in London) to purchase! This simply overturned their perception of the Prime Minister!
Mike, who saw their expressions, sighed helplessly.
Now he basically understood why Penelope and Benjamin couldn't handle such a trivial matter that seemed easy to him.
In the eyes of Penelope and Benjamin, the Muggle Prime Minister is a very noble position and a leader worthy of their respect. This is also a common shortcoming of most Muggle-borns. This may be incredible to others. After all, the Muggle Prime Minister of Yingguo has always been used to scold, and ordinary people are not friendly to them.
But Penelope and other Muggle-born wizards were sent to the fully closed school Hogwarts at the age of eleven, and they could only stay in the Muggle society for a few months every year. Therefore, their perception of the Muggle society has always remained in childhood. As children, they still respect things like the Prime Minister.
And it is precisely because of their respect that they fell into a disadvantage in the negotiations with the Muggle Prime Minister, because they instinctively believed that the other party was a person of higher status than themselves, so they did not dare to take tough measures.
This gives the Muggle Prime Minister, a professional politician, an opportunity. Playing tricks and negotiating are their forte!
"Okay, there's no need to be so sad. It's just a small matter." Mike waved his hand and said, "Next time you meet that half-bald old man, just send a death threat. Don't talk to him. You are not his opponent when it comes to talking."
"Got it."
Penelope and Benjamin responded in a low voice, with a look of disappointment on their faces.
But time was urgent, and Mike had no time to appease their emotions. After a few simple instructions, Mike took Zhou Hong and other personnel and teleported directly to the Avery Secret Realm. The
current Avery Secret Realm is very different from when Mike first came.
In the original Avery Secret Realm, except for some magic lights arranged near the Avery Factory, all areas were dark 24 hours a day and in a wild state. Usually, no creatures were willing to go there except for the worker ants who went to cut mushrooms.
But now many areas in the Avery Secret Realm are planted with the luminous mushrooms called "Night Fireflies" in the Queen Ant's nest. The light emitted by these mushrooms is light green. The light is not strong, but the number can basically meet the visual needs of humans.
According to Benjamin, he originally planned to arrange magic lamps on a large scale. After all, the Los Santos Group regularly sends adventure teams to explore resources in undeveloped areas in the secret realm, but this plan has attracted strong opposition from the Queen Ant.
The reason is that the light emitted by the magic lamp is too dazzling and will burn the ants' eyes, which are already seriously degenerated.
So, at the suggestion of the Queen Ant, the original magic lamp was replaced with "Night Fireflies", and Benjamin was happy to see it happen. After all, the cost of planting this kind of luminous mushroom is shockingly low.
At the same time, the exploration teams that were sent out regularly were not doing it for free. In addition to magic liquid and magic cloth, there is now a gem named "Black Ant Stone" in the Avery Secret Realm. After testing, this gem is extremely useful in alchemy, and now the profit has even gradually caught up with magic cloth and magic liquid.
Of course, as a price, Benjamin invested in a new ore processing plant in the Avery Secret Realm, which processes the raw ore collected by the ants every day.
After arriving in the Avery Secret Realm, Mike first visited the mushroom factory and the ore processing plant, and then went to the queen's nest to discuss the upcoming battle with the other party.
Unlike the huge changes on the ground, there was not much change inside the queen's nest. Everything was the same as when Mike came before.
The queen ant continued to stay in the cave directly below the mushroom factory, and the surrounding area was still full of luminous mushrooms, which were dotted and very beautiful.
But the hole at the top of the cave that was once used for feeding has been abandoned. Now the queen ant's food is carried by the worker ants, and the food has improved a lot. This is one of the benefits that Mike originally promised to the queen ant.
However, the change of better food has not been reflected in the queen ant. Her body is still as weak as when Mike first came. Not only did she not get fat, but she became thinner.
But there is nothing strange about this. Most of the nutrients in the queen ant's body are used to cultivate a new generation of ants. Of course, she can't get fat.
Corresponding to her weight loss, the number of ants in the Avery secret realm has almost doubled during this period. So to some extent, Mike's business of improving the queen ant's food has made a lot of money.
Looking up at the still majestic queen ant in front of him, Mike smiled and said:
"Hello, Lilith."
"Hello to you, respected master."