Alex's idea made Emily frown.
"You want to challenge a red zone with just a few people? That's crazy, Brother.
We won't even be able to fight our way to the dungeon entrance."
Since the dungeon had already broken, monsters would keep pouring out from it.
The area around the dungeon gate had already turned into a monster nest.
Alex smirked.
Seeing his confident smile, Emily felt the urge to smack him.
She hated how he never went straight to the point and always liked to keep her in suspense.
Alex took out the storage box he had created.
"When I hunted for life force, I put one of the mutated monster wolves inside here."
He pointed to an empty spot in the room.
After a few presses on the interface, the saber-tooth wolf's body appeared on the floor.
"You should know where I am going with this."
"Just get to the point," Emily said with a pout.
Alex chuckled.
"This one died because of its own skill, but this box can keep living monsters inside, Emily.
With this and my storage ring, I can bring as many monsters as I need.
I just need to tinker with the slave contract, put it into the formation, and make sure they become a loyal force of mine."
In his mind he added, "This should be faster than the VR game I had in mind.
That one would have taken much more time to establish."
"You want to make a full squad of monsters? And slave contract, formation, what do you mean by that?" Emily asked.
She was surprised by his idea, but there were a few terms she did not understand.
"Oh, right, you never read cultivation novels. I told you those novels are a good use of time and money.
You should appreciate them more," Alex said with a grin.
"Don't use those to justify your hobby. Just explain."
Emily had some idea of what a slave contract meant, but she wanted to confirm it with Alex.
The possibility of that kind of contract gave her many thoughts.
Alex explained how slave contracts worked and how safe they were for the user.
If the target broke the contract, the contract would kill them.
However, for barely intelligent monsters, he would need to modify the contract to also instill loyalty instead of only binding their actions.
While he talked, Alex remembered something from Mingyue's world.
There should be something similar to a beast contract there.
"I will need to ask Mingyue about this later," he thought.
Emily's expression turned thoughtful.
"Brother, that slave contract, how effective is it for awakeners?" she asked.
"That would depend on their ability. Why?" Alex replied.
"The Black Tower."
When she said that, Alex understood.
The Black Tower was a special building used to contain awakener criminals with heavy crimes.
Everyone inside was a psychopath.
"Isn't that under Hunter Association control?" he asked.
"Yes, but each of them is strong, Brother. With this contract, we can put them under our control.
I heard there are even three-star and four-star hunters inside.
Since no one knows this contract system, we can get these people if we make a deal with the association."
Alex shook his head right away.
"Not worth it. You should know better than me how dark people can become.
What do you think will happen if this contract is released to the public and the association?
Things will become worse than ever."
There were other reasons he did not agree. He did not plan to reveal the existence of qi to the Hunter Association.
He already planned to give them a simplified cultivation method that used mana instead.
However, the real contract system required qi to apply.
Emily's eyes turned solemn. She had seen many dark sides of hunters in her missions and hated dark hunters to the bone.
Still, the chance to build their own force quickly made her feel greedy.
With that kind of force, they could go to that dungeon and confirm their father's fate.
Alex looked down at the cube in his hand and played with it.
At first, he had thought capturing humans was a line he would not cross.
But after Emily's suggestion, another thought came to him.
There were many people who did not deserve to be in the Black Tower at all.
Instead of using people's taxes to keep those facilities running, was it not better to capture the worst of them and use them for something more useful?
His lips curved into a grin.
"We cannot touch those in the Black Tower," he said, "but do you not meet many dark hunters on your missions, Emily?"
"Yes," she answered.
Alex took out another storage cube, one without any defects. He had made this one specifically for Emily.
"You can use this for now to keep inanimate objects.
Inside, the area is a vacuum, so if you store food, make sure to put it inside another container first.
But it should still be useful for you to pack emergency items. I will give you a better one later."
Emily took the cube and started playing with the interface.
Alex continued, "Your idea itself is not wrong, but like I said, I do not want to bring the association into this.
I will try to modify the cube so you can use it to capture those dark hunters on your missions as test subjects."
He had already decided to use them to test his new cultivation method.
Then he handed Emily a few qi crystals and a cultivation method.
"You should try to cultivate too, Emily. But do not go too far, just reach the early phase of foundation.
That way you can change to a better method later if needed."
Emily looked at the transparent crystal with a slight orange hue.
It did not look much different from mana crystals, which had a blue hue.
She held the qi crystal and felt the raging energy sealed inside it.
"Oh yeah, one more thing."
Alex took out a storage ring and placed it on the table.
"You should be able to use this after reaching the foundation stage.
Just remember, compared to cultivators in her world, we need qi crystals to recover energy, since there is no qi in the atmosphere here.
I do not have many qi crystals for now, so use them sparingly."