An Extra Item Duplication!
Logan's eyes lit up. Was this the kind of duplication he was thinking of?
He immediately set to work testing it out.
With only three duplication attempts available, he couldn't afford to waste them. After some thought, he returned to his bedroom, opened his safe, and took out the most valuable items in his possession—five 500-gram gold bars left by his father.
He held them in his hands and quietly said, "Item Duplication."
A flash of golden light appeared before his eyes, and in the next second, five identical gold bars materialized out of thin air, falling to the ground with a crisp clatter.
Logan quickly bent down, picked up the bars, and placed them on the table, comparing them with the original ones in his hands.
The duplicated gold bars were exactly the same in size and weight as the originals. Even the tiny flaw on one of the bars was perfectly replicated.
Logan glanced at the cornucopia's interface.
The item duplication count had already changed to [Item Duplication*2].
The current international gold price was $430 per gram, with pawn shops offering a price $10 lower than the market rate.
The five gold bars in Logan's possession, left by his father, could now be sold for $1.05 million. With the cornucopia's duplication ability, Logan had just doubled his assets, adding another $1.05 million .
"The cornucopia… This is a true cornucopia," Logan murmured.
Such an incredible ability to amass wealth was undoubtedly the legendary cornucopia from the ancient tales.
There was once a famous legend in Xia Country about a man named Shen Wansan. The legend had many versions, but the most well-known was that Shen Wansan had, by a stroke of luck, acquired a cornucopia that could produce an endless amount of whatever was placed inside it.
As a result, Shen Wansan became one of the wealthiest individuals in the Ming Dynasty, with riches that could rival the nation's treasury.
If Logan's cornucopia had no limits on the number of duplications, it would only be a matter of time before he too amassed a fortune that could rival a nation's.
But could this still not be its full potential?
Logan stared at the ten gold bars before him, forcing his excitement to calm.
Even though he knew he could likely turn these ten bars into twenty with another duplication, the interface showed only two duplications remaining. He wasn't sure if the total of three was a fixed limit or if it could be replenished.
If it could only be used three times, he would need to save the remaining two uses for more critical moments.
Moreover, legends say Shen Wansan attracted the emperor's suspicion due to his immense wealth, which eventually led to his downfall.
A person of humble origins with great wealth is often targeted.
If he suddenly acquired a large fortune, it would likely draw the attention of the authorities.
With this in mind, Logan decided to use the duplicated gold bars to upgrade the cornucopia.
He picked up one of the gold bars and mentally commanded, "Upgrade Space."
Suddenly, a few red words flashed across the cornucopia's interface:
[Duplicated items cannot be used for upgrades]
So, he couldn't use duplicated items for upgrades?
Logan carefully examined the gold bar in his hand, which was indistinguishable from the original.
Realizing there was no loophole to exploit, Logan felt a slight pang of disappointment, but it made sense.
He then picked up one of the original gold bars from the safe and mentally commanded, "Upgrade Space."
The numbers on the interface shifted, changing to:
[Cornucopia]
[Function: Storage Space 3*3*3]
[Upgrade Cost: 500 currency points]
[Function: Item Duplication*2]
[Upgrade Cost: 10,000 currency points]
One 500-gram gold bar converted into 500 currency points—one point per gram of gold.
Logan had known this from his previous life.
For silver, it would take 100 grams to equal 1 currency point.
Logan used another gold bar, and the interface shifted again, signaling the space upgrade.
[Cornucopia]
[Function: Storage Space 6*6*6]
[Upgrade Cost: 2000 currency points]
[Function: Item Duplication*2]
[Upgrade Cost: 10,000 currency points]
The space had expanded. Although the dimensions only doubled, the volume was now eight times larger!
The upgrade cost had also doubled.
Two gold bars, worth $420,000, were gone in an instant.
If this had been three years ago, Logan wouldn't even have had enough money to qualify for upgrading the cornucopia.
Three years ago, Logan's father had died unexpectedly, leaving behind an inheritance and a life insurance payout of $10 million.
The cornucopia was one of the things his father had left him.
Right now, Logan's assets, aside from his house and these gold bars, amounted to $14.52 million in cash.
In the wealthy metropolis of Haishi, this wasn't much, but for a nineteen-year-old, it was already a considerable sum.
Yet, for Logan, it was far from enough.
Upgrading the storage space to the next level would require four gold bars, equivalent to $860,000 , while upgrading the item duplication function would require $4.24 million.
He still needed to stockpile a large amount of supplies and build a shelter, all of which would require a significant amount of money.
Logan thought for a moment and came up with a plan.
He pulled out his phone and searched for the contact numbers of several real estate agents, calling them one by one.
First, Logan needed to sell his apartment near the city center.
His past life had taught him that high-rise apartments in small neighborhoods weren't suitable for living in during the frozen apocalypse.
Harbor City's flat terrain, economic prosperity, and dense high-rise buildings couldn't save the city's millions of residents.
Southern architecture was mostly designed for heat dissipation, with inadequate insulation.
When the apocalypse hit, most of the people in southern cities froze to death.
The frozen apocalypse would begin in June.
Haishi's average temperature would plummet from 20°C-27°C to a bone-chilling -50°C to -80°C.
The steel and concrete of high-rise buildings would warp and crack under the extreme cold, and the glass windows that once offered beautiful views would be shattered by the blizzards.
Within a year or two, most of these high-rise buildings would collapse.
Some people wouldn't die from the cold but from the collapsing structures.
In his previous life, Logan's building hadn't collapsed, but the one next to it did, bringing down his building as well.
Luckily, Logan had noticed in time and escaped.
This time, there was no way he would stay there.
The apartment was in a prime location, close to the city center.
For over a decade, real estate prices in Xia Country had been skyrocketing, and Harbor City's property market was no exception.
Even Logan's 128-square-meter old apartment had reached a high price of $80,000 per square meter, making it worth over $10 million.
When selling the apartment, Logan had two requirements:
Quick sale.
Full cash payment.
These demands might seem difficult, but Harbor City wasn't short on wealthy buyers.
Logan set a bottom-line price of $9 million.
He made it clear that he had contacted several agents and didn't care how much they sold it for. He only wanted $9 million.
Whoever could sell it first would keep any excess as commission.
With such a high commission at stake, these real estate agents would do everything they could to sell Logan's apartment.
Even if the sale price was just $9.1 million, they would still earn $100,000!
The agents who received Logan's offer quickly began speculating that he must be a spoiled rich kid.
Selling the apartment, no matter how cheap, would take time, so this was the first thing Logan needed to get started.
His next plan required as much money as possible.
The next step was to use all his assets to buy gold bars from the bank, use the duplication skill to double the gold bars, sell the duplicated bars back to the bank, and recover his initial investment.
The remaining gold bars could then be used to upgrade the cornucopia!