"Knock, knock, knock!"
Sidney Reynolds lightly rapped on the door.
The small door beside the main gate silently opened.
"What is it?" Logan, half-hidden in the darkness, coldly stared at the visitor.
"Whoa, you scared me in the middle of the night!" Sidney Reynolds patted his chest. "I brought your goods. Open the door!"
Seeing no reaction from either person, Logan shut the small door and opened the main gate.
The truck drove straight into the warehouse.
Sidney Reynolds patted the truck and said, "Everything is here. Hodor!"
The driver, a large, burly man named Hodor, opened the back of the truck, revealing barrels full of oil inside.
"Check the goods, brother," Sidney Reynolds signaled to Logan.
"No need, I trust you," Logan said, not stepping into the dim truck.
Sidney Reynolds smiled, waved Hodor over, and Hodor entered the truck alone, pulling out a ramp to roll the barrels down.
Sidney Reynolds caught them and arranged them neatly.
Logan stood to the side, watching without a word. He would never turn his back on someone he didn't trust. After all, he had traded over a million gold with Sidney Reynolds. Wealth could turn anyone into a devil for enough profit. Logan certainly wouldn't place his safety in the hands of Sidney Reynolds's character.
It took more than three hours before the two men, panting heavily, finished unloading all the barrels. After a quick farewell, Sidney Reynolds and Hodor got into the truck and drove away.
Logan watched the vehicle until it disappeared from sight before retracting his gaze. It might seem that he was being overly suspicious, but better safe than sorry—Logan didn't think he had done anything wrong.
Inside the truck, Sidney Reynolds, who had been watching the rearview mirror out of the corner of his eye, only looked away when Logan was no longer visible.
Hodor, who was driving, grumbled, "Sid, aren't you being too cautious? We had a chance to strike just now."
Sidney Reynolds, who had been in the "business" for many years, was no saint. He would seize an opportunity to double-cross if he was certain of success. However, maintaining a good reputation required two things: one, completing transactions sincerely, and two, ensuring that any double-crossing was done cleanly.
Sidney Reynolds chuckled, "It's not that I'm too cautious; it's that the young man is too cautious. Didn't you notice how wary he was of us the entire time?"
Hodor glanced at the now-empty mirror dismissively, "Just a skinny little guy, I could've crushed him with one hand."
Sidney Reynolds slowly lit a cigarette, his relaxed posture contrasting with the seriousness in his eyes. "I don't think so. Standing next to him just now, I had the feeling that if I made any move, I'd be killed instantly."
Hodor's expression turned serious as well. "Really? I didn't see any weapons on him. Even if he wanted to pull a gun, there's no way he could be faster than you, right?"
Sidney Reynolds had encountered many buyers who tried to cheat him, taking the goods and only wanting to pay with bullets instead of money. His quick and steady draw was what had kept him alive for so many years.
But for him to say that his draw wasn't faster than that young man's? It shocked Hodor, who had known Sidney Reynolds for years.
"You know my instincts have saved me many times," Sidney Reynolds exhaled a puff of smoke. "Remember Harold's disappearance? That day, I sensed that Harold was planning to take him out, and I casually warned him. But from that day on, Harold disappeared, while the guy was fine. Need I say more? To handle things so cleanly in Harbor City... It's not that I'm overestimating the kid—I think I'm underestimating him. We agreed to try if there was an opportunity. There wasn't, and it was right that we didn't act. If we had, at least one of us would've been dead."
Hodor opened his mouth as if to say something but ultimately stayed silent.
Sidney Reynolds stubbed out his cigarette and looked at Hodor, who still seemed dissatisfied. "You know I'm good at reading people. Take my advice—don't mess with that kid. I have a feeling that as long as he doesn't die, he'll never be just a nobody."
"Oh, and we should start stockpiling diesel and gasoline as well. I have this uneasy feeling, like something big is about to happen."
...
After locking the warehouse door and checking that all the barrels were intact and free of surveillance devices like micro-cameras, Logan finally felt relieved. He opened a few barrels and randomly checked them, confirming that there were no issues with the oil.
Four hundred barrels were neatly stacked in a square formation.
After confirming that no one was outside the warehouse, Logan placed his hand on one of the barrels and silently thought, "Duplicate!"
The number on the Cornucopia interface dropped from 22 to 21.
With a flash of golden light, the barrel in front of him was duplicated—another 400 barrels appeared out of thin air!
Logan inspected the duplicates. From the barrels to the oil inside, everything was perfectly replicated.
Twenty tons of gasoline and twenty tons of diesel had become forty tons of gasoline and forty tons of diesel!
Excitement flashed in his bright eyes.
But forty tons of fuel was still not enough. He needed enough to last through the impending extreme cold for decades, to power the generator and keep his snowmobile running. That's why he had planned to use his duplication ability when negotiating with Sidney Reynolds.
Now he had forty tons of gasoline and forty tons of diesel, but it still wasn't enough to satisfy Logan.
Previously duplicated gold could be duplicated again, but what about the duplicates? Could they be duplicated again?
He hadn't continued duplicating gold because it was difficult to circulate, but fuel—even if it was a duplicate of a duplicate—could be used without issue.
Logan connected the two piles of oil barrels and, after some thought, took out the generator and some other supplies from his storage space, placing them with the barrels.
He activated the duplication ability again!
A flash of golden light filled the warehouse, and 800 barrels of oil now stood where 400 had been before.
However, it turned out that only the original 400 barrels could be duplicated. The duplicated barrels could not be duplicated again.
Logan was a bit disappointed. If duplicates could be duplicated, he could have 800 barrels this time, then 3200 next time, and with a few more rounds, he would have an endless supply of fuel.
Also, different items couldn't be duplicated together.
Now, Logan had discovered the limitations of the treasure basin's duplication function.
One, duplicates couldn't be used to upgrade the space.
Two, only one type of item could be duplicated at a time.
Three, items that had already been duplicated could be duplicated again, but duplicates couldn't be duplicated.
Though they looked identical, the duplicates weren't recognized by the treasure basin. There must be some difference between them.