As soon as Logan gave the command, a golden glow flickered across the interface, and a portion of the jewelry pile vanished. The numbers on the Cornucopia interface rapidly shifted before settling:
[Cornucopia]
[Storage Capacity: 96x96x96]
[Required Wealth Points for Upgrade: 32,000]
[Function: Item Replication 45]
[Required Wealth Points for Upgrade: 160,000]
The pattern for upgrading item replication was becoming clearer: the first upgrade added +3 replications, the second +6, the third +12, and now the fourth had added +24. However, the next upgrade required a significant amount of precious metals. What had previously cost 80,000 currency points, and then 58,000 after Logan had fed some extra gold into the Cornucopia, now required 160,000 points—equivalent to 160 kilograms of gold.
Other precious metals, like rose gold and platinum, could also be absorbed, but they didn't have the same 1 gram to 1 currency point conversion as gold. Silver, for instance, required 100 grams to equal 1 currency point. As for diamonds, the Cornucopia didn't seem to recognize them as valuable. Only precious metals appeared to be absorbed by the artifact.
Setting these thoughts aside, Logan continued upgrading the item replication function.
The fifth upgrade added another +48 to the replication count, and the cost for the next upgrade rose to 320,000 currency points. The sixth upgrade brought an additional +96 replication, with the next upgrade requiring 640,000 currency points.
Logan glanced at the dwindling pile of gold and silver jewelry. Based on this pattern, the next upgrade would likely require over a million currency points, but the remaining valuables weren't nearly enough.
He issued another command, upgrading the replication count by 192:
[Cornucopia]
[Storage Capacity: 96x96x96]
[Required Wealth Points for Upgrade: 32,000]
[Function: Item Replication 381]
[Required Wealth Points for Upgrade: 1.24 million]
By Logan's rough estimate, the remaining gold and jewelry could provide around 400,000 to 500,000 currency points, but that wasn't enough for the next upgrade. Instead, Logan shifted his focus to upgrading storage capacity.
Storage upgrades had always required fewer resources compared to item replication. Logan guessed that with four or five more upgrades, his storage space would be more than adequate for future needs.
"Upgrade all to storage space," Logan commanded decisively.
The remaining jewelry, except for the diamonds, disappeared. This time, the upgrade process took longer than usual, and the numbers on the Cornucopia interface fluctuated four times before settling:
[Cornucopia]
[Storage Capacity: 1456x1456x1456]
[Accumulate 985,755 more wealth points to unlock full storage capacity]
[Function: Item Replication 381]
[Required Wealth Points for Upgrade: 1.24 million]
"Full storage capacity?" Logan was momentarily stunned.
He had long suspected that upgrading the Cornucopia to its maximum limit would unlock something extraordinary, but he hadn't expected to reach that point so soon. His heart raced.
He had upgraded the storage five times before, and with four more upgrades now, it seemed there was a cap of ten upgrades for storage capacity. Logan quickly calculated using a pen and paper. Following the pattern of doubling costs, the tenth storage upgrade would require 512,000 currency points. However, even after absorbing all the remaining gold and jewelry, he still needed 985,755 more points.
Logan's brow furrowed. The final upgrade cost wasn't just double—it was quadrupled!
The same might apply to item replication, which had already been upgraded seven times. If it too capped at ten upgrades, Logan calculated that he would need... 20.82 million currency points.
In other words, he still needed to gather over 20 tons of gold—or even more, if using other precious metals!
Logan immediately opened the city map. He had already marked off the jewelry stores he had raided. Not many remained. South City wasn't particularly large, and after just one day, Logan had cleared out about 60% of the gold stores. The few that remained were mostly on the outskirts, where the number of stores was limited and collecting them would take more time.
There was no way he could gather 20 tons of gold from what was left.
Logan considered his options and quickly thought of the bank vaults. But he dismissed the idea just as fast. When he had been collecting supplies, Logan had scoped out a few banks. Most were securely locked, and although they were unguarded, the walls were reinforced, and the windows were bulletproof.
As for the vaults themselves, they were reputed to be explosion-proof. Even without guards, Logan's current firepower wasn't sufficient to breach bulletproof glass, let alone a bank vault.
He glanced at his hand, wondering if the Cornucopia could potentially bypass the walls of the vault and pull the gold into his storage space. He decided to test it on his own safehouse first.
The exterior walls of Logan's safehouse were over three meters thick, but the interior walls separating the rooms were only about 30 centimeters thick. Starting with a thinner wall would be a good test.
Logan placed his hand on the wall between the living room and his bedroom, closed his eyes, and concentrated on linking his consciousness with the Cornucopia. When he connected with it, he often felt a faint awareness of nearby objects, as if he could sense them.
However, as soon as he tried to pull an item through the wall, a sharp, stabbing pain shot through his head. Logan immediately severed the connection, collapsing in agony.
"Woof!" Max Knight rushed over, circling him in concern.
Forcing a smile, Logan reassured his anxious companion,
"I'm fine."
After a while, the nausea and dizziness subsided, but Logan's hopes had dimmed.
He stubbornly tried again, using different objects: a cup, an iron box, a cabinet—anything he could think of. Through his tests, Logan discovered that the Cornucopia's ability to retrieve items remotely depended on the thickness and density of the material separating him from the object. If the walls were more than five centimeters thick or made of dense material, the Cornucopia couldn't pull items through.
For example, Logan found that even an alloy box with a wall thickness of three centimeters caused the same painful rejection as before.
"This route won't work," Logan muttered, rubbing his temples. If the container was too thick or dense, the Cornucopia couldn't retrieve anything from inside. Clearly, bank vaults were not an option.
The only solution left was to finish raiding the remaining gold stores in South City and then expand his search to nearby cities.