Reborn as the Genius Son of the Richest Family

Chapter 845: Dirty trench

Phytoplanktons are microscopic beings, which is why Mermen didn’t notice their absence.

They knew something was wrong, they just didn’t know what. And now, Michael was going to take advantage of that and earn a whopping million Sand Dollars from them.

ChatJK5, please tell me you have a solution.

[I was able to sample from the water and analyze a phytoplankton’s anatomy. I have found their constitution to be 90% similar to the ones you have in your previous world. But the other 10% are completely unique to this world.]

Meaning?

[They have been mutated with mana.]

In this world, continued contact with the penetrating power of mana led their DNA to change and morph into something that can store magic in their bodies.

It seemed that these phytoplanktons were subject to this change, which meant that photosynthesis wouldn’t be enough to sustain their growth, unlike in his previous world.

The ocean in this world must have contained some kind of delicate process that allowed these phytoplanktons to receive both energy from the natural world, and mana from the mystical world to survive.

And this lake, despite being made through magic, lacked that aspect completely.

Can you think of a way to grow these phytoplanktons with magic?

[Working on it,] she said.

Meanwhile, Michael continued to get dragged along the bubble along with the Mermaid princesses.

Then, he noticed something.

Instead of swimming towards the distant glow of lights in the far reaches of the lake, they were instead going far away from it.

Princess Octavia seemed to notice his confusion and quickly explained. ”That place is ruled by my brother. He’s... richer than me, so he can afford to create a bigger territory. Nothing much of interest is going on over there.”

Somehow, Michael doubted that. The octopus princess was letting her dislike of her brother influence her actions. He had a feeling that she just didn’t want to go over there, probably because of jealousy and other such emotions.

”Instead, I’ll show you the dirty side of the lake.”

Eventually, the octopus princess led him towards a very deep trench that led even deeper down the crust of the world. Michael couldn’t see anything beyond this chasm, even with his Supreme Talent. No life lived here.

Standing just mere inches away from the near vertical cliff, even Michael felt a little bit uncomfortable. He willed his bubble to pull backwards, worried that the darkness would somehow pull him closer towards the depths.

The severe lack of mana in that place was unnerving, especially to someone whose life revolved around magic. It felt like the complete antithesis of him. While he was full of magic, this place was devoid of it.

No wonder he felt like the darkness was trying to swallow him. It was attracted to his mana!

The only way to correct the imbalance of magic, or complete lack of it, was to imbue it with something that was full of magic. And that was none other than Michael.

”See the dirty depths of this lake?” Princess Octavia said, trying not to turn away. This place was revolting, even for Mermen, who spent their whole lives in the dark depths of the ocean floor.

As it turned out, the pollution that they were talking about wasn’t actual trash that people threw in the water.

It was a pollution of a severe lack of mana.

”This dirty water is spreading all around and infecting our people. Many have already reported getting sick to their stomachs, unable to even stand or talk. Unfortunately, some have already succumbed to its dire effects.”

This trench is taking all of the mana in the water. Those Mermen are probably experiencing mana sickness—something that only happens when their bodies cannot take in mana like they were supposed to.

It finally made sense why phytoplanktons couldn’t survive in this lake. All the mana that they were supposed to eat were being swallowed by this trench instead! But even that didn’t seem to satiate this ancient, tectonic edge.

Whoever constructed New Sparta didn’t do a good job. They should have chosen a better place to put the lake.

Somehow, they chose the worst spot possible. They chose a spot where it had a trench leading to the center of the Earth! Of course, that was an exaggeration, but it seemed like the truth with the extreme lack of life down there.

So, in order to solve both the pollution and lack of resources in this lake, I have to solve the lack of mana in this trench... seems easy enough, he lied to himself.

Thankfully, his personal AI assistant came in handy once again.

[I have formulated a decent solution to this problem.]

Oooh, tell me.

[This trench needs mana. If we were to give it the sustenance it needs, then we can solve both problems at once.]

He shook his head. But to do that, we’d need to basically spend a year moving mana from the surface world to the depths of this lake. That’s not very efficient.

It would have been better if Princess Octavia went with the other company at that point. At least with them, they’d promise to send 10 Maugnetics every day to ’clean’ up the dirty water, which probably meant imbuing it with mana.

[We don’t have to fill it up completely,] said ChatJK5. [We just have to fill it up to the point where it won’t bother the rest of the water anymore.]

And before Michael could even say anything else, he suddenly reeled his head back as a flurry of information washed over his mind.

ChatJK5 began sending him loads of materials regarding the blueprints of this new project that they were going to complete.

”Keo? What’s wrong?”

Michael snapped back, returning to reality. ”It’s nothing. I just found a solution.”

He couldn’t help but break out in a smile. The solution that ChatJK5 gave him not only solved the current problems of the lake, but also gave way for an opportunity to spread the ideals of the Nation of Reborn!