Ball of Nothing

Zero altered Lovina's spell and entered the portal easily. His presence was immediately recognised by Ruth and Beelzebub the moment he arrived in hell. Zero didn't manage to get far before they materialised in front of him.

"Zero! What brings you here? I thought you were travelling on Earth?" Beelzebub smiled and Ruth grinned.

The doctor looked around. "Where's Seff? I heard that he has been quite the troublemaker."

The vampire groaned at the mention of that small menace. "He is at Hua Tuo's hospital entertaining the patients as we speak. I think your shifu is better at dealing with children compared to the rest of us in the village. Karris hasn't slept well in days so I thought I'd babysit him here. Who would have known he would get into as much trouble as you did when you were still under training with Hua Tuo? If he had your powers, I'm sure this boy would be causing intergalactic damages by now."

The doctor had no comebacks for that. It was true that he was quite the troublemaker when he first regained his consciousness but now, he knew better.

"I'll stop by to see shifu for a little but I'm here to ask about how things are progressing. Do you see an increase in business ever since I left? I need to talk to Coux and Mammon about starting a seed fund. Currently, I need a lot of money, enough to buy the freedom of an entire kingdom."

Beelzebub didn't know if he was listening to the right thing. "And where will the money come from?" he asked. "Are you going to borrow money from Lord Mammon? I don't think he will lend you any even if he could afford it. Besides, I'm guessing you're talking about a kingdom on Earth. Cursed coins don't work outside of the abyss."

"I'm aware of that," Zero nodded. "Hence I came up with a different idea. I currently have some seed funds thanks to a turn of events. Royalty pays you handsomely if you can sell them what they need."

Curious, Ruth wanted to know what Zero did and the doctor spilt the beans. Both the vampire and demon lord were amused when Zero told them how he convinced the giants to change their faith and how he sold slimming potions to the dwarves. The reward that he got in return made them slightly confused.

"How much are a thousand gold coins worth in cursed coins?" Beelzebub asked when Zero said he wanted to use that as his seed fund for the campaign.

Zero shrugged. "That's why I thought I'd ask Coux and Mammon later. I do know that they are worth about 10 dinnites. I think that's actually a lot of money because even with 600 binnites I could already buy 6,000 pork sandwiches with it."

"How many pork sandwiches can 10 dinnites buy then?" Ruth asked and Zero's brain stalled.

If 1 binnite is 10 pork sandwiches and 1,000 binnites made 1 single cinnnite, then 10,000 cinnites made 1 dinnite, how many zeroes will that make in pork sandwiches?

"Zero... no wait, four zeroes... two hundred thousand? No, that's not right. Uh... wait I know! One hundred hundred pork sandwiches!"

Mii facepalmed. "It's one billion pork sandwiches[1]," she corrected him and materialised. "Please don't give Zero any Math to work with, he can't handle it."

"Oh, you're here. Never thought I'd miss seeing you," Ruth smirked and Beelzebub raised a brow.

The strawcherry fairy rolled her eyes. "Greetings, Lord Beelzebub. I'm Mii, Zero's mindscape assistant and a summon of sorts. I've been helping him with the backend mental processing and to answer your question, a thousand gold coins would be able to buy a billion pork sandwiches. Of course, this isn't enough to buy the freedom of all slaves or even stop slavery that Zero intends to do. Hence, we need to grow this number with the abyss' help."

With Mii's explanation, they understood the situation better while Zero was still counting the zeroes. Due to time limitations, Mii apologised and dragged Zero along to greet his shifu before looking for the business people. She sent word ahead via party call to Coux and Mammon to inform them of Zero's arrival so they would be arriving soon. Needless to say, Zero would most likely be eating at Finest Taste for the meeting in a private room.

Hua Tuo was pleasantly surprised to see his student but quickly noticed that something was off.

"What is he muttering about?" he asked Mii who sighed and told the Sage God briefly how Zero's mind was broken now that he had been posed one of the most difficult Math questions in his life. Hua Tuo nodded with sympathy and served some Poxie tea.

Zero came back to his senses slowly after drinking tea and paid his respects to Hua Tuo. The Sage God was pleased to see that his pupil was doing well. "Are you in a rush or do you have time to meet your juniors? I took on some new students and while none of them is as promising as you, they are hardworking apprentices."

Zero declined politely. "Sorry, shifu. I'm actually on my way to meet Coux and Mammon briefly and I'll have to leave. I need to go to Derby Desert and find a desert poppy while bringing back a gnome technician so that the dwarves can help the giants make a Freya statue. The case from before about paralysis mushroom spores hasn't been completely resolved. We went a huge way around to get it done but this should be the last lap."

Hua Tuo chuckled. "The affairs of the mortal world have always been complicated. Remember to not lose yourself in them and take time to step out. As someone greater, you need to look at the bigger picture than the smaller details sometimes. Go do what you have to, I'll be in this hospital if you ever need me. Do me proud, my disciple."

Zero grinned and finished the Poxie tea quickly before taking his leave. Mii informed him about the appointment she booked him and said that the guests were already waiting. Zero didn't want to keep them waiting so he left without seeing Seff.

[1] I checked with the editors and other writers. We had a discussion. This is the correct number, please don't argue with me.

1b = 10p

1,000b = 10,000p

10,000c = 100,000,000p

10d = 1,000,000,000p

Hence it is 1 billion pork sandwiches. I had to edit this a few times for the right number but this is my final answer. The evidence of my incapability to Math is on my Instagram.