996 Negotiations With the Southern Stars

"Lady Boss Qiu! I have reached the Southern Region's Capital with Nightingale and the others. She's asked for some time to readjust back to the ground after that C130 flight and parachuting down! Hehehe! Are you free to meet us soon?" Meomi asked as she held her former housemaid Nightingale by the shoulders.

The rest of her squad from Southern Star had enjoyed that novel experience and most of them were still high on the adrenaline rush. Some even said that they would not mind experiencing such a feeling again.

"I shall report to the Grandmaster and inform him about your arrival. Enjoy the sights of our Southern Capital." Nightingale's leader said as he waved them goodbye before disappearing into the shadows outside the gates of the Southern Capital which Meomi could feel their presence slowly fading away. 

Before she blinked they had seemingly fused with the shadows and when she had opened her eyes again, there was nothing but walls along the Southern Capital. She checked around the area in search of a trick door but was unable to find one. She scratched her head wondering if they really had a skill to blend with the shadows and escape.

"You, your friends and your ninja-esque skills." She muttered to Nightingale but her former maid was unable to reply as she still felt like vomiting with every step. Meomi hoped that it wouldn't leave a lasting trauma, especially since they could be flying back. (After all, it was cheaper to the System than teleporting a larger group.)

"Meomi, I will join you in a little while. Jin just gave me a new task and I'm going to be a bit busy with it. Give me another call when you are about to meet their leader or if something urgent happens." Qiu Yue replied even though she saw Jin giving her the go ahead to help Meomi on the spot. It was after all Jin who had asked Meomi to get Qiu Yue to accompany her with the negotiations.

"Sure Lady Boss Qiu! See you later, I shall accompany Nightingale for some sight seeing first before they contact us." Meomi said as she started dragging her friend to the gates of the Southern Capital. (The guards were a little wary but eventually, they got through with Nightingale's credentials.)

"You sure know how to make use of me when I'm gone. Perhaps I've been doing things wrong. Instead of chasing after you, I should have shown you the cold shoulder." Qiu Yue teased Jin and the dungeon supplier sighed with his eyes rolling upwards.

"Please. If you don't want to do that job, I can go instead. I just know that you are better at negotiating deals for me." Jin grumbled.

"They even had the balls to proactively clear a few poorly manned caves and mind you when I say poorly manned, I'm just referring to them being outnumbered 10 to 1 instead of 50 to 1. Meanwhile, the western guys could barely handle minor skirmish when they were outnumbered 5 to 1. Southern Skies seem to actually appreciate this golden opportunity to earn lots of cash while gaining experience not just for their veterans but fresh recruits too." Qiu Yue remarked.

"We should be able to offer them 1,000 Gold Coins per week without placing any burden on ourselves. When we employed their group of four, we agreed on 49 gold coins per week for the next three months. So you can work out the math. At most I'm willing to pay them 2,500 Gold Coins per week and that is assuming they hand over their entire organisation numbers." Jin declared as he once again rechecked the sums on his phone app to make sure he did not allocate a wrong budget.

Qiu Yue was a bit surprised why he suddenly acted so stingy. Given the current exchange rate of Dungeon Dollars to Farming World Coins, 1 DD equalled 125 bronze coins (=1.25 Gold coins). And to put things to perspective, 3 bronze coins was enough to purchase a decent meal.

For Nightingale and her group, 7 gold coins per day meant each of them was earning about 175 coins per day. This generous payment was most likely also the reason why they dared to risk their lives so eagerly. Getting more than 100 bronze coins a day was considered a luxury or as they put it when being offered the deal they 'struck gold'.

While the Southern Stars guild would take a commission fee since it was responsible for feeding all their numbers, especially in times when some of them were unable to get work, it was ultimately a lump sum leaving more than enough for the group.

"Fine, I guess you have your own reasons why you want to limit it. Depending on the size of their organisation it might be difficult to get them all, but I will do my best." Qiu Yue and Jin nodded at each other.

"Their current weaponry is unlikely to hold a candle against the main group of Demon Rats. I've received reports from Meomi that during one of the confrontations the Southern Star members' weapons broke and they had to resort to fighting with the Demon Rats' leftover weapons. Well, they only used those as blunt force weapons since they were unable to figure out how to operate them properly. Meomi was smart enough to allow the current group to keep these new weapons for now, so they could brandish it to their leader."

"I see that you already laid the groundwork." Qiu Yue was happy since this would ease up the negotiations and with it, she would be able to squeeze the life out of the leader. "So basically we are limiting their pay, because we'll be the ones to outfit them with our own weapons. Well, if nothing else works, a show of force should help sweeten the deal."

"You sure you are stronger than their leader?" Jin doubted her for a moment before he got whacked on the head with an even more forceful impact. He could have dodged it easily given his rigorous training but he allowed himself to be hit to judge her strength.

"Strong enough for you?" Qiu Yue asked as she did not hold back and infused her icy chi into the punch.

"It's definitely cooling," Jin answered as he tried to tolerate the pain, but it only got worse. He eventually realised it was the freezing ice that was more painful. It literally started to give him a brain freeze until he was forced to use Black Panda Fire to slowly remove the ice by warming the surroundings as well as channeling his chi towards his head. (Else he could be bald if he haphazardly tried to remove it!) Yet the casual remark nearly prompted Qiu Yue to give him another punch, only this time Jin did dodge.

"I yield! You win! You win! Go do your brute force method!" Jin shouted as he furthered the distance upon dodging. Fortunately, Meomi's call saved the dungeon supplier's skin from being frozen once more.

"Hmph! Consider yourself lucky that I did not use the full effect of my ice chi!" Qiu Yue harrumphed and stuck her tongue out before teleporting away.

"Full effects?" Jin queried and the System informed him that there was actually a second part to the ice attack. It's just that the Red Panda Cultivator did not use it. Jin shuddered at the thought of what might have happened next.

"System, please record her fight for me if she started any. I wanna see if she turns any of them into ice cubes."