Chapter 374 - Chapter 374: 135. Cross-Boundary Cooperation_4

Chapter 374: 135. Cross-Boundary Cooperation_4

Translator: 549690339

“After deducting the production and trading costs, the remaining profit out of the 3 billion is 2.5 billion. Out of the 2.5 billion net profit, more than 2 billion ends up in the pockets of the local sales company’s staff, or more precisely, into the pockets of the Alchemist Faction behind these staff members. I have outlined the factions benefitting from this activity in the document. You can look them up in the index,” she explained.

Noland Lee had a quick look at the document, extracting a bunch of papers bound together with a stapler.

He glanced over the list of factions and raised an eyebrow, noticing something potentially coincidental.

A few days ago, during spray powder day, Fars Scott had used an Alchemical Mechanical Spider to penetrate through to the third underground level, intending to test its combat capabilities.

The spider was ambushed and dismantled into mechanical parts, with the vital Alchemical Cube being taken away by the attacker.

Fars had suspected that a competitor who had got the same research task had secretly planned this attack to eliminate him from the competition.

Lee followed Fars’s clues and conducted an investigation into the competitors who had taken the same research task as him.

At first, Lee selected eight suspects.

After extensive discussion with Betty Davis, the list of suspects was narrowed down to five.

All five individuals were backed by the same faction, the Razor Gang.

The Razor Gang had control of No.11, making them the best mid-level Alchemist Faction in their locality and backed by the Life Essence Society’s Stone Mining Society.

The faction had one Fifth-order Alchemist, four Fourth-rank Alchemists, and not less than thirty Alchemists ranging from the first to third order.

As a gang that thrived on thrill and bloodshed, the Razor Gang had a notorious reputation.

Due to their fearless and combative nature, they stood out amongst all the small factions.

However, they had offended numerous individuals and factions in the process and remained stuck at the mid-level alchemist hierarchy.

Now, this mid-level faction known as the Razor Gang had appeared on the list provided by Cindy. They topped the list, taking away 50% of the net profit of the Blackwater Winery Sales Company for the year.

Lee thought about the operations of the Blackwater Winery Company, exporting local wine to Tatis in large quantities, and smelled the faint scent of conspiracy.

There are no long-distance instant communication means in this world.

In Noland Lee’s world before crossing, to transfer funds on a large scale through international trade, one cannot do without fictitious trade scenarios, false trade goods, legal trade backgrounds, and the most crucial thing—the means of payment.

With developed communication and rapid currency circulation in the world before crossing, fund payment can be completed using telegraphic transfer.

However, in this world, an export company must first get the money paid by the trade object, bring it to the local area and exchange it to local currency to account for it.

Meaning, the local Blackwater Winery Sales Company would have to accomplish the following steps:

Sail to the empire, sell their wine, exchange it for New Solon Currency, take them back to Union City, convert them to Union Coin and distribute it to the company staff.

But here comes the problem.

It is known that the Tatis Empire is extremely closed, and its New Solon Currency doesn’t meet the requirements for international circulation. The local Alchemist Factions in Union City do not recognise the New Solon Currency.

In this situation, how is the Blackwater Winery Sales Company supposed to exchange the New Solon Coins they have earned for Union Coins?

Isn’t this like exchanging solid gold and silver for waste paper?

The net profit of 2.5 billion mentioned by Cindy is calculated in Union Coins. The salaries that are paid out are also in Union Coins, not in New Solon Coins.

Anyone who helps the Blackwater Winery Sales Company exchange New Solon Coins for Union Coins would have to pay out a real 2.5 billion Union Coins.

Who has such financial strength?

Lee slightly inhaled and looked at the glamorous lady opposite to him, asking:

“Tell me honestly, Cindy. Who helped the Blackwater Winery Sales Company exchange the coins? Could it be your Golden Commerce Guild?”

Cindy, holding her thin smoke, waved her hand, and said:

“No, Ray Lee, our Golden Commerce Guild would not make such a loss-making deal. It was the doing of the Re-forged Alchemist Association.”

“The Re-forged Alchemist Association…” Lee was silent for two seconds and then laughed lightly:

“This adds up now…”

“What? What adds up?” Cindy blinked her eyes curiously, looking at the man across from her hiding his face behind a face towel and sunglasses.

Lee shook his head, not answering her question.

He leaned back on his chair and pulled up the “Third-order Blackbone Warlock· Taludo” panel information in his mind.

[Identity 1] Supervisor of the Blackbone Secret Society’s Machinery Factory

[Identity 2] Expert at the Re-forged Alchemist Association’s Alchemy Workshop

When Lee had first seen the delicate layout of the mechanical factory, he began to wonder:

Who had designed the blueprint of the mechanical factory?

Who had supervised the construction of the factory?

Who was operating it?

It could not have been Samuelson. Just because he was skilled in mental magic doesn’t mean he was talented in construction.

It also could not have been the Blackbone hermit of the Blackbone Secret Society. Just looking at the Alchemy slaves they had created, one could see that they were dirty and messy, filled with a patchy atmosphere, and they could not possibly be the designer of the mechanical factory.

When reviewing the results of the deconstruction process, Lee came across Taludo’s identity information and immediately figured that he was the one who had helped the Blackbone Secret Society design the mechanical factory.

Taludo surely had the ability to design, construct, and operate a mechanical factory; otherwise, his identity as an “Alchemy Workshop specialist” would be compromised.