Chapter 133 Information Guild



A few months ago.

Rain strolled through the black market, passing by various facilities and vendors selling all manner of illicit goods.

As he walked, he found himself drawn to the Information Guild, one of the most renowned sources of knowledge in the market.

Although he didn't necessarily need any information at the moment, he was curious about the guild and its operations.

"Looks fun." He mumbled.

***

"Tell me, Rain," Ben asked eagerly. "Who are you, and how do you know all of these things?"

Rain felt a pang of annoyance at Ben's prying question. He didn't like being interrogated, but he understood why Ben was curious.

"I'm a VIP patron of the Information Guild, Insight," Rain replied, keeping his tone neutral.

"Really?" Ben was surprised. "That would explain how you have access to so much information. But what about your family and whereabouts?"

"That's secret~," Rain chuckled, trying to defuse the tension.

"Okay, okay. I won't pry," Ben shrugged. "But being a VIP patron of [Insight] is pretty impressive. It's one of the top guilds on [Pandora]."

Pandora.

It was the name of the darknet that existed within this world, a seedy underbelly that catered to those who sought to buy and sell forbidden goods and services.

A convenient online black market.

"Indeed," Rain agreed, feeling a small smile tug at the corners of his mouth.

Insight was a relatively new guild, founded only two months prior with the motto "Let's start delving into the unknown secrets."

Despite their lack of credibility, they quickly rose through the ranks and became one of the most trusted sources of information on the dark net.

"Hey, Rain," Ben interrupted, his voice tinged with excitement.

Rain felt a jolt of curiosity. He wondered what Ben wanted to talk about. "Yes?" Rain replied.

"Will we ever meet in person?"

Rain noticed a surge of warmth in Ben's tone.

"Just wait a few months, maybe next year," Rain said, trying to make his tone gentle.

"Okay, sounds good. Hey, we're about to land on the academy campus. Talk to you later!" Ben said cheerfully.

"You too, have a good day," Rain said, as hung up the phone.

Rain raised his head and looked up at the sky only to see it was covered in thick, gray clouds that stretched as far as the eye could see.

The air was humid, and there was a faint smell of rain in the air. Rain could feel a cool breeze blowing past him.

"Looks like it will rain today. Maybe I should go to my home."

Rain arrived home and went straight to his room.

As he lay on his bed, he checked other messages.

["Lily (Scapegoat): I have some details to report. So call me in your free time."]

As he pondered the message, Rain felt a flicker of curiosity.

He knew that Lily only contacted him when something important had come up. He wondered what kind of trouble she had gotten herself into this time.

She also presented some new ideas she had come up with to improve the project even further.

Apparently, after signing a contract that gave Rain a 55% share in the profits, Lily began working on a plan to launch merchandise for his streaming business and other things. As per the contract, she also had to invest half of the cost.

Here's how the process went:

-Research and planning: Lily researched the market to identify popular merchandise items and created a plan for what products to launch, how much to price them, and how to market them to Rain's audience.

-Product development: Lily sourced or created merchandise items, such as t-shirts, mugs, or stickers, and designed them to align with Rain's branding and aesthetic.

She also licensed every song Rain released, so someone doesn't post it or plagiarize it.

She also asked Rain to become a model and do advertisements. But Rain refused.

-Marketing and promotion: Lily created a marketing strategy to promote the products to Rain's audience, including social media posts, email newsletters, and special promotions or giveaways.

-Sales and fulfillment: Once orders came in, Lily handled the sales and fulfillment process, including processing payments, packaging and shipping the merchandise, and handling any customer service issues.

Throughout the process, Rain covered half of the costs and sometimes even provided extra money as a salary for Lily.

And at the end of the day, Rain received 55% of the profits from the merchandise sales as per their agreement.

The net profit of the first month was more than 50,000 gold coins. As per the contract, Rain got 27,500.

After that month, Lily started expanding the business and entered other fields.

She also had to find a company as it was becoming hard to handle alone.

With Rain's sponsorship, she invested in that company. However, in the end, she became an employee of the Rain.

As the call continued, Rain listened attentively, occasionally asking questions or giving feedback.

After Lily was finished, there was a moment of silence as Rain considered everything she had said.

"Hmm. So you are saying to invest in that potion business?" Rain asked.

"Yes!" She nodded eagerly.

"Contact Mark. I will give you his contact details. Just tell him, "His friend will help in the potion business, this is the opportunity"." He said.

"Do you take me as a weirdo? He will think of me as a weirdo if I start babbling like that." Lily grumbled.

"Okay, I will tell him to contact you, Happy? I will just cut some of your salaries as you aren't doing the work." Rain lamented.

"Huh? Why?" Lily asked in a confused tone.

"Isn't contacting potential business partners and clients your job?" Rain asked back.

"It is. But you also have some responsibilities as the boss. You should do some work too." Lily controlled herself to not yell on the call.

"I will do it next time~. Have a good day~" Rain said in a mischievous tone and hung up the phone.

On the other side, Lily was fuming with anger.

"That bastard, pushing responsibilities on me every time!! I will quit!!" She was determined.

Just then her smartwatch rang. As she checked it was a message from Rain.

[-Contact Info

Name: Mark

Email id: ███████████

Post: Manager in Alchimystic]

She couldn't help but blink her eyes a few times.

"Isn't Alchimystic firm being run by the Holmes family? Isn't it on the top position?" She mumbled.

"But that stingy guy break off with his family, how does he still have good relations with them?" She was confused. She decided to postpone her resignation for some time.