Who Needs a Knife to Fleece the Chives?

Sim felt like an absolute genius. Relying merely on a few numbers on paper, he had deduced his neighbor's next move. As soon as he caught wind of it, he immediately dispatched his sales agents to nearby mines to aggressively buy up stockpiles of war materials like copper ore and sulfur. Currently, Horseshoe Trading Firm's warehouse already held 1,200 tons of copper stock. By his calculations, every million full-power cartridges produced by the New Alliance required roughly 16 to 17 tons of copper. To fight a localized engagement took one or two million rounds of ammunition; to take all of Xizhou City, it would easily take ten to twenty million rounds. After all, the marauders weren't idiots. Trained by the Legion's drill instructors, they had learned how to dig trenches and hunker in bunkers. Red River Town had been fighting the Snake Clan for months and had long since learned firsthand how tenacious they were. Because Horseshoe Trading Firm had raised its reserve threshold, stepped up purchases of copper ore and other materials, and curtailed outgoing shipments, the price of copper ore in Red River Town had already climbed by twenty percent, while sulfur prices had surged by more than thirty percent. And that was merely the beginning. He was still in the accumulation phase. Once he finished sweeping up goods and his warehouse was brimming with copper, he would choke off outgoing supply and exploit the lag time required for mines to ramp up production. Doubling or tripling the price of copper in a short span would be no trouble at all. Of course. He couldn't pull off a scheme like this alone. Trading firms had no authority to issue vouchers; only mine owners could do that. He and his firm were merely middlemen wedged between slave owners and traveling merchants. To drive copper prices through the roof, he needed at least one or two influential mine owners on board. For Sim, however, that was easy. He had always maintained good relations with the local mine owners, and this was hardly their first collaboration. *** Inside the conference hall of Horseshoe Trading Firm. Having listened to Sim's proposal, a man dressed in opulent attire furrowed his brows in slight hesitation. "...The idea sounds good, certainly, but isn't it a bit improper?" The speaker was Dempsey, a man who wielded substantial influence in Red River Town and across the Mining Association. Backing all of that up were his five hundred ferocious enforcers and a mountain of salvage that raked in gold by the day. He admitted that the grand vision Sim painted was undeniably tempting. Even without prices doubling or tripling, a mere twenty to thirty percent hike would already make him a fortune. Yet he still harbored reservations. The Bone Chewer Tribe was the common enemy of all survivors. If the New Alliance intended to launch a campaign against the Bone Chewer Tribe, it would be an unreservedly good thing for Red River Town—both strategically and commercially. If the New Alliance took Xizhou City, the Snake Clan's left flank would be pinned directly against the blue coats' barrels, taking tremendous pressure off Red River Town. Tempting as Sim's picture was, Dempsey instinctively felt that stabbing an "ally" in the back at a time like this was rather underhanded. However... Sim did not see it that way. "My dear friend, you must never think of this as betrayal. Rising prices are market behavior. With the way they're buying, copper was bound to go up sooner or later anyway. Would you expand production without higher prices? We're merely tapping the accelerator for them." Dempsey said, "So you're saying they should thank you?" Sim smiled. "Naturally." Dempsey felt that this was sophistry, but he couldn't find a way to refute it. "How do you need me to cooperate?" "Very simple. When the time comes, coordinate with us to issue an announcement of production cuts. Whether you blame a mining disaster or equipment breakdown, just reduce the issuance of next quarter's vouchers, while keeping actual production running as usual." Subconsciously gripping his chair's armrests, Dempsey asked tensely, "What if nobody buys what we produce?" They issued vouchers precisely to prevent that problem. Spot trading carried far too many uncertainties. Before vouchers existed, everyone blindly dug up mounds of scrap only to find no buyers, living feast to famine. It was only when the merchants of Red River Town invented vouchers and stuffed red and blue slips into the pockets of passing traders that their lives gradually improved. Because of this, these slave owners were actually far more sensitive to the voucher trading model than the large trading firms that reaped colossal fortunes from it. Knowing what worried the man before him, Sim offered a confident smile. "Relax, my friend. Just imagine—if the New Alliance goes to war with the Bone Chewer Tribe tomorrow, do you really need to worry about having no buyers for your copper? Once the war machine starts rolling, there's no stopping it. We just want it to be purchased at a 'more reasonable' price. "You bear zero risk and get to take the lion's share of the profits. As for unsold stock, don't worry about it at all—we are at your service!" At that final assurance, Dempsey finally exhaled, his expression softening. Picking up his pipe from the table, he stood from his chair. "Then let's do as you say." He didn't want to think about anything too complicated; he couldn't wrap his head around it anyway. The reason these trading firms existed in Red River Town was precisely because these scheme-filled connivers could sell worthless junk for better prices on their behalf. His bionic organs, his android companion, the gear for his enforcers, the mining equipment for his slaves, and the mercenaries bleeding on the front lines... were all bought with money. As for what money was? His understanding was that it meant those red and blue vouchers, along with the Legion's dinars and the Enterprise's Cr. Though his intuition told him these were merely superficial forms, truly understanding it was too hard. Dempsey knew very well that he didn't have the head for it; better to leave the worrying to those who did. He only needed to know that he could earn more. Seeing Dempsey nod in agreement, Sim rose in delight and extended his right hand. "May our partnership be fruitful!" "Pleasure doing business!" *** After seeing the mine owner out, Sim returned to his office and finally couldn't hold it in any longer, bursting into unrestrained laughter. "Hahahaha!" Every interaction with those mine owners was among the happiest moments of his life. Though he was only throwing them a bowl of scraps, every time he told them "you get to take the lion's share," they nodded in complete, unquestioning conviction. "Copper ore, sulfur... A pity they can produce their own steel and aluminum." Checking his laughter, Sim walked over to the wall and studied the map for a moment, murmuring pensively, "Still, it's quite surprising... I had thought they would expand west." South of the New Alliance lay Boulder City. To the east lay nearly a hundred kilometers of wasteland—the waterless variety at that. Compared to pushing north, heading west clearly promised far greater returns. After all, Qingquan City sat in the center of the southern plains of River Valley Province. Heading west offered lakes and rivers, dominated by plains and forests, with only a handful of rolling hills. Going north, on the other hand, meant plunging headlong into the mountains. Why bother? Could there really be any treasures out there? Just then, a knock at the office door interrupted Sim's thoughts. "Come in." The door opened. His subordinate, Enjet, walked in holding an inventory sheet. "Boss, today's inventory figures are in. Our copper reserves have grown to 500 tons!" "Excellent!" A radiant smile spread across Sim's face. He was another big step closer to his 1,000-ton target. "By the way, Boss... our caravan heading to Shuguang City picked up a rumor over there. I thought you might want to hear it." "What rumor?" Sim asked. Enjet hesitated for a second before lowering his voice. "...They heard talk in the taverns that a million-ton copper deposit was discovered in the mountains north of Yuanxi Town." Sim froze for a moment, then chuckled dismissively. "What a load of bullshit!" Those cunning blue moles were pretty sharp. Prices had only gone up twenty percent, and they had already realized someone was riding their coattails and sweeping up goods. Still, this countermeasure was child's play. Was it possible the New Alliance really had found a million-ton copper deposit? Of course! Yet the odds were vanishingly small, and the timing was far too coincidental! They hadn't found it earlier or later—it had to be found right when copper prices started rising? A million tons, no less! That would be a massive vein. Who were they trying to fool? If they really had discovered a copper deposit of that magnitude, with their hunger for copper, they would have built a road there immediately and established an outpost— Wait. A road?! Sim's expression shifted slightly. He walked back to the map, staring intently at the railway line marked upon it. According to information gathered by his trading firm's caravans, the New Alliance had been laying tracks north continuously. At present, the railway had already pushed from Shuguang City's industrial zone all the way to the edge of Yumu District. Before now, he had never understood why the New Alliance would undertake the thankless ordeal of driving north. Now, he faintly grasped their intention. If that rumor were true... "Is the rumor reliable? Are there any other clues?" Seeing his boss's darkened face, Enjet hurriedly shook his head. "None!" With his arms crossed and his back to his subordinate, Sim stared at the map, chewing on his thumb as his mind raced. After a while, he calmed down. Even if they found a copper deposit, so what? Extraction took time. Turning back to his subordinate, Sim immediately ordered, "Have our caravans keep their ears open for news on this. I need more intel!" Enjet nodded briskly. "Understood!" *** "Have you heard? They found copper in Yuanxi Town!" "For real?" "Who knows! I only heard it from a drunk in a Highway Town tavern! People say those blue coats have geographic data from the People's Federation era. They discovered the copper at Yuanxi Town long ago and just kept quiet about it. Word only leaked recently because they're finally getting ready to break ground!" "Makes sense to me... Otherwise, why would they keep laying railway tracks north? Is there anything up there that needs hauling?" "Speaking of which, has anyone here been to Yuanxi Town?" "Why the hell would anyone go there? There isn't even a relay post. Besides, go any farther north past Yuanxi Town and you run into the Bone Chewers. The soldiers stationed up there are all New Alliance troops. Wander around blindly, and you might get hauled in as a marauder scout—good luck explaining your way out of that." Shuguang City. Outside the trading post gates. Several traveling merchants waiting for their cargo clearance stood in line, chatting and shooting the breeze. They were all traders from Red River Town, though in different lines of business. As they were talking, an "Electric Mule" rolled into the trading post. Catching sight of the drum-shaped equipment being unloaded from the truck bed by dockworkers, several knowledgeable onlookers wore startled expressions. "A multi-cylinder hydraulic ore crusher?" "I've seen one before. Imported from Boulder City. I heard even a used one runs for twenty thousand chips." "...Looks like it's true, then." Beside a truck bearing the Horseshoe Trading Firm emblem, the caravan leader's face looked rather grim. That very evening, he reported the news to the firm's managers. In truth, his report wasn't even needed. Within days, word of the massive copper discovery at Yuanxi Town rippled along the trade routes all the way to Red River Town. As one of the primary buyers of Red River Town's copper ore, the New Alliance finding copper was nothing short of a bolt from the blue for the big mine owners who relied on exporting copper ore in exchange for bullets, artillery shells, and other industrial goods. Back when the Tide erupted in Qingquan City, the New Alliance had bumped up its copper purchases, netting them tidy sums from the ore trade. Some of the wealthier mine owners had even seized the chance to ramp up output. If the price of copper swung wildly or tumbled into a downward spiral in the future... Regardless of whether they cut production next quarter, the immediate imperative for the mine owners was to dump their inventory while copper prices were still "artificially high." Indeed. It looked like the New Alliance was gearing up for war, but war hadn't actually broken out yet. War was an expectation; finding a copper mine was also an expectation. Both were deductions based on limited intel, not official decrees written in black and white. An increase in copper purchases could be interpreted as stockpiling munitions, or just as easily as building out power infrastructure. Nitric and sulfuric acid were used for far more than making artillery shells—they were needed for steel pickling and plenty of other industrial applications. Every argument had two sides. Yet one outcome was overwhelmingly probable. If the New Alliance truly had found a copper mine... War might very well be put on the back burner. Red River Town didn't have just one trading firm, nor did it have just one mine. When copper prices were rising, many had tacitly followed Horseshoe Trading Firm's lead in scooping up inventory. Now, they just as tacitly lowered their reserve thresholds and dumped their copper onto the market. When the growth of supply vastly outstripped the growth of demand, what followed was entirely predictable. Sim soon found, to his utter dismay, that before he could even backstab his neighbor, he had been stabbed in the back by his own people. The chaotic dumping by these bastards battered down the twenty percent price hike he had worked so hard to build. Horseshoe Trading Firm's warehouses were now packed to the rafters with copper. All because of some copper mine that might not even exist, every mine owner and firm boss in Red River Town had turned into an idiot. Yes. Absolute idiots. At least in Sim's eyes, those people were barely smarter than donkeys, and that was being generous. "These brainless fools—couldn't they just wait?!" "So what if they found a copper mine? Even assuming they did, will copper ingots sprout out of the ground tomorrow morning?!" Furious roars echoed through the office. Standing off to the side, Enjet held his breath, not daring to utter a sound. Having vented enough at last, Sim glared at him and bit out word by word, "How much budget do we have left?!" Enjet answered rapidly, "Without affecting other operations... we can purchase around 700 more tons." Enjet glanced cautiously at his boss. "Originally, we could only afford about 400 tons, but since copper prices dipped recently, we can actually buy more..." Seven hundred tons! A drop in the bucket compared to the nearly ten thousand tons of reserves released by those braindead fools! Seething to the brink of coughing up blood, Sim took a deep breath to regain his composure. Beyond that remaining budget, he no longer held enough vouchers to buy any more copper ore from the mine owners. Borrow other people's vouchers to buy? No amount borrowed would be enough! Besides, even if he could borrow them, his firm alone couldn't possibly swallow all the overflowing inventory from every other trading firm and mine. If he actually did that, he would end up going from the one fleecing the chives to the chive being fleeced. Who feared a drop in copper prices the most? The person who bought it with absurd leverage, of course. Once the other firms found out he was drowning in debt with a warehouse full of copper, they would laugh themselves sick and promptly dump even more copper on him. In fact, it didn't even take multiple times the leverage. As soon as eighty percent of the market's copper ended up in his hands, whether he was leveraged by eighty percent or eight hundred percent, he was guaranteed to be the sucker left holding the bag. "Those damned blue moles!" Sim racked his brain trying to find a worse curse for the people in the northern outskirts, but ended up merely squeezing those words through gritted teeth. Even now, he firmly believed the New Alliance would definitely move against the Bone Chewer Tribe. But what good was his belief alone? Could the market be swayed by one man's conviction? "B-Boss," Enjet asked gingerly, "are we still buying?" "Buy your mother's ass!" Sim spat out a curse. Looking at his flustered subordinate, he took a deep breath and reined in his temper. "Keep our reserve threshold unchanged..." Enjet hesitated. "Then what about the copper already in the warehouse...?" Sim ground out through his teeth, "Hold it!" He was a man meant for big fortunes. Those bumbling jackasses could sell all they wanted; even if copper crashed to the price of iron, he wouldn't part with an ounce. This war would break out sooner or later! And prices would bounce back sooner or later! *** "Didn't you want to strike it rich alongside me?" "Don't say I didn't help you out—hurry up and buy, or there won't be any left!" Reviewing the report sent from the military base at Red River Town, Chu Guang couldn't help but chuckle aloud. He had indeed planted the rumor, but he hadn't expected it to be this effective. Copper ore prices were down thirty-seven percent! And supply had multiplied fourfold! What was more, this was compared to two weeks prior. The smokescreen's impact had vastly exceeded Chu Guang's original expectations. His original intention had merely been to let prices "return to rational levels." Yet the moment the mine owners and firm bosses caught wind of the New Alliance discovering copper, one after another slashed their reserve thresholds. Not only was Horseshoe Trading Firm—which had been snapping up copper alongside him—stuffed to the gills with inventory, but the caravans organized by the New Alliance were also loaded up with cheap copper ore. Since copper ore mostly occurred as sulfides, sulfur prices took a hit as well. Considering that their biggest buyer might no longer purchase either commodity from them in the future, dumping inventory while prices were still decent had seemed the safest bet. Yet once the panic selling began, emotion, rather than logic, took the wheel. Eventually, not only were the major firms dumping stock, but incoming caravans to Red River Town also held off to see if they could get an even cheaper deal. And a massive copper consumer like the New Alliance naturally emerged as the biggest winner. Taking Red River Town by force was certainly an option, and not a difficult one at that. If he wanted to play dirty, Chu Guang could simply issue a quest ordering the players supporting the Red River Town front line to turn their guns on the surrounding NPCs, tearing a hole right through the defensive line and letting the Snake Clan's marauders in. Then he could roll in afterward to sweep up the pieces. A single regiment would be enough. The only risk was that the Fang clan might get wind of it from the Snake Clan and seize the chance to strike south for easy pickings, relieving their ally in the process. This wasn't a turn-based game, after all; the odds of other factions standing idle while he made his move were slim to none. Yet that was precisely the issue. Precisely because this wasn't a turn-based game, one had to weigh methods and justifications depending on the adversary. These justifications fell into two categories: internal and external. Internally, the banner of liberating slaves was more than enough. The residents of the New Alliance supported him wholeheartedly, while for the players, it was just another expansion pack. Posting a "declaration of war" under the developer persona eliminated the need for explanation altogether. That was the beauty of players: if something could be explained, the lore did the trick; if not, chalk it up to world-building mechanics. If Lordaeron's dutiful son could run through his own father with a sword, what was wrong with the Administrator having a bad day, turning dark, and stabbing an ally in the back? They hadn't signed any formal alliance anyway—totally reasonable! Externally, however, that rationale would hardly fly. From Boulder City to Junk City, and on to other distant survivor settlements, while all opposed marauders, not a single one opposed slavery. Some recognized its legality; others permitted trade while prohibiting extrajudicial executions. Many of the slaves in Red River Town's mines were marauders captured by other survivor settlements in the first place. Using the liberation of slaves as a pretext to declare war on them was worse than offering no excuse at all—striking without warning and ending the fight while everyone was still bewildered would actually cause less fallout. Using abolition as a casus belli might slap him with a worse diplomatic debuff than the Bone Chewer Tribe suffered. Certain ideas required fertile soil; advanced ideologies only suited advanced people. Whether it was Shelter 117 or Shelter 401, their ultimate downfall boiled down to one fundamental flaw: failing to account for the wasteland's realities, or seeing them yet refusing to shed the pretenses of civilized folk. What they considered noble might not be viewed the same way by others. They could see a decade ahead, but the people they managed might only want to survive the present. Just like how Boss Xia used to slack off and loaf around; Chu Guang teased her often enough, but had never actually kicked her out. He hadn't been born an Administrator. Having lived at the bottom of the wasteland, he understood how someone in her position felt. Not everything was a matter of right and wrong. On the contrary, Xiao Yu's obedient, sensible demeanor sometimes tugged at his heartstrings. Watching the optimism written across the Administrator's face, Old Charlie still looked a bit anxious. A plunge in raw material prices was certainly worth celebrating. Yet if they fell too rapidly, it would ultimately hurt them as well. "I must remind you, the drop in copper ore and sulfur prices stems from the release of inventories, not an expansion of production capacity. If those mine owners cut production as a result, copper prices a few months from now could climb even higher than before." "You're right, which is why we ultimately must secure our own supply of raw materials." Chu Guang set down the report in his hand and looked at Old Charlie across the desk. "According to the numbers from logistics, we've already stockpiled 700 tons of copper, with another 1,200 tons or so on the way. These resources are enough for our consumption over the next three months!" Given the industrial zone's current efficiency, producing one million rounds of ammunition required 16.7 tons of copper. Using just those 1,200 tons for ammunition alone would yield over 71 million rounds. Taking Xizhou City wouldn't require nearly that much ammunition—not even half. For the opening stage, he only planned to prepare five million rounds, and could produce more as the fighting progressed. By his estimate, total ammunition expenditure through the end of the war would not exceed ten million rounds. "...You really aren't leaving yourself any way out." Seeing the old man's astonishment, Chu Guang smiled faintly. He stood up, walked to the wall, and looked at the markers pinned across the map, speaking softly. "Within one month, I will liberate Xizhou from the Bone Chewer Tribe. "Our mining teams will set out with equipment alongside the artillery shells being sent to the front. "After that, whether our neighbors sell their copper and sulfur cheap or dear will be none of our concern. "We won't be buying from them ever again anyway."