Reborn as the Genius Son of the Richest Family

Chapter 1035  Negotiations with the upper echelons

New Sparta was currently undergoing a lot of moves, both on the surface and in the dark.

The appearance of the Conglomerates urged and galvanized a lot of companies to step up their game. Most of them chose to simply do it the easy way: allying with the Conglomerates. By shading themselves under the umbrella of these behemoths, they could at least share in the wealth they were about to produce, even if it was just a fraction.

However, there were also some companies who chose to do it their own way. They wanted to take this chance to sharpen their own blades under the intense weight of the conglomerates’ influence. Only by doing so would they become more powerful.

It was well expected that the Conglomerates would easily breeze through New Sparta, taking control of the market share in an instant.

But even the Conglomerates weren’t the only ones pressured by competition.

After all, almost the entirety of the Upper Echelon joined them in their journey to New Sparta.

And these companies weren’t small fishes either. If the conglomerates w

anked top 1 to top 5 of the Golden 500 ranking, then these Upper Echelons were from the 6th to 50th places. If they played their cards right in New Sparta, they could revolutionize themselves as the next conglomerate.

But of course, the Conglomerates weren’t going to lie down and let that happen.

There was still a 99% chance the one of the Conglomerates would end up as the ultimate winner of New Sparta.

However, something unexpected happened.

The automobiles.

Once the Conglomerates and the Upper Echelon verified its capabilities, they immediately realized how game-changing it was.

With the automobile, that 99% probability would quickly dwindle down to only 80%!

This was perhaps the only time in history in which the difference between the Conglomerates and the Upper Echelon became so close.

If the top 6th company took advantage of the capabilities of the automobile, there was a very good chance they could overtake the 5th spot and crown themselves as the new conglomerate.

Because of that, a lot of the Upper Echelons came and visited the Reborn company in order to purchase their own automobiles.

Early in the morning, Sheina was inundated with a lot of requests.

So, Michael, Castelle, Sheina, and Yuna attended the meeting with the different Upper Echelons.

Of course, he disguised himself as someone else so no one would figure out who he was.

Though, it seemed that he didn’t need to.

The first Upper Echelon representative that came to do their doors wasn’t actually a representative at all. He was just a messenger!

“Good morning to all, Reborn company,” said the man wearing light leather armor. “I am a messenger sent by the Detoo Company, number 47th in the Golden 500. Please see the contract that they have sent and I shall wait for your response.”

The messenger handed Sheina a stack of papers before leaving the room.

Weirded out by this ‘meeting’, Sheina laid out the papers on her desk for everyone to see.

Michael started reading the contract and couldn’t help but laugh. “Are they underestimating us?”

According to this contract, they wanted to purchase all the automobiles under their possession for the chance to become their subcompany. That was it.

“They’re valuing our company extremely low,” Castelle said. “But that’s because they know nothing.”

Sheina immediately picked up the papers and opened the door. “Please tell your employer that we reject them.”

“Alright,” the messenger said. “What are your counteroffers?”

The white-scaled Dragonborn flashed a smile. “None.”

She slammed the door on the messenger, leaving him completely shocked.

After that, Sheina took a deep breath. “Haaa.. I can’t believe the nerve!”

Yuna sighed. “That’s their tactics. The Upper Echelons aren’t sharks like the conglomerates, but they are predator fishes too. They will want to swallow everything in their path to become as big as the sharks.

Don’t take it personally. I think they only made that request thinking that we have a counter offer.”

But that only worked if Reborn needed something from them. They didn’t. Their true value wasn’t reflected by their 300th place in the Golden rankings.

“Brace yourselves. I have a feeling that the other offers are going to be much the same,” Yuna added.

And just like she said, the ‘meetings’ with the other Upper Echelons went the same way.

They sent a 3rd party messenger, someone who wasn’t even part of their company, to give an insulting offer for their automobiles in order to get an advantage in their future negotiations.

But Michael and Reborn weren’t willing to play their games.

Eventually, they finally met with some real representative from the Upper Echelons.

“Salutations, I hail from the Coaling Cricketers company, 19th in the Golden Rankings.”

He was a dapper gentleman, with a suit befitting of a royal. He also seemed quite confident of himself, as expected from an Upper Echelon.

“We would like to purchase your automobiles wholesale,” he said.

Sheina raised her eyebrows. “I am surprised. Most of your peers chose to have exclusive contracts instead. They were all promptly shown the door.”

“No,” the dapper man laughed. “If the Conglomerates could only buy automobiles wholesale, then that means that we had no chance from the very beginning.”

Unlike the other Upper Echelons, it seemed that this guy was more informed than the rest of them. Not a lot of them knew about his dealings with the Conglomerates, which was why they were so bold in their negotiations earlier.

“If you want to buy an automobile, then we will give you the same price we gave the Conglomerates. 100,000 Sand Dollars,” Castelle said.

The dapper man stayed silent for a few seconds. “I see. To be honest, I think that price is not fair.”

Castelle frowned. “Too expensive?”

“No, too low. I think that you gave the conglomerates too cheap of a price,” the dapper man said, surprising Castelle and Sheina.

“Why do you think so?” Sheina asked.

“It is because I know that the Conglomerates would be able to leverage that kind of power to completely snowball the competition. By giving them their own automobile squadron, you’re basically empowering their already empowered sword.

And you don’t know. Maybe, you’ll be hit by the same sword that you empowered.”

Castelle frowned. “Are you saying that the Conglomerates will betray us?”

The dapper man shrugged. “No. I am saying that with the Conglomerates’ power, influence, and wealth, they could easily take control of New Sparta.

I think that it is inevitable. They will control the market here.

Now, before the automobiles, we had a chance. The Upper Echelons were the only ones that could keep the Conglomerates in check and prevent them from expanding their business far too wide.

But since you gave them the automobiles, they’ll be able to steam roll through the Upper Echelons quite easily.

And who’s next after that? Do you think they would stop their expansion there?”

The dapper man’s words quickly made Sheina and Castelle think.

He was telling the truth. After all, there was a huge possibility that the Conglomerates wouldn’t stop at New Sparta. They could quickly use their newfound automobiles to conquer the rest of the Lower Queens region.

After all, the reason why none of them had yet to completely conquer the rest of the Royal Continent was because they were limited by their own technology.

But with the automobiles, they could quickly deploy their forces and completely take everything into their sphere of influence.

“Now you get it?” the dapper man asked. “You gave it to them too easily. If I were in your shoes, I wouldn’t have given it to them for less than a million Sand Dollars.”

Then, he leaned forward. “But it’s not too late. I can help you. Now I cannot afford that 100,000 Sand Dollar price that you gave the automobiles, but I could surely help your company in other ways.

If you want, we could have a mutual contract. One that would help both of us fight against the oppressive force of the Conglomerates. If you supply our company with automobiles now, we’d be able to fight against the Conglomerates. And then, we’ll share the wealth that we got from that with you.

We’ll continue that until we both break out of our current realm. How about it? It’s a truly alluring contract, right?”

The dapper man’s words were very alluring, alright.

Perhaps, too alluring.

Michael immediately used his Drone Vision and stared at the dapper man.

And there, he saw it. The man’s chest was glowing red hot with Aubility Power.

Above him, there was an image of a wooden puppet Diva with a disembodied hand controlling it through a series of strings.

Michael’s eyes widened.

He was using his Aubility Power!

That was why his words seemed alluring! He was changing reality itself to make them lower their guards!

Michael didn’t notice it at first because he wasn’t expecting this at all. They weren’t in a fight!