Chapter 486 - 309: The Development of Deepwater City 2

Chapter 486: Chapter 309: The Development of Deepwater City 2

Besides cars, sales of the new firearms were also quite impressive.

Their outstanding performance on the Augustine battlefield, combined with enthusiastic promotions from their Devil allies, had instantly made the Zog Group’s firearms the most famous weapons on the market.

For a while, sales had maintained a growth trend, only leveling off in the last two weeks.

Civilians, Adventurers, and private organizations in need of firearms had more or less completed their purchases.

However, official organizations from various nations had not chosen the Zog Group.

Any nation with a modicum of power chose to develop its own weapons.

After all, becoming highly dependent on a business consortium founded by a Dragon with no nationality was not a very rational move.

It was called "self-development," but it was really just imitation. The technology involved was even less complex than that of automobiles; the firearms primarily represented an innovation in concept, not a technological breakthrough.

For now, those nations were still being "honorable," making sure to circumvent the Zog Group’s patents when creating their imitations.

Zog had no doubt that as soon as a state of war was declared, no one would care about patent protections anymore.

With firearm sales entering a plateau and no new ideas on the horizon, it was Peter who stepped up again.

The young man who had first proposed the idea of Magic Firearms had turned his research to how to defend against the very guns he designed, preferably with something that could be worn.

Magic bulletproof vests would likely be on the market before long.

Another major source of income for Deepwater City was the Magic Energy supply system, which had been showcased at the expo.

Most of the city’s public facilities were built upon it.

Thanks to the exposure from the expo, many people had taken notice of this amazing system.

Many business consortiums even came to visit Deepwater City just to see it.

Zog was well-prepared for these visitors.

The city had numerous showrooms dedicated to demonstrating the Magic Energy system.

When great merchants from various regions saw a wired Rune Stone being plugged into a wall socket, causing a Magic Vision Device to light up without a Magic Energy Stone, every one of them marveled that it was a miraculous creation straight out of the future.

All it took was a special Rune Stone to avoid the daily labor of hauling Magic Energy Stones.

However, the first batch of Magic Energy Machines sold were used in Mines.

The same application as the early Steam Engines.

The buyers quickly tasted the benefits; the feeling of being able to use Magic Energy almost anywhere was fantastic.

The ones to be pitied were the workers in those Mines.

Being able to use Magic Energy Equipment anytime and anywhere did not reduce their working hours.

After the bosses noticed the increase in worker efficiency, they didn’t choose to let the workers rest after finishing their tasks, but instead raised the daily performance standards.

The new standards could only hopefully be met after mastering the use of the Magic Energy tools.

They then discovered that with such high individual standards, the Mines no longer needed the original number of workers.

"Naturally," they laid off the surplus workers.

Then the Mine bosses were pleasantly surprised to discover they could lay off even more people, as long as they assigned the work of two people to one person.

Before, without Magic Energy tools, one person doing the work of two would be worked to death. Now, they would only be worked to half-death.

So they laid off another large batch of people.

As for whether the remaining "lucky ones" would get the wages of two people...

Why would they?

If you don’t do it, there are plenty of others who will.

This fully demonstrated the characteristics of the capitalist profession. There’s always a bigger bastard among bastards.

As a result, the number of displaced people around Deepwater City increased significantly, most of whom were newly unemployed miners from the Mines.

Zog absorbed them all into Deepwater City, allowing them to regain their status as workers.

The report also mentioned that some people had recently appeared in the city, probing for information about the Magic Energy supply system.

These people were trying to establish contact with staff from the Deep Research Institute to find out more information about the principles of the Magic Energy system.

They were clearly not just curious enthusiasts.

Someone else wanted to build it too, so they hired people specifically to gather intelligence.

Tracing the investigation back, it was discovered that a certain nation had already established a Magic Energy research team and invested a large amount of funds into it.

Therefore, Zog summoned the person in charge of the Magic Energy Machine production line.

"We will absolutely strengthen the management of our internal personnel and ensure that people with ulterior motives can no longer obtain useful information!"

The manager pledged, thumping his chest.

He was once a member of the Deepwater City construction team. After witnessing the development speed here, he resolutely chose to stay, step by step becoming the head of the production line, with his salary multiplying several times over.

A living example of the Deepwater City dream.

As a model figure, he had appeared in many of Deepwater City’s promotional articles.

Having been summoned today, he assumed it was about the leaked information on the Magic Energy Machine and that he was about to be held accountable.

"No, don’t worry about it. I will handle the matter of those investigators. Before that, you can arrange for someone to leak a little more internal information," Zog said.

"Huh? Boss, are you saying... leak it on purpose?!"

The manager wasn’t sure if Zog genuinely meant it, or if he was being sarcastic to mock him for not doing his job well.

"Yes, leak it on purpose. Do your best to give them a glimmer of hope that they can replicate it. That way, their financial backers will double down and pour in even more funding," Zog explained.

"But what if they actually succeed?"

"It doesn’t matter if they succeed. In the beginning, without a large-scale production line, their costs will be far higher than ours. And on that day..."

Zog wore a villainous smirk.

"We’ll drop the price of the Magic Energy Machine to below our production cost and dump it on the market. The product they painstakingly copied will be completely unsellable, and all the Gold Coins they invested will go down the drain."

At that moment, the manager deeply understood what Lady Elsa meant when she said the boss was not a "proper" Dragon.

To come up with a method of crushing competitors by "stabbing oneself," was indeed not proper.

Zog was certainly not doing this just to solve the immediate problem.

Now was the best opportunity to crush his competitors. Taking a temporary loss was worth it.

As the Magic Energy Machine continued to develop, the difficulty of imitating it from scratch would surely become higher and higher.

If they didn’t build a good foundation from the start, the future cost of imitation would become an unacceptable number.

Zog was taking a small loss now in exchange for the entire industry using him as the standard in the future.

At that time, he would be the national Magic Net!

Just thinking about it brought him joy.

Finally, the contents of the report were more or less dealt with.

Zog stretched. He was tired. ’Might as well start a game now.’

Ever since Furin became engrossed in teaching, Zog’s free time had increased significantly, and even his game rank had improved quite a bit.

Just as he started matchmaking, there was a knock on the door.

"Who is it?" Zog asked, slightly annoyed. He didn’t like being disturbed while gaming. He’d had a feeling he could have gained several hundred rank points today!

"Boss." The voice of Assistant Zor came from outside the door.

Although Zog’s official title in Deepwater City was Lord, his subordinates were still used to calling him "Boss."

"The preliminary construction of Deepwater City University’s main campus is complete. It is ready for inspection."

Hearing this, Zog’s annoyance immediately vanished. He exited the game and eagerly opened the door.

"Quick, take me to see it."

If everything was built according to Zog’s design, Deepwater City University would be much more fun than any game.

Soon, Zog arrived at the station that led directly to the campus district.

The university was built in the suburbs to allow for future expansion.

There was another advantage to a location with fewer people: there weren’t as many people wanting to take a stroll through the school grounds.

If the campus were completely closed, some might feel it lacked freedom. But if it were open for anyone to enter, many students would find it disruptive.

Zog chose a compromise: open, but built in a place with few outsiders.

As for why he came to the station instead of flying or teleporting directly...

It was because the design of the school began at the station. This line was a dedicated train for the university district.

Not only that, but Zog was now standing excitedly in front of a wall.

Next to him were the university president and the designer who had turned Zog’s wild ideas into reality.

It seemed the designer’s hair had turned much whiter than when he first took on the project.

"You’re sure it’s this wall, right?" Zog asked.

"Absolutely certain. It’s right here. The third pillar between Platform Nine and Platform Ten. Nine and three-quarters, just as you requested."