Chaoter 760.2: Scientific Committee In The Wandering Marsh, Changes In The Southern Sea

Ever since he started playing the damn doggy game, he lost plenty of dormitory inspection points to the Student Union. Though he still had no idea what those points were actually for, it stung nonetheless.

Jiang Xuezhou and Li Xiang exchanged glances and neither objected.

"I think that's fine."

"I don't really mind either."

"Then let's go with that."

"... I agree too," Wu Xiaoxiao said quietly. Although worry lingered in her eyes, she ultimately didn't voice it. The Science Committee had never prohibited researchers from organizing educational activities for the survivors.

Still, no one had ever actually done such a thing.

She had to admit. The New Alliance's story was deeply appealing. Part of her even wanted to visit it someday. But stories often sounded beautiful. Actually trying to change reality was another matter entirely. She wasn't sure whether it was truly the right thing to do.

After all, her senior, Jiang Xuezhou, was only a D-class Researcher. True, she was a rising star within the Research Division and her mentor was an extraordinary figure only one step away from A-class.

Even so, compared to the Academy as a whole, their influence remained tiny. Not to mention there was no guarantee her mentor would support such an endeavor.

The remainder of the meeting gradually shifted away from Night Ten's story. Instead, they discussed the details of the Research Society and how to recruit more Researchers. They even talked about helping eligible students pass the Academy entrance examinations, thereby expanding the Research Society's influence among the Academy's future grassroots researchers.

Originally, Night Ten had intended to continue the story he had carefully pieced together. Instead, he discovered that both Jiang Xuezhou and Li Xiang had completely lost interest in the latter half. Only Wu Xiaoxiao continued looking at him eagerly, waiting for the rest of the story.

Before anyone realized it, evening had arrived.

It wasn't until he returned home with Jiang Xuezhou and stepped into the entryway that Night Ten suddenly came to his senses. His original objective had been to poach talent from the Academy. Instead, he had spent the entire day telling stories.

As for his actual mission, he hadn't made the slightest bit of progress.

"What the fuck? I completely screwed this up!"

"Fuck?"[ref]Mandarin fuck, not wasteland fuck[\ref] Jiang Yuehan, who had been secretly peeking around the corner of the entryway, tilted her head.

"Kids shouldn't learn that word." Night Ten hurried over to cover her mouth.

Before he could, Jiang Xuezhou grabbed his wrist. "What exactly are you trying to do to my little sister?"

"N-No, I...!" Meeting her murderous glare, Night Ten suddenly looked like someone suffering from severe constipation. He stammered for ages without managing to explain himself.

Hiding behind the shoe cabinet, the little girl giggled mischievously before sticking out her tongue.

"Hehehe... Fuck!"

"God damn it!"

...

While Night Ten was getting his head repeatedly smacked by Jiang Xuezhou and retreating into the kitchen for refuge, the atmosphere aboard the Roro Boat, docked at West Sail Harbor, was equally lively and jubilant.

At the docks of West Sail Harbor, inside the Roro Boat's treasury, one girl and one bear were rolling around in piles of gold coins. Lying flat on the floor covered in gold, Tail spread her arms wide, pretending to do the backstroke while talking in her sleep with her eyes closed. "Ohhh, Roro! You know what? Ever since I was little, I've always had a dream! I wanted to swim through a vault full of gold coins just like Scrooge McDuck!"

"Who's Scrooge McDuck?"

"Huh? Huh? You've never watched Donald Duck?"

"... Pfft. Our vault's still a long way from his."

"That's not important! As long as it feels the same...!"

Completely unable to keep up with their conversation, Sesame Paste stood to one side with an affectionate motherly smile, quietly enjoying the scene, while Sisi sat at the table meticulously balancing the accounts.

All 650 tons of cargo had sold out and their total sales had reached 4.9 million Silver. After deducting procurement costs, labor expenses, shipping costs, taxes, and various other expenditures, the voyage had produced a staggering profit of 2 million Silver!

Part of the payment had been settled through the Mutant Slime Mold Research Committee’s electronic currency system. The rest had been paid directly in Dinars at an exchange rate of 1:5 Silver to Dinar.

Factoring in the exchange rate differences, the actual profit from their venture was probably even higher than the figures suggested.

After all, throughout the Army’s primary trade zones, the normal exchange rate between Dinars and Silver hovered around 1:3.

At that moment, every gold coin they had earned had been spread across the floor by Tail and Roshan. They insisted they were finally experiencing something nearly impossible to enjoy in real life, a proper bath in gold coins.

"... When I get old someday," Tail sighed dramatically after finally tiring herself out, stretching one hand toward the ceiling, "I'm going to exchange all my money into gold coins and hide them on a little island!"

"Can you secretly tell me where you're planning to hide them?" Roshan asked, her ears perked up.

Tail grinned mischievously, climbed upright from the sea of gold, and sat cross-legged on the floor. "Oh! Roshan wants to steal Tail's treasure too? Then go find it! It's waiting at the end of the sea of stars! Go! All the world's treasures are there!"

"That reference is ancient." Roshan rolled her eyes and didn't bother playing along.

Truthfully, she was someone who was easily satisfied. She had never been particularly obsessed with money. Compared to making money itself, she enjoyed adventuring with her companions much more.

By contrast, Sisi genuinely seemed to enjoy earning money. She was always so serious about it.

What Roshan couldn't understand was why, if this trade route was so profitable, Sisi had shared it openly on the forums.

Picking up a gold coin with one furry paw, she looked toward Sisi, who had just stretched lazily in her chair. "By the way... why post such a profitable shipping route on the official forums? Wouldn't quietly making a fortune be better?"

Sisi couldn't help smiling. "It's fine to exploit their lack of information to make a small fortune. But if you want to become truly wealthy, that's much harder."

"Hmm?" Roshan tilted her head in confusion.

Seeing the puzzled expression on her face, Sisi thought for a moment before she continued, "It's actually similar to whyBaiyue Strait Development Company is going public. Keeping every share in our own hands would certainly work. And at the Baiyue Strait Development Company's current size, we don't really need to share profits with anyone else. We can simply protect the slice of the pie we already have."

"But if we want to grow beyond that, we need more people's support. Not just from our customers. We also need the support of the majority of New Alliance citizens. And the fastest way to gain that support is to make them shareholders!"

The New Alliance's NPCs didn't possess administrator-level powers like the administrator himself. They certainly couldn't ban player accounts. However, they did possess genuine political influence. They could participate in the forming of legislation. They could also take part in selecting personnel for local governments and New Alliance institutions.

In other words, they were worth winning over.

Not through bribery. Rather, if the Baiyue Strait Development Company's profits were shared with NPCs instead of remaining exclusively among players, the company would become far more secure.

Even if only to protect their own interests, those NPCs would naturally become more inclined to support the Baiyue Strait Development Company whenever doing so didn't conflict with their principles.

Whenever an organization accumulated enormous wealth while refusing to share any of it with the majority who created that wealth, it became dangerous.

That was true for any point in history.

Moreover, the capital raised through going public would dramatically accelerate the Baiyue Strait Development Company's overseas expansion.

The Baiyue Strait was covered by vast virgin forests. The players' personal savings and current profits alone weren't nearly enough to support expansion on that scale. They needed to put the New Alliance citizens' idle savings to work.

If necessary, they would even need Ideal City's assistance, drawing upon the immense legacy left behind by the Prosperity Era.