Chapter 506: Similar backgrounds
Alaric’s words got their attention. The Golden Road was their end goal. It was what their parents, their grandparents, and their family pushed them to achieve.
This competition between heirs would ultimately end once a dominant Golden Road had been established in the Royal Continent. Alaric, Aerith, and Bobby were already starting to set up their own Golden Roads.
And if they obtained those vehicles, then they could finally graduate from Metropolis and compete at a much bigger stage deeper in the Queens region. These trucks would be their advantage against the other older, and much more established companies further North.
"I have already heard news that the Magic Tower contacted the Guild of Arcana. And my men have also seen a lot of activity in the Knightly Court. It seems that Kruger himself was teaching his students this time around.
They have their own parent organizations to get support from. We are all on our own. Individually, we might stand a chance against those guys. But together, we can secure it."
Alaric knew that if the geniuses and prodigies from the Order of the Heavenly Knights and the Guild of Arcana were not something that they could simply disregard. They were absolute monsters that defied common sense.
Of course, they weren’t too bad themselves. But he had a feeling that if they didn’t consolidate their powers now, then those monster geniuses could end up getting away with the automobile decisively.
Thankfully for him though, Bobby and Aerith were smart enough to know that they had to go all out.
"That is true," Bobby said, his large, hairy arms leaning on the table as he pondered. "We will be increasing our chances to win by teaming up."
"But what if we win? Do we share the vehicles?" Aerith asked. This was very important, one that could decide whether they agreed on a coalition or not.
"It’s up to you guys. We can either share it for ourselves, or we have our own duels to see who will eventually win the vehicles."
Alaric presented them with a choice. And from their expressions, it seemed that the answer was simple.
"Do you even have to ask?" Aerith chuckled. "We’ll have our own competition at the end."
"Agreed," Bobby nodded.
They were all friendly with each other. But that also meant that they were very competitive against each other. There was a triple-way rivalry going on with them that was under the surface.
Alaric wanted to continue his reign as the top company in Metropolis. Meanwhile, Aerith and Bobby were trying hard to dethrone him and have Metropolis all to themselves.
Of course, all three of them knew this. Their rivalry allowed them to stay sharp and always keep improving.
"Then we’re in agreement? We three are in a coalition for the auction, correct?"
Bobby nodded.
"Only for the vehicles," Aerith mentioned. "For the Soo, that’s a free for all."
"Of course," Alaric agreed.
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Meanwhile, back in their new headquarters, Michael was just given the news that the trucks had successfully unloaded their cargo onto the abandoned mansion.
"Lord Michael, Kong has already been sent there to take care of the planning," Sheina reported. "According to the engineers, it will only take a day and a half for the construction to finish."
Michael nodded in satisfaction. Creating a factory for soda was very easy since they already had a lot of the machineries already set up back in the Nation of Reborn. All they had to do was disassemble it, transport it through the truck, and reassemble it back here in Metropolis.
And for now, he decided to source his materials locally here in Metropolis. It would be much more costly if he had to transport all the way from the Parched Lands. Of course, this was all temporary. Once the Golden Road had been connected to Metropolis, Michael planned to source all of his materials from their own territories.
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A day later, the construction for the factory was finished.
He visited the place with Sheina and Castelle, touring the entire process from the creation of the glass bottles, to the mixing of the soda juice, carbonating it, and putting it in the bottle.
Of course, Michael chose the iconic design from his previous world, having a metal cap that made that satisfying POP! sound when it was opened.
As for the soda itself, he looked no further than the famous co*a cola. Even if the recipe was a secret back in his previous world, ChatJK4 was able to reverse engineer its process and ingredients perfectly.
"Now, all I need is the workers."
According to his deal with uncle Max, the Vanderbilt family would be the one to manage and work on the soda factory.
Of course, since they were very unfamiliar with how a factory worked, Michael gathered them all and gave them a tour of their new workplace.
All thirty Vanderbilts travelled to the new Soda Factory and they couldn’t help but gasp and be in awe.
Even Max, who thought he knew about Michael’s capabilities, simply couldn’t believe how fast they were able to make the factory.
"This...how did you build it already?! It hasn’t even been two days!" Max complained.
"It’s something called concrete. I’ll explain it to you later. For now, let’s move to the factory and my Rebornians can teach you how to work."
As they approached, the large factory doors opened and everyone saw the huge machineries that looked completely alien to them. There were these tall box metal containers that spouted hot steam and there was even a very intimidating large hammer that slammed into a flat anvil and caused tremors in the ground.
"What...what is this?!"
"Are these metal monsters?"
"Are you a tamer?"
Michael laughed before gesturing for the Rebornians to start their lessons.
"Everyone, this is called a boiler. Please take care not to touch it because it’s very hot..."
The engineers began giving very basic explanations as to how the machines worked, and how to operate them. It was very intimidating for the Vanderbilts, but the engineers assured them that they will stay in the factory for a few months to teach the newbies how to operate them.
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Meanwhile, in a completely dark room shrouded in darkness, there were two figures that faced each other.
One of them was standing with a prideful and confident stature. Meanwhile, the other one was kneeling to show his respect.
"The great Slime God has told me that he recruited you for your talents," said the shrouded man who was standing.
"Yes. I am Viperion."
"Cast away your name and choose for yourself a new one. I was once like you, who was once in the path against the will of the great Slime God. But now I have seen the truth, I have seen the light of day.
I cast away my old name, Hestu, in order to become the Priest. I am leading the people to realize the truth about the Iron Maiden!"
Hestu and Viperion’s backgrounds were very similar. They were once enemies of Micheal and the Reborn company. But because of a certain slime’s intervention, they changed their ways and was now completely loyal to him.
"Very well, sir! I shall name myself Bishop!"
"Good, Bishop! Now, it is your turn to spread the Iron Maiden religion to Metropolis. The Great Slime God wills it."
"Aye! Aye!"