"As I've said, the money is rolling in," Kyle said with a smirk.
The Chief looked at the sheets of paper in front of him with furrowed brows.
Meanwhile, Noah furrowed his brows. "I can see that, I don't see how this is related to your failed negotiations with the Ancient Bark Guild."
Noah was responsible for the Stark Brotherhood's administration, which included finances and relations.
When he had heard about the deal Kyle had brokered with the Ancient Bark Guild, he had been angry.
The money invested in the Ancient Bark Guild was secondary. The important part was the surrounding territory.
By essentially scamming the Ancient Bark Guild, Kyle had essentially forfeited their territories there.
While they still had it right now, they would certainly lose it within the next two or three years.
That was a significant loss.
"Product is king," Kyle said. "The Ancient Bark Guild is just a marketing company. Yes, they can make the difference when the quality of products is similar, but if there is an unequivocally better product available for the same price, the better product will win."
Noah furrowed his brows. "And that's where your fantasy of lowering the prices by 20% comes in?"
"Yep," Kyle said with a smirk.
"I still have no idea how you want to accomplish that. Sure, we can lower the prices in that territory, but if the other territories get wind of these changes, they will get quite angry and feel taken advantage of," Noah said.
"Which is why we are going to reduce the prices by 20% overall," Kyle said.
"And you want to do that without reducing our members' pay?" Noah asked. "This will put our Guild far into the minus and slow our growth."
Kyle pointed at the sheet again. "That's why we have this."
"I understand that," Noah said, "but these mining missions also give Contribution Points. You do know that the things we offer for Contribution Points have to be purchased by us with actual money?"
Kyle wasn't deterred. "I know. I crunched the numbers, and I'm pretty sure we can make up for the difference."
"With this?" Noah asked, gesturing to the sheet of paper. "That's not nearly enough."
"Not yet," Kyle said with a chuckle. "Give it time."
"Nothing in this life is free," Kyle said with a smirk. "Our brothers believe they are playing a free-to-play. Little do they know that there are plenty of microtransactions that are necessary to play this game and actually earn something. "
The Chief and Noah looked at Kyle with furrowed brows.
They didn't know some of these concepts, but they knew what he was saying.
"You are giving them free rein over a mine and allowing them to keep 70% of the mined ore. I can't see how the remaining 30% will make up for the loss in revenue," Noah said.
Kyle couldn't keep his smirk contained.
"Have you ever worked in a mine?" Kyle asked.
"No," Noah said, "and I don't see how that's relevant."
Kyle laughed a bit and explained several things to Noah.
"Are you serious?" Noah asked with a skeptical expression. "What you say sounds too optimistic."
"Give it time," Kyle said. "You will see."
Noah looked at the Chief.
"Give him time," the Chief said.
"Fine," Noah said.
As time passed, more Fighter teams joined the mine.
By now, 30 Fighters were continually working inside the mine.
Noah watched this development calmly. 'When they realize that there is not much to be gained, they will stop.'
Time passed.
A month later, over 40 Fighters were working in the mine.
By now, Noah had become unsure.
He knew for a fact that they weren't earning a lot in the mine. After all, he heard the miners complain about their earnings all day.
So, why were they still going?
The answer was simple.
They didn't have anything better to do.
To Noah, it was normal that a bunch of Fighters waited near the bar for missions.
This was simply how Fighter Guilds operated.
Yet, normal didn't necessarily mean preferable.
These teams would love to work more, but there just wasn't more work.
Working in the mine allowed them to earn money and earn Contribution Points, and it was definitely better than following a cat on an evening stroll.
So, even though the pay was bad, they still worked there.
'Okay, maybe Kyle was right regarding the members' willingness to mine,' Noah thought, 'but that still isn't nearly enough to make up for the loss in revenue from the dropped prices.'
A week later, Kyle presented his next summary of profits.
When Noah saw that, his eyes almost fell out.
"How is it so much money?" he asked in shock.
Kyle just grinned. "They found out about pay-to-win."
"One of the teams got annoyed about having to mine blindly and asked for our scouting service. Our scouting service takes 40% of their earned ore as payment. In exchange, they tell the miners all the locations of the close ore clusters."
"40%?" Noah asked in shock. "Who would pay for that?"
"I know, " Kyle answered with a laugh. "That's why it took so long for them to consider using it."
"But what is 40% when you get five times as much ore?"
Kyle laughed again. "Just wait until next week. It's gonna increase even more!"
Noah became skeptical once again.
Yet, sure enough, a week later, there was another spike in profits.
"How?" Noah asked in shock.
"Expensive ore is hard to refine," Kyle said. "They have their own refiners, but it takes a lot of practice to refine advanced ore. While they are willing to use their own refiners for less valuable ore, they won't risk the more valuable ore."
"Our refining service takes 20% of the refined ore. It's important to note that the cost is multiplicative, not additive. That means they only lose 20% of their share after all the other reductions. Quite a good offer, I would say."
"Just wait, it's gonna jump even more next week," Kyle said with a laugh.
Noah just looked at Kyle in shock.
Sure enough, one week later, the revenue increased even more.
Noah just looked at Kyle in confusion and shock.
He didn't even need to ask.
"Liquefiers," Kyle said with a laugh. "Materials: 50 Ether Pebbles. Lily takes three Ether Stones as payment for production. We sell them for 20 Ether Stones."
Kyle just kept laughing.
Noah just looked at the sheet in shock.
Actually, paying for the Guild's loss in revenue was almost possible by now.
"Just wait," Kyle said with a smirk.
"It's gonna increase even more."
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