( Leo's POV )
Ultimately, Leo managed to sell all the available shop spaces at a tenfold markup, generating a total of 6 million gold coins, far surpassing the initially projected revenue of 600,000.
Given the current level of foot traffic and the purchasing power of the Barony's citizens, it was going to take the major groups at least a decade to break even on their investment, as in terms of pure business, they had significantly overpaid for the shop spots.
However, the major groups were strategic in their decision-making. They understood that an alliance with the master alchemist, Leo Skyshard, was only feasible if they had a base of operations near his manufacturing facilities and hence, despite the exorbitant price of the shops, they still paid for the land to ensure that they did not miss the opportunity to collaborate with him.
With these newly acquired funds, Leo's concerns about raising capital for his Barony were temporarily alleviated.
Even after recouping the 2 million gold coins he had personally injected into the economy, he now sat on a fresh reserve of 4 million gold coins, which was more than sufficient to cover the salaries of all workers and fund the ongoing civil projects in his territory for the next 6 months.
"Haha… Today I've made enormous gains!" Leo exclaimed. Switching from his 'TheBoss' persona to his 'Leo Skyshard' persona as he departed for one of his factories where he was scheduled to meet the same executives once again, but this time with a different agenda.
**********
"Mr.Leo…. Your current products have taken the market by storm. It's our understanding that the White Tiger Group is giving you 50% of the profits…. Well our Black Tortoise Group is prepared to give you 70% of the profits, if you only agree to sell us too–" The Black Tortoise Group executive proposed, however, Leo instantly shot him down.
"Mr. Chen, please understand that I have signed an exclusive contract with the White Tiger Group and cannot give you the products that I have pledged to sell exclusively to them.
However, what I can instead do for you is, I can send samples of my new product line that I'm working on to you and you can then decide if you want those new products or not– " Leo said, as although he declined to sell them the products he was exclusively giving the White Tiger Group, he enticed them with a new offer instead.
"New products? You mean, you have more products that the White Tiger Group has not even seen?" The Black Tortoise Group representative said, hopeful stars sparkling in his eyes as he seemed genuinely excited about the prospect of unseen before products.
"Yes… yes…. They are new products that no-one has seen yet, but in my opinion they are even better than the ones I've sold to the White Tiger Group.
Of-course there are a few small kinks here and there that I still need to iron out to make them perfect, but it should not take me more than a couple of months to do it.
So yes, very soon you may have a new product line to bid for on your lap" Leo said, as although he did not have a single new product to sell, he painted a grand picture in front of the Black Tortoise Group executive to keep them interested and on their toes.
"Please Mr.Skyshard, I beg of you….. please only give your new products to the Black Tortoise Group and no-one else" the executive begged, however, Leo simply laughed him off.
"Hahaha, of course Mr.Chen, I'm a businessman and if we come to a formal agreement in a few months time, then I will indeed only sell to your group.
But until then, it's open season" Leo said, as he did not tie himself down to any new group yet and instead decided to pit all the major trade groups against one another to get the best offer for his non-existent products before he even invented them.
Repeating this process with all the other group executives, Leo filled them all with hopes and dreams, sending them all back feeling like they had accomplished something important, when in reality they had achieved nothing.
In a way, it was the perfect con.
**********
"Mr.Skyshard, there is one last guy who is here to meet you…. He's not on the list of the people supposed to meet you today, however, he says he's from some guild called the 'Uprising'..... He said that you'll know what it is if I tell you–" Leo's assistant at the factory said, as just as Leo thought he had wrapped up all the meetings, someone unexpected showed up.
'The uprising?' Leo thought, feeling curious as he had indeed heard that name a few times before.
Once from Cervantez who thought 'TheBoss' was a member of the uprising and before that when he was a sewage worker in sector E, where the 'Uprising' presented itself as a mafia brotherhood of sorts.
Leo had no fond memories of the 'Uprising' and considered them to be troublemakers, however, since a veteran player had taken the trouble to scout him out in this remote location, Leo decided to grant him the meeting, just for the sake of curiosity.
"Let him in–" Leo said, as the assistant guided the inconspicuous man into his office.
"So you are Leo Skyshard, the number two player on the leaderboards" the man said, extending his hand forward, as Leo shook it before glancing towards his NPC assistant who was still within his office.
"You can leave us… Rosie–" Leo said, urging her to leave, as he did not respond to the #2 players comment in front of the NPC.
"A cautious man I see—" The uprising representative said, feeling impressed as Leo simply chuckled in amusement as he observed the man's attitude.
Despite being the visitor, the man sat more laid-back than Leo in his chair and had a toothpick sticking out of his mouth, probably from whittling down a stick that he had whittled down himself, since there were no commercially available toothpicks in this world.
His manner of speaking was crude and he carried himself like he owned the place, which was the part that amused Leo the most.
Compared to the big merchant group executives who were so nervous in front of him, this man was a complete 180 opposite.
He was brash, unbothered and looked a bit bored.
'A punk–' Leo concluded internally, however, externally he maintained his usual formal demeanor.
"What can I do for you Mr…..?" Leo mumbled, to which the man responded with a "Tony".
"Call me Tony–"
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/// A/N - Chapter 8/15. ///