Chapter 250: Chapter 250: The Alchemists Had a Good Idea

"I knew it would be exaggerated, but I didn’t expect it could be exaggerated to this degree!"

"Oh my god! 240 million gold coins! The 1,000 craftsmen my family employs would need 80,000 years to earn that much!"

"I get the logic, but I suspect the person above wants to advertise. Ask him why he needs to support 1,000 craftsmen and it’ll trigger."

"I’m a tax official of the Kingdom of Dawn. I don’t think the entire Kingdom of Dawn has that much tax revenue in a year."

"I’m the Finance Minister of the Kingdom of Dawn. I can clearly tell you, forget about one year—the Kingdom of Dawn’s treasury doesn’t even have this much money."

"Huh? Viscount Roster? Do you have any new products in your territory recently?"

"Viscount Roster, your stockings are seriously great!"

"By the way, the big shots just spent 240 million gold coins buying stuff. How much money did they deposit in Dragon Bank? 400 million? 500 million? Or more?"

"I’m suddenly thinking, should I also put my money in Dragon Bank? I’ve had those tens of thousands of gold coins buried in my yard for over 700 years, and they’re still the same amount. Not a single one has multiplied. If I’d put them in Dragon Bank, how much would I have after 700 years!"

"5% per year, 700 years is 3500%, so 10,000 gold coins becomes 350,000. Really envy you long-lived races."

"No wait, the 5% each year is 5% of the previous year including principal and interest. Added up it’s not just 35 times. By the end of the first year it’s 10,500, by the end of the second year it’s 11,025, the third year is 11,576.25... After 700 years... I can’t calculate it anymore. How come it feels like an astronomical number? You’ve already missed out on a world!"

"I’m even more envious of these long-lived races now!"

"Wonder when the next auction will be? Will there be things at the next auction that us middle and lower class folks can afford? With less intense competition?"

"Didn’t they say auctions would be held regularly?"

"Compared to auctions, for things we middle-low and bottom tier folks need, is there a possibility that what’s actually treasures to us is basically garbage to the auction, and then some regular shops would sell them?"

City-State Alliance.

City of Alchemy.

The Alchemy Guild president lay in his office at headquarters, browsing the "Magic Net Auction Forum," when his eyes suddenly flashed with interest. He immediately spoke to a strange device on his desk. "All mid and high-level staff, gather in the conference room! Meeting! You have ten minutes!"

Don’t be fooled by this guy being a nearly 700-year-old dwarf-human hybrid. He hadn’t inherited the dwarf stubbornness at all. Instead, he was full of innovation, and even though he was already old, he still had quite the adventurous spirit.

Ten minutes later.

With a huge white beard but having long since lost his hair, with eyebrows that drooped to his mouth and merged with his mutton chops, the Alchemy Guild president arrived at the conference room. He swept his gaze around, confirmed all headquarters mid and high-level staff had gathered, then nodded with satisfaction.

"I think everyone should have noticed the major events of recent days, right?"

The Alchemy Guild president didn’t beat around the bush at all and spoke directly. Seeing quite a few people looking confused, he continued to clarify. "I’m talking about the new features opened on Magic Net videos."

"President, do you want us to also start streaming? Or are you saying you want us to start crafting some high-end products to prepare for the next auction?" A quick-thinking high-level executive immediately asked.

"Both."

The Alchemy Guild president nodded slightly. "More importantly, I want to establish a department called the ’Magic Net Video Department.’ This department will be responsible for creating an account belonging to our Alchemy Guild on the Magic Net, mainly responsible for promoting things about our Alchemy Guild, and selling products created by our members in the storefront."

"I was just suddenly thinking—high-end products can be sent to auctions. Wealthy customers can naturally go purchase them. But what about the broader mid-to-low-end customers? Although their financial power is limited, there are many of them. We can completely borrow the Magic Conductor model and provide large quantities of mid-to-low-end alchemical products for these mid-to-low-end customer groups."

"If we list these things in the storefront, I think sales will definitely be quite good. Compared to them buying in shops in various cities, our quality is more guaranteed. We can also directly connect alchemists with customer groups, avoiding middlemen taking a cut..."

The Alchemy Guild president’s words could be called pearls of wisdom. The mid and high-level staff who’d been a bit confused at first suddenly showed expressions of realization after hearing his explanation.

It actually seemed to be like that.

Even that Master Carl’s crappy products could have so many people buying them. The proper products they crafted would definitely also have many people paying attention. Plus, they were from the Alchemy Guild, which would make people trust them more.

Right away, they all nodded to show their support.

But exactly how to operate it, how to do it—this really stumped quite a few people.

Before long, noisy sounds came from the conference room.

"But attracting viewers, I think that’s a technical job. Not everyone playing on the Magic Net can get tons of followers paying attention!"

"As long as we can provide effective solutions, I don’t believe we can’t do better than that crappy guy."

"You know, from my observations, people just like that crappy guy."

"..."

Hearing their chatter, the Alchemy Guild president’s expression got increasingly unpleasant. He simply cast a spell to block his hearing and started thinking. After about ten minutes passed, he suddenly spoke up. "Quiet!"

As soon as his voice came out, the people who’d been arguing heatedly all quieted down and turned their gazes to him.

"I’ve got a bold idea."

The Alchemy Guild president paused slightly, then said with a smile, "We can hold a continent-wide alchemy competition."

"We’ll divide the alchemy competition into several stages—city competition, regional competition, national competition, continental competition. Each local Alchemy Guild will be responsible for hosting. Each level will create an account and livestream in real time."

"Through layer after layer of competition, layer after layer of selection, they’ll carry the honor of each region and ultimately compete for the strongest in our City of Alchemy!"

"Also, we need to give these champions from each region some pretty impressive titles, like Grand Alchemist, Master, Alchemy Saint, and so on."

The Alchemy Guild president got more and more excited as he spoke. He felt this idea of his was just too great. When competing in the city, people in the surrounding circles would just watch for fun. But at a higher level, that carried regional honor, and then everyone would follow this sense of honor as it continuously leveled up.

Even if your fellow townsman got eliminated, the person advancing was from the same region as you, from the same country as you. In a competition of an even larger group, weren’t they still fellow townsmen?

Just this plot point alone, combined with the special profession of alchemist, meant it was destined to attract the vast majority of people on the Magic Net... The rest, like selling goods and stuff, wouldn’t that just be going with the flow?