Chapter 128
Quite a few people had been conned into coming by Lu Chuan.
After a few days, Lu Chuan looked a couple of years older and had collected hundreds of loan applications from customers.
“Can you really buy things from outside the city?” At first the customers didn’t believe him.
“Of course. Just look at my face and body — I snuck in from outside the city.” Lu Chuan used himself as an example. “I found a way to get in, but it takes a long time. If the purchase fails, I’ll refund your deposit in full.”
“…If you can actually bring people in, I’ll wait however long it takes!”
By the way, these customers’ loan agreements were written with the “Divine Contracts.” Even if the [God of Exchange] personally came, it would take some effort to destroy that S-rank item.
No lie — rule-type items like that are great. Lu Chuan had almost never used them inside the instance before; normally an A-rank certificate of contract would have sufficed. But given the special nature of this city, Lu Chuan still used the item.
As long as Lu Chuan could bring people in, the contracts would be valid, and those hundreds of people would become his clients.
“Host, where are you going to bring people from? One or two might be possible, but you just signed several hundred contracts in one go.” #888 was very curious and immediately asked.
“Who said I must bring people in?” Lu Chuan propped his chin on one hand and said casually, “I clearly said ‘buy on behalf of people.’ ‘Buying on behalf’ means I obtain the goods and the customer pays me, right? If I don’t get the goods, the customer doesn’t have to pay, right?”
“Yes.”
“These customers all placed orders with me, but there are too many orders and supplies are tight. It’s normal that I can’t fulfill them all at once and they have to wait in line.” Lu Chuan spread his hands and grinned. “They only paid a small deposit. If later they don’t want to wait, I’ll refund their deposit; if they do want to wait, then they wait.”
Once they see a successful purchase, they’ll keep waiting.
Because the deposits were so small at the start, even waiting a few months wouldn’t bother them. After all, procuring humans is hard work, and the fees were so cheap — waiting a bit was reasonable.
And making one successful purchase isn’t that difficult.
The City of Immortality is a place you enter by paying a price — and you can also leave by paying a price.
Lu Chuan had so many customers who’d paid deposits in advance; bringing someone in and taking them out several times was no problem.
People outside who wanted to enter the city and learned Lu Chuan could bring people in were ecstatic.
“Host, are you planning to use these people’s deposits you collected to bring people in, then sign loans with even more customers — basically a game of musical chairs?” #888 finally caught on.
“Something like that. P2P works that way. You use later people’s money to pay earlier people’s high interest. Those who take the high interest won’t risk taking the principal; as long as it doesn’t collapse, the early period yields huge value.” Lu Chuan nodded. “And since I can’t carry these values out of the instance personally, I plan to use them to trade with the gods. Once I leave, the people in the City of Immortality won’t be able to touch me.”
How many people who ran failed financial platforms and then fled were ever caught?
Lu Chuan was just copying the model.
He considered himself relatively honest — he charged very little in deposits. Even if he did run, those residents probably wouldn’t feel too hurt.
#888 finally woke as if from a dream: “Host, you didn’t plan to fulfill the promise at all? Then why use the Divine Contracts… are you just trying to gain people’s trust?”
Also, if any of those borrowers died in a trade with the gods before the contract was completed, the contract would naturally be void, and their deposits would become ownerless property falling into Lu Chuan’s hands.
No matter how you looked at it, Lu Chuan wouldn’t lose.
On the contrary, the gods who thought they’d gotten a bargain by transacting with Lu Chuan were the ones who’d taken the real loss.
Lu Chuan was plainly siphoning people from them.
“That’s right, Little System — you finally get it.” Lu Chuan grinned. “What I want are these people’s borrowing actions. If they all borrow a little here, little by little it becomes a large sum. I can use their value to obtain what I want.” He smiled. “Although my item is now unsealed, my abilities haven’t been unsealed yet.”
After completing Main Quest Two, Lu Chuan found his item bag had been unsealed.
Presumably, that was the reward for finishing Quest Two.
The more quests he finished, the faster his abilities recovered, and the more he could do — a positive feedback loop. But if you failed tasks from the start, what’s left for the player is only more restrictions and a more despairing path.
“At first I’ll build my reputation. If half the city — no, even if a third of the city borrows from me, I’ll have the capital to trade with this city’s gods.” Lu Chuan said indifferently. “Even if it doesn’t last long, one time is enough for me to trade with this city’s gods and leave the instance.”
Also, Lu Chuan was waiting.
Waiting for an opportunity to thoroughly stir things up.
Before coming here he already knew [Greedy Wolf Star] wouldn’t let him off easily — it would most likely follow him into the instance.
And since he hadn’t brought other teammates into the instance with him, if [Greedy Wolf Star] couldn’t seize such a good chance to hit him, Lu Chuan would be disappointed in it.
Also, the vicious loan sharks hadn’t appeared yet.
Were they unable to appear, or were they trapped somewhere as well?
Either way, Lu Chuan didn’t intend to look for them. He’d wait for them to come to him.
Since he’d opened a bank, he would of course wait for customers to come.
Lu Chuan’s buy-on-behalf lending business was really doing well.
After five days of work, taking a huge number of orders and accumulating a lot of “value” bit by bit, Lu Chuan symbolically “rested” for a while and went to “procure” hard.
That was to reassure his clients and those watching him.
Lu Chuan went to the city gate intending to apply to go out.
In the City of Immortality, coming and going was difficult.
Since he’d shrunk, this was the first time Lu Chuan had come to the gate.
There were still two stone lions at the gate, looking much the same as when he came in, though up close you could see some differences.
Leaving required paying a price, and it wasn’t lower than the price to enter.
For ordinary people, merely entering through the gate consumed most of their value; trying to leave afterward basically meant death.
But for Lu Chuan it wasn’t so hard.
He currently held a group of people’s “value.” Leaving wouldn’t be difficult — but it couldn’t look too easy. Taking a few losses and still working hard here would make others trust him more.
After all, who would blame someone who’s been working hard to procure things for you?
“How much do I need to pay to go out?” Lu Chuan asked the stone lions with a smile.
“You must pay the value of your entire person,” the stone lion answered without hesitation.
“My hands hold more than just my own value.” Lu Chuan smiled. “How much would it cost if I left and then brought someone in? Also, if I went out two or three times a month and brought people in each time, could you give me a discount?”
The stone lions had guarded this gate for so long and it was the first time they’d met someone like Lu Chuan who tried to haggle and do business.
“No,” the stone lion replied flatly. “All regulations were written at the start.”
“Sigh, don’t be so rigid.” Lu Chuan waved his hand with a smile. “You’ve been a stone lion guarding the gate for so long — I figure you must’ve been human before. You were turned because you had to exchange so many things. Don’t you want to redeem yourself from the gods? I hear the [God of Exchange] is very fair; if you offer enough value, it’ll return things to you.”
“You’re a player, aren’t you?” the stone lion on the other side sneered. “A very, very long time ago, I was once a player too. I tried every method possible, but I could never turn back into a human. Who do you think you are? In this city, the God of Exchange is everywhere. It’s an existence even more powerful than the high deities. Thinking you can escape from His grasp is nothing but a fool’s dream. As for you—you’ve already lost half of your soul. I’m afraid your time in this city won’t be long anyway.”
Oh? There was actually a player who had turned into a stone lion?
What a pleasant surprise.
Lu Chuan was overjoyed.
“Which senior might you be?” Lu Chuan’s eyes lit up. “Ah, if I’d known you were once a player, I would have come here much earlier. Tsk tsk, but it’s not too late even now. Perfect timing, in fact. It gives me the chance to share my suggestion with you.”
Without caring what the two stone lions thought, Lu Chuan immediately used an item to shield their conversation, preventing others from overhearing and spreading the word. Then he began speaking on his own.
“Since you’ve become stone lions to repay your debts, it’s clear that your exchanges with the gods left you owing a massive amount of value. Now you’re forced to work to pay it back. To redeem your original human bodies and identities would definitely cost a fortune in value. But no worries—you’ve met me. As long as you cooperate with me, earning back the value you need will be no problem at all.”
“My plan is to bring people in from outside the city. Of course, if I bring someone in, I’ll need to extract some value from them. But the system limits the number of people who can enter at once, so the value gained is capped. The best way is for you to swap posts with the gatekeeping lions, so that when outsiders are brought in, you can relax the limit a little. With more numbers, naturally more value will come. For each person I bring in, I’ll give you a share of the value. We can sign a contract with items—absolutely fair. As long as this business runs smoothly, you’ll be able to earn plenty of value to buy back your freedom.”
Lu Chuan intended to pull these stone lions into his team—after all, they controlled the city gates.
“…The gods have set a rule that there’s a limit to the number of humans entering the city.”
“Is there a specific number stated?” Lu Chuan countered. “If it’s just one or two extra, surely that’s fine?”
The stone lion hesitated. “If it’s only one or two more, it shouldn’t be a problem.”
“That’s enough!” Lu Chuan said decisively. “I don’t need too many people anyway. But as for you—if you plan to spend your whole lives as stone lions, just pretend you never met me. If you still long for freedom, though, why not work with me? Worst case, can it really be worse than your current state—where you can neither live nor die?”
As long as he gave people the hope of “payment” early on, borrowers would flock to him like snowflakes.
With compounding profits, once he had a large pool of circulating value, how could his business not thrive?
As long as things didn’t collapse in the early stages, he’d never have to worry about funding later. Sure, this business couldn’t last forever, but Lu Chuan only needed it to work while he was in this dungeon.
Once he cleared this divine trial copy—hmph, if they had the ability, let them try and catch him in the real world.
He wasn’t afraid at all.
Fortune favors the bold!
The stone lions fell silent. Then they wavered. Finally, they made a deal with Lu Chuan.
Lu Chuan happily signed a contract with them, agreeing that for every extra person he brought into the city, they’d get a proportional commission.
The more they worked, the more they earned. He wasn’t a stingy man.
For this kind of business, the more partners the better. He loved inside-outside collaboration most of all.
[Host, you’ve got this.] #888 gave him a thumbs-up, grateful that the infinite worlds had no laws.
