Darkstone Code

Lynch is a very special person.

Mr. Pato’s genuine willingness to become friends with Lynch began after Lynch was personally ennobled by Emperor Gafura.

Because he is a noble, a true noble, without any fictional elements, while the Akiner Clan, although a "noble family," its authenticity is questionable.

The legends circulating are the biggest proof of doubt. No one has ever pointed at some noble of Gafura and said that this person’s noble title was questionable.

Because everyone knows their noble titles come from the Emperor’s personal ennoblement.

Yes, or no, it’s all about heritage.

Who the successor of each generation is, in the presence of which nobles they receive the Emperor’s permission for ennoblement, all of these have a legacy, with records.

It has always been this way for each generation, so determining who is a noble and who is not cannot be faked.

But the Akiner Clan is different. They only repeatedly claim that their ancestor, the first Count Akiner, was one of the first Pioneers on this continent and the only noble.

They can also list every family’s Patriarch and their times of ascension and succession.

But... is just saying it enough?

Without more noble witnesses, without an Imperial Family’s ennoblement, sometimes what you say is not what it is!

People are more willing to believe that Akiner was originally a lowly guard around true nobles and killed the real Count Akiner to take his identity, rather than believe the blood of true nobility flows within the Akiner Clan!

So Mr. Pato needs some support, he once tried to open breakthroughs from Gafura, but obviously, being born and raised in the Federation, he could not comprehend the minds of nobles.

Those impoverished nobles would rather starve themselves than prove something they don’t know— that the Akiner Clan has noble blood flowing through them!

Yes, they are unwilling to admit it, and those nobles with true judgment power look down on Mr. Pato, so this matter has dragged on.

Lynch became the second noble outside of the Federation Continent for the Akiner Clan, and was personally ennobled by the Emperor. As long as he acknowledged the Akiner Clan as a noble, many rumors would be dispelled!

This is the core reason Mr. Pato truly accepted Lynch as an equal. In essence, it still relates to certain interests.

Until the silver case broke out and Lynch boldly stepped into the scene, causing Mr. Pato to gulp down at the countless interests he saw, ultimately changing his face that was like a mask of ice that would not melt for countless prosperous, harsh seasons.

It was said to be teaming up with Lynch, but it was more like secretly supporting from behind, yet this still garnered him many benefits.

Both sides made tremendous progress on the path of pursuing interests, thus establishing a genuine foundation for becoming good friends.

Just like Lynch and Mr. Wardrick, there has to be something acting as a bridge to connect them.

Facing Lynch’s question at the moment, Mr. Pato pondered for a while, then quietly said with a voice as calm as a storm, "You know, every year there are a number of mining accidents."

"Mines have mining accidents, oil fields too..."

At a time when scientific technology was not quite advanced, mining underground was indeed a very dangerous job. Basically, you were putting your life at risk.

Even though those structural designers constantly assured the mine owners and workers that the internal tunnels they designed were absolutely free from collapse, and at this point, even the mine owners did a moral thing by using high-quality materials.

But when a mining accident was due, it would happen no matter what.

Collapse, water leakage, the most common occurrences, every mining disaster could take away many lives and cause massive economic losses to resources enterprises.

They had to pay all kinds of compensations, heal the societal wounds, and pay various fines and fees.

Mining sites would be temporarily closed for reassessment until the investigation team felt the threats were not too severe, and only after some supervision and rectification could they resume operations.

This period could last several months, enough to sever the substantial cash flow brought by the oil fields.

As for why oil fields had issues, even tanks had issues as well, that’s another problem.

Mr. Pato unabashedly told Lynch that he could use some legal maneuvers to deal with these industries, thus demonstrating his willingness to collaborate with Lynch on a deeper level.

Examining the entire Federation’s upper echelons, "plunder" was illegal most of the time, but it was masked with legality by the law.

Just like before the Great Depression, when the Federation’s productivity surplus, known as the "capital engine," began to decline in growth, exposing various societal issues, and capital started fleeing en masse.

To prevent this flight of capital, the Federation Government and major enterprises in various regions resorted to all means to keep these enterprises within.

The methods were somewhat disgraceful—nothing more than lawsuits, penalties, manipulations behind the scenes involving capital and politics. Everyone knew these methods might not be legal, but at this moment, the law turned a blind eye, making them legal!

To some extent, this statement is not wrong.

The purpose of laws is to protect the rights and interests of common people. Keeping these foreign capital enterprises is also for protecting the ordinary citizen’s rights.

However, this time the Federation Government’s target wasn’t the foreign companies, but the Duncan Clan. With the Federation Government’s assistance, Mr. Pato’s ideas were bound to be realized.

Lynch nodded, "You’re an expert in this area, you surely know how to avert these tragedies."

A cautious statement, but fortunately Mr. Pato understood, and also expressed some additional thoughts.

"Actually, I’m not too interested in these resource businesses..."

Seeing Lynch’s appropriately bewildered expression, Mr. Pato explained.

"Now under our clan name and the corporate group, we already own many resource-based industries. We own two out of the Federation’s five major oil fields, the Duncan Clan owns two, and one belongs to the Northern Energy Company."

"If I, or the corporate group, obtained these two oil fields, it would mean we held the control over oil production allocation and pricing power within the Federation, which you know, already violates the Federation’s laws..."

The Antitrust Law is there to address such issues, as long as the Federation Government and the Ministry of Justice deem you have effective control over your industry, monopoly behaviors exist.

Further investigation would reveal monopolistic phenomena, leading to case investigations, heavy fines, and eventually splitting related companies to let more investors buy-in.

This is the Federation’s gaming rule, you can make money, but you can’t close the doors and make money alone, you must open the doors and let everyone make money together to legally "monopolize" the industry.

To an extent, viewing the Antitrust Law seems like a joke; one can’t say because a company is split into several, recruiting a bunch of social investors for the same business, it’s no longer monopolistic.

Even if the core controlling members of a company remain unchanged, being split into a hundred or a thousand companies, it’s still a monopoly.

It’s just that its monopoly becomes less apparent, with people being masked by the "internal competition" they see, cloaking the monopoly’s existence.

Just like Congress—a political resource monopoly, yet politicians used rules to legally clothe themselves to protect themselves, making people unaware that Congress has always been an absolute representation of political monopoly!

Mr. Pato’s meaning is such, operating two oil fields makes his business legal.

But if he operated four oil fields, then his business would become illegal, it’s laughable, but that is reality.

Even big figures must adhere to the game rules sometimes because they made them, and if they want more adherence, they must comply themselves first.

If you do not comply with the rules you set, how can you expect others to willingly follow them?

"So?"

Mr. Pato smiled, "I’m very interested in their security company, and some other industries, some emerging industries."

"Our clans, the consortiums, actually all face the challenge of difficult transformation; this event is an opportunity for us."

"We can obtain the best possible outcome at a lower price and cost!"

Directly plundering some already mature emerging industries from the Duncan Clan equates to helping one’s family avoid many failures in the transformation and innovation process, directly enjoying the fruits of success.

If these industries do not shrink, Mr. Pato would later increase investment, turning these emerging industries into future family pillar industries, perfecting the scale and chain around these industries.

That way, even facing financial crises like those in previous years, they could hold on.

Lynch thought for a moment, "It’s still not enough just to contribute in this area, you have to realize that the more effort we put in, the more we get in return!"

"Honestly, what you mentioned, anyone could do, so you need to bring those tangible things out—money, resources, or something else!"

If a few fires and some damage could procure industries worth millions or tens of millions, there wouldn’t be any poor people in this world.

After discussing for several hours, Lynch finally left, noting before he left Mr. Pato’s stables had many fine feeds, including soybeans, he casually requested some.

Those dried beans appeared yellowish, also referred to by some as soybeans.

Soybeans have always been a premium crop, many places can use them.

Even in supermarkets, various canned soybeans are visible.

Even now, among the government’s distributed relief food, soybeans remain the largest crop proportion.

Cheap, high nutritional value, these are sufficient!