Chapter 389 - 261: Repayment and a New Deal (2)
As expected of an Intercontinental Giant Corporation. The terms were predatory, but at least they were all spelled out clearly.
Intercontinental Giant Corporations were completely different from large companies. They made their money while standing tall!
Next, Lin Qi opened his email again, found Guang Ling, and composed a message.
[Thanks for your help. My problem is more or less solved.]
Guang Ling replied instantly:
[Fair trade. It’s the consistent principle of a Highest-Level Mercenary Corps.]
After sending his thanks, Lin Qi didn’t forget the real reason he was writing and continued composing the email.
[I owe King Arthur seven million Credit Points. My personal account balance is currently around ten million. I’m hoping to use the Mercenary Corps’ channels to safely transfer the Credit Points to her.]
As a company employee, Lin Qi’s personal account was monitored. The company could access all of his transactions. This was not the anonymous account he typically used for Mercenary Corps dealings.
Turning clean money into black money—this was a service company employees often needed.
In the Black Market, laundering funds between legitimate and illicit channels was a classic service.
As the leader of a Highest-Level Mercenary Corps, Guang Ling was very familiar with this process.
[It’s possible, but there will be a loss of about thirty percent. Fifteen percent of that will be processed as regular product orders, and it will take about three days.]
The rate Guang Ling offered was quite reasonable. This was also because laundering clean money into untraceable funds was easier than the other way around.
Lin Qi needed to launder seven million Credit Points. A thirty percent loss meant two million one hundred thousand, which was actually a bit less than he had estimated.
But this loss of two million one hundred thousand wouldn’t be entirely pocketed by the Black Market’s channels. One million fifty thousand of it would be converted into regular purchases for Lin Qi, delivered to him in the form of goods.
On the surface, the Credit Points disappearing from Lin Qi’s account would all be disguised as legitimate purchases and investment losses, thus bypassing corporate financial oversight.
This rate was lower than Lin Qi’s expectations, so naturally, he agreed.
As for whether Guang Ling was taking a cut?
Lin Qi reckoned he probably was.
But if Lin Qi had gone to the Black Market and found a channel himself, the cut taken would likely have been even larger than Guang Ling’s.
[Okay, I agree.]
After he sent the email,
Guang Ling hadn’t even replied yet, but Lin Qi could already see the balance in his personal account starting to change.
The funds began to move.
It wasn’t a single deduction of over nine million, but rather a flow of tens of thousands and thousands at a time.
Checking the transaction history of his personal account, he could see that some of the funds were flowing into the financial markets.
Another portion flowed into personal trading websites.
As if impatient with the slow trickle of funds, a single, massive debit of three million three hundred thousand Credit Points suddenly hit Lin Qi’s account.
The sight made Lin Qi’s heart ache.
This was all his father’s hard-earned money, made one Iron Bull at a time!
’God knows when I’ll be able to earn this much money through legitimate means,’ he thought. ’God knows when I’ll be able to pay Dad back.’
Fortunately, Lin Qi was good at consoling himself. ’It’s fine. Anyway, there are still thousands of Bulls waiting for the old man to install. The Prosthetic Clinic isn’t short on Credit Points right now. It’s just tough on the old man.’
Lin Qi thought of the order forms back at the clinic and finally cast aside his guilty conscience.
This wasn’t just his dad’s hard-earned money; it was also emotional compensation for the rumors being spread about him.
’Divine Power Lin Qi?’
’I’ve never installed anything like a Divine Iron Bull, nor have I ever even used that type of Exoskeleton as a disguise!’
’Though I disguise myself as a Prosthetic Body fanatic, the prosthetics I use for my Exoskeleton modifications are always combat-grade!’
’Not a single part of my A-Class body is for entertainment!’
After another glance at the fund movements in his personal account, Lin Qi took out an exquisite bracelet.
This was the Quantum-Locked Text Interaction Device he had acquired from a member of the Holy Relic Legion back in Greenfield City.
This little gadget didn’t need the cyber network to function. It was expensive, but in return, it was nearly impossible for any method to block its transmissions.
The other end of the connection was with King Arthur.
Lin Qi typed out a message to contact King Arthur.
[I had Guang Ling help me convert the funds. The Credit Points for that T2-class Spacecraft should be settled with you in about three days.]
First, he had to report his progress to his creditor.
King Arthur’s reply was prompt.
[Okay, no problem. But you really didn’t have to rush to convert the funds. Using Black Market channels costs too much. I’m still working a job for Guang Ling. Once Master Ma and I catch our target, the bounty for this mission should be paid out. I hear the number is very tempting.]
King Arthur didn’t seem to be in a hurry to collect her debt.
She had just become a Tier Four Extraordinary, and her current Prosthetic Body was more than sufficient for now, so she didn’t have any major expenses in the short term.
But Lin Qi couldn’t keep dragging his feet, especially since he had another favor to ask of King Arthur.
Lin Qi continued typing and sent another message to King Arthur.
[That T2-class Spacecraft from before works great. I need three more. Do you have any more in stock?]
From his previous conversations with King Arthur, Lin Qi knew that she seemed to have a background with an aerospace company in the European Administrative Region. She had a sizable inventory of spacecraft from the corporate war era.
In fact, with this information, Lin Qi wouldn’t even need secretive channels to investigate King Arthur’s possible identity, but he felt there was no need to dig too deep.
King Arthur’s reply was once again very fast.
[Three more? There’s not much demand for this type of spacecraft in the Asian Administrative Region right now. You didn’t run off to the European or American Administrative Regions to join a corporate war, did you?]
King Arthur suspected that the Wizard was engaged in a major assassination campaign.
Otherwise, what would he need so many escape-type spacecraft for?
But King Arthur was only asking casually. Without waiting for Lin Qi’s reply, she continued:
[I do have them in stock. Same model as before. I remember having quite a few, probably about ten left. You only want three?]
King Arthur was being considerate of Lin Qi’s situation.
She was selling them to the Wizard for seven million Credit Points a piece anyway.
The Wizard had to cover the shipping costs himself, too.
If the Wizard needed more, the cost of shipping in multiple batches would be much higher than shipping them all at once.
To ship one, Dongfang Logistics charged around three million.
To ship three, it might be six million, seven million at most.
If he were to ship ten, the price would even be negotiable!
As for selling them all at once?
That wasn’t really necessary.
After all, the global situation was tense, with corporate wars ongoing in both the European and American Administrative Regions.
Here in the Asian Administrative Region, a crazy Tier Four Peak Wizard was openly provoking the Round Table Conference. In the near future, a large number of Wizards would likely converge on the Asian Administrative Region.
With their arrival, the Round Table Conference would most likely not take things lying down.
A corporate war that would sweep across the Asian Administrative Region was likely to break out soon.
Against this backdrop, there was no need to worry about the sales of T2-class Spacecraft.
King Arthur might even be able to sell off all of that old equipment she controlled.
The cash flow from this wave of sales might even allow King Arthur to restart some of her own company’s operations.
Seeing King Arthur’s message, Lin Qi hurriedly replied:
[Three is enough.]
’Ten of them?’
’No need!’
Unless the subsequent launch missions failed.
But if they did fail, it would mean the T2-class Spacecraft were useless for his purpose, and Lin Qi would need to switch to a different model.
In fact, if the launches failed consecutively, Lin Qi wouldn’t need to look for any more spacecraft at all.
There were only a few Tier Five Extraordinary Items in the Doomsday World. Once they were used up, they were gone. After a failure, it would be very difficult to get a second chance.
Unless Lin Qi could get his hands on an even more expensive spacecraft, fly into space, and retrieve the Tier Five Extraordinary Items himself.
[When do you need them? I can arrange for shipping anytime. Price is the same as always, seven million a piece. Following the custom in the Asian Administrative Region, I’ll knock off the odd bit and charge you an even twenty million for the three.]
Lin Qi wasn’t in a hurry for this.
Anyway, the effects of one Tier Five Extraordinary Item would last a while, giving him a two-month window to complete the subsequent launches.
Lin Qi composed a message and sent it to King Arthur:
[Let’s make the transaction after the Mercenary Corps mission settles up.]
Lin Qi couldn’t do it "anytime," since he didn’t have enough Credit Points at the moment.
’That’s twenty million!’
’Calculated at a profit of fifty thousand per Bull, and not even considering labor costs...’
’His dad would have to install a full four hundred Bulls...’