Mercenary's War

Gao Yang and Jack were standing together chatting when Alexander quickly caught up.

"How did it go?"

"Not great, he still doesn’t believe us."

"We cooperated pretty well."

"The coordination wasn’t too difficult. Even though I don’t know what you’re planning, I know you definitely have a purpose and confidence."

Gao Yang and Alexander exchanged a few cryptic words, then Jack took a swig of beer and asked, puzzled, "What are you talking about?"

Alexander smiled and said, "Oh, nothing much, just had a little tactical coordination with Ram just now."

Gao Yang also smiled, "Cooperating with experts is so refreshing."

Jack sighed, "You still didn’t say what happened."

Alexander said, "Max wants to buy the patent or jointly develop this gun with us. We would collect a royalty fee, a six percent rate, meaning every gun Remington sells, I receive six percent of the total price."

Jack shook his head, "Don’t do that, the market for this gun is too small."

Gao Yang asked Alexander, "What do you really think?"

Alexander looked puzzled, "I want to produce it myself and sell it, but at most I could sell about twenty units a year."

"Twenty units? That’s so few?"

Seeing Gao Yang’s confusion, Alexander explained helplessly, "Our machines are all high-precision small machines. The production volume can’t keep up, the defect rate is high, and this gun requires extremely high skill levels, so the cost per gun is around eighty thousand dollars."

Gao Yang gasped loudly, "That’s so expensive!"

"If it were Remington Company, they have enough good large machines, low enough raw material procurement prices, and enough skilled workers to significantly reduce costs. I think compressing it to under fifty thousand dollars wouldn’t be a problem."

Jack explained simply and then said indifferently, "This gun, if you want to sell it, it could take years to recoup those millions of dollars in costs."

Alexander laughed bitterly, "Our annual production capacity is at most fifty units, no more."

"Haha, earn twenty thousand per unit, sell them all, and at most earn a million in gross profit a year. It would take fifty years to recoup fifty million; better sell the patent."

Many things, while good, just don’t sell. Companies that develop products ultimately have to go bankrupt, and there are countless such examples. The reason? It’s because the market is too small.

Or simply put, things are too expensive, so expensive that barely anyone can afford them, no matter how good they are, it’s useless.

So just go ahead and sell the patent.

Alexander said casually, "Actually, I don’t really want to sell the patent. Such a good gun that only we have, even if others have money, they can’t buy it. Isn’t that cool?"

Gao Yang was stunned for a moment, then nodded, "Of course that’s cool, but you’re throwing millions of dollars just for that feeling?"

Alexander was still indifferent, "Feeling cool is good, what is money anyway."

Gao Yang sighed, "Then why did I say all that nonsense just now and bring up FN Company, thinking you wanted to sell?"

"It’s like your own child, hard to let go."

Alexander said sentimentally, then shifted his tone, "But keeping your child home forever doesn’t feel good either. If your child becomes famous and known by everyone, that feels nice too."

Gao Yang asked irritatedly, "So what do you want? Sell or not sell?"

Alexander shrugged, "Sell if the price is high, don’t sell if it’s not. It’s not a big deal."

Someone who can treat millions of dollars casually must have the privilege to be capricious.

Gao Yang asked curiously, "I’m just asking out of curiosity, how much have you earned over the years with Aurora?"

Alexander exhaled and shyly said, "I don’t have many hobbies, not much to spend on, made some money with Aurora in battles, about two million, commissions were low then, not as easy to earn as now."

"Two million? Only two million?"

Gao Yang looked puzzled, and Alexander hesitated, then reluctantly said, "I invested the money, met a brilliant guy who advised me on investing in funds, buying stocks he recommended, and before deciding to retire, I discovered I was a billionaire, so I just retired."

Gao Yang said dumbfoundedly, "So, you’re a billionaire?"

Alexander thought for a moment, "When I retired, I had about four hundred million dollars in assets."

Jack said stupidly, "Two million turned into four billion?"

Alexander was still embarrassed, "Now approximately fifteen billion, I guess. I can’t figure it out either."

Jack dug his ears with his chubby fingers, while Gao Yang froze for a moment and suddenly asked, "Who recommended stocks to you? Can you introduce me?"

Alexander shook his head apologetically, "Sorry, that’s really not possible, and I can’t help anyone. It’s an agreement."

Gao Yang waved his hand, "Then don’t sell the patent, forget it; we’ll just play with it ourselves."

Alexander shrugged and said, "But if it sells at a high price, and the gun is promoted, it feels good too. What do you mean by FN Company? They’re not really going to offer one hundred and twenty million, are they?"

Gao Yang exhaled, "They’re not really going to offer one hundred and twenty million for your patent, but I can have them pretend to express interest like they’ll buy it, a small commercial tactic."

Alexander was still smiling gently, looking particularly harmless. But as a legendary mercenary with countless blood on his hands, if he were really as harmless as he looked, he’d be long dead.

"Oh, then let’s give it a try. If FN Company is willing to cooperate, we might sell it for a pretty good price."

Gao Yang rubbed his hands and said, "I don’t have that much clout for this; I need to ask someone to help make it happen. So, how much are you willing to offer?"

Alexander thought for a moment, then smiled, "Max offered fifty million dollars; then, twenty percent of anything above fifty million is yours to freely distribute, how’s that?"

Gao Yang said casually, "Just helping a friend out, I’ll waive it here. The entire twenty percent can go to my friend, just like that. I’ll contact them now; the news can be out tonight."

Alexander nodded politely, then smiled kindly, "I’ll leave it to you then. I’ll wait for your good news."