The next morning, Theramore's living room was filled with a pungent smell of perfume. Goblin Prince Rivendare was sitting on a gilded chair - it was the "little gift" he gave to Deren last year, and it was actually worth enough to buy a small manor. His shiny leather shoes kept tapping the ground, and his eyes behind the gold-rimmed glasses kept scanning the door.
When Deren finally appeared, Goblin Prince almost jumped up. "Brother Deren! I'm so happy to see you!" He opened his arms exaggeratedly and wore at least seven bracelets of different styles on his wrists. "Come on, do you have any other projects to make money?"
Deren awkwardly accepted this overly enthusiastic hug. The other person was too short and could only hug his lower body, and then began to say, "Prince, Your Highness, you are very lucky. In fact, I came to you this time for a special investment opportunity."
"Investment?" Rivendare's little eyes immediately shone like gold coins, and he rubbed his hands together, "I knew Deren would not let me down! What project is it? New mineral veins? Magical technology? Or--"
"Twilight's Hammer sect." Deren said calmly.
Goblin Prince's expression froze instantly. He took two steps back and almost tripped over his cloak. "De, Deren brother, this joke is not funny! Those lunatics kill everyone on sight, even the goblins!"
"I'm not asking you to fight them," Deren motioned Prince to sit down and poured him a glass of wine himself, "I just want to know, are there any goblin members within the Twilight cult?"
Rivendare took the wine glass, his fingers trembling slightly. "There are a few. You know, goblins are everywhere in Azeroth, but those who join Twilight are fringe elements, poor brainwashed bastards."
"Can brainwashing completely eliminate the goblin's instinctive desire for money?" Deren asked softly.
Prince was stunned, the wine glass hanging in the air. A shrewd light gradually replaced the fear in his eyes.
Deren continued, "As far as I know, Twilight's financial resources mainly come from believers' donations and robberies. Their fund management is quite primitive. After all, their brains have been broken for a long time, and of course they know nothing about financial management. There is no audit on their internal use of money. They rely entirely on the awareness of their faith."
"No one is auditing?" Rivendare's voice suddenly raised an octave.
"Completely autonomous, each base will handle it on its own." Deren nodded, "Imagine if there were some professional accountants who could help Twilight teach them to 'optimize' their financial system."
"Optimization." Prince's mouth began to twitch, as if he was suppressing an impulse, "You mean making false accounts? Embezzling public funds?"
"There are also high-interest financial management, and you can just take the money and run away," Deren added,
Rivendare's eyes gradually lit up, as if he smelled the smell of gold coins, and even his breathing became heavier.
"You mean" Rivendare's fingertips began to tremble uncontrollably. This is the physiological reaction of the goblin when he is extremely excited.
"The donation box can 'lighten the weight'." Deren made a subtle gesture, "The looted treasures can be used to make some 'account adjustments'. For example, write ten boxes as eight boxes, and record gold coins as Silver Coin."
Rivendare's breathing became rapid, and his fingers rubbed unconsciously. "Corruption? Stealing?"
"No, this is called 'fund optimization'." Deren turned around, showing a shrewd smile unique to businessmen, "You made money, and I got revenge, a win-win situation. And" he deliberately prolonged his tone, "I heard that these Twilight lunatics discovered a lost temple somewhere Eastern Kingdoms, and found many ancient relics in it. We must seize the opportunity quickly."
Goblin Prince's eyes have completely turned into the shape of gold coins, and even started to emit a faint golden light - this is the physiological phenomenon of goblins when they are extremely greedy.
"But there is a problem," Rivendare suddenly frowned, "Those fanatic believers are not easy to mess with. If they are discovered."
"Yes, just in case." Deren pondered for a moment and tapped his fingers on the table, "Prince, are you undercover at Rustwater Syndicate or Venture Company?"
Rivendare grinned, showing his fangs. "Of course! In business competition, you have to have some backup." He puffed up his chest proudly, "I have at least five goblins working for that old fox Gallywix, and two of them have already joined the middle management!"
"That's better." Deren nodded, with a glint in his eyes, "Let them infiltrate the Twilight religion under the guise of their opponents, embezzle donations, embezzle public funds, manage money at high interest rates, and finally, take the money and run away. If something goes wrong, blame it on Rustwater Syndicate."
Rivendare's eyes widened, and he burst out laughing suddenly, almost rolling off his chair. "Brother Deren! My dear brother Deren!" He wiped away tears from laughter, "Are you possessed by the goblin god? This plan is so perfect!"
He stood up abruptly and started pacing back and forth in the room, speaking as fast as a cannon, "We can first send a few undercover agents in, pretend to be devout believers, and then slowly take over their financial system. Set up fake investment projects! We can also set up a Ponzi scheme! Let Twilight Cultists hand over the money himself!"
Deren smiled and watched Goblin Prince fall into the frenzied plan. When Rivendare finally stopped to take a breath, Deren raised his glass. "I wish you success in your investment!"
"Happy cooperation!" Prince clinked glasses with a clear and loud voice, "I have to go back and make arrangements immediately! Time is money, my friend!" But Prince thought about it and rubbed his hands in embarrassment, "What about the revenue share?"
"I don't want it, it's all yours. I only want one request, let Twilight's Hammer be impoverished and go to the streets to beg for food. This is my biggest revenge on them." Deren generously doesn't want a penny. Anyway, if something goes wrong, there will always be goblins to take care of it.
Rivendare was overjoyed, patted his chest and assured, "That's no problem, I'm just afraid that these cultists won't be able to squeeze out the oil."
The goblin rushed out of the door like a whirlwind, almost knocking over the guard standing in the corridor. Deren stood in front of the window, watching Rivendare's golden carriage drive away.
"You are more cunning than I thought." Jaina walked out of the secret door of the living room, his sea-blue eyes flashing with admiration. "I never thought that business methods could be used in this way. Letting goblins deal with Twilight is a great idea."
"Excellent. Sometimes, gold coins are sharper than swords. Especially when using goblins to retaliate." Deren nodded. "So we don't have to do anything, just wait for the goblins' actions. It would be best if we can solve Twilight's Hammer. If we can't solve it, we can also bring trouble to them. And we have no losses."
Jaina walked to Deren and frowned, "Do you really think this can stop Deathwing's plan?"
"Maybe." Deren turned to face her, "It will always cause chaos within the Twilight cult for a while. And" he said with a sneer on his lips, "I really want to see the expressions of the cultists when the goblins took away the last gold coin, oh, and the expression of Deathwing, it will definitely be exciting."
"Haha--" Jaina also smiled knowingly.
"Also, if this experiment can be successful, the next step is..." Deren raised the wine glass in front of his eyes, shook it gently, and uttered a few words, "Old God is even fatter!"
Fifth update