Yuri stared at the mountain of canned goods before him, feeling his scalp prickle for the first time.
"This... is all?"
"The first batch. Five thousand tons. Once you've sold it all, come back for more."
At Fu Haoran's casual explanation, Yuri's first thought was...
Could I be getting played?
He suppressed the absurd thought and kept his expression neutral. "I'll come back with the money in a week."
A week later.
Yuri returned to the Governor's Office with the first payment: 800,000 Throne Coins, plus a pile of weapons and spare parts he'd acquired through barter.
"Sold well." Fu Haoran counted the goods. "The next batch is ready. Ten thousand tons."
Yuri froze. "How much?"
"Ten thousand tons. Is that a problem?" Fu Haoran asked.
He has more?!
Yuri stared at Fu Haoran, trying to spot a tell on the young man's face.
But there was nothing.
Could it be... he really has a secret source?
Impossible! There isn't another place in the entire sector that produces meat products of this quality.
He's definitely bluffing! Right, he's afraid I'll figure out what he's up to, so he's putting on a brave face.
"N-no problem," Yuri replied through gritted teeth.
Soon, Yuri realized that this batch was higher-end:
Braised pork, dace with black beans, honey-glazed ham, corn kernels, pineapple in syrup...
"Did this bastard empty the warehouses of an entire Agri-World?!"
"Whatever... I'll take this batch first. If I can sell it all, I'll make enough to live on for three lifetimes."
"By then, who cares where his supplies come from? I'll be long gone."
Another week passed.
When Yuri returned with payment for the second batch, his steps were a little unsteady.
He'd barely slept all week.
He'd called in every old contact he could still reach, even swallowing his pride to beg a few nobodies he'd looked down on back in the day.
Discounts, profit-sharing, promises... He'd tried every trick in the book, as long as it helped move the goods.
The moment he put them on the market, they flew off the shelves.
Canned goods fetched astronomical prices on the black market.
A can of luncheon meat bought a Lasgun, while a can of peaches bought three crates of batteries.
The minor nobles of the Mid-Hive secretly sent people to buy from him, offering prices that nearly stopped Yuri's heart.
He returned with two million Throne Coins, along with a heap of hard currency.
"The next batch is fifty thousand tons. Come pick it up tomorrow," Fu Haoran said.
This time, Yuri didn't freeze.
He smiled.
I knew it.
The first two batches must have emptied his stock. Now he's just trying to bluff me.
Fifty thousand tons? If he has fifty thousand tons, I'll wash my hair while standing on my head!
The next day, at the same warehouse.
Yuri walked in, and his smile froze.
The warehouse was packed.
Not with neatly arranged shelves like before. It was truly packed.
Crates were stacked from floor to ceiling, leaving only narrow passageways barely wide enough for a person to squeeze through.
"F-fifty thousand tons... it's all in here?" Yuri's voice trembled.
"That's right. It's all here."
Yuri said nothing more. He went straight into the depths of the stacks and pried open a crate at random.
Luncheon meat, kangaroo meat, canned seafood, canned vegetables... All genuine.
How is this possible... Where on earth is he getting it all...
Yuri suddenly remembered Fu Haoran's casual remark the day before: "Come to the warehouse tomorrow and see the goods."
He'd had all this stock ready from the start.
He'd been playing me the whole time.
Yuri felt a chill crawl down his back.
"Can you arrange the distribution channels now?" Fu Haoran asked.
"...Yes." That was what Yuri said aloud, but in his heart, he was already hatching a plan of his own.
Run! I have to get out as soon as possible.
But this batch... fifty thousand tons. If I sell it all, I'll make more than I can even imagine.
I'll finish this deal, then I'll run. I swear, after this one, I'm gone.
Three weeks later.
When Yuri returned to the Governor's Office with payment for the third batch, he was gaunt, and the blood vessels in his eyes looked like a spiderweb.
For the past two weeks, he'd turned the Hive City black market upside down.
The dirty channels he'd once disdained, the dangerous people he'd never dared provoke, the gray areas he'd never touched... He'd tried them all.
His dignity? Gone.
The rules? To hell with them!
He'd do anything to move the goods.
Even if it meant killing the goose that laid the golden eggs!
At last, the fifty thousand tons of canned goods were sold out!
Far from plummeting, the price of canned goods remained absurdly stable.
Nobody believed the supply could be endless.
Besides, this amount wasn't enough to fill the Hive World's needs, let alone satisfy the Rogue Traders.
Meanwhile, Yuri stared at the sea of figures on his Data Pad and finally smiled with satisfaction.
120 million Throne Coins, plus all these goods. That's enough to make my escape. It'd be enough to buy a spire in the middle levels of the Hive City!
Now I just have to wait for this clueless governor to approve everything, and my plan will enter its final stage!
Once I'm gone, the sky's the limit and the sea's wide enough for fish to leap!
He watched Fu Haoran, waiting to see how the young man would react.
Fu Haoran glanced over the Data Pad and nodded. "The accounts are clear."
Yuri relaxed.
Looks like he didn't spot the falsified account I'd balanced out.
Well, with so many transactions, how could one person possibly check them all?
That money would be enough to buy a small estate on a frontier world and live comfortably for the rest of my life.
"However..." Fu Haoran pulled up another set of figures. "There's a shortfall of twelve million Throne Coins here."
Yuri's heart skipped a beat.
"The transactions are so complicated that some accounts didn't match when I consolidated them. I'll go back and check them again." He forced himself to stay calm. "There were so many deals, it's only natural for there to be discrepancies. I'll go back and double-check..."
"There's no need." Fu Haoran turned the Data Pad around. A simple table was displayed on the screen. "Every batch has a unique code when it leaves the warehouse, and every transaction is linked to a specific code."
"For example, the batch of canned fruit that went out last Thursday was bought by the Silverthorn Chamber of Commerce, but this payment is missing from their records."
Yuri stood rooted to the spot, cold sweat instantly soaking his back.
System codes? Is this something the Machine Cult does? I've never heard of it. Why would the Machine Cult help him?
I've been cooking the books for thirty years, and today I got caught over a single code!
Fu Haoran looked at him, his tone calm. "Make up the difference, and we'll call it even. You've only just started, and this is your first time handling things. Mistakes are bound to happen."
Yuri opened his mouth, but no sound came out.
He'd been cooking the books for thirty years, fooling nobles, the Adeptus Arbites, and even Machine Cult auditors.
This was the first time someone had exposed him so completely with such a casual tone.
I spent my life hunting eagles... only to have one peck out my eye in the end.
"...I'll make up the difference," Yuri heard himself say.
"Oh, and one more thing," Fu Haoran said. "From now on, I'll have two people accompany you whenever you deliver goods."
"Not to keep an eye on you. To protect you. There are a lot of people out there watching this cargo now, and you're not safe on your own."
Yuri stayed silent for a full minute.
Then he bent down, picked up the Data Pad he'd dropped, and dusted it off.
"I'll need more time for the next five-thousand-ton batch..." Yuri's voice was drier than ever, like a pack animal drained of its soul.
"I'll give you two weeks."
"...All right."
Yuri turned and left, his steps heavy.
This guy... isn't some upstart rich kid like I thought!
Yuri tugged at the corner of his mouth, managing a smile even uglier than a grimace.
Fu Haoran watched Yuri's retreating figure, then brought up the System Panel.
[Finance Officer Yuri Razumov's loyalty updated: -99 → -30]
[Status: Changed from ready to run at any moment to hesitating and watching]
[Note: The host has proven through action your basic financial principle: what's yours is mine, and what's mine is still mine. The methods were as heavy-handed as using a Power Hammer for microsurgery, but at least... they worked.]
"Things are finally back on track." Fu Haoran was about to breathe a sigh of relief, unaware that someone had already set their sights on him.
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