Despair Points Skyrocket! Perfect Shorting Sets the Whole Market Ablaze!

After Kuroda finished reading those two lines, his legs went weak. He only kept himself from collapsing by gripping the corner of the table.

With the name Orochimaru printed across the front page, even the sound of heavy breathing was clear in the room.

Everyone in the Shinobi World knew what that mad scientist was capable of. Who would still dare treat this newspaper as tavern gossip?

The final page of the newspaper also bore the inspection seal of the Hokage Building, its ink painfully fresh.

Kuroda's hand loosened, and the newspaper slipped back onto the table.

Dahe Long snatched it up, shaking his head as he read the front page.

"Impossible... It hasn't even been three months. How could they possibly create a substitute?"

After the words left his mouth, he opened the copy of the contract in his arms and suddenly remembered the fine print on the final page.

His hands had already stopped obeying him. He flipped through the pages twice before finding it, the corners shredded by his nails.

When his gaze fell upon the end of the contract, he even forgot to blink.

The final page clearly stated: If a technically substitutable material appeared in the Land of Fire within three months, the buyer could unilaterally terminate the contract without liability, and the deposit would be refunded in full.

On the day they signed it, he had seen that clause and simply assumed that the lavish young master knew nothing about mining.

How could a substitute for a necessity mineral like Marrowstone Sand possibly emerge within three months?

"A substitute material within three months... the buyer can terminate without liability, and the deposit is fully refunded..."

Dahe Long read the line aloud, his voice cracking as each word came out broken and disjointed.

Kuroda saw