"So, Black Star of Dragon Calm, what exactly do you need from me that you want my help?"
Once again at Rockefeller's mansion, Han Xiao met with Rockefeller alone. The two sat facing each other, and servants served tea and drinks.
After exchanging only a few casual words, Rockefeller got straight to the point.
"My time is valuable. If you have any requests, please feel free to ask."
Han Xiao put down his cup, leaned forward, and said, "Then I'll get straight to the point. My mercenary group is Dragon Calm's Field Operations Department, and it's been operating for a year and a half. It's time to expand and increase its scale. I bear the weight of Ames's reputation, and I can't continue operating on a small scale. The structure of large legions like Sky Ring and Blades is Black Star's development direction. The stronger the Field Operations Department, the stronger Dragon Calm will be. Therefore, I need some financial support to establish a headquarters dedicated to the mercenary group, rather than a rented temporary outpost."
His initial plan for version 2.0 was primarily aimed at expanding his faction and then guiding players from Planet Aquamarine to join the mercenary group during the Mutation Disaster. While Goddora and DarkStar were competitors, and players would normally only need to choose between the two factions, Han Xiao wanted to intervene as a third party, providing players with a new path. Thus, in addition to the original "good and evil" dichotomy, he would represent "neutrality."
As a result, a series of problems arose. To accommodate tens of thousands of players, the faction's hardware facilities needed to be significantly upgraded; otherwise, it would be unable to receive and attract more members.
The most crucial factor in attracting players is the benefits. Even if Meat Bun's show cultivates a large audience who aspire to join mercenary groups, relying solely on passion is unsustainable. Therefore, providing players with mission resources is essential. Han Xiao had planned for this long ago. When he established the mercenary group, he intended to act as an intermediary for mission distribution, connecting employers and players. This allowed him to leverage the almost endless mission resources in the mercenary world to cultivate his own faction, retain players, create faction appeal, and build a reputation for the mercenary group.
Besides the inherent characteristics of mercenary groups, he also had plans for NPC resource areas, and there were countless ways to offer benefits to them.
Besides mission resources, another key focus is faction-specific products. In addition to the money-making professions and skills, mechanical creations are naturally its specialty. However, relying solely on its own production capacity, it is impossible to complete large-scale orders. Therefore, it is necessary to consider mass production issues, start assembling production lines, and build its own military factory. With the current knowledge and manufacturing level, building production lines is barely feasible.
This leads to the second question: where should the production line be located? If so many players are accepted, the mercenary group must have a huge, fixed, and exclusive stronghold, equivalent to the faction's main city. Otherwise, it will not be conducive to cultivating a sense of belonging. Only by having their own "main city" can they be considered a regular army. Even professional guerrillas still follow the strategy of surrounding the city from the countryside. The location, security, resources, and functions of the stronghold are all issues.
This naturally leads to the third issue: transportation! With the number of members under their command increasing dramatically, travel becomes a problem. It's not right to keep having players use Didi to hail spaceships; it's not conducive to maintaining the main city's popularity. They must have faction-exclusive spaceships... or perhaps reach long-term cooperation agreements with some interstellar travel groups.
These are just the basic issues; there are many other minor problems, such as finding stable raw material suppliers and contacting engineering teams. Expanding one's network is like expanding a company; to increase the scope of business, one needs to make extensive preparations, and everything costs money.
With Nagokin's payment, Han Xiao still had over 500,000 Enas in savings. He had counted the money on his fingers a while ago and felt that it was barely enough. He was a little reluctant to use his own money. So, to put it simply, his meeting with Rockefeller was to attract investment.
"Expand the size of the Field Operations Department..." Rockefeller narrowed his eyes. "Is this Ames's idea?"
"Ames never gets involved in anything, you should know that. I'm in charge of the Field Operations Department, and this is a plan I'm currently preparing myself," Han Xiao said.
"I knew it wasn't her idea..." Rockefeller shifted his posture, exuding even more authority and fully displaying the confidence that money talks, and said with a half-smile, "So how much money do you want?"
"How much are you willing to give?" Han Xiao threw the question back at him.
Rockefeller immediately changed the subject, "To date, I have provided nine grants to Dragon Calm, totaling around 24 million Enas. This won't be the final figure; I still intend to invest in Dragon Calm. Jenny and I are old acquaintances, and her returns are the same as what I've been doing. The reason I'm continuing to invest is because I've benefited from Ames's reputation, allowing me to earn satisfactory profits from other channels."
Then, he fell silent, smiling as he looked at Han Xiao, the unspoken message being: What reward can you give me?
By investing in Dragon Calm, he obtained a certain permission from the head of the department Jenny, to share a portion of Ames's influence. He then used this to conduct business negotiations or political activities. Essentially, he exchanged investment for the influence of a powerful figure, and then used that influence to generate money. In the long run, he would earn far more than the amount he invested. So the question is, if investing in Dragon Calm headquarters would yield such a return, why invest in Dragon Calm's Field Operations Department? Moreover, this was only Han Xiao's personal plan. He would only give money if it was Ames's idea. Black Star... doesn't have that much influence.
"Do you want a reward?" Han Xiao smiled, then suddenly said, "You must have information about me, so you must know that I have some immortal warriors under my command."
Rockefeller nodded. "Yes, I also noticed that they're not with you right now."
"They are natural-born mercenaries, far more numerous than you can imagine, and I know them all. Expanding isn't just about infrastructure; it also includes increasing membership. I don't need to hire other mercenaries on the free market; they are the ones I've got my eye on. If you invest, I can quickly expand and become one of the largest mercenary groups. At that time, I will give you a satisfactory return—even if you have Jenny's permission, sometimes you still need Dragon Calm's combat troops to personally appear and help you persuade your competitors, or perhaps a large mercenary group willing to accept your unpaid employment privately?"
Han Xiao selectively revealed some information, persuading investors that he had to paint a picture of the project's prospects. Although there are stock markets in interstellar space, a mercenary group is far from meeting the entry requirements and naturally does not have the qualifications to make money out of thin air.
He wasn't afraid of revealing the players' existence. The players would join StarCraft sooner or later, and then everyone would know. During the version update period, even if he told Rockefeller some information, the other party couldn't do anything because there wasn't a single trace of the players to be found!
This is a new idea he recently came up with—to make NPCs aware of the players' potential and attract them to invest voluntarily.
This meeting was a trial run, a test of the feasibility of this approach.
Rockefeller was skeptical, lost in thought, and remained silent. Han Xiao's suggestion piqued his interest; helping Dragon Calm build Field Operations Department might be a good project. However, although Black Star was also a member of Dragon Calm, his level of trust was not enough for him to feel comfortable investing.
Han Xiao thought he would have to wait a while, but in less than ten seconds, Rockefeller made a decision. The head of this large conglomerate was decisive and efficient.
I will not provide you with financial assistance.
"That's such a pity. You missed out on a project where the return far outweighed the investment." Han Xiao shook his head.
At this point, Rockefeller changed the subject, "However, I can lend you four million Enas, for a three-year term. For Dragon Calm's sake, I'll give you a simple interest rate: if you repay within one year, I won't charge you interest. If you repay between one and two years, I'll charge you 10% interest, which is 400,000. If you repay between two and three years, it's 20%, 800,000. If you repay after three years, it's 40%, 1,600,000. These are my conditions."
Han Xiao's lips twitched. This interest rate was outrageous. It was okay within a year, but after three years it was simply outrageous, almost comparable to loan sharking. Rockefeller was only willing to lend him the money because he had Dragon Calm's background as a guarantor.
Being rich is really...
"Okay, I agree."
Han Xiao nodded. He wasn't worried about repaying the money. Version 2.0 would launch within a year, and as long as players returned, he'd probably be counting money until his brain cramped!
Forget about paying back the money, even if we bought the Noriosse Financial Group, we still... cough cough, I got excited, we still couldn't afford it.
Rockefeller took out his communicator, pointed to a loan document, and both parties signed it. This document was legally binding, backed up in the archives of several familiar civilizations, and protected by the laws of those civilizations. In his previous life, a player guild had embezzled money and refused to repay it, causing the relationship between these civilization factions to plummet, and the faction favorability cap to drop to 2999 points, meaning they would never reach the [Respect] level. Furthermore, the trust level of an individual's identity would decrease, making it impossible to obtain a loan again, and in severe cases, they would become a wanted criminal.
Guilds need to put in a lot of effort to improve faction relations if they want to get loans. If they don't repay the money, they will ruin all the relationships they have built up. Any guild with foresight will not do something as short-sighted as breaking a contract.
Han Xiao had no intention of breaking the contract.
bite...
Han Xiao received the transfer in his account and glanced at it; the deposit amount had changed to "4,581,010".
Rockefeller was very generous with the money; for a tycoon who could spend over seven million on priceless jewelry, this small investment was nothing.
But for Han Xiao at this time, it was a huge amount of start-up capital.
"It's a pleasure working with you then."
Standing up, Han Xiao shook hands with Rockefeller and was then led away from the mansion by the butler. He went straight back to the hotel where Melos and the others were staying, supervised Sylvia's homework for a while, and then returned to his room to think.
"We actually secured the investment! It seems the influence of our faction is more significant than I anticipated. With the initial funding secured, all we need to do is choose a good location to begin building our base... Uh, which planet would be best? It needs to be close to Planet Aquamarine, but also have strong interstellar connections..."
Beep beep beep...
As I was pondering this, my communicator suddenly rang. It was a call from Jenny, the head of the department, her face grim. Her first words upon answering were a accusation:
"Rockefeller told me that you applied for a loan from him privately. Why didn't you inform me beforehand?"
"Jenny, will you agree?"
"Don't call me Jenny, you should call me Chief Supervisor. Of course I won't agree to that." Jenny's tone was decisive. She had always insisted on maintaining a peaceful and isolated position. In her view, building Field Operations Department was an unnecessary expense. Ames never needed a powerful armed force.
"Then why should I tell you?" Han Xiao spread his hands. He knew Jenny. Jenny was in charge of finance and business and had a strong desire for control. She would not agree to the expansion of the Field Operations Department. Although they were cadres in the same camp, their ideas and business were in conflict.
Of course, the core issue is that Jenny doesn't trust him enough, after all, he only joined Dragon Calm's mercenaries halfway through his career.
Jenny stated firmly, "I order you to return the loan immediately. You are not to accept any funds of any kind without my permission!"