Chapter 192 What Kind of Needs Do You Have?

“So, Black Star of Longtan, what exactly do you need? What do you want me to help you with?”

Han Xiao came to Rockefeller’s mansion once again. This time, he met with Rockefeller alone. The two sat facing each other, and servants brought tea and drinks.

After a few words of small talk, Rockefeller got straight to the point.

“My time is precious. If you have any requests, just say them.”

Han Xiao put down his cup, leaned forward, and said, “Then I’ll be blunt. My mercenary group is the Longtan Outpost Force. We’ve been operating for a year and a half, and it’s time to expand and increase our scale. I bear Emersy’s reputation, and I can’t continue to dabble. The structure of large legions like Heavenly Ring and Blade’s Edge is the direction of Black Star’s construction. The stronger the Outpost Force is, the stronger Longtan will be. So, I need some financial support to build a headquarters specifically for the mercenary group, rather than a rented temporary stronghold.”

The core goal of his 2.0 version's preliminary preparation plan was to expand the faction. Then, during the Aberrant Disaster, he would guide the Aquamarine Star players to join the mercenary group. Godora and DarkStar were both competitors. Originally, players only needed to choose one of the two factions, but Han Xiao wanted to intervene as a third party and provide players with a new way out, so in addition to the original “good and evil,” there was also the “neutral” that he represented.

Based on this, problems followed one after another. To accommodate thousands of players, the faction’s hardware facilities needed to be greatly upgraded; otherwise, it would not be able to receive and attract more members.

The most critical factor in attracting players was benefits. Even if Meatbun’s program had cultivated a large number of audiences who yearned for the mercenary group, generating electricity with love was difficult to sustain for a long time. So, the task resources provided to players were very important, and Han Xiao had already planned for this. When he established the mercenary group, it was to become an intermediary for publishing tasks, connecting employers and players, so as to use the almost endless task resources of the mercenary world to cultivate his own faction, retain players, form faction attraction, and accumulate the reputation of the mercenary group.

In addition to the characteristics of the mercenary group itself, he also had plans for npC resource locations, and there were countless ways to give benefits.

In addition to task resources, another focus was faction specialties. Besides the lucrative professional knowledge and skills, mechanical creations were naturally his specialty. Relying solely on his own production capacity, it was impossible to complete large orders, so he had to consider mass production, start assembly lines, and build his own military factory… With his current knowledge and manufacturing level, building assembly lines was barely feasible.

This led to the second question: Where should the assembly lines be located? If he accepted so many players, the mercenary group would have to have a huge, fixed, exclusive stronghold, equivalent to the faction's main city, otherwise it would not be conducive to cultivating a sense of belonging. Only by having their own “main city” would they be like a regular army. Even professional guerrillas paid attention to surrounding the cities from the countryside. The location, security, resources, and functions of the stronghold were all problems.

Thus, the third question naturally arose: Transportation! Since the number of members under his command had increased dramatically, travel was a problem. It would be ridiculous to have players hail spaceships all the time. This was not conducive to maintaining the popularity of the main city. There had to be faction-exclusive spaceships… or long-term cooperation agreements with some interstellar travel groups.

These were just basic problems. There were many other fragmented difficulties, such as finding stable raw material suppliers, contacting construction teams, etc. Expanding a faction was like expanding the scale of a company. To increase the scope of business, a lot of preparation was needed, and everything cost money.

Including Naggokin's reward, Han Xiao's savings were still more than 500,000 Enas. He had counted them on his fingers a few days ago and felt that this amount of money was barely enough. It would hurt a little to use his own wallet, so meeting Rockefeller at this time was, in layman's terms, to pull in investment.

“Expanding the scale of the Outpost Force…” Rockefeller squinted. “Is this Emersy’s intention?”

“Emersy never interferes in anything. You should understand that. I’m the person in charge of the Outpost Force, and this is my own plan that I’m preparing,” Han Xiao said.

“I guessed it wasn’t her idea…” Rockefeller changed his posture, appearing more imposing, fully demonstrating the confidence of having money. With a non-smiling smile, he said, “Then how much money do you want?”

“How much are you willing to give?” Han Xiao threw the question back.

Rockefeller immediately changed the subject. “To date, I have provided nine grants to Longtan, totaling about 24 million Enas. This won’t be the final number. I still intend to invest in Longtan. Jenny and I are old acquaintances. The return she gives me is the reason I insist on investing. Enjoying Emersy’s reputation allows me to earn back satisfactory profits from other channels.”

Then, he closed his mouth and looked at Han Xiao with a smile. The subtext was, what kind of return can you give me?

By investing in Longtan, he obtained a certain permission from Director Jenny, sharing some of Emersy’s influence, and then using this to conduct commercial negotiations or political activities. This was equivalent to using investment in exchange for the influence of the strong, and then using the influence to make money. Back and forth, the money earned would only be much more than the amount invested. So, the question was, investing in Longtan headquarters would have this kind of return, why invest in Longtan Outpost Force? Moreover, this was just Han Xiao’s personal plan. If it was Emersy’s intention, he would give money. Black Star… didn’t have that much face.

Want a return? Han Xiao smiled and suddenly said, “I believe you have my information in hand. Then you must know that I have some undying warriors under my command.”

Rockefeller nodded. “Yes, I also noticed that they are not with you now.”

“They are natural mercenaries, and their number far exceeds your imagination. I know all of them. Expanding the scale is naturally not just about infrastructure but also about increasing the number of members. I don’t need to hire other mercenaries in the free market. They are the ones I’m optimistic about. If you invest, I can quickly expand the scale and become a large mercenary group. At that time, I will give you a satisfactory return—even if you have Jenny’s permission, sometimes Longtan’s combat troops need to appear in person to help you convince your competitors, or a large mercenary group willing to privately accept your unpaid employment?”

Han Xiao selectively revealed some information. To persuade investors, one must describe the project’s prospects. Although there were also stock markets in interstellar space, a mercenary group was far from reaching the entry threshold and naturally did not have the qualifications to get something for nothing.

He was not afraid of revealing the existence of the players. The players would join the interstellar sooner or later, and everyone would know it then. Even if he told Rockefeller some information during the version update period, the other party could not do anything because they could not even find a single hair of the players now!

This was a new idea he had recently come up with—to make npCs recognize the potential of the players and attract them to actively invest.

This meeting was a test. He was testing the feasibility of this idea.

Rockefeller was dubious and fell into thought, pondering in silence. Han Xiao’s proposal made him a little interested. Helping Longtan build an Outpost Force might be a good project, but although Black Star was also a member of Longtan, his trustworthiness was not enough for him to invest with confidence.

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 consortium was quick and decisive.

“I won’t give you a grant.”

“That’s really a pity. You missed a project with a return far greater than the investment.” Han Xiao shook his head.

At this time, Rockefeller changed the subject. “But I can give you a loan of 4 million Enas for a period of three years. For Longtan’s sake, I’ll give you a simple interest rate. If you pay it back within one year, I won’t charge you interest. If you pay it back within one to two years, I’ll charge you 10% interest, which is 400,000. If it’s within two to three years, it’s 20%, 800,000. If it’s more than three years, it’s 40%, 1.6 million. These are my conditions.”

The corners of Han Xiao’s mouth twitched. This interest rate was a bit explosive. It was fine within one year, but more than three years was simply outrageous, almost comparable to usury. This was still because he had Longtan’s background as a guarantee that Rockefeller was willing to lend money.

Having money is really…

“Alright, I agree.”

Han Xiao nodded. He wasn’t worried about repaying the money. Version 2.0 would open within a year. As long as the players returned, he would probably be counting money until his brain cramped!

Not to mention repaying the money, even buying the Norios Consortium, we would also… cough, cough, I got excited. We still can’t afford that.

Rockefeller took out his communicator and clicked on a loan document. Both parties signed it. This document had legal effect and was backed up in the files of several familiar civilizations, protected by the laws of these civilizations. In his previous life, some player guilds embezzled money and didn’t repay it, so the relations with these civilized factions plummeted, and the upper limit of faction favorability was reduced to 2999 points, which meant that they would never reach a ‘Respected’ relationship. Then, the credibility of individual identities decreased, and it was no longer possible to get loans. In severe cases, they would even become wanted criminals.

If guilds wanted to get loans, they had to put in a lot of effort to improve faction relations. Not repaying the money would destroy all the accumulated relations. As long as the guilds had vision, they would not engage in the shortsighted act of killing the goose that laid the golden eggs by breaking the contract.

Han Xiao had no intention of breaching the contract either.

Ding…

Han Xiao’s account received the transfer. He glanced at it, and the amount of savings became “4,581,010”.

Rockefeller gave the money very readily. To a tycoon who could spend more than 7 million on sky-high accessories, this small investment was just a small matter to him.

But to Han Xiao at this time, it was a huge starting capital.

“Then it’s a pleasure doing business with you.”

Standing up, Han Xiao shook hands with Rockefeller and was led out of the mansion by the butler. He went directly back to the hotel where Melos and the others were stationed. After supervising Sylvia with her homework for a while, he returned to his room to think.

“I really got the investment. It seems that the role of faction influence is greater than I thought. I have the starting capital now. As long as I choose a good place, I can start building the headquarters… Uh, what planet is better? It has to be not far from Aquamarine Star, but it also has to have close ties with the interstellar community…”

Dududu…

While he was thinking, the communicator suddenly rang. Director Jenny sent a message with an unhappy expression. The first thing she said after connecting was a question:

“Rockefeller told me that you secretly applied for a loan from him. Why didn’t you inform me beforehand?”

“Jenny, would you agree?”

“Don’t call me Jenny. You should call me Director. Of course, I wouldn’t agree.” Jenny’s tone was firm. She had always insisted on a cornered approach. In her opinion, building an Outpost Force was an unnecessary expense. Emersy never needed too strong armed forces.

“Then why would I tell you?” Han Xiao spread his hands. He understood Jenny. Jenny was in charge of finance and business and had a strong desire for control. She would not agree to the Outpost Force growing stronger. Although they were both members of the same faction, their ideologies and businesses conflicted.

Of course, the core contradiction was that Jenny didn’t trust him enough. After all, he was a mercenary who had joined Longtan halfway.

Jenny said decisively, “I order you to return the loan immediately. Without my permission, you cannot accept any form of funding!”