Rebirth of the thief who roamed around the world (BOOK 4)

Chapter 702 - Ruthless Monopolization!

Nie Yan confirmed his target. From now on, he would completely control the potion market in the Viridian and Satreen Empires! The most powerful commercial force at his disposal was undoubtedly the Starry Night Potion Shop!

At present, the Viridian and Satreen Empires had only three Sage-rank Alchemists, and they all came from the Starry Night Potion Shop. However, they didn't become Sage Alchemists by themselves but rather with the help of Wish Necklaces. Over the past couple of months, Nie Yan had people search all over for materials and crafted a total of 11 Wish Necklaces, three of which had the Alchemy +1 property. Apart from this, the 21 out of the 26 Grandmaster Alchemists and close to 90% of the 5,000+ Master Alchemists also belonged to the Starry Night Potion Shop. They naturally also had a large number of Advanced and Intermediate Alchemists.

After being operated by Nie Yan for so long, the Starry Night Potion Shop's production capacity was quite astonishing, controlling close to 60% combined market share in both the Viridian and Satreen Empires. Even though they already had significant sway over market prices, the remaining 40% wasn't to be looked down on. Every time Asskickers United tried to increase their profits by raising the prices of certain potions, numerous Alchemists would flood the market with that same type of potions. A game of cat and mouse where the prices would always return to their original spot. So, the Starry Night Potion Shop still hadn't formed a true monopoly. The most important aspect of a monopoly was the ability to dictate prices to whatever you wished!

Nie Yan ran some calculations in his head. If the Starry Night Potion Shop could control more than 90% of the market, their profits would increase by at least fivefold. This was the might of a monopoly.

The flooding part was to swallow up the remaining 30% of the market. However, this required an astronomical sum of gold!

At present, Asskickers United had a total of 9,000,000 gold in circulation. Every day the gold generated by the Starry Night Potion Shop, Union of Assassins, strongholds, auction houses, and other businesses would be used to pay the guild's expenses. The net profits came out to be roughly 1,000,000 gold in total. If this kind of frightening financial ability was put to full use, one could imagine what could be accomplished.

Nie Yan might lose some money in the short term. However, if he could truly achieve a monopoly, the pay off would be enough to support the costs of development of the Abernathy Great Grasslands.

Nie Yan already had a flawless plan in mind. He hurriedly called over Guo Huai in preparation to carry it out.

After receiving Nie Yan's summon, Guo Huai rushed over.

"Did you call me over for something important?" Guo Huai asked.

Nie Yan began explaining his plan. The more Guo Huai listened, the deeper his shock grew. "This plan is ruthless. If we really succeed, the only ones left in the Viridian Empire and Satreen Empire will be our Starry Night Potion Shop!" Guo Huai could hardly conceive this. If they truly formed a monopoly, their profits would increase exponentially. Not to mention, even if the plan failed, Asskickers United would still profit. Be it in the short term or long term, it would be a great help to them.

Guo Huai suddenly thought of something. "However, we need to watch out for Angel Corps and those other guilds. They'll probably try to get their slice of the pie. They might even utilize their own funds to interfere with us."

"Even if they try to intervene, we'll still make more than enough. As long as we keep this under tight wraps for as long as possible and slowly take things step by step, it'll be too late by the time they react," Nie Yan confidently said.

"That's good. Tell me what needs to be done. I'll get to work right away."

"We'll carry out the first phase right now. First, have some trustworthy people scatter to all the various cities and start buying up all the medicinal plants. Make sure not to attract too much attention. Also, we need a large amount of capital. Relying on the 9,000,000 gold we have on hand isn't enough. Make an announcement to all the players in the guild and the five branch guilds. We'll be borrowing money with a 30% monthly interest," Nie Yan said. In the real world, a 30% interest rate was the same as loan sharks. However, in Conviction, this was the norm since gold depreciated pretty quickly. The interest rate of most loans was usually around 20%.

"How much gold do you want to borrow?" Guo Huai asked.

"The more, the better. Every extra gold will net us better results. But let's say at minimum 30,000,000 gold," Nie Yan said. Given how well off the players in Asskickers United and the five branch guilds were, 30,000,000 gold was nothing to them.

Guo Huai gaped open his mouth. "Isn't this method a bit too extreme? If this plan fails or we don't make as much gold as projected, we'll be feeling the repercussions for a long time."

"Don't worry. Trust me. All you have to do is follow my instruction," Nie Yan assured.

"Alright then. I'll listen to you." Guo Huai immediately summoned his subordinates. About a hundred of his trusted aids, all of whom were trustworthy people he knew in real life, spread out to every city with 70,000-80,000 gold each.

Nie Yan's plan was fairly simple. Conviction was completely operated by the system. Every day, only a fixed amount of medicinal plants spawned. Relatively speaking, it wasn't that much. Players would harvest a portion of these medicinal plants, then dump them in the marketplace for Alchemists to buy. Afterwards, they would be crafted into various potions, which would be sold to the players. The amount of medicinal plants was limited. Every time a player grinded mobs or ran dungeons, they would have to consume a large amount of potions. So, supply and demand for potions in the marketplace were at a roughly equal level.

The supply of medicinal plants in the marketplace wasn't that great in the first place. With Nie Yan using his capital to swallow up all the medicinal plants, this delicate balance would be easily broken. When Nie Yan's acquisition of medicinal plants reached a certain level and medicinal plants became more and more scarce, the price would naturally rise. At that time, the medicinal plants he had accumulated would become more valuable.

This wasn't the end. With the price of medicinal plants going up, potions would also become more expensive. How else were Alchemists supposed to profit? They would charge a production fee on top of material costs. That was how they operated. If Nie Yan flooded the market with potions crafted from the medicinal plants he swallowed up previously for cheap, and priced the potions at roughly the same price as the current market price of the materials, the situation in the market would instantly enter a strange state. The potions produced by the Starry Night Potion Shop were all made from the medicinal plants that were previously bought at a cheap price. So, they were still making a profit. However, the outside Alchemists would be facing a dilemma. Because they hadn't stockpiled on medicinal plants previously, if they tried to match the Starry Night Potion Shop's prices, they would be forced to sell at a loss. As time passed on, the Alchemists who weren't affiliated with the Starry Night Potion Shop wouldn't be able to hold on any longer. Then Nie Yan would spread the word that the Starry Night Potion Shop was recruiting new Alchemists and offering generous salaries. All those Alchemists at the end of their roads would flock to the Starry Night Potion Shop.