On the other side, Emperor Kutu was far less ostentatious than Jusen. Apart from his Epic silks, which could even be alluded to his own wealth, he had invested the abundant money his empire had earned from the trade to expand the military power of the Huhan Empire.
Jusen didn't dare act out of order on the Cario Continent because most of the unclaimed Area Zones were full of powerful monsters, and the claimed ones had capable powers. Not to mention that the Continental Council suppressed inter-Area Zone wars between two established factions.
Of course, Vita was exempt from this as it was not only a player Kingdom, but also had a lot of favor. The AI knew players were war hungry and would need to seize resources from others in order to grow, so Kingdom Wars had been added in the last Update.
How could it have predicted that a kingdom so wealthy and powerful like Vita would appear, causing the majority of players to lose interest in building their own kingdoms and just profit off the already established one?
Number wise, there were only about 200 player settlements in total in the current game. In comparison, the previous timeline would have had over 300,000 at this point in time. Most who had created them did so for accolades, to gain experience, or just because they liked the idea of being able to roleplay a king or emperor eventually.
The best part was that they didn't even compete with Vita. All of them had sent subsidiary requests to Vita, and their owners likely even purchased houses in Vita Kingdom, working there and earning good money to expand their own settlements.
Ever since Vita had expanded to a kingdom, the housing for players had been made not only cheaper, but more available. Come and slave for us, Vita says, and they come flocking like ducks to bread.
Vita didn't even need their money at the moment, so Sublime had reduced taxes so much that the average player who worked in Vita and enjoyed its boons were growing more than 300% faster than they did in the previous timeline, their wealth also 150% higher.
Sublime was planning to squash some money and resources by announcing another Area Zone conquest, this time against an unclaimed one which was twice as large as the Paradise Lands and full of Rank 5 and Rank 6 monsters.
Players, who were only Rank 2 now, would definitely be cannon fodder in such an event, but at least they could contribute something worthy of being paid for their losses.
But that was about Vita.
Going back to Emperor Kutu, who was in the midst of receiving Krona after the God Serpent Inheritor had arrived by sea in a manner which his guards and the serf players here could only describe as majestic.
Kutu had already heard about what Krona had done on the other side from Jusen, so he had rushed over and stated that the governmental agency had already been created and power allocated to it.
Satisfied with such proactivity, Krona nodded and went through the process of selecting some talented NPCs to become warriors of this group.
He then continued by summoning all the serfs and giving them the same speech. While they were also scared, they had expected it, as they had already been warned by those on the other side.
As such, in the past 3 weeks, they had swallowed everything they could, knowing it would be their last time profiting like that. Now that the boss was here, they didn't dare to have any more designs.
Fortunately, Krona didn't care about their last-minute looting, because the profits were already magnificent enough to cover it. Besides, it should help curb their desires for a while, until someone inevitably crossed the line, and he would severely punish them to set an example.
With the precedent of what occurred on the other side, the restructuring took far less time here and was naturally met with far fewer obstacles. It only required a week in comparison, and the profits also jumped by a similar margin to the other side.
That was a jump of 2,480%!
One should know that the trade route grossed a total of 8 billion platinum per week. According to the various splits, Umbra took 50%, the Cario Continental Council took 20%, the two emperors took 10% and Vareas took 10%.
Vareas Peninsula were not happy with this amount, but they understood that it was punishment for a certain arrogant mermaid's behavior, so there was nothing they could do but blame Viola.
The mermaid herself was extremely aggrieved because her position had been greatly lowered and her earnings from the share had been cut to the lowest as retribution.
She was one of the main parties who had sabotaged the sea route with her aquatic forces, even trying to rope others in to take part. Naturally, when Draco's Avatar had come out to patrol, he had culled a great amount of them, causing Voila more losses than gains as she had to compensate those, she had brought in.
Her tantrum had been a delectable sight for those who hated her.
Whatever the case, Umbra took around 4 billion platinum per week. Now you see why they could pay for Divine Classes without feeling the pinch. Most of that money went into storage at the Rank 7 bank.
When it accumulated 100 billion, Sublime had bought a 90-day bond that accrued 25% interest when the period was over. In other words, it would yield 25 billion platinum after 3 months for no work done!
Ah, stable investments are the spice of life.
However, this gross amount of 8 billion had been bumped by 2,480%, which meant x24.8 equaling a whopping 198.4 billion platinum per week!
Jesus Christ, just how much money had they been losing due to embezzlement, theft and inefficiency?!
The irritating part was that the serfs who had worked on either side numbered about a million, and none of them had profited by more than 20k platinum for the totality of their existence here over the course of months.
If one were to crunch the numbers, about 10% was lost to theft, 15% to embezzlement and 75% just due to poor management and efficiency! What a waste!
When Kutu sat the new income sheet, he too sprayed a thick amount of blood into the air and collapsed. Sublime on the other side laughed in madness and danced naked in her office until she fainted from exhaustion.
Luckily, Kiran was there to save her and Misery cast a spell to help his niece regain her mental faculties.
Can you blame them? Bro, 1 platinum was currently 5 million dollars. 1 bronze was 5 bucks, so 100 bronze was 500 bucks which was 1 silver. 100 silver was 50,000 bucks which was 1 gold. 100 gold was 5,000,000 bucks which was 1 platinum.
Of 198.4 billion, Umbra took 50% so minus taxes and tariffs, that was about 99 billion platinum per week. When changed to dollars, that was 4.9×1017 or $490,000,000,000,000,000!
That was four hundred and ninety quadrillion, my Brother in Christ.
What Elon Musk? What Jeff Besoz? All of them would have to run over to pay respects to the Lolitician Supreme, Sublime Notion, richest shorty in the world!
Well now that Umbra was metaphorically drowning in wealth, they decided to enact a dastardly plan that made Sublime so excited she almost rubbed one off in her office.
That was to give out their earnings as loans to various powers in the Mapped Zones and have them fall into Umbra and Vita's debt!
Why was it so devious? Because as stated many times, the Great War that had cleansed the human world was coming in less than 5 years. At that point, apart from top factions, everyone else would be cleared, and the top factions would once again hoard all they had.
So, anyone coming for a loan would probably squander the money in the remaining time, thinking it was their last. They would see Umbra as fools for thinking that they would even be around to pay this back.
However, Sublime knew very well that with two monsters like Draco and Eva, the chances of a wipeout happening were next to nil. Not to mention, now they even had the help of the God Serpent Inheritors.
With all those forces, it was more likely that the Demons would be the ones to suffer a great genocide, as that was the natal talent of the White-Haired Duo.
At that point, these untouched and unharmed fellows and factions would not be free to live their lives until the next Great War, a thousand years later. Not only that, but they would be so fine and dandy that they could easily pay for the loans they took, right~?
At that time, it was unknown if these fellows would actually kill themselves or shit themselves while going mad. Whatever the case, there would be endless despair, and Sublime was all for that.
Just picturing it alone made her clobber Kiran over the head while he was not suspecting anything then dragged him to her room.
Now that the sea route had been stabilized for the most part, Krona felt it was time to deal with what he actually came here for. Since Draco and Eva had lost interest in doing so, he considered it his duty to expand the sea route.
Krona cricked his neck and smiled. He was still Rank 1, level 10. He had to reach Rank 4 by the time Draco and Eva returned, which was the ultimatum Draco's Avatar had given all the core members and God Serpent Inheritors.
With that, Krona dove into the sea from the docks of the Huhan Empire and blasted like a torpedo down. He spread out his aquatic senses, using his bloodline to look for any living life forms.
He searched the areas where the ships mostly passed and found no life, even in the depths. After all, Draco's Destruction Ball had cleared EVERYTHING within range.
He then went to the less-traveled areas and found some weaker monsters that were stragglers, or had been hiding, occasionally hunting weak travelers on the sea.
Krona dispatched them with one strike each, turning the surrounding water into a sharp scythe that cut these monsters in twain so fast that they didn't even realize they were dead.
After clearing the entirety of what he had dubbed the 'Yellow Zone', Krona had only managed to go up 4 levels, making his lips twitch. This 10% experience gain was really a kicker.
The area that was well-traveled and was clear was the 'Green Zone' according to him and the fringe of the cleared sea route, where no ships passed and was seen as the 'border' of the cleared area, was the 'Red Zone'.
Here, Krona found a good number of monsters that were slowly encroaching upon the seas. The players of Umbra occasionally came here on ships to clear them out as part of Guild Quests, but new monsters kept arriving from more populated areas.
Koran was satisfied by this and even spotted one monster nearby that was angling towards him, aiming to gobble him up as a meal.
｢Name: Giant Squid – Captain Rank monster
Level: 124
HP: 3,200,000/3,200,000｣
It was a Rank 3 monster! But of course, a God Serpent was strong enough to cross two Ranks to fight if they used their bloodline, much less their Divine Class. After all, bloodline power was not limited to the game's Ranks, but the user's own skill and potency.
Krona didn't waste time, immediately during many high-pressure water lances and water blades. These things struck the pale white skin of the squid, cutting it deeply enough that blood leaked out, along with ink.
The Squid screamed in pain and released more ink to camouflage itself and sneak up on Krona. However, with his aquatic senses, this was futile as he continued to lance it from a safe distance.
The Squid could only die with grievance, unable to so much as touch the underside of Krona's boots. A few items dropped, which Krona collected. While he may be technically rich as a member of Umbra and the controller of the sea route, he was not wasteful.
Just because he didn't need them, surely there would be someone in the guild who could use this stuff. Worst case, they could always sell it.
Anway, Krona moved on and saw that his fight had attracted more marine monsters over, so he manifested endless amounts of blades and lances all around him as his eyes glowed.
