Chapter 390 – Multipurpose Processing Machine’s Fee
Those who had not sailed the seas wouldn’t know how boring and at the same time, stressful it was to do so.
What seemed like a calm ocean was actually fraught with perils such as undercurrents and sudden storms. This was especially so in a time where radar didn’t exist. This made travelling at sea very risky for people in the Ark Continent.
Another bad thing was the fact that the s.h.i.+ps built on the Ark Continent weren’t built with any auxiliary functions. Some of the s.h.i.+ps were so boring that sailing on them for months on end would actually make you crazy.
Fortunately, Zhao Hai’s s.h.i.+ps were manned by Undead. This made it so that navigating the seas wouldn’t actually affect these Advance Level undead who already lost their human emotions. They were actually closer to robots than humans.
This time, the group’s destination was Rising Water City. Rising Water City and Jade Water City were quite quite famous port cities on Rosen Empire’s eastern coastline. But for other nations, Sky Water City was the best port city, it had the best location and routes. Therefore, there were not a lot of people who went to Rising Water City and Jade Water City, making their revenues much less that Sky Water City.
Although the Rosen Imperial Clan was quite envious regarding this situation, they weren’t able to do anything about it. This was because in the beginning, Sky Water City wasn’t this prosperous. Only when the city was handed over to the Calci Family did it slowly turn to become like what it was in the present. This was mainly due to the successive efforts made by generations of the Calci Family.
Even if both the Rising Water City and Jade Water City were heavily invested upon by the Imperial Clan, its management clearly wasn’t that good. This was because the Clan’s internal struggles, compared to the Calci Family, were much more intense. Therefore, the two cities couldn’t catch up to Sky Water City.
Yes, the surface revenue of Rising Water City and Jade Water City certainly seemed to be lower than Sky Water City, but when you really get into the hidden profits that the two cities produced, this was not the case. If you calculate the money moving around in the shadows, the revenue produced by each of the two cities were actually bigger than Sky Water City.
There was a reason for this. Sky Water City was the purse of the Calci Family, it provided all the funds that the family needed. On the other hand, Jade Water City and Rising Water City were places that the Rosen Imperial Clan uses to test their Princes. The Rosen Emperor would give these two cities, as well as other Imperial controlled cities, to pre-selected candidates for successors.h.i.+p. Then he made them manage these cities and see who could create the most revenue. The one who won this compet.i.tion would gain big points in the fight for the throne.
As you can imagine, the managing of these two parties were clearly very different. On one hand, a family depended on a city for their future expenses, thus, they would certainly take good care of it. On the other hand, the city was used as a test. After a few years or decades, the city wouldn’t have the same owner. In these few years, one would do all that he could to make the most money out of the city.
This seemed like two different kinds of investments. One was the type where you invest in something and slowly turning it into a goose that lays golden eggs. And the other one was the type where you always fish for short term investments, making profits, and then walking away. Two totally different philosophies.
Although there was this reason, Zhao Hai and the others must still head to Rising Water City. Not only did they decide to go there because of the purchase of items, they also wanted to establish a storefront. It would also be best if they could get in contact with a businessman to make a partners.h.i.+p with. With this, they wouldn’t need to depend too much on the Calci Family.
The action made by the Calci Family made Zhao Hai’s heart sound an alarm. The majority of their operations were actually centered on the Calci Family, this wasn’t a good thing. They should be looking for another cooperation. Otherwise, the people from the family would use this scenario to stick it to Zhao Hai. Although he didn’t fear the Calci Family, the moves that the family could employ would certainly make Zhao Hai suffer some losses.
Because of this, Zhao Hai became more adamant on going to Rising Water City. He wanted to see the situation there and see if there was an opportunity to make another partners.h.i.+p. This would make the Calci Family understand that Zhao Hai would be able to survive without their help.
Although Zhao Hai was a member of the League of Dark Mages, he didn’t have that huge sense of belonging to the organization. This was because he didn’t actually practice magic.
The things that Smith did initially made him think of the League quite well. But with the Calci Family’s actions, all of those thoughts were shattered.
Zhao Hai sympathizes with the Dark Mages, but he wasn’t a saint. In the beginning, when everyone was out to get rid of him, n.o.body helped other than Grandpa Green and those others who were loyal and devoted to the Buda Clan. Without them, Adam would have already been dead, and Zhao Hai wouldn’t exist.
At first, Zhao Hai joined the League of Dark Mages since he saw that it was quite free, with only a few rules. He also wanted to make use of the League to deal with the Radiant Church. But if the people of the organization decided to act like this to him, then there was no point in staying there.
…
The s.h.i.+p continued to sail slowly. Today was the third day of their trip, this was also a special day for Zhao Hai. It was because Cai’er will finally plant the medicinal seeds that the s.p.a.ce had given to him.The seeds had very high levels, and would take several days to mature. With his calculations, Zhao Hai reckoned that he must wait until they reached Rising Water City before he could make the Detoxification Potion.
Although the seeds were just being planted today, Zhao Hai and the others still stood by and observed. This was because this matter was extremely important for them.
Zhao Hai was very clear that these seeds represented hope, a hope that one day he could be normal again. Also, because of this hope, Zhao Hai had been investigating how the Multipurpose Processing Machine worked.
The Multipurpose Processing Machine was really very mysterious, as long as you have money, it could process everything for you. The amount of money needed depends on what you wanted to process. For example, if Zhao Hai wanted to process his antidote, the processing charge would be a thousand gold coins. If he wanted to make a Spatial Equipment, he needs to pay 10 thousand gold coins. And if you want Advanced Level Spatial Equipment, the charge would increase accordingly, about 1 million gold coins. Naturally, the processing time would also be equally high.
However, if you wanted to process unsh.e.l.led Bamboo Rice into edible grains, you only need one gold coin per day; the same was true for white flour. The price for making liquor also wasn’t too high, it wouldn’t exceed 50 gold coins. The process was very cost-effective.
But this processing fee depended on the fact that you had enough materials to supply. If you don’t have materials, like the additives to change the flavor of the liquor that you’re making, this would not do. Of course, you can still make it, but you need to purchase those materials from the factory, and its price would certainly hurt your pockets.
Moreover, if the s.p.a.ce didn’t have a kind of plant, the machine could make some seeds for you. You only need to provide some other plant, then some gold coins, and you could receive your seed. Naturally, the charge for this operation isn’t cheap, after all, the s.p.a.ce hopes that you would provide these plants and upgrade the s.p.a.ce by procuring them from outside. Additionally, you shouldn’t hope of using the Processing machine to upgrade the s.p.a.ce, since all of the seeds made by the machine couldn’t provide any experience.
Because of these peculiarities, Zhao Hai decided to stop planting Bamboo Rice in Iron Mountain Fort, allowing people to do other things.
Also, Zhao Hai didn’t use the Machine to make milk wine. Currently, he is using the machine to process his food and make fruit oils. Things like wool products and liquor were still made inside the workshops of Iron Mountain Fort. This was because Zhao Hai reckoned that compared to the costs of operating the Machine, manpower was still more efficient for those products.
Originally, the manpower inside Iron Mountain Fort was insufficient. Although they got several thousand people, there were those who wouldn’t be able to handle heavy labor, like the elderly and the children. Only those young men and women were being busy doing a lot of things and their numbers were still not enough. Because of this, there were a lot of undeads doing jobs inside the fort.
But now it was good that Zhao Hai acquired the Processing Machine. The machine could do all the work, especially for wool products.
Zhao Hai tried using the machine to make blankets, and they were very good. You can also choose the style and decorations in them. However, the blankets produced by the machine were different from those produced outside. Also, the processing fee wasn’t low, 50 gold coins. For this amount of money, the beastmen could produce 20 blankets. So Zhao Hai gave up on using the machine to produce wool products.
Zhao Hai also understood that this wasn’t a mistake. The value of gold coins inside the s.p.a.ce was vastly different from its value outside. There was only one type of currency inside the s.p.a.ce, which was exactly the gold coin. A gold coin inside the s.p.a.ce was like a copper coin outside. But if you take the same gold coin outside the s.p.a.ce, its value would certainly be much higher.
The reason why the machine’s processing charge for making edible rice and four were low was because the bamboo rice and wheat value inside the s.p.a.ce weren’t very high. If Zhao Hai decided to sell the rice and flour to the s.p.a.ce, it wouldn’t be as profitable as selling it to the continent. This made Zhao Hai know that the values of the currency inside and outside the s.p.a.ce was very different.
Zhao Hai wasn’t a person who was dead-set on making profits. If he were, he would’ve just employed his undead to do all of the jobs needed so that he didn’t need to pay for labor. But if he did that, the slaves’ standard of living will certainly drop. Zhao Hai didn’t want to do that, he wanted his people to live a much better life.