Due to the arrival of the Three Virtues, many things went wrong.
For example, the Mage Country's annual council meeting, as well as the undead who had been visiting on time every day.
The annual council meeting was a grand event for the Mage Country. It was a chance for newcomers to show off, a platform for veteran mages to exchange (show off) their latest research, and a platform for everyone to compare against each other in order to prepare for next year's taxes, profits, and resources.
For any large magic society, if they couldn't produce any new research results to prove that their team and research were on the right path, then their taxes and purchasing of rare magical materials would be greatly reduced next year. Even their stock prices would plummet, and their core members' assets would depreciate.
That's right, stock prices.
Times had changed, and there were smart people everywhere. Advanced and effective systems and methods from other worlds were the easiest things to copy and copy.
Being a mage was a money-burning job class, and there would never be enough money. Fortunately, the experts who researched the laws and principles of magic were quite capable, and were able to convert part of their research results into actual gold coins. Every major magic society had their own businesses and trump cards.
Of course, everyone knew that archmages were incredibly busy. Their newest research results were all treasures in their labs, or personal trump cards that the archmages themselves kept hidden. Most of the products that the archmages sold in the outside world were outdated byproducts that couldn't be used in combat.
However, even if the archmages brought out third-rate products, they would still be the most advanced technology in the world. The Mage Country's products had always sold quite well.
Stock prices could increase a small amount of capital by ten times in a short period of time. Stock prices could fill an empty treasury to the brim in a short three months. Even the wealthy, trustworthy, and future archmages would forever lack money. There was no reason for them to refuse such an excellent "money raising" plan.
But soon, the archmages discovered that they were being held hostage by capital. In order for their stock prices to rise, so that they would have more funds for next year's research, and so that they wouldn't become the laughingstock of their peers because of their debt, the archmages needed to produce decent research results every year in order to convince more idiots to buy their stocks. This would help maintain or even raise the society's stock prices.
Originally, this was also what Rorschach had hoped for. Most of the new clubs followed this principle. They would come up with some decent results at the end of the year and hype up a concept that sounded interesting and novel. Then, they would go public and make a good profit.
In the second year, they would use the money they scammed to come up with some decent results, entering a virtuous cycle, or they would go bankrupt … Generally speaking, they wouldn't go bankrupt. After all, even if they couldn't come up with any results, they could still continue to fabricate new concepts or research results to scam more money. Before the market lost confidence in them, they could continue to scam others. And as long as there wasn't any negative news, this cycle could last for five to ten years.
As for not being able to produce results after ten years … First of all, you'd have to be so unlucky. Secondly, it didn't matter if you really couldn't produce any results. You could just buy some obsolete products from your brother's society. Wouldn't that be the same as continuing to cheat money?
From a certain standpoint, although the Mage Country had the same system and the same name, the Mage Country's stock market system was completely different from that of the Land of Origin. In the eyes of those who were observant, the Mage Country's stock market system was nothing more than a joke, a joke that was specifically used to scam individual investors. However, before the bubble was popped, the individual investors wouldn't suffer any losses. Those who knew the inside story wouldn't say anything, nor would they dare to say anything.
Many companies would mysteriously go public, earning tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of gold coins. But in the end, the stock would suddenly collapse, causing the shareholders to wait for several years without ever seeing their so-called ace product.
And unlike on Earth, where capital was king, 51% of the stocks issued by the clubs in the Mage Country would always be the club's internal shares. This meant that it would be impossible to use money to obtain the management rights or ownership of a magic club. The proud mages would never sell themselves. They would only see the club as a tool for financing.
This system still existed, and the bubble had never been popped. The only reason why the mages had an endless thirst for money was because the mages' desire for money was endless. This was especially true for newcomers who were in a hurry to get started. They would need a large amount of sponsorship … To be frank, it would be far easier to trick outsiders into investing than it would be to trick archmages into investing.
Newcomers would always lack money. Nobody could guarantee that they would be able to produce something that could be commercialized before they used up all their savings.
Take Rorschach for example.
Purchasing and cultivating magical materials would require a large amount of gold coins. The operations of several dozen small research teams would require even more gold coins. Bribing, hiring mercenaries, and adventurers would require a long-term and stable expenditure of gold coins. Relying solely on his sponsor, Seviala, would be far too unreliable.
And these past few days, Seviala had been bribing and organizing her own team. She seemed to have her own plans. She was also spending a large amount of money. It would be far too difficult to scam money from her.
From a long-term perspective, having a stable and long-term source of income was not only necessary, but time was of the essence as well. This was also the foundation for a team's health. That was why Rorschach had previously tried to establish a relationship with the Mage Country's military in order to earn money by selling weapons.
However, it was obvious that the Mage Country's purchasing quantity was far too low. Not only that, the Mage Country's military had only purchased smoke bombs, suppressive bombs, and other such "civilian" and "low-damage" weapons. Naturally, they wouldn't be able to sell them for a high price.
Rorschach had also brought out biochemical and AOE weapons that could be sold for a high price … It was just that there were no buyers for them.
After all, if a squadron purchased some support equipment or suppressive weapons, they would be able to ask their superiors for reimbursement. If a squadron that was responsible for guarding the country purchased AOE weapons or biochemical weapons, their superiors would truly suspect that they were planning to rebel.
Perhaps after a long time, there would still be ambitious mages or official channels who would purchase these weapons. However, Rorschach didn't have the patience to wait for such a day. Nor did he feel that he would be able to compete with any of the local archmages with clean backgrounds.
That was why there had been such a huge hype at the Mage Country's council meeting, followed by a huge marketing campaign.
However, due to the arrival of the Virtues, Rorschach could only helplessly miss the last few days of the Mage Country's council meeting. This was supposed to be the most suitable stage for marketing and trading.
It seemed that Rorschach would have to wait for a later opportunity to purchase a large number of contracts.
But looking at it from a different perspective, the arrival of the Virtues had also helped Rorschach avoid a lot of trouble.
For an archmage, knowledge was power, and knowledge was wealth. And for many people, if you blocked their path to wealth, you would be their mortal enemy that they had to get rid of.
The world of archmages wasn't completely peaceful. Some people were quite shameless. Previously, when Rorschach didn't have any treasures, he was naturally quite safe. But now … Looking at it from a different perspective, Rorschach definitely wouldn't release the results of his research. In that case, if he still had a treasure despite having insufficient power, he would naturally attract bandits.
It was also thanks to the arrival of the Virtues. With such an obvious attitude of support, anyone who wanted to obtain the secrets of life and death would consider trading with him instead of robbing him at a lower cost.
And with the "Honest Heart" as a hot product, Rorschach also tried to register a legal person company and applied for the issuance of company shares.
Logically speaking, this would have required a rather long qualification check and he would have to deal with many archmages. There would have been a lot of bribes, but now he didn't have to do that.
Perhaps it was because he had been in the limelight for the past few days, or perhaps it was because of the repeated media reports recently, but the first issue of shares was unusually smooth. It was so smooth that Rorschach couldn't believe it.
"Increased by 4.2 times? An additional two million gold coins in one night? Are you kidding me? This is robbery! "
"Robbery is faster than a financial game? From a certain perspective, this is a type of robbery, but it's the type where the willing take the bait. But your situation is a little special. The archmages and undead masters of the Mage Country's council are all buying your shares … "
Rorschach was rather astonished. This shouldn't have happened. Others might not know about the society's financial system, but how could the archmages and undead bosses not know about it?
"They're doing this …"
"They're giving you money. I don't know why, but as a professional financial agent, I must remind you that behind every profit, there's a reason. Perhaps it's a risk, or perhaps it's a scam."
After thanking the financial agent for his advice, Rorschach thought about it for a while, but in the end, he still didn't change his original plan.
Money was important to a newcomer like him, but to these bosses, it was really just a simple number.
Since they were now expressing their goodwill to him, he had no reason to reject them since he had nothing.
The Truth Symposium's goodwill probably wasn't just because of his research results, but also because they were giving face to the Virtues.
And the arrival of the Virtues also exposed the undead's schemes … Rorschach really didn't know how to evaluate these thoughts.
They bought the Honest Heart in large quantities, and the Undead Lords personally came to the Land of Dreams to use it. At the same time, they also met with Rorschach … Rorschach had always felt that it was a little strange. Why were these bosses so free?
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