The Creators: From Night City

Page 314

"For example, smuggling. You must know that drug trafficking and arms smuggling used to account for a large part of Dogtown's revenue, but this part was controlled by Colonel Hansen's Ghosthounds."

"But right now, I think all of these should be attributed to [Anti-Entropy]."

"To be honest, I have some private connections with the people of Havana. If you're interested, I can act as a go-between. Given the strength you've demonstrated, I believe the Cubans will be happy to offer you an irresistible price, from the supply volume to the profit-sharing ratio." Mr. Hans truly lived up to his reputation as the biggest middleman in Dogtown—bold, meticulous, and well-connected.

We've just gone in the wrong direction.

"I have no interest in money." Jiang Bing extinguished the other party's get-rich-quick dreams with a single sentence.

"Actually, I don't care about other places, Dogtown will soon usher in a new business ecosystem, and drug smuggling will become a thing of the past here."

"Of course, we will follow your will, but aren't you afraid of a Cuban counterattack?"

Mr. Hans racked his brains, "After all, cutting off someone's livelihood is like killing their parents."

"Then kill them all while you're at it, and bury them with their parents," Jiang Bing replied with unusual decisiveness.

“Aguilar alone won’t scare me, Mr. Hanz. I know you have secret connections with them. After all, you’ve been eyeing Dogtown’s smuggling business for a long time. You can convey my stance to them.”

"You're joking. Since you've already made your decision, I'll do my best to resolve this matter. After all, harmony brings wealth."

Jiang Bing pretended to open the drawer, but actually took out a fresh orange directly from 'Heiml' and gently placed it in front of Hanz.

“However, I have a good business opportunity I'd like to discuss with you, Mr. Hans.”

At Jiang Bing's prompting, the middleman, looking puzzled, picked up an orange from the table.

This is a good orange, a good ordinary sweet orange.

Its surface is orange-yellow, with fine pores and no obvious roughness, wrinkles or dryness. It has a healthy waxy luster, plump oil cells, and moderate elasticity.

Hanz gently squeezed the fruit with his hand and felt that the flesh was plump and must be very juicy.

Undoubtedly, this is an excellent quality organic fruit.

"Oranges?" Hanz asked.

"To be precise, it's fruit," Jiang Bing explained.

Chapter 634 I Too Can Go

"I wonder if Mr. Hanz is familiar with the historical company 'United Fruits'?"

Jiang Bing's question might have stumped an ordinary person, but the coincidence was that Hanz was a cultured man.

"Of course, this company is a role model for these capital giants today."

United Fruit Company is a historically renowned American company whose main business is to sell vegetables and fruits (mainly bananas and pineapples) produced in plantations in third-world countries to the United States and Europe.

In 1899, Keith's banana business merged with the Boston Fruit Company to form the United Fruit Company.

At its inception, it was a financial behemoth with $1123 million in capital, 112 miles of railway, and 21 acres of land. Subsequently, the company continued to expand, acquiring cheap land in Nicaragua, Jamaica, Honduras, Guatemala, Cuba, and other countries, laying more railways, and purchasing ships, developing into a monopoly organization encompassing all sectors from production, processing, transportation to sales.

At its peak, each of its plantations in Central America not only operated as an economic entity, but also established its own laws, military camps, and the power to arbitrarily arrest and kill workers, effectively becoming a "state within a state." The United Fruit Company also colluded with reactionary forces in various countries, wantonly manipulating their politics.

Unfortunately, the company's strength was continuously weakened by the struggles of Latin American countries to protect their national economic rights. In 1970, it merged with American Machine Company and changed its name to United Trademark Company.

“I have at least 20 tons of these oranges.”

Jiang Bing's words ignited the passion of this former executive of Peizhuo Petrochemical.

However, he was not blinded by the enormous profits.

"Mr. Sabur, what do you mean?"

"Aren't you very familiar with Cubans? These drug dealers must have a wide network of connections. I'm sure they'll be interested in what you have."

Jiang Bing gestured for Hanz to peel the orange in his hand and try it out himself.

But the other person squeezed and smelled it, and was reluctant to part with it. He didn't often see fruit of this quality, so he wanted to take it back to his youngest daughter.

"Besides oranges, apples, grapes, peaches, apricots, pears, strawberries, bananas, and even sugarcane, I have everything you can think of. I think we can completely reverse the development strategy of United Fruit Company and distribute these things all over the world."

Jiang Bing patiently persuaded, "The profit margin on this stuff you have is much higher than that of drugs, and I guarantee the price won't be too expensive. At least the average middle class can easily afford it."

Upon hearing this, Hanz's breathing became heavy. He had only done a simple calculation in his mind and knew how broad the market prospects were for this product.

Since Duke Lawson, the head of the agricultural department, went to the world of Red Dead Redemption, it's been as if he's been unleashed from all his power, making agriculture in Anti-Entropy flourish. Although limited by time, most fruits and vegetables are still in the early stages of planting, but that's just living off past achievements. On the basis of existing agriculture, Duke has implemented high-tech fertilization. After the technological improvements, the agricultural output of the entire Anti-Entropy territory is almost exceeding its production capacity.

Although Kangtao absorbed some of the produce, agriculture, once the foundation is laid, will inevitably see increasing output over time. In order to avoid overproduction, Jiang Bing had to find sales channels in advance for some goods that were not easy to preserve.

For example, fruits, especially oranges.

Because the quantity was indeed quite large, the canning production line processed a portion, and after Kangtao processed another portion, the remaining portion could not be processed in a short period of time.

Meanwhile, Duke was still frantically farming and cultivating the land, dedicated to planting soybeans and wheat, turning it into orchards, or simply planting cash crops on all the vacant land.

Anyway, Duke, who was used to being poor, seemed to have obsessive-compulsive disorder and didn't want the land to be left empty.

In order to provide employment for a large number of immigrants, the plan for large-scale agricultural production was also unanimously approved by Jiang Bing and Gloria.

As a result, [Reverse Entropy]'s route to advance into the North American interior was slightly deviated.

The Mississippi River alluvial plain, the limestone soil region of southern Florida, and the black soil belt along the Texas coast—three super-fertile planting areas—have recently been successfully incorporated into the territory of [Reverse Entropy].

Meanwhile, the countries along the Gulf Coast and the relatively wealthy lands along the Caribbean coast are gradually being occupied by [Reverse Entropy].

To put it bluntly, the path to success for United Fruit Company in the Red Dead Redemption world was somewhat paved by Anti-Entropy.

"You should understand that what you have is much more profitable than drug trafficking, since this stuff is easy to sell."

Hanz could only nod at this moment. He knew that as long as half of what Jiang Bing said was true, he would really have made a profit this time.

As if sensing Hanz's hesitation and distrust, Jiang Bing did not force him to make a statement on the spot, after all, the matter did have a magical feel to it.

“You can go back and think about it carefully. You can use your network of contacts to do a thorough investigation. I look forward to your good news, Mr. Hans.”

"If you're determined, you can contact Gloria for specific details, and she'll answer your questions."

Jiang Bing's words were clearly a gesture to send him off, and Hanz, quite tactfully, got up to say goodbye.

It wasn't until he was inside the elevator that he remembered he still had something to do.

The shrewd middleman was completely bewildered by Jiang Bingyi's series of moves upon their first meeting, and even forgot to give away the carefully prepared gift he had brought to build a relationship.

Going back was obviously not appropriate, so he had no choice but to hand the things to the silent female secretary who was leading the way.

"This lady?"

“Margaret Hart, just call me Margaret, Mr. Hans,” the other party replied immediately.

"Yes, Ms. Margaret, I have some information here that I hope you can pass on to Lord Sabur. It's a small token of my appreciation to celebrate Anti-Entropy's takeover of Dogtown."

Hanz handed over a data chip containing details of the internal power structure and key figures of Dogtown to Jiang Bing, a maid who had been studying in Heiml for a long time and had now been promoted to secretary.

Hanz didn't know what he was feeling when he left Dogtown, nor did he know whether he should believe Jiang Bing's words.

However, as his car drove along the dilapidated streets of Dogtown past the run-down entrance of the Lucas Spa, he saw a large group of 'ragged' Dogtown residents queuing up, as if they were receiving something.

Due to the temporary military control, Hanz's information channels in Dogtown became very limited. However, he urgently needed to understand what had happened in Dogtown in the past few days in order to analyze valuable intelligence and the movements of various forces. So he stopped the driver and ordered him to go to the area where the crowd was gathered to check the situation.

Chapter 635 A Different Dogtown

A short while later, the driver/bodyguard returned with an incredulous expression on his face.

"What happened, James?" Hans asked from the back seat.

"Boss, they are lining up to receive basic living supplies."

To be able to become Hans's close associate, the driver must naturally possess certain abilities.

"I've checked it. It's basically enough drinking water and synthetic food for a normal person to eat for three days. The products are all high-quality, but what's strange is that they're all free."

"Free?" Hanz asked, equally puzzled.

The driver handed a supply package to his boss.

"Yes, you only need to register your personal information once to receive a set of supplies from the staff. I paid someone to get the actual items from them. Please take a look, BOSS."

This supply pack wasn't small; all the items were packed into a sturdy, low-quality gray shoulder bag made of cheap plastic. Although the material was rather basic, the bag was quite large due to the bulging contents.

With curiosity, Hanz opened the supply package in the car.

The first thing you see are 10 thin-walled plastic bottles of water, each 500ml, which are clearly produced and bottled by [Reverse Entropy] itself. The bottles only have the simple words "Drinking Water" and the [Reverse Entropy] logo on them.

Hanz took out a bottle of water and tossed it to the driver in the front seat.

And this driver named James, worthy of being Mr. Hans's driver, before his boss could even speak, very tactfully unscrewed the bottle cap and tilted his head back to gulp down a large mouthful of water.

"How about it?"

The driver smacked his lips twice, then took two more gulps of water in disbelief before exclaiming in shock, "The water quality is excellent; the purification level is absolutely top-notch."

Hanz's already furrowed brows furrowed even more deeply. With a mixture of belief and skepticism, he simply opened a bottle and took a sip himself.

The water was indeed very pure. Hanz couldn't even taste the bitterness of the filter reagent, nor the cloying sweetness that even water purification devices couldn't remove. The water was so pure that it was almost as good as the distilled water Hanz used to brew his tea.

Keep in mind that the distilled water he uses costs three figures.

Ten bottles of this quality of drinking water would definitely cost over 600 euros in the city of Night.

Then Hanz immediately continued to inspect the other supplies.

Three 200g/piece recombinant protein blocks (synthetic meat), vacuum-compressed in a light brown color. The packaging is of very poor quality, and it only has the simple name 'recombinant protein block' and related ingredients printed on it.

Hanz examined the specific ingredients carefully.

Soy protein, animal protein, essential vitamin and mineral fortifiers, binders, and basic seasoning salt—the ingredients are no different from the synthetic meat sold at Night City street stalls.

So Hanz took out another bag and tossed it to his driver, the meaning of which was quite clear.

The driver continued his food tasting work.

This time, the eating process was not pleasant. The driver chewed hard for a long time before swallowing a bite of pre-made synthetic meat.

"The food is alright, the taste is pretty good, unlike those biotech products I've had before, which had a plastic taste when chewed. I guess there's a lot of meat in this." The driver had clearly had a rough past and was very knowledgeable about the diet of the lower classes in the market.

“That’s normal. The ‘Good Come Back’ food brand, which recently dominated the organic meat market in Night City, is an asset of [Anti-Entropy]. Making things like this is easy.”

Despite his nonchalant attitude, Hans still keenly estimated the price of these items. Compared to high-quality drinking water, these were much cheaper, around 75 euros for three pieces.

cost.

The bag also contained six 125g/piece compressed starch rations packaged in simple thin plastic film. The main ingredients listed on the packaging were wheat flour, corn flour, salt, and a very small amount of vegetable oil.

The texture is hard, and it tastes bland, especially when dipped in salt.

In addition, there are three basic energy bars made from maltodextrin, glucose syrup, a small amount of vegetable oil, and basic vitamin and mineral fortifiers; mineral supplement tablets in simple aluminum foil bags; and vitamin supplements in three round oranges.

This discovery made Hans rub his eyes involuntarily.

It really is an orange.

Although the appearance wasn't as perfect as the ones I got in Sabur's office, they were definitely fresh, organic sweet oranges with a fruity aroma.

Moreover, it's immediately obvious that it's from the same batch as the goods he has.

So the taste testers were once again honorably put to work.

He couldn't give a specific evaluation at this point, mainly because this thing was a bit high-end and he had never actually eaten it before. However, the taste was absolutely amazing. This burly man didn't even spit out the seeds; he chewed them all up and swallowed them.

The price of these three oranges is hard to estimate, but even without them, Hans quickly went through the cost of the entire supply package (excluding the selling price) in his mind, and it would be at least 500 euros.

In the short time he observed, the supply point had probably already distributed over a hundred supplies.

Not to mention the three valuable organic oranges.

"I really need to think about the joint fruit business," Hans thought to himself.

"James, are you sure this is free?"

"Confirmed, Boss. I even asked several people about it, and the information is absolutely true."

"Not only that, but next to the distribution point is the registration point for the 'Workers' Mutual Aid Association,' and quite a few people are registering to join there. I asked around, and it turns out that there are no fees to join, and they even offer free job placement services. You can even get a loan to pay for medical treatment first, and then have the medical expenses deducted from your salary each month." The driver's expression became even more incredulous as he said this.

Hanz knew, of course, that the 'Workers' Mutual Aid Association' was an organization under the umbrella of [Anti-Entropy].

"Boss, is this [Anti-Entropy] organization involved in human trafficking? I've never seen such a charitable organization in my life." The driver's worldview was showing signs of being shaken.

“Reverse entropy, reverse entropy.” Hanz pondered the word, looked up at Dogtown outside the car window, where there were long lines of people receiving relief supplies, and in the distance, construction machinery was rumbling. A sense of realization welled up in his heart.

"They're not human traffickers. They're not like the street cleaners. Alright, stop overthinking. Drive."

The car started, but Hanz, sitting inside, suddenly felt that the whole dog town was different from before. Compared to the previous lifelessness, a vitality seemed to have emerged from nowhere.