652 Chapter 652 - Divided into Traps (1/2)
Gu Fei did not find it strange to see Five Nights so anxious to draw up the contract. After all, the saying about how many things would change the longer things were dragged held some truth. Thus, he could understand why Five Nights would be so eager to close after finishing negotiations over such a huge deal. Quickly finishing the contract as soon as he could also demonstrated his sincerity and the importance he placed toward this business!
What Gu Fei felt was amiss was the back and forth during their negotiations. Each party had expressed their views on the matter without budging, but the moment he suggested a shared agreement, everything miraculously proceeded without a hitch. From 30% to 20%, an agreement was easily met with just a casual drop in percentage. Gu Fei did not think that his threat before had such an effect. This was just a game, and death meant nothing, so why would any of these men view it to be more important than their profits?
More importantly, when he first suggested the shared agreement, a look of astonishment flashed across the three men's faces, and this was especially more pronounced in Proud Sovereign and Overgrown Foliage. Even though it was just for a moment, how could Gu Fei's keen eyes not pick it up?
What was more surprising about this was how the other party emphasized the riskiness of this transaction to the point that a contract in which they shared the risk of the venture had become the ideal solution. Gu Fei could understand why they did not raise such a compromise; after all, the reason for their collaboration was to make this business a reality and not to play around with risk. Their cut of the profits would still be around 20 million, and they would still pay out, which was why the other party was willing to stick to that disgusting 2-million initial offer and not let go.
However, this was not their idea but Gu Fei's. Was that really something so surprising? Was he really such a fool in the eyes of these workshop employees?
Gu Fei still had his lingering doubts, but Five Nights was moving the conversation too quickly that he could not spare much thought on this. With the negotiation drawing to a close and upon recalling Five Nights' hesitation before, Gu Fei found it even stranger that the man pushed to move things so quickly once the shared agreement offer was on the table and was no longer dragging things out. Five Nights' rush to finish the contract and put everything into motion made Gu Fei realize something. There might be an issue with this shared agreement. Eternal Dominion and I have been dabbling in this world for quite some time, but our understanding of MMOs are still rudimentary at best. Could there have been some unforeseen issues here?
Furthermore, this was something Gu Fei had suggested, it was Eternal Dominion who was selling his services, which only made him all the more afraid to be careless about things. Seeing that Five Nights had already made an offline appointment with Eternal Dominion later and with how contracts would often have clauses hidden in their fine print, Gu Fei felt less and less at ease with the matter; thus, he decisively said, ”We'll take a look at the contract together. We can discuss further if everything is in order.”
Martial arts practitioners like them valued their promises. While something like a contract was only a restriction to the other party, a promise from a martial arts practitioner's lips was essentially a bond on themselves. Of course, the usual innocuous jokes among friends would not be included in this category of promise.
As such, now that Gu Fei had leaped out to say this, none of the others thought this to be odd, but Gu Fei felt it was very important for Eternal Dominion to know this. If he had not explicitly stated that there 'would not be any signing if the contract had issues,' Eternal Dominion could very well be exploited for going ahead with it despite them finding it to be problematic – all because he had discussed and shook hands with the other party prior. This was surely something someone who treated business as business like Five Nights would not understand.
Sure enough, Five Nights did not think too much of Gu Fei's words, smiling. ”Of course.” Meanwhile, Eternal Dominion reacted quite strongly when he heard this. For martial arts practitioners like them to say something outright, it meant that there was already the notion of regret being implied, which was why Eternal Dominion glanced over at Gu Fei with confusion.
”Then, I'll have to trouble Brother Five Nights with the hard work. We'll also consult our friends regarding the finer details of our collaboration on our end,” Gu Fei said even as he kept a close watch of Five Nights' expression.
Five Nights flashed a tight-lipped smile for a moment before replying, ”Alright. We'll keep in touch soon.”
”Then, we shall take our leave first,” Gu Fei said.
”I'll be going offline to draw up our tentative contract, so it just so happens that we can walk you two gentlemen out the door.” Five Nights got up as well.
”You're too kind!” The two men exchanged words of courtesy as they departed from Remarkable Flair's barbecue joint together. After bidding one another farewell, Five Nights led Proud Sovereign and Overgrown Foliage along, while Gu Fei and Eternal Dominion walked off together.
The moment Five Nights' party of three left Fourth Street, he immediately said, ”That guy seems to be vaguely aware of it.”
Proud Sovereign immediately followed up. ”No way… He's the one who raised the idea; he couldn't possibly be suspicious about it, could he?”
”I don't know, but that's the feeling I got. Let's not log off yet. I'll quickly finish a contract in-game for them to take a look at. It seems that this isn't the end of the matter!” Five Nights said. ”Overgrown Foliage, send someone to secretly keep an eye on the pair. Find out what exactly are they up to.”
”Got it!” Overgrown Foliage nodded. In this MMO environment, the methods workshops employed were different from what legitimate companies would engage in real life. Take for example the larceny line of work; Remarkable Flair appeared to be publicly condemning it, but they were secretly dabbling in this ambiguous job as well. In this game where a society was led through the lenses of lawlessness, morally ambiguous activities were actually more prevalent, especially when those involved or affected profits.
Leaving the Fourth Street with Eternal Dominion in tow, Gu Fei was also questioned by the man. ”What's the matter? Is there something wrong with this deal we are making?”
”I don't know.” Gu Fei wrinkled his brows. ”I'm just worried. Honestly, neither of us has a good idea about this matter, so what can we do if we get cheated by them?”
”Will we? I think Five Nights isn't too bad! He sounds rather reasonable.”
”That's childish. If he doesn't even have that bit of eloquence, will he have the qualification to discuss deals valued well in the millions? He's a director who was placed in charge of six cities; his position in the workshop shouldn't be too low,” Gu Fei refuted.
”So what do we do now? We've got no idea about matters regarding gaming. If I knew that this would happen, I'd have called for Brother Assist to tag along.” Eternal Dominion still had great admiration for Brother Assist; it was truly quite an amazing feat for that information expert to be so well regarded in the eyes of this martial practitioner..
”Asking him now isn't too late, either!” Gu Fei said even as he sent a message over.
Gu Fei and Eternal Dominion were of course not such dishonest men. Southern Lone Blade's team, as well as Young Master's Elite, had already been informed about the two being approached by a workshop to discuss a collaboration. Those from Young Master's Elite were not too concerned with it. Having already earned several hundred thousand of gold, they were quite contented with it; after all, they were not intending to depend on this business for their livelihood. Meanwhile, Southern Lone Blade and the others were rather disgruntled. Gu Fei had been the one who had sought them out for help in the first place, and they looked to be out of work after completing one or two deals together... This was despite the fact that their profits from this gig thus far had been many times greater than what they had ever made before.
However, when they learned that it was only Eternal Dominion who would be cooperating with the workshop, while Gu Fei would continue their work in Thousand Miles Drunk's Workshop, everyone instantly became happy about the arrangement. There were even some who looked upon Gu Fei's cunning with derision, sending Eternal Dominion off to work and earn a huge payday from the workshop, while he continued to compete against them with his men on this end. This was akin to taking the pot of food after taking a plate of it for himself. It was truly a reprehensible business practice.
Southern Lone Blade and his men had no interest in heading over to Remarkable Flair to take part in this deal, either. They were more than aware that they lacked the level of expertise Gu Fei and Eternal Dominion possessed, so the remuneration they could make from the move would be incomparable to what they could make at the moment. Thus, even though they might end up going up against a formidable workshop as competitors, the small workshop that they were in would have their means of survival. Naturally, the only one who was worried before the problem even became apparent was Brother Assist, and no one on Southern Lone Blade's team shared his temperament. Besides, everyone in the workshop was veteran gamers. In all honesty, they had always been quite skeptical as to how long this efficient monster grinding routine business could last.
It was around this time when Gu Fei contacted everybody and gave them a quick rundown of how the negotiations went. When they heard the huge profits this collaboration entailed, everybody got quite a shock. Even Southern Lone Blade felt that it was quite disingenuous of himself to mind the two abandoning him and his team to take to the business by themselves when they could earn such a huge sum at their hands. Would he not just be holding up their future? Besides, it was not as if Thousand Miles Drunk had truly left them to their devices in the end either.
Gu Fei proceeded to talk about the shared agreement deal he had suggested, as well as the doubts he had toward such an arrangement, before consulting everyone, ”Experts, I really have no clue about this, so any advice is welcome.”
Silence.
”What's the matter? Don't you guys usually have lots to say?” Gu Fei asked.
”Bro, you're talking about a contract worth in the millions. We've never really dealt with workshops before, so we barely know anything about that. We don't dare to spout nonsense!” Brother Assist explained.
”Just tell me what you know!” Gu Fei said.
”I'll tell you what I know,” Young Master Han said.
Everybody was sweating. When Young Master Han spoke, the man would always end up leaving the praises for himself. Regarding anyone else, he would either have nothing to say or let loose a string of insults. Now that he was speaking up, it was evident that this Remarkable Flair workshop is about to be denigrated to trash.
That was when Sword Demon interjected, ”How much do you know about workshops, anyway? We're talking about a million-dollar deal here; don't you throw out your deductions and inferences…”
”The deductions and inferences that yours truly make are facts,” Young Master Han stated.
Sword Demon ignored that as he continued to address Gu Fei. ”Miles, There's actually someone else you can ask about this, and he has a better understanding of such things.”
”Who is that?”
”Deep Waters,” Sword Demon said.
”Oh!” Brother Assist was the first to react upon hearing the name, and if he did not drop what information he had about the matter, then there was no sense in his existence. Thus, everybody tacitly kept quiet, letting Brother Assist do what he did best. ”I don't know much about what Deep Waters is up to these days, but I heard he used to be a professional gamer back then, and he's the sort to work with workshops.”