Chapter 559 - The Century Financial Group’s Assets! (2/2)

From the document, Nie Yan learned, that amongst other things, the Century Financial Group had a total of 11 auction houses, 51 properties, and 20 large shops spread out across multiple cities, such as Blaze City and Moonlight City. The exact revenue of these businesses was unknown. Everyone already knew they controlled Alliance of Mages and Divine Protectors. In fact, aside from those two, they also controlled 16 other guilds. They really couldn’t be underestimated. Lastly, they also owned two gold farming organizations, both over 100,000 players in size, which provided them a ludicrous amount of gold every day.

These were only the Century Financial Group’s operations in the Viridian Empire. As far back as the defeat of Victorious Return and failed acqusition of Asskickers United, they had started shifting most of their financial resources to the Satreen Empire. They controlled a significant portion of Angel Corps, allowing them to influence the decisions of the guild. Furthermore, they had another 30 guilds under them, both large and small, whose total strength couldn’t be estimated. The number of assets they owned in the Satreen Empire was comparably fewer, a total of five auction houses, 20 properties, and three 100,000-man strong gold farming organisations.

As for how much gold the Century Financial Group raked in every day, Nie Yan had no way of estimating. The extent of their strength shook him to the core. The fact that they could take over the entire Viridian Empire back then wasn’t without reason!

「This information changes everything. Truly, I can’t thank you enough, Li Rui,」Nie Yan said.

「It’s no problem. Also, this is just something I heard. I’m not sure if it’s true, but recently a financial group from South America has been putting a lot of pressure on the Century Financial Group. After entering Conviction, they started recruiting people like mad. So far, they already have six gold farming organisations and a large amount of shops across the Viridian and Satreen Empires. They’re rapidly accumulating power but are operating in the shadows. Barely anything is known about them. Besides that, there’s also several other powers, I’m not sure about their movements, but they’ve been aggressively expanding into the Century Financial Group’s market. I can’t confirm this information for myself. It’s just something I heard in passing from the Century Financial Group’s people,」Li Rui said. His source of intelligence was limited. He had no way of confirming this rumour.

South America? Nie Yan raised an eyebrow. He suddenly recalled a certain someone, Qin Han who had offered a toast to him in the classroom during graduation day. That fellow said he would be entering Conviction. With all these new powers entering the game, it seemed like the future of the Viridian and Satreen Empires would be anything but dull.

「In order to gain the Century Financial Group’s trust, I provided them with some non-vital information. I received a total of 160,000 gold and some money for it. I had Zhai Hao deposit everything into the treasury,」Li Rui said. The things that didn’t belong to him, he wouldn’t take.

「Take the money for yourself. Perhaps it’ll come in handy. Just treat it as a budget to fund your intelligence gathering.」Nie Yan smiled. Li Rui had definitely put in a lot of effort to obtain this information. He couldn’t shortchange him.

「This, how is this okay? If I take this money, I’ll have really become a spy for the Century Financial Group,」Li Rui chuckled, tactfully declining.

Nie Yan chuckled. Li Rui was the same in his past life. He hadn’t changed one bit.「How about this? From today onward, you’ll be helping Guo Huai with gathering intelligence for the guild.」

「Wait, what? That’s definitely not a good id—」

「Well, it’s okay with me. So, it’s decided. I’ll let Guo Huai know,」Nie Yan said.

Learning that Nie Yan wanted to have Li Rui join him in overseeing the intelligence department, Guo Huai voiced his adamant disapproval. However, after seeing the document that Li Rui provided, he was completely floored. Even with the combined effort of Asskickers United’s entire intelligence network, they couldn’t obtain information as detailed as this, especially since this was concerning the Century Financial Group. This organization was too secretive, which was why Nie Yan and the others hadn’t obtained any concrete information on them until today. He didn’t expect it to be obtained by Li Rui of all people, not to mention the information was authentic at a glance.

「Are you sure he's trustworthy? Could this be a plot by the Century Financial Group, using this information to access our inner circle?」Guo Huai voiced the doubts in his hearts. He still couldn’t let go of his suspicions against Li Rui.

「I trust him,」Nie Yan said with absolute confidence. Guo Huai’s doubts weren’t without merit. However, they were mostly unfounded. Many things contained in this document were extremely disadvantageous to the Century Financial Group, to the extent of threatening their foundation. If it was really to allow Li Rui to infiltrate Asskickers United’s inner circle, they would never allow such information to be leaked. They would be better off spending some money to find a spy.

「Since you trust him that much, I won’t say anything else. I’ll trust in your judgement as well. From now on, I won’t doubt him anymore either. Send him my apologies. Before, I held some prejudice against him, so my attitude toward him wasn’t great,」Guo Huai said. Li Rui would soon become a fellow colleague in the same field of work. So goes the saying, “Trust those you work with. Suspect those who don’t.” If he still continued suspecting Li Rui after this, the intelligence department might as well cease operations.

Nie Yan passed on Guo Huai’s words. Li Rui graciously accepted the apology. The two had fairly agreeable personalities. He trusted they would get along just fine. After saying a few words, he left Li Rui in Guo Huai’s care. If they ever ended up getting into an argument, he could still mediate.

Guo Huai picked out a few useful pieces of information from Li Rui’s document. Starting now, Asskickers United would be launching their counterattack against the Century Financial Group, from impeding their activities to targeting their key businesses. All sorts of plans were set into motion.