Chapter 1068 - Extortion (1/2)

“I’ve hit at a good time. Sorokin has finally compromised…”

By his estimation, there was a seventy-percent chance of the negotiation succeeding. Even if he had the right time and place, he dared not speak with absolute certainty that Sorokin would yield to him.

Fortunately, his judgment of Sorokin’s character was not wrong, and the final result was favorable to him.

If it was another Beyond Grade A with a temper, they would most likely have fought. However, Sorokin was good at enduring, and it was probably not the first time he had dealt with such matters. After weighing the benefits and costs, he immediately chose to compromise.

“Speaking of which, Sorokin is so shy about showing his strength. There must be a lot of factors within…”

Han Xiao stroked his chin as he pondered.

This guy was not like the other Beyond Grade As, who relied on their own personal power to influence their organization’s development. He had almost no record worth mentioning, and his business was run through the normal and legal way.

The advanced civilizations had always been alert to any non-allied Beyond Grade A organizations. As the top financial group in the universe, the stronger their power, the more jealousy they would attract. Commercial organizations were not armed forces and had their own set of industry rules to follow. The moment they were targeted by the three Universal Civilizations, it would be hard for the financial group to maintain stable footing. If Sorokin decided to retaliate, others would know that he had been hiding his strength, and the civilizations’ fear would increase.

This was only one of the reasons. Han Xiao still remembered some of the information displayed about Sorokin on his interface. This guy had probably changed his skin many times and had been living in the universe with different identities.

But no matter how many times Sorokin changed his skin, his ability would not change, so he avoided any form of conflict so as not to be recognized. Maybe he had committed some huge offense, so he deliberately kept his name incognito.

“This guy is full of mystery.” Han Xiao shook his head. This was all speculation, and maybe Sorokin had another reason to do so.

No matter what those secrets were, he had squashed Sorokin this time and avenged the suppression he had suffered over the past two decades.

Shareholders would receive huge dividends from the Limitless Financial Group every year. This was no small amount, and while it was not too huge of a loss to Sorokin, Han Xiao could finally obtain some interest.

Under normal circumstances, such huge dividends would not be taken for free. Every shareholder position given by the Limitless Financial Group was coveted, and they would form another business cooperation with the Beyond Grade A organizations, mutually benefitting both parties.

But Han Xiao naturally would not allow the Limitless Financial Group to partake in the army’s business channels, otherwise it would just be a gift to Sorokin. He had made up his mind to only take the money and do nothing, just like a dog in the manger, deliberately creating trouble for Sorokin.

“The Evolutionary Totem is being released to the universe, and I’ll also obtain the shareholder position of the Limitless Financial Group. With these two sources of income, the abundant funds are enough to support the continued expansion of the army. The stock price of the Germinal Financial Group will also skyrocket.”

Han Xiao was overjoyed. He took out his communicator to send messages to the contact points of the three Universal Civilizations.

It was only the initial step for him and Sorokin to come to a consensus. He still had to file it with the three Universal Civilizations regarding this matter for their support. Because of the Evolutionary Totems, this was not a difficult task.

After sending out the news, Han Xiao let out a deep breath.

Once the dynasty, federation, and church had all expressed their opinions, Sorokin also folded, which meant that the follow-up affairs of Black Star’s Godlike Battle had almost come to an end. There was nothing left to do except to take care of Traveler and the Super Star Cluster Civilization behind him.

Traveler had already hidden himself, but Han Xiao knew which Super Star Cluster Civilization he belonged to. However, he had no plans to deal with the civilization behind the scenes at this moment.

On the one hand, the Super Star Cluster alliance was currently developing as a group and steadily expanding in the free competition zone, not creating any trouble, so there was no opportunity for him to take action. On the other hand, the three Universal Civilizations would not sit back and watch the Super Star Cluster develop in the Flickering World. Thus, they would definitely take action. Han Xiao decided to wait for the time the three Universal Civilizations launched an attack to cooperate with them, which would achieve twice the results with half the effort needed.

“Things are almost settled. The establishment of a platform for the Beyond Grade A united front should be placed on the agenda.” Han Xiao rolled his eyes in deep thought.

Both Manison and Kasuyi, one director and the other the actor, did not come to urge him after the incident. No matter what they had done before, at least he owed them a favor during the Hila Rescue mission, so he still had to put in some effort to maintain a united front.

“The purpose of this platform should be to take advantage of the opportunity of the Flickering World to unify all the Beyond Grade A organizations, allowing everyone to have a communication platform, binding all Beyond Grade As together. It cannot be hidden from the eyes of the three Universal Civilizations, yet it cannot be done with too much fanfare… united front… hang on, united front‽”

Han Xiao suddenly had a eureka moment and hurriedly recited a few phrases from the socialist mantras before deriving an ingenious idea.

…

At the same time, Secret Master in the faraway Beast Ancestor stronghold received a communication application from Sorokin.

“Sorokin, what’s happening?”

“Your Excellency Secret Master, I have a piece of bad news for you.” Sorokin sighed.

“Speak.”

“There’s now a problem in our previous deal.”

“What exactly happened?” Secret Master hurriedly asked.

“I promised to leave you one of the shareholder positions, but Black Star came over just now and used his current influence to threaten me. You also know, with the sale of the Evolutionary Totems, the three Universal Civilizations will surely support him. Thus, to reduce my losses, I could only agree to his request.”

“You mean Black Star stole my reserved shareholder seat?” Secret Master’s expression changed.

“Sigh, it’s indeed like that. I can actually create a new major shareholder seat, but I need to dilute the equity of the others, which is more troublesome. It will take a lot of time to carry out some commercial operations and complete the capital increase. Otherwise, the other Beyond Grade A shareholders will not be happy.” Sorokin could not take out his share, otherwise it would be painful if he lost control of the entire financial group.

“… Alright then. Let’s proceed with the deal when you’re done.”

Secret Master was helpless. While he said he would cooperate in the future, he had actually already planned to cancel the trade in his heart.

This Sorokin was obviously too unreliable.

I’m obviously first in line here…

Secret Master had no anger toward Han Xiao snatching his lollipop. After all, in his opinion, Black Star did not know about their private transaction and did not specifically target him.

…