Perfect World [EN]: Chapter 420

“Okay. This way, please.”

Following Jade’s lead, Beom-seok entered a reception room and settled into a chair beside the table in the center.

“Please, Jade, have a seat as well.”

“Yes, of course.”

As Jade sat across from him, Beom-seok fixed him with an intense stare.

“So, Jade, do you know why I’m here today?”

“Well, isn’t it to offer an apology for the recent incident?”

“Heh. That’s just what I told the press because the paparazzi are camped out nearby. Surely you’re not saying you didn’t know that?”

Jade, arms crossed, offered a faint smile.

“Then it seems you’ve come to argue. You must be well aware that the current situation arose because of us.”

“So you orchestrated this.”

“I won’t deny it.”

Beom-seok was taken aback by the blunt admission, but he quickly regained his composure. If Ancient Warriors was behind this, there were definitely some clumsy aspects to their plan.

For one thing, publicizing it through Middle, who has close ties to their team, was odd. If they truly wanted to cause trouble for Gods Knights, they should have leaked the story through a third-party journalist with no connection to Ancient Warriors.

‘It seems like they have some other motive. I need to tread carefully.’

He was curious about their real reason, but Beom-seok decided to play it cool. As they talked, the other party’s true intentions would likely surface. Right now, he needed more context to understand what Ancient Warriors was aiming for.

“Interesting. I never imagined you’d admit it so readily.”

“Hahaha. What’s the point of hiding it? The reason we started this whole thing was to arrange this meeting today. Now that we’ve achieved our goal, we can discard the means.”

“Whatever the purpose, why resort to such a low tactic?”

“In short, it’s because we were concerned about a situation like this one. I had something to discuss with you, Beom-seok, but I was wary of the reporters’ eyes. The recent transfer market has been attracting considerable media attention, hasn’t it? What would happen if it became known that I visited Gods Knights?”

Beom-seok had a good idea. If photos or videos of him visiting Gods Knights were leaked, the rumors of Prisika’s acquisition would become undeniable. Gods Knights was the only team with the financial muscle to buy her right now.

On the other hand, if Beom-seok visited Ancient Warriors because of this incident, the narrative would be different. Gods Knights’ team management style dictated that such media coverage would inevitably cause significant damage to the opposing team. Naturally, he would have to come and offer a sincere apology.

“Hmph. You’ve put some thought into this. But it was excessive. Do you know how much trouble your actions caused me?”

“Yes, I understand completely. But the situation left us with no choice.”

Beom-seok sighed deeply and looked at him with a searching gaze.

“Alright. Let’s move past this. Why did you call me here?”

“Heh. Isn’t it obvious? To proceed with acquisition negotiations for Prisika.”

As expected, Beom-seok smiled faintly. After all, the only thing Ancient Warriors would want to discuss with him was her. They needed to deal with Prisika as soon as possible to free up funds to acquire another S-class gladiator [the highest tier of gladiators].

“Prisika… She’s an excellent gladiator.”

“Yes, of course. If you acquire her, she will definitely be a great asset to Gods Knights.”

“But what to do? We don’t have the funds to acquire her.”

“Heh. Why are you saying that? It’s absurd for Gods Knights, who have no debt, to claim they have no funds. If I were to believe you, all the banks in the world would go bankrupt. Heh.”

Beom-seok’s expression darkened. It seemed Herbert’s mistake had triggered this situation. Knowing that Gods Knights had the financial capacity, Ancient Warriors had no choice but to come at them so aggressively. This would likely be a major obstacle in the negotiations to come.

However, the fortunate thing was that he had not yet expressed his desire to acquire Prisika. To sell a product to a consumer who doesn’t want to buy, the supplier must offer a significant benefit, and the most appropriate method was a low price.

“Well, yes, but Prisika is definitely a burden.”

“Why is that?”

“Her price must be no joke.”

“Hahaha. Don’t worry too much about that. We’ll hand her over at a price that won’t be a burden.”

It was the answer he wanted, so Beom-seok smiled pleasantly.

“Heh. In that case, there might be room for consideration. If the price is low, what can’t we buy?”

“Yes, that’s right. Hehehe.”

“Okay. Then will you offer a price? How much are you going to sell Prisika to me for?”

Jade smiled broadly and simultaneously held up one index finger on his left hand and two fingers on his right hand.

Then, as if shattering the good atmosphere, Beom-seok’s expression twisted. There was no way they would sell Prisika for 120 million Krang [currency in the story] or 1.2 billion Krang, so the meaning of the fingers he presented was obvious.

“Seriously. Are you asking for 12 billion Krang!”

“Yes, of course. She’s worth that much.”

Beom-seok gritted his teeth and said in a low voice.

“I think you’re being too greedy. Ancient Warriors acquired Prisika for only 7.4 billion Krang before.”

“Heh. Back then, Prisika was just a promising S3-class prospect. But now she’s a gladiator at the top of her game. Of course, the price will be different.”

“Are you even serious? She’s 28 years old this year. As soon as the year changes, she’ll be 29. Who would pay that much money for Prisika to use her for only 5-6 years?”

“That’s because you don’t know what you’re talking about. The asset we’re offering is none other than Prisika, who is ranked S2.

Among active gladiators, she’s the only one who can fight Beom-seok, Zakid, and Amelie one-on-one. When you consider that, age isn’t an issue. As soon as you acquire her, Gods Knights will be in contention for the championship. Then the income you’ll receive will be no joke.”

It wasn’t entirely unfounded. Despite being tied for 5th place, Gods Knights was seeing a rapid increase in ticket revenue due to the steep rise in their fan base.

If her acquisition made them a championship-contending team, they could expect hundreds of millions in additional revenue each year from ticket sales and team emblem product sales. In addition, as a championship-contending team, they would be heavily featured in the media, which would significantly increase sponsorship amounts, as well as other ancillary income from TV broadcasts, CFs [Commercial Films, or advertisements], and so on.

However, even combining all of this wouldn’t come close to 12 billion Krang. Moreover, if Beom-seok didn’t buy Prisika, she would inevitably be transferred to the World Walker Auction Market. In that case, they would barely receive 6 billion Krang, let alone 12 billion Krang.

“Jade, you know that the 10 billion Krang loss won’t be resolved, right? Even if we contend for the championship, the annual increase in revenue won’t even reach 1 billion Krang.”

“That’s not true. Imagine if you win the league. If you also win the GA Cup and the League Cup, things will be completely different.”

That was also true. If they won the league championship, the association would provide a prize of 600 million Krang.

In addition, the GA Cup winner’s prize was 500 million Krang, and the League Cup winner’s prize was 350 million Krang. If they won all three cups, the team would generate 1.45 billion Krang in funds that year.

Calculating over five years, that would total 7.25 billion Krang. Adding these funds, Prisika’s price could be justified. However, the problem was that even Ancient Warriors, who had dominated the World League, had only won all three cups simultaneously once.

Beom-seok’s face turned red as he glared at Jade.

“Jade! You know how difficult it is to win all three cups at the same time, yet you’re saying this?”

“Well, yes, but if you have the strength, wouldn’t you be able to win one or two with effort? I think Gods Knights would be able to do it if they brought in Prisika.”

“Are you kidding me? One or two? If winning championships was that easy, why would everyone be struggling?”

Jade, looking thoughtful, nodded and replied.

“Well, I suppose that’s true. Then how about this? We’ll cut Prisika’s price by another 300 million Krang. Would you be satisfied with 11.7 billion Krang?”

Beom-seok scoffed in disbelief. This was ridiculous. They were cutting 300 million Krang and acting like they were doing him a huge favor. He wondered if Jade didn’t want to make this deal.

“Jade, do you not want to trade with us?”

“Of course not. Gods Knights is the only team that can buy Prisika right now, so why would I do that? I just want to sell her at a reasonable price.”

Beom-seok jumped up from his seat. No matter how much he wanted Prisika, further negotiations here were pointless. It would be much more profitable to acquire another S-class gladiator. With that money, he could easily buy Irolita, who was known as the second Prisika, and still have money left over.

“I’m leaving now. I don’t see any need for further negotiations.”

Jade hurriedly stood up and blocked his path, a business smile plastered on his face.

“No, it hasn’t been long since we started negotiating! If you don’t like the price, we can discuss and adjust it, can’t we?”

“How much can we adjust from 12 billion Krang? Forget it, go look elsewhere.”

“Beom-seok, let’s do this.”

“What do you mean, ‘do this’?”

“Go back for today and wait a little longer. I’ll discuss Prisika’s price with the team leader again.”

Now showing some interest, Beom-seok glanced at Jade. The statement that he would discuss the price with his superiors again was synonymous with significantly lowering the selling price.

“Really?”

“Yes. To be honest, I also think it’s absurd that Prisika’s price is 12 billion Krang. She’s causing problems right now, so she has no value to the team, and you’re the only one who would buy her.”

“Then why did you offer such an absurd amount?”

“Our team leader is insisting that Prisika is worth that much. So, even though I knew it wouldn’t work, I offered 12 billion Krang just in case.”

Somewhat appeased, Beom-seok replied quietly.

“Then when can you give me a definite answer?”

“Well, would about a week from now be alright?”

“No. How long is the winter transfer market? Why are you telling me to wait a week?”

“That’s because our team leader is usually stubborn, so it takes time to persuade him. And since it’s still the beginning of the transfer market period anyway, you can afford to wait a week, can’t you? I’ll contact you as soon as possible, so please bear with me.”

Beom-seok smacked his lips and slowly nodded. In fact, Ancient Warriors was the one in a hurry. In order for them to acquire another S-class gladiator, they had to sell Prisika.

“Alright. Then you must give me a definite answer in a week.”

“Yes, I understand. I’ll contact you as soon as possible, so don’t worry.”

After saying this, Jade personally opened the door and led Beom-seok outside. It was to see him off.

As they walked along the corridor to the front of the office building, Beom-seok said to Jade as he saw an unmanned electric car approaching from afar.

“Then I’ll be on my way, so go back inside.”

“No, let me guide you to the door.”

“It’s alright. You seem quite busy, so I’ll go alone. The unmanned electric car will take me to the door anyway, right?”

Jade rubbed his hands together and nodded. He knew it was rude, but he was really busy right now. If the visitor hadn’t been Beom-seok, he would have postponed the meeting because he had something important to do.

“Yes, I understand. Then I won’t go to the door.”

As the unmanned electric car stopped in front of him, Beom-seok boarded and said.

“Then goodbye.”

“Yes, goodbye.”

After seeing him off, Jade hurriedly entered the building. This sight looked strange to Beom-seok, but he soon stopped paying attention and leaned back comfortably in his seat.

There was no need to pay too much attention to what was happening inside another team. And Beom-seok had been having mentally and physically exhausting days lately. Right now, he just wanted to go back and rest.

At that moment, he saw a bug flying quickly towards the outside. It was a bit far away, so he couldn’t make it out, but Beom-seok could easily guess its identity. There was no way an insect would be flying around on this cold winter day, so there was only one culprit.

“Aaron, that bastard, is he crazy and wants to be formatted [referring to having his memory wiped]! How can he take pictures without permission all the time!”

Beom-seok was sure it was Aaron’s doing. The gladiator training camp was full of elves with beautiful and healthy charms, which would be enough to stimulate his voyeuristic instincts. If he wasn’t the culprit, he’d eat his hat.

As soon as he arrived at the front gate of the Ancient Warriors training camp, he hurriedly jumped out. It was to punish Aaron in the parking lot.

============================ Author’s Notes ============================

The weather seems to have warmed up a bit. I’ve been constantly eating into my reserves for the past few days, but it looks like I’m building them up a bit today. I’m going to die every summer. I’m terrible with heat. ㅠㅠ. And please wait a little longer for the 10-chapter series. I took it lightly, but it’s no joke.

Then, I apologize again. I’ll see you again tomorrow.