Perfect World [EN]: Chapter 426

428

Immediately after recruiting Yosia, Beomseok got to work. First, he offered 9 billion and 7.5 billion krang respectively for Irolita and Bormia, sending the offers to Devil Spirits.

He wanted to add 2 billion more to each of their prices, but doing so would reveal his intentions to the Gang of Three. However, he didn’t stop there. He contacted Vice Chairman Louis to ask her to raise their prices, and he also provoked the Cooper faction to participate in this recruitment war. And Beomseok released a large-scale media article targeting Rakami and Madel.

Since they were elves with owners, there was no burden in playing the media, and it became the foundation for a counterpunch against the Gang of Three. In addition, he steadily conducted behind-the-scenes negotiations with Ancient Warriors, expressing interest in Prisika. Although she was scheduled to be released at the World Walker Auction Market around next summer, he had to show some interest now, or Jade might become suspicious.

‘Currently, Irolita and Bormia are at 9.3 billion krang and 7.7 billion krang respectively…’

Inside a flying car soaring through the blue sky, Beomseok blinked as he looked at the information Esther had given him. As expected, the prices of Irolita and Bormia were not rising easily. Seeing this, it seemed clear that they had formed a coalition and were manipulating the prices.

‘They’ve definitely started controlling the prices. Otherwise, their current prices wouldn’t be so low.’

On the other hand, the price increase curve for Rakami and Madel was very steep. This was because Beomseok was leading the price increase with an aggressive offensive. The current prices of these two were 3.2 billion krang and 3.9 billion krang, respectively. They were almost approaching the amounts desired by their respective teams, Desert Scorpions and Horror Beres.

‘Huhu. But Rakami is at 3.2 billion krang… I really received a lot of help from Theresa…’

Rakami was a top-tier gladiator ranked 5th in the world. However, she was old, and there was a problem that she would suffer from old age soon after being recruited, so her price would not rise much. However, her team, Desert Scorpions, was now being managed by Theresa, the daughter of Chairman Lucas, who was in prison. Theresa hated Beomseok quite a bit and didn’t want to sell Rakami, so she made the unreasonable move of raising the price to 4 billion krang.

Thanks to this, Beomseok was in a state where he couldn’t recruit her even after offering 3.2 billion krang.

“Anyway, Theresa, you cute thing. How did you know my heart so well and suggest 4 billion krang for Rakami’s price? Huhu.”

At that time, Esther, who was next to him, looked at him with a worried face. Papilan City was unfolding below the window. Today, they were about to face the biggest turning point of this transfer market period here. Failure was the same as saying that all plans would be in vain.

“Chairman. Will it really be possible?”

“What?”

“I mean, recruiting Tiela.”

“Well. I brought a thick wallet, so wouldn’t it work out?”

“But with a week left in the transfer period, would they easily sell her? They will definitely use it as a card to raise the offers of other teams by dragging out the time.”

“Well. There’s a high possibility of that. But if we’re lucky, they might sell. I’ve already laid the groundwork. Huhu.”

“Groundwork?”

“I’ll tell you as soon as the deal is concluded. You’re good at everything, but your acting skills are not good, that’s the problem. If we get caught, we’ll be in big trouble, so it’s better for you not to know now.”

Esther shook her head, not understanding. She couldn’t understand what Beomseok was so confident in.

According to Beomseok, Ancient Warriors seemed to be determined to get Tiela. If the contents of their negotiations were known to them, they would likely respond by raising the price immediately.

But for now, she decided to trust what Beomseok was doing.

“Then I have nothing more to say…”

Beomseok, who put one arm over Esther’s shoulder, chuckled.

“Don’t worry about anything and just focus on cutting the price. Leave the rest to me. Got it?”

“Yes. I understand.”

The flying car, drawing a long arc, turned towards the downtown area. They were moving to the meeting place. He parked the car in the rooftop parking lot of a building and took the elevator to the 13th floor.

‘Here it is.’

Beomseok entered the ‘Red Mind’ cafe with Esther. The space was wide, pleasant, and well-equipped, but there were not many customers. Beomseok looked around and saw a man in his 30s and a man in his 40s sitting at a table for four, and slowly moved his steps.

“Yo. You were here first.”

“Mr. Beomseok. Welcome. I was waiting for you.”

The ones who greeted him were Allen, the trade manager of Forest Elves, and Oppen, the coach. They greeted each other with a friendly handshake and sat down, watching each other’s expressions.

A moment of silence passed. The first to speak was none other than Allen.

“But Mr. Beomseok. Why so suddenly? You contacted us suddenly before you left and asked to meet.”

“Hahaha. Things turned out that way. There was something I needed to discuss urgently.”

“No. Still, it’s too rushed. We rushed out, but I don’t know what’s going on.”

Although he was talking like that, Allen had roughly guessed. Beomseok had asked to meet secretly in a foreign place, not at the training camp, and had warned him to be careful of reporters when coming out. That meant there was a very high possibility that it was about the acquisition of Tiela.

“I’m sorry. We also decided on this very urgently and suddenly. It’s not a bad thing for Forest Elves either, so please understand.”

“Well. If that’s the case, I understand… But what did you want to see us about?”

He could answer right away, but Beomseok called the elf employee who was passing by and pretended not to hear. The success or failure of this negotiation was a battle of time. It had to be traded today, but an appropriate timing was required to gauge the success. In other words, it was time to stall.

“What. Are you in such a hurry? Let’s order a cup of tea first and talk quietly. I’m thirsty from coming in such a hurry.”

“Ah. Is that so? Yes, let’s do that.”

Allen ordered drinks from the approaching elf employee. Beomseok had called and arranged this meeting, but he was a guest, so it was polite for them to treat him. Soon after the drinks were lined up on the table, Beomseok drank them down and said.

“Phew~ You saved me.”

“No, it’s nothing. By the way, Mr. Beomseok, you seem to be spending quite a busy time lately. You’ve been frequently featured in the media lately, haven’t you?”

“Don’t even mention it. Rakami, Madel, and I can’t tell you here, but I’m also negotiating to recruit some other gladiators, so even if I had two bodies, it wouldn’t be enough.”

“Huhu. You’re so greedy. Didn’t you recruit Yosia a while ago?”

Beomseok waved his hand as if it was nothing.

“Yosia was recruited as a side dish. You can only say you’ve eaten when you eat the main course.”

“No, but Yosia is an outstanding gladiator ranked 32nd in the world, isn’t she? At other times, the transfer market would have been shaken by her.”

“But the situation is different now. As you know, a large number of super-sized gladiators corresponding to S-class are being released this time, right? If I can’t recruit even one of them, I can’t even join the leading competition itself, so I have no choice but to turn my attention to that side.”

At that time, Ossen looked at him with a deep gaze. He had a somewhat arrogant expression for a 30-year-old, but in reality, he was just over 60 years old.

“But this time, there are many outstanding gladiators other than S-class gladiators. Tiela, Hilde, and Ilias on our side are representative examples. Frankly, their performance is not much lower than Madel, who is ranked 10th.”

“That’s true. The problem is the name tag. The difference between a child who is in the top 10 and has an S-class name tag on his chest and one who doesn’t is very big.”

“Where?”

“It’s the fans’ longing.”

Oppen shook his head.

“You’re wrong about that. That kind of thing naturally follows if the team’s performance is good.”

“That’s true, but if you bring in an S-class gladiator, you can raise it more easily.”

It was a theoretical story, so Oppen couldn’t deny it.

“That’s true. But what does that mean to your team?”

“It’s very big. For example, our team’s current average number of spectators. The number of spectators coming and going to our team’s home game is only over 70,000. I want to increase this number to 90,000. Then our team is expected to generate at least 800 million krang or more in additional revenue per year.”

“In the end, it’s about money.”

“Yes. Money is the competitiveness of a professional.”

Allen intervened in their conversation with an absurd expression. He had come full of expectations that Beomseok was trying to recruit Tiela, but in reality, he was only praising S-class gladiators. If so, there was no point in Oppen and himself coming here.

“No. Mr. Beomseok. Then why did you ask us to see you? You didn’t come all the way here just to talk about that, did you?”

“Huhu. Of course not.”

“Then what is the real reason for arranging this meeting?”

Beomseok glanced at his watch. The current time was exactly 10 a.m. It was time to start the conversation.

“I was wondering if I should recruit Tiela?”

“No, are you going to recruit Tiela in addition to one S-class gladiator now?”

“That’s not true. We’re not that rich of a team. I’m planning to recruit only one more gladiator during this winter transfer market.”

“Then what did you mean by saying that you have to recruit an S-class gladiator just now?”

Beomseok took another sip of his drink and answered.

“It’s just that the prices of Madel and Rakami, which I’m aiming for, have risen a bit. I judged that it would be okay to recruit Tiela at this level.”

“But Tiela is not an S-class gladiator, is she?”

“I can make her one.”

Oppen chuckled. In fact, the reason he hated Tiela was not the game against Gods Knights before.

It just exploded at that time, but the problem started when he took office as coach. She didn’t do the terrain training and played around in the home colosseum, so he couldn’t feel good as a coach. And for about 6 years. During that time, he spared no scolding and scolding, but she still couldn’t correct her past behavior.

“You know what kind of gladiator Tiela is, right? You can make such a child an S-class gladiator?”

“Yes. It seems somewhat difficult, but it doesn’t seem impossible. Surely she will listen to the owner’s orders, right?”

“Well, that’s true. But what if she doesn’t have the ability?”

“Then I’ll raise her to an S-class gladiator. You know it well, coach. The factor that has the greatest influence on the gladiator rankings is the Killdes points [points earned by killing other gladiators]. If I push her, she can rise.”

“Huhu. Then she will rise even if it’s difficult.”

Oppen immediately admitted it. Even though he was arrogant, his eyes as a coach were not wrong. If a great gladiator like Beomseok pushed her from behind, he thought that Tiela could rise to an S-class gladiator.

At this point, Allen hurriedly stepped forward again. It was necessary to stop Oppen from talking. In order to sell Tiela, he had to highlight her strengths as much as possible, but he was busy belittling her by highlighting her weaknesses. If he wasn’t the coach, he would have wanted to punch him.

“Hahaha. If Mr. Beomseok steps in, it will be possible enough. So, are you really buying Tiela?”

“Yes. Only if the conditions are right.”

“What do you mean by conditions?”

“It’s very simple. We will buy Tiela for around 4.5 billion.”

The current offer from Ancient Warriors for Tiela was still 4.2 billion krang. If he offered around 4.5 billion krang, it meant that he could receive about 300 million krang more. In addition, since he said around, he could raise the price further depending on the agreement.

Allen’s expression brightened as he became interested.

“4.5 billion krang is not bad, but don’t you have any intention of spending a little more?”

“How much more?”

“How about 5.5 billion krang? If she rises to S-class class as Mr. Beomseok said, I think this price is cheap too.”

Beomseok didn’t worry much. In order to overcome the Ancient Warriors’ offensive, he had to satisfy the price that Forest Elves wanted and quickly take her away. And 5.5 billion krang was a 1 billion krang increase from the initial offer, but it was within his expected price. It was an amount he could fully accept.

“If it’s around 5.5 billion krang, we can accept it too. Instead, we will also put one option condition.”

Allen frowned as if he knew it would happen. He wondered if he would accept his offer so easily. Even if he was Beomseok, he would have tried to cut the price somehow.

But since this kind of offer was rare, he thought it wouldn’t be bad to listen to it first. If it was an installment condition, he didn’t care much, and if he didn’t like it, he could use it as a card to stimulate Ancient Warriors.

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

It’s raining a lot. The weather has dropped a lot too. Now I feel alive. Hahaha.

Then everyone, be careful of the late summer rain. I’ll see you again tomorrow.