#54 · 54 of 485
Chapter 54: Purchasing Weapons Before the Battle
After this month of frantic development, Yang Fan's total population has surpassed 2.5 million.
The population reached this level about 100 years ago in the Divine Kingdom. Since then, because the population density reached a critical threshold, it has been fluctuating up and down.
As for the believers' food, it remained sufficient; even with the population explosion, the daily output of the automatic concentrator still far exceeded consumption.
What was even more surprising was the believers' understanding of the Myriad Spirits Return to Origin Array. After reaching the Great Success stage, an army of ten thousand could now assemble and deploy the formation with fifty percent more power than before.
This was Yang Fan's greatest advantage compared to others. Having mastered a formation to the Great Success stage, he was confident that no one else in the entire third year of high school could achieve this right now.
In these three months, 90 years had passed in other people's Divine Kingdoms, but for him, it had been a full 900 years.
In 900 years, the believers had continuously practiced the Myriad Spirits Return to Origin Array, passing down their summarized experience to the next generation.
It wasn't that his believers had exceptional comprehension; it was all ground out through time.
The only thing Yang Fan was somewhat dissatisfied with was that even after so long, a Rank 3 creature had still not been born.
One must know that during the exam three months ago, Rank 3 creatures had already appeared in Luo Bing's Divine Kingdom; she would only be stronger now.
"How many treasures to improve aptitude did Luo Bing invest in her believers?" Yang Fan thought with some emotion.
He had ten times the development time of Luo Bing, yet he still hadn't caught up to where she was three months ago.
Yang Fan understood this; the starting gap between the two sides was too large. His real explosion only counted from when he received the investment from the Luo Family; the development in the first three months had been very slow.
In two more days, he would go to Yang County No. 1 Middle School to take the midterm exam. Before that, Yang Fan planned to go all out and attempt the Divine Kingdom Simulation Battle one last time.
The losses in this midterm exam would certainly not be small; now was the time when his Divine Kingdom's combat power was at its peak.
Before that, Yang Fan needed to visit the Luo Family base to purchase weapons.
The price of weapons within the clan was half the price of the mall. He had learned this from another Luo Family genius during a gathering a while ago.
Smelting weapons required many steps.
First, ore was purchased from the market, then the ore was smelted into iron essence using the smelting equipment of the Mechanical Divine Kingdom. This iron essence was then loaded into the Divine Kingdom for believers to forge, and finally, they were sold in batches in the mall.
Many businesses in this line of work did not have the capacity to handle an entire system; they could only handle one or several parts of the process.
This created a problem: every part of the process had to go through the mall, which meant paying taxes every time.
Taxes upon taxes, exploitation upon exploitation—in the end, the terminal consumer bore everything.
This was an indirect tax.
In the year 26748 of the Divine Kingdom, a god once raised an objection, arguing that for products with such complex craftsmanship, the Federal Government should reduce taxes to benefit the people's livelihood.
According to historical records, it caused quite a stir at the time, with news flying everywhere.
The Federal Government councilors even held special meetings for over ten days, finally coming to a resolution—changing the indirect tax to a Value-Added Tax (VAT), where businesses could purchase tax-related intelligent life for deductions and tax reductions.
Ordinary Divine Creatures were very satisfied with this result. Although the prices of goods did not decrease, the Federal Government was still taking action, and it was said that deductions were possible. Although they didn't understand it, they felt the discount was very significant.
Both the upper-level gods and the lower-level Divine Creatures were very happy about this.
You protect my cake, I protect your ideology. Everyone has a bright future.
During this time, Yang Fan had not touched the funds in his Divine Kingdom specifically to purchase enough weapons.
During the last school exam, he had suffered from a lack of weapons. Even if they were just the most ordinary iron weapons, if the supply had been sufficient then, he could have pushed much deeper.
For Mortals, the difference between wearing armor and being empty-handed was far more than tenfold.
Arriving at the Luo Family base in the Virtual World, Yang Fan found Zhan Yunxiao.
"Greetings, Young Master Yang." Zhan Yunxiao stood up and bowed.
Yang Fan was no longer the ordinary second-tier genius he was when he first joined the Luo Family. His ranking in the Divine Kingdom Simulation Battle had entered the top hundred. As long as he didn't perish in the future, there was a great possibility he would become a god.
Zhan Yunxiao's attitude was naturally much more respectful. Now, if the family had any welfare policies, he would also send a copy of the documents to Yang Fan.
This was the benefit brought by a change in status. People tend to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages; the stronger you appear and the greater your potential, the more people are willing to befriend you.
"Elder Zhan, I want to purchase a large number of weapons. I wonder if you have any connections?" Yang Fan inquired.
Yang Fan could have asked Luo Chengfeng, but considering they were just low-rank weapons, there was no need to trouble his grandfather-figure, who was a god. So, he sought out this nominal guide.
"I do. I have a friend whose Divine Kingdom is primarily focused on smelting weapons. If a genius like Young Master Yang goes to buy from him, there will even be a discount," Zhan Yunxiao said hurriedly.
"Then I'll trouble you for an introduction."
"I'll send him the coordinates right away," Zhan Yunxiao said, clicking on the communication box.
Before long, a pot-bellied middle-aged man teleported to the location.
"Old Zhan, you're sure this is a big deal, right? You called me in such a hurry."
Although the man looked like he weighed four or five hundred pounds and had an extremely unhealthy body, Yang Fan could feel the pressure radiating from him. This person, like Zhan Yunxiao, was a Demigod expert.
"Let me introduce you. This is Luo Tietie, who has a D-rank forging talent and now specifically supplies weapons to the Luo Family."
"And this is Yang Fan, Young Master Yang. You shouldn't be a stranger to him!"
Zhan Yunxiao introduced them to each other.
"Oh my, so it's Young Master Yang! Your name has been quite famous in the Luo Family lately. I heard the Family Head even specially approved 500 million in funds for you. Truly young and promising!
My name is Luo Tietie. I do a bit of weapon business just to make a living. If Young Master Yang doesn't mind, you can call me Fatty Luo like Old Zhan does." Luo Tietie's face was squeezed into a smile.
The man was so enthusiastic that Yang Fan felt a bit uncomfortable. He hurriedly said, "I want to buy weapons."
"How many does Young Master Yang want?"
"20,000 sets of F-rank weapons and 5 million sets of ordinary iron weapons."
"Do you have any requirements for the weapons? Sabers, spears, swords, halberds, warhammers, or…"
"Anything is fine, but there must be armor," Yang Fan thought for a moment.
"Simple. I'll give you a discount on the 20,000 sets of F-rank weapons; 160 million will do. As for those 5 million sets of ordinary iron weapons, they have almost no cost, so I'll just throw them in as a bonus. Let's add each other as friends; if Young Master Yang has any needs in the future, just contact me directly." Luo Tietie was full of enthusiasm.
Hearing the price, Yang Fan was also a bit surprised; it was quite a bit lower than he had estimated.
"Then thank you very much. If I have any needs in the future, I will definitely come to you first," Yang Fan said seriously.
Yang Fan directly transferred 160 million Faith Points, and the other party delivered the goods on the spot.
Once the transaction was complete, Yang Fan exchanged a few pleasantries and left the Virtual World.
Back at the Luo Family base, Zhan Yunxiao asked curiously, "Selling them so cheaply, do you even make a profit?"
"The family recently discovered a large mineral vein at a new resource point, so the raw material costs have dropped quite a bit. There's still a profit. Besides, isn't this the first time we've done business? For a genius like him, once he becomes a Demigod or even a God in the future, his consumption of weapons will be astronomical!
One must have a long-term vision. Having a long-term partner, even if the profit margin is thin, is better than letting this scrap metal gather dust in the Divine Kingdom," Luo Tietie explained.
"You really know how to do business."
"You have to learn how to deal with people. You're always tinkering with those crooked investments in your Divine Kingdom. The profit is high, but the scale is too small."
"Investments have risks. It's better to rely on one's own believers; no matter how much you squeeze them, they won't complain."
"Tsk, believers are linked to our lives. We're the same age, but you look a whole cycle older than me," Luo Tietie couldn't help but remind him.
"Who told me not to be surnamed Luo!" Zhan Yunxiao's eyes held a hint of melancholy.
He also knew the downsides of over-exploiting Divine Kingdom resources, but without the family as a backing, he wasn't qualified to take risks in business.
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