Resistance to Expansion

In the end, Xu Yue stubbornly refused to let go of the A-Rank Plot and squeezed Jiong Jiong’s wallet dry.

As for the secret behind the advancement of the Heavenly Demon Secret, it made Jiong Jiong grit her teeth in irritation. No matter how she thought about it, it felt like she had been scammed. This guy was good. Why don’t you just say I should help you outright?

Jiong Jiong had actually vaguely noticed and understood something about that secret. It seemed that something had happened to the Sect Master.

Her status was not as important as her senior sister’s, so she did not know the true core secrets.

Only after the other party’s information had passed the highest level of verification this time did she finally feel completely at ease.

Very few people dared to use the highest level of verification, because even the person who received the information could not be completely certain whether it was true or false.

For the other party to dare do this, he must have been extremely confident. Otherwise, points equal to the intelligence’s value would be deducted. That risk alone was worth an A-Rank Plot…

Now that she had traded for it with an A-Rank Plot, she felt a little annoyed, but useful secrets like this were not a loss overall. She might be short on readily available A-Rank Plot rewards, but it was not as though she urgently needed to improve. As long as she got something useful in exchange, it was fine.

"Alright. I can’t take an A-Rank Plot from you for nothing. Consider yourself in my assessment period now."

After casting Xu Yue a flirtatious, charming glare, Jiong Jiong prepared to leave the room.

Xu Yue was left somewhat baffled.

"Assessment period? The one where I help you solve your problem?"

"Could you stop being so filthy-minded? It’s an entry assessment. An entry assessment."

Jiong Jiong put her hands on her hips and glared at Xu Yue with a touch of spoiled arrogance, displaying her charm to the fullest.

Combined with her ever-changing personality, which made it impossible to tell how she would act the next moment, she seemed equally adept at being willful, playful, mysterious, and seductive. She truly was someone whose every word had to be treated with suspicion.

Her Disguise ability was probably no weaker than his own.

"Dragon Soul?"

Although she had not revealed the team she belonged to, Xu Yue could still make a rough guess.

"Of course. Don’t worry, it won’t conflict even if you’ve already joined a legion. Dragon Soul is different from other legions. Our authority is different…"

As Jiong Jiong spoke, her gaze briefly became unfocused, but she quickly recovered.

"Don’t rush to refuse. Dragon Soul’s authority is vastly different from that of other legions. If you pass the assessment, we’ll come find you ourselves in the future."

With the door half-open, Jiong Jiong turned her head to glance at Xu Yue, a wicked smile curling across her lips before she left the room directly…

"Dragon Soul, huh? It seems somewhat interesting."

The Penguin Merchant Guild had already gotten on track and now held a complete monopoly within this district.

Moreover, the mission-posting and mission-acceptance sections had already reached a considerable scale. More and more people had experienced the benefits brought by the Penguin Merchant Guild and became members one after another.

That was how mission posting and acceptance worked. Once the scale was established, more missions were listed and there were more choices available. Those posting missions also had more people capable of helping them. Once the traffic rose, it completely crushed every other organization with similar functions.

Other organizations that wanted to compete or imitate it were strangled in the cradle, leaving the Penguin Merchant Guild in a dominant position.

There were no restrictions, either—only rights and no obligations. Only an idiot would refuse to join.

The major legions in the district, even the royal family, repeatedly contacted the guild’s elders. They used every method available, from recruitment to division.

Fortunately, these elders had also tasted the guild’s benefits and were bound by Space contracts. So while some had certainly been recruited and taken sides, overall, they still wanted what was best for the guild.

They also knew they were being recruited only because of the guild’s current status. Without the guild, what the hell were they? They could go back to selling newbie starter packs.

Furthermore, with the guild and contract restrictions in place, the highest authority had always remained in Xu Yue’s hands. According to the contracts, once they were expelled from the guild, they could no longer engage in business within the scope covered by the Penguin Merchant Guild.

With enough benefits and rewards dangling before them, while also holding the initiative, their "loyalty" could naturally be maintained.

Relationships of interest were, in fact, the most reliable kind of relationship…

Still, trouble inevitably emerged.

"There’s a problem in Europe?"

After they exchanged information on recent developments during this meeting in the Mental Cabin, the elder who controlled the channels involving European comprador agents brought up the difficulties he had encountered.

In this district, these people were originally local powerbrokers with channels spread everywhere. Combined with the district’s inherent disorder, and the fact that no one had restrained them during the initial stage, the already established Penguin Merchant Guild had become unstoppable in its growth.

As long as they did not yet infringe upon the interests of those legions, and gave them a little sweetness to make them mistakenly believe that the Penguin Merchant Guild benefited them, they could continue developing steadily for the time being.

But overseas, they had encountered considerable resistance from the very beginning. Europe in particular was filled with entrenched old powers. With this model and precedent already available here, they were unwilling to allow such an uncontrollable, strange merchant guild to emerge on their own turf.

The old powers began establishing similar organizations one after another. In particular, that enormous and ancient banking family wanted to use the Penguin Merchant Guild’s model to integrate its banking system into the Reincarnation Space.

This made Xu Yue frown. His long-term goal had likewise been to establish the Penguin Merchant Guild’s financial dominance.

Given the nature of the Reincarnation Space, a banking model would naturally not be built solely on lending.

Reincarnators were engaged in such a high-risk profession that if they deposited their points, the sheer number of people suffering "accidents" every cycle would make the bank rich just from those dead accounts alone.

Those bankers had considered and attempted this before, but the Space already stored points for them, removing any need to worry about safety. Coupled with Reincarnators’ habit of living and spending in the moment, they could not be attracted into depositing points without offering extremely high interest rates. Yet if the interest rates were truly too high, the risk would be too great. What if a legion deposited its funds? It would not be worth the trouble.

But now that there was a model like the Penguin Merchant Guild, they could fully try to figure out how to make it work.

Xu Yue had originally intended to wait until things matured further, until his own strength reached a certain level, before introducing the Penguin Coin system. Then, through measures such as recharge discounts, recharge rebates, and Penguin Coin purchase discounts, he would gradually turn members into "depositors," forming an alternative banking system—or rather, a discounted fast-payment system.

But that old family was different. They possessed the confidence to dominate from the outset and had no need to wait. Perhaps the wounds World War I had inflicted on them had even made them feel urgent and anxious about it.

They seemed to want to use this opportunity to revive their family once more and make up for the losses it had suffered during World War I.

They had already begun conducting somewhat similar experiments.

Although they lacked the experience and information of later generations…

They were outstanding bankers. Relying purely on their own abilities, they could slowly test their way toward suitable methods!

Other regions were manageable, but Europe—France in particular—was about to be dominated by that family. Given the ancient family’s influence, once it completed its domination of France and extended its reach across Europe, dominating all of Europe would likely be only a matter of time.

Other large legions had no capital to compete with them over a model like the Penguin Merchant Guild’s. It was not a matter of relative strength, but rather an issue similar to the channel-agent model here.

Some comprador agents studying abroad there, along with the fledgling French branch of the Penguin Merchant Guild they had only just established, either withdrew or mysteriously disappeared.

Yes, disappearances had occurred both in the Reincarnation Space and in the real world.

At this point, the Penguin Merchant Guild’s entire French branch existed in name only…

"I understand. We’ll deal with this. Give me the information on the comprador agents in France whom we can still contact. Also, we can’t let our guard down in the other regions. Remember our objective. We are not seeking dominance like we have in this district. We are seeking to prevent monopolistic organizations like the one in France from emerging…"

After ending the meeting, Xu Yue left the Mental Cabin with a smile on his face.

This was not merely a matter of suffering a setback. It was also these people testing his side. It seemed necessary to show some muscle. He remembered looking over a few of his legion’s basic legion authorities before. There seemed to be one he could try…