Spending My Retirement In A Game

Eisen took a step aside as the plan started unravelling. Komer seemed quite proud of what was happening right now, and the old man certainly understood why. When Komer suggested this earlier, he wasn't quite sure, but now that everything was actually happening, and maybe even better than they had hoped for, Eisen had no reason whatsoever to doubt Komer.

Though, he never did in the first place, really. There was just so much at stake here right now that Eisen wasn't totally sure about these kinds of manipulation, but considering that it was fairly harmless even if it failed, he had agreed to let Komer give it a shot.

The plan was simple. Since Aaron had always been a particularly intelligent young man that was interested in such matters, Komer suggested to use Aaron as the first bridge between the central continent and the giants. An icebreaker, of sorts. And then, once the atmosphere had improved, Komer coaxed the giants over toward Eisen once a good opportunity presented itself.

With the talks of that kraken, which inadvertedly led to the rapid expansion of a forest in the giants' country, a new 'mystery' had been solved. Of course, until that point, all of these mysteries were conversation topics that they picked up for fun. There was no real consequence to it.
Experience tales at m v|l e'm,p| y- r

However, with that, the knowledge that the giants' country had such special fruit that could not only improve the amount of wool that could be produced, but could also become an extremely powerful fertilizer at the same time, was something that the people of the central continent wouldn't leave up.

After all, the very existence of that fruit was something that could lead to a very specific thing; money. And a lot of it, at that. As that was something that interested most of the envoys from the central continent, it was the perfect topic to start some conversations between them.

After they spoke of those fruit, the topic moved on to other special products that the giant country had to offer, and similarly, the envoys from the central continent tried to brag about products that the giant country may need.

Just like that, even if it was less of a conversation of leisure and more something like a networking event, as long as they started talking while trying to be nice to each other and make positive impressions, it literally did not matter to Eisen. He glanced down at the merchant standing next to him.

"So, is this what you had in mind?" Eisen asked, and Komer laughed lightly, shaking his head.

"Oh, not at all, I thought it would be much, much less than this. But the giants were a lot more open and friendly than I expected, so the crowd that Aaron drew was bigger. And that led to more people coming over to you, as if to 'match' the giants. It all worked out much better than I thought," Komer pointed out, holding his hands together behind his back.

With a smile on his face, he looked at the crowds of people interacting, splitting into smaller groups to talk about specific topics. But the important part was that these groups were mixed between the two sides.

Eisen couldn't help himself but smile, patting the young man's shoulder, "You're really quite clever, huh? What, did you manage to figure out everything that those guys could be interested in from the beginning?"

Komer's grin didn't drop, but he simply shrugged, "What can I say? Culture is business. And what else is culture but the stories that people leave behind, influencing those around them for generations to come? Things like those mysteries or rumours or myths... it's important stuff to know if you want to do business at the scale I am."

"You're quite incredible, you know? Your brothers really never stood a chance against you," Eisen laughed slightly, but Komer once more shrugged.

"Well, they're definitely still trying. But at this point I've got such a massive repuation because of you that they can't really do anything. Merc and Cial keep trying to undersell me in certain nichés, trying to use that to break out into the broader market.

I think Merc's most recent attempt was mass-production of low-strength items for new players, and Cial went more into the direction of doing ressource-based trading. I think they should realize pretty soon that neither of that will help them out in the long run, though," Komer grinned broadly, and Eisen curiously raised a brow.

"Is that so? What exactly are you planning?"

"Well... basically, it was always kind of stupid for Merc to try and go against us in the item-game, but it's not necessarily bad for us. The items he sells aren't 'bad' or anything, so I don't feel bad about letting him sell to players.

But weapon- and tool-sales for players up to level 50 are massively inflated because everyone wants to try out whatever they can before settling too much into any particular direction, and if we want to keep up the quality that we have for our mass-produced items, we would never be able to keep up with the demand.

So we've been relaxing on the lower-levelled items and instead improved the production cycle for the items the step right above those. Our prices sank while keeping our profit margin roughly the same, so both our prices and quality are better than what Merc could ever hope to catch up on considering we're still improving too, so...

he'll be stuck in the business of low-level items until he can pivot into a whole different market, but he doesn't seem to have much of an intention to do so. I think he's still underestimating exactly the scale that Starlight is working at."

Eisen listened with a curious smile, nodding along to Komer's explanation. Considering that to most people, this was still 'just a game', it was easy to see why they would underestimate exactly the hard work that went into all of this. Of course, that was something that would change with time, but right now, it was understandable.

Putting Komer into a position where he could understand the weight behind all of his actions was incredibly benefitial to his growth as a merchant, "So what about Cial? Peddling ressources seems like a fairly safe thing, right?"

Komer just shrugged as if it were obvious, "Well, sure, but we're about to spread the train to the central continent, right? It won't take long until the cost of materials and ressources will drop to the lowest they've ever been, just because the transport costs will be astronomically low compared to what they will have been before.

Not to mention, Starlight is obviously going to have the largest fleet of private trains in the continent, so... Cial probably won't be able to do much against that."

"I'm very glad we managed to get you on our side. Wouldn't want to go against you in terms of business," Eisen laughed, but Komer quickly shook his head.

"Oh, trust me, I would have been doing anything I could to get on your side if I hadn't been from the beginning," Komer grinned.

Just then, the subtle sound of music started spreading through the room. Evalia stood on the slightly elevated 'stage' at the edge of the room, playing her violin. Behind her, other instruments were set up together with colourful, extravagant figures that she was creating with her magic. It was a group of string instruments, where Evali was playing the lead, accompanied by her own spells.

The music drew some attention for a short while, but in the end simply ended up improving the mood as the conversations continued on. While they all started with business, it seemed as though they were slowly but surely moving toward more casual conversations when everyone relaxed a bit more. The mood was improving, and Eisen couldn't help but be impressed by how good everything was going.

Of course, not everyone was really partaking; each side had a small group of troublemakers that didn't seem happy about this all. And as expected, the ones at the center each of those groups were the Cloud Giants and the Holy Empire respectively. But that was to be expected, and their behaviour had properly been accounted for already.

However, that was fine. Not everybody had to be happy or cooperative, as long as the overall mood was developing how Eisen liked, those guys could do whatever they wanted.