Chapter 1191 - 698: Selling Technology as an Add-on Service (2)

Sage nodded without greeting Marika, as they were old partners. Her habit was to join the luncheon last.

As for who to wait for...

"I’m coming, I’m coming! I smelled it from afar!"

Dirty-faced Renedia ran over with a face full of stains. Before she could sit down, Marika pinched her shoulder, smiling, "Go clean up first; it’s not hygienic to eat like this."

Though strong people don’t complain about the environment and can eat any toxic food, at most, it just causes a bit of stomachache.

Sage has even reached a point where he’s invulnerable to all poisons, but standards still need to be maintained.

Moreover, while Renedia is capable, her constitution isn’t strong. There’s no need to get sick for no reason.

Unwillingly sent to clean up, Renedia took twenty minutes and then sat back at the table. After another ten minutes, it was Lily who came.

She had just finished her work and started enjoying her lunch.

But unlike before, this time, she ate noticeably slower, not quite as rushed, and with a faint smile.

"Feeling happy today?" Sage asked Lily while sipping his soup.

"Yes, the workload has lightened quite a bit."

Lily said, "By the way, Sage, I think Sivier can be recalled. With her current experience, she’s best suited for training as an Assistant Officer."

"Sivier? Which one?"

Sage was momentarily puzzled, then waved his hand, "Never mind, not important. If you think it’s okay, then it’s okay."

With so many subordinates, apart from a few old ones, he really doesn’t remember every new recruit.

If there’s ever a need, someone would provide him with the intelligence reports.

Having a large territory has its drawbacks; with many subordinates, names sometimes pop up unexpectedly, and he might not remember them.

"Also, regarding the latter part of the Pirate contracts, I checked a bit: for ships navigating the Calm Belt, how should the pricing be set?" Lily asked.

"According to the rules, charge what it’s worth," Sage said. "Without paying me, what right do they have to travel to the North Sea and West Sea? Just amplify the advertisement a bit, saying that the Four Seas are lands flowing with milk and honey. The land is gold, the sea is silver; wealth is everywhere, and even in death, there are seventy-two treasure maiden companions."

"Those struggling in the New World would jump at the chance to get rich in the Four Seas. It’s normal for the price to be high. Technology is valuable. The Calm Belt has no wind; the technology for powered navigation is very valuable. And we must guard against the Sea Kings; embedding those Seastone—it’s a fortune as well."

Sage was never afraid of not having buyers.

Seastone is a hot commodity, especially since he controls the largest Seastone production site; naturally, he sets the price.

Even though extraction is still possible from Pluton—the interior structure has been activated, but the outside remains unchanged—collecting Seastone is still feasible. But this also gives a pretext; the external narrative, of course, differs.

After all, they’ve become weapons. From an external perspective, it’s a finite resource.

Thus, the price is naturally high.

"Many Pirates can’t afford this price. Offer discounts?"

"Discounts? Have you forgotten what I do?"

Sage laughed, "I’m a landlord; lending money is my main business, especially after Du·Feld died. I now hold a significant market share in the financial sector, right?"

"51%," Lily estimated, saying.

"Exactly. If they don’t have money, they can borrow from me; the interest is negotiable. I’m the kindest person after all. Anyway, it’s just seed money for them to plunder. If they can repay, great. If not, even better; we’ll send them to the West and North Seas to bring back raw materials from there. Wherever it’s tough, that’s where they should go."

"By the way..."

Sage suddenly thought of something and said to Renedia, "Lety, I don’t care how you build ships, but for the technology part of navigating the Calm Belt, discuss with Vegapunk. Ideally, make it regular maintenance or replacements every year or so; having them come for ship maintenance is another way to earn."

"We could also tier it into one-year, two-year, three-year plans; the longer the maintenance, the higher the technology price. Sell this as an additional service. After all, we only sell ships; the technology is factored separately."

Sage smiled, "But this technology can only be used on our ships. Of course, if they can’t part with their own ships, we can ’modify’ them, but it’ll cost a bit more than buying our ship."

He’s definitely selling ships. Without selling, there’d be fewer orders for his subordinates, and it concerns economic industry issues.

But if someone refuses to change ships, then just charge extra; that works too.

"But Sage, the technology doesn’t require that. I can ensure they never need maintenance," Renedia said.

"You mean you want to reduce the workload for our people? That means less money for them. Besides, if you don’t do this, how am I supposed to exploit those people?"

Sage rolled his eyes, "Enough talk, just do it."

"Um..."

Renedia blinked, "Sage, you said that doing it this way, you’d eventually get hanged someday."

"Well, they haven’t invented a kind of material that can hang me yet."

Sage sneered, "If I don’t exploit, how do I create prosperity? I’m a landlord, just like Pirates’ job is plundering—I’m very dedicated!"

Currently, the only thing he can do is to absorb nutrients from the outside world to enrich his O’hara.

Burden of conscience?

No such thing.

According to his plan, everyone benefits.

Pirates can loot money.

Affected external towns can become part of the supply chain, earning money.

In O’hara, they can all live to a point where one person works, and the entire family prospers.

What?

Nobles?

They are already above everyone else, so they don’t count as people; there’s no need to care.

"Let’s do it, send out the invitations, and have them come. They need to know the benefits; once you’re ready, send the invitation out and have them all come to O’hara."

...

Invitations needed to be sent out. With eagle-like creatures serving as news birds and government bats as relay tools, along the latter part, delivering newspapers to every populated place and passing ship was enough.

Sometimes there was no need to actively distribute; Sage’s news industry now had a kind of Pirate-exclusive news flavor.

Ordinary news is public-oriented, mostly entertainment.

Government-related news, although private, more or less has influence, delivering government-related reports.

Sage’s news isn’t picky; besides world news, it also covers Sage’s side, especially since defeating Red Hair, starting to focus on Pirate movements.

It began transitioning toward Pirate news.

For instance, which Pirate found a treasure today, who defeated whom, or increasing Pirate bounties; those would be on the paper.

People buying the paper weren’t rare.

When encountering a Pirate Ship, the eagle would automatically land, and like the news bird, throw money for the paper.

Thus, in the latter part of the seas, most Pirates received Sage’s newspapers.

"An invitation? Pirate Conference?"

Onboard a ship sailing in the latter sea area, the Pirate Captain wearing a captain’s hat was the first to see the biggest headline on the newspaper.

"So blatant? What does Scourge want? Isn’t he afraid of being known by the World Government?"

The Vice Captain beside him heard and laughed, "That’s Scourge; he can’t possibly fear the World Government. But such a sudden invitation—is it a trap? Is Scourge no longer satisfied with the former part?"

"No, he isn’t that kind of guy. Scourge wouldn’t do such tasteless things; tricking us over and then taking us out wouldn’t be his style. When he has something, he speaks directly. This time, it might just be a grand Pirate feast."

The Captain thought for a moment, said, "That guy is good at business. Many of our weapons were bought from him... Let’s go take a look, and while we’re at it, sell the loot we’ve acquired during this time. Their war is over, so business shouldn’t be affected, should it? We had a lot of things we couldn’t sell in time."

The Scourge’s war didn’t just affect O’hara itself—they were impacted too.

After all, only the black market could provide them with weapons and materials, and the largest and fairest black market was in O’hara.