Location: Myriad Realms, Card World, Southern Way Beyond, SSS-rank Titan Forest Field Dungeon.
"War?" Kiren exclaimed, her shock evident. This was not the kind of thing someone sponsoring a criminal rehabilitation and reintegration program should be talking about. With every word from her young boss, Kiren’s suspicions grew. She was no longer on the fence; she was committed to using this opportunity to work for him to investigate his organization thoroughly.
"Boss, did I hear you right? Are we truly going to war?" Ollie asked, trying hard to hide his disappointment, feeling his plans of visiting various brothels in the five regions under the guise of research using their organization’s money were slowly fleeing away.
"I only signed up to work for you. Not go fight your war...B-boss," Princess Christina immediately protested but, feeling Lois’s threatening glare on her, she toned down.
"By war I meant — a market share war. Adult card market share war between our yet to be launched Slime Fairy cards and the recently popular Yin Nymph cards. But it’s good to know where your priorities lie. Just for that, you can forget about getting the hefty joining bonus I was planning to give you guys," I clarified after I slowly observed the reaction of each Misfit. None of their reactions came as a surprise to me. They responded just as I guessed, especially Cameron John. He was a total whipped husband. He would follow Kiren to his death without question.
"Joining bonus? What’s that?" Kiren asked her young boss, even though the words were self-explanatory, as she found it hard to believe that someone would get paid a hefty bonus just for starting a job. Such generosity from a boss, and such entitlement from an employee, was simply unbelievable.
"Forget it," I remarked, knowing that they will realize what they missed out on when they interact with other staff in my organization. Even though delayed, the pain would definitely follow.
"How are we supposed to go about that? That too on such short notice?" Princess Christina asked, her tone showing just how unreasonable she found the request. Despite her disgust for the ’filthy adult cards,’ she was determined to investigate the so-called Southern Hope. Considering the lengths he was going for Redfall, he was either a saint or a devil pretending to be one. She was determined to solve the mystery, and this was her chance. So, she played along.
"Finally, one of you is showing initiative," I commended Christina while glancing at the Misfits. Then, resting my gaze on the princess, I began, "I will tell you how after I return from my little errand in the central academic city. Until then, you guys can guard our headquarters in Sky Blossom City parallelly participate in the criminal rehabilitation and reintegration program."
Honestly, there were lots of ways to disrupt Jill’s plan. One of them, even a regular card apprentice could think of, was none other than an antitrust action. This was one of the crude ways. As it could take a long and tiresome legal battle, and had chances of Jill lobbying the judges, politicians, and other officials to get her way.
I was speaking from experience, because some politicians planned an antitrust action against my VR-slime card and VR-universe. To them, I bluntly replied that if they don’t trust my stuff, they can stop using them instead of trying to make up reasons to steal them from me. This update ıs available on 𝕟𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕝·𝘧𝙞𝙧𝙚·𝔫𝔢𝔱
My response riled them, but they could do nothing about it unless they plan to tell the citizens of the five regions to stop equipping VR-slime cards. Actually, some of them did try that, yet my VR-universe only saw an increase in its users, both old and new.
But the same could not be applied to the Slime Fairy cards, as the ultimate authority over the adult card market would still lie in the hands of the central government and the four royal families, unless I planned to give them away for free like I did in the case of the VR-Slime cards. Otherwise, it would have be impossible for me to sell VR-Slime cards so quickly the traditional way and let the VR-universe get deeply ingrained in the current society.
I couldn’t market the Slime fairy card the same as the VR-Slime cards. Though I lost money on VR-Slime cards, I made ten times that in VR-Universe. The same wouldn’t be applicable to the Slime Fairy card.
Antitrust action was one of the reasons I didn’t take the route Jill was taking to monopolize the adult card market. With the VR-universe at my disposal, I could easily achieve what she was trying to, but it was more trouble than it was worth. Besides, it undermined the spirit of card creation.
With strict card recipe copyright rules had already slowed innovation in card creation field. Many card creationists were aware of this, but they couldn’t do anything about it as most of these card recipe copyrights were held by the top ten universities and the royal families. Everyone knew better than to harm the interests of the top ten universities and the royal families.
My Slime Fairy card was not only opening a new card market but also setting a bar for the adult cards. Such that someone like Jill cannot monopolize the market and bring innovation to a stunting halt. By the time the card creationists caught up to the level of my Slime Fairy Cards, I could afford to give up on the profits from the adult card market, making room for the new generation, which would be stronger and better than all the previous generations. Unlike the current generation, which was still trying to get out of its predecessor’s shadow.
When it comes to card creation, I thought one of the camping ground rules was very appropriate here, the one that asked the campers to leave the camping ground cleaner than when they arrived. Such that those after them could also enjoy it.
For someone who fancied himself as the greatest card creationist, I believed my cards shouldn’t just change the present but pave the way for a better future. Of course, I want to be compensated appropriately for it too.