Shepherd Tantra

Chapter 756: Collapse of the Star Antimony Economy

With the sound of long sirens, the police car stopped far outside the boundary of Pilotti Manor.

But unlike the situation at the White Pigeon Opera House, the police station did not drive their security fortress "cordon" directly to the door this time. There were only a few old convertibles that spewed black gas and made noises like tractors. Several experienced police officers surrounded the barrier and kept asking for support.

And two streets away, a full four “cordons” completely blocked the Sifang intersection.

On one of the "cordons", a female police officer who looked no more than 20 years old asked the senior officer who led her in confusion: "Should we wait here? But in this position... we can't keep an eye on them at all?"

Just blocking the intersection from a distance might be useful for ordinary superhumans to commit crimes, but it is completely meaningless for high-level superhumans. Even if the street is completely blocked, climbing over the wall or teleporting is not a very difficult task...

"It does not matter."

The strong police officer, who looked to be in his fifties and had a beard, was calm and not nervous at all: "We obviously can't handle this kind of thing - do you want to send the Seventh Bureau of the General Administration?"

"why not?"

The young female police officer asked back, "They can handle it, right? Even if it's a fifth-level criminal, they should be able to arrest him successfully!"

Hearing this, the middle-aged police officer and the policeman next to him laughed.

They looked at the girl with some nostalgia, their eyes full of kindness, as if they were looking at their past.

"Heh...even so."

Her senior patted her shoulder heavily and said, "We still can't move. This is the Pilotti Manor, you know. He is the son of the Red Prime Minister."

"Alphonse von Pilotti, of course I know him!"

The young policewoman answered without hesitation, her voice even a little urgent: "But because of this, shouldn't we find out something quickly and give Lord Peng Bonaqi an explanation!"

It is obvious that Alphonse is very well-known and popular among the younger generation of girls - even this young policewoman has a strong liking for Alphonse.

"It is precisely because this matter involves Hong Xiang that we cannot act rashly."

In the end, it was the senior policeman who gave the answer: "There are only a few who dare to attack Hong Xiang directly. If we really want to tear our faces apart and fight to the end this time, we must stand on the side of Count Leipzig - after all, he pays our salaries. The salaries of Leipzig police are twice as high as those of other police in other places on the planet, second only to the capital... and most importantly, they never delay their salaries.

"But Count Leipzig is also a high-ranking member of the Academy and a close friend of the Red Prime Minister. Who knows which side the Count will stand on this time? How can we act on our own without the Count giving us orders?

"——To put it another way, if the two sides have no intention of fighting to the end this time, if we start fighting... in the end we will be regarded as the culprit and be blamed."

"...Where did these sayings come from?"

The newly graduated policewoman didn't have a strong sense of justice, so she understood it immediately, but her mind was still a little confused: "Why do you all seem to know...?"

“Because it has been like this since the beginning.”

Someone answered, "This isn't the first time there's been a dispute - this time it was between the Red Prime Minister and the Society, and last time it was between the Association and the Society. The Society always likes to mess with others, but they do have the confidence... There have always been other conflicts in the past. Even the Spiritual Tower would occasionally cause trouble."

"Whoever takes action will take the blame. Even if no one takes action and something goes wrong, the final impact will not be too great - because things that can become a big deal are not something we can solve in the first place."

The middle-aged policeman patted the young female police officer, who was younger than his daughter, and concluded: "So if you can avoid moving, then don't move."

"In other words...it doesn't really matter who the murderer is?" The young female police officer seemed to understand a little.

"It's important... but work and money are more important, kid. If you leave Leipzig and go somewhere else... forget it, for your safety, don't go."

The middle-aged policeman patted her on the shoulder and sighed: "In my hometown, people who lost their jobs sat in front of the orphanage to receive bread and salt. They could fill the entire street. The volunteers of the orphanage worked from morning till night and didn't even have room to rest... The orphanage even had to apply for security from the police station to prevent vagrants from robbing the kitchen. This 'kitchen defender' might even be the only person on the entire street with a salary income."

"—it's all because of those damn goblins who cancelled the order!"

A younger policeman shouted angrily.

The middle-aged policeman pointed at him and said, "Look, Jack - this is an example. Come, Jack, tell our good girl about it."

“Hey, I’ve said this so many times…”

Jack shook his head in annoyance, but continued to narrate seriously: "My father used to run a brick factory. The business was not big but it was OK. Until those damn goblin merchants - they are a bunch of damn liars! They should be skinned and sent to the psychic tower to be made into sandwiches!"

The high-strength bricks of Xingti are considered a specialty. Through cooperation with the Royal Alchemy Association, they obtained a special alchemical potion that can increase the strength of the fired bricks to a higher level than concrete bricks. The formula of this potion is kept secret by the association.

The Royal Alchemy Association is not like those weak alchemists who protect their formulas by registering patents. They use a more straightforward approach - they directly cooperate with the killer organization and the police station, and anyone who dares to pirate or crack will be dealt with directly.

Policeman Jack continued, "The group of scammers paid a high deposit and urged my father to speed up production, saying that they were paving roads and building houses in the southern continent and needed a large number of high-strength bricks. Because they promised that there would be sufficient orders later... So my father used the deposit to expand the factory and hired a large number of employees at high salaries - at that time, high salaries were required to recruit people because people were being scrambled for everywhere.

"In order to expand, we need more funds, so we borrowed money from the bank run by those goblin merchants. My brother didn't go to college because of the prosperous business at home. He dropped out of school and went back to help my father with the business... The business was indeed prosperous for a few years, so I was able to go all the way to college and then transferred to Leipzig after graduation - fortunately, I was not interested in doing business, so I graduated from college, became a transcendent, and held the power in my own hands!

"Because it was only a few years ago - seeing that the business was good, we expanded year after year. But five years later, when the first contract expired, those cunning goblins said that because their demand had decreased and the technology on the market had improved, they had to reduce the purchase amount. But damn it, our family is obviously the best brick factory in the area, and we are the only one that sells the most conscientious solid bricks!"

"...Is there a possibility," the young policewoman couldn't help asking, "that those greedy goblins originally wanted hollow bricks? After all, hollow bricks are sufficient after being strengthened..." "Who knows - but in short, father begged hard to keep 80% of the order volume. But the price was a % reduction in the purchase price. This fatal % caused a sharp drop in profits, and we had to produce more bricks to maintain borrowing. At this time, those damn goblins sent us a batch of new machines... These new machines are regarded as interest-free loans. With them, we can produce high-strength bricks with higher efficiency.

"But only two years later, since the end of last year, we found that other people also had this new machine. As a result, damn - at the beginning of this year, those goblins directly paid the penalty and forcibly terminated the second phase of cooperation!

"——But with these liquidated damages, we can't even pay off the loan we borrowed from them! My father wants to sell all those bricks quickly... After all, they are worthless if they are just piled up, and the warehouse also costs money, and the workers also cost money. The loan for the machine, and the share of the alchemists...

"But there are too many bricks on the market and no one is buying them. The few that can be sold have already dropped to less than one-tenth of their original price - even ordinary bricks are more expensive than this! Everyone is constantly lowering their prices, but still no one is buying them.

"Until the end, we couldn't pay the workers. The factory went bankrupt, my father was killed, and my brother committed suicide... At this point, there was still no one to deal with the piles of bricks, so we had to give them to the workers to pay off their debts. But how many bricks could be carried away? The warehouse manager even had to pay for someone to deal with the bricks... Because they were too strong, neither machines nor low-level extraordinary people could deal with them."

Jack sighed, "You know what? Our town has only about 2,000 people, not even as many as a street in Leipzig. And these unwanted bricks are just piled up on the roadside and on the street, and they can't be broken or stepped on. Some people pick them up to build houses, but houses are meaningless... When reinforced bricks are rampant, houses are worthless.

"And those damn goblins, they bought much more than just bricks from Xingtan. They withdrew the order, but they wanted our lives!"

"Understand?"

The middle-aged police officer patted the policewoman on the shoulder with a serious expression: "Listen to me... If you still want to stay in the 'cordon' instead of going to the White Dove Opera House, you'd better not worry about anything. You are already happy to be able to live in Leipzig. At least our economy here does not rely on supplying goblins... Although prices have also doubled in a year, at least wages have also increased along with it."

"...We are lucky to be able to enter the White Dove Opera House. The Spirit Tower and the Academy are always out of stock... In this era, living people are the best hard currency."

Someone else added quietly: "After all, the Count of Leipzig gave enough money - the Count is a real good man."

Everyone nodded in agreement, obviously agreeing with it.

There is a hell of a joke: why is the Alchemy Association the poorest? Why have alchemists become the weakest of the Star Antimony factions?
It's a very simple truth... their alchemical materials must be obtained from botanists, and the development of alchemy and the promotion of alchemists require a large amount of alchemical materials.

But it’s much simpler for the others—they just need to get the “people”.

In this era, the price of "people" will inevitably become lower and lower. Although supply is less than demand now, it is hard to say what will happen in the future.

"…The Earl is a good man? Why?"

The policewoman obviously hated the White Pigeon Opera House, so she frowned and asked, "Other people are also buying their lives, and he is also buying his life. Is there any difference between buying lives and buying lives? If you enter the White Pigeon Opera House, won't you die in the end?"

"Because the price is higher. You come from a better family, Liz, so you don't know... When people are really desperate, they will sell what needs to be sold no matter how much money they are offered. The only difference is whether it is one person in the family who is sold, or the whole family.

“Even if the Count gave less money, those poor people would still be desperate—they would still have to choose between going to the opera house or a worse future. But he was willing to pay off their debts… When he could have bought these poor people with less money, he chose to give more money. This was a completely unnecessary ‘loss-making’ deal.”

“…I think this is actually a kind of hypocrisy.”

The policewoman called Liz still frowned, "Because he is just selling fame. Although the price he paid is high, his profit is also high, so he actually makes no loss in the end. And there are even more people who join him for this reason... I don't think there is any need to be worse than this. If it is really this bad, then he might as well go to Iris."

"Iris isn't that good either. We're all the same. Besides, hypocrisy is at least better than pure evil..."

The middle-aged policeman sighed: "I would rather have more big shots who are willing to be hypocritical."

In a place where everyone is open about their sins, people will even fanatically worship hypocrites whom they know are hypocrites.

——Because in this way, perhaps more people will be willing to do this for their own benefit.

But at this moment, another young policeman raised a question: "I have been listening for a long time... but, in the final analysis, shouldn't this be the fault of those goblins?

"Why doesn't anyone go and clean up those goblins? Is it because we can't defeat them?

"Those banks are run by goblins, right? If we take over the banks, won't these people have money?"

After he said this, everyone fell silent.

It's not that he said anything wrong, but other people really don't understand why they don't do it.

"Maybe the people above have their own ideas."

Finally, the middle-aged police officer ended the topic with these words.

However, today's conversation still planted a seed in the hearts of everyone present.

——Is there no one in the entire Star Alliance who can stand up and lead them?
Is there no better choice than the Count of Leipzig?
"I think..."

The oldest police officer present said slowly, "In the end, the church will not ignore us. They can't just watch Xingti collapse, right?
“Don’t forget... the current Pope is a human being.

"——Pope's mercy."

He said slowly.

(End of this chapter)