18: Chapter 18 The Veteran Takes a Stumble
Yuri looked at the mountain of canned food crates before him and felt his scalp go numb for the first time.
"These... are all?"
"The first batch, 5,000 tons. Come back for more once you've sold them."
Hearing Fu Haoran's casual explanation, Yuri's first reaction was...
"Am I being played?"
Suppressing that absurd thought, he remained expressionless. "I'll come back with the payment in a week."
One week later.
Yuri returned to the Governors Mansion with the first payment: 800,000 throne coins, plus a pile of weapons and parts obtained through bartering.
"Good sales." Fu Haoran counted the supplies. "The next batch is ready—10,000 tons."
Yuri froze. "How much?"
"10,000 tons. Is there a problem?" Fu Haoran asked.
[He still has more?!]
Yuri stared at Fu Haoran, trying to find a crack in that young face.
But there was nothing.
[Could it be... he really has a secret source?]
[Impossible! You couldn't find a second production site for meat products of this quality in the entire sector.]
[He must be putting on a front! Right, he's afraid I'll see through his background, so he's bluffing.]
"No... no problem," Yuri replied, gritting his teeth.
Soon, Yuri discovered that this batch of goods was of even higher quality:
Braised pork, dace with salted black beans, honey-glazed ham, corn kernels, pineapple in syrup...
"Did he freaking empty the warehouse of an Agri-World?!"
"Whatever... I'll take this batch first. As long as I can sell it, I'll earn enough to spend for three lifetimes."
"By the time I care where the goods came from, I'll be long gone."
Another week passed.
When Yuri returned with the second payment, his steps were a bit light-headed.
He had barely slept this week.
He had utilized every old contact he could still reach, even swallowing his pride to beg a few minor characters he once looked down upon.
Discounts, profit-sharing, promises... he used every trick in the book just to move the goods.
The result was that as soon as the goods were released, they sold like crazy.
The price of the cans on the black market skyrocketed to astronomical levels.
One can of luncheon meat for a Laser Gun; one can of yellow peaches for three crates of batteries.
The minor nobles of the Mid-Hive secretly sent people to buy, offering prices that made Yuri's heart skip a beat.
He brought back 2 million throne coins, plus a large amount of hard currency.
"Next batch, 50,000 tons. Pick it up tomorrow," Fu Haoran said.
Yuri didn't freeze this time.
He smiled.
[Sure enough, I knew it.]
[The first two batches have already emptied the stock, and now he's starting to bluff.]
[50,000 tons? If he has 50,000 tons, I'll wash my hair while doing a handstand!]
The next day, the same warehouse.
When Yuri walked in, the smile on his face froze.
The warehouse was packed.
Not with the neat shelves from before, but truly packed full.
Crates were stacked from the floor to the ceiling, leaving only narrow passages barely wide enough for a person to pass.
"5... 50,000 tons... all here?" Yuri's voice trembled.
"That's right, all here."
Yuri said no more and went straight into the depths of the stacks, prying open several crates at random.
Luncheon meat, kangaroo meat, canned seafood, canned vegetables... all genuine.
[How is this possible... where on earth did he...]
Yuri suddenly remembered Fu Haoran's casual remark from yesterday: "Come to the warehouse tomorrow to check the goods."
[He had this much stock all along.]
[He's been playing me.]
Yuri felt a chill down his spine.
"Can you arrange the channels now?" Fu Haoran asked.
"...I can." Yuri said, but in his heart, he was making his own little calculations.
[Run! I must run as soon as possible.]
[But this batch... 50,000 tons. If I take it all, I can earn an unimaginable amount.]
[Just one last job. Really, after this one job, I'm out.]
Three weeks later.
When Yuri returned to the Governors Mansion with the third payment, he had lost a significant amount of weight, and the bloodshot veins in his eyes looked like spiderwebs.
In these two weeks, he had practically turned the Hive City black market upside down.
The dirty channels he used to disdain, the tough characters he didn't dare provoke, the gray areas he couldn't touch... he touched them all.
Reputation? He didn't want it anymore.
Rules? Those were nothing!
As long as he could move the goods, he would do anything.
So what if he was killing the goose that laid the golden eggs!
Finally, the 50,000 tons of canned food were sold out!
Instead of crashing, the price of the cans remained incredibly stable.
No one believed that the supply of cans would be infinite.
Besides, this amount wasn't just unable to fill the stomachs of the Hive World; it couldn't even satisfy the demand of the Rogue Traders.
On the other side, Yuri looked at the dense figures on the data slate and finally showed a satisfied smile.
[120 million throne coins, plus these materials, are enough for me to flee. This money is enough to buy a spire in the middle levels of the Hive City!]
[Now I just have to wait for this clueless Governor to finish the approval, and my plan will enter its final stage!]
[Once I leave, the sky's the limit and the ocean's the depth!]
He stared at Fu Haoran, waiting to see the young man's reaction.
Fu Haoran glanced at the data slate and nodded. "The accounts are clear."
Yuri felt a sense of relief.
[It seems he didn't notice that cooked account.]
[Then again, with so many transaction records, how could he possibly audit them all by himself?]
[That money is enough for me to buy a small manor on a fringe planet and live comfortably for the rest of my life.]
"However..." Fu Haoran pulled up another set of data, "there's a discrepancy of 12 million throne coins here."
Yuri's heart skipped a beat.
"The flow was too messy, and some accounts didn't match up during consolidation. I'll go back and re-audit them," he forced himself to stay calm. "With so many transactions, discrepancies are inevitable. I'll check again..."
"No need to audit." Fu Haoran turned the data slate around, showing a simple table. "Every batch of goods leaving the warehouse has a unique ID, and every transaction is linked to a specific ID."
"For example, the batch of canned fruit that left last Thursday was bought by the Silver Thistle Chamber of Commerce, but this transaction is missing from their payment records."
Yuri stood rooted to the spot, cold sweat instantly soaking his back.
[System IDs? Could it be a method of the Adeptus Mechanicus? I've never heard of it. Why would the Adeptus Mechanicus help him?]
[I've been cooking books for thirty years, and today I tripped over a single ID!]
Fu Haoran looked at him, his tone calm. "Make up the money, and we'll let this pass. After all, you've just come out and it's your first time doing things; oversights are inevitable."
Yuri opened his mouth, but no sound came out.
He had cooked books for thirty years, deceiving nobles, the Adeptus Arbites, and even the auditors of the Adeptus Mechanicus.
This was the first time he had been exposed so thoroughly by someone with such a casual tone.
[Played with fire all my life... and finally got burned.]
"...I'll make it up," Yuri heard himself say.
"By the way," Fu Haoran said, "from now on, I'll send two people to accompany you when you move the goods."
"It's not surveillance, but protection. Many people out there are eyeing these goods now; it's not safe for you to be alone."
Yuri remained silent for a full minute.
Then he bent down, picked up the data slate that had fallen to the ground, and patted off the dust.
"The new batch of 5,000 tons... I need more time." Yuri's voice was drier than ever, like a beast of burden whose soul had been drained.
"I'll give you two weeks."
"...Fine."
When Yuri turned to leave, his steps were heavy.
[This guy... is not the kind of upstart I thought he was!]
Yuri twitched the corners of his mouth, his smile looking worse than a sob.
Fu Haoran watched Yuri's departing back and pulled up the system panel.
[Finance Officer Yuri Razumov's Loyalty Updated: -99 → -30]
[Status: Changed from 'Ready to flee at any time' to 'Hesitating and observing']
[Remark: The host has used facts to prove the basic financial principle of 'what's yours is mine, and what's mine is still mine.' Although the method was as crude as performing micro-surgery with a Power Hammer, it was, at least... effective.]
"Finally getting on the right track." Fu Haoran was about to breathe a sigh of relief, unaware that someone was already targeting him.