Birth Of The Crafts-God

One week after the previous coalition meeting, which was two days after Lucas had banned scalping entry tickets, the members of the coalition gathered once again for another meeting. However, different from the one a week ago, all five members were accounted for.

Böjer Oder, the head of the Oder family and chairman of the Prestige Star Ltd.

Rajhan Khan, Baylands city-state's most powerful political godfather —if excluding those from the top four families.

Nolan, CEO of Arkhen Corporation, a multi-million FeC company that controlled industries in both the vestige-smith market and the freelancer service business.

Emery, the president of the Versailles Group's branch in Baylands city-state, which was one of the only three stellar processor manufacturing companies.

And finally, the Beastly Berserker, Olaf Tudor, leader of the Demolition Knights and a seventh level Apertures Opening stage stellar practitioner.

Usually, the majority of seventh level stellar practitioners were concentrated in the top families and public forces like the Red Fangs, the City Lord Manor or the Baylands City Patrol Corps. Rarely were there any of them functioning as the leader of an independent freelancer organization. This made the Demolition Knights a unique force, and while they weren't at the top, they couldn't be underestimated either.

Compared to a week ago, the atmosphere in the room was heavy. The coalition has suffered a blow just when they thought the pressure on the Dawn-Spring Arrow Company was working to their advantage.

The announcement from seven days ago had wreaked havoc on their plans and forced them into a difficult situation. Whether it was the Oder family's Prestige Star Ltd, the Arkhen Corporation or the Versailles Group, all three companies had experienced a decline in their stock price. But the one who had it worse was none other than the Versailles Group.

As direct competitors to the Silverine Factory, the partnership announcement of the Silverine Factory with the Seven Stars Springs Dealership backed by the Seven Sparks Forge, dealt a heavy blow to the Versailles Group. Their stocks plunged by more than 10%. The situation was so bad that Emery even got a call from the headquarters and was threatened with a sanction if he couldn't recover from the situation.

If it wasn't for his past achievements in the company and turning it into a major party in the processor market of Baylands city-state, Emery would have been fired after that event. And while he was lucky, those below him weren't. Some of the C-level executives had also been fired and replaced with characters from the Versailles Group's headquarters.

This move had effectively cut down Emery's control of the company as the majority of those laid off were a part of his camp.

One could only imagine how much pressure, dissatisfaction and anger he felt even at this moment.

"We can't let this go on for long. We need to retaliate." Nolan spoke up after everyone was seated for the meeting.

"Haven't we been doing that all this while?" Olaf glanced at him.

Olaf Tudor had a rowdy maroon-coloured hair and an illusive pair of black eyes. Unlike Böjer who had a large and broad frame, Olaf was less bigger but still had refined muscles. He always kept a cold expression, and together with his sharp eyes, gave off the feeling of a predator staring at a prey whenever he looked at someone.

Nolan felt the sensation from Olaf as the latter looked his way. But having been in a position of power for long, he held back the uncomfortable feeling.

"Unfortunately, that plan can't go on for long."

The original plan was to have the Arkhen Corporation pressure the DSAC's Koper Trading Services arm into a trade war. At the same time, Böjer would command the allies under him in the FMCG market to also drag Voedsel Industries into a price war as well.

With so many distractions for the Dawn-Spring Arrow Company, the Oder family would now file an antitrust law suit against them over their involvement in the Seven Stars Springs Dealership. The lawsuit also claimed that the DSAC intended to monopolize the products from the Seven Sparks Forge through this method. As such, they called for the partnership to be nulled, and the dealership's accounts were frozen until further investigation was carried out.

Although it sounded ludicrous, there was a point to be made in the lawsuit, and if care wasn't taken, the Seven Stars Springs Dealership might be forced to temporarily shut down until the case was resolved.

While the coalition and Lucas' side waited for the lawsuit to officially be presided over by the court, the Versailles Group funded the campaigns of both the Arkhen Corporation and the other companies in the FMCG market. It was thanks to this support that the trade war had gone on for long. However, with Emery's current situation in Versailles Group, it would be difficult for him to provide support for long.

"When are the replacements arriving?" Böjer asked.

"In two days." Emery scowled, clearly hurt about the discussion.

One week ago, the bombshell was dropped by the Silverine Factory. By the next, the headquarters of the Versailles Group had already contacted him and asked for answers. Three days after the announcement, the news of the layoffs was sent to his table and Emery was forced to fire his men or be held responsible. He was also informed that it would take a week for the replacements to receive proper training and be sent over. So, two days from now was quite accurate.

Everyone frowned.

The first court case for the lawsuit was in four days. It was a high profile case, so the court needed time to prepare as well as appoint an appropriate judge to handle the case. If the DSAC was given a breathing space of two days, who knows what could happen.

But even that aside, the current plan wasn't doing them any justice.

Böjer suddenly leaned forward and rested his arms in the table while propping his chin.

"As Nolan said, we need to counterattack. Emery, be honest with me. You have a trump card with you, no?"

Unlike the two companies here, the Versailles Group was a true giant. While it wasn't on par with forces like the Lin Franchise and the Lester family, whose reaches extended to other planets, it was similarly based on Paros city-state. Paros city-state was the business capital of the planet, and any company capable of existing there was remarkable. Even a 'weak' force like the Versailles Group had already expanded into two other city-states.

There was no way the Versailles Group headquarters didn't send something over to Emery to help solidify his grounds here or recover from the situation.

As expected, Emery looked mysteriously at Böjer before extending his right hand forward. A projection immediately floated atop his palm.

"Originally, headquarters only planned for an equipment manufacturing and assembly plant to be set-up here. But thanks to the situation, I've been granted permission to build a medium-scale processor factory."

There was light at the end of the tunnel, and one could gain even in failure. It was during this situation that Emery finally understood the meaning of these statements.

"These are good, but we can't use them right away." Nolan sighed and shook his head.

If the Versailles Group was to make the announcement of finally constructing a manufacturing plant for processors in the city, there was no doubt that their stock price would rise a bit. However, it wouldn't affect the Silverine Factory, much less the Seven Stars Springs Dealership.

Also, it would still take some time for the factory to be built, and a lot can happen within this period.

"They also gave me this."

The image of the projection changed from a building to a square.

"This?"

"The Falcon X9 series chip."

Both Böjer and Nolan were stunned. Even Rajhan Khan's eyes flitted with surprise for a moment.

In order to better plan their movements, the members of the five-man coalition, bar Olaf, had deeply studied about each other. They had even gone as far as identifying the true potential and possible factors within the other's hands. In the case of the Versailles Group, their true potential was massive since this was just merely a branch. However, it was basically impossible for them to do so, as the headquarters wouldn't easily intervene in this matter. But they just did.

The Falcon X series was the premium grade stellar processor series of the Versailles Group headquarters. Although it wasn't their flagship product, it was a leading model in the premium category. The X9 was the current generation of the Falcon X series, and it was a very powerful chip. The benchmark ratings of the X9 already placed it on par, if not slightly ahead of the SS V1 chips.

It should be recalled that the SS V1 were modified Orion Cores —flagship stellar processors from Novanio Tech. Novanio Tech's Orion Core was basically the same as the Versailles Group's KY chips. The SS V1 chips had a 38% increase in performance compared to the latter two, and was able to dominate the ranks of the stellar processor market.

From this, one could see the value of the Falcon X9 series chip.

It was also important to note that the SS V1 stellar processors had one obvious weakness —limited supply. Ignoring the fact that it was discontinued after the breakdown of relations between Lucas and Novanio Tech, the production speed of the stellar processors depended on one man; and no matter what, one man couldn't compete with an entire production line. This flaw also applied to the unreleased Qin and Rain Dragon V1 stellar processors.

On the contrary, the Falcon X9 series could already be mass-produced.

It can be seen that once the Versailles Group announced that they would begin selling these chips, the entire market would go crazy.