Chapter 51 Bargaining

Amber Xiu and this guy were not old friends, but they had a debate about alchemy more than ten years ago. Then Amber Xiu discovered that there were people among humans who were scarier than his skull face.

It’s not that he is ugly. On the contrary, Gustavo Fring has regular features and is a very elegant and handsome old man.

But he has dark skin, and when he doesn't have any expression, he looks intimidating without even getting angry. There was once a scary rumor that a certain alchemist could have a heart attack just by staring at someone without saying a word.

Coupled with Gustavo Fring's strict and almost harsh requirements for alchemy, many alchemists who worked under him would tremble in their legs just by hearing his footsteps.

Many people have said privately that Gustavo Fring is a lich in human skin, which is why he has an aura of fear.

When Gustavo Flynn heard that Ambers offered 20 million, he decisively replied, "500,000."

"Eighteen million."

"Eight hundred thousand."

"One hundred and seventeen million nine hundred and ninety thousand."

"You're not interesting anymore."

"Who doesn't like it when they just cut two digits?"

…

The wrangling in front of the castle continued. The Alchemy City was now extremely poor. Twenty million gold coins was a huge ask from Amberxiu, but there was no way he could lower the price below one million gold coins. It would be better to turn Alan Watson into an undead.

The souls of the paladins who were loyal to the Lord of the Dawn were very valuable. Amber had seen someone in the Necromancer chat group buying the souls of paladins at high prices. If they were tortured and turned into vengeful spirits, they would be even more valuable, and could be sold for 700,000 or 800,000 gold coins.

"You should know that we can't spend tens of millions of gold coins to buy a holy warrior now."

Gustavo Flynn's expression remained unchanged, but his tone was already somewhat impatient.

Amber Xiu said sharply: "Then you should also know that an offer of hundreds of thousands of gold coins is also a waste of my time."

Gustavo Flynn said calmly, "A mere paladin is not worth even 100,000 gold coins. I am here today just to go through the motions. I will say at the diplomatic conference in the future that we have tried our best. It doesn't matter to me if we fail to reach an agreement."

Amber Xiu laughed and said mercilessly: "My old friend, stop hiding it. A mere paladin is meaningless to you, but the goodwill of the Ryan Empire is very important to you. You are about to lose control of the things in the sewer, right?"

Amber's words made Gustavo Flynn's face change. He asked in a deep voice: "How much do you know?"

"Not much, but I am sure that things are beyond your control. So, when the prices of magic materials in Silvermoon High Court were wildly raised, you couldn't spare the time to negotiate with the group of high elves. You have even decided to seek external help, and the Ryan Empire is your partner, and the paladin Alan Watson is the best premise for cooperation.

"My dear Master Flynn, please stop trying to cheat me. When it comes to money, I won't give in even if the God of Alchemy comes. Show me your sincerity."

Gustavo Flynn was silent for a long time, then he said with a resigned expression, "You are indeed a genius who was personally invited by the president to join the Alchemist Council. If you had agreed to join, perhaps..."

Amber Xiu hurriedly shook his head and said, "Don't think about the past. Not to mention that the old president just wrote me a letter, even if he came to invite me personally, I would not join the Alchemist Council. I am not crazy yet, and I have no interest in blasphemy. Hurry up and make an offer, otherwise I will turn that paladin into a zombie. He has almost bankrupted me these days."

Gustavo Fring's face twitched. This lich was really shameless.

"You know very well that I did not exaggerate the economic difficulties of Alchemy City. It is impossible for us to give you 20 million gold coins."

Hearing the other party's tone soften, Amber Xiu quickly said: "I know, I won't make it difficult for you. How about 10,000 firepower-enhanced magic puppets for 10 million gold coins?"

After hearing this, Gustavo Flynn said angrily, "And then let you make 90 million gold coins for nothing? How dare you ask that."

A lowest-level version of a magic puppet costs three thousand gold coins. The firepower-enhanced model is a high-end product, and each one costs at least ten thousand gold coins. This lich asked for one hundred million gold coins, and only deducted ten million gold coins. This is not robbery, this is looting, and the intention is to dig up the roots of the Alchemy City.

"You're the one who said you don't have money, so I can only ask for goods. Aren't puppets the best-selling items in Alchemy City?"

Gustavo Flynn said firmly: "No matter how poor you are, you can't sell the puppets as scrap metal. Don't even think about it. And you don't have workers to maintain the puppets. Buying so many of them is just a large decoration."

"Well, for the sake of our friendship, I have a win-win suggestion. You don't have to spend a single gold coin, and you don't have to give me anything in kind, and I will hand Alan Watson over to you."

Gustavo Flynn frowned and said, "You... want the formula for the alchemical potion?"

Amber gave a thumbs up and said, "Smart, isn't this a win-win situation? You don't have to spend a penny, just copy some information for me, and then you can get this important political bargaining chip. However, it's not just the potion."

Amber took out a piece of parchment and drew a circle on it with his fingers. The parchment automatically folded into a little bird, flapping its wings and flew to Gustavo Flynn.

Gustavo Fring took it, unfolded it, and frowned even deeper.

"The original body of the bone virus, the blueprints of the magic airship, the formula of the living mercury solution, the formula of the explosive potion... Do you know what you wrote? The total value of these formulas and blueprints is more than 10,000 magic puppets!"

Amber's list is very dense, with more than a hundred items listed.

Amber said: "But you don't need to pay for these things in kind, just share the knowledge with me."

“Knowledge is the most valuable thing!”

There is no mistake in the poem, post, content, and read the book on 6, 9, and bar!

"Don't worry, I won't sell these formulas and drawings to anyone else. We can sign a contract, and I promise that I will only use them for my own research." Amber Xiu promised.

Gustavo Flynn sneered and said, "Of course you won't sell the formula, but you will sell the finished product! Do you think I don't know what you are thinking?"

Amber Xiu did not hide it, but said frankly: "Of course I will make products to sell, but there are so many laboratories in the Alchemy City. In terms of cost advantage, can you lose to a small workshop like mine? We are both selling finished products, so you should be very confident in the price war."

Gustavo Flynn did not answer this question. For the same product, Alchemy City could certainly lower the cost, but they did not want to. Exclusive business could earn ten times more, so why would they have to lower the price when there was another competitor? Even if Amber's output could not meet the market demand, handing over the formula was equivalent to handing over the goose that laid the golden eggs.

But Gustavo Flynn couldn't find a better choice. The only thing that the Alchemy City could offer now was the knowledge accumulated over countless years.

This lich is still so difficult to deal with. When the president personally wrote a letter to invite Amber to join the Alchemist Council, Gustavo Flynn thought that the president was a little too flattering. Now think about it, if he had pulled him in at all costs, perhaps the Alchemy City would not have fallen into the current situation of being trapped both internally and externally.

"Recipe trading is fine, but there are too many. You can only choose three at most from this list."

Although Gustavo Fring was relieved, he still made a ruthless move. Hundreds of formulas and drawings were reduced to three with just one sentence.

"Can you be a little more sincere? I can give you a zero for the 132 recipes. Just 130."

…

The two of them started bargaining again.

In the end, Amber sold Alan Watson to the City of Alchemy for thirty formulas and drawings, and forced the Iron Slag Embers bar on Gustavo Flynn, and asked for two more formulas.

At least the price of 132 copies was reduced to 32 copies. Although Gustavo Flynn didn't want the Iron Slag Bar, he could only reluctantly agree seeing that Amber was firm in his position.

"I'll release you immediately once you bring me what I want," said Amber Xiu.

Gustavo Flynn shook his head at this time and said, "No, not so fast. I still need you to cooperate in a play about Alan Watson."

(End of this chapter)