Mass can neither be created nor destroyed. I wondered how such a rule worked when you were bringing something from one universe over to another. For all I knew, every atom of gold or dinosaur bone I brought was throwing my universe into greater disarray. That was only a mild worry for me. If there was going to be some strange reaction, I figured it would have already happened. Maybe it had something to do with those strange energy crystals that were consumed during transfer, but I didn’t know enough about it to say one way or the other.
On the other hand, I was much more worried about someone eventually questioning where I was getting all of these resources. For the moment, Lily and Mizuki were covering for me, but I knew there would eventually be a limit for me coming up with random gold, jewelry, or dinosaur bones. Eventually, someone would start to wonder where they were all coming from, and that would lead back to me. After reading a bit more about marketing, I understood that the only way to truly make money stably was to have a plan.
Mizuki had been telling me this since she started helping me with my business. She wanted to know what my plan was to make money, and so far, my only plan had been to continue to collect goods I could sell in the apocalyptic world. The products I brought to the apocalyptic world were consumed by the masses. This worked because few people questioned where the food came from. Even in my world, people never really wondered how food was made, they just ate it.
Unfortunately, in my world, I realized I couldn’t depend on bringing goods over. I had to come up with something else, something more personal. That’s why I thought about porting some technology over from this world to my own. I had wanted to do that from the beginning, but I didn’t have the understanding or know-how to do that without exposing myself. I needed someone who knew enough about technology from both worlds that they could tell me what I could and could not get away with.
There was no way I was going to bring someone from my world to the apocalyptic world, even if I could. Instead, it was better to get someone with technical know-how from this world, and slowly introduce them to my technology. I’d then get them to adapt this world’s technology to work with our world. Where would be a better way to start that with software? It held no physical space, and no one could necessarily prove I didn’t develop it. With the company as a front, we could distribute some kind of killer app and I could wrack in a ton of money. That was what I was thinking.
Tom had given me the three folders, and I spent time looking over each of them. I was interested in all three of them, but this programmer naturally held more interest to me than any of the others, because that was the means I could start growing my business from my world. When I saw the cost, it caused me to whistle. These three skilled laborers had accumulated a lot of debt. Combined, it was around 4000 large crystals. It was clear why no one had paid their way out of the debt sooner. Even a slave wouldn’t be worth 1/10th of that.
Unfortunately, I wouldn’t have even had enough for that. I had almost no crystals left. We only had a few dozen crystals gathered from the fallen ferals during the feral attacks. The rest I had given up for that Perco, those crystals had subsequently been destroyed along with everything else by Hazel in that psychic storm.
All of my wealth in this world came in the security droids, the power generators, and the food that was left over. Even the food was starting to run low, as I stopped having Mizuki send shipments of food while the security stuff was there.
“If you give me a day, I will get you enough food to cover the 4000 large crystals. At that point, you can buy them and bring them back to me…” Before I had even finished my offer, he was already shaking his head.
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“First things first, my rounds usually take me a month. I’m only back here so soon because the mayor of the Rink had paid me extra to return early. I have some contacts who have gone five or six weeks without seeing my caravan, and are likely becoming worried.” As he spoke, he lifted one finger.
“A month…” I spoke dryly.
A month before he returned wouldn’t do. Just how much could happen in a month? Everything I had built up until now had happened over a month and a half. It was hard to believe that so little time had passed since I had come to this world. He lifted a second finger.
“Secondly, I am a trade caravan, not a broker. I will trade goods with you, but selling your food, raising large crystals to buy off personnel? I apologize, but that isn’t a responsibility I care to take on for me or my personnel. However, the number of goods you’d need to bring to raise 4000 large crystals would be substantial, far more than I’m used to carrying in my caravan. You would likely need to trade at both the Rink and the Twin Elms to raise it all as well. I wouldn’t assume that much risk even if it was pure profit.”
Of course, he was right. I had become so used to people like Lily and Mizuki bending over backward to help me that I realized I was expecting a bit much from Tom. Even returning here so many times in short succession could be considered a boon. Most of his profits were likely on the other side of Argos city, considering the Rink’s size wasn’t that great and our demand was rather low.
“Third.” He held up a third finger. “The contract has to be signed by the person honoring it. I can’t accept a contract on your behalf. You’d be required to be there physically so that they are properly registered to you.”
“Be there!” This was the first time I had exclaimed, nearly standing up. “Ah… I have to go to Twin Elms?”
“If you wish to claim the contracts of these three skilled workers, you would have to go there yourself.” He responded calmly.
I clicked my tongue in irritation as I sat back down. Jacques even was going to be in a week, so I had time to make the trip. The path to the Rink by the old route took about a day, while the Rink to Twin Elms took two days. That meant that at best, it was a six-day journey. I had just enough time to make the trip before Jacques’s deadline. Of course, I could always walk there and then use Kiera to teleport back, but who would bring back the laborers safely? If even one of them died on the journey, it would be a thousand large crystals I wouldn’t get back.
“I guess I have no choice.” I finally declared after thinking about it for a bit.
“My caravan plans to set out in the morning. If you’d like, you may travel with us.” Tom declared.
I smiled lopsidedly. “And what would you get out of it?”
Tom chuckled. “You’re learning. There is nothing in this world for free. Even my help has come with the hope of establishing a profitable trade relationship with your new bazaar in the future. As for the cost of traveling with me, I naturally hope that you bring along one of your security droids and perhaps a few guards. I’ll be honest when I say that on the way down, I was warned that there was an increase in mutant activity along the route. We didn’t encounter anything on the way there, but that doesn’t mean there might not be something on the way back. Normally, I’d go a different route which would add a day to my travel, but with extra security, I’d rather save the time. I wouldn’t even wait until the morning if I wasn’t worried about safety.”
“I see…” I gave a small nod. “Then, I will bring a droid along. I also have an idea of who I will bring with me.”
I was going to bring the Fire Ravens with me. At the moment, they would be confused for raiders and shot. That’s exactly why I felt I needed to bring them. Traveling as guards to a caravan, they would be overlooked, and once their faces were seen in Twin Elms and the Rink, their status as raiders would start to diminish. It’d be able to effectively use them in the future, instead of depending on Katarina. Furthermore, I was a bit hesitant to admit it, but I sort of missed traveling with them. They were a bit refreshing to hang out with. Katarina could be a bit uptight, and Red still didn’t have my trust.
With that, I decided on taking my longest journey in the wasteland yet. I’d be visiting Twin Elms.