Heroes' Prison

Chapter 413 - 403

The competition for oceanic dominance had thus begun; from the Sun Guild’s previous monopoly to multiple guilds vying for supremacy. Despite this, the Sun Guild’s early advantage was difficult to surpass, and their position as the frontrunner remained unshakable.

The Martial Arts Guild’s sudden intrusion caught the Hero Guild off guard, but soon after, the Hero Guild counterattacked, loudly announcing its Oceanic Airship project and once again shocking the world.

This Oceanic Airship belonged to an entirely different realm, shifting the battleground from the vast oceans to the even more immense expanse of the sky!

The announcement from the Hero Guild sent the capital markets into a frenzy. Major financial institutions took action, seeking to negotiate with Huang Yi’s Hero Guild for a stake. These dealings were arranged by a shell company, allowing Huang Yi to remain blissfully hands-off.

That day, the Hero Guild listed on the stock market lightning-fast, choosing the United States—a region with the freest securities trading!

In 2110, the United States enacted the "New Securities Trading Law," making the securities market incredibly liberal. Listing rules and industry standards within the securities market underwent significant changes, much simpler than the complexities of the securities market from over a hundred years ago. This made it a paradise for the capital world, with companies from all nations eager to list there.

Another interesting piece of news was that the Martial Arts Guild, led by Miyamoto Musashi, also chose to go public on the same day, in the United States as well!

That morning, Huang Yi calmly finished his breakfast, his mood unchanged, and logged on as usual to find out the specifics of the listing. The effort of the recent period was about to show results.

Upon entering the forum, Huang Yi indeed saw widespread news of the Hero Guild and Martial Arts Guild going public.

"Today, the capital market welcomes two behemoth ships to its shores, as Hero and Martial Arts, two super Guilds, list! As of press time, Hero Guild’s market value stands at One Trillion US Dollars, second only to Sun Guild, and Martial Arts Guild is valued at Seven Hundred Billion US Dollars."

"With the help of the Dragon Fang Battleship and Oceanic Airship, Hero Guild’s market value far surpasses that of Martial Arts Guild. The outcome of the upcoming competition will be key to future stock prices!"

"Many high-profile players favor Hero Guild! United States’ leading player Kid, India’s leading player Ganges, one of Germany’s top two players Chariot, and France’s number one player Eiffel have all invested in Hero Guild stock."

...

Huang Yi quickly skimmed through the trending posts, gleaning plenty of information just from the headlines. Without a doubt, the most exciting part for him was Hero Guild’s market value breaking through the One Trillion US Dollars mark! It meant his net worth had skyrocketed to over a hundred billion US Dollars overnight, as he held a 10% stake in Hero Guild’s listing!

If he sold this 10% share, given the current stock price, he could pocket two hundred billion in cash, becoming overnight wealthy by the IPO like most tycoons.

Huang Yi opened the top post to read further.

"Today, under the leadership of God of Slaughter and Miyamoto Musashi, the Hero Guild and Martial Arts Guild respectively go public in the United States, bringing two behemoth ships to this year’s stock market. With the recent introduction of the Dragon Fang Battleship and the globally shocking Oceanic Airship plan, Hero Guild successfully raised its valuation to One Trillion US Dollars. Upon opening today, Hero Guild’s stock shines with a 0.4% increase as of press time, showing a promising trend."

"Miyamoto Musashi’s Martial Arts Guild also performed well, though not as remarkable as Hero Guild, with a valuation of Seven Hundred Billion US Dollars. As of press time, its stock rose 0.1%, maintaining a steady momentum. Among the four major listed Guilds worldwide, Sun Guild holds the highest market value of One Trillion One Hundred Billion US Dollars, followed by Hero Guild, with Martial Arts Guild in third place. Hall of Famous Generals, initially the most promising and the first to go public, has fallen and now sits at a market value of Four Hundred Billion US Dollars, ranking last among the Four Great Guilds."

"In terms of shareholding structure, God of Slaughter, President of Hero Guild, owns 10%, Vice-President Qin Shiyu owns 5%, and the remaining high-ranking guild members jointly own 5%, with a total internal shareholding of 20%! The largest shareholder of Hero Guild includes Blue Ocean Consortium, Tian Yu’s Investment, Leading Stocks, and other top ten financial institutions. They participated in several rounds of financing before Hero Guild went public, holding a collective 50%, becoming the biggest winners of the IPO. The remaining 30% of Hero Guild’s shares are more dispersed, belonging to small shareholders at retail level."

"On the Martial Arts Guild side, forced by the pressure from Hero Guild, Miyamoto Musashi had no choice but to go public to maximize financing, with him and the Martial Arts Guild leadership retaining only a 10% stake. The real owners of the Guild are now the multitude of small shareholders and individual investors, scattered ownership that could pose a risk of a hostile takeover in the future."

After reading these segments, Huang Yi shook his head with a smile. Outsiders would never know the real deal about Hero Guild. On the surface, his 10% stake, Qin Shiyu’s 5%, and the Guild’s 5% elite accounted for a total of 20%—all of which he had control over, as they were his own people.

But in reality, he had kept a trick up his sleeve; the 50% shares held by the ten financial institutions of Blue Ocean Consortium, Tian Yu’s Investment, and Leading Stocks also belonged to him!

These ten investment institutions were secretly controlled by his organization, effectively making them insiders, unbeknownst to outsiders.

In essence, Huang Yi had control over 70% of the shares, with only 30% actually in the public domain. However, this approach had a downside: actual fundraising was limited, resulting in a less than substantial sum of money raised.

In short, their Guild, despite being valued at one trillion US Dollars, only released 30% of its shares to raise money.

Meanwhile, the Martial Arts Guild was the one to truly carry out massive financing. Even though their total market value was lower than that of the Hero Guild, they sold up to 90% of their shares, securing a large amount of capital to develop the Guild. They had much more cash in hand than Huang Yi did.

The reason Huang Yi did this was that he wanted to retain the majority of the Hero Guild’s shares to ensure greater flexibility in the future.

Following that, Huang Yi continued to read the subsequent content of the post.

"Now that the public listing procedures of the Four Great Guilds have been finalized, it seems we can anticipate that their focus will soon shift to the upcoming martial arts tournament. The martial arts tournament will be a touchstone, greatly influencing stock prices. If any Guild among those listed wins the championship in either the individual or team events, their stock prices will soar. And with the martial arts tournament set to commence in just three days, let’s wait and see!"

Huang Yi indeed needed to concentrate on the martial arts tournament. He had been busy with the Guild’s listing recently, but now that it had come to a close, he didn’t need to put much thought into it anymore. The martial arts tournament was where he would truly shine.

...

Huang Yi entered The Second World and appeared in his residence.

As soon as he stepped out, a small figure who had been waiting for a long time rushed into his embrace—it was none other than Xiao Chunzi.

"Brother, we have winter vacation now!" Xiao Chunzi’s cheerful voice rang out, her little face turned rosy from the biting cold wind, looking exceptionally adorable.

"Then play to your heart’s content! You seem to have grown a bit taller than half a year ago." Huang Yi touched Xiao Chunzi’s head and felt it was quite different. His eyes unintentionally glanced over and noticed that Xiao Chunzi’s chest was also starting to protrude. She didn’t fabricate her appearance and used her real-life looks, so her physical characteristics in the real world were synchronized in The Second World.

"Of course! I’ll be grown up soon, and then I won’t be the little kid you see me as! I’m going to wear mini skirts and black stockings, I’ll make you fall head over heels for me~" Xiao Chunzi looked up at Huang Yi, her eyes suddenly flashing with a hint of shyness.

Huang Yi was taken aback for a moment. It was the first time he saw a glint in Xiao Chunzi’s eyes that didn’t seem to match her age. She had always been boisterous around him, but now there was a hint of girlishness in her manner.

It seemed her growth wasn’t limited to her body, but also to her mindset.

Next, Huang Yi took Xiao Chunzi to the top floor of City Hall. With the listing taking place today, Qin Shiyu probably had some things to discuss with him.

As expected, as soon as they reached the top level of City Hall, Qin Shiyu was already waiting there.

"Sister Xiao Yu." At that moment, Xiao Chunzi saw Qin Shiyu and politely greeted her, rushing over to her side and hugging her affectionately.

"Xiao Chunzi is back! Still as cute as ever!" Qin Shiyu bent down and pinched Xiao Chunzi’s cheeks.

After the two of them played for a bit, Qin Shiyu stood up and began discussing business with Huang Yi.

"Brother Yi!" Qin Shiyu looked at Huang Yi with a smile and said, "Now that we’re listed, we have hundreds of billions of US dollars to utilize, which will allow for a period of rapid development. We’re already starting to expand the shipyard’s scale and are also establishing our overseas bases on some islands we’ve discovered abroad."

"When establishing the overseas bases, try to pick locations that are farther away from the Sun Guild, so as not to overlap with their coverage areas," Huang Yi nodded, expressing his agreement. It would be quite a shock to the outside world if they knew the Sun Guild and the Hero Guild were actually on the same side.

"Also, regarding the martial arts tournament, our Seed Team has now been assembled. Led by Sunset’s Battlefield Group and selecting elites from Knight’s Instance Group and Overlord’s Adventure Group, we’ve formed a 500-player Seed Contestant Team named Heroes’ Guild, comprising the strongest players among our Guild’s ten-plus million members. Moreover, our Guild has constructed twenty thousand teams to participate in the competition following a union of the strong. Among these, the top-ranked teams have a good chance of breaking into the top 1024 of the group competition."

"That’s excellent. Now all we have to do is wait for the martial arts tournament to start!" Huang Yi nodded with anticipation and said.(To be continued. If you like this work, feel free to come to Starting Point (qidian.com) to cast your Recommendation Ticket and Monthly Tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.qidian.com to continue reading.)