I Will Teach You How to Hunt Gods

Chapter 554 141: Reversal (4,200 Words)_2

Even so, the factory owner dared to demand a sky-high price of 600 million, and was unwilling to budge.

At that time, Yang Qian had almost exhausted his acquisition budget, and he couldn't come up with the 600 million. In desperation, he made a phone call to the Collection Clan, summoning a group of people to solve the problem.

As for how it was solved... don't ask, if asked, it was through friendly communication. As for the few broken corpses that suddenly appeared in the suburbs, they probably accidentally fell to their deaths...

In short, under Yang Qian's arrangement, the Gunman Group once again expanded its product production scale and introduced new promotional policies... After a round of operations, Mokaka's support rate dropped again to 50%, while Shen Ye rose to 48%.

"Clan leader, if the trend of increase and decrease continues, it will take at most a day for Shen Ye to overtake Mokaka!"

Inside the Gunman Building, Enfield was holding his phone with a proud smile, reporting to the Clan Leader Springfield.

A few days ago, Winchester was killed, which cast a considerable shadow over the Collection Clan, making the atmosphere in the clan extremely heavy for a time.

Their loss was too great, and they couldn't abandon it because of the existence of the Saint's Remains...

If they couldn't win this relic in the end, the entire Collection Clan might decline and eventually become ordinary people.

For the nobility, decline is more terrifying than death.

"Alright, don't get too complacent."

On the other end of the phone, Springfield remained calm as always.

"We invested hundreds of billions, this is the deserved return."

"I just can't figure it out, we've clearly invested billions in advertising to the civilians in the Lower District, why is the effect so weak? We can't even get 10% of the civilian vote."

"Does Mokaka really have some special brainwashing ability, so she can make civilians so loyal to her?"

This matter was something Springfield couldn't quite understand.

Yes, Mokaka's policy proposals were indeed friendly to civilians, but there had been similar candidates in the past.

Those candidates said nice things, but once in office, they always betrayed the civilians, turning to support the oligarchs.

Civilians should have been used to this, so why were they willing to believe in Mokaka this time? He recalled that the little girl hadn't even shown her face in public.

"It seems to be because a guy called the 'Mentor' has recently appeared in the Lower City, quietly helping Mokaka promote her cause, calling on civilians to resist us..."

Enfield rubbed his chin and whispered: "That person is elusive, our informants have never seen him, but he should exist. Otherwise, he wouldn't have such a great reputation in the Lower City."

"But I don't think it matters... the civilian voter base is large, but their vote weight is the lowest. The reason Mokaka is leading is mainly because quite a few Mercenaries secretly support her. As long as we win over these Mercenaries, Shen Ye will surely take the lead."

Springfield nodded.

"Do as you see fit."

"However, the clan's funds are a bit tight lately, all used for rallying reinforcements. Once your election ends, quickly raise the prices of the Phase Shield and Exoskeleton, and recover some funds..."

"Yes!"

Enfield nodded hurriedly, then hung up the phone and continued to monitor the election rates.

Neither he nor Springfield realized...

A storm targeting the Gunman Technology, and even the entire Collection Clan, was slowly brewing...

...

Lower City, H District, a bustling Mercenary bar.

Mercenaries in any era had only two favorite places: a bar and a brothel.

Even in these restless times, their tastes have not changed.

In the dimly lit bar, a group of burly men was gathered together in clusters, and the ordinary Mercenary Li San was among them.

Li San was well equipped, with chips, firearms, arm guards, and wristbands, almost armed to the teeth.

And a closer look showed that most of this equipment was products of the Huangxing Group.

Obviously, he also supported the Huangxing Group.

But that was in the past.

Now, he wasn't sure who to vote for.

Huangxing Group's equipment was good, and their discounts were generous enough, and the Mokaka they supported seemed to be a decent leader, but...

Mercenaries were ultimately pragmatic, supporting whoever benefitted them, it was very simple.

And now, the discounts offered by Gunman Technology were just too great, no matter how much he wanted to support Mokaka, he had to weigh it carefully.

"Hey, Old Li San, why haven't you placed your order?"

A nearby mercenary noticed the Gunman product shopping link on Li San's phone screen and said with a smile: "If you don't place the order and vote soon, once the time is up, you won't get such a good deal."

"Although that girl Mokaka looks good and may become a good mayor, as for the future... who can say for sure? She might just die at the hands of some psychotic Gunman right after taking office. It's not like it hasn't happened before; wasn't the mayor called 'Kagatury' a hundred years ago killed in such a way?"

He patted Li San on the shoulder and joked: "So, we should just live our own little lives, let them fight it out up there."

"If those above are willing to drop some benefits, we'd catch them. If they aren't willing to offer anything, then we just keep our mouths shut and stay silent, so we can live longer."

Hearing this reassurance, Li San calmed down a lot and nodded.

What his companion said made sense, he was just a mercenary. Talking about noble ideals after becoming a mercenary was like taking off one's pants to fart, entirely pointless.

With this in mind, Li San opened the voting interface, hesitated for a moment, and was ready to cast his ballot for Shen Ye.

"Wait!"

But just then, a shout came from within the crowd.

"Everyone hold on! Don't rush to vote!"

"Take a look at this first!"

After these words were spoken, the speaker raised a tablet computer high up.

And on that tablet-sized screen, a live broadcast was playing.

A blonde girl very familiar to the mercenaries stood on a black stage akin to a "press conference," smiling at the audience.

"Ladies and gentlemen."

"At this year-end moment, I, Aurora Miles, CEO of Huangxing Group, am honored to announce to you all——"

"The new products of our group are officially on sale!"

"Our new products are twofold, they are..."

The latter words were lost to Li San due to the bar's noise.

However, like most mercenaries, upon learning of this news, he couldn't wait to open the official shop of Huangxing Group, and then...

Then they saw the functional description of those two new products, and... the discount prices were so exaggerated that they couldn't even imagine it.

A Strong Shield Penetrator that could easily tear through most Energy Shields, which didn't need charging deliberately, and could recharge simply by occasional sun exposure, was priced at just 99,000!

And... a true Combat Armor for individual soldiers, which far surpassed the Exoskeleton of the Gunman Group, both in equipment and software performance.

Compared to this fully-covered armor, the Exoskeleton was simply unworthy of being called "armor"!

More crucially, during the promotional period, the combat armor was priced at only 360,000, just a thousand more than the Exoskeleton...

Furthermore, Huangxing Group had added an extra intelligent auxiliary system to the armor, not particularly strong, but at least better than the Gunman's Exoskeleton.

These two pieces of equipment never mentioned the Gunman Group, nor claimed to wage commercial war, but every word directly targeted the Gunman, as if saying...

"The things you're selling are just pure... industrial waste!"

Li San stared blankly at these two new products. His body involuntarily pressed the purchase button and quickly bought a complete set before he even reacted.

It was only when the payment confirmation sound popped up that he returned to his senses and sighed softly, though a smile surfaced on his face.

He knew that this time, the Gunman Group was going to be in trouble.

In a situation where the products of the two companies were not comparable, the mercenaries as customers would only make the right choice.

And at this moment, Enfield, who was at the Gunman Company Building in the B District, hadn't realized the severity of the problem yet.

He only watched the support rate of the election one-sidedly, dreaming of the rewards he would get after succeeding...