Chapter 850: Savage Has Bad Luck (Part I)

Savage's plan to radiate the entire East District from the Living Hell, and even conquer Cat Getan, could be said to have its ups and downs.

After almost ruling the Living Hell, he started to expand his territory, wanting to cover his influence to the entire Pan-Living Hell area, but in this step, he encountered unprecedented difficulties.

These large gangs around seemed to have eyes on the back of their heads. Savage had any action, and they could discover it in the first time.

And they were also very despicable, cheating and sneak attacking all day long. Savage's cargo trucks were all intercepted by them, the informants sent out were all abducted by them, and even the arms dealers would be robbed.

Things had developed to this step, and Savage had already thrown in several million dollars, and he now also had a very solid base. It was impossible to let him give up now.

If there were no cargo trucks, then hire them at a high price, recruit people at a high price, buy weapons at a high price, and spend a high price to build a transport logistics security system.

The intelligence personnel sent out couldn't come back, then recruit them at a high price in the Living Hell, or spend money to buy off the newsboys outside.

The arms dealers couldn't come in, then find an intermediary at a high price. As long as it was a problem that could be solved with money, it wasn't a problem for Savage.

After throwing in quite a lot of money, Savage discovered that there was really progress. He expanded his scope of activities again, almost taking the entire area around the Living Hell into his pocket.

Just like this, as long as he spent money, there would be progress, but once there was a lack of capital investment, it would stop again. After repeating several times, Savage discovered that he had become a bit numb to the numbers of money spent.

Simply put, he had already been domesticated.

At the very beginning, he retreated a step in the face of Batman's military threat, feeling that he should avoid the edge for a while, everything was for greater interests, so he planned to change to another hotel.

But in the face of the hotel, he retreated another step, came to the East District and planned to rent a house. In the process of renting a house, in the face of the gangs guarding the Living Hell, he retreated another step, and then it was retreat after retreat.

In this process, it wasn't that he didn't realize what he had lost. For example, in fact, when the first newsboy found him and asked him to spend a high price to subscribe to newspapers and milk, he knew that he must have been slaughtered.

However, he calculated the gains and losses of interests related to his career into reality, although he didn't actually get anything, but his brain was telling him that his plan had moved forward a step.

This kind of progress was virtual, it was an illusion. He had actually spent money before getting actual progress. This was actually the first step of domestication.

After that, this domestication process was repeated. Every time, before Savage obtained actual progress, the actual money had already been spent. After that, he would obtain some actual progress, but these progress were not the same as what he imagined in his brain, and often would be much less than what he imagined in his brain.

First imagine, then spend money for the imagination in his brain, and then accept the reality that the actual situation was not as good as the imagination, and repeat this process many times, a kind of thinking process would be perfectly domesticated.

That is, I spend money for the imagination that cannot be realized in reality, and it is also spending money for myself. Then as long as I spend money for myself, it is a steady profit without loss.

And once the gap between imagination and reality is too large, and the final landing reality cannot meet the expectation in imagination, it will cause a kind of anxious emotion.

For example, after Savage ruled the gangs of the entire Living Hell, he discovered that the situation here was not satisfactory and could not provide as much help to his great cause as he imagined.

But after discovering this fact, he wouldn't choose to give up, but would plunge into this pit. No matter who persuaded him, he wouldn't be willing to leave.

On one hand, it was because of sunk costs, and on the other hand, it was because his thinking process had been domesticated, more single-threaded.

Repeatedly

Originally, the money paid and the actual results gained should be equivalent, but as long as imagination is mixed in, then even if they are not equivalent, people can find an excuse to convince themselves.

Savage paid a massive amount of money; if these funds were injected into an East Coast city slightly worse than Cat Getan, he might have already ruled the whole city by now, but as long as he adds his imagination of ruling all of Cat Getan to it, he will feel that the current expenditure is worth it.

Investment, return, and imagination are like three young men and women in a complex triangular relationship, where everyone looks at the others like a third party.

Whether the investment gets a return, whether the investment follows the imagination, and whether the return satisfies the imagination represent three different value judgments; as long as someone guides one of the links, they can distort values and blur gains and losses, thereby achieving the goal of deception.

When the domestication reaches the end, Savage cannot feel the loss; he can only understand how much the investment and return differ from the imagination, so he almost instinctively wants to invest in it.

To put it bluntly, this is a "pig-butchering" scam set up by the entire city of Cat Getan for Savage.

In a pig-butchering scam, victims will always instinctively invest large amounts of funds in the end, and even their closest relatives cannot persuade them otherwise, simply because their behavior and thinking patterns have been domesticated to be very solid.

Investment brings a little return, no investment brings nothing, and there is even a loss of principal and emotion; Savage has no other choice, he just wants to keep going until he turns the tables.

With his liquid funds hitting rock bottom, he began to sell off his collections; at first, he sold things that didn't have much collection value, such as modern cultural relics and artworks.

It is very strange that logistics vehicles and arms dealers cannot get in, but antique dealers can, and the new antique dealers are very sharp-tongued, cutting prices in half, and there is no room for bargaining—take it or leave it.

Savage wanted to pick one with a high price, but he found that the later they came, the lower the price; on the contrary, the first few antique dealers were quite sincere, although they also suppressed prices heavily, they indicated that they would buy in large quantities.

In the end, Savage still established cooperation with several of the antique dealers; they helped him distribute these artworks and collections, exchanging the collections in his hands for cash.

After selling a batch of collections and obtaining some liquid funds, Savage felt that he should first build a base capable of sustainable development and develop the commerce within the Living Hell area first.

Next came the cliché of throwing money to build shops, expanding transport routes, reducing warehouses and transfer points, recruiting people to open businesses, and implementing various policies to concentrate people here; Savage even came up with rent subsidies and exemptions just to strengthen the living forces here.

Perhaps many people know that the most profitable part of gang industry is not collecting protection fees on the spot, but smuggling; the cost of smuggling is low, but the output is high, and except for being relatively dangerous, there are almost no drawbacks.

Savage had no smuggling channels, and if he only relied on local industries, it meant he had to spend a lot of money like a normal enterprise to build a business district.

The population density of Living Hell is very high; if he wants to fully develop the commerce here, money flows out like water.

Savage's family fortune was quite thick; after selling off those less-than-decent collections, he took out some treasures to attract those antique dealers.

Savage originally wanted to let them bid, but he didn't expect that these antique dealers would collectively suppress prices as if they had agreed upon it; if you go low, I go even lower, completely indifferent to whether Savage sells or not.

Savage discovered that there was something strange about this, because if it were said that those mediocre collections couldn't fetch a high price, that would be one thing, but many of the things in his hands were works by famous masters.

This included many authentic works by famous painters, which are hard to find on the market, and some works would surely cause a global sensation as soon as they appeared, but these antique dealers acted as if they were blind, biting onto one price and refusing to let go.

It wasn't that Savage hadn't thought of other ways, such as going outside to find some formal art companies to go through the auction process, but if he did that, it would delay too much time; from appraisal to promotion to auction, it takes at least a year, and at most several years, which is only suitable for those wealthy people who are not short of money in the short term.

Of course, he could also directly contact those wealthy private buyers, but the problem is that no one vouches for him, and private buyers cannot determine the authenticity of these works.

Savage couldn't possibly go and tell them, "I've lived for fifty thousand years, and I picked this up casually at Michelangelo's sculpture site," could he? Even if he said it, the other party would definitely take him for a mental patient.

But going through appraisals is the same process as with art companies; if he wants to sell urgently, he has to accept price suppression. The antique dealers repeatedly instilled this concept into Savage, and in the end, he still had to sell his collections at a low price.

And the ones who bought these collections were the heads of the Twelve Families.

"I don't quite understand, Professor, why let the heads of the Twelve Families take over these collections? And at a relatively low price?"

In the office, Alberto looked at Shiler, who was standing in front of the whiteboard, and asked, with Bruce sitting on his left and Victor and Cobblepot on his right.

Shiler tapped the whiteboard with the pen in his hand and said, "What do you think the Twelve Families bought these products for?"

"Hmm..." Alberto thought for a moment and said, "The Falcone family also bought some; we mainly want to keep them for our own collection. After all, we also know that compared to many families with a long history, we lack foundation, and these true artworks, no matter what era they are in, as long as human civilization still exists, they will definitely have value."

"However..." Alberto changed his tone and said, "As far as I know, many people in the Twelve Families intend to wait for a high price to sell them. After all, the art investment market has been okay these past two years, and maybe it will be even hotter in the future. Getting these treasures at a low price now and selling them at a high price later, one could make money just by lying down."

Shiler nodded and then said, "Regardless of which one it is, I think they won't choose to sell in the short term, right?"

Alberto nodded and said, "Of course, anyway, I intend to keep them for my own collection. The heads of the Twelve Families will mostly keep the more precious ones for their own collection, and even if they want to sell them, they should look for an auction house. After going through the process, it will take at least a year or a half."

Shiler smiled and said, "That's enough."

"What do you mean?" Bruce looked at him and asked, "Why must you have the people of the Twelve Families buy these collections?"

"What does your current predicament of having no money stem from?" Shiler asked.

Bruce narrowed his eyes and asked, "Stem from what?"

"Actually, you are not short of money, just short of time." Shiler tapped the whiteboard again and said, "The strategy you adopted is to build everything before the gangs react, to avoid their extreme resistance; therefore, you need a large investment in a short time, which leads to a shortage of liquid funds."

"I have to do this," Bruce said. "Once the time drags on too long, after they react, they will inevitably assemble for armed resistance, and by then, the whole city will be dragged into war."

"But what if they voluntarily drag it out with you and give you time to make money?"

"How could they voluntarily drag it out with me?" Bruce thought for a moment and said, "The heads of the Twelve Families are not stupid. Once they discover that these renovation plans are actually digging at their foundations, they will immediately react."

"But at this time, your attitude is very important." Shiler looked at Bruce and said, "It seems you didn't listen well in your behavioral science class."

"What reaction they will have depends on what they think you want to do, and what they think you want to do depends on how you behave."