Chapter 366: Should We Absorb the Goblin Chamber of Commerce?

The top three grain seeds have entered the peer-review stage; in the next planting season, peers will form a review panel to reproduce the planting data of those grain seeds.

Du Binqi knew he was done for—without a doubt, his grain seeds would receive special attention, and the peer review was practically aimed at him.

Seeing Ange's data could be reproduced, and even showed increased yield—the entire operation was carried out within a simulation magic array, so the peers could simply run it again.

But his planting data couldn't be reproduced, and his yield had dropped. If everyone had a reduced yield, and Seeing Ange's drop was greater than his, it wouldn't matter—reasonable fluctuation, after all.

But the problem now was that only he had a reduced yield, while Seeing Ange's had increased. And since he was the one who initiated the simulated showdown, he would certainly face stricter review—equivalent to picking up a stone and smashing his own foot with it, bang bang bang.

Although the results of the peer review would only come out after the next planting season, Du Binqi knew he was done for. Peer review is troublesome and costly—if no one raises objections to the data, it won't be conducted.

After all, when you get down to it, the true purpose of the Grain Seed Competition is to find high-yield grain seeds, not to determine rankings. If the first place has high yield, does that mean the second place's yield isn't high?

Perhaps the grain seeds ranked lower, because they didn't pursue extreme yields, are more outstanding in other characteristics and have greater promotional value—such as drought resistance, flood resistance, low-temperature resistance, acid-alkali resistance, resistance to bratty children, and so on.

At least in Seeing Ange's eyes, the swamp rice adapted to swamp environments was more valuable than Du Binqi's high-yield rice.

When all is said and done, the Grain Seed Competition is meant to find 'more' high-yield grain seeds, not the 'most' grain seeds. Therefore, as long as no one who placed raises objections, peer review won't be conducted.

Alright, now someone has raised doubts about the data. Once the review results come out next year, Du Binqi will be done for—though right now his results aren't much better either.

The final rankings will be based on the virtual showdown.

"Champion, Salty Fish Team, yield of 1,750 jin per mu; Runner-up, Elf Sapling Team, 1,220 jin; Third place, Master Du Binqi's Team, 1,170 jin."

"Thank you, masters, for bringing us a wonderful performance and high-yield grain seeds. The world is more wonderful with you."

"The XXth Grain Seed Competition has now concluded perfectly. Please exit in an orderly fashion. Don't rush or push, don't shove women and children, observe order. You bastard in the right-side stands—push again and I'll throw you out."

Seeing Ange received his champion prizes: a badge with its own spatial storage, a box containing specimen collections of grain seeds from previous competitions, and a magic crystal card from the Mages' Guild with a face value of one thousand magic crystals.

The badge was very simple—an imprint combining the characters 'grain' and 'champion', symbolizing the champion ranking of the Grain Seed Competition. It had great commemorative value, but the built-in spatial storage was rather lackluster—any random spatial accessory Seeing Ange owned had more space than it.

The Mages' Guild magic crystal card is a fixed-denomination, unregistered card; anyone holding the card can exchange it for magic crystals of equal denomination at any Mages' Guild in any city.

Champion gets one thousand, runner-up five hundred, third place three hundred, the rest one hundred.

Seeing Ange naturally looked down on these one thousand-odd magic crystals, but for the participating teams like the Southern Hedgehog-people, it was no small sum—they were so happy they went and bought another pair of shoes.

Seeing Ange didn't care for the badge or the magic crystal card, but he was super fond of the grain seed collection. These bound specimen volumes of grain seeds, with only three to five grains of each type, were originally meant as keepsakes and weren't worth much, but collecting such a complete set was very difficult.

Moreover, the grain seed specimens were all alive and could be planted, so Seeing Ange tore the specimen collection apart right away, found a plot of land in his spatial storage, and planted them separately.

After a bout of rapid death, Seeing Ange had gained a large batch of high-yield grain seeds.

These were the rewards on the surface; some hidden benefits soon came knocking—commercial cooperation.

"Vice President Stensen of the Goblin Chamber of Commerce has come to pay a visit." Upon returning to the Death Star Tower, someone was already waiting there and handed their business card to the undead maid, hoping to visit Seeing Ange and his party.

"Goblin Chamber of Commerce? Probably here to discuss commercial cooperation. Perfect, let me go meet them." The Bronze Dragon rubbed his fists in anticipation.

Seeing Ange shook his head, closed his eyes for a moment, took out the Scepter of Heaven and opened a teleportation gate. Before long, Silver Coin walked out of the light gate with an expression of disbelief.

"Wow, that's amazing. I first stepped through a light gate to the Heaven Realm, then stepped back through the light gate and arrived here. What's the principle behind it?" Silver Coin said in astonishment.

Lord Nai Ge said listlessly: "Just a transfer. There's a goblin from the Chamber of Commerce here to discuss cooperation—you go handle it."

Lord Nai Ge was deflated. Seeing Ange would rather cross planes to summon Silver Coin back than let him handle it—his own talent in commerce had been completely ignored. Depressed.

"Oh, Goblin Chamber of Commerce? What kind of cooperation?" Silver Coin's eyes lit up as he rubbed his fists and asked.

Lord Nai Ge explained the situation, and Silver Coin quickly grasped the key point: "Our goal is to promote new grain seeds? Then profit isn't the first consideration—scale is. In that case, we can't cooperate with the Goblin Chamber of Commerce. Those damned goblins only have eyes for gold coins."

Silver Coin said indignantly, completely forgetting that he himself was also a goblin.

"We can't just cooperate with them. We need to bring in more partners. Let me think—where is the profit margin we can offer our partners? Is there policy support?"

"Yes there is. Lord Anthony has already taken control of two major parishes? That's fantastic—then we have more bargaining chips. We can offer policy tilts and targeted subsidies, and for those who don't cooperate or listen, we can audit their taxes."

Silver Coin muttered a stream of self-talk that made Lord Nai Ge break out in a cold sweat. Depressed—when it comes to this kind of scheming, goblins really are the professionals.

"Alright, I know what to do. I'll go meet the people from the Goblin Chamber of Commerce now. What's the goblin from the Chamber of Commerce called? Let me see if I know him." Silver Coin asked, rubbing his fists.

"Stensen? Oh ho, an old acquaintance! He went to the Goblin Chamber of Commerce? That's great—I have absolutely no psychological burden about screwing him over." Silver Coin rubbed his fists so hard his palms were almost worn raw, showing just how frustrated he'd been in the Fallen Land, with all his swindling skills going unused.

Many people had forgotten about this Stensen, but Silver Coin had not. Back when he returned with the Sacred Essence Liquid and reorganized the caravan, this Stensen had relied on his elven channels and directly withdrew from the chamber of commerce.

Unexpectedly, Silver Coin later leveraged the World Tree sapling to monopolize trade with the elves, cutting off Stensen's business opportunities. Who would have thought he'd actually joined the Goblin Chamber of Commerce.

The so-called Vice President of the Goblin Chamber of Commerce was merely a face-saving title—the Chamber had several hundred vice presidents; anyone who could put together an independent caravan could be one.

For this kind of loose commercial alliance, what truly holds value is supply, market, pricing power, information, and so on.

Silver Coin chatted with Stensen for two hours. When he left, Stensen looked as though he'd lost a parent, on the verge of tears: "Damned goblins, only have eyes for gold coins."

Silver Coin came back smiling, like a fox that had stolen a chicken.

Lord Nai Ge asked in a sour mood: "What results did you get from the talk? Smiling like that?"

Silver Coin hurriedly said: "No, no, I was just thinking about something else. Didn't Lord Anthony say last time that the exclusive grain distribution rights were given to me? I was wondering—should we absorb the Goblin Chamber of Commerce?"

PS: Still typing, don't even know if I can finish it.