Chapter 419 – Costless Transaction Pt. 2
Suo Jia levelly replied, “It’s actually not much. I saw that there were so many piles of agate and sand accumulated on your island, taking up tons of space. As a result…I wanted to buy the agate and sand from you!”
“Oh!” The female pirate leader excitedly replied, “That’s what it was! Sure…we can just exchange on market value. As long as you give me the money, you can take away as much as you want. I have plenty!”
Suo Jia did not grow anxious at the female pirate chief’s words. He simply smiled and shook his head. “No, no, no. If that was the price, why would I come purchase from you pirates? If you don’t think it’s taking up space, then we can simply stop discussions.”
“That’s…” The female pirate leader hesitantly frowned and finally grew serious. She sat up and imposingly declared, “We can concede to a price. But I would like to know what kind of price would satisfy you!”
Suo Jia shook his head in response to the female pirate chief’s words. “No, I don’t plan on using money to buy it, since I don’t have much money at all.”
“Oh!” The female pirate chief scrutinized Suo Jia curiously, then dangerously narrowed her eyes as she coldly asked, “What? Don’t tell me you also want to use stealing like us pirates?”
“Haha…” Suo Jia chuckled and answered, “Not at all, you’re mistaken. I’m a merchant, not a pirate. Anything I want is obtained through transactions. In other words, I will use what you need the most to exchange for this agate and sand!”
The female pirate leader relaxed slightly at this response, leaning back against her chair. “Something as exchange? That’s fine too…but what do you plan on using for the transaction?”
Suo Jia smiled at the female pirate chief. “That’s not up to me. Only you would know what you require the most. As long as it’s a demand, I will help procure it as a merchant for the agate here!”
“Oh!” The female pirate leader’s eyes widened at this and she urgently said, “Hey! You aren’t just talking big, right? Can you really obtain what we need?”
Suo Jia kept his gaze fixed on the female pirate leader without making a comment. Then he calmly stated, “I am confidence, but…if you want the moon in the sky, then I’d have no way of giving it to you. That’s why, whether or not this deal can be made still depends on what you guys are looking for!”
The female pirate chief studied Suo Jia with a profound look. After a long moment of hesitation, she resolutely declared, “Alright. Since you’ve put it that way, then…as long as you can procure large quantities of metal, we’ll give you all of this agate in return!”
“Metal!” Suo Jia stared at the female pirate leader in astonishment and smiled bitterly. “Boss, you really know how to make requests. You want metal in exchange, but that’s the most valuable good there is. Its value is several times higher than that of agate!”
“Mm…” The female pirate leader nodded thoughtfully and replied, “I am aware of what you say. Here at the third checkpoint, metal has the highest value and demand. Next is precious stones, and third is agate. It is indeed harder to obtain. However, if you want to make a deal with me, I only want metal!”
Suo Jia helplessly looked at the female pirate chief and chuckled dryly. “Actually, I am able to procure metal for you too, since I will definitely be going there. However…that will be far in the future. Right now, I must earn a large sum of money while here. Only then can I help gather your metal. Or are you telling me I should steal it?”
The female pirate chief smiled at Suo Jia and answered, “The value of agate is too high; I cannot give it to you. But we also stole a lot of sand. I can give you this sand for free for you to obtain the money you need to buy metal. How about it?”
“Oh? For free?” Suo Jia immediately began to contemplate the female pirate leader’s words. While sand was not as valuable as agate, a barrel of it still valued a million, which was a quarter of agate’s pricing. If he shipped it inland, selling it for two million a barrel would be a small token!
Based on the amount of goods accumulated here on the pirate island, there were definitely over a hundred thousand barrels. Bringing it inland to sell would immediately earn him 200 billion merchant coins. This was a pretty good transaction already.
After considering this, Suo Jia firmly replied, “Alright, then let’s discuss the deal of metal and agate. What I want to know is, how much metal do you want to give me all the agate on this island?”
“Hehe…” The female pirate chief magnanimously stated, “In reality, this agate has no use here. You must also realize that what our ships need is a high quantity of metal, whether for our catapults or the structure of our ships, which all use the material. As a result…you only need to bring back 10,000 cases of metal, and we’ll give all the agate here to you!”
“Deal!” Suo Jia resolutely accepted this business transaction in response to her suggestion. Basically, excluding the roundtrip, this was equivalent to a deal that required no costs!
Upon closer inspection, the value of the agate on the island was simply innumerable. The Thunder Pirates had robbed this agate over multiple generations, the material having already piled into mountains. Even with Suo Jia’s current fleet, it would take a while to take all of the agate away.
Suo Jia did not delay any longer. He directly bid farewell to the female pirate leader and arranged to bring his ships over to take the sand tomorrow morning. She naturally was also anxious about this request and immediately organized ships to meet them, in addition to personnel that would compile the sand on the island and move it to the docks.
In the following week, the entire pirate island was bustling with activity. All the pirates, aside from the ones on patrol ships, gathered around the docks to move the stolen sand from the island onto Suo Jia’s Camus ships.
A week later, hundreds of Camus ships filled with sand finally left the pirate island and headed out into the depths of the great seas. As before, Suo Jia’s party was split apart, to keep guard of the fleets in each direction.
Xiang Yun was still at the tip of the left wing, Roger was still at the end of the right wing. Nicole and Miya were overseeing the inner ends of the wings, while Suo Jia was positioned right in the middle. That way, no matter which part encountered an attack, one of the commanders would be able to immediately go attend to it and intercept the enemy. Then, the teammates from both sides would engage in battle together soon after.
