“Boss! Boss! Your Tree Mall is truly amazing!!” Ke Loong was quickly invited into the Conference Room instance. Jin was drinking the leftover teapot that was intended for Grandma Yuan. Ke Loong was able to get into the conference room instance the moment his Pandamonium App detected that he moved inside Jin’s store instance.
“Not bad right? I was thinking of getting more store owners into …you know encompass every possible corner of life.” Jin revealed casually to Ke Loong, and his eyes were sparkling.
“…that look. You want to be part of it too?” Jin asked, and Ke Loong nodded his head willingly.
“It’s not that I really mind, but let me warn you it won’t be cheap. We are business partners so I may give you a minor discount, but not too much. Else it would not be fair to the others. Besides, it’s not like you can’t afford them. Anyway, what do you intend to sell?” Jin decided to entertain this CEO as he offered him a seat and poured him a cup of tea.
“Thank you.” Ke Loong took a small sip and was immediately intoxicated by the taste.
“What kind of tea is this?!!” Ke Loong exclaimed so loudly that it nearly shocked Jin.
“It’s…erm one which Lynn made. You would have to ask her for the name. Is it too sweet for you?” Jin asked with concern, but Ke Loong unhesitantly took another sip of the fantastic tea.
“It’s the best tea I’ve ever tasted. Can I get an entire box of it and bring it back to my office?!” Ke Loong asked, and Jin was relieved that it was to his liking.
“I believe I could arrange that…anyways, what do you intend to sell?” Jin asked yet Ke Loong was still busy enjoying his tea.
“Oh..erm. The first will naturally be your portal. You are right, I kept thinking of the likes of portal scrolls and didn’t consider the security involving them. Did you know that you need to pen down a written record should you wish to use a portal scroll when you buy it?”
“I …am not very familiar with that, I sell basic magical scrolls not the high end ones yet,” Jin answered and Ke Loong explained to him that most of the stores selling high end scrolls required a minimum background check with the police.
“So it is no different for portal scrolls in case you wish to go somewhere…restricted with it. Say the White House or military bases. That is why the store owners would usually transcribe the portal coordinates into the scroll so that they know where they are going.”
“Then I suppose Black Markets are filled with illegal portal scrolls,” Jin commented, and Ke Loong thought for a while before shaking his head.
“It really depends. As soon as it became slightly more ‘main-stream’ if you can really call it that, restricted areas quickly employed anti-portal measures. From what I’ve heard, the most common one is an inscription which messes with the coordinates. So instead of the White House, you might find yourself in a cell room instead.”
“Even if you somehow manage to get through there are other counter measures such as scanning spells to search for illegal trespassers. Let’s just say, the Black Market can allow you to travel to more places compared to official portals.”
“Still, that does not mean they would not keep a record. There are Black Market snitches or undercover agents to ensure that no one does anything too illegal.” Ke Loong added.
“Especially after that infamous bombing that occurred near the United Nations assembly, it caused every government to sweep through the Black Markets all over the world and annihilate them as a show of force. Subsequently, they managed to reach a back end agreement, and things stabilised afterwards.”
“Isn’t it ironic how the lawful constitutions cooperate with the Black Market just like a company having a transaction with another.” Jin mocked, and Ke Loong shrugged his shoulders.
“Black and White are just the two sides of the coin. One cannot survive without the other. Anyways we should look at their example and think of ways to improve on it. Implementing security checks should be our main agenda should we wish to push the portal forward so people can feel safe using it too.”
“How about putting them as part of the dimensional instance? That way, my team, including yours, can monitor them too. It would be safer, and my monsters can kick their asses if we suspect anything unusual about them.”
“I see…then that way, it will save on space and security personnel! If we suspect anything, we just need to lock the dimensional instance and let the police investigate them. That is rather brilliant.” Ke Loong replied with a wide smile.
“But the problem is, I have to create those dimensional instances. I have certain technical parameters to fulfil if I want to install the monsters and they are proprietorial intellectual properties which I am unable to share with you.” Jin listed his condition.
“I see, one of your many ‘Trade Secrets’, huh? Okay, I am game. I should be able to buy the land and offer to put it under your company’s name. In return, I assume you won’t expect me to pay for your ‘monsters’ or maintenance?” Ke Loong asked, and Jin nodded his head.
“The profit of them using the portals…say 80 to 20?” Jin asked which nearly made Ke Loong spit his tea out.
“Not good?” Jin was concerned that he made an outrageous deal.
“You kidding me? If people were to learn that I was only giving you 20% of the profit when it was mostly your team’s effort in creating the portal? Not only would I lose respect, but I would have to constantly fear competitors killing each other to headhunt you right under me. Given your team’s technical ideas, I wish for us to remain business partners for a looong time. 60 to 40 in your favour.” Ke Loong said, and Jin was pleasantly surprised.
“Besides, you will be providing the monsters and stuff, all I need is to send operational staff to use the CCTVs etc. Right?” Ke Loong asked, and Jin thought for a moment.
“I assume we are starting small by teleporting people to the Tree Mall, right?” Jin asked then the Sea Mesh CEO mentioned that he initially wanted to expand everything in one shot until Jin talked about security.
“How about you put the portal machines all over in Shenzhen first? Let’s test the reaction of the crowd. We should be able to find out if there will be any problems like waiting times being too long and other things so that we can sort those out before going nationwide. Most importantly, we need to learn how much capacity it can handle before it breaks down.” Jin suggested.
“Oh, if you mean stress testing, I’ve already done it in Germany. Even the production company asked whether I can introduce that portal machine into their country. There should be no issues for the portal in the long term, so long as the production company does not skim in the materials they use. ” Ke Loong replied.
“But other than that, I have no issues putting it all over Shenzhen linking it to your Tree Mall. Using it as the main attraction will inadvertently increase my profit plus its cheap advertisement. After a trial period then I will see if we can put it in advance into the transportation of cargo etc.” Ke Loong’s goals were still the same as before, and he believed the profits would be tremendous.
“Then, I am happy to work along with you.” Jin smiled as he somehow managed to become an active part of the future portal industry.
