"I felt that my wings were full, so I began to extend my hand out of the third province. I wanted to become a chamber of commerce that spanned across provinces. At this time, I met my first strong enemy in the business world, Trump."

"Trump?" Lei Luo said. "I heard my teacher talk about him. He seems to be a rare tycoon and warlord, and he is also a member of the Doomsday Dusk Alliance."

​​

"Yes, that's him."

"What happened between you and him?"

"We had a bet. We fought in the military goods market of the third province. If I win, he will give me his share of the business in the first province. If I lose, I will give him a share of the business in the third province. This is a big bet. Based on my character, I shouldn't have agreed to it. I don't know why, but I agreed. Now that I think about it, it should be because Trump's too famous, and that aroused my competitive spirit. I want to defeat him to prove to myself that I am no longer an ordinary person, that I am a big shot who is walking towards the plutocracy."

"In the end, you lost."

"Yes, I lost even more miserably than I imagined. My thoughts were completely controlled by him. He guided me bit by bit until I put all my wealth on the Magic Crystal."

"And he was actually able to make the entire Doomsday Dusk Alliance declare war on the seven alliances at the same time. For a time, the price of the Magic Crystal in the third province soared, and I bought it to fall..."

"You've underestimated Trump's influence on Twilight of the Apocalypse. Do you think that he's just a businessman like you? Those lords wouldn't make such a huge sacrifice because of him."

"Yes, Twilight of the Apocalypse makes me feel that it's not like a traditional military group. There should be a very smart person behind it. That person is someone like you who has a deep understanding of the relationship between business and war, and is willing to integrate these two forces without bias."

"They launched this huge war with astonishing military expenditure and far-reaching influence, and all they got was my bankruptcy and the Morton Trading Company."

Morton smiled bitterly at this point.

"I've carefully calculated that if I want to raise the price of the magic crystal to the point where I would suffer a loss, the scale of the war required would be more than one billion gold coins, and one billion for six billion. This is a money-losing business, and they wouldn't have done this originally."

"When I made the decision at the beginning, it was based on this thought. Looking back now, my level is still too low. Just as you said, a person who does not know how to use business is not a good strategist, and a merchant who does not know how to integrate military theory cannot be considered a good merchant."

"You seem to have learned a lot from this battle."

"Yes, from then on, I began to understand that the chaotic world is not coming, but has already arrived. It's just that it can't be seen on the surface yet."

"If I'm not wrong, the people standing behind the Doomsday Dusk Alliance are very likely to be powerful nobles in the senate. The Doomsday Dusk Alliance, which is a military alliance that is completely integrated with the military, is completely in line with the characteristics of the new military group in the future. Once such a military group is born, it is impossible for traditional merchants to compete with it. If I want to realize my dream of becoming the empire's number one merchant, then I have to find a military group to work with me. It doesn't have to be the empire's number one military group, but it has to be first-class," Morton said as he lowered his head and looked at Lei Luo.

"Hey, don't look at me like that, okay? I'm not wearing any clothes. If you look at me like that, I'll misunderstand."

Without wiping, he only put on a towel.

Lei Luo walked out of the bathroom wet.

The huge Morton followed behind him and said softly, "Can I ask you a question?"

Lei Luo picked up a cup of tea, took a sip, turned around, and leaned against the table as he said to Morton, "I want to know what the consequences will be if I say it's impossible."

"It's nothing. It's just that the two of US will go our separate ways from now on. I'm just a businessman. I don't invest in any business that I'm not sure will succeed," Morton said as he waved his pipe.

Morton's face did not show any excessive expression in response to his answer.

He didn't seem surprised, nor did he seem to care at all.

He just held the cup of tea and blinked. Then he licked his lips.

"All right. For me, Allie is a very unexpected starting point."

Morton didn't ask, but Lei Luo had already answered his question.

Morton nodded naturally.

"Very good, continue."

"Even without Allie, I think I would have chosen a starting point. The reason why I am able to reach this point is not because of my free will. It can be said that I have no other choice. Because time waits for no man. I must do something as soon as possible to establish my own foundation. I don't want to be like my teacher."

Lei Luo smiled and shook his head.

"To me, I would rather be a grass-head king than an uncrowned king."

"It is precisely because you have something similar to your teacher and something different from your teacher that I am so interested in you. From what I see now, I was actually right all along."

"In that case, do you think you have seen through me?" Lei Luo asked with a smile.

"I actually thought of a plan, but I gave up on it after a while."

"When?"

"Just when I realized that you deliberately didn't want others to know you too well, perhaps even you didn't realize it yourself. You instinctively don't like others asking you why. You also don't like others asking you about your past. You seem very relaxed, but in fact, you always maintain a high degree of vigilance. You attach great importance to self-control, whether it's your facial expression, language, emotions, and thoughts. At the same time, you're also very used to having to control others. You always say clever things, using words and other methods that are so light that there's almost no trace of it, to make others follow the direction you want to go. All smart people have the same problem, don't they? Aren't you the same? But no, we're different. I'm only like this because I was trained on a daily basis, and I don't think you went through that yourself. You seem to be born with this ability. Otherwise, I can't imagine why you did everything so naturally and without any obstacles. In other words, you just did things so flawlessly!"