The Industrialist

Jasper stored the information about the newly acquired Zelkian. Merchant sent some cloud information to Lance for his reference.

They left Axiom Trench, although they failed to acquire the Energy Accelerator, however, with better opportunities that lie ahead. His father's teachings were not put to waste but they would definitely be put to a test.

Trading was the easiest business a commoner and even the market merchants could straightforwardly grasp. Lance knew the demand for Zelkians in Axe Central City. Its market segment was the higher-ups. Despite that Zelkians were a luxury, they were necessary to safeguard the most precious resource, food.

He was sure that the middle-class citizens that lived on ground level had Abominant pests that still resided in slums and would munch their way up to mid-range level pads to devour food.

New information spread that these Abominated rats, especially the fully matured ones, could manducate their way through concrete walls.

The walls only kept the harmful Abominants outside the City but what remained were the mutated rats and flies within. They don't harm human beings; however, their scouring instincts were heightened, making these mutated pests more annoying.

They called the Abominanated rats, Rattus, derived from the generic scientific names of their original species.

Rats, who retained their forms and origin, were the fortunate ones who had not been contaminated by radiation.

Mysteriously, Rattus had no significant increments regarding body size compared to their original species. Scientists had explained this phenomenon that these pests somehow had minute contamination during the nuclear war, they scoured underground beyond the reach of radiation. Theoretically, the soil reduced the efficacy of the radiation thus the rats underneath it were spared.

Rattus' claws, their nose, and the size of their bellies were the only parts that had grown beyond normal proportions. As usual, Rattus devoured human food but with infinite hunger.

Housing a Zelkian repelled the pests inside one's pad. The smell, unpleasant to the pests, chased them away.

Petting Zelkians were unregulated by the Corporation. However, the Academy and Research Centers used Zelkians as lab experiments, appearing to be better than experimenting with Rattus.

Another Market segment; citizens and scientists alike.

Lance and the group left Axiom Trench with their hands full. Although unsuccessful with acquiring an Energy Accelerator, Lance purchased a farmable Zelkian that had wide market opportunity.

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Abominant: Zelkian

Category: Level 1

Origin type: Cat

Differentiation: Furry. Four eyes. Four ears. Foul smell

Weapon: Fangs and claws.

Habitat: Forests

Characteristic: Fears light. Repel pests because of foul smell.

Mate in 1 week and pregnant females will bear

3 baby Zelkians in 2 weeks.

Weakness: Weak after eating

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Jasper scanned them and stored new information in his database.

"Why the fecking Zelkians? Why not only trade these uncommon spare parts? The smell is killing me!" Joe complained as they went back beneath the walls. His hands were pressed hard against his nostrils and his complaints never ceased during the trip.

Lance also managed to acquire uncommon UV emitting materials, Tyllrium, an enhanced common and uncommon metal combination, forged into one. Tyllrium could emit twenty folds compared to normal UV bulbs as these materials were used for microorganism death in drinking water filtration and wastewater effluents.

But Tyllrium could lose its efficacy over time, thus maintenance personnel change them from time to time.

Waste management projects were Lance's next venture as scientists nowadays had neglected this profession.

Probably the smell and the dirt alike. Waste management in Axe Central City played a vital role in maintaining its upkeep. Lance knew the importance, hence, an opportunity to gain more currency.

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Inventory log:

1 Uncommon Double Barrel Handgun, Bulk slugs

1 Uncommon Laser Field Hunting Knife

1 Common 45mm Handgun

2 Female Zelkians

2 Male Zelkians

4 Tyllrium tubes

Obsidian shell plates

Abominant Exoskeleton

Currency: 680 units

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"That's the golden ticket right there, Joe. The smell," Damian teased as he helped carry the caged Abominants. There were four cages of two males and two females and Damian carried two cages nonchalantly. While George and Joe almost dragged them to the ground.

"We will farm these creatures, Joe. My father taught me that trading them is an easy business, contrarily, only with small profits. I bought male Zelkians for only 80 units and I can sell them to mid-classers for about 120 units. Profit would be only 40 units."

"It's a good trade, right!" George said.

"If you only aim for a slow and low risk income, trading them is a sound strategy. The bottleneck for this operational flow is the supply. Somehow, Merchants can only hunt them with only 30 male Zelkians a month. On the other hand, farming them will give me 12 Zelkians per month for the two females and two males for free."

"How is it greater than trading, kiddo?" George asked, dumbfounded by a simple math.

"Trading 30 Zelkians will give me a profit of 1200 units per month. And considering the transportation back and forth in Axiom Trench, we can't afford the risk. But by farming them in Rebel camps and producing 12 Zelkians per month, I can have a gross profit of over 1,400 units. In addition, if they will bear another female Zelkian, then that is a 30% increase in Zelkian production."

They were silenced. Damian tapped the kid on his shoulder with a smile on his face.

"Not only that, I will employ a farmer that would tend the upkeep. 100 units a month. Just feed them every day."

"A 100 units per month? Just by watching these creatures! Wow, count me in!" Joe said, neglecting the smell factor of the job.

"I thought you hated the smell?" Damian asked, he had a teasing smile that daubed his expression.

100 units was a more than fair price for just watching animals. A factory worker, who consumes intense work and effort, earns 200 units per month.

"I need also a trader of these Tyllrium. I bought these components for 40 units each. We can sell these to the Mechanics I know for about 80 units." Lance said. George gladly volunteered.

"And how much is my cut for trading?" George asked.

"15 units each, George," Lance replied.

"Get outta here!" George exclaimed. "For just these 4 units Tyllrium, I will gain 60 units! No wonder Scrappers have a lot of saved units than factory workers."

"That's where you are wrong, George," Lance dismissed. "Not all scrappers gained a lot of units just for trading scrap components. Only those scrappers knew the exact trade price. Additionally, the demand and the difficulty of supply. Tyllrium is hard to find, only maybe in Axiom Trench. There's a factory that manufactures Tyllrium but could not provide the overall demand of the city."

"Really? That is strange. How's that possible?" George asked.

"It's because forging metals to make Tyllrium will consume a lot of time. During the era of the Lost Engineers, these processes were streamlined and the efficiency was high. Sufficient enough to supply the City's demand. Even supplying other surviving cities."

"What the factories are doing now is not automated, very laborious way of fabricating things. Somehow the factory guys were not able to gain the knowledge of semi-automated technologies in forging. The Lost Engineers kept this information beyond the reach of the Scientists."

"How much is the need for Tyllrium?" George asked, his face plastered with utter curiosity.

"A 100 Tyllriums maybe, monthly. For Water Filtration machines and wastewater facilities."

"Wait a minute! Why do wastewater facilities need Tyllrium for filtration?"

"You don't know? I thought not everyone knew this. Because water is a scant resource, these wastewater disposal facilities managed to recycle water."

"What? We are drinking urine!" Three of his comrades stopped sauntering inside the tunnels and turned to him with a great question of morality. Damian dropped the cages, the Zelkians jerked and furiously shrieked.

"Yes! We are drinking urine but through a sophisticated filtration system that eliminated 100% of toxins mixed with water. The toxins were then disposed outside the city, to God knows where."

George gagged to his utter disgust. He spat a lot of saliva.

"Hawk Tua!" Joe cursed, echoing against the tunnel walls. Expectedly, Damian was nonchalant still.

Damian was a soldier, like Handsome. Deployed to Abominant-conquered zones would need excellent survival skills. They knew how to conserve food and maybe drank their urine after they filtered it with their own mobile filtration devices for weeks of deployment beyond the grasp of surviving cities.

"Ok ok. Got you! Stop talking, kid. I hate it when you dump unnecessary information." George expelled the last of his saliva in his mouth. "How do you know all these things kid?"

"I knew a Mechanic Tier 3," Lance said as they started to press on inside the tunnels. "He managed the Wastewater facility of Eastern Sector. He is our market for Tyllrium. I can give the samples to him. If approved, we can deliver truck loads."

"How?" George asked again.

"I was taught that you will experience the same stress and spend effort handling a small or a big problem. So let's scale this Tyllrium trading business to a larger scope. We can rent the rebel's truck for a currency, Damian here will be paid his Specialist fee of 500 units per trip to Axiom Trench and bulk buy all Tyllrium that would fill the truck's capacity."

"I imagine about 60 Tyllrium lengths would fill the truck. That would be 2400 units of Tyllrium. It would make the Axiom Merchants happy." Lance continued.

"How do we get that great of an investment?" Joe asked this time, curious about how the new venture would materialize.

"This is where you come in, Joe. We will produce Zelkians first and milk the proceeds for this shipment."

They nodded in agreement with how their newfound ventures would work. They did the math, they knew the process, and it was easy to grasp. Damian tapped Lance's shoulder a couple of times. Apparently, it was Damian's way of appreciation.

"Before everything else. I will go inland, into the center of the City. I will visit Grebert, my Mech Tier 3 friend." Lance said.