Munitions Empire

"After all, I'm not exactly a paragon of virtue," Tang Mo put away the bill and patted pale-faced John on the shoulder, saying, "You don't have to be so formal. If you feel like taking care of your family, I can offer you a discount."

As he spoke, he generously pondered for a moment and presented what he deemed a very reasonable amount, "Let's settle on 3 million for now... after all, it's easier to calculate. If the Augustin Clan of the Poplar Kingdom doesn't clear the bill by next year, it'll jump to 6 million Gold Coins... Tsk, tsk, the thought alone is frightening."

These days, usury isn't exactly an admirable profession. After all, how to calculate the interest isn't the crux of usury; the key is ensuring that the money can indeed be recovered.

"Master... It's quite obvious that the Augustin Clan doesn't have the capacity to repay such a huge debt... If, I mean, if one day we decide to recover the massive amount the Augustin Clan owes us, I suggest we forcibly seize everything from the Augustin Clan!" To make his stance clear, John wiped his sweat as he spoke to Tang Mo.

"Loyalty... is a good word," Tang Mo noncommittally muttered and then returned to his desk, picking up a report that John had brought him.

The contents were rather intriguing: income statistics from casinos, theaters, and brothels in King City, Northern Ridge, Brunas, and other places, including a list of the patrons of these entertainment venues.

This was the big data system of another world. With this document, it's evident who is lecherous or greedy, who has their own secret stash, who has illegal income beyond their salary—in the Kingdom, it's all laid bare.

By using the records on this list to offer bribes or win allegiance, one could say the success is almost assured. This is why, since time immemorial, enduring establishments such as gambling dens and brothels have been run and invested in by many powerful figures.

A few nobles decided to submit to Tang Mo, mortgaging their estates or even their wives and daughters, accumulating huge gambling debts with Tang Mo.

Whenever Tang Mo required it, these people were ready to charge into battle on his behalf—militarily, Tang Mo couldn't count on them, but in the court, among politicians, they could still stir the wind and call out for Tang Mo.

For nobles like these, who only required a few gamblers to keep them company, Tang Mo didn't even want to meet them face to face. He'd send a subordinate to scare them into becoming fawning lackeys of Tang Mo.

He himself knew that the empire he had begun to build, though seemingly well-established, was in reality fragile.

The human heart is the simplest thing, which just needs to be nurtured and manipulated to be put to use. It's also the most complicated thing; a moment's inattention and one could perish amidst universal desertion.

What Tang Mo relied on were his benevolence and the advanced characteristics he represented. Those who left, having taken some of Tang Mo's technology and ideas—the dandelions—respected Tang Mo's depth and power, choosing to serve such a worthy master.

But as someone who had been through it, Tang Mo knew that to consolidate people's hearts, only two things were most important: faith and currency.

Currency includes everything like clothing, food, shelter, travel, income, and feelings of happiness, things that money can sort out. The dominance of America in the world relies on this system.

Tang Mo could handle these things; with gold coins, indeed these were relatively easy to manage, because there's not much in this world that money can't buy.

But Tang Mo knew what truly united people's hearts was something not yet present in this world, or rather, something that had not really emerged—faith!

There were no widespread gods in this world to persuade and command the faith of everyone. Similarly, there were no doctrines like capitalism.

In this world, although the concept of capital existed and there were tycoons and various classes, there was no accommodating theory.

Tang Mo naturally couldn't possibly create a doctrine that would surely stand in opposition to him, so he couldn't play with Marx's theory.

Even though he knew that once such a system came into existence, his subordinates would transform into undefeated warriors of belief, unafraid to burn for the sake of the Great Tang Group...

Therefore, Tang Mo had to settle for the next best thing and decided to develop religion to thoroughly control the spiritual world of his subordinates.

He wanted his followers to be absolutely loyal, unchanging even in the face of death.

Crafting a deity wasn't simple in this world, so Tang Mo was prepared to invade another domain comparable to religion—control over life and death.

In the twenty-first century, or rather, from the beginning of human enlightenment to the foreseeable future, what is the most expensive thing? Nukes? A house within the second ring of the Magical Capital? Running for president of the beautiful country? None of these! It's life!

Life is the most precious thing!

If the wealthy could live just one more year, they wouldn't care how much money they had to spend—millions were mere pocket change, and even tens or hundreds of millions weren't out of the question!

Which is why medicine, or healthcare, is the world's most worthy investment and the easiest field to profit from!

In a world where a simple case of pneumonia often meant certain death, Tang Mo could easily produce some drugs that instantly boosted people's lifespans!

This was simply the realm of the gods! No one would refuse such terms: believe in Tang Mo and you could be cured of tetanus, pneumonia, fever, even become immune to smallpox...

With this idea in mind, Tang Mo started preparing to establish his own Faith Empire on the same day his fleet left the harbor.

In his laboratory, he formulated a batch of drugs using chemical experiments, drugs that naturally didn't require any clinical trials because they had already been proven to be completely effective in another world.

Then Tang Mo used poor John as a test subject, and the results proved that the medicine was effective on the Elf Race and extremely beneficial.

When the miners from the Northern Ridge took the mebendazole he had concocted and saw with their own eyes the clumps of worms they expelled, then spent half the day in heart-wrenching vomiting, a belief began to spread among them.

The stories told were varied and bizarre, but the core of them all was one: In the distant East, a black-haired god was born, whose power was feared by locals who neither dared to slay him nor could, so they exiled him to a distant land.

According to the tale, this god came to this world to make it better, so he continued to love humanity and save his followers with his power even after his exile.

This god was none other than Mr. Tang Mo of the Great Tang Group, who saved his followers with his divine medicine, protected them with his weapons, and sent every kind-hearted person to an eternal paradise with his charity.

Meanwhile, a chemical factory of Tang Mo's, which produced drugs, also quietly started operations next to Factory #2, mainly producing insecticides and some simple medicines.

The factory focused on producing deworming tablets, which effectively killed the parasites in the human intestinal tract and cleansed people's intestines.

Because the effects were immediate and most people in this world didn't have the luxury of personal hygiene, nor did they care about it, verifying the effectiveness of this medicine was quite simple among the poorer communities or, should I say, the lower and middle classes.

Everyone could see the terrifying worms that had been killed and then expelled from their bodies, so they all felt gratitude towards Tang Mo who provided the medicine.

But mere gratitude was far from enough to prove how much these uncultured commoners worshiped Tang Mo, for they had come to see him as a deity in his own right.

With this, the Great Tang Group was no longer just a financial consortium in the local area; it had become a sacred place with a halo around it, a mention that would turn people's tones devout.

While Tang Mo prepared to deify himself incarnate, Roger's fleet reached Black Dragon Island and, according to the map, landed at the spot where the Poplar Kingdom's sailors had once disembarked, setting down the landing boats.

The Soldiers of the Land Forces disembarked first. After spending a whole seven days seasick, they stumbled onto this "small island."

Then they began frantically unloading their supplies—tents and other miscellaneous items, food and livestock brought along, and steam engines with other equipment for power generation.

It was as if they had come from another planet, setting out to reclaim this remote island for themselves.

These people from Brunas had already gone through this once before; the work they did here on the island was exactly the same as their previous reclamation in the Vicious Forest.

So they quickly set up their tents, established a water supply station by the riverbank of the freshwater river, and then expertly built a wooden shack to install the steam engine.

Once they had the steam engine, the main tents had electricity, which provided them with basic processing capabilities.

Soon enough, the workers began mass-cutting timber, processing the felled logs into boards, which they nailed together to build houses.

Then the temporary telegraph system sent news of their successful landing back to Brunas, and they could immediately send their supply requests back to Tang Mo.

With such convenient communication, the work of developing Black Dragon Island proceeded smoothly. As there were coconuts and other fruits on the island, Tang Mo cut down on the quantity of fruits in the next shipment by ninety percent, all of which was replaced with urgently needed cement.