God of Technology: Creating the Internet in Another World-Chapter 449: Choosing to Run

At Futures Trading Report, Johnny the actuary stared at the price fluctuations on the futures market, his face pale.

His family’s assets were all in too, and naturally they had debt—about 200,000 gold coins worth.

To some of the major nobles, 200,000 gold coins in the steel futures market might not seem like much, but for his family, it was an absolutely massive number.

An unimaginable number.

Once upon a time, he’d served as Finance Minister of the Gray Fort Empire for over twenty years, and the money he’d made then wasn’t even a tenth or a fifth of this.

The company’s interest alone now required paying over 20,000 gold coins every year.

He had no way to afford that.

Even if Futures Trading Report could operate normally and accept advertising, earning that many gold coins would be incredibly difficult.

And now? There was absolutely no way.

But that wasn’t even the most desperate part.

He was a smart man.

Otherwise he never could have become Finance Minister of the Gray Fort Empire.

Precisely because he was so smart, his writing made him even more desperate. He’d already thought through so many things.

Probably every single person’s eyes were now fixed on him.

Who knows how many nobles would blame this whole failure on believing his news content.

"How is this my fault? Did I tell them to buy from the very beginning? I just saw they were all buying and figured saying some nice things could get them to pay attention to me."

"Once I had enough attention, I could use it to do more stuff—play the stock market a little, mess with some small-scale futures. Even if I didn’t do any of that, I could totally take on some advertising, do some product promotion, just make a little money."

"At the end of the day, steel futures rising to this level, them betting their entire fortunes on it—isn’t that all because of their greed?"

"The articles I wrote just gave them a little confidence. Now that this mess has happened, they’re probably all going to make me the scapegoat."

"Assets gone, cash gone, steel futures collapsed—they’ll still put all the blame on me. I’m finished..."

"No, I can’t just sit here waiting to die. If I fall into their hands, I’m definitely dead. I need to run. I need to escape! Yes, I need to escape!"

"I can go to the dwarf kingdoms—they definitely wouldn’t be speculating on steel futures. I can go to the elven kingdoms—they don’t like change, so right now they definitely know nothing about financial trading. I can go to the Teylir Emirates—those beastmen are simple-minded, they definitely won’t understand this stuff..."

Without hesitation, he grabbed the last little bit of gold coins he had left and ran outside.

But the moment he stepped out, he saw a carriage.

"You... who are you? Who sent you? What do you want?" Johnny the actuary felt afraid.

His instinct told him it might be some noble who’d already decided to capture him to vent their rage.

But seeing there didn’t seem to be many guards around, he quickly pulled out his magic-powered weapon.

But just then, the person driving the carriage said: "Mr. Johnny the actuary, our boss says you’re facing a crisis right now and need to leave the Gray Fort Empire immediately. He’s already made arrangements for you."

"Your wife and children are all in the carriage. You should get on quickly too. We’ll send you to the Teylir Emirates overnight."

"Of course, if you want to go to the elven kingdoms or dwarf kingdoms, we don’t mind either, though those routes carry more risk."

"Also, our boss hopes you can change your name and disappear. Of course, I think you understand—if you don’t disappear right now, it’s no different from suicide."

Johnny the actuary couldn’t quite process this for a moment.

Who were these people?

Why did they want to save him?

Why did they want to send him somewhere else?

At a time like this, someone was actually willing to help him?

Why were his wife and children in the carriage?

Johnny the actuary felt like his brain wasn’t working.

"Oh, right, actually the place our boss most recommends you go is the Tulip Kingdom. We’ve already cleared that route too, though I figure you probably don’t want to go to the Tulip Kingdom, right?"

The moment the carriage driver said this, it was like lightning struck Johnny the actuary’s brain, and he instantly understood.

"Send us to the Tulip Kingdom."

With that, he climbed straight onto the carriage, and seeing his wife and children there, he immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

Hearing the words "Tulip Kingdom," he already understood the identity of these people.

In this world, only one group could safely get someone to the Tulip Kingdom—the Church of Technology!

And the person who could make these arrangements was none other than Viscount Roster.

Why was Viscount Roster arranging for him to flee now?

The reason was simple: because he needed a scapegoat.

If he stayed in the Gray Fort Empire, if the other nobles caught him, then after they killed him, after they tortured him and vented their emotions, those nobles would still turn their attention to Foster Iron Mine, Viscount Roster, and the others.

But if he ran? That changed everything.

Everyone would think he’d been scheming all along.

Everyone would think this whole steel futures thing was his doing—that he’d tricked people into buying like crazy, profited from it, then found a chance to escape.

Until they found him, those nobles who’d bet their entire fortunes would have only one thought: find him and tear him to pieces!

Did he have a choice?

No!

He could only run.

Staying meant certain death.

Running and disappearing at least meant his whole family could stay alive and intact.

Especially going to the Tulip Kingdom—nobody could chase him to the Tulip Kingdom.

As long as he arrived, his whole family could settle down.

At the Duke of Dawn’s Western territories estate.

The Western Duke’s face was ashen, looking absolutely terrible. "Those nobles who contacted us so many times privately—is anyone willing to buy steel futures?"

"Those dozens of counts under our family’s banner—is anyone willing to provide financial support? Is anyone willing to buy these steel futures?"

The Western Duke actually understood one thing: in this situation, probably nobody would be willing to buy their steel futures.

So he could only turn his attention to those dozens of marquises under their family banner.

These marquises had family lines just as long as theirs, some even longer, and they also possessed enormous wealth.

If they were willing to shoulder part of the burden, then at least the duchy could be preserved.

As long as they could afford to pay Dragon Bank’s 1.5 million gold coins in annual interest, they’d still have a chance to turn things around! 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Besides, these marquises could pass the pressure to counts, counts could pass it to viscounts, viscounts to barons, barons to knights...

But then he heard news that left him in despair.

"They... also all took out loans and invested in steel futures..."