God of Technology: Creating the Internet in Another World-Chapter 475: Raising Half a Billion All at Once?

For a while, the Magic Net was buzzing with discussion.

"Can’t believe Viscount Roster moved so fast!"

"Raising five hundred million gold coins all at once—shouldn’t be too hard to build the rail system, right?"

"Does setting up this rail transit really have that big of an impact?"

"Duh! Places that used to take four or five months to get to now only take a day or two. Think about how much you save on shipping costs. Not to mention, the stuff we buy from live streaming sales and the Shopping Mall just got way cheaper."

"Wonder if this rail transit system can actually make its money back? Feels like the costs are crazy high—all that steel and magic materials they gotta lay down on the ground."

"Shouldn’t be a problem, I think."

"One train can haul so much stuff, and think about all the passengers. How could it not make its money back? I think it’s got huge potential anyway."

"Feels like this is a real opportunity. Sure, this company just got started and doesn’t have anything yet, but it doesn’t feel any worse than those other top-tier companies."

"Goes public tomorrow, and I’m definitely buying in. Purchase price is 0.5 gold coins per share—even a regular working guy like me can afford ten or twenty shares."

"What kind of working guy are you to have that much cash?"

"These days, magic-tech factory wages are way higher than before, aren’t they? I’m in Roster territory, I pull in one gold coin a month."

"..."

For a while, the whole network seemed captivated by this, with discussions everywhere.

Though some people thought Rail Transit General Company going public smelled like a pump-and-dump scheme, most thought it had massive potential.

Plenty of people were maxed out on anticipation.

Kingdom of Dawn.

Western territory.

Church of Shepherding.

The Pastoral Pope found his son, Wool Ryan: "I think besides our fixed investments, we should use pretty much all our remaining liquid funds to buy stock in this Rail Transit General Company."

"You really believe that much in Rail Transit General Company’s potential?"

Wool Ryan was pretty shocked.

This was the first time his old man had made such a non-conservative decision. It really caught him off guard.

"It’s not that I believe in Rail Transit General Company—it’s that we don’t seem to have much choice now."

The Pastoral Pope sighed helplessly: "The Western Grand Duke and most of the nobles have used all their wealth to buy steel futures."

"They even mortgaged most of the entire western territory."

"There’s no way they’d dare defy the dragons, so they’ll definitely have to hand over those lands."

"Unless they can scrape together all the funds to buy those lands back."

"You’re worried these nobles are gonna come asking us for money?" Wool Ryan was a bit surprised.

Though thinking it over, it did seem pretty likely.

The Western Grand Duke couldn’t just watch his territory actually get taken by the dragons.

Who didn’t know that in the whole western territory, their wool guild was the one with money?

Sure, even if they put up their entire fortune, they could only help pay back maybe a tenth of the debt, and there’s no way they’d put up that much anyway.

But the western territory didn’t just have them.

If they could scrape together a bit more, just enough to pay the interest, borrow new money to pay old debts, buy some time, and push through magic-tech industrial reforms—it wasn’t impossible.

"No, no, no! If I was just worried about them borrowing money, I wouldn’t be this aggressive."

The Pastoral Pope sighed helplessly: "They’ve got military force. I’m worried they’ll come after us directly."

???

"It can’t be that bad, right?"

"They’d absolutely do something like that. They’re already backed into a corner. Just robbing us alone would let them turn everything around."

The Pastoral Pope seemed used to this kind of thing and didn’t think much of it: "Bottom line is, the most important thing is making people think we invested in steel futures too."

"How do we make people think that? Well obviously, by using up all our liquid funds."

"The money for building our ranches needs to be delayed a bit. Best if the people supplying our materials drag us to court and make a big scene. That way we’ll be totally safe."

Wool Ryan clearly hadn’t thought about any of this.

He froze for a second.

But he quickly understood the twists and turns.

He was a smart guy, just young and hadn’t experienced enough to understand some of the darker realities.

"If that’s the case, why don’t we just go ahead and bring in some investors?" Wool Ryan got inspired too.

"What do you mean?" The Pastoral Pope was clearly taken aback.

"We’re already putting on a show all the way to court, so how do we actually move forward with our ranch plans? How do we solve the follow-up issues? Well obviously, by bringing in investors."

Wool Ryan smiled: "With the ultra-high-speed rail transit system getting built out, besides wool, our other products like mutton and dairy are bound to become hot sellers too."

"But what’s the fastest way to sell them? Through the Magic Net?"

"I feel like that’s not quite enough."

"I think the best approach is to get the Golden Merchant Guild involved, have our wool guild team up with the Golden Merchant Guild, expand the market, and move the goods."

"You mean, drag things to court, then approach the Golden Merchant Guild about investing, have the Golden Merchant Guild people help us pay back these debts, and we can develop peacefully?"

The Pastoral Pope looked at his son with some surprise.

This proposal actually meant some loss for them.

After all, they could have run the wool guild themselves, and the ranches weren’t a big problem either.

As for sales, with how his son looked on the Magic Net, was sales really that hard?

"More sales channels, more opportunities." Wool Ryan smiled: "You gotta give something to get something."

"And honestly, compared to that, I’m way more bullish on the ultra-high-speed rail transit system."

"Actually, even if you hadn’t said anything, I was already thinking about putting as much money as possible into Rail Transit General Company stock."

"Just not as aggressively as you."

Similar scenarios across the continent weren’t exactly rare.

Some nobles who hadn’t gone bankrupt from the earlier steel futures, or some who hadn’t gone all-in and still had some assets left, were all getting ready. They were just waiting for Rail Transit General Company to go public so they could recoup some losses.

The atmosphere kept building.

In the blink of an eye, it was 9 AM the next day.

The moment the market opened, Rail Transit General Company’s stock price started skyrocketing.

One second it was at the purchase price—0.5 gold coins per share—the next second it had already hit 1.2 gold coins.

It seemed like for the stockholders, Rail Transit General Company’s stock price should be at 1.2 gold coins per share or higher, with the company valued at 1.2 billion or more—that was the reasonable price.

Nidhogg the Dragon of Despair watched this scene with some shock: "Seems like this stock has even more potential than we imagined."

"Nope, it just has more potential than you imagined." Viscount Roster chuckled, as if all of this was within his expectations.

Actually though?

He was pretty excited too. After all, having just completed a round of harvesting, he’d also worried people couldn’t scrape together enough funds.