Players’ NPC daddy

Chapter 1488 The Dark Ages
The teleportation tower is indeed a convenient thing. A place that would take three days and three nights to reach by carriage can now be reached by just stepping into the teleportation tower. As long as the teleportation tower is big enough, it only takes a moment to reach the other side of the world.

The bandit industry suffered a severe blow in an instant. They no longer had the luck to snatch the super rare goods that were secretly transported in an ordinary-looking caravan.

It is so convenient and profitable. It reduces the cost of use and expands the user range. The teleportation tower can continue to attract money like a cornucopia.

The biggest and most stable source of income for [Hermes's Travel Hat] is still the usage fee of the teleportation tower network. Strangers are still the biggest customers, and they don't even blink an eye when paying.

The second source of income is the advertising revenue that comes with the teleportation tower network. If you want to promote your own products, you only need to pay to put them in the teleportation tower.

However, the income from this advertisement still comes from strangers. They use it to promote the products of the strangers' world. They buy the advertising space without blinking an eye and invest millions of gold coins.

Sometimes the Knights of the Giant Kingdom Alliance would come to investigate to determine if this was money laundering, but fortunately the Stranger’s bills were truly clean.

But the best place for the teleportation tower to be used is indeed [war].

[War] is a very good term. As long as it is related to [War], all unreasonable conditions can be met, such as transporting goods during war, deploying troops during war, etc.

If the teleportation tower is used in war, the biggest losses in war, marching time, and supply transportation will not be a problem at all, and starting a war will become extremely easy.

At that time, in order to use the teleportation tower to fight the war, blood-stained gold coins will fall like heavy rain, and once the teleportation tower's dominance in the war is demonstrated, the heavy rain of gold coins will continue.

[Hermes's Travel Hat] has firmly rejected all malicious uses of the teleportation tower network since its inception, and using it for war is the first thing that is prohibited.

But this is just the [Hermes' Traveling Hat]. There is more than one Chamber of Commerce in this world.

Although Blaze and even Herbie did not live in that era, there were many chambers of commerce in the top world twenty years ago when the [Hermes's Traveling Hat] had not yet risen and grown.

Those chambers of commerce are in competition with each other just like the three major kingdoms today. Of course, their means of competition are similar to those between the three major kingdoms, or even more... despicable.

They use their wealth to operate kingdoms, usurp states, provoke wars, control prices, and treat human lives as nothing.

They do human trafficking, monster trafficking, and alien trafficking.

They also invest in extremely talented scholars and then keep the research results for themselves.

Compared with the above-mentioned evil deeds, maintaining private armed forces and bullying civilians like local tyrants are relatively insignificant.

That is because these chambers of commerce cannot be described as businessmen. A more accurate and appropriate term is chaebol, which is a combination of conglomerate and warlord.

Before the rise of [Hermes's Traveling Hat] and the end of the influence of the chaebols on the world, the Holy Cross Kingdom had always been a veritable paradise.

The Crusades were absolutely violent, with unreasonable attacks and crushing, and coupled with the dual control of the economy and faith by Theresa and the Pope, two remnants of the Age of Gods, the financial tycoons could not set foot even once.

The Third Kingdom and the Giant Kingdom Alliance were completely under the influence of the chaebols. The kingdoms in the Third Kingdom were constantly at war with each other, and they were basically puppets of the chaebols, while the Giant Kingdom Alliance had not yet completed the alliance. The chaebols had been causing disputes between the kingdoms in the various territories, trying to turn the second largest kingdom into a war-torn area like the Third Kingdom.

It was a very long and dark period of history. Even after twenty years, it is still an unforgettable disaster in the eyes of those who once lived through it.

So were the former chaebols completely wiped out by the powerful appearance of [Hermes's Traveling Hat]?

Of course not. A lean camel is bigger than a horse, and a centipede is still alive even after its death. The small chaebols may have been completely destroyed, but those extremely large chaebols, which are even older than some kingdoms and city-states, still exist in some way and continue to spy.

The biggest evidence is the evil stranger. Almost no one will do business with the evil stranger. Only when people are forced into a desperate situation like Herbie and have no other choice will they do business with the evil stranger.

Herbie's situation is indeed special, but Hebie is definitely not the only one who has to make deals with evil foreigners for profit.

"You are worried that those hidden chaebols also have a large reserve of [Ika Black Stone] and will take this opportunity to erode the [Hermes's Travel Hat] transmission tower network."

"That's right, but being eroded is not the point. The current [Hermes's Traveling Hat] has become a giant. Even if they want to steal our teleportation tower business, they will never be able to do so." Herbie said with certainty. She rubbed her fingers together. "We charge very cheaply. As long as we can make a little profit, it's fine. But those chaebols are completely different. They are here to take advantage of us."

"What I'm worried about is that they can't wait to give the teleportation tower network to those warring elements as if they were showing off their weapons. Once they actually see what the teleportation tower network looks like when used in a war, even the kindest and most naive king will be wary."

Hebi rested his chin on his hand and sighed.

"Not only will the peace we have worked so hard to achieve be ruined, but some small kingdoms may refuse to use the teleportation towers to prevent themselves from being invaded, and the economic system we have worked so hard to develop will also collapse."

"Do you know how difficult it is to convince the city lord king to build a teleportation tower in the most prosperous area?"

Herbie kept complaining, as if he was complaining to Blaze, or as if he was talking to himself.

This appearance is exactly the same as Kulene. If Kulene had not denied it, Blaze would have almost suspected that they were related by blood.

"Really? I don't think there's a problem." Blazer leaned against the wood and said calmly, "The chaebols in the past couldn't do anything. This time it's not even a crisis."

"Hey~" Herbie's face was full of weirdness. He stretched out his hand to pinch Blaze's face and said seriously, "You are fake, right? At this time, Blaze should say..."

"[You'll offend the God of Flag if you're so confident!]"

Blaze remained noncommittal, but he had his reasons.

"Normally, yes. But, I believe that the Flag God can only punish those who only take the path they think is right. God cannot defeat those who take all kinds of detours and wrong paths."

"[Hermes' Travel Hat] is not a lucky thing that came out of nowhere relying on the teleportation tower network. It was born after a god, a group of people, and many people walked for a very long time."

(End of this chapter)