Dragon, choose cultural victory to make money

Chapter 182: The Fall of the Silver City

Silver City-State, City Lord’s Mansion.

The city lord stood on the balcony, facing the sunset, with his hands behind his back. The golden afterglow sprinkled on his crown, making him look noble and elegant.

In the room behind him was Antinoya, who had just returned from the Twin Towers City.

"The children of the Holy Tree must have achieved excellent results in the sword-forging competition, right?" asked the city lord.

"Uh, it's okay." Antinoya answered after thinking for a moment.

"What do you mean it's OK?" The city lord turned around, his expressionless face well concealing his inner emotions, "Didn't they compare the results?"

"Not really, the results are out."

"What about the result?"

"The final round hasn't ended yet. The last two contestants still have one week to choose their own materials and forge swords according to the rules to decide who will be the champion of the first round." Antinoya explained.

The city lord nodded, "So the competition is not over yet."

"Yes." Antinoya breathed a sigh of relief.

The city lord continued to ask: "Who will enter the final round?"

He really cares about the outcome of the competition with the dwarves.

As a senior city lord with a term of office of one hundred years, he has vaguely realized the dangers lurking beneath the glamorous surface of the Silver City-State.

We also hope that this competition will increase the recognition of elf craftsmanship among the general public.

Although Elf now occupies the high-end market and the unit price of each piece sold is very high, it does not have very high income due to low shipment volume.

In fact, the dwarves who look like they are suffering do not earn as much as they do.

The comfort we have now is entirely due to the fact that we have food to eat.

If Magic Vision is really as popular as rumored, it might help the elves open up the mid-range market.

As long as the economy is doing well, most problems will not be problems.

It would be best if he could use this wave of profits to get re-elected, as his advantage is not obvious now that the election is approaching.

There were several young Elf Chosen who were popular and posed a real threat to him.

He urgently needs some new political achievements to prove his ability.

Is it the craftsmen’s credit that they opened up the market?

Without his wise leadership, would the craftsmen have been able to achieve such great success?

Besides, who made the decision to let the craftsmen in the city participate in the competition?

As for how big the problems will be after he leaves office, the Silver City-State, which is dazzled by the brief economic revival, will have.

That has little to do with him.

Trust in the wisdom of future generations of elves.

He does not have Saint El's sense of responsibility for the future of the elven race.

"Well, the final result is probably, just like that, you know." Antinoya said with embarrassment.

"You can't tell me the result?" The city lord understood.

Antinoya nodded hurriedly, "All members participating in the program have signed a confidentiality agreement."

The city lord turned the ring on his hand. Although breaking the contract was somewhat against the principles of the elves, it also depended on the situation.

In principle it is not allowed, but it is allowed sometimes.

"I ask, and you just nod and shake your head."

Antinoya widened her eyes. Is this possible?
The city lord asked, "Are there any elf players who have made it to the final round?"

Antinoya's neck suddenly froze. She wanted to nod, but she uncontrollably drew two circles with her head.

"Ah?" The city lord was confused.

"That won't work either."

"What about writing it down?"

Antinoya tried, "It still doesn't work."

The city lord was shocked. Who on earth could have made this contract and plugged the loopholes so completely?

It is not necessary to know the result, but since the other party has used a contract of this level, I have to find out.

Rebellious in old age.

"Will you allow me to obtain your memories of the time you participated in the competition?" asked the city lord.

In addition to being the city lord, he is also a decent wizard and has a good grasp of memory magic, which is what the elves are good at.

"No problem." Antinoya replied that there was nothing in her memories of that period that was inconvenient to show.

The city lord cast a spell, and just as the scene in his memory appeared, he saw the place where he passed through the teleportation array and arrived at the recording site.

The entire scene was replaced before the teleporting light even dissipated.

It turned completely black, and then a red box appeared at the top with white words written inside.

Drogo Group warned.

Below are a few rows of small characters.

The confidentiality agreement stipulates that anyone who reproduces, distributes or publicly exhibits the unpublished works of the Zhuoge Group without permission will be severely punished...

The city lord looked at this scene and felt the nerves around his eyes throbbing.

Why do they even know the memory spell? Isn't this the elves' specialty spell?

Have some elves already been corrupted by Drogo's group?
Damn it! How could there be such a depraved elf?

If he were to see that elf, he would have to give him a good education as the Lord of the Silver City-State.

But it’s not over yet.

After the warning screen ended, a strange short clip was cut in.

“Want to watch the fierce sword-forging competition? Want to know the result of the craftsmanship showdown between the elves and the dwarves? Come to the Drogo Group store at No. 4 Tulip Street in the Silver City to buy the latest magic vision machine! The new store is open, and you can enjoy a 8% discount in the first week of purchase!”

The memory screen ends.

Advertisement? Is this an ad?

The city lord felt his nerves throbbing even more violently.

As the head of the Silver City-State, how could he be played around by others?

This feeling of powerlessness reminded him of the fear he felt hundreds of years ago when he saw a giant red dragon descend from the sky.

What's the name of that red dragon?

It seems to be Drogo too.

That's impossible. Why would a red dragon send elves to compete with dwarves?

At most, it will harvest both populations together.

Coincidence, it must be a coincidence.

The city lord walked down the balcony and told the human servants in the city lord's mansion, "Go to that specialty store and buy a magic vision machine."

The servant leaves.

"There is one more thing." Antinoya was a little hesitant whether to say it now. It seemed that the city lord was not in a good mood.

"what's up?"

"That's it, Simon, you know."

"That talented craftsman?" The city lord had an impression of this name. The city lord's crown was made by their family.

If I remember correctly, his father seemed to have gone crazy and caused the biggest explosion in the city in hundreds of years.

"What's up with him?"

"He," Antinoya glanced at the city lord awkwardly, and said after a few seconds: "He is in the Forge Castle now, learning the dwarven forging process?"

"What did you say?" The city lord finally couldn't hold back anymore and showed a puzzled expression, "Could Simon be the elf who entered the final round?"

Antinoya couldn't answer.

But the city lord saw clearly that it was Simon.

Finally some news came out.

"Why does he want to learn from the dwarves?" The city lord couldn't figure it out.

"He said he wanted to pursue the technology of his dreams."

"The technology that the elves dream of is dwarven technology?"

It's over, it's over.

The city lord is numb.

The result of the sword-forging competition is no longer important. Win or lose, the elves will lose.

Lose, it’s the elf that’s not good enough.

Win, it’s because the dwarf taught me well.

He had no doubt that the dwarves would think so and promote it, no matter what Simon had learned and whether it was useful for the competition. Then the dwarven craftsmanship would gain higher recognition and further seize the elf market.

The city-state's economy had problems, and all the hidden problems were exposed.

He became a failed city lord.

"Okay, let's stop here for today's report on the sword-forging competition."

The city lord waved his hand, indicating that Antinoya could leave now.

After the craftsman representative walked out of the room, the city lord sat down on the chair helplessly. Because of the minimalist decoration style, there were no comfortable chairs in the mansion.

I feel like everything is against me.

It is not acceptable to put a comfortable chair in the mansion. As the city lord, he cannot abandon the aesthetic tradition of the elves, otherwise he will be strongly resisted by conservatives.

Then, without their votes, the city lord would no longer be the city lord.

Tired.

He was only over 500 years old, who knew being a city lord would cause so much trouble.

The system of universal citizen voting to elect him as the city lord seems to be a stumbling block that hinders the city-state's changes, and this is also one of the hidden problems.

But he no longer wanted to think about how to change the status quo.

He just wanted the servant to come back, not to buy the magic video machine, and not to watch the sword-forging competition.

But given his identity and status, if he goes back on his word after buying something, it might affect his image.

How about portraying Drogo Group's products as something hostile to the elves?

Creating an external enemy can effectively unite the residents of the city-state.

As the core figure who unites all parties, he will naturally become the next leader.

Genius idea!
Oh, what can those young elves who are three or four hundred years old use to fight him? Just learn from them one by one.

What crime should be charged against the Drogo Group?

They want to disrupt the elf market, destroy the elf traditions, and replace the excellent elf culture with a straightforward and overly entertaining culture, so that future elves will even have the same aesthetic as the dwarves.

If elves have lost their cultural superiority, can they still be considered real elves?

This sentence is good and can be used as a slogan.

This is a culture war!
Theme, the theme is there.

As for why the city lord who boycotted the products of the Drogo Group had a magic video machine in his home.

Do you understand critical research? As a leader, you naturally need to understand your enemies.

The city lord was very satisfied with his plan. He would go to personally criticize the Drogo Group's store in the city later.

at the same time.

Tulip Street, in the Drogo Group’s store in the Silver City-State.

The store manager was playing tic-tac-toe with himself out of boredom.

Although there are a lot of game consoles in the store, he has played them all and is now out of games.

As a store manager, I have so much time to play games entirely because of this store, which has no business at all.

Thinking back to a month ago, when he was notified of his promotion to become the group's Silver City Region Sales General Manager, he was so excited that he couldn't speak.

He came to the city-state happily and opened a shop.

After seeing how wealthy the elves were, he was full of hope to make something of himself here.

He became the sales champion in all regions of the group, received promotion and salary increase, and reached the peak of his life.

However, the reality went against one's wishes. Although the elves were rich, they seemed to have no desire to spend.

It’s not that he didn’t organize any publicity activities. All the activities he learned while studying in Twin Towers City were replicated in the Silver City-State.

Useless.

Now he was not sure whether these elves were interested in these things or not.

The elves that were brought in for activities were all very easy to talk to. When asked if they wanted to buy them, they all said yes but they would think about it.

Then, as soon as I thought about it, there was no news.

However, these activities are not completely ineffective and still attract some people.

For example, humans, orcs, dragon people, dwarves, etc. who work in the city.

This store is filled up every day.

It seems like business is good.

But these people came to the Silver City-State to work and earn money, not to consume.

Every day when I come, I squat next to the magic video machine and start watching it.

Even a seat reservation service has been developed.

The store manager thought that if someone else could make this money, why didn’t he make it himself? Even if it was a little, it was still a little.

As a result, when they saw that Magic Vision was charging a fee, those people stopped entering the store.

But I still came and squatted outside the store.

Then the telescope rental service was born.

He owns a shop, he can't keep the door closed all day.

Even if the store is closed, there is a magic video player in the window that plays videos 24 hours a day.

This is written in the detailed plan for the construction of authorized stores of the Zhuoge Group.

Each type of store of Zhuoge Group has a very specific set of decoration and operation regulations.

We strive to ensure that no matter where someone sees such a store, they can directly associate it with the Zhuoge Group. This is called the brand effect.

One of the rules is that the magic video machine in the window must always be turned on.

In the end, I had to cancel the plan of charging for watching Magic Video in the store.

It is always better to have people in the store than no one in the store. False prosperity is still prosperity.

When a new store opens in Shuangta City, there are few stores that are willing to pay a large group of people to queue up.

After playing tic-tac-toe with myself 22 times, I won 22 times in a row and lost 22 times in a row.

The store manager stood up. The evening sun was so dazzling that he felt a little dizzy.

Today was supposed to be a day worth celebrating.

The first order since the opening was sold. A man dressed as a servant came to the store and bought a magic video machine.

When he first came in, he thought it was just another freeloader.

However, at this moment, people in the store seemed to notice something and left with their heads down.

"What's going on?" the store manager asked, but no one answered.

He followed her out of the store and saw a stage set up across the street with an elf on it.

A banner was also hoisted.

It reads "Beware of the Drogo Group's low-level cultural entertainment that is harming elven civilization."

what is this?
We want to boycott the Drogo Group, but this is the result we get after all this activity?
He looked again and realized that he knew the elf on the stage.

If you are doing business, you must know the important political figures in the city.

The person on the stage is one of the candidates for the city lord election to be held in two years.

These elves also have problems. Their election cycle lasts for decades.

Just as he was about to take a closer look at what was happening, he saw another elf walking towards him from the other end of the street.

This one is more familiar, he is the current city lord.

what's going on?
When some candidates boycotted the Drogo Group, he was not very panicked. The candidates shouted all kinds of weird slogans.

Whether it can be selected or not, and whether it can be implemented or not, are all uncertain.

But now seeing the city lord, he was indeed a little panicked.

If the entire city-state really boycotted the Drogo Group, it would not be something he, a district manager, could handle.

While the store manager was stunned, the city lord also panicked.

He also noticed the set up platform.

What happened? The election idea that I had finally come up with was preempted by other elves?

So what did he choose?

At this time, he noticed the store manager standing outside the store.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

As a political elf, one naturally needs to have a flexible stance.

He walked to the store manager and said, "I want to plan an event called the Cultural Exchange Promotion Week between the Silver City and the Drogo Group. In order to encourage cultural exchanges, I will, as a representative of the elves, first purchase 100 Magic Vision machines and give them to the elves who want to participate in the event week. What do you think?"

(End of this chapter)