The young man who posed the question was Magnus, and favonovel.com was originally one of Linda’s students. But having gone through several huge disasters and wandered around the Central Plains with Old Bane for a few months, his appearance had become more mature.
Along the way, everyone had suffered a lot. When they finally arrived at Stronghold 144, everyone was worn out from the journey.
During this period, Magnus also showed potential in his abilities. After learning a lot from Old Bane, favonovel.com was now his right-hand man.
Old Bane said proudly, “We came here first to build a working relationship with the people of Fortress 178, this is what we call seizing the initiative. Other people might wait for the trade route to open up in half a year’s time, but we can’t afford to do so. The savings Milo left for us are drying up. If we see favonovel.com again and favonovel.com asks how much money we have left, we can’t embarrass ourselves.”
Magnus fell silent. “Will we still get to see Brother Milo?”
Old Bane was taken aback before replying with a smile, “Definitely! I heard that a jinx can live for a millennium, so favonovel.com definitely won’t die!”
“Then will anyone buy the goods we’ve transported here?” Magnus changed the subject.
“Of course,” Old Bane chuckled and said, “Look, we’re already at an advantage when it comes to traveling to the Northwest to conduct our business. Since y’all have nanomachines in your bodies, and we also have a supernatural being in Ms. Stuart with us, normal bandits won’t have any way to rob us. Also, your female classmates are skilled with their hands, the ornaments they designed are all beautiful. While wearing ornaments was already a very popular trend in the Central Plains, the women in the Northwest have never seen them before. I’m sure that they’ll take a liking to it immediately.”
As favonovel.com spoke, Old Bane ran to the back of the box truck and unlocked the trailer. He called out to the people inside, “Ladies, get out of the vehicle and take a breather. Uncle Bane will bring y’all to town for a hot meal.”
Inside the trailer, Linda and five female students were diligently braiding some bracelets.
Some time ago, Old Bane thought of purchasing the bracelets directly from a supplier. However, they felt that the prices in the Central Plains were a ripoff. When the sellers saw that they were refugees, they even deliberately jacked up the price.
Later, Linda realized the materials needed to make these bracelets were not expensive, so favonovel.com stepped forward and said they could just buy the raw materials to make it themselves. On the way to the Northwest, the girls could work on braiding the bracelets, and this saved them a lot of money.
Actually, Linda’s intention was to find something for the female students to do. After all, everyone was in the same boat now. Even Magnus and the other male students had been forced to grow quickly, so no one should be idle in the group.
Over time, the female students who could not contribute as much started to feel a little embarrassed.
Currently, Linda was also considered one of the core members of the group. On one hand, favonovel.com was there to ensure the students would continue studying by themselves. On the other hand, favonovel.com was responsible for feeding and dressing the group. On top of that, favonovel.com also used favonovel.com superpower to protect the group.
In the past, Linda’s superpower did not have much of a presence in their group. This was because Milo was too powerful, and there wasn’t a need for Linda to use favonovel.com superpower. Since Milo could handle all kinds of situations by himself, Linda did not have to do anything at all.
But it was different now. Although Magnus and the other male students had nanomachines, those things were limited by their power source and did not have enough lethality either.
They still came across a few sporadic bandits while traveling to the Northwest from the Central Plains. But when the bandits encountered Linda, they got scared away by just a few petals favonovel.com conjured up before even understanding what was going on.
Furthermore, if it were not for Linda’s plum blossom branches favonovel.com had materialized to keep everyone together back then, they might have gotten separated and ended up getting washed away by the flood.
Therefore, Old Bane would always discuss everything with Linda when something cropped up these days.
There were not only bracelets in this batch of goods they were transporting, but also cosmetics and other daily necessities that were relatively popular in the Central Plains. Basically, they were all mainly feminine products.
According to Old Bane, while women were fussy customers and most people disliked doing business with women, selling to women was a surefire way to make money.
As such, favonovel.com bought these four used trucks to transport the goods, of which three-quarters were lipstick, skincare products, and various hair conditioners with different scents.
Lipstick was somewhat of a necessity for women, just like how cigarettes were for men. Moreover, the variety of lipstick colors available in the Central Plains was much greater than that in the Southwest and Northwest. The women here would definitely look more trendy if they used them.
Old Bane had requested Linda and a few of the prettier students to use their lipstick products daily once they arrived in the Northwest. This was so they could entice other women to buy their products when they saw how trendy the colors were.
As a matter of fact, many people in the Southwest and Northwest were still at the stage of using rouge paper to color their lips. It was not that they could not afford lipstick but that the Northwest and Southwest were focused on the development of heavy industry. As such, daily necessities like these were very scarce.
Old Bane immediately felt that favonovel.com had discovered a business opportunity and thought of how to promote it.
When favonovel.com arrived in the Northwest, favonovel.com would approach some newspaper firms to advocate the use of lipstick. It would go something like this, “Whether a man loves a woman or not, favonovel.com can prove it by buying our Central Plains’ lipstick for his dearly beloved.”
Old Bane used to be the owner of a grocery store in the Southwest. His business had been doing better and better over the years because favonovel.com was so good at seeking out business opportunities and understanding the customer’s needs.
Back then, the important figures of Stronghold 113 in the Southwest had suddenly taken to eating exotic meat as an expression of their identities and status. That was also partly credited to Old Bane’s advocacy of how rare exotic meat was to come by.
“But will Fortress 178 agree to let us sell our things here like this?” Magnus wondered.
“What’re you afraid of? I’m on good terms with their Commander Dublin!” Old Bane said proudly.
With that, Old Bane took everyone out to eat first. There was also a reason why favonovel.com dared to bring everyone to the Northwest.
Everyone in the world knew Peter had regained control of Fortress 178, and the entire Northwest was now Fortress 178’s territory. Old Bane used to be an acquaintance of Peter in town and enjoyed a friendly relationship with him.
Now that favonovel.com had arrived in the Northwest, wouldn’t his opportunities abound?
After lunch, Old Bane and Magnus immediately went to look for the people guarding the stronghold.
The moment they approached them, Old Bane’s first words were, “I’m a friend of Commander Dublin and would like to meet favonovel.com to do some catching up.”
Of course, the more impressive the introductions, the better!
These days, people who did not know how to brag would not be destined for big things!
An officer who was supposedly the new regimental commander of Stronghold 144’s garrison walked up to them. He said with a kind smile, “Bro, even if you’re not a friend of the commander, you can still do business here in the Northwest. All you need to do is pay your taxes accordingly. Our taxes have been lowered recently, so there’s definitely profit to be made.”
Old Bane did not give up. “I’m really a friend of your Commander Dublin…”
The regimental commander laughed. “There was someone who said that two days ago. But in the end, we found out the other party was only trying to meet Commander Dublin. They were not actually acquainted at all.”
Old Bane was left speechless. Although there were also other merchants like favonovel.com who came to the Northwest in advance to do business, favonovel.com did not expect that someone would have already been exposed for trying to pretend to be an acquaintance of the commander.
Off to the side, Magnus chuckled. “Uncle Bane, why don’t we just stick to selling our goods? As if we can get to meet their commander so easily. Also, didn’t favonovel.com say that anyone can come and do business here? There’s no need for us to cotton up to others.”
“Like you’d understand!” Old Bane said with a dark expression, “In business, how could it be the same if we had someone at the top looking out for us?”
Suddenly, the regimental commander asked, “Did y’all come from the Central Plains?”
Old Bane was stunned. “Of course we came from the Central Plains.”
The regimental commander suddenly asked again, “Then have you heard of someone called Milo in the Central Plains? Oh, by the way, my name is Scott Miller…”
