Chapter 764.1: Wild Joy

The 20,000,000 shares sold out on the very first day.

The following day, the Dawn City Stock Exchange opened trading in the freely tradable shares. The large screens inside the hall displayed Baiyue Strait Development Company’s buy orders, sell orders, and transaction prices in real time.

Since it was the only stock listed on the entire exchange, Baiyue Strait Development Company had almost involuntarily become the focus of everyone’s attention.

As the transaction price repeatedly reached new highs, investor enthusiasm briefly lost all sense of reason. The market’s circuit breaker was triggered several times, and trading was suspended for even longer than it remained open.

In a corner of the hall, a resident from Ideal City stared at the continuously soaring price with widened eyes, disbelief written all over his face. He was the representative of the institution that had advised Baiyue Strait Development Company on its public listing.

After studying Baiyue Strait Development Company’s businesses, he had anticipated a sharp rise following the public offering, but he had never imagined the situation would become so exaggerated.

In Ideal City, there had never been a stock that doubled immediately after listing. If such a thing ever happened, it could only mean that the auditors had failed in their duties and set the offering price far too low!

However, he was certain Baiyue Strait Development Company’s present situation was not the result of his own lack of professionalism. A price-to-earnings ratio of 20 was admittedly a little low for such a high-growth company, but nowhere near low enough to justify something so absurd.

That left only one other explanation... Dawn City’s investors had all gone insane!

“... If I had known this would happen, I would’ve applied for an identity card when I came here on vacation at the beginning of the year!” The institutional representative could not help lamenting.

Watching the crazed price action made his fingers itch, but without an identity card, he could only watch from the sidelines.

Standing beside him was an expert from Camp 101, who was also one of the designers of the Dawn City Stock Exchange’s trading rules. Hearing the representative’s lament, the expert smiled. “You already earn plenty, don’t you? And you’re still eyeing the little bit of money in ordinary people’s pockets?”

“That’s different.” The representative shook his head. “Can money earned through work possibly feel the same as money picked up for free?” After a brief pause, he could not help but continue, “Are you really not considering lifting the eligibility restrictions? I guarantee that countless investors from Ideal City would pour in carrying money. You could raise several times as much as you have now! Perhaps even dozens of times more!”

Compared with Dawn City, Ideal City was actually a far more suitable location for Baiyue Strait Development Company’s listing. It had not only a much larger pool of capital, but also resources far more abundant than those available in the New Alliance.

The expert from Camp 101 revealed a faint smile. “Currency is only a tool, and money is only a number. Our administrator said that we have used a series of measures to distribute society’s productive capacity. Now, the profits generated by that production must also be distributed among the people who created the wealth. Naturally, they should be given to the New Alliance’s citizens.”

“The administrator’s instruction was that, when circumstances are appropriate, we will allow investors from outside the New Alliance to participate in trading. However, that must wait until the Dawn City Stock Exchange’s rules have matured and its capital pool has reached a sufficient scale... Clearly, that time is not now.”

The institutional representative shook his head regretfully and sighed. “By then, the price will probably have risen into the heavens. Ideal City’s institutions aren’t fools. They won’t come here just to hold the bag.”

The Camp 101 expert nodded, acknowledging his point, but offered a different perspective. “But if we allowed all of you in now, you would devour our investors whole. All the wealth they created would end up in your pockets, and that is something our administrator does not wish to see. There is no solution in this world that offers the best of both possibilities. We can make countless assumptions, but we can only choose one of them to act upon.”

“I understand.” The representative nodded, staring enviously at the numbers jumping upward. “I only hope you’ll be ready soon...”

In truth, the residents of Ideal City were not the ones who envied the situation most. That distinction belonged to the merchants from other regions of the wasteland.

The merchants from the Bugra Free State in particular looked as though green light might burst from their eyes. The word “envy” was practically written across their faces. They understood Baiyue Strait Development Company’s businesses even better than Dawn City’s own residents did!

This enormous conglomerate was backed by two gigantic industrial bases. It not only controlled Baiyue Province, a resource-rich source of raw materials, but also possessed access to the abundant mineral deposits of the Poro Province. Its business operations covered fully one-third of the Central Continent!

Not only that, but more than a hundred New Alliance companies, including the the Bull and Horse Group, Boulder Town Arms Industry, Goblin Technology, and Factory 81 had also opened overseas markets alongside this colossus as it expanded onto the world stage.

Now, the enormous enterprise had also caught the favorable winds of the Mutant Slime Mold Research Committee. Its influence continued to expand alongside that of the New Alliance! All anyone needed to do was move a finger, fill in a form, and become a shareholder in the gigantic enterprise!

Forget an offering price of 10 Silver. Even if the offering price had been 100 Silver, they would have opened their wallets without hesitation! After all, if such an outstanding enterprise were based in the Bugra Free State, it would never have been undervalued to this degree. Its offering price would have been at least several tens of thousands!

The overwhelmingly powerful Flintstone Group would take the first succulent bite. The puppet entities it kept on leashes would take the second. Meanwhile, the compromised auditors and regulators would give its financial statements a green light, allowing them to shape excrement into a cake and serve it on the table under the name of chocolate. By the time ordinary people were finally allowed to buy in, all they could do was hold the bags for those powerful figures and drink their fill of nothing but beer foam.

As for genuinely high-quality assets, they would find some way to package them into shell companies and sell them in Ideal City for CR. Only then would they put a little effort into keeping the accounts honest.

After all, Ideal City was difficult to deceive. Buying off the Highest Council would cost so much that they might as well purchase the entirety of Ideal City itself! The thought alone was far too unrealistic.

Yet envy was still only envy. As merchants who spent most of their lives traveling, they possessed New Alliance bank cards but not the identity cards that proved citizenship. Even if investment immigration channels existed, it was already too late to make use of them...

Thus, they could only watch.

A merchant from the Bugra Free State could not help muttering sourly. “Selling it this cheaply... They’re obviously just trying to buy support from the people.”

“Exactly,” another salesman muttered. “10 Silver... One hour’s work is enough to buy one share. They might as well give the entire company to the poor.”

The mercenary beside them nodded sagely. A profound light of foolish wisdom shone in his clear eyes. “Exactly. Giving everyone dividends is the same as giving no one dividends. If they keep doing this, sooner or later they’ll become just like us... The dividends won’t even keep up with a fraction of inflation.”

At the same time, several players wearing blue coats stood outside the exchange, also staring at the numbers jumping across the screen with delighted expressions.

“Good grief! 20 Silver?!”

“It doubled!”

“Holy crap...”

“Man, I wish I were an NPC.”

“Getting transmigrated into the game, huh?”

“Give it a rest. With a slut like you, would you even survive two arcs if you really got transported into the game?”

“Fuck! Can’t I just keep a low profile?”

“Come to think of it, is it possible that some of the NPCs are actually transmigrators or regressors?”

Listening to the group of newbies spouting nonsense, Beating Tiger teased them while laughing. “So, if they did, that person has already read the script in advance, so now they’re sitting here buying Baiyue Strait Development Company shares, right?”

Makka Pakka burst out laughing. “Hahahaha! Your imagination is insane!”

The two of them were not particularly interested in Baiyue Strait Development Company’s stock, nor were they short of money. While Baiyue Strait Development Company had been opening up the Southern Front, they had already raised all their farming-related profession levels to LV9 and purchased an enormous tract of land north of West Continent City, where they had established a vast farm.

Perhaps one day, the farm they operated would also be listed in the exchange. Wouldn’t that be much more satisfying than buying someone else’s shares?

“Is there any point in all of you staring at this? You can’t even buy it,” Teng Teng muttered as she passed the players crowding around the entrance.

A newbie replied with a shameless grin. “I understand the logic, but it still feels great to watch.”

Just then, a startled shout came from the entrance. “30 Silver!”

The man snapped his head back around and joined the others in cheering.

“Awesome!”

“Beautifully done!!”

“GOAL! Uh... I mean, great that the stock price is rising!”

Teng Teng could not help placing a hand against her forehead and muttering under her breath. “These people have already gone insane...”

Yaya raised an eyebrow slowly. “Huh?... Were they ever normal?”

Teng Teng thought for a moment before nodding. “Uh... Fair point.”

...

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