A Black Market LitRPG

Chapter 10: Negotiations

"To negotiate, of course." Kyle spoke clearly, causing Haui to raise his eyebrows.

"I don't think one needs seven gang members to perform a rudimentary negotiation."

"Negotiations require an even playing field." Kyle nodded his head at the guards.

A slight smirk appeared on Haui's face, his expression confident. "I doubt your members are as prepared as my private guards. Are you sure these are the only guards I have prepared?"

"Then you would just have to account for me as well."

The two stared at each other for a brief moment, before Haui finally broke out laughing. "Very good. Come in."

Only the two of them entered the store, with the gang members and the guards staring each other down outside.

"I must say, I did not expect you to be the leader of the Seven Snakes gang. I merely thought Damian was paid a few rakels to escort a foreign individual of note around, seeing as how he had to explain everything to you." Haui sat behind the counter, arranging his robes.

"I also did not expect you to have paid for observers around the district as well." Kyle paced around the store slowly, looking at some of the potions he had not examined the last time he came.

"The Seven Snakes can't be the only ones having members patrolling, can they? My business depends on who runs the district. But let's cut the crap."

Haui's demeanour suddenly changed, his eyes glaring at Kyle with ferocity. "You've been undercutting my potions through the brothel and now flooding the market with knockoffs via the Red Lions. Even if Wrent is from another district, the fluctuations in market price would directly affect me and upset the established rule of the Alchemist Guild."

Haui stood up and paced around, picking up a chisel and twirling it in his hands. "There was a myriad of ways I could have gone about this. The moment I heard about the brothel providing half-priced Stamina potions through a ... 'loyalty' program, I contemplated an assassination or a kidnapping."

"Except you didn't."

"Indeed. I understand that for you to reverse engineer my potions that fast, you must have an extremely impressive skill or ability to decipher the closely guarded recipes of the Alchemist Guild without external help. Maybe even a device that can do it for you." Haui replied. "And the mass production scale is on the level of factories, something the Alchemist Guild is clamping down hard on to maintain the high price margins. As such, you are extremely valuable as long as you are able to evade detection. If I sent anyone to kill you, it would be a loss for me. I don't believe any organisation I hire would be willing to kill you if they found out the true reason behind the contract." Haui sighed.

"And I can't kill you myself because you are extremely well protected. I doubt this is the full extent of your security forces as well. I would not want to anger the Alchemist Guild either." Kyle replied. This was why he didn't simply just run over and kill Haui – it was far too costly, and he did not know the full extent of Haui's backing.

Haui was a bit surprised before a broad smile appeared on his face. "It appears that we are quite alike, you and me. Neither party can truly eliminate the other; even if we try to, the consequences are far too brutal. So here we are."

"What is your proposal?"

"From my observations, you can't create new potion recipes, seeing as you don't have any formal alchemist training or connections. However, your competence with reverse engineering and mass production gives me great insight into how to target a wider audience and potentially profit off the common people, not just the upper middle class or leaders of gangs. How about this? For every potion you reverse engineer from me, you must provide me with half of the profits indefinitely."