It could be said that as long as Caius sold the orders he held, even the worst-case scenario would guarantee at least a 20% profit.

  The Wargs Gang had clearly been preparing for this commercial endeavor for quite some time—they had a massive amount of goods.

  Just the Magitech Sniper Cannons alone numbered ten units. Each one was priced at 58,000 Gold, totaling 580,000.

  The rest of the Magitech Cannons added up to over a hundred units, each priced in the tens of thousands, with a total value exceeding 3.6 million.

  As long as Caius moved these orders, he could net over 700,000 Gold simply by undercutting slightly on price!

  To put it into perspective, those thirty-odd ships, even if sold with a 30% markdown, would only yield around 500,000 Gold in profit.

  With this batch, Caius would be making 200,000 more in one go.

  But Caius didn’t plan on selling the orders directly like that.

  Right now, he was acting as a middleman—and he intended to use these orders to secure even larger ones!

  “Bro, what’s the next step?” a merchant trailing behind Caius asked.

  Caius chuckled, turned his eyes to the little cat on his shoulder, and asked, “Report ready?”

  Kiki immediately replied, “All done, meow!”

  “Living-use Magitech Devices in Area 14 are the cheapest, followed by Area 29, then 41…”

  “Area 8’s Chamber of Commerce lacks Magitech weapons. The potion dealer in Area 48 wants to procure a large batch of functional Magitech Devices.”

  “The Magitech Cannon vendor in Area 4 is both buying and selling. Their offer price is 40% higher than market, and bulk sales are 30% above. Their buying price is 10% over market—they’re playing the volume game to profit off the difference.”

  “Most of the goods here are priced 20% to 40% higher than the general market…”

  The little cat read the report into Caius’s ear as he nodded in satisfaction.

  All of this had been observed and verbally relayed along the way, along with intel provided by other merchants.

  Kiki’s job was to compile and condense that information, recording it neatly into her little notebook.

  And she clearly had outstanding capabilities—quick-witted, sharp, and precise in her analysis.

  Little Kitty’s ability: Unlocked!

  Caius adored her even more.

  This was the center of the trade fair, where many wealthy individuals gathered, so it was natural that prices were inflated.

  After all, these merchants would do anything to fleece those plump, gold-laden nobles.

  At the same time, you could find many items here that were rarely available in the regular market—so those nobles were more than happy to be fleeced.

  “Alright, your task now is to split into groups and offload these orders to the Magitech Cannon vendors in Area 4,” Caius instructed.

  “They’re buying and selling constantly, making profits by trading in volume. You can offer slight markdowns, but never below 10% under market price. The more you negotiate, the more you earn—it’s up to you.”

  “After you sell the orders, hand over all the deposit tickets to me. I’ll allocate the deposits to secure even more orders.”

  “During this period, keep an eye on other vendors who are both buying and selling. Record the types of goods they deal in and report them to me—the more detailed and accurate, the better. This will directly impact how much you make going forward.”

  From there, things got simpler. Caius would unload all his current orders, using them to obtain deposits, then use those deposits to secure new orders, over and over again.

  His targets were the vendors who engaged in frequent buy-and-sell cycles.

  Then he’d use their goods to trade with those who needed them—either customers or other merchants—and profit off the price gap.

  Rinse and repeat.

  Those vendors typically earned a 30% profit margin per transaction. Caius would give up 10% of that, keeping 20% for himself. The 10% he gave up was for the merchants helping him negotiate.

  The lower they bargained, the more they earned.

  In this way, they happily made their own money while running errands and gathering information for Caius.

  And with that intel, Caius could continuously make real-time adjustments, using the increasingly accumulated deposits to target more goods with high-profit margins.

  This required sharp market control.

  And let’s not forget—Caius’s Giant’s Physique gave him an exceptional memory. In this tightly packed whirlwind of commerce, intelligence was the most vital asset.

  As the operation continued, Caius’s grasp over this micro-market tightened with increasing precision.

  He gradually pulled more merchants into his orbit—every one of them had to route their trades through him.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Caius kept making concessions, eventually flipping the structure so that his errand-running merchants earned the lion’s share while he took a smaller cut.

  But because more and more people joined in and the cycle accelerated, Caius ended up making even more than before.

  But Caius wasn’t just after money. He wanted orders.

  The more trades routed through him, the more orders he controlled simultaneously.

  If someone wanted a particular order, they’d have to come to him.

  And the deposits would flood in. Here, deposits acted as the capital base, effectively doubling one’s purchasing power—only when the goods were delivered would the deposit lose its monetary function.

  So long as Caius could cycle the deposits fast enough, he could keep securing new orders in a continuous stream.

  By the end of it, half of the trade fair’s exhibition areas were under Caius’s control.

  This tactic—Caius had learned it from the corporate trade wars in his previous life.

  Those battles between companies were nothing short of brutal—far scarier than the business conflicts of this world.

  They involved internet infrastructure, rapid-fire trade decisions, and mind-boggling stakes—hundreds of billions at play within minutes. The tactics deployed were ruthless and surgical.

  Land, air, sea, and cyberspace—all linked.

  Planes bombing corporate hubs. Assassins taking out executives. Hackers frying cybernetic implants in employees’ brains.

  Dare to steal my client? I’ll deliver a tactical nuke to your front door.

  Tsk-tsk-tsk… Just thinking about it made his scalp tingle.

  Even just learning the surface-level tactics was more than enough for Caius to dominate the more primitive trade systems of this world.

  What about chaos in the order flow?

  There was no need to worry—every order listed the supplier and delivery location.

  The final buyer simply had to show up at the delivery point at the agreed time to pick up the goods.

  Half of the entire event’s exhibit halls were now Caius’s territory—and that was his absolute limit.

  Even though the Giant’s Physique drastically enhanced his brain’s activity, thought speed, reaction time, and computation ability—allowing him to sustain this overwhelming pace—

  Kiki couldn’t keep up anymore.

  She had essentially become Caius’s external processor, helping him compile and structure all the information gathered.

  At that moment, Kiki was a nervous wreck. Her tail was tightly coiled around Caius’s arm, and her tiny hands were scribbling frantically in her notebook—so fast it was almost smoking.

  Clearly, Kiki had reached her limit.

  But at the same time, it was undeniable proof of just how capable she was.

  Even though it was just basic statistics—with all the analysis, management, and distribution tasks handled by Caius—the work still required lightning-fast reaction speed to keep up with such high-intensity tasks.

  And the Catfolk’s agility did not disappoint.

  “All right, that’ll be the last batch of orders,” Caius said, handing off the final stack of order slips to a group of merchants, stretching his arms afterward.

  Kiki, perched on his shoulder, finally stopped her feverish note-taking.

  “So tired, meow…”

  “My head’s burning up, meow…”

  “Probably overloaded.” Caius chuckled and ruffled her hair. “You did great. Time to rest now—we’ve made more than enough.”

  “And besides… those people have started noticing us.” He turned his gaze to a nearby area, where several officials who had previously been engaged in talks with major merchants were now watching him intently.

  It was inevitable. In just three hours, Caius had gone from a lone trader to the central hub of half the marketplace, single-handedly accelerating the pace of trade.

  The event had been scheduled to run all night.

  But now, before even half the time had passed, many vendors were already packing up and heading home, satisfied with their profits.

  So, who didn’t make money?

  Naturally, it was those in the other half of the exhibition area who failed to keep up with Caius’s tempo, along with some wealthy buyers who nearly got cleaned out trying to keep up.

  In this moment, Caius had become the undeniable center of attention.

  It was impossible not to notice him.

  Of course, it also helped that there was a literal mountain of order slips piled up behind him.

  Yes—orders, not deposits.

  Deposits, after all, ultimately go to the seller. They can’t be held onto.

  Orders, however, were different. With those, Caius effectively became the one issuing the goods.

  So in the second half of the event, Caius changed his strategy. Instead of focusing on gathering deposits, he pivoted toward accumulating orders—using the deposits he’d earned through price arbitrage to double down and purchase even more orders.

  Then he began bartering—orders for orders.

  As a result, every order slip in Caius’s possession now was for Magitech Devices.

  In fact, half of the Magitech weapons across the exhibition area were now in Caius’s hands.

  That half consisted of the goods being sold in the opposite side of the exhibition zone.

  Because they failed to keep pace with Caius’s accelerated trading flow—many of them still hesitating, watching for price trends—they missed their chance to sell at peak prices. In the end, Caius bought up their inventory at significantly lower rates.

  Meanwhile, the other half of the vendors—those who had kept pace—had already completed their trades. Buyers and sellers alike had packed up and left. Anyone still looking to buy Magitech weapons now had only one option:

  Caius.

  Half the exhibit. Dozens of Chambers of Commerce worth of Magitech weapon stock.

  Caius had come in empty-handed—and now he was the single largest Magitech arms dealer at the entire event.

  And the best part? Though he looked like someone stockpiling goods, he wasn’t afraid of being stuck with inventory. He wasn’t worried about moving his stock.

  Because every single one of those orders was obtained through bartering—one order traded for another.

  In other words, he had already received the goods tied to those orders. The balances had been settled through other exchanges.

  He hadn’t spent a single coin on deposits. He’d converted everything into orders.

  Fully paid orders were, for all practical purposes, as good as the actual merchandise.

  As long as he showed up at the delivery point with those order slips, the suppliers were contractually obligated to hand over the goods.

  If they didn’t?

  Then they’d face sanctions from the Merchants’ Guild. And Caius wouldn’t even need to lift a finger—the Guild would recover the goods or their equivalent value in coin for him.

  Even if, by some uncontrollable or exceptional circumstance, nothing came of it… he still wouldn’t lose.

  Because from start to finish, he hadn’t spent a single cent.

  It was a perfect case of “something for nothing”—he started with that first handful of orders and built his empire from there.

  The 500,000 he had in his pocket? Untouched.

  So now, every gaze in the venue turned toward Caius.

  Not far off, Hilda and Britney stood frozen in place, utterly dumbfounded.