Another peaceful day at the 99th floor conference room of [My Home Tower]!
"Alright! It's time for another fun and exciting meeting!"
"Fun... you say...?"
"Ms. Tricia, are you perhaps experiencing some mental issues?"
"No, I can make jokes too, you know."
Tricia tried to lighten the mood with a casual joke, but when an awkward atmosphere settled instead, she quickly clarified.
"Anyway! We do have a set agenda for today, but before that, if anyone has questions or concerns, please speak up first!"
Today's meeting agenda was to discuss what methods should be used to import Earth's food into the Tower through Climbers!
Still, before diving into the main discussion, Tricia wanted to first check if there were any inconveniences in Tower life or issues with Tower operations.
First, Shephid raised her hand and spoke.
"No Climbers have come up to the floor I'm in charge of!"
"That's because your floor is too high, so don't worry. And we're planning to open several of your floors as rest areas soon."
"Yay!"
Shephid beamed with joy like a young child.
Next, Flora raised her hand.
"The land has expanded so much that I've greatly enlarged my fields. Would it be possible to import various seeds and seedlings from Earth?"
"That's a good idea, isn't it? We're planning to discuss the process of purchasing Earth's food and goods through Climbers later. We can include that too."
Then Wang Jjin-ppang wiggled his slime body and said,
"Earth food? I really want to try it!"
"Curious, right? Once you actually taste it, it'll be easier to recreate it perfectly."
Wang Jjin-ppang, who had succeeded in recreating many Earth foods similarly thanks to Tricia.
Unable to contain his excitement at finally being able to taste and study the real originals, he was wiggling his body this way and that.
"So, are there any other matters?"
At that moment, Zergos and Lilithis stood up from their seats simultaneously.
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"Actually... there is one important matter."
"I've been discussing this with Zergos since yesterday too, so I'll speak up now."
In the suddenly serious atmosphere, Zergos spoke first.
"The prices of items being sold on the 12th floor, including the [Holy Water of the Majestic Angel], are... judged to be set far too low based on Earth's market rates."
"...Huh?"
At Zergos's statement, Tricia asked back with a momentarily flustered expression.
"Wait, that can't be right? At first they bought a lot, but recently the holy water has barely been selling. And you're saying it's too cheap?"
As Tricia said, when Climbers first appeared on the 12th floor, they scraped together every coin they had to buy the holy water.
But in the past two days, the holy water had barely sold at all!
"I'll explain the reason for that."
Lilithis continued the explanation in place of Zergos.
"This is information the succubi on the 39th floor obtained through 'conversations' with Climber customers, but recently something called the 'government'—basically, an organization like a kingdom or empire's central administration—seems to be trying to intervene."
"...The government is intervening?"
Thanks to information gathering through the succubi, Lilithis was able to quickly learn of the government's involvement.
"Yes, it seems they're already controlling the distribution of items including the holy water."
"Wait, that's a really serious problem."
To summarize, it meant that due to the government's full-scale market intervention, the Climbers' actual purchasing power had greatly decreased.
"That's not all. There's also information that the government is gathering Tower Coins to make a bulk purchase of holy water soon. In other words—it seems they're planning to hoard our goods and resell them at high prices for profit..."
Lilithis said in a somewhat worried voice.
"At this rate, we'll lose control over distribution and could be reduced to merely a means for one country's profit."
If the government continued its control, it meant a situation could arise where they'd have to rely solely on the government's purchasing power for all goods transactions.
If this happened, not only would they completely lose control of distribution, but proper profit recovery would also become impossible.
"So you're saying the price is so excessively cheap that the government has to control it...?"
"Right, you understand exactly."
"Even considering that, doesn't the response speed seem too fast?"
"That must mean the holy water's price is dealing a significant blow to the outside economy, right?"
Tricia had simply set the price based on the fragmentary knowledge that cancer treatment costs roughly 50 million won.
If anything, she'd set and sold the price with the feeling of doing secondhand transactions on Electric Market or Oi Market!
However, because the [Holy Water of the Majestic Angel], which could cure even incurable diseases with no known treatment, had a value far beyond imagination, the problem of government intervention erupted!
If this situation was left alone, all the supplies coming from Tricia's house would be used as a money-making tool for the state.
But if she rashly raised the price now?
There's a saying in the world that taking something away after giving it is more unfair than never giving it in the first place!
A sudden price increase would not only provoke backlash from Climbers who had purchased items cheaply until now, but could even cause major friction with the government.
Naturally, from Tricia's perspective, this entire situation was just bewildering.
"I want to sell my stuff cheaply! Why is the government controlling that!"
"I believe the problem is the price being far too cheap compared to the effects."
"In Eriel, I sold it even cheaper than this..."
At that time, Eriel already had resurrection and healing magic widely spread, so even when Tricia's holy water was distributed at much cheaper prices, no major problems occurred.
Of course, there was also the influence of people in Eriel deifying and worshipping Tricia...
Anyway, it was a situation where some countermeasure needed to be devised even now.
Zergos approached Tricia and pulled out a thick bundle of documents from his chest.
"It's alright, I've already prepared a countermeasure of sorts."
"Oh? Really?"
Tricia received the documents Zergos handed over and quickly skimmed through them.
To summarize the document's contents, it was a method of imposing a certain amount of 'tariff' when trading goods with the government.
Even during her time living in Eriel, there was precedent for imposing tariffs based on distance or demand when trading with other kingdoms, so it was a reasonably realistic and appropriate countermeasure.
"Wait, the holy water transaction section says 'impose a tariff of at least 5 times for general transactions that don't specify a special purpose'?"
The problem was that because the original price was absurdly low, the tariff variance became that severe.
"Yes, actually it's still cheap even then... but the central administration called the government will never accept this price."
"Then doesn't that make it meaningless?"
"That's why I introduced mitigation conditions. For example, there's also a merciful policy included that greatly reduces tariffs for cases like 'treatment of incurable disease patients.'"
"If they purchase for treating incurable disease patients, there's almost no tariff? If they buy for this reason, I can sell it cheaply too."
If this tariff could be properly applied, Tricia thought they could secure some control over distribution even against the government.
But the reality was a bit different.
"However, since we can't leave the Tower... there's no way to verify what purpose the goods were actually used for."
"Right. Even though I gather information through the succubi, it's impossible to completely prevent corruption or embezzlement in advance."
As long as Tricia's group couldn't leave the Tower, there was no way to directly verify that the promise was being kept.
If that happened, the government would continue to lie about the purpose of use and try to purchase holy water only at cheap prices.
They needed some fundamental solution that could secure control over distribution!
"This is a headache. Does anyone else have opinions?"
Thinking alone wouldn't produce an answer.
So Tricia began seeking opinions from her reliable companions.
First, Rukki raised her hand and answered.
"Let's just raise the holy water price tenfold and kill anyone who objects?"
"Rejected!"
"Anyway, it's not us who need the holy water, it's them, right?"
"That is true, but..."
Surprisingly, the opinion Rukki presented was half valid.
However, there were too many potential problems that would erupt afterward, so they decided to shelve it for now.
Next, Yurining raised her hand and answered.
"Then wouldn't it work if we just don't trade with the place called government?"
"Even if we want to, I don't think the government will give up that easily."
The government would surely apply pressure in some way to demand trade.
Third, Shephid raised her hand and answered.
"Couldn't we just subdue everyone with force?"
"Hmm, should we?"
When Tricia agreed as if it were a genuinely good idea, Lilithis interjected.
"How are you going to subdue them with force?"
"If it goes well, I think I could punch a hole in the Tower, but if it goes wrong and causes a [Tower Collapse], that'd be terrible... Should I try it once anyway?"
"Absolutely don't."
"Yes..."
Various other opinions came up, but no particularly good ideas emerged.
In the frustrating flow, Ju Ji-ye, who had been listening to the meeting with her chin propped up and looking indifferent, opened her mouth.
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"We're going to apply the tariff contract anyway, right?"
"Right, we're planning to apply the tariff for now..."
"Then from now on, let's put an unremovable curse on all sold items so that if they violate the contract terms, they receive 'Divine Punishment'?"
"?"
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《This Month's Outstanding Floor Manager - Ju Ji-ye》
