As soon as the Human Emperor Banner came out, I became the Lord of the Old Ones

Chapter 223 Already planned
"Having run the Lingka Club for decades, Sheikh Krat is certainly very wealthy, but most of his wealth consists of fixed assets and various accounts receivable and payable. As for the cash that is readily available, that's another matter entirely."

Long Jianhuan looked around and said, "As you can see, the Shattered Star Club is located in the most advantageous central business district of Dawn City. The rent for an ordinary office in this building is astronomical, not to mention the luxurious street-front shops from the first to the third floor."

"Moreover, Sheikh Krat had just recently carried out a complete upgrade of the club. I learned from the bank that the club's financial situation is not optimistic. He has practically staked his life savings on the club, so it's impossible for him to have that much liquid capital to convert into top-grade crystal coins."

"That means he embezzled public funds."

Xu Yan thought for a moment and said, "This matter is not a secret in the industry. Recently, the Shattered Star Club's business has been booming. A large number of customers have been attracted by their ridiculously low discounts and have signed up for long-term membership cards for more than a year. The membership fees they pay are naturally not a small amount."

"Furthermore, many staff members of the Shattered Star Club were also swayed by Sheikh Krat's sweet talk, pulling out their coffins to stick with him through thick and thin, hoping to one day earn back tenfold or a hundredfold."

"But now, with Sheikh Krat's death, all that money has vanished. The Shattered Star Club's ledgers are riddled with holes. Many people, including 'Golden Boy' Carlos, are furious and wish they could resurrect Sheikh Krat, torture him, or even cut him into a thousand pieces!"

"If that's the case, then what attracted the killer to act recklessly must have been this money."

Long Jianhuan pondered, "However, there is still a problem here. How could Sheikh Krat possibly exchange such a large sum of money for such high-purity and rare crystal coins in such a hurry?"
"Thinking about it carefully, his decision to abscond with the money must have been a spur-of-the-moment thing, right?"

"At least a few days before the murder, the doping scandal had not been fully exposed, and the Shattered Star team still had the potential to win the championship. Including Chu Zhifeng losing to Hou Zhijian, it was a low-probability event that no one could predict."

"Sheikh Krat couldn't possibly be a prophet. How could he possibly know that just a few days later, he would fall from grace and end up in such a wretched state?"

"This one……"

Xu Yan seemed to have thought of something.

Long Jianhuan narrowed his eyes and encouraged, "It's okay, whatever you think of, just say it and we'll analyze it together."

"No, I just think the owner of the Shattered Star Club is really strange, especially his series of actions against the Mad Iron Club."

Xu Yan said, "With the death of Sheikh Krat, the Shattered Star Club is about to collapse. The old coaches and players that he bought with a lot of money have become homeless dogs with nowhere to go."

"Wanting to return to the Kuangtie Club is nothing but a pipe dream."

"But their reputation in the industry is already ruined, and if they want to join another club, very few people are willing to hold their noses and hire them."

"These guys get together all day, and when they're drunk, they just sigh and complain, and soon they bring up the salaries and 'transfer fees' that Sheikh Krat had promised them."

"To be honest, that's an astronomical figure that far exceeds their actual capabilities, so high that it makes one wonder whether Sheikh Krat is doing charity or business?"

Xu Yan quoted out several prices he had heard.

Although Long Jianhuan was not an industry insider, he knew that the experienced coaches and key players of the no-card-flow team were not worth that price at all.

“Since it’s poaching, the price will naturally be higher.” Long Jianhuan pondered, “Perhaps Sheikh Krat wants to use this method to publicly demonstrate the strength of the Shattered Star Club?”

"It's possible, but I still feel something's not quite right."

Xu Yan said, "Recently, I've been spending time with Sister Xiong and learned a lot of common sense about running a Lingka Club, including cost accounting and calculating profit margins."

"I have also visited the Shattered Star Club and found that Sheikh Kratt's business strategy is to fight a price war to the point of 'mutual destruction'."

“If he keeps doing things this way, he will lose a lot of money for every member he poachs from ‘Brilliant’ and ‘Ben Teng’. No matter how high the membership fees are, it will not be able to offset the costs of the various advanced facilities, cutting-edge drugs, top coaches and high rents here.”

"Of course, if we can really squeeze out 'Brilliant' and 'Ben Teng' and monopolize the high-end spirit card market in Dawn City, we will have the opportunity to slowly make back our losses by indirectly raising prices and providing high-profit additional services."

"But this approach has too many uncertainties, too high risks, and too high upfront costs."

"Whether we can defeat our competitors is still uncertain. Even if we do achieve our goal, it is obvious that the crystal mines beneath Dawn City are gradually drying up."

"Although Dawn Heavy Industry claims to have discovered a new mineral vein with astonishing reserves, the exact amount of reserves, the difficulty of mining, and whether it can be mined stably to become a new engine for the economic development of Dawn City are still unknown."

"If the new development plan encounters obstacles again, and Dawn Heavy Industry is unable to find new economic growth points, leading to the shrinking of the high-end consumer market in Dawn City, even if only the Shattered Star Club remains dominant, it may not be able to recoup the initial costs within three to five years."

"Based on what I've heard from the locals over the past month about Sheikh Krat, he's not the kind of businessman who patiently runs a legitimate business for ten or twenty years and slowly makes money."

"So, I really don't understand, how exactly does he plan to make money by burning through so much money, disrupting the market, and harming others without benefiting himself?"

These words made Long Jianhuan fall into deep thought.

A few seconds later, a tiny glimmer of light appeared in her eyes.

"What if it wasn't a spur-of-the-moment decision?"

She quickly said, "What if Sheikh Krat's plan is to attract a large number of new members by making a big fuss about his non-existent strength, while also giving the old employees of the Shattered Star Club a false sense of confidence, charging high membership fees on the one hand, and deceiving the old employees into their graves on the other, so that they will abandon everything here and fly far away?"

Xu Yan took a breath.

"This is a get-rich-quick scheme, making money that will ruin your family line, gambling with the reputation you've built up over most of your life, and risking being hunted down all over the world!"

He muttered, "Sheikh Krat is too ruthless and audacious, isn't he?"

(End of this chapter)