Chapter 1957: The Italian Side Job -Part 2
Chapter 1957: The Italian Side Job -Part 2
"The right price, eh? Looks like I need to get my purchasing team to look after you." Diego said as he saw Jin's expression change for the worse. "Hahaha, You are so easy to read that liaising with you is a joy for me."
"Well, you are the head honcho, can't you just quote a price for me?" Jin smiled devilishly and that was when he saw Diego picking up his phone to make the necessary calculations only to find that the price or less than desirable. After which, he showed his phone screen's calculator app to Diego, and Jin was shocked. "Wow, do I only worth that much to you?"
"I was merely basing the quotation from your current dungeon instances. As I said, I am really bad at purchasing or quoting the right price. If you want more than this, you should look for my purchasing team." Diego said as he scratched his head. It was pretty obvious, he was not able to give a proper quotation and Jin could see it in his numbers.
Even Kong Rong who was the head of the Internal Security Agency had better numbers when it came to quoting a price for Jin's service.
"If I were to give you a price now, would you accept it or would you think it's a ripoff?" Jin asked as he knew that if he were to go through the purchasing team of any company, it would complicate methods since all they want is to make sure the price is lowered to the best of their ability.
Not to mention, they would definitely not know how this operation would go, or the painstaking need to create a void being that could accommodate a void being.
"Hmm...considering this is an unprecedented threat and since the Chinese Intelligence had already proved that this is not some mere ramblings of a madman that a Void Being exists despite the lack of proof, I can say that I am able to accommodate a special price for you," Diego said and Jin finally smiled, thanking Diego.
"If that's the case, I will charge you a flat price first as a deposit and once the job is done then you pay us the remaining?"
"Ah no no. My purchasing team had been rather careful with my purchases recently ever since I got scammed once."
"What?"
"I am not saying that I think that you are a scammer, considering you hold a reputable store with rather powerful allies as your friends.
Well, perhaps you are in some sense but that is for psychologists and conspiracy theorists to formulate them but what I am trying to say is that I have been burned by scams before and my purchasing team reinforced that we must have a contract regardless of any agreements, be it a quotation or purchase order. Some black and white."
"Ah," Jin assured Diego that this was the norm for most businesses and he will be giving that to Diego by the end of the day. "For now, let us enjoy the festivities of this school instance, shall we?" Jin said as he clapped and a portal emerged.
"This is?" Diego was a little apprehensive going into the portal despite the indication by Jin to do so.
"Let's say it's a thank you dinner for purchasing my services in advance. And also, a gathering of the ...powerful allies that you spoke of. After all, we need to discuss some specifics on the operation details, do we not?" Jin asked and Diego saw where this was going.
He had been through way too many transactions that Diego knew this dinner was to 'fatten the goose' so that when it came to slaughtering it, the goose could not say no.
But Jin had disguised this as a meeting with some other people, probably Grand Headmistress Yuan and JODE Chancellor Ma Ge for the situation. And Diego was right when he entered the portal to see the two of them already discussing certain issues. But what he did not expect was a character that was supposed to be elusive in nature.
Diego only heard him by name from the collaboration with the Italian's Intelligence side stating that he was the one who had given them the information about the current Void Being and the dangers of it. That was why when he saw this particular figurehead sipping a glass of coke at the side of the table...he was perplexed.
"Ah, Sir Diego. It's great to see you again." Ma Ge said as he stood up and welcomed Diego into the fray as he was considered a VIP guest for the entire group. Even Kong Rong stood up to shake hands with Diego.
"Nice to meet you too, Mr Kong Rong and finally have a face to the name that my friends on the other side of the fence kept referring you," Diego said and Kong Rong merely smiled.
"It's nothing. If they could render services to eliminate a common threat that could trouble the both of us, it was something that I would gladly assist." Kong Rong replied as everyone took a seat.
"Then I leave it to you guys for discussion?" Jin said as he wanted to move away from another boring meeting. All he needed was to pull Diego in and give him a taste of Lynn's amazing food palate so that he would be satisfied with the...service that he provides and thus more inclined to give a better rate or price for the subsequent job that he had been awarded to do.
...but as usual, Grandma Yuan was not going to let Jin go scot free and demanded him to stay. All Jin could do was to sigh internally and put up a wide smile when joining on the table. He knew this would happen but at the same time, he was hoping that it would not happen. All he could hope for was a quick getaway as long as one of Lynn's servants or she herself came in to take him away.
And yet, that did not happen, Lynn personally came to show the food to herself and when Jin tried to make an excuse, his girlfriend also ignored his plea to run away, forcing him to stay.
Thus, he was stuck with the group for the longest time ever where they exchanged pleasantries and only when most of the group had finished their food, they started talking about the joint operation between Italy and China. Jin was honestly surprised that Kong Rong was willing to spend time over here and when probed, he said that he merely wanted to take the excuse to appreciate Lynn's gourmet food.
If Jin could roll his eyes, he would have already done so in front of Kong Rong but too bad there were too many people around to even do that properly. And since they had already gone through the dinner phase, all Jin could do was hope that the subsequent discussion was fruitful.
Before they started, Diego asked if this was a safe place to begin spilling 'tea' on the operation, and the rest unanimously stated that it was. And when that was assured, Diego began giving them the summary of the operation details but not as explicit as the redacted folder that Jin had seen.
Still, it was enough information to go by for them to discuss and Kong Rong suggested that they nipped the situation in the bud before the Void Being decided that enough was enough and wanted to come out of the colosseum by himself to stop the buzzing that had been happening.
To the JODE Chancellor, he said that he was out of his depth as his role was to manage organisations but was willing to allocate extra budget to contain this threat. But at the same time, Diego requested to Ma Ge not to put the news up anywhere about this.
Kong Rong agreed that while international cooperation is extremely juicy news to boast about, it would not do any good if the enemy knew about it as well.
"They might believe that we have the capability to contain one Void Being and proceed to unleash several more at the same time. That is one thing the world is not ready for." Kong Rong said and Jin nodded his head furiously in agreement.
While it was nothing to Jin and his minions, he did not want to go to every single corner of the world collecting Void Beings as if his life depended on it. After all, he was supposed to be a DUngeon Supplier, not a Void Being Slayer.
Ma Ge sighed and nodded his head reluctantly to see the potential of news to boost JODE's capability but Diego comforted him. "Don't worry. If this works out, I will make sure I get some sponsors..to improve the financial situation of the organisation."
"Don't look at me. I am a worker in their eyes." Jin said as he could see Diego was side eyeing him. It was at that point the other three smiled since they knew the status of Jin being a Royal Zodiac Head albeit it was not the official title.
"Hahaha. I am merely teasing you. You will have your job money alright, and I am not asking you to contribute after that." Diego smiled.