God of Technology: Creating the Internet in Another World-Chapter 407: There’s Still So Much More We Can Do

The fact that Southern Development Corporation was producing massive amounts of grain was undeniable.

Even though grain prices were about to crash and market expectations weren’t as rosy as before, they still controlled an enormous food supply.

Even if they sold at rock-bottom prices, it’d still be a huge payday.

Once prices hit a certain floor, Viscount Roster started gradually buying back shares.

He kept going until he’d restored his original stake, then stopped.

After all that buying and selling, he ended up with the exact same number of shares as before—but somehow had an extra 20 million golden dragon coins in his pocket.

Seeing that the buyback was pretty much wrapped up, Viscount Roster immediately issued an announcement.

[Effective immediately, Dawn Southern Development Company will auction grain on the Magic Net. Any grain that doesn’t sell will be divided as follows:

First, storage—set aside to handle potential natural disasters down the road.

Second, brewing—use the surplus grain to produce alcohol.

Third, livestock feed—raise chickens, ducks, geese, pigs, cattle, sheep, and other animals to produce meat, eggs, milk, wool, and more, giving everyone a more varied diet. (We estimate 1,000 pounds of grain can convert to roughly 300 pounds of pork or 500 pounds of poultry.)

Fourth, food processing—turn it into longer-lasting products like bread, crackers, malt sugar, etc. Roster Territory Group Company will provide technical support to make sure everything runs smoothly.

Fifth...]

Just like that, one simple announcement grabbed everyone’s attention.

It was common knowledge that Southern Development Company had produced enough grain to feed the entire continent—everyone knew that.

Everyone was absolutely certain.

But nobody knew exactly what they planned to do with all that food. All people knew was that if that grain flooded their region, prices would definitely tank.

Honestly, if this much grain had been produced anywhere else, and this many people found out about it, there’d probably be only one outcome.

Mobs would swarm the place, wipe everyone out, and burn all the extra grain.

But nobody dared mess with Southern Development Company.

Not because of the Kingdom of Dawn. Not because of the Southern Territory itself. But because of the Church of Technology!

This was Viscount Roster’s turf.

Sure, technically this place belonged to Viscount Roster’s apprentice, the Southern Grand Duke, but everyone knew the Southern Grand Duke was basically a puppet.

And Viscount Roster was one of the top public figures in the Church of Technology.

Anyone on the Magic Net knew how terrifying the Church of Technology was!

Right now, north of the watch wall, they were still slaughtering monsters every single day!

No matter how many legendary ice spirits showed up, the Church of Technology would just casually wipe them out.

They threw around legendary magic like it was free.

Who’d dare start trouble with people like that?

If they got caught, their entire family would probably be wiped off the map.

Since nobody dared think dirty thoughts, they had to think positive instead.

But if they couldn’t think negative thoughts, then all they could do was figure out how to keep that grain from flooding their territory.

What would be a reasonable price for all this grain?

Should they jump in and buy some?

When would it actually go on sale?

Now that they knew it’d be auctioned off, they felt a little relieved.

Especially after seeing that besides the portion being sold directly, there were so many other uses for it—that’s when it clicked. Grain didn’t have to just be grain!

As for folks who had no stake in the matter, they were totally hooked by all this and jumped straight into the discussion.

"Never thought I’d see the day when someone had to worry about having too much grain."

"But honestly, Viscount Roster’s plan is pretty solid. Naturally you’d store some of the surplus to handle future disasters—floods, droughts, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions. There are way too many things that could cause food shortages, so stockpiling makes sense. And the other methods don’t waste anything either."

"Using some grain to produce meat, eggs, and milk is a great idea."

"I heard before that there are a bunch of farms under Southern Development Company, and the pigs there were gifts from the gods—they grow way bigger!"

"Whether it’s storage, processing, or raising animals, as long as they’re not just letting it rot in warehouses or throwing it away instead of selling it to us regular folks, that’s all that matters."

"..."

A lot of people were blown away by Viscount Roster’s disposal plan, but it all seemed totally reasonable.

But during the discussion, people discovered some pretty sketchy moves by certain nobles.

For instance, to keep grain prices high, some of them were actually burning their own fields to create scarcity.

That kind of operation was just... it completely shattered a lot of people’s worldviews.

Watching Southern Development Company’s stock stabilize and even show signs of a small uptick, Viscount Roster finally breathed a sigh of relief. "Things have pretty much wrapped up nicely. We’ve successfully rolled out the new grain varieties and new agricultural magic-tech machinery."

"While everyone was watching, we also harvested another wave from the stock market, made 20 million golden dragon coins, and showed them just how insanely high the ceiling can go—so they don’t worry about hitting a cap."

"I still have the same number of shares, and the stock price is climbing again, so we’re still making money. Plus, people now know that when you’ve got too much grain, destruction isn’t your only option—there are other things you can do."

Nidhogg, the Dragon of Despair, looked at Viscount Roster with a smile. "Your moves really opened my eyes. Now I finally get why you split up shares in your companies the way you did. The results are seriously impressive."

Nidhogg was in a great mood too.

Whatever Viscount Roster did, he did the same thing. Just these past few days, the dragons had raked in another ten million gold coins.

Sure, it wasn’t as terrifying as what Viscount Roster pulled off, but it was way better than their old pillaging days.

"Shouldn’t the real takeaway be that Dragon Island could also develop agriculture? Why are you focusing entirely on the stock market?"

Viscount Roster looked disappointed, like he was watching someone with so much potential waste it. "Your Dragon Island is massive. What if you set up a company just like Southern Development Company—call it Dragon Island Development Company or something—and run the same kind of operation? Wouldn’t that be great?" 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

"You could produce tons of grain, tons of meat, and use Dragon Delivery to ship it to the mainland for sale."

"If the dragons don’t want to work themselves, you could recruit refugees or whatever and bring them to Dragon Island. Same principle."

"Use all that grain to raise tons of livestock, and the dragons wouldn’t have to worry about running out of wild meat to eat, right?"