The City of Terror-Chapter 607 - Island Without Water Source
Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
“820 million!”
Tamasla’s expression changed. There was no doubt that his funds were about to reach a bottleneck.
The Middle Eastern Merchant looked at Tamasla in disdain and smiled. He indicated his helper to raise the card, announcing a price that surprised Wei Xiao Bei.
“900 million!”
Tamasla’s expression became incredibly ugly. His face was ashen as he was without a doubt determined to win the three Articles. However, the problem was that 1 billion already exceeded his cash assets.
“900 million once!”
The auctioneer looked at Tamsla with expectation. He hoped that this prince would once again become spirited and attack the Middle Eastern Merchant once more. Thus, he slowed down his countdown.
“900 million twice!”
However, no matter how he delayed, the auctioneer needed to inform everyone that one more call would seal the deal.
“Wait. I am willing to pay out 900 million and add an island!”
Who knows why but Tamasla appeared that he must have the item. In a moment of desperation, he actually shouted at the auctioneer.
900 million and an island?
Everyone was startled at how Tamasla made this unusual bid.
“I apologize your Highness. You need to have the agreement of the seller to be able to continue your bid.”
There was no doubt that the auction house was not willing to have the deal end with just 900 million USD. Seeing Tamasla’s price, the general manager appeared. He negotiated with the auctioneer and made a declaration.
Wei Xiao Bei naturally agreed to the quotation.
The main reason he was selling the Jade was not to earn money but to buy an island.
Since this prince was willing to sell an island, Wei Xiao Bei felt like a mouse that had been dropped in the rice warehouse. His fortune had come.
Although many islands in the world were not being sold in secret, there were many islands that did not suit Wei Xiao Bei’s expectations. As for the islands whose locations suited Wei Xiao Bei’s expectations, the areas were too small. The process of searching for a suitable island gave Wei Xiao Bei a headache.
Now that a prince was willing to add the value of an island to the bidding price, it was definitely lucky. As for the size and location of the island, wasn’t that negotiable?
After finding out that Wei Xiao Bei was the person selling the Jade, Tamasla became a bit remorseful, but in the next instant, his expression became a lot brighter. It was clear that he felt that he could win the Jade.
Since Wei Xiao Bei had agreed, then the next matters were easy to settle.
The island that Tamasla was offering was an island in the southeast corner of the Kingdom. The area was not small and was about 0.3 square kilometers. In other words, it was around 30 hectares.
At the same time, Tamasla let his butler immediately assess the price of the island. They had hired an internationally well known evaluating company, and the island was evaluated at 30 million USD.
The reason for the evaluation was that the island had a freshwater spring. Moreover, the place was abundant with vegetation and had a yellow beach.
1 On the other hand, when the Middle Eastern Merchant saw this, he did not protest. He immediately decided to add an oil field to his price! The oil field was priced at around 120 million USD.
1 Now, the two sides appeared to be opposing each other.
However, Tamasla once again added another island to the price. This caused the Middle Eastern Merchant to finally give up.
After all, oil fields were cash cows in the modern era. Using one oil field was already the lowest he could go. Exchanging anymore was not profitable.
After all, 1 billion was probably the Middle East Merchant’s bottom line.
Just like that, Tamasla obtained the three Jade Articles for the price of 900 million USD and two islands.
After the auction ended, Wei Xiao Bei and Tamasla were invited to an isolated reception room.
900 million USD was easy to move to the account, but the matter of the two islands was not simple. They would need to sign a contract of agreement.
When the two of them met in the reception room, they could not help but laugh.
“Should I say that this is destiny?”
Prince Tamasla was indicating that they were seated next to each other in the auction.
“I have long heard of your Highness’ name. Seeing you today, I can tell that you are quite handsome.”
Wei Xiao Bei complimented him.
Next, Wei Xiao Bei let out his thoughts.
He wanted to pick an appropriate island in the Kingdom and the price could be discussed.
Toward his thoughts, Tamasla frowned.
This request was not too difficult. In the Kingdom, selling islands was permitted by law. The only problem was that he did not have too many islands in his possession.
The entire country had more than 10,000 islands. The most the King had was 5,200 islands.
The Crown Prince, or his brother, had 930 islands.
The Second Prince had 700 islands.
The Third Prince, who was Tamasla, had more than 500 islands.
Additionally, the members of the Royal Family, the Cabinet Ministers, and the Nobles each had around 10-100 islands.
Naturally, the islands that could truly be passed down only amount to 1/5 of them.
For example, if Tamasla died, then he could pass down around 100 islands to his son.
The rest of the 400 islands would be purchased back by the Kingdom.
If it was not like that, then the Kingdom would not have enough islands to distribute.
Just like that, Tamasla could only sell around 100 islands.
Naturally, Wei Xiao Bei did not need 100 islands. He only needed to pick a suitable one from among the 500.
Just like that, Wei Xiao Bei’s proposal also made Tamasla a bit excited.
As a Prince, Tamasla could not move that much money. This 900 million already emptied his wallets.
It was easy to imagine that in the next few years, Tamasla would be a bit strapped for cash.
In the end, Tamasla agreed to Wei Xiao Bei’s proposal. Moreover, he let his helper begin to introduce some islands.
According to Wei Xiao Bei’s request, the island could not be less than 1 square kilometer.
Just like that, the number of islands to choose from decreased. Out of 500, only 60 met the requirement.
The five biggest islands out of these were the gathering place of the Prince’s men. Naturally, they could not sell these.
As for the remaining islands, there were seven that exceeded 30 square kilometers. All of them had water sources and Wei Xiao Bei did not have that much to buy them, so they were also excluded.
Finally, Wei Xiao Bei’s other requests narrowed down the choice to just five islands.
Among the five islands, the largest was around 23 square kilometers, while the smallest was 3 square kilometers.
To make his final decision, he needed to go and take a look.
The next day, Wei Xiao Bei brought Tian Li and took the private plane of Prince Tamasla to the Kingdom of Lucenia.
At 3 in the afternoon, the plane landed in the Kingdom of Lecenia, at the Prince’s personal airfield.
This was not strange at all. Because the country was quite dispersed, the main means of transportation were eighter planes or boats.
1 Within the borders of Lucenia, other than the Lucenia International Airport, there were more than 100 small airfields. The docks all around the country had also become the lifeline of the country.
The Kingdom of Lucenia was one of the most famous tourist destinations. Its specialty was the wonderfully tropical island scenes. Every year, the tourists exceeded the millions. This number was more than 10 times the population of the country.
1 From this, it was evident that the scenery there was truly beautiful.
When Wei Xiao Bei had come down the plane, he felt very comfortable to the point that he felt that he wanted to live there.
Naturally, the most important thing to do right now was choosing an island and not sightseeing.
Wei Xiao Bei could still distinguish his priorities.
All of the islands that he had chosen had one thing in common, they did not have a water source.
An island without a water source was a lot cheaper than one with a water source.
This was simple logic. Without a water source, it would be hard to settle down. If one wanted to settle down, then it would require time to transport fresh water to the island. Otherwise, one could install a seawater purifier. In short, it was an expensive endeavor.
Moreover, compared to islands with water sources, these islands without water sources might have rain, although there was a lot less vegetation too.
This was something that Wei Xiao Bei had already seen.
Prince Tamasla even kindly proposed a smaller island to Wei Xiao Bei. Although it might be small, there was a water source. It would decrease his expenditure.
1 However, Wei Xiao Bei had chosen the 23 square kilometer island in the end.
From the outside appearance, this island had a tiny mountain range. The majority of the place was flat. It looked desolate with very little vegetation.
It would be difficult for one to live here.
“This is it! Now, let us talk about the price.”
Wei Xiao Bei left the island and rode on the Prince’s luxury yacht. He smiled and talked to the Prince.
“Okay. Before negotiating, let me give you a warning as friends. The future investment you need to make on this island would increase.”
Seeing Wei Xiao Bei was determined on this, Prince Tamasla did not say much. On the other hand, he let his butler handle the rest of the matter.
In truth, the negotiation was smooth with no argument. After all, most of the islands there had already gone through an evaluation. The prices of the islands followed a yearly table to increase or decrease. Even during the negotiation, the prices only fluctuated in the millions.
