288 Chapter 186: Street Lights and Gods (Part 1)_2

"First of all. According to what you said, if the Cosmic Sorcerers are intelligent and can communicate, it proves that they're not stupid."

"Similar to the human credit system, if you borrow from a bank for the first time and refuse to give it back, the bank is unlikely to lend to you again. If the amount is large, other banks will also blacklist you."

"I understand this behavior is more similar to robbing a bank than borrowing a loan. The bank is stationary, and if you have enough force, you can repeatedly rob it. But the Cosmic Sorcerers are not rooted in one place. If they discover you refusing to repay the debt and unable to beat you, wouldn't they just run away?"

Nick was rather confused and asked Strange, "According to what you said, your teacher borrowed powers without repaying and then defeated all the creditors. Isn't it that all Cosmic Sorcerers will run far away from him? Then, how can he borrow more powers?"

"Is there a possibility?" Shiller asked Nick, "Those who don't want to lend him powers can't run away."

Strange offered a more rational explanation, "Cosmic Sorcerers don't wander aimlessly through the cosmos. Some powerful ones often have their domains, like... what was it again? The Dark Dimension and the Crimson Dimension - these were told to me by Wong. These are equivalent to the domains of the Cosmic Sorcerers."

"That might work," Nick said stroking his chin. "But there are still many problems, especially technical ones."

Then, the three began discussing how to borrow money to buy weapons, and then use the money and guns to stage a robbery.

"You see..." Shiller knocked on the table, speaking as if he could not bear to listen anymore, "Why are your thoughts always so limited? Why do you always think of violent robbery? Can't you be a little bit more flexible?"

The other three all looked at him, and Shiller said in exasperation, "This is why I always feel out of place with you. Do you know? Your words earlier sounded like a bunch of rednecks gathered in a farm warehouse, playing poker and yelling."

"Drop your straightforward violent thoughts. That is the most inefficient strategy. This age is no longer a time for bank robberies. It's too much trouble to purchase guns, hire people, prepare cars, fuel up, scope out the location in advance, plan for an escape route, and so on."

"Just say your plan." Nick eyed Shiller and said, "I see you've been holding back for a long time."

"Instead of robbery, we can try a different approach."

"What?"

"Scam."

Shiller spread his hands and said, "What's the highest score for a bank robber? A few million US dollars? And a scammer?"

"That depends on what kind of scammer you're referring to. If it's a successful one..." Nick looked at Strange and said, "You need to ask him."

"Why are you looking at me?" Strange was unhappy and said, "Compared to certain people, what kind of successful scammer am I?"

He then looked at Stark. Stark, with wide eyes, said, "Why are you looking at me? I'm an entrepreneur; I don't meddle with financial scams. Besides, the Eternal Life Factor wasn't something that I created…"

After he completed his sentence, he looked at Shiller. The other two also looked at Shiller. Nick said, "At present, you can answer this question yourself. I haven't yet seen a scammer with a more impressive record than you."

"Well then, I do have a plan. The trick to borrow money and not repay is outdated. We could use a more trendy expression."

"For example?"

"For example, investment."

Shiller placed both hands on the table and began to explain:

"Look, the current trade method of the Cosmic Sorcerers is one-to-one, which humans consider very rudimentary and primitively."

"They're still at the stage of bartering and face-to-face transactions, but modern finance has completely moved beyond this."

"Firstly, we ought to get out of this one-to-one trade mode. We can totally undertake one-to-many or many-to-many transactions. Simply put, let the Cosmic Sorcerers invest their powers in us."

"Then what? Investments always have to have returns, right?"

"Cosmic Sorcerer..." Shiller moved his hand to the right.

"...invest power..." He moved his hand towards the middle.

"...into us." Lastly, he moved his hand to the left, indicating these are the three stages.

"More Cosmic Sorcerers, investing more power, into us." Shiller repeated his gestures.

Under the curious gazes of the others, he suddenly sped up his speech, rapidly explaining:

"We use the power invested by other Cosmic Sorcerers to provide returns to other Cosmic Sorcerers, and tell them, the more you invest, the more you earn."

"Establish a ladder system, decide the order of promotion, increase the return level by level, get one Cosmic Sorcerer, you can take a 3% commission from the transaction value; get two Cosmic Sorcerers, you can take a 7% commission, and so on. The more people you recruit, the more you earn…"

"After the base is established, we start to use the later investments as returns for early investors. The investment income increases and the returns also increase. When the difference reaches an ideal value..."

Shiller spread his hands and said, "…the industry faces some difficulties due to forces beyond control, and we can only temporarily say goodbye to everyone. We deeply regret this."