Chapter 163 From "Warfare" to "Warfare Terror"
Levi understood.
The Piltover cartel treats him as the new Alchemist Baron and the new comprador lackey.
If he does not act as a comprador lackey and does not recognize the existing interests of Piltover capital in Zaun, he will in fact be making an enemy of the Piltover family.
The so-called "non-violent non-cooperation" will naturally no longer deceive anyone.
"Mr. Levi, I suggest you agree."
Mel asked Levi to come over this time to discuss this important issue with him.
Her opinion is that the power of the Leader is still relatively weak, and the faith in Goddess Janna still has a lot of room for development in the Twin Cities.
The Piltover financial group, especially the Noxian forces behind it, still poses a huge threat to the Guild of Leaders.
"Therefore, we still need to keep a low profile and continue to compromise with the enemy."
Before he knew it, Mel had become a leader in speaking.
She naturally called her own class the enemy, and then said:
"Return the shares to these Piltover tycoons temporarily, and continue to share the profits from Zaun with them. In this way, these old rich men who are still waiting and hesitating may be even less determined to completely turn against us leaders."
"Use money to exchange for time, and use time to strive for development. This is a business that does not lose money."
Mel's analysis was correct.
but……
"I refuse." Levi shook his head firmly.
"Why?" Mel frowned slightly, but still listened quietly.
Years of experience in business negotiations have enabled her to develop the habit of not rushing into arguments but patiently listening to the other party's opinions.
At this time, Levi only explained: "In Piltover, I can cooperate with them. But in Zaun, in our own base, I still hope to clean the house before inviting guests."
The reason is actually very simple.
It’s not that Levi doesn’t want to continue to compromise and keep a low profile.
It was only after he took over Takeda Saito's family business that he discovered that Piltover Capital owned too much of the shares of this comprador's group.
If he agreed to the demands of the Piltover chaebol, returned the huge amount of shares and assets, and acknowledged the various unequal trade treaties that Takeda Saito had signed with Piltover in the past...
The bulk of the profits generated by the future construction of Zaun by the Leader will be taken away by the people of Piltover.
"We do have money now, but Zaun is in ruins and many areas require us to spend money."
"If I accept that kind of unequal trade treaty and hand over all the profits to the Piltover people, how can we have the money left to vigorously support Zaun's industrial development, build Zaun's infrastructure, and improve the living standards of Zaun people?"
"Moreover, Meier, you also know that the people of Piltover have always systematically oppressed the people of Zaun. The conflict between the two is very deep."
"Our movement in Zaun will largely rely on channeling and harnessing this nationalist sentiment."
"If everyone knew that we were secretly helping Piltover suck the blood of Zaun people just like Takeda Saito in the past, it would probably have a very bad impact on the spread of Janna's faith."
Levi listed a series of reasons, all of which were very powerful.
In short, his opinion was: "We need to clean up the house before inviting guests."
Mel listened thoughtfully and nodded in agreement.
But she was still hesitant: "But refusing to return the shares may mean war for the Piltover tycoons."
"Besides, the weekly meeting of the Piltover Council will be held tomorrow."
"They will definitely discuss this matter at the regular meeting."
Mel added, "I heard that the Gray Lady of the Philos family also expressed her willingness to attend the parliamentary discussion, which is rare. It seems that she can no longer sit still."
"Camille?" Levi was also a little concerned.
The Ferros family was the first Piltover tycoon to show hostility towards the Windleader.
Through the "insurance contract" secretly reached with Stevan, he had managed to temporarily stabilize the Philos family.
But Camille's initiative to appear in public this time seemed to indicate that the force of Philos that opposed the leader, which she represented, could no longer be suppressed even by Stevan, the head of the family.
I don’t know how Stevan is preparing. Is he going to carry out the plan to kill his sister?
"Don't be afraid." Levi was still quite optimistic.
"Comrade Meier, as you know, Zaun is almost completely under our control."
The three strongest forces in Zaun were Silk, Renata, and Takeda Saito. The remaining alchemy barons, big and small, were clearly inferior to them.
Now the Leaders Association has swallowed up Takeda Saito in one breath, and has "built a core" in a short period of time, completing the digestion, absorption, and integrated control of its territory.
The other two companies, Hilco and Renata, are still opposing the Leader Association on the surface, but in fact they are either secretly cooperating with the Leader or are secretly controlled by the Leader.
"Even if the Ferros family takes action, with our current strength, we don't have to be afraid of Piltover."
"What we really need to worry about is what you mentioned, Mel, the various Noxian forces standing behind the Piltover chaebol."
"But Noxus, to put it bluntly..."
Levi looked at Mel, who was born in Noxus, embarrassedly:
"Noxus is a mad dog right now."
"If they are persuaded by the Piltover tycoons and want to go crazy and bite people, can we avoid being bitten by keeping a low profile and admitting defeat?"
Mel listened in silence.
She knows Noxus so well.
Levi was right. Noxus is now a mad dog that bites anyone it sees.
Can they still outshine Ionia even if they keep a low profile? Ionia, sitting at home eating hot pot and singing songs, was bitten without doing anything.
So if you want to avoid being bitten by a dog, there is no point in giving in.
You have to pump your fist, show your muscles, and let the dog know that you are too strong for it to bite.
"But we don't have the ability to deal with Noxus yet." Mel worried.
"But we can act like we can handle it." Levi said, "Don't forget, the goddess Janna is real."
"And no one knows that the real Goddess Janna is no longer in the mortal world."
In fact, Levi had already used the tactic of "strategic intimidation".
Except for the partial disclosure to the first batch of veteran members at the meeting when the organization was first established, he never revealed the truth that Goddess Gana was just a "useless bird" to anyone else.
The first batch of veteran members are now the most determined leaders. They naturally know to cooperate with Levi's later "strategic intimidation" strategy and will not talk about this matter everywhere. Later, Levi and his confidants like Mel gave the following explanations:
"Goddess Janna is traveling in the universe right now, and cannot return to the mortal world for the time being."
Although Janna herself doubted how she could travel in the universe.
But Goddess Janna has not appeared in the mortal world for many years, and has never had a record of fighting, so it is difficult to make a specific comparison of their combat power.
As a result, in this day and age, almost no one in the mortal world knows Janna's true strength.
So Levi blew it to the sky with confidence.
In the impression of everyone outside, Janna is still the terrifying existence 200 years ago that could support an ocean with storms.
Those who possessed this false information naturally included the Piltover tycoons and the Noxian forces behind them.
"This..." Mel was slightly stunned.
"You mean..." she asked thoughtfully, "Change your thinking, show your strength, and use force to deter the enemy?"
"That's right." Levi nodded with a smile.
"But isn't the goddess herself still in the void plane and unable to come back for a while?" Mel asked.
"It's just acting, why do we need the goddess herself? We just show off a little bit of our skills, and they will figure out the rest."
As he spoke, Levi looked at Mel subtly: "Comrade Mel, tomorrow is the weekly meeting of the parliament, right?"
"Yeah." Mel nodded, not understanding why.
"How's your acting?"
"I..." Mel seemed to understand.
As a business elite, her acting skills are of course perfect.
But her strength is not good enough.
"Mr. Levi, do you want me to go up?" Mel spread out his palms and used magic to summon a faint breeze.
This wind...to put it bluntly, what can it do?
Who can be scared?
"It's okay." Levi smiled and stretched out his hand, slowly took down the cute bluebird standing on his shoulder, and held it steadily in his palm.
"Is this... the blue bird incarnation of the goddess?"
Mel knew that the goddess Janna could transform into countless blue bird incarnations.
Believers only need to use divine power to summon the blue bird that represents Janna's will.
For example, almost every class of the Leader Patrol is now equipped with a "Blue Bird Radio".
"But this bluebird incarnation seems to have only symbolic significance and doesn't have much combat power itself, right?" Miss Mel questioned.
"No, she's different."
"The power of the incarnation and the incarnation cannot be generalized."
Janna pecked her summoner in dissatisfaction.
Levi handed Bluebird Janna to Mel and continued to talk nonsense without changing his expression:
"This 'Blue Bird Incarnation' of mine was specially given to me by the Goddess Janna—"
"It's powerful."
