CHAPTER 236: CHAPTER 234: SWEEPING THROUGH NUTA CITY (COMBINED PART 1)

Yan Xing spared no expense in Nuta City promoting the Creed Intelligence Exchange he had opened, splashing out money like crazy across the entire city.

Flyers were distributed everywhere, leaving no blind spots.

Wall advertisements were plastered throughout the streets and alleys.

The Exchange itself was brilliantly lit, inside and out, and featured large-scale light and shadow advertisements at night.

Yan Xing even had a squadron of griffons purchased from Count Theodore fly over the city, with banners tied to their claws that bore the Creed Intelligence Exchange’s slogan: "Earn Money for Everyone."

Yan Xing had only one requirement for this publicity campaign: Any resident of Nuta City could say, "I know about the Creed Intelligence Exchange; I just don’t go."

But absolutely no one could say they didn’t know what the Creed Intelligence Exchange was!

As business expanded on a large scale, the Exchange was packed daily.

Hundreds of Creed terminals were constantly occupied, with long queues forming behind those using them.

The restriction limiting each person to inputting a maximum of ten pieces of information per day barely allowed the Exchange to maintain order.

The Creed Intelligence Exchange began to collect information widely, storing and analyzing it in a database connected to Chui Chui.

Initially, information collection was a money-losing effort, but once the database reached a certain volume of entries, this quantitative change could lead to a qualitative transformation.

For instance, investigating a person no longer required prolonged surveillance. The intelligence database could instantly retrieve all records related to that individual and link them together.

Their living habits, the people they frequently interacted with, and the places they often visited—all became crystal clear.

By applying psychological analysis to their spoken words and actions, one could determine their personality, family background, and circumstances.

Intelligence predictions could also be made by identifying horizontal connections between disparate pieces of information.

For example, if certain groups of people suddenly converged in a specific area at a particular time, one could predict what was currently happening or about to happen there.

As the saying goes, "The eyes of the masses are sharp."

Another saying goes, "If you don’t want anyone to know, don’t do it."

Even the most skilled masters of disguise sometimes overlooked the ordinary people around them. And the things they did could very well be recorded by some idler and submitted to the Creed Intelligence Exchange for a bit of spare cash.

Gathering these pieces of intelligence cost Yan Xing mere cents or dimes, but once the information formed a chain, its value became immeasurable.

And those selling information to Yan Xing had no idea of its true utility. They simply thought Lord Yan Xing was being generous and benevolent, giving out benefits to promote his Creed Intelligence Exchange.

Of course, the Creed Intelligence Exchange also conducted conventional intelligence trading.

On the opening day of the Creed Intelligence Exchange, seven of Nuta City’s renowned top assassins simultaneously declared themselves Diamond Level intelligence officers of the Creed Intelligence Exchange.

Since the Creed Intelligence Exchange operated openly, it had to avoid anything related to assassinations.

Anyone holding a "Creed Card" was an intelligence officer of the Creed Intelligence Exchange.

According to the five-tier classification of the "Creed Card," Diamond Level intelligence officers ranked just below King Level.

All intelligence officers could see via the Creed intelligence terminals that there were currently only seven Diamond Level officers.

The promotion process for Creed intelligence officers was extremely strict.

Grinding by submitting ordinary intelligence could, at best, only allow one to reach Silver Level.

To reach Gold Level or Diamond Level, one was required to complete a certain number of high-level tasks.

King Level was an honorary title bestowed by the Creed Intelligence Exchange upon those who had made special contributions.

One needed strength, high-quality task completion, and also a bit of luck.

On the intelligence officer ranking list, the seven solitary Diamond Level officers stood high above, motivating newly registered "Creed Card" holding thieves and assassins to strive for advancement.

The seven Diamond Level officers were also striving, aiming for King Level.

The equipment and experience Yan Xing brought from his original world allowed the Creed Intelligence Exchange to launch from an incredibly high starting point.

In contrast, the Assassin’s Guild was still mired in a credit crisis, disoriented and confused.

Furthermore, its underground operations guaranteed its rejection by mainstream society. People might need its services, but no one liked it.

Complicated procedures, greedy appetites, and excessive secrecy all left the Assassin’s Guild with no competitive edge against the Creed Intelligence Exchange.

They were only waiting for the development of long-distance wireless power transmission technology. After that, the Creed Intelligence Exchange could deploy Creed terminals throughout the entire city and collect information even more efficiently.

In contrast to the high-profile launch of the Creed Intelligence Exchange, the establishment of the Eternal Grain Bank seemed relatively unnoticed.

The Eternal Grain Bank successively signed grain purchasing agreements with the major grain merchants of Nuta City, comprehensively acquiring their grain reserves using Eternal Grain Bank’s Grain Tickets and shares.

All the grain merchants, looking at their emptied warehouses, were beaming.

Full granaries had always been a major worry for each of them, as they feared being stuck with unsold grain.

Now, the generous and benevolent Lord Yan Xing had bought it all.

Moreover, Lord Yan Xing even allowed the grain merchants to use the Grain Tickets and shares in their possession for trade.

All products within the Eternal Commerce Guild could be purchased with Grain Tickets from the Eternal Grain Bank.

Furthermore, limited-edition items were preferentially sold to those paying with Grain Tickets.

The grain merchants realized they didn’t need to hold onto their Grain Tickets to exchange for refined grain from the Eternal Domain for future sale.

Since Grain Tickets were equivalent to cash, they could just as well deal in luxury goods from the Eternal Domain.

Although Storm City had blocked the routes from the Wildwind Highlands to the heartlands of the principality, those who were grain merchants always had their connections.

While sensitive materials like grain could not be transported, they could sell luxury goods from the Eternal Domain such as watches, glass, white sugar, perfumes, and lipsticks.