Card Apprentice Daily Log Chapter 1296 Unchecked Capitalism

Date- 5 April 2321

Ti- -/-

Location- Southern Region, Blossom district, Sky Blossom City, Dungeon Highway, Barren Lands, Blood Rock Cave Gate Dungeon, Inter-realm city

The pawn shops in the inter-realm city conducted their business in such a way that they would be condemned in the markets of both the world I co from but this was the inter-realm city and the devil rchant code did not seem to care how the people did business in its city as long as they paid their rents to it in ti and were not proven guilty of a cri. There were too few regulations that the pawn shops or any shop in the inter-realm city for that matter needed to follow. As long as they were overpricing and manipulating the market everything else seed pretty much a fair ga.

The devil rchant code seems to hate losing money so it doesn't like when it makes little profit over certain goods than the other demon rchant, that was why overpricing goods was taboo but bidding wars in auctions was fair gain.

The devil rchant code hated being manipulated, especially when the demon rchants try to manipulate the market so that the price of certain goods skyrockets and other goods falls to the ground. As long as these two taboos were avoided one can easily stay off the devil rchant code's radar despite their questionable business practices.

Demon rchants had figured out many ways to prop up a successful business by preying on their custors while avoiding these taboos of the devil rchant code. And the way the pawnshops in the inter-realm city operated was one of them.

The pawn shop's strategy was simple when a custor handed them the item the pawnbrokers would value it according to what it is worth as an offering to the devil rchant code. A fair thod to value the items and the only reason why they managed to survive so far. What followed next was nothing short of predatory lending.

They would only pawn the item for 40% to 60% of its value which carried a high fee, high-interest rate, unnecessary penalties, and other such aggressive credit terms. One delayed or missed paynt was all it took for the demon rchants to lose their pawned items. This way the pawnbroker would not only buy the item for a cheap price but also made profits with the high-interest rate, late fees, and other unnecessary penalties.

It did not matter to them that the custor had paid more interest and penalties than the valuation of the item they pawned. The only way they could get out of this nightmare was to let go of their ownership of the item they pawned before their debt outgrows the value of the item. Or else they would not only lose the item they pawned but also be on the hook for the remaining debt. Soon they will charge high-interest rates for the debt, along with late fees and other penalties.

This would usually not work in the native realms of the demon rchant but here the devil rchant would make sure the demon rchant pays everything they owe the pawnbroker even if the demon rchant had to use this soul and body as collateral or just sell it.

These guys were worse than the credit card companies and loan sharks because at least they enticed them with a desirable loan amount while taking a certain risk. However, pawnbrokers did not take any form of risk in these transactions instead they had the strongest goon in all the myriad realms, the devil rchant code.

The only reason the demon rchants went to the pawnbrokers in the inter-realm city in the first place was that they felt with the presence of the devil rchant code they would not be taken advantage of as they would have been in their native realm. But that was their biggest mistake. If they miss a single paynt then the very thing that they trusted to have their back will beco the gun pointed to their foreheads and will be forced to pay the pawnbrokers even if it cost them their life.

'No wonder Aul Tuh was so fucking happy to see enter his pawnshop,' I felt a chill on my back going through the predatory business model practiced by the pawnshops and the worst of all was that the devil rchant code, one of the most powerful beings in all the myriad realms would act as a goon for the predators. This wasn't just a problem for the demon rchants not native to the dark realm but all the new demon rchants regardless of what realm they belonged to.

The worst thing was that I could not use the guilty appeal function to report Aul Tul for banning from his show without any proper reason. Because in Inter-realm city, the shopowners have the right to choose their custor and sell their product to anyone they want as long as they are not overpricing it. I should have guessed that this would be the case when I learned that the Inter-realm city shops had a feature that allowed shopkeepers to keep the custors that could not afford their products from entering their shops. The devil code seems to hold the interest of demon rchants paying hefty rents over the others. It was not surprising that it was biased toward whoever paid it more.

As for why Aul Tul showed unwarranted hostility toward when I asked to buy realm tokens, that was because many demon rchants from the dark realm felt that the demon rchants that were not native to the dark realm had an unfair advantage.

The unfair advantage they spoke of was that other realms had single digits of demon rchants at best which allowed the demon rchants of other realms to take advantage of the price difference in the two markets to fill their pockets. And since there were many demon rchants in the dark realm, the pricing difference between the market of the devil rchant code and the dark realm was negligible.

The demon rchants from the dark realm did not seem to notice other unfair advantages that they had over the minority instead they were jealous of the only good thing the demon rchants not native to the dark realm had going for them.

Yes, that was what the majority claid and why they were pissed at the minority.

Because of this Demon rchants like Aul Tul were hostile toward demon rchants that were not native to the dark realm. Making it difficult for newbie demon rchants to pursue promising careers as demon rchants.

I guess this was one of the monsters that unchecked capitalism breeds.