Infinite Reincarnation – Arthur Hurt - Chapter 115



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Infinite Reincarnation – Arthur Hurt Chapter 115

23-Collaboration

“So you visited?”

Countess Tzak sat down on the long sofa as if lying down and asked Arthur without even looking at him.

Arthur answered with his eyes half-closed, for his attire was provocatively light.

“Yes, I was wondering if you were aware of any situation where pirated products are hurting your business bottom line.”

He did not ask whether the King had thrown the music box business as a sacrifice to appease or compromise the nobles. It was a safe way to inform them of the current status of the music box business and to check the King’s response.

Since the current problem could not be resolved quickly anyway, it would have been better to figure out the king’s intentions at that time.

Countess Tzak picked up a small piece of fruit in front of her with an elegant movement of her hand, bit it with her red lips, and then spoke.

“Is that all you need?”

“yes.”

“Okay. Go ahead.”

“yes.”

Arthur bowed and turned around, but the Countess called out to him.

“The Count Hurt.”

“yes.”

“Did you know that Isabella has been seeing another man lately?”

“yes.”

Arthur nodded.

The countess looked closely at his face as he answered and asked.

“Aren’t you disappointed?”

“No. Not at all.”

“You didn’t like Isabella?”

“Mrs. Zeltney is a good person. If someone close to you is happy, isn’t that enough for you?”

“Is that so?”

The countess nodded and waved her hand, telling them to leave.

As Arthur was leaving, the Countess muttered to herself. However, the only sentence Arthur could hear was, ‘If I had given up too.’

A month had passed since Arthur had subtly relayed the status of the music box business to the royal family through Countess Tzaq, but no action had been taken by the royal family.

“This is the worst.”

The face of the person who said that was puffy. It was because he had not slept well.

“Should we burn down their factory?”

Samuel ground his teeth.

Arthur spoke calmly, drinking his tea.

“You guys are so excited.”

“How can you be so calm in this situation?!”

Samuel asked for empathy, but empathy was not supposed to solve the problem.

And the solution Arthur proposed was far from sympathetic.

“This business wasn’t originally started with the expectation of royal protection. It just happened to receive royal protection by some lucky chance. Now, we should see it as returning to the form it should have been in.”

Samuel paused and licked his lips at Arthur’s words. After all, the royal family had only intervened after the business had begun.

Arthur continued.

“Rather, you should be happy that you have been able to run your business comfortably under the protection of the royal family, and that you have been able to get a good deal of profit. Should you be excited about this?”

“Ah. Um… … .”

Samuel couldn’t refute Arthur’s words and just made a complicated expression.

Arthur seemed to know what Samuel was thinking. Originally, humans were animals that felt resentful and regretful of losing something they had in their hands rather than being thankful for their good fortune.

“So you’re saying there’s a solution to this situation?”

“of course.”

Arthur nodded at Jaran’s words.

“There is a modified music box. I call it a disc music box.”

A disk music box was a device that recorded music using perforated disks made of thin metal plates rather than cylinders.

“They can record longer pieces of music, are easy to replace, and can be mass-produced in vastly different quantities than cylinders.”

The most difficult part of making a conventional cylinder-type music box was making the cylinder itself. It was not easy to firmly attach the small pins to the correct location.

First, cutting the cylinders precisely to the specifications and then soldering the small pins onto them in precise positions required a great deal of skill. Skill meant the need for skilled workers, which in turn increased production costs.

That’s not all. Because of the durability of the small pins, the teeth couldn’t be flicked strongly. That meant the sound had to be small.

However, the disc music box was able to overcome these shortcomings. Above all, the method of drilling holes in the disc was overwhelmingly cheaper than that of a cylinder.

Samuel screamed in admiration.

“If there was something like that, you should have taken it out a long time ago!”

“This also has a downside. The structure of the main body becomes a bit more complicated.”

The cylinder had to bounce the metal teeth directly with the protrusions, but it had to bounce them indirectly with the perforated disc. Naturally, the additional structure for this increased the cost.

“still!”

Samuel was excited that he could feed the cloners a piece of shit with his new product, but Zara wasn’t done.

“It seems like it’s only a matter of time before that gets replicated… … .”

Arthur nodded obediently.

“The original purpose of developing this new product was to secure market share.”

The music box business, which started before the royal family put the fork on, was something Arthur anticipated in advance and prepared a countermeasure for the mass production of replicas. The disc music box was just that.

The plan is to initially dominate the market by selling cylinder music boxes, and then when latecomers emerge and market competition intensifies, introduce disk music boxes to regain market share and rise to the top of the industry.

Of course, one alone would not be enough, so in addition to the disk music box, a perforated music box using paper was also considered. However, with the royal family’s protection, they were able to easily dominate the music box market, and as a result, they ended up with an item that could be used to feed those who copied without permission.

Jarani asked.

“If a new product comes out, they’ll just copy it again, right?”

“The goal is to gain market share by harming competitors by changing the products and processes they produce. For example, if cylinder music box sales drop because they are overtaken by disc music boxes, what will happen to the factories and workshops that produce cylinders?”

It becomes a burdensome burden that only costs maintenance. Since it cannot be disposed of right away, it will be a painful loss. And it will be inevitable that we will fall behind in cost competition by the amount of that loss.

“Then what about the Tsuraz Craft Guild? There will be no losses due to changes in the production process?”

“It’s okay if it’s Tsuuraz. This strategy is also something that is carried out with confidence in Tsuuraz’s industrial power.”

The Tsururaz Craft Guild has already succeeded in industrialization by introducing machine tools and other equipment.

This was all thanks to the successful expansion of the capital and the market. According to the correspondence between Master Tony and the Guild, the Guild is actually taking over a factory near Tsururaz?

Arthur continued.

“Originally, these new products were more like a tactic to force losses on competitors. The real competitive edge is the productivity of the Tsuraz Craft Guild. There’s also a copyright.”

How many people would be able to survive if you make them pile up inventory and then double-cross them by suing them for copyright? Wouldn’t the legal fees only be covered if the goods are sold?

Zarran nodded after hearing Arthur’s explanation. He realized that this was not something to worry about.

Samuel went one step further here.

“So you’re saying we can fuck these guys? Let’s do it now!”

Arthur chuckled and nodded at the enthusiastic response.

* * *

It only took a month to set up the disk music box production line. The Tsuraz Craft Guild, under Cossack’s direction, completed preparations for the production of new products.

But he didn’t just let it go. Arthur asked Zarran to send a letter to the workshops and factories that were copying music boxes without permission under the name of Mato Trading Company. It was a letter of recommendation that they purchase a formal license and start production, even if it was not too late.

“Is it really necessary to do that?”

Arthur answered Samuel’s question.

“It’s a declaration of war, a declaration of war. If you start a war without a declaration of war, you’ll get cursed at even if you win.”

The strong needed the dignity of the strong. Pretense was a great mask and an effective barrier to entry.

Because anyone who wants to take the position of the strong will feel the burden of having to have a good reason to do so.

Fortunately or unfortunately, not many companies accepted the letter from Jaran telling them to surrender and come in. Even among those that did, there were only a few who were slightly anxious because they could not draw a line with the noble faction.

It was their misfortune to not be able to show kindness to the nobles, but soon after, with the attacks of the Mato Trading Company and the Tsuurazu Craft Guild, they realized that their misfortune was actually good luck, and that life is like a blessing in disguise.

When the disc music box was released, it received rave reviews, saying that it was indeed a Balta music box.

Perforated discs made of thin metal plates could play longer songs than cylinders, and above all, were easy to store and replace.

Although there were some products that could be replaced with cylinder music boxes, the music playback length and storage capacity of perforated discs, and above all, the overwhelming price difference, determined the market share.

Disc music boxes quickly replaced cylinder music boxes and became the market leader.

It was only natural that the production line of illegal counterfeiters, who had been diligently cutting cylinders and soldering protrusions to make some money, became a burden.

Even without this, it was difficult to compete with the productivity of industrialized tsururaz, but sunk costs were added, and lawsuits hindered recovery, leading to a surge in bankruptcy.

Then some people rushed in.

“Are you Arthur Hurt?”

“Is that so?”

Several men with fierce faces came to the workshop looking for Arthur. Judging by the atmosphere, it was clear that they were not there out of favor.

In that atmosphere, Kadan stood next to Arthur as if guarding him and asked.

“Hey. If you came here, shouldn’t you introduce yourself first?”

“We are those sent by Lord Johnson.”

“What kind of idiot is that?”

Arthur patted his shoulder and cautioned him to be careful as Kadan growled.

It was easy to guess why Kadan was reacting so aggressively. The aggression that Kadan had shown in his old days was probably stimulated by the gangster-like vibes of the men in front of him. However, that was no reason to speak carelessly.

As Kadan watched Arthur’s expression and behaved well, the men snickered. Perhaps it was because Kadan seemed weak, meekly submitting to the gestures of a younger man. If it had not been Arthur who calmed him down, Kadan would have become angry and attacked him.

Arthur stood up and asked.

“Who is Mr. Johnson?”

“You are a famous businessman.”

“mark?”

When Arthur tilted his head as if he was hearing this for the first time, the man got angry and shouted.

“You don’t know the owner of the Cordeli factory?!”

“I’m a busy person. I don’t have time to listen to the rumors going around.”

As Arthur lied with spit on his lips, the real man once again stated his business.

“Anyway, let’s go since Mr. Johnson is looking for us.”

“By any chance, what is the title of that man named Johnson?”

“It’s a semi-fictional work.”

“Oh. I’m also a semi-self-made person.”

“Huh! You don’t even have your own factory, so how dare you disobey Master Johnson?”

“Then why do you keep calling me Mr. Johnson~ Mr. Johnson~? Why don’t you call me Mr. Junjajak?”

“Because I’m Mr. Johnson’s right-hand man!”

From the man’s proud words, Arthur knew that even if he didn’t know anything else, the author’s dignity as Johnson was quite cheap.

Isn’t it true that if the upper water is clear, the lower water will also be clear?

“What’s your business?”

“I don’t know.”

“Where are you going?”

“Follow me and you will know.”

Arthur’s eyes narrowed. Isn’t this the typical procedure a thug would use when threatening someone?

When I think about it that way, I can guess why that kid treats me, a semi-professional, so rudely. He’s the kind of guy who’s going to get beaten up anyway.

Arthur clicked his tongue inwardly. There is no such thing as a baronial title.