016. You're not all b****y officers, time to work for a living

Bwaaaaaam.

Huu moved his arms in sync with Gypsy Danger. The Jaeger smashing the Kaiju into the building.

Bwaaaaaam.

Oh, he had missed this movie.

It was glorious.

Truly, absolutely, massively glorious.

Actually.

Now that he thought about it.

Why?

Why couldn't he make a Jaeger?

A giant loss-making machine, that would be able to... hit giant monsters hard.

Why... why wouldn't he do this?

It was genius.

But! But that was for the next cycle!

This cycle was going to end in...

5,

4,

3,

2,

1,

0.

Bwaaaaaam.

Victory was his!

++ System Settlement. Cycle 2. September 2990. ++

++ Initial Funds = 200,000. Profits = 0. Losses = 965,060 ++

++ Initiating conversion. 965,060 losses to 96,506 personal wealth. ++

++ Assessing objectives. Optional Objectives complete. Assigning Rewards. ++

++ Media Company Successfully Created. Success. ++

++ Host is no longer tone deaf. ++

What? Tone deaf? Screw you system, he had a beautiful voice!

++ Defence Force Successfully Created. Success. ++

++ Tycoon Defence Force contracts no longer count to ongoing jobs. ++

Okay. Wooo, he dodged a bullet there. A nearly 3 month contract meant it ended just as the cycle ended. No worries there. But in the future, he had no worries either! That worked too.

Why was he feeling like something ominous was going to happen?

++ Host has lost 20 kilograms. Success. ++

++ Host will no longer need to worry about dying from allergies or sickness. ++

Huh. That's good.

Wait.

What is 'dying from allergies' about? Huu thought about it and just got angrier. That just meant that he would still experience the full allergies but, wouldn't die from them!

He felt the ominous feeling get worse.

++ Assessing Cycle Rules Adherence. ++

Right, right, everything was hunky dory, no need to drag this out System.

++ Rule: Failure to achieve a loss or comply with rules will result in Host taking a physical holiday off-planet. ++

No no no.

++ Host has failed objective. Defence Force currently in contract. Host must take physical holiday off planet. All Tycoons broaden their sights and their minds through travel and experience. Go forth host and prosper! ++

++ New Cycle Initiated. Starting funds 309, 508 (Initial + Loss Conversion). Cycle Period 3 months. ++

Nooo...

++ Updating Rules for this cycle ++

++ Rule: Host may not have any businesses continue unfinished past Cycle end. ++

++ New Rule: Failure to achieve a loss or comply with rules will result in Host creating and running a social group unrelated to family or companies. ++

++ New Rule: All structures and materials worth over 1 million C-Bills will be counted as assets. 10% of asset valuation is counted as profits during System Calculation. ++

++ New Rule: All assets must be used, assets cannot be left to do nothing. Assets cannot be sold. ++

Wait a moment... didn't he have an enormous building... oh no.

++ New Objective: Diversification is the strength of a Tycoon! Host must develop two civilian companies unrelated to the military! Do not be vulnerable to changing fortunes Host! ++

++ New Objective: An educated workforce allows a Tycoon to operate more flexibly in these trying times. Construct a learning institution and staff it. Host may choose tuition fee system. ++

Two civilian companies.

Um.

One of which would be the school!

That left one more...

He would have to think about it.

Think about it while going on holiday.

Fuuuuuuuuuck.

++ Optional Objective: System has noticed that Host has not met with a friend in 9 months. Host must make a friend. If Host died alone out of loneliness, who would the System tort, engage with? ++

Fuck you System.

He had friends!

There was Glory, Ronaldo, Hunter...

Yeah, even though they worked for him they were friends right?

++ Snrk ++

Shut up System.

Okay.

++ Reminder, Host must leave for a holiday within 1 week of Cycle starting. ++

Right.

So.

Huu felt the impending doom fill his gut.

The very idea of leaving Lott's Revenge was difficult.

Especially given the Cradle had a few rooms available, and he was absolutely on board with moving into an environmentally controlled zone.

All the better to keep him safe from the plant sex juices from outside.

At the same time, he had to actually create two companies.

And find something to do about the Cradle.

The Cradle that was an asset!?!!? System, why did you let me build it in the first place??!?!?

He puffed.

Right.

The fusion power plant for the first section had been built on site by a team from Edasich Motors. The biggest supplier of Vlar and Pitban engines to Defiance Industries.

They had sent a team to construct a fusion power plant capable of supplying the section with all the power it needed.

Which Huu had thought was an enormous investment that was going to cause even more losses! 41 long, 20 wide, 10 tall, and 10,000 C-Bills per ton had come out to 17,220,000 C-Bills.

An enormous investment! Or in other words, an enormous money sink.

That has just turned into 1.7M C-Bills in assets.

Ugh.

Right.

That was a mistake. He should have just made lots of smaller reactors that weren't going to be valued as assets. Hmmm. What was the cheapest fusion reactor, he wondered?

A quick check and... the 60 rated engines? 80,000 in cost from the billing page. 5000 base multiplied by engine rating, multiplied by tonnage. Then divide the total by 75.

That's not bad at all.

How do you lose money.

Time to construct a SAO plan.

Situation, Action, Outcome.

Situation. I have too much money.

Outcome. I want to lose all my money legally.

Action...

Fuck.

How did they do these again?

Think, brainstorm, the biggest money losers.

Infrastructure was one, he was building a lot of it, and it was losing money... but it was now making money through assets. The solution there was to build more, always build more than he had assets.

Huu knew this would be a problem in the future but not right now, he had to get this all done before he left. He knew that travel times were long, and he would be out of contact, what if the businesses didn't finish by the settlement cycle!? He would... be forced... to talk casually with people.

He couldn't handle that.

So.

Infrastructure was one, a money-loser.

...

Education!

Education was another way to lose money!

Just set the fees to zero and nobody would be paying anything... which meant that he was going to lose all his money!

Now, then, for the next business...

What was a way to guarantee losses?

Turning the vid screen on to waste some time as he thought about it. Huu noticed the news story, the banner underneath scrolling by at high speed.

"Enormous crop losses in Botte region due to drought. Farmers say unpredictable weather will lead to their farms closing since they cannot guarantee crop growth."

Bam.

Genius.

Farming!

Huu remembered how the farmers back in his first life had kept asking for assistance because of various crop failures. How there were billions of dollars in subsidies. How there was a milk price hike that Coles had instituted to help the farmers, how prices kept rising because of different crop failures. How everything was falling apart all the time because of all the different problems when it came to farming.

The news and reddit said that farms were doomed to fail. Everything should be based on vertical farms with high technical production and things like that.

So if he went for traditional farming with tractors and stuff... wouldn't that mean his farms were going to inevitably fail?

Perfect!

If even one percent of that carried through into Blackjack's agricultural economy, wouldn't that mean all his farms would fail within a year? That was perfect!

He set his plan aside for a Jaeger. First he had to find out why Eggers Defence Force was still in a contract! He had seen the contract, it ended like, literally today!