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"I know this might be difficult, but I still hope you can find a way to provide me with as much sugar as possible, and oh, also this kind of chocolate! Half of this gold is my thank-you gift to you, and the other half is a deposit. I don't care what price you actually pay for the sugar, but I'll purchase it at five ounces of gold per pound. What do you think?" Daenerys said solemnly.
After all, she was a queenly figure. Though still young, she had already been through many ordeals and was not some naive little flower.
Daenerys was well aware of the importance of refined sugar.
If powerful firearms could help her conquer enemies by force, then refined sugar would be the key to maintaining her army's strength and winning allies.
Once she returned to Westeros, if she wanted to win over some lord or noble, gifting them sugar of equal weight would be a hundred times more effective than gifting gold of the same weight.
As for the price of five ounces per pound, it was a figure Daenerys estimated based on the rough sugar blocks in her own world.
Undoubtedly, refined sugar of this quality was worth far more than the price calculated using the standard for Westeros' crude sugar.
But Daenerys also figured that sugar in Josh's world probably wasn't cheap, though definitely not as exorbitant as in Westeros.
She hadn't come to this conclusion blindly—it was based on the previous firearms Josh had sold her.
Why? Because of the metal.
During World War II, Earth's industrial level had already become very advanced. While the steel produced wasn't comparable to the special alloys of future generations, it was leagues ahead of anything in the medieval era.
When Josh first recommended firearms to her, Daenerys was only interested in their power.
But once she got her hands on the real thing, her interest extended beyond the weapons themselves to the metal used to make the guns and bullets.
When she first traded for the .38 revolver, Daenerys had already tested it. The best weapons used by her warriors could barely leave faint scratches on the gun's surface and couldn't cause any real damage.
Upon closer inspection, she found that even the so-called scratches had only marred the unknown coating on the gun's surface… it was nickel-plated.
Such robust steel could completely rival the legendary Valyrian steel.
In Westeros, steel of this level was several times more valuable than gold.
Much like the famed swords in martial arts novels—like the Heaven-Relying Sword and Dragon-Slaying Saber—it wasn't something that could be bought even with money.
And how much did the .38 revolver weigh? Over a kilogram.
Even excluding the non-metal parts, it wouldn't be less than 30 ounces in imperial units.
And Josh sold it to her, with a free copy of The Prince, for only 10 ounces of gold.
As for the M1917 rifle he sold her later—don't even mention it. It weighed 8 kilograms, and even after removing the wooden parts, it still weighed at least 2 kilograms. Plus, it came with 100 rounds of ammunition.
And both the .38 and M1917 rounds were made of fine copper.
So even though the price had tripled, Daenerys had not lost anything.
In fact, if one day Josh stopped supplying her with bullets, these guns wouldn't become useless clubs as he imagined. Just recycling the steel and copper casings would be enough for Daenerys to recoup her investment—and then some.
And there wouldn't be any issue reusing the recovered steel.
Yes, producing steel required advanced technology, but re-forging existing steel was far easier.
Just like Valyrian steel: while the people of Westeros couldn't forge it, they could still reforge weapons made from it.
So Josh thought he had scored a huge profit.
But in reality, he was just at level three, while Daenerys was already in the stratosphere.
This was one of the greatest advantages of interdimensional trade.
Now, Daenerys was using this same information gap to estimate the value of sugar.
Faced with Daenerys' offer, Josh was undeniably tempted.
Was sugar expensive? At $2 per pound, sure.
And if he wanted to trade large quantities, that price was unrealistic—he would have trouble getting enough ration coupons.
So he'd have to buy it on the black market.
There, the price was at least $5 per pound.
But compared to Daenerys' offer of 5 ounces of gold per pound (at 80% purity), which was around $250 per pound, it was still ridiculously cheap.
A full 50-fold profit! Even the M1917 rifle he sold earlier barely made him 25 times the profit.
This business was worth doing!
"I can try my best, but I can't guarantee the quantity," Josh thought for a moment and immediately agreed, but didn't dare make too many promises—after all, sugar was a tightly controlled resource.
"That's fine, doing your best is enough," Daenerys also knew it wasn't going to be easy.
After finishing their discussion, the two said their goodbyes and ended the call.
Afterward, Josh looked at the hundred more gold bars in his system storage and felt another wave of excitement.
Although he had seen gold every day recently, each transaction brought more wealth than the last.
The feeling was absolutely wonderful.
If it were all U.S. dollars instead of gold, Josh would've been tempted to pull out a bill just to light a cigarette and act cool like Mark Gor.
Of course, that was just a thought. For one thing, Josh didn't smoke. For another, while Mark Gor looked suave lighting his cigarette with cash, the guy was actually printing counterfeit bills—he was burning fakes.
Soon, the night passed.
The next day, Josh woke up late, and his plans changed again.
Originally, he had planned to visit several gun shops that morning to buy more firearms. After paying for the house, he wouldn't have much cash left to build up inventory, so he had intended to make a purchase early and trade with Daenerys at noon.
But because of the sugar, he had suddenly gained 1,000 ounces of gold, so there was no longer any rush.
What? Half of that was a deposit?
Come on—once something went into Josh's pocket, there was no way it was coming back. Less than a hundred pounds of sugar? He'd buy out the entire black market if he had to!
He casually ate some bread and milk from his supplies to fill his stomach, then started packing.
There wasn't much to pack, since most of the important stuff had long been stored in the system inventory. So he just stuffed some clothes into boxes.
He also prepared a fine little wooden box and placed fifty gold bars inside.
All that was left now was to wait for Margot's arrival.