Cigarettes

The feast had an unusual atmosphere. Although everyone was provided with plenty of food that are leagues above what they used to eat, the people were nonetheless strained when eating.

Their lips are shaped into arks of elations, yet their eyes were dull. Even though the maids went out of their way to hear out what the people wants to ask, no one seemed to have the guts to speak.

Their gazes are all over the place, they didn't dare lay sight on their Lord.

Krei was overjoyed when he saw this. His performance yielded significant results. His followers would flinch whenever he looked in their general direction.

Even the Leaders who had witnessed his 'miracles' were not immune. Inside Krei, a new wave of pride arose, the feeling of being the alpha and worshipped by hundreds of people.

" The lesson tonight is canceled, review the notes that you have taken. Our next lesson will be next week, I want everyone to be completely familiar with the alphabet by then. " Krei talked softly to the Sekle leaders. He also added " You should pick some of the tribesmen and teach them what you've learned. "

" We follow your holy decree, My Lord! " The leaders paid their respects while listening attentively.

After spawning additional food, Krei left. His presence is not helping to ease the mood. As such, he instructed Sugude to facilitate the event.

Before leaving, Krei filled his empty dimensional storage with the wood lying in the outer perimeter.

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When Krei returned to Earth, he went out of the city and into the countryside. He wandered around, finding suitable people who can help him sell the wood.

Unfortunately, all the offers that he got were not near his asking price. Everyone tried to take a bite off his flesh when they knew that he lacked the necessary documents for his truckloads of wood.

Without the legal backing, Krei couldn't do much. He thought of asking the government official that provided him the road construction contracts, but in the second thought, he opted not to expose too much of his cards to those crooked people.

Krei had to bite the bullet. He sold half of the wood and the other half was sent to the mill. With his otherworld base having non-existent infrastructure, the timber will be used to build huts.

At least by then, his people will have an acceptable place to stay and not some shady-looking tents that could be blown off by the wind.

When Krei returned to his company, he was able to inject 450,000 pesos into the capital. It was barely enough to satisfy his growing company.

" Fuck. I bit more than I can chew. " Krei tapped his desk as he thought of how stupid he was when he promised to take the road projects without even having a full grasp of the situation.

Now, the upcoming road construction will be nothing but a liability. His manpower will be stuck in the project for more than a month.

The only moneymaker he currently has is the wood from the otherworld. The problem is, it will be foolish to rely on those. It will be gone in no time if he took everything haphazardly.

While frustrated, Krei skimmed through e-books to calm his nerves. As he read along, something caught his attention.

" Smuggling? Drugs? Stealing? " Krei's attention was captured by an article that explored modern cartels and smuggling syndicates across the world.

High-risk jobs are a sure way to make quick wealth. Krei was immediately hooked by the idea. Unfortunately, he doesn't know anyone who can refer him to a drug lab or any chemist.

The local drug peddlers in his neighborhood are only the lowest in the hierarchy. They are the grassroots of the drug syndicates. It will take a lot of grinds to move up the ladder if he chooses to join them.

Not wanting to back down, Krei looked for alternatives. Something that can be done independently and wouldn't require a team of smugglers.

Through his research, there were a lot of great prospects. Several articles recommended rice and sugar smuggling. While the recently published writings dabbled on cigarette and liquor smuggling.

" Interesting. Interesting... " Krei believed that these operations are tailor-made for him.

The Philippines had imposed high taxes on cigarettes and other products. This had lead to a boom in smuggling. Compared to other countries, the value of cigarettes in the Philippines had doubled.

This price disparity can be easily exploited. Various statements noted that Cambodian and Chinese-made cigarettes were preferred by the smugglers.

Philippine ports had busted numerous illegal shipments. But with Krei's ability, bypassing customs is a walk in the park.

Krei would only need to set up a distribution network for his smuggled products. Which in this case is also relatively simple since the Philippines has a culture of 'Sari-sari stores'.

These are small retail shops run by families and can be easily found everywhere. Especially if you go to rural areas.

With his mind settled, Krei decided to book a flight to Cambodia. He set his smuggling run in a month. Before going to Cambodia, Krei wanted to build a considerable amount of capital.

The next setback Krei is facing is how to convert the payment that he will be receiving from Viscount Kang. The otherworld mostly used Gold and Silver in their currencies.

The purity of these coins isn't that good. If Krei wants to sell these on Earth, he will have to remelt it.

Moreover, if he trades in bulk, he will have no way to prove where the gold and silver came from. The profit will decline by a large margin if he sells them to middlemen. They will butcher the price for their gains.

For now, all of the payment Krei received was used to supply daily necessities to the tribe. Soon, he will need to find ways to optimize the exchange between worlds.

" Problems! why can't I sail smoothly? Those MCs always had an easy run. Now, whenever I move --- I stumble upon situations. " Krei could only sigh as he lamented on his difficulties.

Krei busied himself on road construction. The project that his team got was in the rural area. When they started, Krei was stunned by the condition of the road.

The road is intentionally undermined. The potholes were freshly made and don't look normal. The path looked like a beehive.

It appears that the local government is in cahoots with contractors on making money out of road construction. Even the local people that passed by are giving Krei's team odd stares.

" Faster! I want these tarpaulins up before night. Don't dally around! " Krei was yelling at his crew. Although he knew that shouting was counterproductive, it still gave him a great feeling to scream at his employees.

" Hoy! You, new guy! Don't you have a brain?! I said no gaps! " Krei eyed one of the new workers.

Krei tasted the sweetness of being a leader, and he loved it! Slowly, the notion of power corroded his mind. He gradually went down the route of a typical douche boss.

The road that they are reconstructing is 2 kilometers long. It took more than a day to prepare the site. As usual, Krei ordered the complete covering of the perimeter so that no one can watch them outside.

As for the traffic, it was temporarily redirected to a dirt road.

In the evening, Krei called off work while he stayed behind. When his laborers left, he demolished the road. The road was cut into slabs that are 1x1x0.28 meters.

Since the road was a two-lane, the width is about 6 meters. If the road was in perfect shape, Krei would have gotten around 12,00 slabs of concrete.

Yet, after working the night and finishing half a kilometer, Krei was only able to extract nearly 2,000 acceptable concrete slabs that could be repurposed.

After toiling for the following 4 days, Krei's company was able to erase the road and he was able to get a total of 7,382 concrete slabs.

The concrete slabs were sent to the otherworld so that they can be used as roads in the camp.

The otherworld wasn't dawdling either. The entire tribe had relocated to a newly opened area near the top of the hill.

It was formerly a heavily wooded area, but after the tribe's cleaning, along with Krei taking down the trees, the expanse had become perfect for a new village.

Momentarily, the tribe turned their attention to understanding how to erect wooden huts. Krei had provided them videos that walked through the entire building process.

The materials were also given by Krei. Be it nails, lumber, hammers, spirit levels, saws, and other equipment. It was all available. All they need to do is get accustomed to using the tools.

Krei isn't expecting them to build impressive huts. It only needs to be simple. Just a place to live.

He also asked them to construct simple composting toilets so that the tribespeople would have a systematic way of handling the waste.

The last thing Krei wished for is to roam around a village that stinks of human waste.

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Corruption in road construction:

- Sadly, the construction of public infrastructures is periodically infested by corrupt officials that make sure that the contractors they want get the project. Corrupt local government units occasionally undermine already existing infrastructures just so that they can ask for more money to rebuild or rehabilitate.

Smuggling:

- Do you know that people smuggle different kinds of things, even simple commodities? Most of the time people just want to avoid paying taxes that's why they understate the value of the product that they are importing/exporting.

Spirit Level:

- These are the instruments used to check if the selected surface is leveled. You might have seen them already, these are the thingy with bubbles in them and all you need to do is place it along a surface then check if the bubble is in the right position. Generally, the bubble should be in the middle.

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