Demon King: Hero, don’t run away!
Chapter 538 Monopoly and Marketing

Chapter 538: Chapter 538 Monopoly and Marketing

Yang Yu didn’t make too many changes to Bai Jin’s original hairstyle, he just trimmed her bangs a bit shorter and cleared up the split ends, making her look very delicate.

By trimming her bangs, Yang Yu realized that although Bai Jin wasn’t as beautiful as Iyas, she was still above the average Human standards.

Bai Jin wasn’t tall; if Iyas was considered beautiful, Bai Jin might be deemed somewhat cute.

This point was especially strong when Yang Yu pinned up Bai Jin’s hair and dyed it for her.

Perhaps, because Bai Jin always gave off a somewhat gloomy vibe, having never seen Bai Jin with blushing cheeks and an incredibly shy expression created an endearing contrast.

Yang Yu grew increasingly puzzled as to why Bai Jin’s charm was -10, an utterly illogical figure.

After opening and rechecking the panel, Yang Yu was shocked to discover that Bai Jin’s charm had suddenly risen from -10 to 15.

Huh? Could dyeing and cutting hair actually increase charm?

Damn, charm went up that easily by so much, I feel like I’ve wasted so many points on charm before!

Despite his complaints, Yang Yu still followed the dyeing techniques detailed in the Emo Hairstyle Encyclopedia, gradually finishing Bai Jin’s hair color, rinsing off the excess dye with water, and using a hairdryer, allowed Bai Jin’s golden hair to flutter in the air.

On the side, Iyas couldn’t help but exclaim, "Looking like this, Bai Jin really does seem like a regular elf, absolutely no problems there."

He Meng wobbled out of a hood Bai Jin had set aside, demanding his midday meal from Yang Yu — for some reason, Yang Yu seemed very happy as he buried him in a bag of Clover.

Climbing out from the Clover, He Meng suddenly realized Bai Jin had transformed into an elf.

He Meng paused abruptly in mid-chew, facing Yang Yu with an astonished expression, "What kind of magic did you use to change Bai Jin into this? I almost couldn’t recognize her."

"How about it? Not bad, right?"

Bai Jin asked Yang Yu with a coy twist, currently unable to see herself and having been very concerned about it.

Yang Yu handed Bai Jin a mirror and gave a thumbs up,

"No problem, although it was my first time doing this, the result turned out pretty well."

The quality of the items drawn from the System was far superior to those in Yang Yu’s real world, and even with Yang Yu’s ordinary skills, he still managed to dye Bai Jin’s hair a uniform gold color.

Bai Jin took the mirror from Yang Yu, glanced at it, and hurriedly returned it to him.

In fact, Bai Jin wasn’t concerned with how she looked now, but whether Yang Yu would find it strange or think she wasn’t quite herself anymore.

Bai Jin sneaked a few glances at Yang Yu and seeing his unchanged demeanor, her internal worries dissipated.

"Truly youthful."

Lotcar, sitting beside them, let a subtle smile grace his lips, "Yang Yu, it seems you’re even more popular than I thought. Miss Bai Jin, you’ll need to put in extra effort."

...

...

After Bai Jin had adjusted to her new appearance, Yang Yu resumed their journey towards Elf Queen’s Luoyu City.

Along the way, Iyas recognized a familiar path.

The route that Yang Yu chose incidentally passed through the village that Iyas’s people had been destroyed.

Iyas didn’t ask Yang Yu to stop, but he took the initiative to halt anyway.

The village where Iyas once lived had now become ruins, everywhere lay broken walls and charred timber scattered about, but sprouts of life were pushing through the destruction.

Iyas approached a ruined house, which had once been a home where she and her brother lived. Now, all that remained was ash.

Looking around, there were no recent signs of anyone having visited, the traces of the elves who had come to investigate in the past had also been buried by the passage of time.

There was nothing left here to hold on to, and so Iyas, along with Yang Yu and others, set off once again on their journey toward Luoyu City.

"Iyas," Yang Yu began, "roughly how many people were in your village? Given the size of your village, it would’ve taken quite a bit of manpower and resources to capture you all."

Asked in such a manner, Iyas did not wear a troubled expression, but instead tried to show her smile as much as possible as she answered:

"There were about one hundred and twenty-three people in our village. The human troop that hunted us numbered around thirty."

Compared to the border between Serti and Wansheng Country, this place was closer to the boundary between Luo Ze Empire and Wansheng Country.

With the two countries at war, it was also possible that someone from within the Luo Ze Empire secretly ventured deep into Elf Forest to hunt for elf slaves and then trafficked them to Serti.

The Chaoyang Chamber of Commerce, which auctioned off Iyas and Hake, had many slaves whose origins were unclear; they were not inclined to easily reveal where the slaves came from.

However, according to information collected by Yang Yu, the Chaoyang Chamber of Commerce indeed engaged in slave trade with businesses associated with the Luo Ze Empire, though all parties were exceedingly secretive, making it quite difficult to gather intelligence.

With that in mind, Yang Yu took note of a figure.

There were more than three thousand missing elves. If it were a small group responsible for these crimes, they could only covertly kidnap a few elves at a time and then transport them back to the Human World to be sold.

Iyas confirmed that prior to the tragedy, there had never been any disappearances in her village, but she had heard the priest mention that other villages had experienced disappearances.

The priest also specifically instructed Iyas that if she encountered any suspicious individuals, she must not confront them directly and should avoid any contact.

According to the testimony of Iyas, before the tragedy occurred, the disappearance of elves was indeed a rarity.

The number couldn’t possibly be over a thousand.

Elves were an extremely valuable commodity in the slave trade.

But Hake was only sold once, and even then, it was to Silver Orchid Commerce, which had a grudge with Yang Yu.

As related by Sekamens who had once replaced Yang Yu in searching for Hake, the moment he arrived at the Slave Auction House looking for male elf slaves, the person in charge of the auction house’s eyes lit up, eagerly showing him around, helping him choose attractive male elves, almost desperate to sell off all the male elves in the auction house to Sekamens in one go.

Scarcity adds value, and the extreme rarity of elf slaves is what allowed them to fetch high prices in the market.

What would become of the price if elves, which were auctioned just a few times a year, suddenly increased by hundreds of times?

The price would certainly plummet dramatically.

Looking at the market situation in Serti, the elf slave market seemed to be saturated.

Those officials who were interested already owned their own elf slaves, and those who weren’t interested would never buy.

Yet in Serti, the price of elves remained exorbitant.

In this situation, the monopoly that the Chaoyang Chamber of Commerce had over the slave trade could not be underestimated.

There was another reason, the special nature of elf slaves—elves simply do not age or deteriorate in appearance, and the Chaoyang Chamber of Commerce wasn’t worried about holding onto stock. They could keep them for decades, and as long as they could still be sold at a high price, there was no loss, with a near-infinite shelf life.

Elves don’t die, but humans do.

There will always be new wealthy people emerging, and some would travel from far away lands to purchase elf slaves.

Now the question arises.