The Mafia Empire

Bottles of fruit wine were uncorked and poured into wood barrels. Th, someone st the barrels into the distillery, where the fruit wine was transferred into the distillation apparatus. The whole process was divided into many steps: the earlier stages required more people, while the later stages required fewer.

This arrangemt was for secrecy, though whether the secret could be kept, Julian wasn't too optimistic about.

The Guar people, who had be forced to join the "gang" out of desperation, were indeed displaying loyalty for now. However, Julian doubted that this loyalty would last forever. Especially wh, through distillation, the fruit wine that was originally worth about two dollars per bottle was transformed into a high proof illegal product worth t dollars or more.

The ormous profits created a significant impact on the minds of these impoverished youths, ough to alter some people's values and life perspectives in a short time.

Loyalty, after all, is just a matter of price.

Once someone believed they had mastered this method and successfully tried it, Julian could easily imagine that a group of people would secretly leave, taking the distillation method with them to seek their own futures.

No one could guarantee that everyone would remain loyal forever, so, in Julian's mind, secrecy was no big deal.

Moreover, selling this high proof illicit alcohol wasn't part of his long term plan for the future. It was merely a way to raise funds and build his power. He ev hoped that someone would manage to steal the technique and go indepdt. That way, he could rely on these people to consolidate the market for high proof alcohol sales within the Star Empire, establishing standards and an try system.

As the temperature in the distillery rose, a humid heat hit. The momt the first drop of crystal clear liquid with a strong alcoholic aroma dripped from the spout, Graf trembled with excitemt.

This wasn't just high proof alcohol; this was money, gold! From 50,000 bottles of fruit wine, factoring in losses, they could produce a 40,000 bottles of high proof alcohol. If they sold each bottle for just t dollars, that would be 400,000. After deducting the ,000 dollars in costs that Julian mtioned, the profit would be... Graf counted on his fingers—a 50,000.

His share was 40%, which meant about 0,000 dollars!

In an instant, his breathing became rapid 0,000 dollars!

One hundred thousand!

Ev in his wildest dreams of becoming a millionaire, Graf had never possessed 0,000 dollars, not ev in his fantasies. But now, it was within reach.

Unlike Graf, who was lost in his excitemt, Julian calmly watched the alcohol drip from the spouts one by one. Others might see this as a highly profitable business with a huge market, and of course, they wouldn't be wrong. However, compared to the business giants in the commercial guilds, this money wouldn't ev catch their eye.

Since he had started reading newspapers and books, Julian had gained a preliminary understanding of the tire Empire and ev the whole world.

The most profitable industries in the world were always those that were monopolized, like the military industry. In the front of them all were various war machines, particularly the AT war machinery and AT mobile platforms, which were currtly the most equipped in the Star Empire. Each of these machines cost over 00,000.

Expsive, right? One machine costing that much? What was more terrifying was that the Empire had equipped over 6,000 of these machines, according to reports. And what about the ones that hadn't be reported? Or the ones that could be assembled at any time?

If such industries were too high d, requiring a long process of accumulation and experice to ter, what about clothing, food, housing, and transportation?

What shocked Julian was that the most famous clothing stores in the tire Empire wer't chain stores like in his dream but individual tailors shops. From the Emperor and nobles to commoners, their clothes were either made by themselves or sewn by a tailor for money. Going to a store to buy ready made clothes? Sorry, there wasn't a single "departmt store" in the tire Star Empire.

Ev if you wt to a tailor's shop, you'd need luck to find ready made clothes that fit.

Whether it was clothing, shopping malls, food, housing, or transportation, Julian saw each industry as a diamond mountain that hadn't yet be mined, and a high purity, high yield op pit diamond mountain at that. There was no need to dig—just chipping off a piece could make a person, or a company, leap to become one of the most influtial brands in the Empire!

So this small business of high proof alcohol? Julian really didn't treat it as something precious.

The dripping alcohol gradually turned into a stream, and the rich aroma of liquor filled the room. Seeing that the barrel was nearly full, Julian immediately instructed someone to tight the spout and push the nearly full barrel of "alcohol" aside. Th, they poured in the prepared fruit juice, stirred, and let it settle.

In about three hours, the alcohol mixed with fruit juice would turn into the popular "Snow Elf" and "First Love" drinks. Once bottled in the redesigned bottles and labels, under Julian's insistce, a bottle of t dollar high proof fruit wine was born.

The reason Julian insisted that the three major suppliers strictly follow his design for the bottles and labels was to create confusion. Although he didn't treat bootlegging as his future primary industry, he still wanted to avoid unnecessary trouble.

Wh certain special people became interested in these wines and examined the bottles and labels, they would think that this wine was imported and not domestically "produced."

Ev if they wt abroad to look for it, they wouldn't find this high proof fruit wine.

Today was just the first experimtal production. Once the process and standards were confirmed, Julian wouldn't need to come by oft. Wh a doz barrels of blded high proof fruit wine were pushed out of the tightly closed factory doors, almost everyone was shocked.