Episode 106 — The Road to Platform Dominance

It was the afternoon after Garam and Edmon had rushed out, clutching the prospectus for the "Gara-Mon Factory" with frantic excitement.

"Mr. Zect... I apologize for bothering you while you’re busy. May I have a moment of your time?"

Sitting on the living room sofa was Gustav. He wore a serious, somewhat bewildered expression, looking like a student visiting a professor after a particularly difficult lecture.

"It’s fine, Gustav. I assume you received the 'lottery ticket sales pitch' from Edmon and the others yesterday?"

I prepared a cold Cola for Gustav and handed it to him. He accepted it with a polite "Thank you," took a sip, and then spread the three-way investment proposal on the table.

"To be honest, I was stunned. I’ve never seen the Guild Master so agitated, his eyes practically bloodshot. He told me that while the Guild would obviously invest, he personally wanted to buy into the rights as well. ...I must admit, I still haven't fully grasped the true nature of this 'investment' system."

Gustav is a wise ruler. That’s exactly why he feels a sense of dread toward the sheer heat behind this concept—a concept that made a wily merchant leap at it, abandoning the safe fruit of "guaranteed interest." I chewed on my straw for a moment before beginning my explanation in a flat, matter-of-fact tone.

"It’s natural to be uneasy. What Edmon wants isn't 'money.' He wants the 'future' of this factory. A loan—or debt—is simple: you pay a fixed interest rate, and once the principal is returned, the contract is terminated. Investment is different. Giving up equity means giving up a share of the wealth this factory generates... forever. Edmon is convinced that in the future, this factory will hold a value far greater than any measly interest payment."

"...So, rather than seeking the immediate profit of interest, he seeks the fruit of perpetual growth. His merchant’s intuition drove him to that conclusion."

"Exactly. And the mechanism to keep predators like him from doing whatever they want is that one-to-one-to-one ratio in the proposal."

Gustav traced his finger over the parchment, specifically the strangely equal numbers that split the rights into three parts of 33.3%.

"That is my biggest question. Normally, in management, someone must hold the initiative, or things will stagnate without a clear decision. But you deliberately gave no one the lead, splitting it equally. Won’t this cause every decision to end in a deadlock of debate, ruining efficiency?"

"Gustav. You’re absolutely right. This system wasn't designed for 'Efficiency.' It was designed for 'Security'—namely, preventing foul play. The moment one person holds fifty-one percent of the rights, the factory becomes their personal toy. This is a multi-signature structure designed to prevent a single-point-of-failure in governance."

I drew three circles on the table, labeling each with their role.

"Listen. Garam, the craftsman, and Edmon, the merchant, will always clash on the floor. Garam will say, 'I want to use better materials and take more time.' Edmon will say, 'Cut costs and sell it faster.' This is a fundamental spec conflict."

"...The artisan’s pride versus the merchant’s rationality. True, I cannot imagine those two ever seeing eye-to-eye."

"That’s where you come in—the Lord. When they disagree, you side with one of them to create a two-to-one majority. You function as the Arbitrator—the Tie-breaker. By acting as the deciding node, you prevent deadlocks and maintain system equilibrium."

Gustav nodded in understanding, but then he looked at me as if he’d just realized something.

"...I see. And whenever I have to make that decision, I will naturally come to you for 'technical advice,' won’t I?"

"Well, I’ll handle that until the next banquet. But after that... it's up to the 'Lord' to decide."

I leaned my recliner back slightly and looked up at the ceiling.

(I have zero interest in a system that requires my manual intervention. The admin overhead alone would be a total nightmare. No, I’m architecting an autonomous, decentralized infrastructure—one where the 'Seat of the Lord' simply acts as a logical processing node to keep the engine spinning.)

"When Leon succeeds you as Lord, he’ll be the one to decide. And after him, the role will fall to the 'Lord' of every generation. It will be a job that belongs to the position itself."

"...By placing yourself outside the framework, you are attempting to leave a 'system' in this country that will spin forever. Are you really intending to phase your own existence out as a piece of future redundancy? Designing yourself out of the entire equation?"

"It’s not that noble. I just hate the idea of being called away from my naps to fix things after the system is finished."

"Meow. (In other words, the ultimate AFK game. Ideal for a professional shut-in.)"

Listening to Tama’s commentary, I decided it was time to move the discussion to the next step.

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