Chapter 283: Industry

About ten minutes later, when Li Mochen left the Storm Arena under the escort of numerous security guards and police officers, he was once again surrounded by a crowd of reporters.

He had grown accustomed to such scenes and couldn't be bothered to respond. Until someone raised a question: "Mr. Wiltonstein, I'd like to ask you something. Brood Carroll once lost 15:0 to James Lanster in the previous spring individual tournament, the whole match lasting only two minutes. Yet today, Carroll was able to battle you on the arena for half an hour. Mr. Wiltonstein, do you think Brood Carroll's strength has surpassed Lanster's?"

The voice was loud, overpowering the clamorous questions from the crowd of reporters. Li Mochen couldn't help but glance sideways at the speaker, noticing that the microphone indeed bore the logo of the Georgia Sports Television Station. So he stopped in his tracks: "No, Carroll has likely made considerable progress, but his strength still falls slightly short of James—I mean, in the case where Lanster didn't use performance-enhancing drugs."

The reporter from the Georgia Sports Television network was quite puzzled: "But Mr. Wiltonshire, it took you a full half hour today to defeat Miss Carroll?"

"That was because I had no choice but to do so."

Li Mochen's tone was very calm: "Due to pressure from various quarters, I had to prolong the match as much as possible. Additionally, I needed to consider the spectators who had purchased tickets, especially the supporters who came for me, and I couldn't let them leave in a disappointed mood. So today, I unilaterally conducted a teaching match. I believe that if the audience of this match could observe carefully, they should be able to learn some defensive techniques in swordsmanship from me."

These few words caused an uproar among all the reporters present, as if they had been injected with adrenaline.

"Mr. Wiltonshire, could you please elaborate? What kind of pressure exactly?"

"Andre, may I ask, is the pressure on you coming from the NHSAA competition committee? Or from the current advertisers? Or from Atlanta Cable TV, which is responsible for the broadcast?"

"Are you sure you're conducting a guidance match? But many people saw that you didn't have the upper hand in the scene. Today's defeat of Broderick Carroll seems more like negligence—"

"We have inside information that student Louise Linden has withdrawn from the competition. That means you are now effectively the champion of the Atlanta High School Individual Tournament. How do you feel about that?"

"Louise Linden is your classmate, right? Is there any personal reason for her withdrawal?"

Li Mochen, however, had lost interest in answering. With the help of numerous security guards, he forcibly pushed through the crowd and boarded his car, 'Otto I.' He had to hurry to the nearby Gerard Hotel to sign a contract with Edward Jewelry Company and had no time to waste with these reporters.

Moreover, he expected to be very busy in the coming period.

The Navigator Elite Talent Agency would secure three endorsement contracts for him within a week: Norfolk Motors, Elizabeth Cosmetics, and Titan Communications, with an estimated total annual value of seventy-five million gold shields.

The main source of this income came from 'Elizabeth,' a world-renowned top-tier women's cosmetics brand.

—It was puzzling that a women's cosmetics brand would target a combat sports star like him, but such precedents existed. So far, Elizabeth Cosmetics was not the only company intending to recruit Li Mochen under its banner. They were all drawn to his temperament and appearance, as well as his immense influence among women.

However, Elizabeth Cosmetics Company offered the highest price and showed the most sincerity, having already quoted an annual fee of thirty-two million. But Edward Jeffries was not satisfied. He planned to ask for a huge sum, securing a contract worth over forty-five million gold shields per year from this company.

If he could really achieve this, then Li Mochen's income for this month would reach as high as one hundred and forty-seven million.

But then came a very headache-inducing problem. The end of January next year is tax season. Li Mochen must spend most of this money within these two to three months, using investments and charitable donations to legally avoid taxes. Otherwise, forty percent of this money would go to the national treasury.

To this end, Li Mochen also planned to find a reliable accounting firm to help him handle this issue.

America's Big Four accounting firms are well-known and supposedly the best choice, but Li Mochen had many private matters and some not-so-legal income to deal with, so he did not intend to consider them.

"My suggestion is to buy a large estate in the north of Atlanta. There are two for sale there now, which can be acquired for thirty to fifty million gold shields."

In the 'Otto I' armored off-road vehicle, Carl offered his advice: "A mansion in the northern district can be considered a ticket to high society."

Upon hearing this, Li Mochen felt a stirring in his heart. This came from the original owner; entering America's upper class was one of the original owner's obsessions.

But Li Mochen didn't care about this at all. In his view, one's own strength, wealth, and power were the most important. When the day came that he stood at the top of America's pyramid, these so-called upper-class people in Atlanta would all live at his mercy. Why would he care whether they acknowledged him or not?

Moreover, he was very comfortable living in the Unicorn Apartment, without spending a penny of his own. Nathan Sports Group had recently bought him a fully equipped gym, which was being upgraded and renovated, costing an estimated nearly ten million.

——But if he bought the estate himself, these expenses would have to be borne by him.

"A mansion is unnecessary. It's not like I have nowhere to live. I'm quite interested in that Bert Building."

As he spoke, Li Mochen looked at a document in his hand—a list of assets for judicial auction provided by the 'Linden Auction House.' Most of its contents came from Antonio, with only about a third of the asset list originating from other lawsuits.

The Linden family's auction house was one of the long-term partners of the North District and East District courts in Atlanta, holding judicial auctions every Wednesday.

Originally, Antonio's properties should not have entered judicial auction so quickly; it would have taken at least a month to go through various procedures and then a period of public notice.

However, in Atlanta, many people were eyeing Antonio's properties, eager to take them over. So the East District court handled the matter specially, under the pretext of 'quickly obtaining money to comfort the victims,' completing all procedures in just one week, putting most of Antonio's properties on the judicial auction list, and their appraised values were also very low.

Li Mochen himself had contributed to this. He wanted to buy assets like the Craig Community Bank and the building at 34 Anfack Street, so of course he couldn't just sit back and do nothing.

But after obtaining this asset list, Li Mochen discovered new targets.