Chapter 040: Informants

On this day, those who visited the hotpot restaurant were not only ordinary civilians of Konoha but also quite a few ninjas drawn in by the aroma wafting from the shop.

Thus, Wang Bo made several hundred thousand taels that day. Of course, this was only the gross profit.

After Wang Bo deducted the costs, he found that the net profit was actually not much—just a few tens of thousands of taels.

But don't forget, these were all at a fifty percent discount.

Once the three days passed and the menu prices returned to normal, Wang Bo would earn much more.

Of course, perhaps after the three days, those who didn't see the discount would stop coming, since many people patronized the hotpot restaurant solely because of the fifty percent discount.

But regardless, the hotpot restaurant's reputation had been established; most civilians and ninjas living in Konoha knew that a delicious hotpot restaurant had opened in the village.

Wang Bo also named his hotpot restaurant "Weizhixian Hotpot Restaurant."

Then, after the three days passed and Wang Bo's dishes returned to their original prices, the restaurant's business immediately dropped significantly.

But there was still an income of tens of thousands to over a hundred thousand taels each day.

From this, it could be seen that many people in Konoha were genuinely wealthy.

After all, this was Konoha, and its prosperity was truly incomparable to ordinary towns.

The success of the hotpot restaurant soon gave Wang Bo the idea of opening a second shop, so he spent money to purchase another street-front store in Konoha.

After some preparation, he opened a hotpot restaurant in another corner of Konoha Village.

On opening day, there was also a fifty percent discount, but it lasted only one day.

After that day, prices returned to normal.

Thus, Wang Bo made even more money.

But Wang Bo always remembered that he opened the hotpot restaurant to make money, and the purpose of making money was to cultivate a group of subordinates.

So after the business of the two hotpot restaurants stabilized, Wang Bo handed them over to a girl named Yamano Miyuki, who was one of the first girls he had recruited.

She was an orphan from Konoha, not only capable but also without much ambition.

Wang Bo confidently entrusted the business to her and left Konoha alone.

This time he left, taking nearly two million ryō with him, partly to expand the hotpot restaurant and spice business across the Land of Fire, and partly to recruit a group of subordinates.

When recruiting subordinates, Wang Bo certainly wouldn't recruit a bunch of adults.

Mainly because adults' minds were too complicated and hard to manage, so Wang Bo's target was those children who couldn't survive.

In this backward world, often due to a small accident or a minor natural disaster, countless children would be abandoned.

So Wang Bo had no trouble finding children at all.

Every time Wang Bo arrived at a village, he would see a group of children who had lost their adults, either robbing or begging to survive.

Wang Bo couldn't have liked these people more.

Whenever he saw these children, Wang Bo would walk up and ask them a question.

"Do you want to follow me? As long as you give me your loyalty, you can fill your stomachs and gain dignity!"

The children in the world of Naruto were very precocious, especially those who had lost their families; their way of thinking was completely different from that of ordinary children.

Faced with Wang Bo's invitation, some hesitated, but others agreed without hesitation.

Because they knew that no matter how bad things got, they couldn't get any worse.

Even if the choice was wrong, it would only mean death.

If they weren't even afraid of death, what else could they fear?

For such kids, Wang Bo naturally accepted all comers.

So a month later, when Wang Bo arrived at Tanigakure again, he had dozens of such kids by his side, the oldest ten years old, the youngest only three months.

By the way, this three-month-old was the little sister of a six-year-old kid.

The other party was willing to join Wang Bo's ranks for only one purpose: hoping that Wang Bo could take care of his little sister.

Wang Bo agreed to such a request.

A three-month-old baby was nothing.

He had the more sensible kids take care of the baby and taught this group of kids the chakra extraction technique.

But it turned out that most kids could extract chakra, though occasionally there were some children who couldn't.

Wang Bo naturally couldn't abandon this group.

What Wang Bo really needed was a batch of subordinates; whether these subordinates could fight was not important to him.

The reason he passed down the chakra extraction technique was merely to let the children have chakra so they could work better.

After arriving at Tanigakure, Wang Bo quickly purchased two street-front shops in the town. The first shop opened as a hotpot restaurant, and the second as a spice shop.

The kids Wang Bo had taken in became the staff and food runners of the spice shop and hotpot restaurant.

Once the street-front shops in Tanigakure were on track, Wang Bo took away a batch of kids who had refined chakra, leaving the rest behind to run the businesses.

In the blink of an eye, a year passed.

Wang Bo spent a year traveling around the Land of Fire, opening hotpot restaurants in every corner of the land, forming a huge chain of hotpot restaurants.

Daily revenue was immense, bringing in tens of millions of ryo each day.

Of course, this was only gross profit, but even after deducting costs, there was still an income of several million ryo.

And this was just one day's income.

Ten days would bring tens of millions, three months over a hundred million, and the annual profit was absolutely staggering.

To be honest, with such income, he could be considered a major merchant across the Land of Fire.

Throughout the entire Land of Fire, those who could achieve this could be counted on one's fingers.

The Taste of Fresh Hotpot also caught the eyes of many in high society, and quite a few people coveted this money-making machine.

But Wang Bo had prepared in advance.

When the hotpot chain was flourishing, he had people find Konohagakure and signed an order worth tens of millions of ryo with the ninja of Konoha.

Konoha would dispatch a group of ninja to protect Wang Bo's hotpot restaurants from troublemakers.

Thus, Wang Bo's hotpot business naturally developed rapidly.

At the same time, Wang Bo never stopped collecting orphans and training subordinates. Over this year, he had gathered thousands of orphans under his command.

Wang Bo treated everyone equally and spread the chakra extraction technique, but most of these orphans couldn't extract chakra; only about a third actually succeeded.

So the remaining two-thirds were assigned to various Taste of Fresh Hotpot restaurants.

As for those who could refine chakra, they were favored by Wang Bo and sent to a base he established to learn combat skills and knowledge, so they could be put to use in the future.

Of course, those without chakra were not useless.

They served as Wang Bo's eyes and ears, helping him observe every move in the Land of Fire.