Birth Of The Crafts-God

"Lucas just sent me a resignation letter. Know anything about that?" Havos glanced at Luka who sat opposite him.

Luka was surprised by this for only a second before he replied.

"Shouldn't you be asking him instead?"

"Something tells me it's related to you. Call it an instinct." Havos rapped his finger on the table.

"Well, that instinct of yours is incredibly sharp. Too bad you can't use it to pick up women." Luka grinned. He then proceeded to explain.

"He approached me two days ago wanting to buy the remaining ten percent shares of the team and also official sponsorship rights as a vestige-smith store. I refused to sell because I saw no value in doing so, and it would also hurt our brand."

"Wow, he has a huge appetite." Havos chuckled.

One couldn't blame him for saying that. Usually, those who could own a stock if a drift racing team offered more than just money to do so. Owning a stock in a drift racing team would tie the image of the team to the person and if would also give them controlling rights over the team. Naturally, potential candidates had to be vetted well, and one of the major requirements was to be able to offer value to the team.
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Take for instance the ten percent stocks being discussed. Supposing there were two competitors for it, Lucas and a top 100 company in Trundel City. While the two sides could afford the cash value for the shares, the criteria didn't just stop there. One also had to be more beneficial than the other to the team.

In this case, it was obvious that a top 100 company could benefit the team much more than Lucas could. Not only could they afford the stocks, but they could also occasionally offer investment or quarterly sponsorships depending on the team's performance. They can also give or subsidise part of their products and services for the team members, boosting morale. They could also offer their valuable connections and aid whenever the team encountered any issues.

Even though such a company wasn't bidding for the stocks, Luka still decided to keep it in the reserves for a suitable candidate. In this case, Lucas didn't meet the mark so there was no way he would have sold it to him. Havos understood this which was why he sided with Luka.

Also, Havos wasn't really familiar with Lucas. They had only met back in Baylands City and based on that familiarity, Havos had decided to do Lucas a 'favour' and get him into the team. But with Lucas now resigning, Havos felt that the latter didn't value his help, so he didn't try to talk him out of it or ask for the reason.

"Forget about him. We need to focus on the next series of planning for the team." Luka said.

. . .

The next day came quickly and just after Lucas had made breakfast —which was actually the takeouts they got from the restaurant the previous day— he had a visitor at the door. It was the personnel sent by Vienna to help with the takeover.

Lucas left the house but this time with Melissa in tow. He realised that leaving behind the eleven year old all on her own continuously for a significant amount of time wasn't exactly good for her. So, unless it was a mission or a dangerous activity, Lucas decided to take Melissa along with him.

The Versoa team's base was surprisingly located in Trundel City, which made things easier for Lucas as he wouldn't need to relocate. However, it was in the northern side of the city, which was pretty far. Trundel City was ridiculously huge even for a metropolis. Even using a light rail train, it would take at least 15 minutes to get from the north to the south side of the city. The average speed of a light rail train was 700km/hr, so that meant from one point to another was at least 175km.

Because of the size of Trundel City, the area within the city was divided into provinces. The Bilac trade centre, which was where Lucas lived, was within Cas Lego province. As for the Versoa team's headquarters, it was in Bailin province north of Trundel City.

Upon arriving at Bailin province after a fifteen minutes light rail train ride, a hover car arrived at the station and took Lucas over to the headquarters. There, he carried out the handover process with the staff sent over by Vienna. It wasn't stressful and only required Lucas to fill in some of his personal details and confirm the documents with his signature.

During this process, Lucas finally found out what percentage of the drift racing team he was taking over; 40%. Although it didn't sound like much, it made Lucas the majority stakeholder of the team. The second largest majority stakeholder turned out to be Vienna with 30%. The remaining 30% was then split by other collaborators, some of whom were also sponsors of the team, albeit not as a vestige-smith company.

Since Vienna had agreed to let Lucas run the team as he wished, he didn't have to worry about anyone in the board overruling his decisions. Without Vienna's vote, it was essentially impossible for Lucas to not have his way with the decision-making of the team.

Unlike third tier teams that only consisted of a drift racing crew, second tier drift racing teams were much bigger in structure. Because they made a lot of money and were very well funded, most of these teams formed companies that branched out into similar markets. For instance, apart from the usual crew lineup for the race, there was a group of staff that ran stores for the team. These stores sold the team's official merchandise or even provided revamps for racing shuttle and hover vehicles. Some teams built themed restaurants while others had a training academy for drivers.

The whole point of this culture was for drift racing teams to be independent and be able to generate a lot of money to support themselves. Even though there were a lot of investors backing a team in the second tier, there wouldn't always be funding for shuttle revamps and so on. Hence, the team's decided to find a means to earn more money.

Also, in times when they were financially buoyant, they could invest the excess funds into these business and generate more income rather than simply storing it in a bank. Thanks to such foresight in planning, most second tier teams were worth a lot of money and could afford various types of upgrades and remodelling of their racing shuttles even when the stakeholders weren't able to fund the team.

"Now, you own a portion of these businesses." The staff who assisted Lucas throughout the activity explained.

With a 40% stake in the team, Lucas didn't just own the team but also its various assets and businesses. From a pauper, he had become a wealthy man.

However, that wasn't what Lucas came here for.

"Take me to see the team."