Doomsday Wonderland

The next day at nine o’clock sharp, Lin Sanjiu stepped through the doors of the Cloud Gathering Tavern the moment the Trading House service started operating. She had been waiting for it to open.

A waiter did not see her and nearly collided with her. He quickly dodged and laughed as he followed behind her, “Dear customer, you’re early!”

The female customer ahead was taller than him by a head and was staring fixedly on the notice board in front of her. Even though he could only see her back, the skeletal wings that suddenly burst forth from the bathrobe she was wearing already betrayed the uncontrollable excitement of its owner. The wings seared through the air as they extended outward.

“Wow, that duck’s method really works,” Lin Sanjiu had already deactivated the ability and was no longer in her mimicry state. As she looked at the notice board, a smile graced her face. “The price has increased to 1.2.”

The first piece of information she broadcast had instead generated momentum to push the price up. She didn’t even expect that the price would double the moment the trading market opened.

“Just as you’ve ordered, we have bought all the 350 pounds of eggs from the three egg suppliers,” the waiter reported enthusiastically. “When trading started, the price wasn’t as high. You managed to buy the eggs at 1 Stamina Points per pound. We need to complete the Stamina Point payment for the transaction.”

Before Lin Sanjiu got out of her [Consciousness Mimicry], she had already thought through her plan, so even without imitating Scrooge McDuck’s thought process, she was already well-prepared for what she had to do next. “Please remove the first information. Change the advertisement to offer 3 Stamina Point per pound of eggs.”

After some calculations, considering the cost price of the eggs and the processing fees, Lin Sanjiu still had 19396.5 Stamina Points. She had just enough to manipulate the egg prices a few points upward.

“Other than the matter about buying eggs, other shops have requested for butter,” the waiter reminded her. “You can’t break your contract so you have to quickly buy some butter.”

“Which shops have requested for butter?”

“There are a total of four restaurants or dessert shops. The list is there. You can have a look,” the waiter took out a piece of paper from the counter which he had obviously prepared beforehand.

Currently, butter was priced at 12 Stamina Points per pound. The four stores required a total of 60 pounds of butter. If they only paid 80% of her cost price, she would only make a loss of about 144 Stamina Points. This wasn’t much to Lin Sanjiu, however, she frowned when her eyes lingered on the order.

The “Lips” restaurant was listed on top.

Something seemed wrong.

Lin Sanjiu’s eyebrows knitted tightly together as she contemplated about the matter while she completed the transaction procedure for the 60 pounds of butter with the waiter. With a loss of 148 Stamina Points, she had 19248.5 Stamina Points left.

After she completed the Stamina Points transfer, she immediately gave a new order to the waiter, “Remove the ad for the 20% discounted butter first, only release the ad when I tell you to do it.”

“Okay,” the waiter acquiesced readily. Oddly, Mrs. Manas became curious. “Ah, I haven’t asked you something. What was that ad for? Why would you sell butter and sugar at a loss?” she asked Lin Sanjiu.

Lin Sanjiu mumbled to herself for a while before explaining, “I purposely bought all the eggs so I can hinder the circulation of available eggs in the market. Firstly, I can raise the price of the eggs that way. I also have another objective. If the small shops and stalls don’t have eggs for a few days, they can actually wait until there is available stock. On the other hand, for the large franchise stores, they can’t even operate for one day without eggs. Can you imagine McDonald stopping their sale of burgers if they couldn’t get meat patties? That is the primary goal of my plan. I want to squeeze a large amount of Stamina Points from those major restaurants.”

Even though this was a pocket dimension and there were in fact barely any posthumans to make purchases, however, the business economic simulation on the “trading route” was incredibly realistic. Lin Sanjiu had even seen the account ledger belonging to the lady boss of the drink store. The records all looked very logical and realistic, it was as if the shop had transactions every day.

“When I was in the mimicry mode, I had already targeted a few large chain stores. ‘Lips’ is one of these chains.” Lin Sanjiu pulled a chair over and sat down as she tapped the chair’s armrest thoughtfully. She continued, “These stores primarily use eggs in their desserts and some of their dishes. 70 to 80% of their baked products are made using eggs and one or more of the other ingredients that I have sold at a 20% discount… For example, to make an egg tart, they would need cream and sugar, for an omelet, they would need butter.”

“And, so?”

“I just want them to be less apprehensive. Even though the egg prices may be rising, the other ingredients are cheaper. This would mean that they would have little pressure to raise the prices of their processed products… But, of course, this is just false information. There isn’t a large chance of success but if I can stimulate them to increase their production of egg-related end-products, that would be the best.”

“Since they want so much butter from you, your plan must be very successful?” Mrs. Manas questioned, “But you mentioned that the large stores cannot stop their operations… I haven’t seen any bulk order of eggs.”

Lin Sanjiu was actually somewhat also anxious about that.

“I’m going to wait a little more,” Lin Sanjiu’s eyes had not even left the notice board one second, “They run a large operation. Maybe, they still have stock in their storage. If they don’t request for eggs now, it isn’t any out of the ordinary. Based on their demand, they might need half a day, I guess?”

Unfortunately, things didn’t go according to her wishes. After sitting in the Cloud Gathering Trading House until afternoon, she did not see any purchase requests from any of the large stores.”

The sun was starting to set and Lin Sanjiu could not wait any longer. Her plan seemed perfect, yet why weren’t those people taking the bait?

The ‘Lips’ on Pumpkin Route had not started for the day, so naturally, she couldn’t get any information there. In the end, she walked out of the Cloud Gathering Trading House decisively and released a paper crane.

“Are you still on Velvet Cake Route?” As Lin Sanjiu was a little anxious, her tone of voice was quite impolite, “Do you know if there is a ‘Lips’ restaurant on that route? I need your help.”

“When do you not need my help when you look for me?” Hei Zeji replied very quickly. His voice sounded very lazy as if he didn’t really care about her request, “I know that restaurant. It is on the last section of this route. What do you want?”

“The last section of this route?”

“Huh? Are you at the last section of the route?” Lin Sanjiu suddenly felt a little happier. She didn’t expect that she could work together with Hei Zeji on this ‘trading route’. “That’s fantastic! Can you go to the restaurant and help me check if they still have their Strawberry Lips Cake?”

Even though Lin Sanjiu could also get that information from the trading house and even purchase it directly there, she wanted Hei Zeji to get additional information for her.

This time it took a little longer before the paper crane flew back to her. Hei Zeji answered with a curt “yes”. Then, there was nothing else recorded.

“This is weird… It had already been a day, why can they still sell that cake? Did they have leftovers in the morning?” Lin Sanjiu mumbled to herself as she grabbed the paper crane again. “Stop eating for a moment… Can you help me ask them how many Strawberry Lips Cake they make every day? How many did they make today? Will they continue making new cakes after they sold out the first batch?”

“I don’t even need to ask them. I can answer you,” a paper crane flew back five minutes later. The person who had recorded that sounded very satisfied. “They only make about 50 cakes every day. Once they sell all 50, they won’t make more. Oh, if you didn’t remind me about that cake, I could have missed it today… There were only two left when I came.”

“Why do you know that information?”

“I can only get this cake here,” Hei Zeji replied as if it was nothing unusual. “That is why I frequently go to this section of the route.”

“Frequently?” Lin Sanjiu was shocked. Who would have thought that Hei Zeji was closer to that final pitstop present than any of the other people like Puppeteer and Geran who had been yearning for it. “Why didn’t you go to the final pitstop?”

“It’s none of your business!” Lin Sanjiu received an irascible reply from Hei Zeji.

“Needless to say, he definitely couldn’t amass the 3500 Stamina Points.” Lin Sanjiu and Mrs. Manas agreed on that explanation.

After Lin Sanjiu thanked Hei Zeji, she stored her paper crane and continued mumbling to herself as she returned to the trading house.

There was an egg shortage for almost a day now. With the exception of the large stores that Lin Sanjiu was targeting, many small shop owners had made orders for eggs. The price of a pound of egg had risen from 1.2 Stamina Points all the way to 1.9 Stamina Points. Despite her 3 Stamina Points per pound ad, the price probably wouldn’t break the 2 Stamina Point resistance.

Sighing, Lin Sanjiu sat down.

“This is why I have to target the large stores.” Speaking to herself and perhaps Mrs. Manas, she frowned as she observed the notice board and explained quietly, “The amount of eggs I have is too large. The small shops wouldn’t be able to buy everything. They don’t have the cash either… The large stores are the only ones who can buy my eggs in bulk at the price I set. However, why aren’t they requesting eggs?”

After hesitating for some time, Lin Sanjiu activated her [Consciousness Mimicry] reluctantly as she noticed that the trading house was closing soon.

The waiter who had been sitting with a disinterested face at the counter suddenly let out a startled ‘huh’ when he chanced upon Lin Sanjiu who was sitting a the corner.

The woman who had a sharp and piercing gaze just a second ago changed before his eyes. She suddenly looked very approachable and crafty. She looked around the trading house with her shrewd eyes. Even though she had the same face, it was as if she had turned into a completely different person.

Lin Sanjiu sat in her chair and remained motionless. She scrutinized the notice board for a few minutes. Then, she suddenly leaped up and hit her own thigh. “Oh no!” she yelled out.

“What—what’s the matter?” the waiter almost leaped up, startled.

“An oversight! An oversight!” Lin Sanjiu seemed regretful, angry and even in pain. She rushed to the counter and grabbed the waiter’s collar, “It’s all your fault! Why did you say that all the transactions are conducted in the trading house!”

“But… but they are,” the waiter stammered. “Even when a tourist buys a piece of paper, the 5% processing fee is included… You can take it as a tax.”

“Then why are there only 350 pounds of eggs on the notice board!” Lin Sanjiu stared at him with a fiery glare. Lin Sanjiu spotted the issue in just a short time after she entered Scrooge McDuck’s frame of mind. “I have bought all the eggs in the market. You shouldn’t be able to get even a single shell! If it was just one store with extra stock, it was alright. But, all these chain stores are not even ordering. Yet, there are still baking products on sale. They are definitely getting their eggs from another channel! You better explain yourself!”

“Listen to me, dear customer,” the waiter grimaced and replied unhurriedly. “You misunderstood what I said. The demand from the small shops aren’t stable, so they get the eggs directly from the trading house. Their demand is unpredictable. However, these large chain stores need a stable source… They have already signed agreements with the egg suppliers. Their order size and price are already fixed. Since they are getting their eggs directly from the egg suppliers, their transaction isn’t added to the tradable amount shown on the notice board. However, I didn’t lie to you. Even if they are dealing directly, they have to pay the processing fees too. The transaction is also administered by us.”

Lin Sanjiu was so angry that her face turned from red to white and red again. She wanted to kick somebody’s leg to just vent her anger. She understood now. The total volume of trade wasn’t just 350 pounds. The notice board only showed the tradable amount. The remaining eggs were directly delivered to the large chain restaurants.

This was why the large restaurants weren’t even bothered by the egg prices!

As she quietly blamed herself for not being thorough enough, she circled around the large hall. Mrs. Manas also started to be anxious. “It is a good thing you discovered it early. This is just the first day. Why don’t you just take what you can earn today and slowly dump the eggs over the next two days? You need to deliver the goods to the small shop owners the day after. You definitely need to liquify that amount of Stamina Points. You might earn less if you sell to the smaller stores, but you would still make a profit,” Mrs. Manas advised.

Her advice seemed sensible. Doing that would reduce her risk to the minimum. If Lin Sanjiu was still in her usual thinking mode, she would definitely agree.

However, Mrs. Manas was now dealing with “Scrooge McDuck”.

“If I add up all the eggs I will get tomorrow and the day after, I would have 3150 pounds of eggs,” Lin Sanjiu said grimly. “If I take away the 200 pounds that some of the stores from Pumpkin Route already ordered, I still have to dump 2950 pounds of eggs. If you think about it. Before I came, they already have 2100 pounds of eggs… The small stores can’t afford to buy all these eggs.”

If she wanted the small store to buy from her, she would need to buy all the eggs tomorrow and the day after. However, if she bought everything, the smaller stores and buyers wouldn’t be able to buy everything at once.

“What—what do you plan to do?”

Lin Sanjiu pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes.

“Fortune favors the bold. I’ll just have to take a risk this time.”