Genius Mechanic

18. Online Shop

Ying Chenlin polished the parts effortlessly, which happened to be a convenient task for him. Coincidentally, the repair of the mecha required modeling and analyzing the damaged surfaces, followed by rejoining them. Each time a faulty surface was discovered, Ying Chenlin inspected and polished the corresponding part.


During his recovery period, he tried to control the time he spent using mental energy. He spent three days in the maintenance room, organizing the parts, and left them for Shen Xingtang.


These days, Shen Xingtang didn't let him touch the mecha. After resting, the weakness in his right arm improved. Ying Chenlin had already made an appointment with Dr. Wu's friend and planned to undergo a detailed examination at their medical station next week.


Until then, he couldn't return to the contaminated zone, and it seemed that the maintenance room was the only place he could go.


With Shen Xingtang absent, Ying Chenlin had completed his temporary tasks and decided to go to the training room to get some information about the mecha.


The KID underground base was not large, and the training room was not far from the maintenance room.


The conference room and the training room were adjacent. As Ying Chenlin entered the conference room, he noticed Shen Xingtang standing near the virtual warehouse.


Ying Chenlin greeted, "Boss."


Shen Xingtang had just arrived, holding an intelligent version in his hand, and said, "You came at the right time, Ying Chenlin. I'm going to decorate the online store later. Do you want to come and see? There's a virtual warehouse for training here at the base."


"Open a store?" Ying Chenlin was curious.


"Of course! These parts are ultimately based on old ones, and when we send them to the auction, they will only pay according to the market price and deduct our commission. Initially, we might get a high price, but it wouldn't be interesting in the long run."


Shen Xingtang raised an eyebrow, "We don't have many parts, and it's inconvenient to go to the auction. The StarNet online store has been developing well, and they have automatic and auction modes. If we want to gain a reputation, StarNet's market is broader."


StarNet had a holographic virtual mode, creating a virtual world that closely resembled reality. It included a vast virtual shopping street, and Shen Xingtang's virtual store was located in a small shop in the mecha market. She had been busy preparing the documents for opening the store these days.


Ying Chenlin borrowed the base's virtual warehouse and quickly entered the location of the virtual store. It was an empty room that hadn't been decorated yet, with only some initial furniture. When he entered the virtual store, he saw two people standing inside.


Ji Qingfeng and Lin Yao were using virtual avatars, but their voices couldn't deceive anyone. At that moment, the two of them, one tall and one short, stood in front of the counter, fiddling with the intelligent system that managed the store. There was a virtual page beside them with the title "Quick Guide to Opening a Virtual StarNet Store," and they were earnestly working on it.


Lin Yao looked at Ji Qingfeng, who failed to input correctly three or four times, and asked, "Have you run an online store before?"


"I'm a mecha technician, not someone cut out to be a store manager," Ji Qingfeng replied, engrossed in studying the instructions. "Don't worry; I surf the net with 18G. Running a store online will be a piece of cake."


Shen Xingtang said, "The necessary information is all here. Can you two handle it? If not, I'll hire a professional."


"It'd be better if you hired me instead of someone else." Ji Qingfeng didn't lift his head, seizing any opportunity to make money. "It's almost done. This data check document, store manager asset certificate... and also the part information, there's just too much stuff, isn't there?"


After Ji Qingfeng entered the basic information, he asked, "For the parts' copyright holder, should we fill in our own information?"


Seeing Ying Chenlin still standing far away from the furniture in the store, Shen Xingtang waved and said, "Chenlin, come over here and fill in the copyright information."


"Any information will do," Ying Chenlin said.


Shen Xingtang pushed him to the intelligent system and said, "What do you mean 'any information'? These are the parts you polished. Besides the original manufacturer, you are the owner of the modified copyright."


Reluctantly, Ying Chenlin filled in the information but accidentally typed an 's' when entering the ID.


Realizing the mistake, he deleted the 's' and entered a new ID, 'yuan.' A unique ID code was quickly generated at the back.


The ID functioned as a nickname, displayed on StarNet instead of the real name, and the ID code represented the unique information.


After completing the information, the next step was to input the product details.


After some fumbling, the novices managed to enter some of the information. Ying Chenlin stood by and thought, "Opening a StarNet virtual store seems more complicated than I thought."


Lin Yao looked on and asked, "Can we sell things in the online store?"


"Why not?" Shen Xingtang replied. "If it doesn't work well, we can promote it through KID's official blog. Other bases have also opened official merchandise stores."


Shen Xingtang continued, "Since we want to recoup our costs, we should set the prices higher. After finishing everything, we'll promote the store on our official blog. Chenlin, what do you think is an appropriate price?"


Ying Chenlin responded, "8w?"


Shen Xingtang wasn't entirely satisfied, "That seems a bit low."


Lin Yao asked, "Do we have any fans?"


Ji Qingfeng was momentarily speechless, "Why don't I have any fans? There should be at least one or two true fans."


In recent years, KID hadn't achieved remarkable results, and they kept changing their mecha pilots in the starting lineup. As a result, old fans left, and new fans joined only to criticize. Compared to other bases with continuous popularity, their team's recent popularity was due to being short on money and relying on A-Class esper crystals...


Shen Xingtang pondered, "Then let's go with 9w? It's just starting, and setting the price too high might not be a good idea."


After finally getting the initial state of the online store in order, Ji Qingfeng attempted to upload several part details, added containers, and set the prices for the products. "This is done."


Seeing that it was getting late, Shen Xingtang said, "Let's go offline and rest. Tomorrow, we'll fill the remaining containers and decorate before we put it online."


"We have to spend money on decoration too?" Lin Yao asked.


"Of course, it's to present a good image for our store," Ji Qingfeng quickly saved the store's information, scanned through various information protection options, and checked all of them, but he didn't notice that he also checked the box at the bottom corner for "Trial Operation."


After finishing with the store, they all went offline, unaware that the half-decorated raw mecha parts store had silently gone live.


-*-


The mecha market on StarNet had a vast audience in the First Star Domain, and many people liked to buy items on StarNet. Therefore, the flow of people on the mecha market has always been significant. At the entrance of the market, there was a bulletin board providing opportunities for StarNet users to make their choices, and at the bottom of the bulletin board was the new store bargain information for the mecha market.


Manager Liu came to the virtual bulletin board for the fifth time today, looking at the dense array of store information, feeling overwhelmed. He was from the Dawn Galaxy's Jianheng Technology and his company was planning a new project. They had been struggling to make a breakthrough in part development as their main business was in the A-Class mecha market. To achieve a breakthrough in mecha performance, they had to focus on improving the performance of the parts.


As a result, the company had been scouring many mecha factories in the First Star Domain during this time, but they had yet to find suitable parts. Manager Liu was responsible for monitoring the mecha market, especially the stores that sold A-Class parts. After a round of screening, he quickly locked onto several newly opened stores, but they were affiliated with unheard-of factories. He went in to browse, but each time he came out disappointed.


Just as he was about to give up, he noticed a new store suddenly appeared on the selection list of "New Store Bargains."


Manager Liu didn't hold much hope, but he still went in to take a closer look.


As soon as he stepped inside, he immediately frowned.


The store was rudimentary, with a style similar to the raw houses of stores on StarNet. It was evident that the shop owner hadn't spent money on decoration. The rough floor looked like something from the old Earth era, with a few glass cabinets displaying several parts.


The only extravagant thing was the virtual store's robot butler, dutifully saying, "Welcome."


There were also a few new shoppers in the store, clearly puzzled by the situation.


Which careless store manager opened the store for business before completing the decoration? This is so careless! Manager Liu furrowed his brow tightly and glanced at the adjacent store's display case, which showcased some parts.


He had seen too many A-Class parts recently, and he immediately recognized that the bearing part was A-GZ1456. This part had been popular a couple of years ago, with its performance nearly reaching championship level. It was a cost-effective replacement for the expensive A+ championship-grade parts. Many mecha bases within the alliance would purchase this type of part for use. Initially, it was sold for 60,000 credits each, but in the last two years, as new parts entered the market, the price had dropped to the market price of 30,000 credits each.


"Wow, this store is ripping people off! Selling A-GZ1456 for 100,000 credits each!?"


"Maybe the store owner hasn't finished the decoration yet and input the wrong price?"


"I don't think it's a mistake. Look, they've even uploaded the testing diagrams and the inventory."


100,000 credits each!? Manager Liu quickly walked over to confirm, and indeed, he saw the price on the shelf. He felt that this business was trying to rob people blind. However, when he caught a glimpse of the testing diagram, he froze in shock. "Conversion accuracy rate of 55%!? And it's A-Class, not A-championship grade!?"


Not only was the conversion accuracy 55%, but the durability was also at 75.


He remembered that this type of mecha part generally had a conversion accuracy of 45%-50%, and only the exceptional ones would have 50% accuracy.


Several shoppers who had come in to browse hesitated. The new store didn't seem trustworthy, and they were not foolish enough to believe this conversion rate. They quickly left.


Manager Liu was a professional in the field of parts technology. A-GZ1456 with a 55% conversion accuracy rate might be hard for outsiders to believe, but those who were involved in parts development were well aware of the material limits. Indeed, achieving 55% accuracy was possible, but the current technology hadn't been able to reach that level.


He carefully observed this store repeatedly. The copyright holder had an ID he had never seen before, and the location provided in the store information was a remote place in Sirius, unfamiliar to him.


It appeared to be a small store with no reputation, but the 55% accuracy testing diagram intrigued Manager Liu. In the end, he decided to make a purchase with a mindset of giving it a try.


Upon leaving the store, he also added it to his favorites, planning to inquire about it after the store went online.


Unfortunately, his work kept him too busy, and he spent all his time searching for news about A-Class parts. Soon, he forgot about this matter.


It wasn't until a day later when the part he purchased arrived at the laboratory affiliated with his offline office via interstellar express. A researcher rushed into his office, "Manager Liu, there's something wrong with the A-GZ1456 you bought!"


Manager Liu then remembered, "Is it a counterfeit? Just return it directly."


"It's not a counterfeit!" the researcher hurriedly said, "This thing has a 55% accuracy and 75% durability... It has already surpassed the known upper limits for this type of part. We found information indicating mental power modification. Should we report this?"


Manager Liu immediately reacted, "Quick! Go to their store and buy other types of parts!"


However, by the time they went online, the store's operating mode had already been closed.