Interspecies Trader

Chapter 280 – Set an Example

“Interesting. I wonder… Hey, you! Come here for a moment!”He called out to me, probably believing I was a normal employee. I didn’t mind since this suited me for now.

“Yes, sir. How can I help?”

“Who created these items?”

“I’m sorry, that’s confidential information, sir.”

“Then, how are they made?”

“That’s also a trade secret.”

“Where’s the workshop?”

“Confidential information, sir.”

The other clerk on the floor, who was supposed to handle potential clients, paled at my brazen attitude. He was watching carefully, knowing full well I was showing him the way I wanted customers to be treated.

“This is confidential, that is secret… Is that how you serve customers here?”

His fake anger didn’t make me bat an eye.

“I’m sorry. I hope you understand we can’t reveal our trade secrets. These are revolutionary items, and we’re the only ones selling them. We can’t take any risk of having our technology stolen.”

Another from the group interrupted.

“What do you mean, the only ones? I know another merchant who was selling them. They can also be found in auctions from time to time.”

“You’re right. These were all initially supplied by us since we are the source.”

“Hah! You expect us to believe this?”

“I cannot force my opinion on you, good sir. I’m only stating the truth.”

My words didn’t seem to please them too much. At this point, people could get upset and leave the store. However, I knew that even if a few did, the majority wouldn’t. Our small interaction attracted new folks, who came closer to listen to the argument.

“Tsk! Whatever. Hey, what’s with those prices? 1 gold for this small one? 10 and 20 golds for the big ones? Are you trying to scam people?”

“Of course not, sir. Enchanted items have always been expensive, and what you have in front of you is higher technology, hence the price. You should be aware of how it works. These items only need batteries to work. Anyone can recharge these batteries, which means anyone can use them, even a rank 0. Once provided with a battery, they can run for several days without needing anything. On top of that, the performance is splendid. This oven, for example, allows one to choose the exact temperature to cook the food. Even I didn’t think this sort of wonder was possible before I saw it in practice.”

My explanation made a lot of the spectators murmur. I guessed some weren’t aware of the fine details about selnic items, which made sense since I only sold a limited quantity before the epidemic. One woman moved forward, inserting herself into the discussion.

“Is that true? How’s that possible?”

“Yes, it’s true, ma’am. That’s why it’s revolutionary. Everyone, would you like a demonstration?”

The majority nodded, their eyes shining with interest. It was amusing how my words had so much more impact now than when I was selling in the night market. People instinctively trusted me more now that the products were sold in such a large shop.

We had a few products on standby, specifically for demonstration purposes. This was necessary considering how different the technology was from what everybody was used to. I demonstrated each of them, showing where to insert the battery, how to turn the devices on, and any other minor details. The gallery was definitely impressed, no matter how much some tried not to show it. They started to inspect the items in more detail, their faces full of wonder.

“Excuse me. Why are there holes here? Was there a problem during the crafting process?”

I wasn’t certain that calling factory lines a crafting process was correct, but I understood what she meant.

“Not at all, ma’am. See here? And here too? These holes are present on all our devices. This isn’t a mistake. These are related to another technology we are working on right now. It’s not fully ready, but when it is, it will be possible to forgo battery usage altogether.”

This would normally be a shocking statement. However, with everything being new to them, most didn’t realize how mind-blowing what I said was. Still, one person asked carefully.

“But, if this battery piece is replacing direct sel injection, how will the item be provided with sel without using them?”

“Precisely, sir! Instead of putting batteries in each piece of equipment and needing to change them all the time, we aim to create a generator that will take sel from the environment and provide it to all the items in a single house through these holes!”

I wanted to talk about scaling up and generating sel for a whole city, and even a whole country or continent, but that would be too much, too fast. Even what I just said was met with ridicule. My employee was staring at me with equally big eyes.

“What nonsense! That’s impossible!”

“You can’t be serious!”

“A tool generating sel? Haha, it’s good to be ambitious, but one should stay realistic.”

I smiled apologetically.

“Of course, the Urtek company is still working on the concept. Please ignore it for now since such a product doesn’t exist yet. I just wanted to provide an answer to the question about the holes. We thought about the future when making those. Just in case we manage to achieve such wonderful technology, wouldn’t it be better if people didn’t have to buy another new selnic item again, especially considering their price?”

“Hmm… Isn’t it a shame to ruin such a nice-looking structure with these holes, for something you don’t even know if it’s possible or not? They would be perfect without that.”

I could see from these remarks that this person was a high-end customer who cared as much about beauty as functionality. Someone normal would have just accepted the design as it was without minding it much.

The reason the products had these plug holes was for the inner world market. We didn’t have such a large bandwidth that we could build two separate versions of each product to sell in the domes and outside.

“There is an easy solution to this problem. When we were testing the products, we realized that placing them against walls is the most efficient in terms of space. As you can see, the holes are placed on the back side of each item. As such, it is very easy to hide them.”

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