Chapter 39: Sold Out!
Translator: 549690339
Over the next week, Lincoln, Randall, and Mavis threw themselves into the production of “Assassins’ Alliance.”
In the meantime, Randall attempted to make contact with some colleagues in NetDragon’s “Blaze” project team, but with little success.
Although some of them wavered, they couldn’t make up their minds. So,
Randall decided to temporarily let it go and focus on game development.
Lincoln quickly sorted out the studio issue by renting a small office space of around 200 square meters.
The previous company had moved outside the fifth ring due to soaring rents in Xiajing City. Lincoln took over the space and gave it a simple renovation.
However, he hasn’t hired anyone yet, so the place is empty.
Henry has also completed his tasks.
Nowadays, he follows a regular daily routine and everything is going smoothly.
At the same time, NetDragon’s pre-release promotion of “Blaze 3” continues without pause, releasing environment, character design, weapon design, and other assets every day to maintain momentum.
And just like that, a week passes by in a flash.
The first batch of virtual reality devices has been completed and is now officially off the assembly line!
Lincoln is quite surprised by this. He realizes that he has underestimated the unmanned factory’s production efficiency. He initially thought that producing 100,000 units in a week was already very efficient.
However, the factory proves its prowess by producing 200,000 units within a week, and this is still far from reaching the limit of its efficiency!
This makes Lincoln suspicious. Perhaps Henry’s side has already finished producing 1 million units, and has even entered a production schedule.
They might just be waiting for Lincoln’s devices to go on sale, so they can settle the pricing based on his market price.
However, that’s not important for now. Since the delivery has been made, the next step is, of course, to start selling!
One week ahead of “Blaze 3”, can they reverse the public opinion and win this battle? The answer lies in this upcoming sale!
First, open a purchase channel on Cloud Dream’s homepage, then announce it on Spiritual Rhinoceros.
The Cloud Dream website was designed by Lincoln and Mavis together.
It doesn’t look like a serious corporate homepage, but rather a dreamy sky filled with floating clouds. A spaceship hidden within the clouds only emerges occasionally, revealing only a portion of itself.
‘Cloud Dream Studio’s first-generation game console – Mirage, now on sale!
First batch limited to 200,000 units, available on Cloud Dream’s homepage store, players are welcome to purchase.
Simultaneously launching the full version of “Traveler of the Wind”, a mysterious pilgrimage awaits your arrival!’
Although Lincoln has been quiet this week, it’s inevitable that a post from a network influencer with 20 million followers would generate a buzz.
Not to mention the virtual reality device that has been causing discussions online for a while already – now available under the name “Mirage.”
This is big news for sure.
Many people become aware of this information in an instant, but no one leaves any comments at first.
Everyone quickly jumps to the Dream Cloud Studio’s homepage, which had less than 10,000 views before.
Even though Lincoln had anticipated this, and allocated extra server bandwidth in advance, the website’s speed inevitably deteriorates.
However, as long as the site doesn’t crash, it’s considered a significant victory for Lincoln. Moreover, this situation won’t last long, perhaps not even 20 minutes.
But after just one minute, Spiritual Rhinoceros is suddenly filled with complaint-filled and vitriolic posts.
“Are you kidding me? 200,000 units gone in a sec?”
“Gigabit fiber internet, click in, and it immediately shows o units left. Are you guys serious?”
“Didn’t they all say they weren’t buying a few days ago? What about those who said they’d wait to buy the console after Randall’s game came out?” “Maybe they really didn’t buy it, 200,000 units are just too few.”
“@Lincoln, restock quickly! The poor souls who can’t buy the console are about to cry!”
“@Lincoln, my roommate has a terminal illness, and his only wish before dying is to experience virtual reality games. Can you sell me one so that I can fulfill his wish and let him die peacefully?”
“@Lincoln, I’m the one with the terminal illness! Can you sell me one to fulfill my last wish before I die?”
“Guys upstairs, is your terminal illness ‘If I can’t buy a console, I’ll die’? It seems like I’ve got it too!”
“Has anyone got one? I’ll pay 5 times the price! Just DM me! I swear if I’m lying, I’m a loser!”
“One console costs only 10,000! I’ll pay 10 times the price! Lincoln is too kind-hearted, the full set of Flying Dragon 3rd Generation costs more than 70,000. The gap is too big!”
“Speaking of which, would NetDragon still have the guts to sell at such high prices in the future? The technology is an era behind Cloud Dream’s, and they’re selling their product at 7 times the price! Where do they get the confidence to do that?”
Lincoln was delighted when he saw the 200,000 units of inventory sold out instantly, and Mavis even started setting off fireworks to celebrate.
However, he soon noticed the online commotion, with people starting to bid higher for the console.
In order to prevent any problems, he opened Spiritual Rhinoceros and began writing a new post, telling the netizens not to be impulsive with their money, as the next batch would be available soon.
How soon?
Since the units were sold out instantly, they could pay off the previous loan today and place the next order. And according to the previous agreement, they could place an order for 600,000 units in the second batch right away!
If the speed of the Unmanned Factory could keep up, they might even be able to launch their product alongside NetDragon’s “Blaze 3”!
However, whether or not the second batch of 600,000 units could achieve the current selling speed would probably be influenced by the reputation of the first batch.
The reputation of the first batch of devices would be greatly affected by the only game currently available, “Traveler of the Wind.”
The results wouldn’t come in immediately, so Lincoln held back his eagerness, sprung into action, wrote the post, and asked Mavis to contact Randall and place the order as soon as possible.
Compared to Lincoln’s surprise, NetDragon was shocked!
Upon hearing the news, Richard immediately convened another meeting of the top executives.
At some point, Lincoln, who used to only require the Public Relations Department to handle, has now become a figure where any operation required the entire senior management of NetDragon to gather and have a meeting.
Richard sat in the main seat, staring intently at the “200,000 units” figure, which far exceeded his expectations.
And the “price of 10,000” seemed like mockery to him.
“What are your thoughts? Let’s discuss them!”
The Finance Supervisor was the first to give his opinion: “200,000 units, it’s probably because he registered a patent on his virtual reality technology, and then used the patent as collateral to secure a loan from the bank, right?”
The R&D Department Supervisor added: “The cost of this device must not be high, otherwise, if it was like our Flying Dragon series, not to mention whether the bank would directly give him a loan of over 3 billion, even if they did, it would have to go through a complex process and verification, it couldn’t be this quick! ”
Henry, the Chief Planner, was in the worst mood. He initially proposed making use of Cloud Dream’s success to promote “Blaze 3.”
To keep up with the progress, he even divided the ending of “Blaze 3” into DLC, selling the incomplete game just because he judged that Cloud Dream Studio poses no threat at this stage.
He had to achieve another success with enough weight before Cloud Dream
Studio grew stronger, as this might be his only chance in his lifetime if Cloud Dream really expanded, it might be hard to say whether there would be such an opportunity again.
For this, he even insisted on grabbing the position of Chief Planner for the “Blaze 3” project after Randall’s departure, almost single-handedly pushing the project forward.
But now, looking at the dazzling “200,000 units”, “price of 10,000”, and “sold out in an instant”, he began to feel that something was wrong.
It was like a loose iron nail on a sleeper in front of a speeding train, suddenly trembling and coming loose..