Not long after Feng Xuanyang gave his orders, Youlan in Maple Leaf City issued new commands of her own.
Another price cut for sales!
"Sister Youlan, if we lower prices again, I'm afraid we won't be making much profit." A female assistant said cautiously.
"I don't want to either." Youlan shook her head helplessly. "Candlelight Trading Company played a brilliant move — managing to get their hands on such an excellent product. Every player, whether ordinary or Elite, needs these Light Stones. Our Dragon Fire Potions are quite good, but the only players who can afford them are Elite teams and major guilds. And our production volume for the Dragon Fire Potions isn't very large either. In terms of competitiveness, we can't compare at all with the far more affordable Light Stones."
"Oh, and one more thing — starting now, halt all sales of Dragon Fire Potions in White River City." Youlan thought for a moment and added.
If she wanted to attract players, the only approach was to start with ordinary goods.
The Dragon Fire Potions already couldn't meet Maple Leaf City's demand, and with the new shop they'd opened in White River City, their stock of Dragon Fire Potions was even more stretched thin. Their competitiveness was weakening by the day. Plus, the Dragon Fire Potions sold in White River City came with a cross-city fee, which was no small expense. For now, she could only focus on preserving Qingcheng Trading Company's competitiveness in Maple Leaf City.
"Understood." The female assistant promptly left the meeting room.
After Qingcheng Trading Company lowered the prices on their ordinary goods, it did manage to catch the attention of many regular players.
Everyday essentials like whetstones and advanced whetstones, along with various food and drink, healing potions, mana recovery potions, basic scrolls — all of these were must-haves for venturing into the wild. With Qingcheng Trading Company now offering them at forty percent off, hordes of ordinary players rushed in to buy.
In Maple Leaf City, the once-weakened Qingcheng Trading Company was now going toe-to-toe with Candlelight Trading Company. Each occupied half the market, so to speak.
Candlelight Trading Company had Basic Reinforced Armor Plates and Light Stones.
Qingcheng Trading Company had Dragon Fire Potions and discounted everyday goods.
The players in Maple Leaf City were over the moon.
While Candlelight Trading Company didn't hold a decisive advantage in Maple Leaf City, in other cities it was riding high. Thanks to the Light Stones, massive numbers of players had been drawn in. Some of them may have only come to Candlelight Trading Company to buy Light Stones, but once they saw the incredibly comprehensive range of products on offer, they couldn't resist picking up a few other things as well.
Revenue at Candlelight Trading Company skyrocketed almost overnight.
The most staggering income, however, came from the Star Moon Royal Capital and White River City. With prime locations and the availability of Light Stones, Candlelight Trading Company had instantly become the unshakable top-tier player trading company in both cities. The flow of players was simply unmatched by any other trading company.
These two cities ranked first and second across the entire Star Moon Kingdom in terms of player population, commanding a massive share of the kingdom's human resources. Naturally, the revenue they generated was nothing short of astonishing.
In just a few short hours, the entire Candlelight Trading Company had brought in over a thousand gold coins in pure profit — outperforming even the old Star Mark Trading Company.
"Guild Leader, shouldn't we open more shops in other cities?" Melancholic Smile had taken one look at the net income and couldn't help but make the suggestion.
This was only seven major cities. If they could open branches in every city across the Star Moon Kingdom, the pure profit would make anyone's mouth water.
"No rush. Right now we're using nearly a hundred Blacksmiths to produce Light Stones, and that's barely enough to supply these seven cities. If we expand further, we won't even be able to keep up ourselves. The priority right now is to train large numbers of Blacksmiths and Alchemists." Shi Feng remained perfectly calm.
As for raking in over a thousand gold coins in just a few hours, he didn't find it particularly surprising either. But this rate of income would gradually slow down. Players had been buying in bulk because they didn't have Light Stones before, but once they had them, they would naturally only purchase more after running out. So Candlelight Trading Company's revenue would taper off over time. That said, it would still be impressive.
"Guild Leader, then what about the Intermediate Mana Armor Plates?" Melancholic Smile asked.
Shi Feng had previously told her not to sell them yet. She hadn't understood why.
"Did you notice someone in White River City is bulk-buying our Light Stones?" Shi Feng asked with a smile.
"Now that you mention it, yes. I was looking at the data earlier and noticed someone purchased five hundred stacks of Light Stones in one go — that's 95 gold coins. After that, there were purchases of three hundred and four hundred stacks. Even a stockpiling guild wouldn't buy that many." Melancholic Smile nodded.
"Someone is deliberately trying to buy out all of our Light Stones. If we release the Intermediate Mana Armor Plates and they stop buying, what then? Right now, someone is willing to make massive purchases — how could I not let them have a little more fun?" Shi Feng chuckled.
Light Stones were quick to produce. A single Blacksmith could make one roughly every eight seconds on the slow end, six seconds on the fast end. After all, it was just a matter of light processing and painting a few mana runes. The rune-painting was the only tricky part, but it became easy once you got the hang of it. The real issue was the success rate, and a Blacksmith's success rate was around sixty percent — closer to seventy percent with good equipment to assist.
That meant one Blacksmith could produce around twenty thousand Light Stones per day, since a day in the Divine Realm was forty-eight hours long. With a hundred Blacksmiths, that was two million. Over two days, that came to four million. And that was only counting the Blacksmiths' output — Shi Feng had made sure everyone learned the Light Stones' design blueprint, and quite a few advanced Blacksmith apprentices were producing them as well, just at a slower pace.
Four million Stones meant two hundred thousand stacks. At one silver coin per Stone and nineteen silver coins per stack, buying out the entire supply would cost at least thirty-eight thousand gold coins.
In the whole Divine Realm right now, Shi Feng doubted anyone had thirty-eight thousand gold coins. Even if they did, no sane person would spend it all on Light Stones — they'd much sooner invest in property to appreciate in value.
At that moment, Feng Xuanyang was still sitting at an outdoor table in a high-end restaurant, admiring the Light Stones.
"This thing really is something. Once we buy out all of Candlelight Trading Company's Light Stones, they'll be forced to ration their supply. That will be the moment our Qingcheng Trading Company rises to prominence." Feng Xuanyang sneered to himself.
It was just like what had happened with the Basic Reinforced Armor Plates before. Back then, the Basic Reinforced Armor Plates were so scarce that a piece originally worth twenty silver coins was eventually being resold between players for forty silver coins, with plenty of people scrambling to get their hands on one.
As soon as Candlelight Trading Company started rationing, he could sell Light Stones through Qingcheng Trading Company. He could price them at five silver coins each, and there would be no shortage of buyers.
"Young Master Feng, we've already used Credit Points to purchase a large amount of gold coins. Combined with what Qingcheng Trading Company earned, we've bought a total of over four thousand stacks and spent every last coin on hand. But Candlelight Trading Company doesn't seem to have any intention of limiting their sales." The slightly portly middle-aged man wiped the sweat from his forehead, looking worried.
"What is there to worry about? We bought so many at once — their stockpile can't possibly be large. It won't be long before our moment arrives." Feng Xuanyang was supremely confident.
He had already questioned the three advanced Blacksmith apprentices he'd poached, and they'd told him that the Light Stones had a success rate of less than thirty percent, with each one taking over ten seconds to make. Even with a dozen people working nonstop over these few days, the output couldn't be that great. Given the volume they'd purchased, plus all the Light Stones other players had already bought, even if Candlelight Trading Company hadn't hit their absolute limit, they couldn't be far from it.
All that remained now was to wait quietly. (To be continued.)