Chapter 336: No Conflict

Chapter 336: No Conflict

Regarding some issues with Online Stores, it wasn’t just the big guilds. Even some minor guilds had become smarter after several hard lessons. Due to limitations in strength or vision, they couldn’t act as steadily, precisely, and decisively as the major guilds. However, they had their own survival methods: just follow the lead of the big players. Right now, the Purple Vine Guild was the benchmark for the Online Store trading model.

Therefore, many minor guilds were essentially watching the Purple Vine Guild’s movements, observing how they handled things. Even if merely following them might cost many opportunities, it at least avoided going down the wrong path. Plus, they could still pick up some benefits.

For example, with the recent buses and similar innovations, while they couldn’t compete with the major guilds, they still got a share of the benefits. Major cities’ development was already monopolized by the big guilds, but those remote towns remained open territory. The Online Store trading model had long matured, and the circulation of capital or goods was no longer restricted to traditional transportation.

This meant even remote areas could generate sufficient profits—exactly the slice the minor guilds could pick off. Therefore, when the Online Store, Tianwang, started selling bicycles, those simple-looking two-wheeled vehicles, the minor guilds watching the Purple Vine Guild were surprised to discover that the Purple Vine Guild had made no moves at all this time. They remained steadfast in their original development model.

They still focused on Coaches and Buses. As for bicycles, while some Purple Vine Guild physical stores sold them, it was solely using the normal store sales model. There were no special factors or sales methods involved. They clearly treated bicycles as ordinary goods… That’s right. Judging by the Purple Vine Guild stores selling them, they indeed regarded them as common merchandise.

After analysis, some guilds understood why the Purple Vine Guild did this. Aside from the novel design, those bicycles really didn’t have many special features. They were made from ordinary materials anyone could assemble. To improve them, the only option was upgrading the materials. After all, no matter what you did, it was still powered by human legs! Could you add a Mana Source and the Magical Drive recently developed by Auxiliary Profession Practitioners in Engineering?

That would be worse than just buying a Magic Cycle!

Moreover, Magical Engine drives had a high cost. Buying one equipped with that wouldn’t be any better than getting a Magic Cycle… After all, those Engineering Auxiliary Profession Practitioners also needed to eat and recover their costs. Besides, Magical Engines required high precision; every design difference affected things like energy consumption, horsepower, or even durability.

Trying to salvage one from a Magic Cycle would take way too long.

So, bicycles really didn’t deserve too much attention. Treating them as normal goods really didn’t seem like much of an issue… Maybe some high-end ones could have special Magic applied to make pedaling easier, but they weren’t going to suddenly fly after a few pumps, right?

No matter how you modified it, as long as the core structure remained human-powered, that was its essence. Understanding this, the minor guilds hesitated slightly, then stuck to their original intention: copying the Purple Vine Guild’s approach. They weren’t blind; the design was simple. They could probably replicate it themselves by hiring some Engineering Auxiliary Profession Practitioners… Truly, there was no need to invest much cost in this.

These bicycles were mostly intended for the common people. Built entirely from ordinary materials, they were very cheap. Ordinary people could easily afford them. Of course… some thought its emergence might affect the Bus business.

But after a day of watching, they realized they’d worried over nothing. Bicycle sales weren’t anywhere near as explosive as expected. Ordinary people, unlike Magic Weapon Summoners or high-level guild members, didn’t frequently engage with the Magic Weapon Forum to instantly learn about all kinds of novel information and keep their goals up-to-date. So when something new appeared, they couldn’t adapt quickly.

Ordinary folks lacked this advantage. Information circulating among them might lag months behind what reached the Magic Weapon Summoners. While Magic Weapon Summoners were busily discussing these new bicycles, conversation among commoners barely mentioned such figures except occasionally. Or they talked about how they kept seeing specialties from other cities, at surprisingly cheap prices—nothing like the past, where seeing imports meant far beyond their means.

A large portion among them didn’t understand the reason behind this. They just wondered if merchants had gone crazy to act like this. These effects weren’t massive yet, and the common people didn’t pay much attention to them. Small people had small horizons; they also lacked the extra energy to focus on such matters.

It wasn’t until the appearance of the Magic Cycle that some commoners began to sense change. But that was about it. They still couldn’t squeeze into the relevant circles. The moment they truly felt the changing times was… the emergence of Buses and Coaches. Almost within a few days, with routes demarcated on the streets and buses starting to circulate, they profoundly realized their world had genuinely changed. They were startled and caught off guard. It felt like the change had happened overnight.

Were they going mad, or was the world? What exactly were these running steel monsters? Some sort of Alchemy Tool or Engineering tool used by the Spellcaster lords?

But weren’t those supposed to be rare and scarce? And didn’t they all fly around in the sky, completely unrelated to them? Yet these vehicles… well… had nothing to do with Spellcasters. They were meant for ordinary people! Even the ‘drivers’ were supposed to be common folk who’d mastered some ‘driving’ skill. Practically everyone in these vehicles was an ordinary person!

According to the information on the stops, these vehicles ran fixed routes. They went to their destination and came back. Anyone could ride, paying just a little coin upon boarding. That amount couldn’t even cover the cost of one decent meal per day. As long as you weren’t a beggar and were a settled citizen, you could afford it.

The benefit lay in traveling to distant parts of the city without spending over an hour—or much longer—walking. Taking the bus meant, barring traffic jams, you’d reach your destination in mere minutes or ten minutes at most.

This was especially significant for laborers going to work. With buses, they no longer had to rise before dawn or return late just to commute. They could sleep in half an hour later, leisurely eat breakfast at home, step out to wait for the bus, and cheerfully arrive at work. Gone were the days of groping in the dark to rise early enough, plus the evening return trip, wasting at least two hours on the road!

That wasted time wasn’t compensated for by their workplaces. They only cared if you were late or left early. Thus, spending that little coin saved all this time—was utterly worthwhile. Even better, by working harder, the nearly two saved hours let them earn more money. Understandably, buses were wildly popular among city commoners once they got used to them!

Then came the bicycle’s emergence. Though commoners were curious about it, the fervor paled beside that of the bus. After all, bicycles were usually slower than buses. You paid a larger sum upfront and had to pedal your feet to move forward. That part was acceptable to some, but the problem was… there were currently no parking spots!

Moreover, bicycles suited those with a more leisurely pace, or whose workplaces were relatively close to home. Their arrival didn’t significantly dent bus revenues. Although clever people could calculate that the long-term cost of owning a bike was lower than taking the bus daily, that ‘long-term’ meant over a month. Most commoners didn’t think so far ahead!

“Tianwang… isn’t stupid either!” Some guilds muttered helplessly after understanding the situation. They thought they might profit from bikes, but this thing held little promise of significant gains. The inventor releasing it wasn’t afraid of competition. Should they strive madly to grab a share? Pointless. With buses dominating the scene, the bike couldn’t catch fire.

For wilderness use? What a joke. Would anyone in the wilderness not opt for a Magic Cycle? That thing was infinitely more practical than leg-powered two-wheelers. Who’d bother using this? Never mind the Off-road Vehicles affordable to the wealthy; they didn’t even consider things like bicycles! Thinking it over, they realized they couldn’t just seize profit from Tianwang; on the contrary, they’d need to buy bikes from him in the short term.

As for developing similar bicycles later on… if they couldn’t innovate effectively, they still wouldn’t surpass Tianwang. After all, commoners knew by now that these buses—and the Coaches running between cities—all came from a formidable expert named Tianwang. He was a dual Auxiliary Profession Practitioner in Engineering and Alchemy. His fame had completely exploded.

Mentioned bicycles later, people would naturally think of Tianwang. Therefore, without surpassing him in creativity, competing against him was pointless. Meaning the question became: How do you out-innovate him?

Make it flashier? What about the cost? Keep it plain? Then why would people choose your product over his? Throw money at it? The crucial fear was… what if this was a pitfall set by Tianwang? What if, after sinking a fortune and preparing to recoup some costs, Tianwang stirred up some fresh trouble?