Chapter 52: Selling Out Too Fast

Chapter 52: Chapter 52: Selling Out Too Fast

These past two days, Liam stayed holed up in the house to complete the terraforming plan for Logan.

Daniel had also sent the sample photos of the combo meals exactly according to Liam’s request. He spent an afternoon manually editing these photos. At ten in the morning on the third day, according to the time agreed upon with the viewers, Liam officially attached the shopping cart.

The manager immediately contacted the advertising department, pushing Liam’s channel up to the top one position across all categories.

It was almost mealtime, everyone was preparing to go receive their respective nutrient fluid portions. A trending notification from the Interstellar Connection network popped up on their smart watches. Everyone clicked in out of curiosity to take a look.

"Ready-to-eat fresh food?" A Beta with hair messy as a crow’s nest wondered out loud. He then entered Liam’s shop out of curiosity to take a look. This person carried the mindset of only looking around, since how could a lowly technician like him possibly afford fresh food.

The moment he clicked in, he was instantly stunned. The lowest combo meal was priced at only fifty silver stars.

"That cheap?" The male Beta’s mouth fell open. He then looked over at the seventy silver star combo, the one hundred silver star combo... Every price point featured a different quantity and presentation of food.

Right at that moment, another female Beta in the cafeteria suddenly stood up on a chair, shouting loudly:

"There is a fresh food shop here, everyone, the cheapest combo is fifty silver stars. There is even a delivery fee discount for group orders of three or more meals for every combo. Does anyone want to place a group food order with me?"

The male Beta immediately checked the delivery specifications again. Not only was there a delivery fee discount, with the one hundred silver star combo, a group order of three or more people would receive a complimentary dessert pastry for each person.

The pastry was small but looked incredibly appealing, certain to be very delicious.

The male Beta raised his hand immediately: "Me! Give me one hundred silver star portion!"

Everyone clamored, raising their hands as well. The female Beta watched the quantity in the shopping cart dropping at a dizzying pace, shouting loudly in a rush: "Line up! Line up quickly to place the order! Hurry up or the portions will run out right now!"

Everyone used their fastest speed to sign up, ultimately their company gathered fifteen fifty silver star portions, twenty-two seventy silver star portions, ten one hundred silver star portions, as well as three three hundred and twenty silver star portions for the three managers.

The female Beta scanned the list nervously, subsequently submitting the billing sheet to the group order box. The network connection speed today seemed slower than usual. Everyone watched the progress bar on the female Beta’s smart watch, burning with impatience.

When the upload progress reached completion, the shop reported having received the order, beginning the delivery process, prompting the entire cafeteria to erupt suddenly like a broken beehive.

Similar scenes occurred in other places as well, notably even with the most high-end dishes, the stock quantity in the cart was slipping away at a dizzying rate.

"Hurry! The Sawtooth greens in reserve are gone! Go out to the warehouse to get more quickly!"

"Damn it! How are we out of Three-leaf Purple greens already? Go to the market to buy more right now!"

"Where did everyone go? Deliver the goods to the Altair noble school quickly! What? That place is full of Omegas, an Alpha like you is going there to act as a spice plant?!"

...

The processing area of the Luxe Morsel restaurant was as chaotic as a broken market. Despite having prepared thoroughly beforehand, they were still spun dizzy by the netizens’ ordering speed.

For the first time Daniel truly grasped what Liam’s phrase "20% is not a small amount at all" meant. Damn it, the sheer revenue from the first day of opening this home delivery food service already equalled what he earned in a year.

Daniel was busy to the point his feet did not touch the ground, to the extent he did not even have time to answer the phone calls coming from his Daddy and older brother.

The shop’s opening hours lasted until twelve noon, but at only ten past eleven, the quantity on the shopping cart had quickly turned to a glaring red zero. Many people unable to place their orders in time groaned immediately, messaging the shop’s Q&A section, demanding an increase in the order quantity.

The customer service department was also so busy their eyes darted around like roasting peanuts. They had to ask for Liam’s opinion on the difficult cases. As a result, Liam staying at home was just as busy as Daniel.

Ultimately, the fresh ingredients at the planet Altair supply stations were insufficient, forcing Liam to urgently contact Logan to use an express ship to transport a large quantity over from planet Lyra.

At twelve noon, the shop closed but the final orders were not fully dispatched until twelve forty. Daniel along with the restaurant staff were so tired they lay flat on their backs right there. The fresh food transported over from Lyra was not even enough for them to eat a meal to reward themselves, the whole group could only pour nutrient fluid into their mouths with trembling hands.

Daniel immediately placed a video call to Liam. Liam at this moment was still busy with the task of answering customers, Benjamin and Isabella each sitting on one side of him, feeding him rice. The video screen had barely appeared, this scene instantly striking the eyes of Daniel lying like a stale fish on the floor.

Daniel: "..."

Damn it! Why do I not have older siblings feeding me rice like this?!

Liam chewed the food, saying at the same time: "You should prepare more ingredients, there are a great many companies requesting food delivery services for employees working overtime tonight."

Daniel shrieked in a broken voice: "We still have to open tonight?!"

Having shouted all morning, his voice had already cracked completely. Benjamin could not stop himself tilting his head to look over. Daniel immediately covered the smart watch camera out of reflex.

Liam mumbled: "The fixed orders are not that many. They are mainly low-level orders, letting the robots handle them will do."

He swallowed the piece of meat in his mouth, speaking further: "I have already contacted a fresh food supplier for you, it is the Cromwell family’s goods, taking the goods directly from their farm so there is a discount."

He advised Daniel again: "People will copy this business model very quickly. Even if their food is not as delicious as ours, those unable to order food from our house will order elsewhere. Therefore you must take advantage of the time before they can react, fill your pockets first."

Logan had called Liam previously, wanting to cooperate in business, but the latter directly declined. Firstly, he had cooperated with Daniel, whether in terms of business or in terms of friendship, he could not betray Daniel. Secondly, he had stated the food exchanged from the Trading Hall system would be exclusively supplied to Daniel’s restaurant, absolutely unable to break his word.

However, a new idea had already formed in Liam’s head. He spoke to Daniel, who was still groaning on the other side:

"Run the trial through this first week to see how stable the level is, after that we will open at least three more branches, among which the branch on the Capital planet will cooperate with the Cromwell family. It is only the beginning, do not falter now, all right?"

Daniel had managed to crawl back to his own office. He lay flat on the sofa, crying without tears: "Boss, brother Liam! I am only one person, how can I manage that much?"

Liam swallowed the last piece of vegetable, drinking a cup of warm water his older sister handed over to rinse his mouth, only answering Daniel after that:

"Is there no one trustworthy left in your family?"

Daniel nodded: "There are, but everyone works in the technology sector, they do not understand anything about cuisine, do they?"

Liam analyzed it for Daniel to understand:

"Regarding operations, all business sectors are the same, as long as they have management experience, the training process is very easy. The same goes for the staff, instead of concentrating everyone entirely on planet Altair, you can promote those with good professional ethics and skills to team leaders, letting them go to other branches to train people.

"The most important thing remains loyal chefs. You must speak to your Daddy about this, because he understands the matter of judging people along with employing people far better than you do."

Daniel finished listening, immediately springing up like a spring: "All right, for the future career, I am going to find my Daddy to poach people right now!"

The screen immediately went pitch black, Liam feeling a little caught between laughing and crying. On the other side, Isabella carried a plate of watermelon out, letting out a sigh:

"You working like this is too busy already, lacking even the time to eat meals."

Liam took a bite of melon, saying with a smile: "Everyone is just unfamiliar with it on the first day, sister, it will be less busy from tomorrow onward."

Benjamin was intently reading information on the network, blinking his eyes: "Everyone is praising your shop over there. Many people unable to order food are making appointments with each other to be faster tomorrow."

Liam also went up to take a look across it, subsequently resetting the order opening time. The order acceptance time began from eight in the morning to eleven noon, from eleven noon onward would be the delivery and supplementary ordering time. Having finished the setting, he gave himself a laugh:

"I completely forgot that cooking requires time, yet I set all the tasks to occur at the same time, being dizzyingly busy was only natural."

Isabella rubbed Liam’s head: "That is because this is also your first time doing this, having no experience is a matter of course."

Isabella sat down as well, showing off her own channel: "Look at this, people are demanding I attach a shopping cart so much. Some people want to buy finished products, some people want to buy tools to take home to learn to make them."

Liam nodded: "What do you intend to do?"

Isabella said: "Naturally I will not attach a shopping cart. Anyone wanting to buy goods must message me privately, I will review them to accept orders, because doing handicraft is not like mass production by Robots. As for the matter of selling ingredients and tools, there is no rush yet. The ingredients in our hands are limited, furthermore being rare ingredients, selling ingredients now is not profitable."

Liam nodded in agreement. It seemed she truly did not need Liam to worry for her anymore. He turned to look at Benjamin: "How is your channel doing?"

"The figures are still growing steadily recently, it is only that there has not been a truly explosive video like the previous one, therefore the growth level cannot be considered high."

That was a matter of course. The speed of releasing farming videos could not possibly be as fast as cooking or doing crafts. Liam suddenly asked:

"Brother, do you want to make short films?"

Benjamin: "?"

Liam giggled: "We have two versatile Robots over there, how about shooting a short comedy film letting them be the main actors?"

Benjamin completely failed to understand what Liam was saying. He also knew that just talking right now would certainly leave Benjamin unable to understand, there had to be a sample for the older brother to look at first. He therefore dragged Nirvana, who was sleeping in late in the soul space, out by the neck:

[Nirvana, I see you have several AI short films in the data vault, give me a few.]

Nirvana became vigilant immediately: [Host, those films are low-level AI, having gone extinct long ago. You dragging them out is fearing you will not die fast enough, is it not?]

[Then just one film as a sample will do. Films nowadays are entirely Mecha fighting the Insectoid race, or else it is cheesy romance between Alphas and Omegas, truly lacking any creativity whatsoever.]

Nirvana propped its tail under its chin, thinking for a moment before saying: [There is one film that will perhaps suit you all better than an AI short film.]

Having said that, it began searching through the data vault, subsequently transmitting a film to Sunflower. Looking at the familiar name WALL-E on the film cover, Liam fell into silence.

He had also watched this film in the past. The love between the two Robots was truly very moving, but the thing making viewers remember it the longest was precisely a young plant sprout amidst the desolate ruins.

In this era of hyper-technology, Smart units possessed emotions just like humans, although it was merely an imitating sequence of encrypted data, there were times the smart unit would also rely on the situation to express emotions absent from its programming. The fact that a smart unit possessed feelings was not a terrifying matter like in the films at all.

Liam looked at Nirvana speechlessly: [You said using an AI film is fearing I will not die fast enough, so is this film not exactly that?]

Nirvana let out a long yawn: [It is different, because the prosperous film era of this world also once used Robots to act in films. Regarding the content of this film, it absolutely does not reveal anything about any era, I have already encrypted the words relating to Earth and the Milky Way, modifying them into a real location within the Lumina Galaxy. You just say it is an unreviewed old film from two hundred years ago, your friend accidentally found it in the data vault then sent it for you to enjoy, and that will do.]

He heard Nirvana say that, feeling it was very reasonable, therefore he immediately dragged the cinematic projection screen in the house out, pulling Benjamin and Isabella to sit down to watch together.