Chapter 14: The 14th Day of Livestream Selling
Very clearly, it was impossible for Lin Zhao to rest.
Although he really wanted to.
But he still had a large batch of goods that had already been traded with the mercenary Gray to sort out and send. For the orders placed during that members-only livestream, just like before, they had only sent a small portion of samples to Address A in Kaman. As for where the rest would be sent afterward, they still had to wait for information from Gray’s side. It was even possible that the goods would have to be sent in batches to several different addresses.
Of course, Gray also knew that the delivery requirements he had proposed were somewhat complicated and troublesome. For this reason, he insisted on paying Lin Zhao a large extra sum for his hard work.
Because in his view, this was actually shipping cost. It was safe and efficient, reducing losses to the greatest extent. Its cost-performance ratio was far better than trying, in Kaman, to cross through all kinds of radiation and pollution, overcome possible sudden raids and “tolls,” and transport goods from one place to another.
Although no matter where the goods were sent, 1114 could teleport them with one click, the system’s transportation was actually not as simple as it looked. 1114 explained to Lin Zhao that its transmission was not spatial crossing in the worldly sense, but rather “using extremely high energy to briefly create a shared topological defect* within the underlying quantum foam structure of two [???].”
“It’s similar to temporarily opening a shared tiny hole between two independent bubble films.” The blue-and-white round ball worked hard to give an example.
These goods first needed to be decomposed locally in Jiangzuo into quantum information blueprints—blueprints that contained complete information on all particle states and structural relationships—then this information would be “synchronized” through the topological hole to Kaman, who knew how far away.
“Speak human.” Lin Zhao “pinched” 1114’s mouth, hoping it could say something normal humans could understand.
“If I want to record their material quantum states, then before transmission, I first need to scan all the goods—”
When in doubt, quantum entanglement.
“—When the quantity of goods is small, it doesn’t matter much. But when the quantity is large, strict sorting and preprocessing must be carried out. This directly affects the success rate, safety, and reconstruction precision of the transmission.”
To put it even more simply, for small-scale, single-item trades like before, the system could handle everything itself. But for a large and mixed batch of goods like now, Lin Zhao and Qin Xiaoman needed to do the preliminary preparation work first.
This was also one of the reasons why 1114 had been so eager to recruit Qin Xiaoman into the company as soon as the previous livestream ended.
Packing and shipping goods was not an easy task.
At least for Lin Zhao, who had been lying at home for more than half a year, who previously had only been a tech geek facing a computer long-term at a big company, and who had also suffered a serious illness in between, there was absolutely no way he could withstand this workload alone.
How exhausting was this work?
Probably only people who had done Double Eleven sorting at an express delivery company could get it.
Lin Zhao and Qin Xiaoman first had to pull up the order forms and categorize them, sort out the different types of goods they were preparing to send out, and then pack them by category using containers of unified specifications.
Supposedly, these were standard boxes made of some kind of [???] inert material, which could help the system simplify the scanning and reconstruction process.
The boxes were all provided by 1114, but what it could provide was very limited. They could barely handle this batch of goods, and some of them might even need to be reused. Once business grew larger in the future, Lin Zhao would need to buy them himself after unlocking the system mall.
Lin Zhao always had the illusion that he had fallen into some kind of consumer trap.
1114 had already learned to answer first. “Our mainframe is really stingy!” As it spoke, a little virtual flag slowly rose from its smooth, round head, indignantly waving and cheering on behalf of its host.
While packing the boxes, they also had to stick onto each box the digital information lists that 1114 had organized and printed in advance. The content was detailed down to material composition, structural diagrams, and even historical state data. Supposedly, this could visually provide blueprint calibration references for the system’s transmission.
Finally, there was even an additional step about paying attention to the nonlinear growth of transmission energy consumption.
It was still the same explanation. The reason it had not been this troublesome before was because the base amount was small. The probability of error might have been only 0.1%, so it was negligible. But now, quantitative change caused qualitative change. Errors accumulated little by little, and one careless move might cause spatial oscillation. “We need to standardize the process as early as possible so we can reduce future errors and risks.”
After saying so much, the conclusion was that Lin Zhao had worked hard as a worker bee for once.
Back when he used to code at work until his brain became mushy, he would occasionally have sudden flights of fancy, thinking that perhaps he was more suited to doing some mechanical work that did not require thinking, something like entering a factory to tighten screws.
Now he realized that no, he was not suited to it. He could not do this kind of physical labor at all. On this two-person assembly line, he was almost developing repetitive behaviors.
Qin Xiaoman, on the other hand, remained full of energy. It was tiring, yes, but this level of physical activity was not excessive for him. He even had the time to work while casually chatting with Lin Zhao about wherever their dreams wandered, planning the company’s future.
1114 flew on the side cheering them on, even virtually producing two flashy pom-poms.
It had originally wanted to say, give up, Manman. Host is super firm. No matter what you say, he won’t listen. He’ll only argue and lie flat.
In the end…
Lin Zhao actually listened.
1114: “!!!”
Why?
A small system, a great shock. On its 157th day after arriving on Blue Star, it finally understood the sinister nature of the human heart.
Qin Xiaoman said, “So far, it seems like we only have one customer.”
Lin Zhao nodded. “I also have a developed region I’ve already opened contact with, and a semi-developed region I haven’t had time to choose yet.”
Qin Xiaoman said, “I’ve seen those esports players have requirements for livestream hours when they sign with platforms. What about you?”
Lin Zhao: “……I’ll try to livestream once every week or every two weeks.”
Finally, Qin Xiaoman said, “If the next order still has this much stock, then the two of us definitely won’t be enough, brother.”
Lin Zhao: “Right. We’ll need to hire people.”
1114 was about to make a fuss. Why was it that after it had thought of every method and earnestly advised him so many times, it still had not managed to move its host into loving work, yet now Qin Xiaoman had not even said anything much and was simply chatting freely while working, and the host agreed?
Then, it angrily turned its head and saw that its host had been unable to stop smiling all this time, so relaxed and free.
Lin Zhao, who had specifically worn a pair of work pants to work today, was sitting on a small wooden stool. There was none of his usual disgust toward work, only seriousness beneath his fluffy, jet-black short hair. The khaki pant legs casually piled over the mouths of his boots, and the canvas fabric seemed to be warmed into a fuzzy softness by the sunlight streaming into the warehouse. The beautiful young man leaned against the wall, stretching out a pair of long legs that had nowhere to go. The hard contours sank into the shadows, leaving only the soft drape of the fabric.
Most of the time, it had actually been only Qin Xiaoman doing the work.
It was not that Lin Zhao was slacking off. Rather, after he had worked for only a little while, Qin Xiaoman disliked that his hands and feet were not nimble enough, gave him a phone, and sent him to sit on the side and play.
It was exactly like when he was little at home. His mother would complain that he was getting in the way while “exiling” him, who was trying to help like a little tail, to the dining table, telling him to seriously guard the rice in his bowl and not let Dad sneak any bites.
Sometimes, whether one was favored or not was truly very obvious.
And just as his friends and family favored him, he could not help wanting to favor them too.
Lin Zhao really was not good at physical labor, but at the very least, he could do what was within his power for this company of only two people.
This was Qin Xiaoman’s first time starting a business. They could not just casually let it die halfway.
Qin Xiaoman was truly full of drive. After finishing today’s packing work, he did not even bother to eat before hurrying off to the cannery to connect with his sister.
In Mr. Gray’s shopping list, just as Lin Zhao had previously guessed, canned goods still made up the bulk.
Because canned goods were easier to store, and because canned goods had stronger flavor.
While modern people like Lin Zhao were instead pursuing a healthy lifestyle with low salt and less sugar, the people of Kaman, who had rarely eaten meat or fish, still yearned for high sugar and high oil. A simple comparison would be that for people who used to live in difficult circumstances, mooncakes really were quite delicious. Only modern people could no longer stomach them.
Besides, canned goods also contained syrup, and the outer shell was iron, which could be repurposed into many things. In the eyes of Kaman people, there was no more worthwhile and cost-effective food than this.
The product of canned goods would not be eliminated in the short term.
Kaman was visibly going to add more orders, so Qin Xiaoman naturally had to go negotiate a better price with the cannery. This was his follow-up work. As for the task he assigned Lin Zhao, it was to start hiring people in advance.
“Mission guaranteed to be completed.” Lin Zhao saluted.
But to be honest, hiring people was actually a rather sensitive matter.
After Qin Xiaoman left, Lin Zhao and 1114 sat facing each other and began to worry. Right now, he could not even tell Qin Xiaoman and his own aunt the truth, let alone other people. If the things in the warehouse kept disappearing so inexplicably, and more and more living people ran around the company, sooner or later someone would discover clues.
But if it was only him and Qin Xiaoman, they indeed could not handle the large transactions that would follow.
What should they do?
“Has the host considered robots?” 1114 proposed a solution. A robot’s loyalty was relatively guaranteed. Even if something really did go wrong, 1114 could confidently crush it.
“You have some?”
1114 nodded, then shook its head. It was still the same sentence: all of its things were in the system mall. After the host fully completed this transaction, he would barely meet the conditions to open the mall. But the problem was that things in the mall also required transaction points, and the price of robots…
“I’m truly sorry for being poor.” Lin Zhao, who had made a small fortune over the past few days, was still a pauper before the massive numbers in the mall.
“But the system mall isn’t the only path in this world. We still have Kaman and 3S.”
3S was the nickname Lin Zhao and 1114 had given to the Yasa Empire, which was still censored and whose name they did not know. They always needed a name to refer to the second region they had opened.
“They have robots this intelligent?” Lin Zhao was even more confused. Why had he not seen it on the news? Even if such a classified thing really existed, would they be willing to casually sell it to a foreigner?
1114 thought for a moment. “Mm, 3S definitely isn’t very likely, but Kaman isn’t necessarily impossible.”
Lin Zhao tried to understand it. He had indeed heard before that during a certain special period, the Russian neighbors next to China had done something magical like exchanging rifles and cannons for daily necessities. Thinking about it that way, if Kaman’s development also had that kind of distorted industrial ratio, then perhaps they really could try.
Lin Zhao rummaged through his chaotic memories and found an ID he still had some impression of—Mechanic.
Gray had mentioned in private messages that he knew who Mechanic was. The other party was quite famous on their side, a genius as well as a madman. In terms of research, even spending money might not be enough to hire him, because he would only waste time on things he was interested in. At the time, Gray had told Lin Zhao this to remind him to be careful.
1114: This person is definitely no scallop, host. He’s like a mad doctor from an apocalypse novel.
But what Lin Zhao thought was: Wasn’t this perfectly matching the profession?
After he tried sending a private message, Mechanic, who had only eaten the trial canned sample back then and had unfortunately never managed to buy any, quickly replied as expected.
Mechanic: [Only needing to move and organize things? That simple? No need to add anything else?]
Lin Zhao: [What else can be added?]
Mechanic: [There’s a lot that can be added. Machine guns, mortars, electromagnetic pulses, cutters…]
Lin Zhao: What a fertile land overflowing with martial virtue.
Author’s Note:
“Briefly create a shared topological defect”: I forgot where I saw this theory of spacetime transmission. Some terms are different too. It’s all randomly piled together, pure nonsense. Please forgive a liberal arts student’s bewilderment toward physics. QAQ
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