The End of the Universe Is Live-Streaming E-commerce – CH25

Chapter 25: The 25th Day of Livestream Selling

Reinhardt asked Lin Zhao whether he knew whose hands the energy module had come from.

Of course Lin Zhao knew.

When he then asked whether Lin Zhao could help introduce him, Lin Zhao was also willing. He just did not give a definite answer, because he was not sure whether Mr. Mechanic was willing to have another internet friend.

From the fact that his great dream was to invade Blue Star, yet in the end he did not keep his promise to come on Monday, one could tell that Mr. Mechanic, whose mental state was suspected to be far too beautiful, was quite a character. He really did not care about money, so Lin Zhao could not be certain what his attitude toward this matter would be.

What if he was like Lin Zhao and simply did not want to work?

After all, work belonged to the boss, but one’s body belonged to oneself. Aside from people who had a grudge against their own selves, who would not want to treat themselves a little better?

1114 flew at the side with a du-du-du, saying with quite a bit of resentment, “Is this why, even when your livestream room only had a few or a dozen people at the beginning, you could still lie flat with a clear conscience?”

“Look at you talking nonsense again. Is a dozen people very few? Yes, from the perspective of the internet, that number is indeed a little thin…”

More than thin. It was practically pitiful, 1114 complained inwardly.

“…But think about it. In real life, if your little supermarket had a dozen or so fixed customers coming and going, always surrounding you and watching you sell goods, that scene would already count as quite magnificent, okay? With the tiny bit of space in front of our cashier counter, people would probably be squeezed together.”

1114 did not even know how to refute this “important speech.”

After reverse-PUAing the system again today and reinforcing the other party’s basic understanding that “hard work may not necessarily succeed, but not working hard is definitely very relaxing,” Lin Zhao finally withdrew his divine power in satisfaction.

Meanwhile, Duke Reinhardt was still struggling over how to tell Lin Zhao that whether this introduction succeeded or not, he and his sister would both be very grateful for Lin Zhao’s help, and the reward would be generous.

Reinhardt planned to slowly bring up the matter of money with Lin Zhao. On one hand, he was afraid Lin Zhao would not accept it. On the other, he was afraid of offending him.

Because back when he was still in school, he had once been forced to accompany his imperial sister to watch a popular holographic romance movie at the time—I Really Want to Say I Love You.

It was about a rich male lead and a female lead who lacked money. The male lead wanted to give the female lead money, but the female lead felt he was insulting her.

The then-young His Highness Reinhardt let out a yawn representing boredom, leaning against the chair with his hands in his pockets, hated by humans and dogs alike. His tall, long-legged body leaned slightly back, his chin lifted arrogantly. This posture drew the lines of his neck into a beautiful curve, his Adam’s apple protruding slightly, his collarbones faintly visible beneath the loosened collar of his shirt.

But no matter how good-looking he was, it could not stop him from saying annoying things.

“I simply cannot understand this protagonist. Why is he so slow and fussy when doing things? I Really Want to Say I Love You? It might as well be called I Really Want to Make You Die of Anxiety.”

Then he was suppressed by his imperial sister through bloodline authority and beaten until he howled. With a head of messy little white hair, he still shouted unconvinced, “Just you wait! When imperial brother comes back, I’m going to tell him everything you did to me!”

Grand Duchess Elowen beat him even harder.

In short, what he wanted to say was that however much he had not understood the protagonist in that movie back then, that was how much he could not understand his past self now.

Sometimes, people really would look ahead and behind. The more one cared, the more carefully one needed to think.

Just like at this moment.

And his impatient imperial sister’s answer was: Why would I waste words with you about this?

Just smash money directly.

Lin Zhao, who had not gone live on StarNet for many days, once again received a large amount of gift tips in the backend, all from the same account—Shitty Guy’s Sister.

Although there were many shitty guys in this world, the only person who had just mentioned his older sister to him was “Shitty Boss Will Drop Dead Sooner or Later.” This handsome older sister’s way of expressing thanks was simple, crude, and filled with the intense beauty of RMB.

Very clearly, she had never thought of hiding her identity. It was just that this abbreviation was a little unique.

Boss Bro, is your family environment okay?

If he did not take this chance to sell a little misery, could he still expect to have a wife in the future? Reinhardt immediately said:

[She’s sick. Don’t mind her.]

After a short while, he sent another message:

[But keep her money. Don’t feel bad. She’s very rich.]

Just the mineral planets given by their grandfather, an energy magnate, under her name numbered several dozen.

Then of course the sister’s money could not be taken for nothing. While 1114 hurriedly used Lin Zhao’s account to maintain their only sister—not—Lin Zhao was contacting Kaman’s Mechanic as quickly as possible.

But this time, it was Lin Zhao’s turn to experience the pain of the other party fishing for three days and drying nets for two, unable to be found on the internet at all.

After completing the trade with Mechanic, this intellectual had fallen into the ocean of knowledge, happily swimming through the sea of books, and had not sent any messages for a long time.

In the end, it was only after going through Gray in a roundabout way that Mechanic was finally reminded to check his private messages.

Lin Zhao did not ask why Gray was with Mechanic. As far as he knew, these two did not live in the same city. But Gray poured everything out like beans from a bamboo tube, crackling as he said it all.

He had come to seek cooperation with Mechanic. Although Mechanic’s sickness was famous throughout Kaman, so was his technology.

According to Cunningham’s business blueprint plan, they had already relied on good-quality, inexpensive canned goods, an extremely stable supply chain, and ghost-like livestreams to initially establish a certain reputation and recognition in various places within a very short time. Their next step, then, was to carry out industrial upgrading—an industrial upgrade in survival.

“Canned goods can only bring supplies. They cannot bring irreplaceability.” The sharp lines of the ambitious Cunningham’s face were full of her refusal to stop here. “Do you want to be a wasteland peddler for the rest of your life?”

Gray did not know how to answer. But had Cunningham not always been doing exactly this in the past?

“That’s because before, we didn’t know Lin Zhao. We didn’t have the endless, massive supply of goods behind him.” One did as much as one could with however much money one had. When she had been powerless to change reality, of course she could only lower her head. But now, “Do you think that if you don’t make trouble, trouble won’t come looking for you?”

“What do you mean?” Gray was only a mercenary by background, after all. His thinking still remained at the level of taking money and doing jobs.

“Why do you think our goods sell so quickly?”

“Because everyone needs them?”

Cunningham sneered. “Because someone is hoarding them to manipulate the market. They want to buy up our goods in large quantities at a ‘cheap’ price first. Then, after we run out of stock, they’ll sell them at several times or dozens of times the price.”

This kind of thing was not rare in Kaman. They would not even feel ashamed of it. They would only laugh at Gray for selling his goods so “cheaply.”

In fact, compared with Blue Star prices, the prices Gray and Cunningham sold at were already not low. They were even so expensive that Gray was somewhat ashamed to mention them to Lin Zhao.

But this was Kaman’s current reality. You could sell relatively cheaply, but you could not be so cheap it became outrageous and smashed the bowls of your peers.

After all, if you did not let your peers live well, they would not let you live well either. One had to know these were not ordinary peers. These were wasteland people who could take out heavy weapons at the slightest provocation, and where any random commercial conflict could become a street shootout.

After several arguments between Gray and Cunningham, the pricing was finally set at the current level. Cunningham had at least taken one step back, and the result seemed decent.

Gray had originally been a little happy. Things were not too terrible.

Never had he expected that the unscrupulous Kaman merchants could have even less bottom line. Then he realized, “You already guessed this would be the result?”

Of course Cunningham had guessed it long ago. If she had not partnered with Gray, she would also have been one of the hoarding merchants.

“Don’t worry. The focus of hoarding goods to manipulate the market lies in their bet that we won’t have a future supply.” Boss Cunningham revealed a row of shark-like sharp teeth. That was the price she had paid in the past because of youthful carelessness, but now she would not. Her heart was harder than anyone’s. “And we are also betting that sooner or later, they won’t be able to withstand such acquisitions. We can drain all their bullets dry.”

When the time came and a cornered dog jumped over the wall, conflict would definitely happen.

They needed to prepare in advance: large quantities of weapons and the ability to protect their own people.

Then, amid the chaos, they would redefine Kaman’s power structure.

“Once you truly have power and influence, won’t you be able to sell things as cheaply as you want? Although I still think you and Lin Zhao are too idealistic, and I hope you can change your minds. But this is the reality of this world. Only when you have the final say does your kindness count as kindness.”

Of course, all of this was currently limited to Cunningham’s imagination.

Persuading Mechanic to join them was only the first step in turning imagination into reality.

And at present, Gray and Mechanic’s negotiation…

Was very, very unsuccessful.

The only thing he had managed to make the other party hear was to check Lin Zhao’s private messages.

From Lin Zhao’s perspective, Mechanic’s attitude did not seem as strange as he had imagined. Mechanic was not short on money, but he also would not push away money delivered to his door, especially a financial backer like Grand Duchess Elowen, who sounded like someone with the scent of major business. For technical people like them, how many could say they had never communicated with wealthy sponsors at all?

The only problem was: how could Kaman communicate with 3S?

It was only at this moment that Lin Zhao realized the three regions he livestreamed to were actually not interconnected. Although he streamed to them at the same time, people from the three regions could not see each other’s comments.

“Can you solve this?” Lin Zhao looked at 1114.

The blue-and-white ball was also a little dumbfounded. After studying its backend for quite a while, it ran back to tell its host wiltedly, “I can’t solve it for now.”

Just like the information it had lost, theoretically, it could open communication channels between multiple regions, but in reality, the function was not yet activated.

Lin Zhao could only discuss with Mechanic:

[Should I help pass messages between you two?]

Mechanic also nodded and agreed readily. He could even be said to be very experienced with this. He immediately entered the stage of discussing price:

[How much commission are you planning to take? Fifty percent? Sixty percent? I won’t accept a split higher than four-six.]

Lin Zhao: ?

Little Boss Lin was greatly shocked.

Are your Kaman translators this black-hearted?

Or is being an interpreter in Kaman this profitable?

On our side, common written translation prices are 80 to 200 per signed page, or simultaneous interpretation is calculated by the day. The daily salary is only several thousand, and even ten thousand is rare.

Mechanic said that in Kaman, black-hearted middlemen were everywhere. No need to speak of faraway examples. Just take Cunningham, the one cooperating with Gray. Did you think she was some kind and virtuous man or woman? Supposedly, when she mediated between Garbage Bag and Blackstone Chamber of Commerce back then, she took from both sides and cheated each of them out of seventy percent profit.

Simply put, one of them thought he was doing translation, while the other thought the other party was acting as a middleman.

The two talked past each other for quite a while before finally, under Lin Zhao’s insistence, reaching an agreement on a twenty-percent commission.

And after the conversation ended, both sides once again thought in their hearts: if this idiot who is so insensitive to prices did not have me, they would definitely be miserably cheated if released outside, right?

Under dim lighting, Mechanic used his still-good hand to repeatedly stroke the books Lin Zhao had transmitted over with such care and importance. Inside was also a bookmark.

On it, in clumsy Kaman characters that were clearly imitated, was written:

Knowledge is the ladder of human progress. My country used fifty years to reduce an illiteracy rate as high as 80% down to 4%, and in less than a hundred years achieved overall moderate prosperity, with no more starving population. I hope these books can also be of some help to you.

Instinctively, Mechanic did not believe a place like China could exist, but Lin Zhao’s absurdly foolish way of doing things proved everywhere that he truly was such a flower grown in a greenhouse.

Only people who grew up in an environment with love knew how to better love others.

“Go tell Gray,” Mechanic lowered his eyes. For the first time, that half-mechanical face rarely showed a color other than cold hardness. He raised his voice and said to the assistant outside the door, “Tell him to call Cunningham here to negotiate with me. Don’t think I don’t know who came up with all those arguments of his.”

In the past, he only wanted to treat knowledge as his own collection. Now, he discovered that it was not impossible to share it with others, even if they were as stupid as pollutants.

He also wanted to see whether this world still had any hope.

—

Good people would always receive good rewards. Lin Zhao had never had a deeper feeling about this sentence than on this day.

Because after he helped Mechanic and Boss’s Sister reach this three-party cooperation—after the knowledge side reached preliminary cooperation intent and signed—the sound of 1114 went dang dang dang.

One could tell at a glance that this was a pre-set bottom-level code.

It was warmly celebrating for its host, congratulating Lin Zhao for self-learning and completing a three-party transaction, obtaining the achievement Hello, Good for Me, Good for Everyone, and rewarding him with one card-pool draw.

Then, again, dang dang dang. Congratulations to Lin Zhao for obtaining an achievement for the first time, stacking one more card-pool draw.

One had to know that after leaving the beginner period, one draw required ten thousand yuan. Two free draws placed there were practically luring people into crime—cough, he meant luring people into drawing cards.

But Lin Zhao ultimately held back.

Because…

He was truly too tired.

Although the one translating for Mechanic and Boss’s Sister the whole time was actually 1114. He did not even need to do any operation himself; 1114 could copy and paste back and forth for both sides. But even though he had done nothing, Lin Zhao still felt he had truly worked hard.

He had to carry out a hearty, satisfying grand vacation!

1114 silently showed him their income panel again, refusing to believe this would not stimulate Lin Zhao’s salted-fish heart.

Let’s put it this way: when they first saw the lavish Elowen name the price, they felt as if they were standing at the entrance of Taikoo Li in Sichuan, seeing so many, so many zeros.

Author’s Note:

Nonsense Mini Theater:

Gong: He likes me!

Carlos: Where the fuck did you see that?

Gong: Otherwise, why would he so actively help contact my sister?

Carlos: Is it possible that it’s because your sister paid enough money?

Gong: Then that’s great. Our family has plenty of money!

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