The End of the Universe Is Live-Streaming E-commerce – CH8

Chapter 8: The 8th Day of Livestream Selling

“Congratulations, host~ /(???)/~ You have obtained the first pot of gold in your life—fifty thousand yuan. It is said that someone once used fifty thousand in the transaction system and earned one million. Why don’t you come and give it a try too~”

A new first day, a new beginning. The scheming system was once again attempting to scam its host into going to work.

Ever since the urgent crisis of the Qin family had been solved—Sister Qin had already decided to change to a new job; the main reason she had not resigned before was because she was afraid that once she left the factory, it would be even harder to get back her unpaid wages—Lin Zhao had once again settled back into being a salted fish. He had not started a single livestream. The e-commerce livestream-selling app had been directly uninstalled. All day long, he was either lying on the massage chair on the balcony scrolling through his phone, or lying on the bed in the bedroom scrolling through it.

“What exactly is so good about a phone?”

“You’ll have to ask yourself that first.”

1114: “…”

Yes, it had also fallen. Ever since this home gained the rules of lunch breaks and getting off work every day after five, it too had been happily surfing the internet while hugging itself. Even though Blue Star’s technology, compared to it, was already outdated by who knew how many versions, it had still plunged in without hesitation.

Because it was really too fun.

“But we can’t keep going on like this, host,” 1114 reflected bitterly and painfully, feeling that scrolling through the phone was ultimately not a long-term solution. They still had to work hard. They had to strive. “We have to step out of our comfort zone!”

“If it’s already this comfortable, why step out?” Lin Zhao was simply impervious to persuasion.

But this time, 1114 was not stumped by Lin Zhao’s crooked logic, because it had already prepared in advance. With forceful conviction, it projected two large lines of text into the air:

“Because we need to make money!

Without money, there is no comfort!”

It had even prepared a huge, detailed set of data to support its theory that one still ought to work hard, from how much savings the host had to how long he could sit around eating away his fortune.

Unexpectedly, before it could begin its speech, Lin Zhao had already nodded and expressed agreement.

1114 had no eyes, yet seemed to narrow them: Something is wrong with you!

“How much did I earn in the past altogether?” Lin Zhao said nothing else, merely continuing to dig deeper into the topic.

1114 answered truthfully, “Ninety yuan and twelve cents.”

A full amount with both whole and fractional sums. A whole ninety yuan. It was about to approach one hundred.

This was the magic of the internet. Even under Lin Zhao’s previously deranged level of unstable livestreaming, he would occasionally run into kind bosses who inexplicably tossed him a few small tips and then gracefully drifted away.

“Then how much did I earn this time?” Lin Zhao asked again.

1114 answered without thinking, “Fifty thousand.”

“So then, how many days would this fifty thousand be enough for me to earn in the past?” Lin Zhao guided it patiently and skillfully, enlightening 1114’s wise brain. “I’m already this amazing. Shouldn’t I reward myself a little and balance work with rest? Even if I don’t actually rest for as many as fifty thousand days, I should at least take an annual vacation, right?”

1114 fell into deep thought.

What he said made so much sense, but it always felt like something was wrong.

“Stop thinking about it. Once we finish sending the canned goods, we’ll completely rest.” Lin Zhao waved his hand grandly and made the final decision.

Yes, there were still a great many canned goods for his first high-quality customer, Mr. Gray, that had yet to be shipped.

Because Gray’s side indeed temporarily had nowhere to store that many cans, they could only be temporarily kept with Lin Zhao first. To be precise, they were being placed in the warehouse of Lin Zhao’s aunt’s storefront.

“Don’t you have some kind of portable space?” Lin Zhao asked.

“Yes, yes,” 1114 introduced enthusiastically. “But first, the system mall needs to be unlocked. The necessary conditions for unlocking the system mall are that the host must have audiences from two or more fixed regions, and the number of transactions must reach more than ten. P.S. Repeatedly brushing the same batch of goods one transaction at a time doesn’t count. You understand what I mean, right?”

1114 looked over with eyes full of hope.

Lin Zhao’s answer was, “Oh, my aunt seems to have a storefront. It just happened to become vacant recently.”

Aunt Lin had one shop and two apartments in total. Apart from the one she lived in herself, the rest were rented out. Among them, the tenant of the shop had not renewed after the lease expired. Because of the current economic situation, no one who wanted to open a store had been found for more than half a year, so Lin Zhao went to borrow the key.

He needed to store the goods for roughly five to ten days, because Mr. Gray had asked him to help with a small favor.

It really was a very, very small favor.

It was simply to split this batch of canned goods into two deliveries. One box would be sent to Address A, while the rest would stay put for the time being until it was decided later where they should be sent. Lin Zhao could not see the address. This kind of customer privacy would not be leaked by the system. All Lin Zhao knew was that when sending goods to Address A, he also helped Gray send over a slip of paper.

Lin Zhao followed the same method as with the previous sticky notes. He had 1114 first translate according to Mr. Gray’s meaning, then copied it down in imitation.

[Razor Boar King, Old Library, Gray.]

Lin Zhao felt that this was probably information telling a friend to come meet up with him. He just did not know why Mr. Gray’s friend would have such a magical nickname as Boar King.

Lin Zhao guessed half right. This was indeed meetup information.

But his friend was not called Boar King, and that person was not his friend either. Rather, it was a famously profit-seeking unscrupulous merchant from Eden, the largest settlement next to Gear Town.

This unscrupulous merchant was the standard type who would not wake early without profit. Among all the employers Gray had cooperated with, she was the most annoying one. But the good thing was that she recognized money to the death. As long as the profit motive was big enough, she could risk everything.

At the edge of Eden, yellow sand filled the sky. As far as the eye could see, the earth looked as though it had been evenly coated in a layer of rust. The hot wind was like an invisible giant tongue, licking the cracked, drought-stricken ground.

Inside the “Money Leopard,” a mobile trading station reinforced with all kinds of abandoned vehicles and metal plates, the unscrupulous merchant Cunningham had already been staring for quite a while at the canned fruit in syrup that had appeared out of thin air before her.

She had originally been frowning over her account book, calculating whether the profit from her next trip to the Rust Belt would be enough to cover the risk of possibly encountering large radiation beasts.

This number-one unscrupulous merchant of Eden was around thirty years old. Her short gray hair was dry and frizzy. She had not a single unnecessary ornament on her body, only equipment practical to the point of coldness and weapons hidden with extreme cleverness.

Until something suddenly appeared above her metal workbench piled with miscellaneous items.

Those gray eyes of hers, which looked as if they were appraising the price of everything they saw, were full of excitement. As someone well-informed, she naturally had heard about this “miracle canned food.”

The regret of those important figures who had failed to compete with Gray for ownership of the canned goods had long since grown wings and spread throughout Kaman’s upper circles. Cunningham quickly searched through the many tangled pieces of real and false information and found the keyword she felt was most likely to be true—mercenary Gray.

She did not know exactly what had happened, but she could infer that this old friend of hers had recently run into great fortune.

And now, these canned goods appearing out of thin air had confirmed her guess.

It really was such great, great fortune.

She had already had someone test them. Zero radiation, perfectly preserved, extremely advanced sealing technology, immeasurable value—they were genuine goods.

“Why do we have to go through all this effort to save him? The razor boar king isn’t easy to deal with, boss. No matter how powerful Gray is, he can’t deal with the boar king alone. He’s definitely going to die. We don’t have to pay anything and can get these cans for free. Wouldn’t it be great to sell them to the Iron-Blood Brotherhood or Big John of New Hope?” Her subordinate did not understand.

“Idiot. If Gray can use these as a deposit to ask me to save his life, that proves he has even greater value in his hands. Understand? I believe he definitely won’t be stingy with the final payment either. After all, the life of a first-class mercenary is very valuable.”

When she said this, even Cunningham’s sharply defined face seemed to become even sharper.

This was the reason Gray had chosen her. She really was an unscrupulous merchant who would scrape a layer of skin off anyone who came to her, and she really could risk her life for money.

“Wrench! Spark! Grab the gear and start up the Mule—a modified light armored transport vehicle! Bring the heavy stuff and medical kits! We’re going to pick up goods!”

Boss Cunningham’s voice contained no righteous urgency at all. There was only the excitement of a hunter discovering a high-value target.

And when Gray saw Boss Cunningham use the high-density flamethrower in her hands to carve a bloody path through the increasingly numerous herd of wild boars and arrive before him, the first thing she said was:

“You never said there were this many boars here. Spark got hurt because of this. Do you know Spark? This is my capable assistant, my beloved friend and family. You’ll have to pay extra.”

For some reason, Gray felt a sense of steadiness, as though thinking: Now this is right.

On this despairing wasteland, the most reliable bond was survival interests with clearly marked prices and immediate payment.

When one plan failed, 1114 immediately came up with another.

“Don’t forget, host. We still have two free lottery draws. The beginner rewards are only valid for the first half year after obtaining the system. Once they expire, they’re void.”

This was exactly the kind of rule the stingy mainframe could write.

“We can’t let the mainframe get the better deal.”

It had to be said that 1114’s novel angle really did move Lin Zhao. Although he knew it was most likely another capitalist evil scheme, the lottery draw did not require starting a livestream and working anyway, so… maybe he could try?

Author’s Note:

The gong is finally about to be drawn. Heaven and earth are moved. I haven’t written a gong who appears this late in so many years. Sob sob.

Nonsense Mini Theater:

Lin Zhao: Come to think of it, you count as something given away for free.

Reinhardt: “……”

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