Han Yingchen, unusually intrigued, took the initiative to ask, "How so?"
"The advantage of Dimensional Stores lies in quality control, which allows them to consistently maintain the highest quality food taste. Taking the low-price route will only lead to internal friction and make it difficult to avoid impacting business."
So the best approach is actually to go the high-end route. Start with top-tier restaurants and then make money from wealthy people.
The high-end market only cares about quality; no one will engage in price wars here. Low prices will only make wealthy people think your products are inferior.
“But the high-end route serves fewer guests, making it difficult to accumulate a large number of points quickly.” Luna also joined the conversation.
Ye Xu nodded: "So the system's requirement is 100 million points, instead of the upper limit of 1 billion, which relaxes the conditions."
Moreover, this aspect is not impossible to work with. If a food desert type of world is selected, the number of points provided by a single customer will be very considerable, which can make up for some of the lack of people.
Does Ye Xu really need to accumulate 1 billion points in every plane? Actually, he doesn't.
Ye Xu had plenty of time. Even if he planned to buy a top-tier bloodline, he could travel to several more planes and save up money little by little. If he saved enough at the beginning, he wouldn't have anywhere to spend all those points later.
"But it's not so bad as it is now. Once we get enough points in the first two worlds, we can relax and treat opening the shop like a vacation," Ye Xu said with a smile.
Shuangshuang cupped her face and said, "Opening any kind of store is fine. High-end stores may have their difficulties too. I think it's pretty good as it is now. If we don't plan to accumulate 1 billion points in the future, it's actually fine to open an affordable store and let others engage in price wars to steal our business."
The common people in the current dimension live such frugal lives that they sacrifice taste for price. If they were in the modern dimension, even if other places were cheaper, many people would still choose the store in that dimension for the taste.
“Indeed.” Ye Xu agreed with this statement. “Then let’s go to the modern world in the next dimension and continue to take the affordable route to accumulate more points. Let’s see what the differences are in the evaluation routes of different dimensions. In the dimension after that, let’s take the high-end route. We have to try each one. That way we will know which one is most suitable for our store and is the most worry-free and effortless.”
This gave people a sense of optimism for the future. Even though a skewers restaurant actually opened with a price reduction the next day, causing a sharp drop in customer traffic, people's mood was not affected.
Luna even suggested, "If there aren't many customers, we should switch the shop back to the old model and make money from adventurers. Our top-quality ingredients are still very attractive. Although this isn't a coastal city and people aren't as craving seafood, it's even harder to get fresh seafood inland. Who knows, business might be even booming than before."
The proposal was initially rejected because no one was keen on making any changes. It wasn't until a cheap skewers restaurant opened on the street that Ye Xu began the renovation project.
With fewer and fewer customers in the store, and everyone getting anxious that it would take several days to earn the last few points, switching back to the premium mode seemed like a good idea—to quickly earn the points and leave, as they were all tired of staying there.
The robots that have done promotions before are very familiar with the area. This time, we'll switch to a different approach, promoting top-quality seafood and unlimited monster meat. That should definitely attract a wave of adventurers. We'll set prices similar to other upscale hot pot restaurants in the area; we shouldn't be too unconventional to save ourselves some trouble.
"What about those who follow suit and steal our business? We're not going to care?" Shuangshuang was still unhappy. She had a childish temper and cherished her candy very much; she hated anyone who took it from her.
Ye Xu didn't care; those people hadn't used any underhanded methods, it was just normal business competition. However, there was something he'd always wanted to do, which might affect those people's interests and seem rather unethical.
"I want to research several cheap, delicious, and easy-to-make hot pot bases and teach them to ordinary people for free," Ye Xu said. "That way, they can make hot pot at home without having to go out in the cold wind and save money."
When Ye Xu initially chose the Transi continent, he had a slight intention to promote hot pot. After leaving that plane, he would no longer see those competitors, so offending them wouldn't matter.
In modern society, all sorts of hot pot broth recipes are readily available everywhere, indicating that the spread of such information is unavoidable. Given this, Ye Xu doesn't mind pushing for it ahead of time.
As for whether the businesses of those who followed the trend would be affected, Ye Xu didn't care. When those people opened their shops following the trend, they didn't consider whether his business would be affected. He wasn't a saint, so why should he care about others? He just wanted to enjoy himself.
“The system shop should have relevant information.” Ye Xu opened the shop. “I want to find several different flavors, preferably without using expensive ‘spices’ from the Transi Continent in the base sauce; everything should be low-cost. Oh, and tomatoes are out of the question; the natives still consider them poisonous.”
—The tomato broth at Ye Xu's restaurant has never been cracked, but there are similar alternatives for other flavors.
Everyone volunteered to help search, and those that looked promising went to the kitchen to try making them. They wanted to make sure the actual food tasted good before recording it and announcing it all before leaving.
A note from the author:
The bug fixing for the old articles is all done (there were nearly a thousand of them, it must be the input method's fault, oh well).
Chapter 27 Dragon Transformation
While studying the base ingredients, everyone also developed some of their own hobbies.
Luna is still studying economics books, but with limited success, learning haltingly. Shuangshuang has fallen in love with playing with Xiaoyu and the others, and no longer bothers with the shop. Han Yingchen, on the other hand, is spending his money on improving his strength, truly staying true to his original aspirations.
The system shop offers items to enhance physical fitness. These items have no side effects and aren't very expensive, but you need to train to fully control your improved physique. Han Yingchen bought several items and trained diligently every day; Ye Xu felt tired just watching him.
This kind of training is completely different from normal fitness intensity. Ye Xu once tried it out of curiosity and almost exhausted himself. Since then, he has become a complete slacker, occasionally drooling over the exorbitantly priced "bloodline replacement" service in the system store.
Even though he could afford something cheaper now, Ye Xu still suppressed the urge to spend money. If he was going to buy something, he had to buy the best; otherwise, wouldn't he have to save up to replace it later?
"Sigh, I can only wait until the next dimension to raise enough money." Ye Xu looked at the balance with heartache.
"You can also enjoy the benefits of top-tier bloodlines in advance through a loan," Shuangshuang reminded her, taking a moment out of her busy schedule.
Ye Xu didn't want to hear the word "loan"; the system's interest rates were too high. He comforted himself, "Once we get to the next dimension, I'll be able to save up the difference quickly."
"I'm afraid that won't work." Shuangshuang poured cold water on the idea as usual. "Don't forget that the water and electricity bills and logistics fees haven't been paid yet. You'll have to use points to pay for those."
Ye Xu sensed something was wrong: "How much?"
Shuangshuang replied: "The water and electricity costs are 30 million points, and the logistics costs are 20 million points."
Ye Xu: "??" Is this robbery?!
The task only requires 100 million, and a third of it is spent on water and electricity. Is that reasonable?
“That makes sense. Otherwise, why would the task require 100 million? It’s because after deducting the store’s operating costs, rounding it up to 100 million points.” Shuangshuang paused, then added, “Oh right, there’s also the interdimensional teleportation fee, 10 million. The fee for teleporting from the original dimension to the Western Fantasy Realm wasn’t deducted because we didn’t have the money. We’ll have to calculate it all together this time, so this time we’ll have to pay 20 million.”
That means each plane requires at least 60 million points in the basic investment, with an additional 10 million for the first plane. No wonder it rounds up to 100 million; the system is just greedy.
"I remember the water, electricity, and logistics fees were a yearly package," Ye Xu said cautiously.
Shuangshuang understood what the store manager meant: "The annual subscription is calculated per dimension. If it's less than a year within a dimension, it's charged as a year; if it exceeds a year, it's charged as two or three years. After changing dimensions, it will be recalculated."
Ye Xu was speechless.
After deducting all the points, he's even further away from having a billion points. He estimates he'll only have a little over nine hundred million points left after the first round of management.
At this point, Ye Xu understood why the upgrade gift packs included so many employee coupons.
Without achievement tasks, the store manager would never be able to reach the 100 million target. With insufficient staff and no option to hire outside, the store will likely remain perpetually unprofitable.
"After all this time, even regular store managers can only get employee coupons through tasks. Who would be willing to spend points to buy this?" Ye Xu muttered to himself. "Luckily, I had saved up a lot of employee coupons before that I didn't use."
Ye Xu is in a pretty good situation; he can't afford to buy employee vouchers because he's buying top-tier bloodlines, while others simply can't afford it.
“But it seems that our store’s employees are not suitable for opening other stores.” Ye Xu frowned.
Other shops need chefs, and the coupons in hand can be used to hire chefs, but who knows if other places will need staff? Besides, Ye Xu also wants to get more UR cards, so he can't use them all to hire robots.
Do I really have to take out a loan?
"Two choices," Han Yingchen suddenly said. "First, take out a loan to buy the bloodline. If you borrow more, you can buy employee vouchers. Second, don't buy the bloodline in the short term, buy employee vouchers, and accumulate enough points later."
It was rare for Ye Xu to hear him talk so much; it seemed that Han Yingchen had become more and more cheerful since joining the shop. But this wasn't the time to be pleased with that; Ye Xu was a little conflicted about which option to choose.
The more loans you take out, the more interest you'll pay, and Ye Xu is a little reluctant to do so.
However, unlike when he first bound himself to the system, when Ye Xu was more worried about not being able to repay the loan and dared not take out a loan, he is not so worried about that now; he simply doesn't want to pay interest.
"You're just going to spend your points anyway. Shopkeeper, you don't have many other places to spend them after you bought the Bloodline, so paying a little more interest won't hurt," Luna advised.
Shuangshuang agreed: "It's a waste to just leave the savings sitting there."
Ye Xucai wasn't fooled: "Savings are meant to be left there so they make you happy!"
The two little sprites were speechless: "..."
"Buy top-tier bloodlines early and enjoy them sooner; it's definitely worth it," Shuangshuang earnestly advised.
Some people initially hesitated to buy upgrades, opting instead to enhance their physical strength. Later, after reaching the physical strength cap, they had to replace their existing upgrades, only to discover that the physical enhancements were based on their original physical strength.
If you're a weakling, each enhancement will improve your stats by 1%. After changing your bloodline, although it's still 1%, it's 1% of a higher-level bloodline, potentially equivalent to 100% of your original stats. However, both cost the same, so if you've enhanced your stats multiple times before, you'll be at a significant disadvantage.
Ye Xu muttered under his breath, "You sound like an insurance salesman now, and I don't want to buy body enhancement services."
Shuangshuang, embarrassed and angry, said: "So are you going to take out the loan or not? If not, fine, I won't regret it anyway!"
Before the stingy shopkeeper could be persuaded, Han Yingchen was already tempted: "Do you have a list of bloodline replacement options? I'd like to see it."
So Ye Xu was left aside by Shuangshuang, and everyone started helping Han Yingchen find a suitable bloodline. Although Han Yingchen didn't have enough money, he could save it up slowly.
Ye Xu: "..."
Ye Xu quietly squeezed through to watch together.
Shuangshuang has already opened the corresponding section in the shop, where all kinds of bloodlines are available. The Western Fantasy world alone includes all the major races. Each race is further subdivided into different talent directions, as well as the strength of the talents, etc., which is very comprehensive.
"Which one does the store manager want to change to?" Han Yingchen looked around and had a general idea in mind before turning to ask Ye Xu.
Ye Xu looked at the 1 billion physical bodies laid out before him—Eastern Divine Dragon, Phoenix, Immortal Embryo… each one seemed quite appealing, and he was madly tempted.
"It seems that the Eastern Divine Dragon can absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth on its own without having to cultivate diligently. It feels so cool." Shuangshuang remembered the shopkeeper's usual style and helped her choose the bloodline that required the least effort. Then she deliberately turned her head and started gossiping with Luna.
Ye Xu's ears twitched.
"The totem of China seems to be the dragon. If I'm not mistaken, dragons should be naturally attractive to Chinese people. If I open a shop in China in the future, I won't have to put in any effort to attract customers."
Ye Xu's fingers trembled.
"The Divine Dragon's roots must be at the divine level, right? Ascension will definitely be stress-free. It probably won't even require tribulation; as long as the mental state meets the requirements, it can ascend directly."
No need to undergo tribulation!
Ye Xu's eyes lit up instantly. How awesome would it be to ascend to immortality on the spot? He had fantasized about it countless times while reading novels!
I was too stubborn before. How could a Chinese person not be moved by dragons? To see a live dragon in one's lifetime is a blessing from one's ancestors, let alone to become a dragon oneself.
"What kind of procedure is this bloodline change?" Ye Xu asked somewhat embarrassedly.
Shuangshuang tried hard to hold back her laughter and answered with a straight face: "It's about merging the power of your bloodline with your body. It will transform your body. The process is very simple and not painful. You can just close your eyes and sleep for a few days and it will be over."
Ye Xu breathed a slight sigh of relief after hearing this. As long as he wasn't in pain, that was exactly what he was afraid of.
"That loan..."
"We don't need to borrow too much, 200 million should be enough, and we can still have some points left to buy employee coupons. We can ask the system for a discount, so even with interest, it will only cost about one-third of the highest return in a single plane."
A third doesn't seem like a particularly large amount. Ye Xu tacitly agreed.
As soon as the loan arrived, Ye Xu couldn't wait to buy the Divine Dragon Bloodline, and then he was forced into a deep sleep.
It's alright that there's no shop manager in charge right now, so everyone tacitly refrained from disturbing him. Shuangshuang said that fusing with the dragon body would take about 3 to 7 days, depending on how well the original body and the dragon bloodline meshed. During this time, they could earn more copper coins.
They've accumulated quite a bit of currency these past few days; it's all money that can be used in the next world. Although there's not much to spend in the shop, you can never have too much savings—just in case you need it later.
When we were working on the oden model, we used less hot pot base and could profit from the price difference of ingredients through interdimensional channels. So even though ordinary people spent little per person despite being careful with their budgets, the actual income was still considerable, just not as extravagant as the points system.
Later, they switched to high-end restaurants and made a fortune. Now they have accumulated over 100 million copper coins, which is quite impressive.
Don't be fooled by the fact that these net profits, converted into gold coins, seem to amount to just over ten thousand—even slightly wealthy nobles would be worth more than that. But if converted into modern-day Chinese currency, that's a solid one hundred million, with considerable purchasing power.
"The store manager must be very happy." Shuangshuang cupped her face. "With so much money, an ordinary person could live a life of plenty for ten lifetimes."
Luna and Han Yingchen, the two natives of the Western Fantasy Kingdom, exchanged a glance, indicating their confusion. They tacitly changed the subject, talking about leaving.