Nearly 200,000 units of raw at processed! Two million units of wood in fees! Alex's eyes nearly popped out of her head reading the world channel's estimations of her earnings. "They almost had believing it myself!" she thought. "I haven't even processed half that much!"
Alex only had 200 Skeletal Warriors... well, 230 now, after her recent summoning. Minus the ones gathering firewood, she had 229 little boneheads working the grills. Production had increased slightly; she could now process 50,000 units of raw at per hour. But even at that rate, 200,000 units would take at least four hours! "Those darn armchair analysts! Talking about 200,000 units like it's nothing. I wish!"
On the bright side, Mike and Cain hadn't started a price war. They were sticking to her original price. And the market for processed at was still enormous. Even with Mike and Cain horning in, demand far outstripped supply. The core issue was still the scarcity of fire. Besides Alex and the Cain-Mike duo, billions of lords were still fire-less. This extre scarcity created an equally extre market. A bizarre kind of historical anomaly. A profit boom born from a fireless age. It wouldn't last forever. Once more lords found fire, the cooked at gravy train would dry up. But Alex had never planned on this being a long-term venture. She was just grabbing a quick buck while she could.
Since Cain wasn't undercutting her, Alex decided to ignore them. But just as she left the world channel, it exploded again.
[World Channel 2391 (10,000 users)]
"Hahaha! I got fire too! I'm gonna be rich!"
"Whoa, another one?!"
"Breaking news: Fire sources erging! Alex's first-mover advantage dwindling!"
"Dude, spill the beans! How'd you get fire?"
"Yeah, tell us!"
"Tell us!"
"Hahaha! I don't even know how it happened! I was pretending to be a cute girl, scamming my 2371st lord for resources. To convince him I was a real girl, I swore an oath to the heavens. Said if I wasn't a girl, if I wasn't pretty, if I didn't have a killer bod, I'd be struck by eighty-one bolts of lightning! And guess what? Right after I finished, the sky started booming! One of the bolts hit right next to ! Split a tree in half! Scared the crap outta ! But then I realized... the tree was on fire! I grabbed so wood and snatched that fire right up!"
"Wait, you're that 'maid service' scamr who tricked thousands of lords by pretending to be a girl?!"
"Guilty as charged! But now I have fire, so no more scamming!"
"...Seriously? That worked?"
"Hey, it worked for . Not keeping it a secret. Try it yourselves if you want fire."
"I want fire, but... I can't pull off the whole girl thing."
"What do you an you can't pull off the girl thing?"
"Do *you* have the right asurents?"
"Alright, enough chit-chat. Ti to make so serious money! Listen up, everyone! I'm the third lord in all of Eldoria with fire! I hereby announce the grand opening of the Maid at Processing Factory! I'm not greedy like Alex and Cain. I'm only charging 5 units of wood per unit of at! That's half their price! Just a small fee for my hard work! Place your orders now! Bulk discounts available! Special deals for huge orders!"
"Dude, you say you're done with the girl thing, but look at your factory na!"
"Haha, force of habit! Don't mind !"
"Seriously, only 5 units of wood?"
"Cross my heart! I feel bad about scamming all those lords. Ti to give back to the community with a fair price!"
"Sure, 'giving back.' You just want to undercut Alex and Cain."
"Mind your own business!"
"Yeah, let them fight it out! The more they compete, the lower the prices go, the better for us!"
"Placing an order, 200 units!"
"500 units!"
"1000 units!"
"..."
These were just the small-fry orders. The real bulk orders were happening through private ssages.
[Boss, placing an order, 10,000 units!]
[Big boss, 50,000 units!]
[100,000 units!]
...
The Maid Factory's low prices were incredibly tempting, and orders poured in. Within monts, the owner had a million units booked. He was overjoyed.
But one lord's joy is another's sorrow. Many of Alex and Cain's custors, seeing the Maid Factory's rock-bottom prices, jumped ship.
[Cancellation!]
Alex and Cain were suddenly hit with a wave of cancellations. Sophie's inbox was flooded with the sa ssage: Cancellation! A few lords offered to pay the 1% cancellation fee. Most just demanded their raw at and processing fees back. Sophie, a fifteen-year-old girl, was completely overwheld. She was on the verge of tears. Luckily, she had soone to turn to.
[Sophie]: "Alex, soone on the world channel is stealing our business! They're charging half our price! Everyone's cancelling! They're yelling at , demanding refunds!"
Alex paused, montarily confused. Cain wasn't supposed to be starting a price war. But that wasn't important. What *was* important was...
[Alex]: "Who's yelling at you? Give their nas. I'll avenge you!"
[Sophie]: "Alex, that's not the point! The point is, a million orders, all cancelled! What do we do? Should we lower our prices?"
[Alex]: "That *is* the point! No one yells at my little sister!"
[Sophie]: "Alex, you're the best! But we still need to fix this! What do we do? How much do we lower the price?"
[Alex]: "Lower the price? Never! Tell them this: Cancellations are fine, as long as we haven't started processing. But if they cancel now, I'll never take another order from them again. Got it?"
[Sophie]: "Alex, but if we don't lower our prices, no one will co to us! Their prices are so much cheaper."
[Alex]: "Don't worry. We'll get business. Even if we don't, it's fine. This cooked at thing wasn't going to last forever anyway. I have my eye on sothing else. Sothing way better than cooked at!"
[Sophie]: "Really, Alex? Don't lie to !"
[Alex]: "Would I lie to you? Just wait and see! Oh, and have your Golden Retrievers sniff around your castle. See if they can find any iron ore."
[Sophie]: "...Alex, they're Chow Chows, not Golden Retrievers... and dogs can't find iron ore."
[Alex]: "Well, you look for it then."
[Sophie]: "Okay, Alex!"
"..."
"...Alex, I'm not a dog either!"
After their discussion, Sophie refunded the unprocessed orders and relayed Alex's warning. The lords scoffed. *Who's going to pay your prices when the Maid Factory is so much cheaper?* they thought. *Get real!*
...
The lords who cancelled their orders with Alex weren't rushing to the Maid Factory just yet. They were waiting. Waiting for the prices to drop even further. Where there's competition, there's a price war! And when the prices dropped, *they* would be in control.
And sure enough...
Mike panicked and contacted Cain.
[Mike]: "Boss, everyone's cancelling! What do we do?!"
[Cain]: "How many?"
[Mike]: "All of them! 1,500,000 units! They're all going to the Maid Factory!"
"Boss, we have to lower our prices!"
[Cain]: "Fine, but by how much?"
[Mike]: "4 units!"
[Cain]: "Whoa, that's low!"
[Mike]: "We have to compete! Low prices win!"
[Cain]: "...Okay, 4 units it is."
Mike rushed to the world channel to make the announcent.
[World Channel 37537 (10,000 users)]
Mike: "In the spirit of inter-lord cooperation, Cain and I have decided to... lower our prices! Only 4 units of wood or stone per unit of cooked at!"
"Whoa, they actually lowered their prices!"
"Good!"
"Hey Maid Factory, Cain just lowered his price to 4 units. You gonna match it? Gotta stay competitive!"
"Can't do it!" The Maid Factory owner declared. "5 units is already rock bottom. Any lower, and I might as well go back to pretending to be a cute girl and scamming lords! But I'm not gonna let Cain push around! If he wants a price war, let's do it right! 2 units! If he goes to 2 units, I'll respect him. But this nickel-and-diming crap is just annoying! Here's what I'll do: Maid Factory price stays at 5 units. But for orders over 10,000 units, it's 4 units! Over 50,000, it's 3! Over 200,000, it's 2! And for orders over a million... I'm going all in! 1 unit!"
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