The day for the sale of the magical gaming devices has arrived.
Since I had a refreshing debate with Professor Goat from the Mathematics Department in the morning, I’m in a great mood to oversee the sale!
“Oh, Lord Exus! You’ve arrived!”
A chubby man with a slicked-back hairstyle and a face shining from horse oil greets me with an archaic smile.
He is Backs from Beaks Trading Company.
He’s a merchant I got to know through the Carenheit Baron’s family, and he’s reputed to be the most honest merchant around here.
In this world, where ethics are practically non-existent, merchants are almost synonymous with fraudsters.
There’s no such thing as a standard price; it’s normal to jack up prices depending on the customer, and many are quite willing to cheat during transactions.
Of course, there’s a guild to oversee things, so if someone goes too far and disrupts the harmony, they might face a beating. Still, from a modern Japanese perspective, it’s the worst of the worst.
I can easily imagine that without the big name of the Carenheit Baron’s family, Backs would have tried to negotiate and cut corners with me.
However, Backs must have judged that my method of “promoting the game console by selling it in bulk at a low profit, and then stimulating purchasing interest through regular sales of game cartridges” would benefit him. That’s why he’s fully supporting me.
In the end, this man, Backs, agreed to follow my business plan and act accordingly.
It doesn’t really matter much.
If he betrays me, I’ll just get rid of him…
“Now, now, unless Lord Exus, the developer, takes the lead, things won’t progress! May I ask you to say a few words?”
With that, I lined up the game consoles right in the middle of town.
The game consoles are standard portable gaming devices with a 10cm x 23cm magical liquid crystal screen, two sticks, four buttons x two sets, and two sets of trigger buttons.
I packed them into cardboard boxes and stacked several hundred in front of the store.
… “What’s this?”
… “It seems like a toy.”
… “A new product from Beaks Trading Company?”
Then, people started gathering…
At this point, I had set up a trial space where the game consoles were chained to prevent theft.
“Hello everyone, I am Exus. I’m a mage, by the way…”
I’m used to giving speeches.
I was a somewhat respectable professional in my previous life.
“What I’d like to sell to you today is a completely new game. It’s something that people of all ages, from children to adults, can enjoy!”
… “Oh my…! He’s so handsome!”
… “Wow, what a good-looking man!”
… “He’s so cool…♡”
As I spoke and smiled slightly, the foolish crowd was abuzz.
The promotional effect is excellent.
My face, naturally attractive to women, also attracts homosexual men.
Aside from that, normal men admire me.
Being good-looking means that anything I do looks stylish and advantageous. It’s the best!
“That said, spending three silver coins on a purchase might be a bit tough. So, please feel free to try it out in this trial space! If you’re not convinced after trying it, you don’t have to buy it!”
… “What?! We can try it without buying?!”
… “So, if we don’t like it, we don’t have to buy it?!”
… “Wow! We can try it for free!”
This is also a major promotional factor.
In this world, there’s nothing like free trials or samples.
If you need something, you have to buy it, and once you’ve bought it, there’s no cooling-off period.
But I thought that a relatively expensive toy like a game console wouldn’t sell unless people could try it first.
Thus, the trial.
I lined up the game consoles with software installed at the store and asked people to play with them.
The trial software was a short game called Tetros.
… “W-What is this?!!”
… “Amazing! I’ve never seen anything like this!”
… “This is a magical device we don’t even have in the Adon Magical Nation!”
Voices of astonishment rose from all sides.
The gameplay videos can be viewed on a monitor installed above the trial space.
Since it’s a portable gaming device, the monitor helps people see the gameplay more easily.
… “Let me try too!”
… “Hurry up and switch already!”
… “One more time!”
The trial space is in complete chaos.
But…
“Yes, yes, if you buy it, you can have as many as you want! The price of the console is just two silver coins! Two silver coins!”
““““Wowwwww!!!””””
It’s just a matter of making the sales.
Ah, it’s nostalgic.
It reminds me of the release day of the Freystation.
Whoever said it… “Selling something is on a whole different level!”…
The mountain of game consoles, numbering in the thousands, was sold out in just three hours.
“Ohhh!”
Backs is in ecstasy.
No wonder, with just the earnings from this morning, the net profit easily surpassed ten thousand silver coins.
In modern Japanese yen, one silver coin equals about ten thousand yen, so that’s one hundred million yen.
Beaks Trading Company probably hasn’t earned a hundred million yen in a single day before.
The currency economy isn’t that active either.
For instance, in my village, bartering was the norm…
With a gold standard and a fixed amount of circulating currency, there’s no credit creation happening.
Earning a hundred million yen in this world is a tremendous achievement far beyond its face value.
Well, I’m also thinking of making a profit by circulating electronic currency usable only with game consoles, but that’s a different story…
“Lord Exus, this time, truly, truly…”
Backs shakes my hand, holding it with both of his and bowing deeply.
The profit was almost evenly split between us, but still, the amount earned in one day was the highest he’s ever seen since he started as a merchant.
In the end, the afternoon saw even more people flocking to the trading company, including nobles, and the net profit reached three hundred million yen.
“You should understand that the game consoles will sell. From now on, the game software will sell too. All those customers will return, clutching their silver coins, to your trading company.”
“Ohhh! I can’t contain my excitement! This is incredible, Lord Exus! The dream is expanding!”
“And that’s not all, your trading company will supply game consoles to other towns as well. That will make even more profit.”
“Yes, yes! That’s right!”
“Let me repeat, the prices…”
“Of course! If we can sell that many, there’s no need to inflate the price of each one. There are no fools in my trading company who don’t understand such simple things!”
Hmph, we’ll see about that.
“Well, anyway, the startup voice guidance will say ‘This game console costs two silver coins’…”
“Yes, that’s right.”
