Using magic for supersonic flight, I flew through the sky, brought along homunculi, and had them work as store clerks.
The shop turned out to be a huge establishment located right in the heart of the city.
I erased everything completely with Delete Magic and set up the ultra-high-rise shopping mall “Aurora” with Generate Magic.
I connected electricity, water, and sewage systems, assigned staff, stocked goods… and opened the store instantly.
The products for sale were, of course, focused on the city’s specialties: “spices,” “sugar,” “furs,” “textiles,” and “ceramics,” along with necessities like “wheat” and “game meat.”
… And all of this was sold for less than one-tenth of the price the city’s merchants usually sell them for.
It’s called ‘dumping.’
The profit is low, but I can economically wipe out all the merchants in this city, so there’s no problem at all!
Furthermore, every product created with Generate Magic is of uniform high quality! Compared to the spices and sugar that have been left rotting on ships for months, our products are fresher, higher quality, and absurdly cheap!
We also sell convenient magic items—basically household appliances—as well as entertainment books, game consoles with new game software, and even restaurants.
Now, merchants of the Proxia Republic…
Let’s settle this in the commercial world that you love so much!
A week passed.
Well, yeah.
There’s no way it wouldn’t be popular.
The number of people was so overwhelming that phrases like “full house” seemed ridiculous.
Certainly, the local merchants wouldn’t want to come. Especially those who serve as council members; they probably have their pride.
But this is a port city, a commercial hub.
Foreign sailors and traveling merchants who arrive by ship came without hesitation, and the local fishermen, adventurers, and general citizens naturally chose us, saying, “It’s cheap and the quality is good!”
Negative campaigning? Futile.
There are simply too many people passing by.
Even if bad rumors were spread, once a customer steps into the store… no, just by looking at the building, they’d realize it’s different from the others.
In a city where most buildings are single- or two-story structures, this is a 154-story skyscraper.
Its appearance resembles the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, but we also project giant auroras and advertisements in the sky with AR magic.
So yeah, it stands out. It stands out so much that, no matter how much negative campaigning is done, there’s no way people wouldn’t be curious about such a stunning, mythical-looking building.
And once they enter, they’re hooked.
No one can resist our overwhelmingly high-quality, low-priced products and our excellent service.
There are other gimmicks in place as well.
For example, it’s open 24 hours.
The merchants of the Proxia Republic, who used to lord over their businesses, would never have thought of this.
A skyscraper that shines brightly day and night, with a store that’s open around the clock.
Homunculi are humanoid artificial monsters created by embedding magic stones into captured assassins sent after me, or bandits and savages I caught nearby. They are a type of summoned beast.
Due to the monster’s magical properties, homunculi do not age.
They don’t get tired, need sleep, or require food or restrooms.
In essence, they’re fresh golems (flesh puppets).
These corporate slaves… no, homunculi, work tirelessly with a smile, always polite and efficient, 24 hours a day.
Homunculi come in both male and female forms, and I’ve designed them to be beautiful.
So the rumor is that these inhumanly beautiful store clerks even greet rough sailors with a smile.
Naturally, all the homunculi are summoned beasts, and with magic stones embedded in them, they can use magic too. They can perfectly defend themselves and will crush any troublemakers who try to stir up the store with magic.
And then there’s the dining hall.
Thirty floors are dedicated to the dining area, but it’s just a simple ticket-based cafeteria…
However, when you order, we offer unlimited free refills of bread, soup, butter, and jam. You can also order just bread and soup! And the water from the water server is completely free!
The cost of bread and soup made by Generate Magic is so low it’s comparable to drink bars on Earth. Even if people eat until their limits, the budget takes no hit.
But this strategy won over the hearts of the poor!
This tactic is modeled after that famous department store in Kansai, which offered cheap rice with sauce to invest in the future of poor customers. “Even those eating cheap sauce rice today will remember this place when they have families and come back in the future!”
In this city, too, I gave out enough bread and soup to fill stomachs for just one piece of scrap metal (less than 100 yen) to the slum dwellers, widows, the insane, and other impoverished people!
By making allies of these people who have nothing to lose, they’ll act like foot soldiers for me for free. It’s a win!
Normally, I’d never help them, but since the main targets this time are the upper class—those council members—I’ll be kind to the lower class!
And I didn’t stop there. I also gathered children from the slums who seemed useful. The ones that looked promising were sent to my mansion in Biltrion for education.
It’s amazing how giving cheap bread and soup to the scum of society turns me into a god in their eyes! It’s hilarious.
The all-you-can-eat menu was also well-received by the big-eating sailors, who have stopped going to their regular spots and now avoid eating anywhere but the Aurora shopping mall.
Of course, right? Aurora offers bigger portions and better-tasting food.
Moreover, many of them have started settling for Aurora’s deli bread for their breakfast and dinner.
… Besides, since sailors don’t have regular working hours, the 24-hour open dining hall must be a lifesaver for them.
We also sell wholesale to traveling merchants.
High-quality carpets? Fabrics? Silk? We sell them all.
No one is foolish enough to keep paying high prices to the city’s greedy merchants when they can get high-quality, low-priced luxury goods here.
Even if there’s talk about maintaining relationships with acquaintances, when profits multiply, people will always betray those relationships. They’ll abandon their business partners and buy from us, where it’s cheaper and better. This world only has that much moral integrity!
Oh, and… I’ve even expanded into show business and the adult entertainment industry.
In essence, it’s a high-end club or cabaret.
I have the beautiful homunculi dressed in revealing outfits like bunny girls, performing pole dances on dimly lit stages with neon lights.
The people of this world—especially the types sent as assassins after me—tend to have high physical abilities or front-facing professions like singers or dancers, so training them was no trouble. I had the data to work from, after all.
So, the club with its pink and purple neon lights, the beautiful homunculi singing and dancing in a sultry atmosphere, and the delicious drinks and snacks became a huge hit with sailors and similar crowds. Even foreign nobles sneaking in and the lust-driven council members of this country gathered here.
The shopping mall in Biltrion’s royal capital is right next to my headquarters, so I don’t want sleazy old men flooding the area. That’s why I’m conducting this experiment in a foreign country where I don’t mind if the public order collapses!
What? Gather sex slaves and open a brothel…?
Are you stupid? Instead of spinning the slave gacha to find organic beauties, it’s much faster and more stable to mass-produce perfect homunculi using the materials of local criminals.
I’m not interested in doing bad things. I just want to see others cry in frustration with maximum efficiency…!
So, after spending some time destroying this country’s industries for fun…
…”There’s a new law! From now on, any foreign business operating in this country must get permission from the country’s council members and accept them as part of their board of directors!”
…I saw the town crier—oh, the news announcer man—saying that.
I see. I get it.
Just like China, they want more than half of the rights handed over to the country, and they won’t let you operate unless you accept their people into the management.
The capitalist nation has bent its principles to become a communist one, just to take me down…
Looks like they want to die.
