Doomsday Wonderland

The third day was an exceptionally fine and sunny day. Sunlight poured down from the blue skies onto Lin Sanjiu’s shoulders. When she walked out of the Big Cats Hotel, the owner of the pancake shop adjacent to the hotel immediately greeted her, “Are you heading out now?”

“Yes,” she nodded with a smile. Under her Scrooge McDuck mode, she appeared to be very friendly and personable, “How’s business now?”

“Pretty good! But the pancake stores on the other routes are struggling. Without any eggs, they basically can’t operate,” the pancake shop owner hit his pan with his spatula delightedly. “I heard that recently there is an egg shortage. The egg prices shot up drastically. To be honest, I was a little worried. I really didn’t expect that you were so resourceful that you managed to reserve a batch of eggs for me. I’m really indebted to you.”

Lin Sanjiu smiled. Placing her hands into the pockets of her bathrobe, she strolled leisurely to Cloud Gathering Trading House.

The pancake shop owner came looking for her the day before lamenting that his business would be affected if he didn’t have eggs. It was obvious that he was afraid that Lin Sanjiu might be unable to provide him the eggs he needed and thus chose this roundabout way to express his worry. Without saying a word, Lin Sanjiu immediately gave him the 50 pounds of eggs he had ordered previously. “This is the batch of eggs I reserved for you beforehand,” she explained. After that, the pancake owner thanked her profusely.

Lin Sanjiu had given him the eggs earlier than required, but she certainly did not provide him the eggs he ordered because she wanted to help him. Lin Sanjiu bought all the available eggs not to deprive everyone of eggs. She wanted a small number of people to still have the chance to eat eggs so that eggs would become a rare commodity. This was the only way the price would continue to rise. If there was a complete lack of eggs, egg alternatives would definitely appear on the market. Just like the 50 pounds of eggs she had sold before, this particular move to sell another 50 pounds was to stimulate the demand.

If the amusement park operated in a real-world open economy, Scrooge McDuck’s plan wouldn’t work. However, Starry Carnival Amusement Park had a closed economy which reduced its complexity while it operated on a high-level of realistic price mechanisms. As a result, Lin Sanjiu-Scrooge McDuck’s plan seemed tailored for this particular set of circumstances.

When Lin Sanjiu reached Cloud Gathering Trading House, the waiter had already opened the doors. After nearly being nearly knocked down by Lin Sanjiu for the past two days as she rushed in, he had learned his lesson and opened the tavern five minutes before, “Yo, you’re punctual as always! Let me tell you a piece of good news, the egg prices have shot up again. I have already bought the batch of desserts you ordered yesterday so we are just waiting for your Stamina Points.”

The upward movement of egg prices was well within Lin Sanjiu’s expectation. Grinning, she turned her focus to the notice board and observed that the egg prices had already reached 2.8 Stamina Points per pound. The trading house had just opened so Lin Sanjiu still had one day to manipulate the egg prices up to the price she negotiated with the three egg suppliers.

Lin Sanjiu turned to the waiter and asked, “How much did the desserts cost?”

“There were 120 items. They averaged 20 Stamina Points each,” the waiter smiled enthusiastically, “If we include the processing fee, that will be 2,472 Stamina Points altogether.”

“What about the eggs?”

“Ah, that’s the question to ask. It is strange, but the three egg suppliers suddenly put a lot more eggs up for sale in the trading house yesterday. It came up to a total of 1,150 pounds! When we were processing the transaction for you, it was only 2.6 Stamina per pound. It costs a total of 3,080 Stamina Points.”

Even though Lin Sanjiu spent such a large number of Stamina Points in such a short time, a smile slowly surfaced on her face as she returned to her usual seat, tapping her fingers on the armrest of the chair. Just like the plan she had discussed with the three suppliers, the three of them successfully broke their contracts with the four chain restaurants. Among the 1,150 pounds of eggs in the open market, it was obvious that the restaurants were originally supposed to receive 800 pounds.

In fact, Lin Sanjiu only came up with the strategy to get the suppliers to break their contract only after talking to the suppliers in her Scrooge McDuck persona and getting some key information from them during their negotiations.

Due to the closed economy, the competition between the three egg suppliers was as intense as she had predicted. Based on her analysis, the market demand for eggs was very limited. The major customers were only those few chain restaurants while there were multiple suppliers. Additionally, the small businesses did not generate enough demand for the remaining eggs. As a commodity, eggs had always been a buyer’s market in Starry Carnival Amusement Park. In other words, the original price of merely 0.6 Stamina Points was the unintentional result of the competitive price war between the three egg suppliers.

Before Lin Sanjiu intervened in the market, the three egg suppliers were having troubles clearing their inventory and setting their prices. Consequently, when Lin Sanjiu sent them the messages to break their contracts, they replied favorably in just a short time.

As the eggs suppliers had an exclusivity clause in their contracts with their respective chain restaurants customers, the chain restaurants were not supposed to get their eggs from any other sellers. In order to get this exclusivity clause in their contracts, the eggs suppliers had no choice but to sell eggs to these chain restaurants below market price. Unfortunately, such contracts barely worked in a buyer’s market. Even when the restaurants actually got their eggs from another supplier, their main supplier would not risk breaking their exclusivity contracts.

That is unless they were compelled to collude with the influence of an external party. This is where Lin Sanjiu played her part.

Hei Zeji’s offer was actually a bait. She needed to trick the restaurant owners to buy the eggs from him and break their contracts with the suppliers. However, this condition did not guarantee that things would go according to her plan. If they were intelligent enough to observe the market trends, it was highly possible that they would not buy those cheaper eggs from Hei Zeji.

To ensure that the owners of the restaurants fell into her trap, Lin Sanjiu thought of another strategy.

Following her instructions, the three egg suppliers ‘exchanged’ their customers. Each of the egg suppliers sent a message to a chain restaurant that was not originally their customer. In each message, they would warn the restaurant owners that the egg prices were rising rapidly and that their original suppliers may increase prices whereas they would sell them eggs at their original price and that they hope to get the restaurant owner as a new customer.

With a second supplier as a backup plan, the owners of the large chain restaurants lowered their guard and took the bait. They created a batch of desserts that nearly cost them nothing. When Hei Zeji informed them that he could not buy that many desserts, it was already late in the day and near their closing time. In order to sell these extra desserts, each of the chain restaurants lowered the price of their desserts by several Stamina Points.

When Lin Sanjiu noticed the new batch of desserts on the market, she set an order to ‘buy before the end of the trading day’.

She caught a total of four chain restaurants in her trap. She asked Hei Zeji to sell them only 200 pounds of eggs for two reasons. Firstly, a small amount was less suspicious. Secondly, Lin Sanjiu did not have that many Stamina Points left so she needed to control their production. Just as she expected, the chain restaurants only made a total of 120 desserts as each of them only had about a few dozen pounds of eggs. That was just within her budget.

Lin Sanjiu had 2,977 Stamina Points, 3,300 pounds of eggs and 600 desserts now.

“What are you going to do next?” Mrs. Manas couldn’t help asking.

“Don’t worry, it is the just beginning of the trading day,” Lin Sanjiu narrowed her eyes. She had a fox-like smirk on her face. If it weren’t for her [Consciousness Mimicry], that was an expression which she probably wouldn’t ever make. “Let’s give those restaurateurs a bit of time. They need some time to realize that they won’t get their daily egg delivery today.”

Lin Sanjiu’s plan worked better than she thought it would. The first request for eggs was posted on the notice board by one of the four chain restaurants twenty minutes later. Following that message, the trading market immediately erupted into a buzz of activity.

The egg prices indicated on the notice board began to flash non-stop. Each time it flashed, the number shot up a little. Finally, it reached an astounding 5 Stamina Point per pound. Despite the egg prices climbing steadily, the available stock still showed a ‘very low’ indication.

To add oil to the fire, Lin Sanjiu immediately posted a message stating, ‘Request for eggs, 6 Stamina Points per pound’. Shortly after, her personal message box was filled with a flurry of messages. The waiter was so busy that he started perspiring. Before he could retrieve one of the messages, another three to four appeared. Some of them were just in awe of Player 57. Some of them condemned, but most of the messages were requests for eggs.

Lin Sanjiu did not reply to any of them. “I don’t need to see any messages except those from the four chain restaurants,” Lin Sanjiu ordered. Following which, she just waited patiently. After half an hour, the remaining three restaurateurs also conceded. The first restaurant that contacted her was the all too familiar “Lips”.

“I know you won’t be here long, so I will let you gloat over your success this time,” the message was basic, “You just want to earn a sum of money, right? You have the eggs, state your price!”

Lin Sanjiu chuckled and did not reply.

The other two restaurateurs were a lot more polite.

“I’m not sure how to address you, but please let me open my business today. We make many items every day and eggs are our main ingredient. I urge for your kind consideration to deal with us at a reasonable price.”

“Lips needs the least eggs so they can act so haughtily,” Lin Sanjiu thought to herself before randomly choosing the chain dessert restaurant called Peppermint Leaf.

“What do you think of Strawberry Lips Cake?” Lin Sanjiu reply without answering the restaurateur’s request.

The restaurateur was confused but he quickly replied, “That is the most popular dessert in Lips. Even with the recipe, no one can make that cake. It’s famous.”

“Good!” Lin Sanjiu thought to herself as an idea pop in a Scrooge McDuck modded mind.

“As you can see, no shops in the market have eggs now… You are not the only one. No one can make any dishes that require eggs.”

“That’s right. You mean…”

“I can give you 20 Strawberry Lips Cake as well as 200 other items. I will sell you the Strawberry Lips Cake at 30 Stamina Points each. The other items would cost you 28 Stamina Points each. To show my sincerity, I will not sell any eggs in the next four hours. When I start selling them, I can assure you that the price would be at 8 Stamina Points per pound. How about that?”

It was a big advantage for that chain restaurant if it could sell these desserts while its competitors had no stock. Besides, if their competitors really managed to get eggs, they would be unable to compete due to their higher cost price. With that, Lin Sanjiu managed to sell 220 desserts to Peppermint Leaf in just ten minutes. The other party would even bare the cost of the processing fee. After getting back 6,200 Stamina Points, Lin Sanjiu had a total of 9,177 Stamina Points.

According to the daily sales figures in Starry Carnival Amusement Park, that amount of desserts could only meet half the market demand. However, when Lin Sanjiu worked with the three egg suppliers and posted another message, it impacted the egg economy like a tsunami.

“Player 57 is discussing a possible collaboration with the three current egg suppliers. The player might be buying over the three suppliers and there is a possibility of a merger between the three. Things seem to be working out. They had supposedly signed the contract.”

This message was like the spark that started the flames. That misinformation, along with the other preparations she had done previously, finally sent the market into a frenzy. Everyone was trying to guess the price Player 57 would set after monopolizing the egg supply. Due to her extreme buying behavior over the past few days, everyone was speculating that the egg prices would go up. Hence, the egg prices shot up to 7.5 Stamina Points per pound without stopping. Speculation had never driven the egg prices this high in the past.

The eggs that Lin Sanjiu had intentionally released to the pancake owner eventually entered the market. The pancake owner couldn’t resist selling the surplus. This further exacerbated the price bubble.

Judging that it was the right time, Lin Sanjiu waved her hand, “When the sheep are fat enough, it’s time for slaughter.”

This time around, even Lips finally yielded and gave in to her.

Due to the unpredictable number of changes, Lin Sanjiu had too much stock. She set a minimum order to counter that problem. Lin Sanjiu set the minimum order for the three chain restaurants to 400 pounds and she set the price at 8 Stamina Points per pound. Apart from Peppermint Leaf, the three large chain restaurants had no other choice but to accept. After they made their order, they bought a total of 1,600 pounds, perhaps fearing that the price would go up even more. With this, Lin Sanjiu quickly earned back another 12,800 Stamina Points and finally earned the goods payment back

“I need to move quickly,” Lin Sanjiu mumbled to herself. “Once the three egg suppliers find out that I have set a minimum order, they will know that I cheated them… I need to sell all the remaining as soon as possible.”

Lin Sanjiu couldn’t sell much to the small businesses. She couldn’t make it too expensive either. Lowering the price to 6 Stamina Points per pound, Lin Sanjiu finally managed to sell 700 pounds of eggs. As everyone thought that the egg prices would continue to go up, they ordered more than usual.

Lin Sanjiu’s Stamina Point was now 26,177 points. Lin Sanjiu already earned enough to continue. She still had 380 dessert items and 1,000 pounds of eggs.

The very moment she completed all these deals, the egg prices suddenly plummeted from 7.5 to 4. The sudden price movement only meant one thing. The three suppliers found out that something was amiss. Player 57 had sold all the eggs which matched the total demand of the market. After the buyers got all the eggs they need, the suppliers would find themselves with excess stock they could not sell. It would revert back to a buyer’s market once again. However, this time, they lost their main customers.

“That was dangerous,” Lin Sanjiu smile faintly. She took a deep breath and told the waiter to remove the over a hundred messages she had released. “Next, I will start selling my remaining desserts and eggs at a price way below the market price.”

Mrs. Manas was flabbergasted.

“That old duck…” she mumbled, “He cheated everyone.”

“I’d say,” Lin Sanjiu laughed as if she heard a compliment, “Usually, I don’t dare to do this for my business deals, but I can use a hit-and-run tactic now. Why wouldn’t I? This is exhilarating!”

Now that Lin Sanjiu had sufficient Stamina Points, everything became much easier.

With the amount she received from the small business owners, she bought all the goods she promised and provided them with 150 pounds of eggs. At last, Lin Sanjiu had cleared her debt to the shop owners on Pumpkin route and avoided punishment from Starry Carnival Amusement Park. After she almost disrupted the entire market with her low-ball selling, she received 2,815 Stamina Points for the 320 dessert items and 850 pounds of eggs.

Wearing her new combat tank top and shorts, Lin Sanjiu sat on Pumpkin route bathing in the sun. When Lin Sanjiu noticed, from the corner of her eyes, the few figures which had suddenly appeared, she leaped up with a grin, “Let’s go! I have already completed this round for you!”