Chapter 520: Rolling in the Deep Ones

The store reception for Lai Fu’s Offshore Sea Store was exceptionally well received by the older generation. The discounts and offers that he had assigned for the first day made all the aunties and uncles rush in like mad dogs, snatching up almost everything he had on display.

Thankfully, being an experienced storekeeper for many years, he had previously ordered three months worth of stock to satisfy the demand for the frenzy buying. Lai Fu knew that the first day was one of the best times to earn quick cash to recoup the losses since people always wanted new stuff and a store opening usually resulted in the most substantial amount of customers.

Helping them out, Jin had developed a small little USB drive that could be connected to any sort of phone (as part of Lai Fu’s request list). Those USB drives would act like temporary storage rings allowing them to put the items that they wanted to buy into it since most items were enchanted with anti-storage ring to prevent looting and theft from happening.

Either that or they could personally hand carry them on the carts provided. However, the technological advancement in recent years had made online supermarkets extremely popular, and the Offshore Sea Store was no exception in participating them.

With the help of the System, Jin had assisted Lai Fu in creating an online mart on the Pandamonium App as well as applying to the famous supermarket delivery services apps. As Lai Fu previously subscribed to be one of the sellers in those apps as well, the System merely aided him by instantly updating the items that were left in his store to those apps. Else, he had to pay an additional premium subscription fee to do that.

But because of the integration of the online market via Pandamonium App, users could also earn and utilise Panda Medals by doing so. In fact, every purchase in the Tiangong Tree Mall would allow them to earn Panda Medals which could indirectly be used to either obtain items in Jin’s store or used as the premium currency for his mini games and dungeons.

During his downtime from the day before, Jin had planned a road map to revamp the usage of Panda Medals. Instead of merely using it as a sort of reward or extra currency, he was thinking of creating discount packages that utilised those medals too. Things such as free food delivery package for 10,000 Bronze Panda Medals or discount voucher package for 8,000 medals.

While he was merely copying ideas that were already on the market, they had proven to be successful, and Jin saw no reason why he could not get a share of the pie as well. Maybe in the future, Jin could liaise with other apps like the taxi and online market delivery to further integrate the Pandamonium App into society. Right now, he was satisfied starting small and just making sure that his Tree Mall was not only an overnight success but a continuous one.

Yet even though there was the online market app choice, most of the older generation prefer to go down to the stores to select their items. As long as it was not a crazy surge of people, the aunts and uncles would love to take their time in choosing their fruits and vegetables, picking the best out of the lot in the store’s bin. In addition, the physical stores sometimes provided discounts that were not available on the online apps.

The same was true for Lai Fu’s Instance Store. The current Day One discount was the biggest discount he had ever offered. By buying five items, one of the five cheapest items would be discounted at 99% (up to a certain price point of 100 Yuan). Hence, many people took the chance to buy the more expensive stuff all at once, mainly comprising the premium food stock from Jin’s Agriculture Sector.

Even Lai Fu was shocked at how fast Jin’s food stock vanished, and when he queried some of his long time customers, their reasoning made perfect sense. “There was no scent of pesticide used on these at all! The colour of the vegetables is very prominent too! It has been so many years since I saw this kind of naturally grown fruits and vegetables.” the collective opinions of his customers who were equally health conscious in their advanced age answered him. (Things which Lai Fu already know when he personally examined the goods too, but verification from his peers sealed the deal for him even further.)

“Do you know that considering the quality of the products, the price you place on it is freaking cheap? Of course, I will get a bulk of them before it gets all sold out!” His customers said frantically and went to the payment cashiers where a team of Deep Ones were manning the cashier booth.

One scanned the items, the other two packed them up before the customer could choose between delivery to their house or self carry. Most were okay with carrying thanks to the power of the storage ring, but some did choose the delivery option, taking advantage of the Day One discounts to buy for their relatives too.

As Lai Fu began developing a friendly relationship with the Deep Ones, he even requested more of them via the Pandamonium App while they were still free. (He still would be charged according to their numbers starting next month). Sure, he still had some of his old employees, but many quit after the incident, with only a few loyal enough to remain behind.

Thus, Lai Fu ended up deploying them for all kinds of jobs. The owner used them for cashier services restocking the items and currently (maybe most importantly) for crowd control. Lai Fu believed that they were the ideal monster NPCs which were fierce enough to go against the crowd.

There were instances where those greedy uncles and aunties were tempted to take fresh stock from their hands, (mainly because of the discounts Lai Fu had provided) which caused the Deep Ones shouted at them and even scratched them superficially as a warning.

The customers in return demanded for compensation, but before Lai Fu could intervene in any way, the Deep Ones officially issued a duel challenges to settle the store. Should they accept and win the duel, they would get their compensation, fair and square along with an apology.

The ignorant older cultivators thought this was a simple fight and part of Lai Fu’s new instance, so they fought against them recklessly. (The only ones who had the last laugh were the cultivators that had experienced Jin’s stores and knew what capabilities these fishes had.

…So far, none had won against the mighty Deep Ones and the customers learnt the lesson not to disturb the Deep Ones during their restocking. What followed was an extremely ridiculous sight to behold. Lai Fu had never thought it possible to witness customers standing at the side, mere inches away from a Deep One, patiently waiting for him to finish restocking the items before pouncing on the goods and merchandise.

“Each Yuan for these angry fish is worth it.” Lai Fu chuckled to himself as he sat at the side of the recently arrived Discount Pirate Ship and enjoyed some fishing.