Birth Of The Crafts-God-Chapter 415: Pre-orders
With the unveiling of the Qin chip, the main segment of the Silver Star Exhibition Show was officially over. The guests could walk around the exhibition hall on their own and admire the items on display or take a look at their details on the projected screen beside each item. They could also socialise with one another or better yet, with the senior employees of either the Silverine Factory or the Seven Stars Springs Dealership, or even both. The two companies were now the star of the event, and even more so, the star of the industry.
Although the Seven Sparks Forge was actually the key factor in everything, since they backed the Seven Stars Springs Dealership as a majority owner (80% control through Lucas) and were more behind-the-scenes with only two known employees (Lucas and Vergil), the dealership was the better and easier target for socialising with.
According to the finalized ratings and benchmark performances of the various stellar processors in Baylands city-state, the Qin chip was unequivocally the best.
Using the existing top stellar processors in the market —the KY chip from the Versailles Group and the Orion Core from Novanio Tech— as the bar, the ratings were thus:
The Springfield stellar processor, made by the Seven Stars Springs Dealership (although it was the Seven Sparks Forge doing the actual work) by modifying the Garland stellar processor from the Silverine Factory, had a rating 32% higher than the KY chip. As the Springfield stellar processor wasn't an original design, it wasn't an exclusive product of the Seven Stars Springs Dealership. Hence, it was sold both by the dealership and the Silverine Factory.
However, to boost relationships and also to focus more on their innovative and novel products, the Seven Stars Springs Dealership wasn't selling the Springfield stellar processors in bulk.
The next performative stellar processor in the industry was the SS V1 stellar processor. It exceeded the Orion Core by 38% and was, for some significant time, the most powerful stellar processor on the market. However, after the breakdown of relationships between Lucas and Novanio Tech months ago, there were no new chips released ever since. Only the less than one hundred were produced from the start and used in their original product, the Claudia 9 wrist-type communicator.
With Lucas' return and the threat of the revival of the SS chips, in the form of a V2, the Versailles Group contacted their headquarters and got a hold of a new stellar processor blueprint. The Falcon X9: Yotsuga was then born, with a performance exceeding the KY chip by 51%. Even though it was yet to undergo production, it caused mayhem in the industry and positioned the Versailles Group to become the number one stellar processor industry.
However, just as everyone thought that the Silverine Factory and the Seven Stars Springs Dealership would go bankrupt, the duo released a new product. Designed by the Seven Stars Spring Dealership (actually the Seven Sparks Forge) and mass-produced by the Silverine Factory, the Rain Dragon Z1 was announced. It displayed an efficiency rate surpassing all premium products in the city-state, whether in existence or yet to be produced.
With benchmark ratings exceeding the KY chip by 49%, the Rain Dragon Z1 was much faster by 1.5 times on speed alone; an era-defining product for the people of Baylands city-state. It was to be sold under the Seven Stars Springs Dealership banner, albeit its production was handed over to the Silverine Factory.
Even then, it wasn't over yet.
Just right after the Rain Dragon Z1 was launched, the Qin stellar processor —aptly known as the Qin chip— was also announced. Compared to the Rain Dragon Z1, it was even much better and far ahead of the current standards. With a performance rate of 194% that of the KY chip [1], it was a true era defining product. Even though it wasn't at the 200% mark yet, just in terms of speed alone, it was faster than the KY chips by 2.5 times.
For the guests present, apart from socialising with one another, their major focus was on closing deals at the scene. To be specific, closing deals with the Silverine Factory and the Seven Stars Springs Dealership.
"When will the products be on sale and also, what's the cost?" One CEO asked the question that was on everyone's mind
just before Altimo walked down from the stage.
Whether it was the Springfield, Rain Dragon Z1 or the Qin chip, they were all ahead of the premium products in the market. This meant that they would most likely be very costly. If this were true, not many companies would be able to bulk purchase them and some might not even do so. After all, the Springfield was more than enough to satisfy their current needs. The only exception were the top companies in various industries that depended on stellar processors. If they wanted to be ahead, they'd need the best products. Even then, the price would determine how many they could get.
"I do have some bad news to make regarding our stellar processors." Altimo suddenly said, stunning the guests.
Before they could even guess what it was, Latino continued,
"The Springfield stellar processor would be sold as a normal line Springfield stellar processor, so you don't have to worry about the price. The Rain Dragon Z1 will be sold as an above medium model, or a regular premium. As for the Qin chip, it would be valued as a top grade premium line. We're doing this with hope and expectations that the level of technology or the city-state can rise above the current standards and compete with the higher tiered city-states."
The crowd was surprised yet again, but this time, pleasantly.
The Seven Stars Springs Dealership and the Silverine Factory were very much selling their products for cheap, dirt cheap. If anyone else was in their position, they might not even announce the Qin chip yet and would sell the Rain Dragon Z1 as a top-of-the-line premium product, making it the costliest processor on the market. They would do this in order to make as much money from the Rain Dragon Z1 before selling the Qin chip.
Some might not even release the Rain Dragon Z1 yet, as the Springfield stellar processor was capable of controlling the market for the current time. It wouldn't be until the Falcon X9: Yotsuga was released, bumping up the value of chips, that they would then sell the Rain Dragon Z1 at a similar price.
Despite that, the two companies seemed not to be interested in making as much money as possible.
However, was that really true?
Only Lucas, Altimo, Maessen and the members of the Silverine Factory's leading R&D team knew the real cost of the processors.
Dirt cheap? Since when did capitalism sell things for dirt cheap?
Only the Qin chip had an exorbitant price due to the exquisite materials used. The Rain Dragon Z1 was slightly costly due to the presence of Ivoric Gold, but this made it roughly on par with current premium products in terms of cost price. Despite that, the Seven Stars Springs Dealership would be selling it slightly more than that.
"Due to our limited ability in mass production, sales would also be limited. So, after today's events, we will be taking pre-orders for everyone, with a buy limit. All orders will be fulfilled within a month from now. We apologize for that." Altimo bowed.
The crowd sighed with relief at those words. They thought that when Altimo spoke about bad news, it was something serious. However, it was simply an issue of supply unable to fulfill demand, but that was understandable.
"To boost production, the Silverine Factory will also be expanding our Silverine Village and adding an additional factory, focused on handling the requests of the Seven Stars Springs Dealership. This is to show our consideration for the city-state and also display our appreciation and genuine loyalty towards our cooperation." Maessen Ross suddenly said with a smile.
A round of applause burst out after the announcement with some giving words of appreciation and praise to Maessen. But some in the crowd had a knowing smirk.
'Appreciation and genuine loyalty'? What a load of bull crap. The Silverine Factory would be poised to make bands from this deal, so expanding their factory was a very obviously smart investment. Anyone in their position would have done so as well, but Maessen had made it seem like he was doing both the dealership and the people a favour.
After the questions had been settled with Maessen and Altimo walked down from the stage, but they were quickly approached by either old friends or familiar faces in the industry. Naturally, these individuals wanted to get closer to the duo to get an upper hand for the pre-orders they would be making.
Lucas was also in a similar situation, but he was easily dragged away by Vienna who knew he wasn't interested in those conversations. In the end, Vergil had to step up as the only known employee of the store.
There were also two other senior executives of the Seven Stars Springs Dealership, who attended alongside Altimo. They too handled the guests and also recorded pre-orders for some of the products of the store, excluding the two stellar processors.
With this event, the Seven Stars Springs Dealership was officially doing business, and in just ten minutes, they received pre-orders worth half a million Federal Coins. This was basically printing money.
