Opening Shop

Standing inside the freshly cleaned building, looking at all the beds neatly stacked side by side, Minos looked at his men, seeing a similar sense of pride in their eyes as well.

"Well done everyone, you went well and beyond my expectations, so lunch today will be on me." Minos said, to the cheers of his workers.

"Of course before then, we've got to get those people back out of my main building, so go and tell them that we've got the place set up."

"Yes Sir!"

"As for you Jal, this time I need a few women who are trustworthy." Minos said.

"No problem, Boss."

"Alright then, everyone disperse." Minos shouted, causing the halls to quickly empty as everyone ran off.

Once his main building was empty, all Minos had to do was clean up, then he could finally get to work on his Rovo's, which had been waiting long enough.

…

With the help of all his new subordinates, Minos only took five days cleaning up his main building from top to bottom.

As for moving out the original inhabitants, once they had received proof that they would receive a bed and blanket if they left, the entire building emptied out in a flash, making that the easy part.

As for Minos's homeless center, he hired a few capable women to oversee its operations, not forgetting to keep a few of his men on guard just in case someone acted out.

With the combination of the two, the place was kept in good condition, anyone who violated the rules received three strikes until they were kicked out.

No one wanted to go back to sleeping on the cold hard floor, so after making a few examples, no one else dared to make trouble.

With the homeless center in order and the main building finally cleaned up, Minos finally got to work on production.

Sending his men out to buy him the supplies he needed, Minos got to work on building the manufacturing line.

Most of the work would still be done by puppets and machines, leaving the final assembly process and quality test to his men.

After another week passed, the manufacturing lines were completed, Minos having one on each floor, capable of producing the components to thousands of Rovo's in a single day.

The only problem was that his men weren't enough, and at most they could put together five hundred or so Rovo's in the same amount of time, leaving a large surplus of components.

Fortunately, with Jal running about nonstop, Minos was constantly getting an inflow of new workers, not to mention as his original workers got more used to the process, their efficiency improved tremendously.

With the Rovo's finally in mass production, Minos could finally get onto the final step, which was building the signal towers.

This process was relatively easy, Minos just buying a few small houses that were strategically located across Aleph City before demolishing them and building a tower in their place.

With the towers all placed and thousands of Rovo's completed, everything was in place, and all there was left to do was start selling!

…

"Rovo Store? What is that place?" One man asked his wife curiously as the two were enjoying a stroll in the city's heart.

"It's the first time I'm seeing it as well, should we go in and have a look?" She replied.

"Why not? Might be something interesting."

With the two deciding, they changed their route, entering this new strange store, somewhat surprised when they stepped inside.

Instead of the traditional style, this place was more like a lab, with white walls and floors that were seemingly made out of metal.

There were long tables in the middle of the building that were lined with strange devices that were about the size of a palm.

Walking up, the husband took one of these devices with interest, fiddling around with it in confusion, not sure what to do with it.

"I see you're taking a look at our Rovo Model 1. Do you have any questions about it Sir?" A beautiful young lady asked suddenly.

"Well yeah, what even is it?" The man asked, still having no idea what this strange little device did.

"The Rovo is as our founder describes 'Communication Rovolutionized.' Simply put, it's a way to communicate long distance with both audio and video!"

"Rovolutionized? don't you mean revolu- Oh, I get it." His wife beside him said with a chuckle.

"Audio and video? Really?" The man said with surprise.

"Of course, and if you aren't satisfied with the experience, you can receive a refund at any time, this is our Rovo Guarantee!" The young lady said firmly.

"What do you think dear?" The husband asked his wife.

"Let's try them, if they really work then we could give one to our son and daughter, that way we don't have to always be worried about where they are and what they're doing." The wife suggested.

"Good idea. So how much are they?"

"Well if you subscribe to our basic yearly plan, the phone will be free, and you'll be charged One Nux Stone a month. As for just buying the phone by itself, that'll be Five Nux Stones." The young lady explained.

"Well what's the point of the phone without the plan? We'll get two of the basic yearly plans for now."

"Great! I've just got to remind you that if you do plan on cancelling your plan, you'll only be refunded for the months you haven't used."

"That's fine." The husband said, before signing up for two basic yearly plans and taking the two phones.

Given how they lived near the center of the city, 24 Nux Stones were nothing, so neither of them minded using it to see if this thing was as good as promised.

After taking the two Rovo's and leaving the building, the two immediately called one another, amazed when the device responded almost instantly.

Answering the call, the husband looked onto the small screen, seeing a reflection of his wife's face that was so good you'd think you were seeing it in person.

"Amazing, how does this thing work?" He said with shock, causing his wife to reply from her Rovo.

"Who knows, but it works well, even the audio is crisp and clear!" The wife said with a giggle, more than satisfied.

"I just wonder how long it's range is?" The husband asked.

"Well that young lady said it'll work perfectly within Aleph City, and considering everything else she said was true, she shouldn't have lied about that."

"That's true. What do you say, should we just buy two more right away for our kids?"

"Why not? Save ourselves the trip." The wife replied with a smile.

…

Meanwhile, back in the store, Minos watched the whole sale process from behind his desk, nodding in satisfaction as his employee received another purchase, making her generous salary more than worth it.

"There's another sale Boss!" She said happily, running up to Minos's side.

"Well done, maintain this rate and a raise will be no problem." Minos smiled.

"Yay!"

While she was cheering, Minos was putting together all the numbers in his head, checking what the possible profit was going to be.

After a quick calculation, Minos realized the profit for this first month would only be a couple hundred Nux Stones, which was paltry.

Of course considering that this was only their first day open, that was fine, but the numbers had to increase exponentially soon or he'd be in trouble.

One had to know that this building they were currently sitting in could only be rented for 30,000 Nux Stones a month, which at the current rate, would drain him dry in only a few months.

However, that price was to be expected for a building near the very center of the Aleph Empire, where all the richest and most powerful people gathered.

Beyond this building, Minos also rented a few much cheaper ones in the poorer parts of the city, which sales number he had yet to receive.

While he was thinking that, another man walked into the building, but this person was dressed much nicer, with a thick coat made of an unknown creature's fur.

Walking around with a few followers beside him, he looked at the strange devices with interest before proceeding to talk to the young lady with interest.

After a giggle filled chat between the two of them, the young man and his followers left the building with some Rovo's in hands, meanwhile the young lady ran back to Minos with a big smile.

"Look at this Boss, 8 Premium Plans, and all for a year!"

"Well done!" Minos said happily, taking the forms from her hands and giving them a quick look.