Sales Struggles

[Merchant: WarriorMechanic] 

[Star System: Cria] 

[Followers: 0] 

[Items Sold: 0] 

[Innovation: N/A] 

[Price: N/A] 

[Quality: N/A] 

This was the next panel that appeared, showcasing his profile. 

It was the first step that he had completed, and he could feel that big things were coming. With perseverance, alongside the perks of his newly acquired system, he was sure that he could achieve great success within this platform. 

Now that he had finally see his talent within this field of being a mechanic, he felt like he could actually amount to something. Binding himself to an ordinary, mediocre life was like hell to him. He could never simply die and wash away. Be forgotten. 

He had to be remembered. 

He had to make a name for himself. 

"Alright, let's stop the pep talk and actually get to work, Cael." He said internally, revealing his basic metals package. 

He could see that this package of metals was actually tied to his TechForge Simulation Lab account and appeared in the section listing his owned items. Well, in this case, it wasn't exactly a list and was the only item that he possessed. 

Revealing the item, it showcased a collected cluster of metal ingots of various colours and sizes. The less common metals out of this group were found in lower amounts, and each ingot was branded with special information to identify what type of metal it was. 

From the 100 kilograms that he had of these metals; he was sure that he could sell about 95 kilograms of them. The weight of his Vulture XR-1 Aero model was 1.2 kilograms each. About 70% of this weight came from the armour and internal framing, which would leave him with 4.2 kilograms that he needed of pure metal to make these materials. 

The material of the internal framing wasn't very important, but the armour required a certain type of metal, called Dresium. His package came with 20 kilograms of this metal, that was common and one of the most commonplace ores in the Cria star system. 

The Soburg Empire was a large exporter of this metal within their section of the galaxy and known for their high grade Dresium produce. 

He also needed a few other metals, and he left beside slightly over 5 kilograms of metal to use for himself. He wanted to have a little extra metal just in case, if he messed up the shape of one type of metal when trying to assemble the drone. 

He formed his very own package, of 95 kilograms of common metals. Assessing the market prices of these metals, he was sad to see that he could only receive about 1,500 dollars for what he had. 

Some of the less common metals in his package had rather inflated prices within the Cria star system, since they just weren't as common in that area. 

This allowed him to make a little more, but he wasn't making a lot from the more common metals in his possession like Dresium. 

He placed his package of virtual metals on the market for a low price of 1,500 credits. He spent his time just assessing the components and intricacies of the model that he designed, before the metals were eventually sold. 

He received the dollars right into his connected bank account, and the metals were lost from his account. Again, he felt hurt to lose materials that could've kickstarted his produce. If he had such a large amount of metal to fall back on, he could've made several more virtual sensory drones and even other types of support bots. 

However, since he had no capital before starting his journey, this was how he'd have to start off the quest. 

So, with these metals and dollars, he immediately got to work. He managed to buy the sensory equipment and thruster equipment in miniature bundles which brought down the price slightly but not by much. 

The TechForge Simulation Lab panels surrounded his body and he worked intensively, going from panel to panel to begin his work. 

He would be working with very small items at times and had to treat the virtual components with utmost care so that he could piece the model together. 

It required a level of focus and determination that was different to physical exercise. Using his body in those ways was just more natural, but using his hands to manipulate such small items with such precision was alien to him up to now. 

Days soon went by, and he ran into several challenges. He would be forced to break apart his model and start from the beginning, due to his ineptitude at assembly. 

The days turned into weeks, and 2 full weeks had passed. He was sat down in his chair, hard at work to create these models. 

The model in front of him was nearly fully complete, and he placed the last piece on its shell to fully finish it. 

"Yes, come on!" He shouted with glee. 

He just sighed of relief, falling back in his chair as his first model had finally been complete. 

To increase his chances of completing this quest of his, he had to get this model up and on the market as soon as possible. Assessing the price of the base model, it came in at around 450 to 500 dollars. 

He had spent 1,400 out of the 1,500 dollars from his sold virtual metals to buy the sensory equipment and special, agility-based thruster systems. He could then say the 100 extra credits were used for his first monthly payment toward his merchant tier account on the virtual ExoTech Marketplace. 

His other metals had a cost of around 80 dollars that he had used in the actual models themselves. Adding these costs together, it came to a total of 1580 intergalactic dollars. 

With this total cost, it was around 316 dollars per drone and so, he sold each one for a price of 370 dollars. It was much less than the prices for the base models that he had seen, and he tried to bring the price down since his system had told him that his model was actually worse overall. 

Even though it was only slightly worse, he was hoping that the drastically lower price would attract at least some customers. 

With that, his drone was on the market for such price, and he swiftly moved onto his next models. 

With this experience that he found, the later models felt easier and easier to finish up. 

25 total days passed, and he finished up the shell on his fifth and last model to complete. He placed this model on the market and all he could do was play the waiting game. Cael was more than anxious and was even thinking about forcing somebody to try and buy these items so that he wouldn't be killed. 

However, he didn't want to reveal this system of his just yet. He was sure that if he told somebody of this special system power he possessed, he would be used for his talents by maybe even his own family or even the government. 

The possibilities were endless, and many of them were very grave and negative. It wasn't an option right now, and he just had to wait it out for at least a few days more. 

3 more days passed, and Cael's anxiety was reaching sky high levels. He couldn't even keep his mind straight when performing his combat training, since his mind was stuck on the items still being listed on his profile. 

Whenever he was at home, he would keep the panel of his merchant tier profile perpetually open from his pocket projector. He just couldn't stop himself from checking his notifications, as he was desperate to see a buyer. 

He even had dreams of completing his quest, only to be haunted by an empty notification centre as he inevitably woke up from his slumber. 

The buyer of his only sold item, the package of virtual metals, wasn't kind enough to leave a review on his account or follow him. 

This didn't give his profile an attractive, professional look and would make people feel less inclined to buy his things. 

In his room, he held a cup of warm coffee, with a slight tremble. 

"Does it actually end like this? After all this work, is it really just going to be for nothing?" He wondered, looking at the panel of his marketplace profile. 

He hadn't received a single notification of any transaction, and just swiped the panel away in anger.