Chapter 21: Chapter 21 : Final Preparations

The day was coming to an end, but Lucas wasn't satisfied yet. While he had managed to draw the attention of two high-profile potential customers, he felt he could do more. Although it was true that the system didn't give him a task to do so, it was obvious that once he opened the store, its progress and sales would affect the system. Apart from that, Lucas still owed the Vinis pawnshop, so he had to make enough sales to pay back the principal amount plus interest.

The best method to generate hype for his store's launch was to create a scene.

If one's goal was to become renowned, there was no such thing as bad publicity; this was something Lucas learnt on Earth. Even serial killers had blockbuster movies made after them, pocketing millions while in jail.

Nonetheless, Lucas didn't plan on going that route, as while it would give him the publicity he wanted, it would come at a cost. Rather, he had another idea.

Lucas found a place to sit and logged into the intranet. He then looked for an advertising agency for cheap and paid them for their services. He had made seven hundred federal coins from the kidnappers and the spy sent by Vinis pawnshop. Even with the expenses from purchasing the prepaid debit card, the store, the trenchcoat, and feeding as well as transportation during this one week period, Lucas still had an excess of two thousand five hundred and sixty five (2565) federal coins. Considering the value of federal coins, it was more than enough to use five of them for advertisement.

With the advancements in technology as a whole, it wasn't difficult for the agency to generate a design based on Lucas' requirements. There were AIs to help sort that out, so all it took was three minutes and Lucas' ads were up and running.

The caption read, "Seven Sparks Forge is launching: 3 days free maintenance and upgrade for the first 10 customers each day, spin the roulette for a chance to win a custom vestige."

"Seven Sparks Forge" was the name Lucas came up with for the store. The number seven was quite special to him, as apart from being a lucky number, it was also the number of his birth month in his two previous lives. 'Sparks' was derived from his name Lucas [1]. In summary, the name of the store had an intricate relationship with Lucas.

The three days of free maintenance and upgrade for the first 10 customers each day was an idea Lucas came up with to attract people to his store. Being confident in his skill, Lucas believed all he needed to be successful was an opportunity to showcase that skill. However, not everyone could afford it, hence why he gave out free slots.

Having seen the prices other stores charged for their services as well as their products, Lucas intended not to charge even one pence less. He was a grandmaster after all, and although he was new into vestige-smithing, it was roughly the same as making magic weapons. With the experience and skillset he possessed, there was no way he would offer his services for cheap.

As for the roulette spin, it was a fancy idea Lucas thought of to act as an entertainment of sorts for people while feeding off the innate desire of humans to gamble or risk.

The roulette spin was simple; a roulette wheel like the ones used in game shows, would be set up in front of the store. One would have to pay a fee to spin the wheel. There would be a few sectors on the circle with differing lines on them such as 'spin again', '10 federal coins', 'win' and 'fail', with the latter being the most common. Upon landing on the 'win' sector, the player would have an opportunity to order a custom-made vestige from the store with no additional fees attached. The '10 federal coins' sector meant that the player would win ten federal coins. The other two sectors are self-explanatory.

To make the roulette spin more attractive, the fees were quite cheap. There were two tickets: the student ticket which costs three federal coins and the normal ticket which costs five federal coins.

The reason for this difference was that there was a public school close to the market zone; and unlike how schools on Earth were, most schools in the main cities of Eretre also taught students stellar-refining apart from the usual curriculum. When the students graduate, they either work for big families, corporations, the military/para-military[2], or as freelancers. Very few work regular jobs as that would be seen as a waste of the training and education they received.

The students similarly used weapons, especially those in their final year or penultimate year (the year before finals), as that was when the students would be sent on more practical activities to gain experience facing off desolate beasts.

Lucas' market targets were not just freelancers but these students as well.

Although the sale of vestiges was regulated, students in these schools were somewhat of an exception as long as they were in their final or penultimate year with the proper identification and registration. To purchase a vestige, the conditions were for one to be a freelancer. In the case that one wasn't, you'd either need a permit issued by a city-state government, an approved recommendation from a registered freelancer, or be a member of the city-state's military or paramilitary forces.

Students in their penultimate or final years could apply for a permit.

The idea of the roulette spin was to attract individuals to try their luck. The cost of the spin for students was three federal coins while for others was five federal coins. Although the daily wage of an average individual was thirteen federal coins, making this quite costly, compared to the price of custom-made vestige -which was at least five hundred federal coins for the lowest grade- the ticket price was nothing. That added to the fact that there was another win option -the ten federal coins sector- many wouldn't mind taking the risk.

As long as they came to the store, they would eventually take a look around and might even buy a product or get a service.

The number one target of a business should be to get people to know about the business and visit it. This was what Lucas wanted to achieve.

CREATORS' THOUGHTS
Homeless_Author

[1] Lucas means "Bringer of Light" in Latin. Sparks≈Light.

[2] I mentioned paramilitary here cause in some countries, the police isn't a military unit. Also, there are some organisations formed by freelancers and they count as paramilitaries.

Fun fact: I wanted to go with Seven Sparks Smithy, but the abbrev. SSS felt weird to me (also kinda reminded me of a certain German agency although that's double S). In the end, I settled with Seven Sparks Forge.

I'm behind by three chapters. This chapter is meant to be the bonus chapter for 17th (two days ago). The next two chapters -22 and 23- are the main and bonus chapters for 18th (yesterday). I travelled back to school got preoccupied, failing to upload them. Sorry for that.

Today's (19th) chapter would be a bit late.

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