Chapter 47 Household magic machine workshop
“Hey, Camby, weren’t you complaining just a while ago? Let me tell you some good news, you have work to do now and there’s quite a bit of work to do!” Xu Yi smiled as he slapped Camby’s shoulder, but because dwarves had quite a bit of muscle, his hand was numb from slapping him.
“What work? Is it the Magic Harvester?” Camby’s eyes lit up and he immediately asked this.
Xu Yi raised the pack of orders in his hand and said while laughing, “That’s right, it’s the Magic Harvester. An entire seventeen machines and it has to be made in a single week, what do you think?”
Camby had a look of joy just now, but he fell over after hearing the number.
“Seventeen? And it has to be in a week?” Camby shook his head with a bitter look, “Isn’t this too exaggerated? We are working in full force now and we can’t even make one a day.”
“Hei, I don’t care about this. I have already taken the orders and if you can’t finish the work, don’t blame me if I dock your pay for next month.” Xu Yi revealed a look of a ruthless capitalist and placed the orders in Camby’s hands before he left the magic machine workshop while whistling a little tune.
He couldn’t stop his mood from being good.
An entire seventeen Magic Harvesters!
At the sales price of seventy gold coins for one, this was an entire one thousand one hundred and ninety gold coins!
According to Sebas’ calculations, the cost of each Magic Harvester wouldn’t even add up to ten gold coins.
This meant that with each Magic Harvester sold, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce would earn a whole sixty gold coins!
This was equal to 600% profits! Using explosive wasn’t even enough to describe this!
At first, Xu Yi was prepared to sell at the set price of “fifty gold coins” Viscount Leslie had said before, but Viscount Leslie say that Xu Yi could still raise the price a bit higher. He dared promise that it would still sell.
Facts showed the Viscount Leslie’s proposition was very correct.
After witnessing how amazing the Magic Harvester, close to twenty nobles offered to buy the Magic Harvester on the spot.
Even giving a high price of seventy per machine, those nobles agreed without even blinking.
It made Xu Yi a bit regretful that the price was still a bit too low.
He only took seventeen orders in the end because Xu Yi considered that the productivity of the magic machine workshop wasn’t enough, so he rejected several nobles.
Because of Xu Yi refusal, those several nobles were unhappy and thought that Xu Yi was looking down on them.
It was a good thing Viscount Leslie was there. He said that he would lend his Magic Harvester to them later, allowing the situation to defuse.
“It seems like the productivity of the magic machine workshop isn’t enough. It seems like the crafting research needs to be faster, otherwise when more orders come in, we won’t be able to finish them. How could we watch this piece of fat meat in our mouths slip away?” Xu Yi thought in an unwilling manner.
As for Camby complaining that they couldn’t complete the order, Xu Yi naturally didn’t put it in his heart.
Only being able to finish one a day, it was because the Magic Harvester had still been in its development stage.
Now that the development was complete and they were in official production, naturally the efficiency wouldn’t be as low as this anymore.
Seventeen in a week, that was the number that Xu Yi had carefully calculated. With the abilities of Camby and the other dwarves, they definitely could finish this task.
Of course, this week would be rather tiring for them.
But Camby said before that dwarves could handle suffering the most and also complained that Xu Yi gave them too little work.
While he was thinking about how to increase the productivity of the magic machine workshop, Xu Yi had slowly walked to the Magic Fan workshop.
Entering the end of August, the Magic Fan workshop had become much more relaxed compared to before.
Before this time, the workshop was always working on full and the slaves had even worked several days of overtime because of this.
But after completing the largest three thousand Magic Fans order from Karma City, the Magic Fan factory became much more relaxed.
It was like Xu Yi had anticipated, once it was close to the end of summer, there were much less families that wanted to buy Magic Fans and the demand for Magic Fans greatly decreased. Naturally the orders wouldn’t come in hoards like before.
Xu Yi looked over the much more peaceful workshop and his eyes fell onto Heinz squatting in the corner with a dazed look, not knowing what to do.
When Xu Yi came over and also squatted down did Heinz finally react.
“Ah? Xu Yi, when did you get here?”
“I just came.” Xu Yi smiled and asked back, “What? What are you thinking? You looked so worried.”
“Can I not worry?” Heinz gave a bitter laugh as he pointed at the workshop, “Take a look, now that the Magic Fan orders have been reduced and the fact that we might not be able to sell another one next month, how could I not be worried? If this keeps going on, perhaps this workshop will be out of business by next month.”
“Isn’t this something that we already expected?” Xu Yi said in an uncaring voice.
Heinz looked over at Xu Yi with a serious look and suddenly said, “Xu Yi, be honest with me, are you planning to give up on the Magic Fan workshop?”
Xu Yi was stunned, “Who told you I’m giving up on it?”
“Then what about the new product you mentioned?” Heinz reached his hand out to Xu Yi, “Don’t think I don’t know, you helped Camby research that Magic Harvester thing and it must be selling very well right now. Adding in the fact that they were already making those machines, their magic machine workshop must be incredibly busy right now. Then look at out Magic Fan workshop, there is only less and less work to do. In the end, we might even be shut down. Tell me, aren’t you favouring one side too much?”
Xu Yi didn’t know whether he should laugh or cry.
“I say, Heinz, what nonsense are you thinking by yourself here? Whether it is the Magic Fan workshop or the magic machine workshop, they are all important parts of our company. How could I possibly favour one side and give up on the other? That’s right, the magic machine workshop does have quite a bit of work to do right now, but if you think that I would give up the Magic Fan workshop because of this, you are making a big mistake! I’ll honestly tell you that this workshop will be changing its name today. It will no longer be the Magic Fan workshop, rather it will be called the household magic machine workshop.”
“Household magic machine workshop?” Heinz was stunned, “What does that mean?”
“It means that this workshop will no longer only make Magic Fans, rather it will produce magic machines that families will use in their daily lives. Didn’t I tell you to make thirty Magic Air Conditioners a while ago? Did you forget?”
“Of course I wouldn’t forget. But Xu Yi, the Magic Air Conditioners were not as popular as you said they were. After thirty of them sold, there hasn’t been another single order.”
Xu Yi couldn’t help rolling his eyes at him, “Nonsense, the Magic Air Conditioner costs twenty gold coins for one, how could it be easy to sell? Then again, with summer half over, how many people will buy a luxury good like the Magic Air Conditioner? But you don’t need to worry, the Magic Air Conditioner isn’t like the Magic Fan where it can only be used in summer, it can also be used in winter.”
“Used in winter? Are you kidding me?” Heinz’s eyes popped out, “That thing blows out such cold wind, wouldn’t people freeze to death from using it in the winter?”
“I say, Heinz, when did you get such a single tracked mind?” Xu Yi sighed before saying in a voice that didn’t expect anything, “Who told you the Magic Air Conditioners can only blow out cold wind? The so called air conditioning means controlling the air itself. If it can turn the air cold, naturally it can also make the air warm. Let me tell you, when the weather becomes cold, we can sell Magic Air Conditioners that controls heat. At that time, I dare say that we will sell a large amount of them.”
Heinz’s eyes lit up, “You’re telling the truth? Can it really make the air warm?”
“When have I ever lied to you before?”
“Then that’s great! If it really is like this, we’ll earn a large amount when that time comes!” Heinz excitedly stood up.
Xu Yi gave a helpless sigh. No matter what method he tried to convey his thoughts to Heinz, he was always such a petty fellow. It seemed like he was only suited to being a plant manager, he couldn’t develop any higher.
This was something he was helpless in, a person’s experience is related to their environment. Before meeting Xu Yi, Heinz was only the owner of a small general store, so how could he have any excellent experience.
After Heinz was excited for a bit, he suddenly thought of something and became depressed again.
“But Xu Yi, summer is over and there are still several months before winter, what will we do during this time?”
Xu Yi looked at him, “Did you forget about what I told you before? Let me tell you some good news, Still and the others have already researched the core Magic Array and now I just need to spend some time to combine the Magic Array with the machine structure. After some testing, we can officially start producing it. If we move fast, we can finish it in less than twenty days.”
“Really? That’s great!” Hearing that the workshop wouldn’t close down, Heinz let out a sigh of relief and finally calmed down.
Seeing him being swayed by personal gains, Xu Yi gave a helpless sigh again.
This time he wasn’t sighing because of Heinz, but rather because of the backwards industrial system of the Sines Continent.
In the previous world, the electric fan companies didn’t run out of work once summer was over.
Even if no one bought it now, they would first produce stock and hold it, waiting for the next summer to sell it.
Moreover, it was even easier to change production. The powerful industrial system of his previous world allowed the electric fan factories to change their production line slightly to make new products. They wouldn’t stick with electric fans to the end.
But on the Sines Continent, because of reasons with the material, if they were to produce Magic Fans a year ahead of time, it would become a pile of waste by next summer.
Moreover, the Magic Fan workshop’s machines and workers were all trained to specially produce the Magic Fan. If they were to change products, they would have to rebuild the machines and retrain the workers.
That meant that in the next twenty days, Xu Yi would still be quite busy.
“Hei, establishing a complete industrial system, it sounds easy, but it is actually harder than ascending to the heavens.” Thinking of this, Xu Yi couldn’t help giving a bitter laugh, “Oh, no, if mentioning ascending to heaven, it isn’t that difficult in this world filled with magicians……”
Chapter 48 Magic Rice Cooker
In the little building of the magic research lab, Xu Yi, Still, Akali, and Evita were around a small table. Four pairs of eyes were staring at a round thing on the table, not blinking at all.
Faint wisps of white steam was coming out of the top of the round thing. It rose up and hit the faces of the four of them, condensing small beads of water on their hair, but they didn’t care about it at all. They just kept staring at the round thing, like there was something special about this black iron thing.
“I can smell the fragrance!” Akali suddenly said in an excited voice, “Can you smell it too?”
“Un, I can also smell it.” Still also had a look of joy on her face. She turned to look at Xu Yi, “Xu Yi, it should be done now, right?”
Xu Yi took a deep sniff and didn’t reply, rather he turned to Evita, “Evita, you are the best at cooking out of all of us, it should be you who determines if it’s good or not.”
“Ah? But this is different compared to before……” Evita was shocked, softly waving her hand to reject.
“It’s fine, the method has just changed, but the foundations are still the same. Take a sniff, we can test the results if you think it is good.” Xu Yi said.
“Oh…..Alright.” Evita responded. She pushed her hair behind her ears and came over the round thing. She took a deep sniff and closed her eyes to savour the smell before nodding at the three expectant people, “Un, it should be done.”
“Then what are we still waiting for, take the pot off!” Akali cheered and reached out for the outer cover of the round thing.
Xu Yi was shocked seeing this. He quickly grabbed Akali’s outstretched hand and stopped her.
“Do you want to be burned to death?” Xu Yi angrily reprimanded.
Akali only realized what was wrong and awkwardly stuck out her tongue at Xu Yi.
Then she saw her right hand being held in Xu Yi’s large hand and Akali’s face turned a bit red.
Although she had an open personality, even at her age, she had never come in close contact with males other than her family members.
However, Xu Yi didn’t think that much. After stopping Akali, he directly let go of her hand. This made Akali let out a sigh of relief, while also feeling a bit disappointed.
Xu Yi found a cloth to cover his hands and reached out to take the cover off the round thing.
Once it was opened, a thick white fog with a strong fragrance came out, instantly filling the room.
As the fog scattered, the four looked into the round thing and saw that it was filled with white crystal like rice. It looked very enticing.
Still was already holding a spoon that she stuck in to take a small spoonful. After blowing on it twice, she put it into her mouth.
“Un, it’s cooked just right. The taste is very good. Come, Xu Yi, have a taste.”
Still took another spoonful and very naturally put it to Xu Yi’s mouth.
Xu Yi swallowed in one bit and after chewing a bit, he felt that the rice in his mouth was tender and delicious, combining both soft and hard. Just a bite was enough to draw out a person’s appetite and it even made Xu Yi feel that he could eat two whole bowls of only rice.
This kind of delicious rice was something Xu Yi had only eaten when he was young. All the rice he had eaten after that had lost this kind of taste.
“Un, it is indeed quite good.” Xu Yi laughed, “Very good, this also means that our experiment is a success! Come, Akali, Evita, have a taste as well. You have done a lot in helping develop this thing. Come…..I say, why do you have such strange expressions?”
Akali and Evita looked at Xu Yi before looking at Still. They looked at each other and broke out in laughter at the same time. They then found some spoons from the side to have a taste and nodded in satisfaction.
“This is great! Chairman, this…..this…..what was this thing again?” Akali was stuck all of a sudden.
“Magic Rice Cooker.” Xu Yi supplemented.
“Oh, right. Magic Rice Cooker, is this considered a success?”
“Actually this can’t be considered a complete success, there are actually quite a few things that could be changed.” Xu Yi looked at the black round thing on the table. He thought that although the outside looked like an electric rice cooker from earth, there were still many things that were lacking.
At least the electric rice cookers on earth had complete heat insulation, so one wouldn’t need to fear burning their hands when opening it.
But this was a small problem, there would just need to be a small change made when it was being produced.
That’s right, this Magic Rice Cooker was the special product that Xu Yi had prepared for the Magic Fan workshop to continue working.
Back when summer was half over, Xu Yi had already considered the problem Heinz had been worrying about during the past period of time. After he considered it, Xu Yi made long term plans, deciding to turn the Magic Fan Factory into a household magic machine workshop.
As the name suggested, the products the workshop would make from now on were magic machines that normal households would use.
Although the conditions on the Sines Continent were limited and many household electronics from earth couldn’t be recreated, the ones that could be recreated were plenty.
The electric rice cooker was one of them.
Compared to the Magic Fan, the craftsmanship needed to make this Magic Rice Cooker was much simpler. The entire research process only took less than a week and it was already finished.
Also after studying this Magic Rice Cooker, Xu Yi found another advantage of the magic machines. That was that the main power of the Magic Arrays was magic, so it wasn’t the same as the electric appliances on earth where one had to consider how to change electricity, rather one could just use the corresponding power as a direct power source.
For example, with this Magic Rice Cooker, compared to the electric rice cooker that needed to transform electricity into heat, the Magic Rice Cooker could directly use a low level Flame Magic Array. After the switch was pressed, with the support of the Magic Crystal, this Flame Magic Array could directly produce heat that would envelop the pot inside. Not only would it heat up fast, but because of the specialty of the Magic Array, the heat usage efficiency was quite high.
On earth, there would be people who looked to cook with firewood to preserve the original taste, feeling that it tasted better than the rice cooked by the electric rice cooker. This was because the firewood has stronger flames and was more direct, so its effects were better than heat transformed from electricity.
This problem didn’t exist with the Magic Rice Cooker. Because of the careful studying from Akali, Still, and Evita, the Magic Rice Cooker’s internal Flame Magic Array covered the entire pot with heat, evenly heating up the pot and making no mistakes with the rice that was cooked.
Xu Yi ate several more mouthfuls of rice and felt very satisfied.
If he gave this thing to Heinz, he wouldn’t keep looking at him like an aggrieved woman each day.
“Sir chairman, let’s sit down and eat.” Evita had already cleaned up a table and brought out several dishes that had been prepared beforehand.
“Oh, alright.” Xu Yi smiled as he sat down at the table. When he looked over the four finely made dishes and the meat soup that got one’s appetite going just from looking at it, he couldn’t help saying with a smile, “Evita, your cooking really is good. Whoever marries you in the future will truly be filled with happiness.”
Evita’s hand that was currently filling a bowl of rice turned stiff and her face turned slightly red.
“Hey, uncle, this is sexual harassment.” Still tapped the table in front of Xu Yi and said with a cold snort, “Let me tell you, Evita was very well loved when we were in school and there were many male students that professed their love for her. If it was known that there was an uncle like you who was harassing the goddess of their heart, do you believe they will charge over here and take care of you?”
Xu Yi couldn’t help laughing, “It’s this terrifying? Alright, then I’ll obediently eat and won’t speak any nonsense.”
Evita came over with their rice with a red face and put a bowl in front of Xu Yi first.
“Sir chairman, don’t listen to Still’s nonsense. If we talk about admiration, Still was one of the most admired in our Lampuri Royal Magic Academy, I am far from being able to compare to her.”
“That’s right. If it wasn’t for the fact that Still’s heart was taken, if she said a casual word, the male students who wanted to chase her would go from here to Banta City’s gates.” Akali on the side gave an emotional sigh before asking Still, “That’s right, Still, I forgot to ask you the entire time, didn’t you always like that Vincent? What happened now? Didn’t you go look for him after graduation? I thought that you would at least tell him that you liked him, right?”
“Vincent?” Xu Yi’s heart skipped a beat. Could it be that this was the male student Still liked before and then after seeing his true colours, she called a bastard?
“I found him, but he was already engaged. Could it be that I would run over and steal someone’s fiance?” Still gave a casual shrug, looking like she didn’t care at all.
Xu Yi seriously looked at Still’s expression. He found that although she had a casual look, under that, there was a bit of darkness hidden.
It seemed like she couldn’t recover from her wounds in a short period of time.
“Engaged? Why did I never hear about this? Who is he engaged to? That girl shouldn’t be as beautiful as you, right? Still, how about you just steal him away. I feel that you…..”
“Akali.” Seeing that Akali was prepared to keep going, Xu Yi suddenly spoke to cut her off.
“Un? What is it, chairman?” Akali was stunned as she asked this back.
“Un…..Also Evita, are you two interested in doing advertisements?”
“Advertisements?”
Akali and Evita looked at each other in blank dismay, not understanding what Xu Yi meant at all.