Chapter 175: Repeated Rivalry
Link: https://ncode.syosetu.com/n7583de/
Author: Hirukuma
Translated by Zzonkedd
Edited by Gumihou
Now that the commotion at the Desert Pillar [1] had settled, we had to make our way across the desert once more. However, I must say that the return journey was way more comfortable than the one coming here.
With Kikoyu having transformed into an adult, she could now freely manipulate the cold, making the blazing weather much more bearable. Everyone made it back to the village without suffering from heatstroke.
After our report to the Director of Scorching Sand, he laughed ironically even as he praised our efforts. Anyway, we planned to return to Clearflow Lake immediately but were persuaded by the villagers to stay for a few more days.
Which brings us to now.
“Director Bear said that he would contact us for further instructions,” said Hyurumi.
“So, we don’t have to go back right away?” asked Ramis.
The two childhood friends were chatting idly over some cold fizzy drinks as I observed them from the side.
Director Bear had been worried about something. I’m sure he would be relieved to hear about our latest encounter with the enemy.
The Scorching Sand Floor was still unbearably hot, but now that the matters had been resolved, the heat was rather more tolerable. Well, compared to before, at least.
My ice-cream sales have been going quite well today, as expected. They were flying off the shelves as usual. I did hear that most people prefer shaved-ice over ice-cream, but for now, I wanted to stick with ice-cream and see how that goes.
Not to mention, there are so many more varieties of ice-cream, which makes it convenient for me to discover what the peoples’ preferences are.
While it is more efficient to gain points through battle and defeating monsters, I still prefer the business side of making points. Seeing the happy faces of my customers makes me feel like I have properly fulfilled the proper job of a vending machine.
Lately, I get the feeling that I have been displaying too many un-vending machine-like behaviours… meh, it must be my imagination.
“As expected, ice-creams are really the best-su.”
This is your third ice-cream for the day, are you sure your stomach’s alright?
“Tum-my”
“Bad no”
“Heh, I won’t stop until I’ve conquered all the flavours!”
This particular model of vending machine has 17 different types of ice-cream on offer. At the rate she is going, she could try everything in two days.
However, this is not the only <Ice-Cream Vending Machine>, I have access to. There are loads of Ice-Cream Vending Machines in Japan and I have access to four types.
Thank you for your support. I shall cheer you on.
“Nothing beats ice-cream on a hot day, but I gotta say, those frozen fruits were pretty tasty-su.”
What was that? Shui had just mumbled through a mouth full of ice-cream, but I heard every word.
Frozen fruits? Just wha-
A bolt of realisation struck me. Although it could be a bolt of electricity since I’m a vending machine, you know?
That is, although I had never heard of anyone selling frozen fruits before in this world, the keywords ‘fruits’ and ‘frozen’ stuck out to me.
“Fro-zen”
“Oh, yeah. Look, Kikoyu’s the one selling there.”
I had noticed the crowd through the corner of my eye earlier. After all, that’s where Kikoyu had set up her fresh fruit and veg stall.
Although Scorching Sand was pretty self-sufficient, fresh, flavourful vegetables and fruits were a rare sight and therefore hugely popular with the people. Since I focused on selling drinks and ice-creams, I had not bothered to pay too much attention to her.
As expected, to think that this business rival would suddenly stand in my way like this.
“Ah, little Kikoyu… that is, now that Kikoyu has grown up, she has gotten real good at freezing things, right?”
Ramis had accidentally called Kikoyu ‘little’, but quickly corrected herself.
In fact, quite a lot of people like to attach a ‘-chan’ to Kikoyu’s name due to her cuteness, but now that she looked like an adult, it felt too strange. That said, we’re still in a transitional phase so such slip-ups were to be expected.
“Ah, selling fresh frozen fruits? Isn’t that quite the clever idea?”
“The frozen Bedae were absolutely delicious!”
Bedae? Those grape-like things? I used to freeze grapes all the time. Frozen grapes tasted a bit like sorbet and I rather enjoyed them in my past life.
“Should I try some too?”
Kuhh– have you seduced my comrades too!?
To know the enemy well, one should gather information on them. I shall start by analysing the people in that crowd to get a handle on the customer base there.
First, there were more men than women with the age range between late teens to late thirties. There were hunters mixed in with common citizens, so the taste was not related to any specific occupation.
However, there was one detail that bothered me. The slack, dumb expressions on all of the male customers’ faces.
They looked bewitched. They must have all been stunned by Kikoyu’s cool beauty looks!
In fact, if she had participated in the Miss Dungeon Contest looking like that, the results would have been quite different.
This is terrible. Drawing customers through our goods is one thing, but with the drawing power of a beautiful woman plus the cuteness of mascot characters like Kuroyata and Botan – children love animals after all – they could even steal away our little customers.
I cannot allow this unilateral destruction to continue.
People used to flock to me thanks to my novelty as a sentient magical tool. However, now that they have gotten used to my existence, I was no longer ‘unique’.
On the other hand, former cute girl Kikoyu had suddenly transformed into a cool beauty who captured men’s hearts with her natural beauty and simple appearance.
If that’s the case, should I try to enhance my visual appeal?
For the first time in a while, I attached an <Electronic Signboard> over my head with the word [WELCOME] displayed in the local language that I have recently learned.
“Ah, I forgot that you can do this too, Hakkon!”
“Oho, looks like you’ve studied, eh?”
Ramis and Hyurumi’s reactions were quite positive, but the passers-by seemed unimpressed.
They did glance over, but that was it. I guess the shock value of a talking ‘Magic Tool’ was so much that the flashing letters did not make any fresh impressions.
Maybe I should rethink my strategy.
By the time the light from the sky had faded and night had arrived, Kikoyu and the others had returned to the inn, and the entire stage was mine alone once more.
With the temperature rapidly dropping, the sale of warm items would eventually take over the cold items.
Sales remained steady from evening to early morning.
The main issue is the day sales.
Should I hire a salesgirl to attract customers? Ramis, Hyurumi and Shui are all qualified, visually speaking.
Wait, maybe I should abandon the male customer altogether and just target the women instead? That’s right, I could use Mishael or Hevoy to attract customers, right?
Mishael has the looks and fame that was on par with that of a well-known celebrity. Moreover, his androgynous features seemed to attract some male attention too. However, I believe it’s best to keep that final detail to myself.
Hevoy comes across as a kind-hearted priest, so long as he keeps his mouth shut. He has a decent face and could probably capture plenty of women’s hearts with his calm and friendly disposition.
However, both of these handsome men are flawed. One has a communication disorder and the other has a shoe fetish.
Mishael could develop a stomach ulcer if I make him serve customers for too long. As for Hevoy, the way he stares at people’s feet would put anyone on edge, let alone the women.
I could already see how this plan would fall through.
Hmm, let’s scrap that plan. With those plans out of the window, do I really have no other way…? Must I really admit defeat to Kikou?
I continued to consider and discard several plans. Finally, by the time the sun started peeking out of the skies, I had a rough plan in place.
When Ramis showed up, bright and early as usual, I proposed this plan to her. She kindly agreed and thus, the plan was set in motion.
A grown-up Kikoyu appeared with Botan pulling the cart. She parked her cart right in front of my usual spot.
I did not miss the way she glanced at me, or her cool little smile. Ahah, so she thinks she will be triumphant today, eh? Yesterday must have given her quite the boost of confidence and she’s here to press her advantage.
Humph, that smile won’t stay long on her face. I’ll freeze it off somehow.
Customers started lining up at the enemy’s camp and today’s weapon of choice is… peaches?!
Moreover, these were frozen pre-cut peaches!
Did she somehow prepare all of these yesterday?!
She really thought through her plan. Instead of just carelessly utilising ‘freeze’ on everything, she even considered the customer’s needs and convenience. That explains the confident smile on her face.
A rival worth acknowledging, one who is constantly evolving and never rests on their laurels.
However, here comes my counterattack!
“Welcome~ We’re selling completely different ice-creams today~”
“Special high-quality ice-cream going at low, low price!”
Behold, my special sales rep!
Instead of targeting one or two categories of customers, I decided to go for broke and used a three-prong attack on all customers instead!
Mishael, was not in his usual black armour but in a black tuxedo instead, looking so dashing that women couldn’t help but sigh the moment they saw him.
By the way, we borrowed that outfit from Suori. That is, Ramis dashed back to Clearflow Lake Floor through the teleportation circle with Mishael to grab that tuxedo. Right now Mishael was shivering slightly from all the attention, but I’m sure he could endure for a little bit.
Next to him was Ramis, who was all kitted out in her school uniform costume she had worn for the Miss Dungeon Contest. Her long healthy legs looked especially attractive under that short skirt and the obviously unique outfit was drawing attention from everyone, especially the men.
Finally, to complete the attack, I have transformed into <The Most Expensive Ice-Cream Vending Machine>, and, even though these foreign ice-creams were so pricey that even little children would pause before begging their parents for even a tiny cup of it, they went on sale today.
Massive sale.
The same price as yesterday’s cheap local ice-cream.
There was no way Kikoyu’s team could compete against me. Today’s sales were an overwhelming win for me.
Well fought, Kikoyu. Yes, you did well. But this is the true power of a vending machine. Apologies, but I don’t intend to win by a small margin. I want to crush my opponent with a landslide victory.
The next day, I welcomed the morning with smug satisfaction.
That smugness soon evaporated when I saw that a large crowd had gathered around Kikoyu’s stall. There were so many people that I could not even see Kikoyu’s stall.
That’s right, Kikoyu had also called for reinforcement from the Clearflow Lake floor. Four of the Big Eaters had arrived and were pulling the customers in as street promoters.
Ah, you must have ensnared the Big Eaters Group with food! That’s it, I shall go all out on my end too! Today, I will also have Hyurumi, Shui and Hevoy work as recruiters. Together, we shall achieve victory!
Thus, over the course of the next four days, after playing all the cards we had on hand, both Kikoyu and I ended up in the red.
The price war had driven us all the way to the bar minimum, not to mention, that we still needed to compensate those who had helped us push our products. By compensation, I mean letting them eat whatever they wanted as much as they wanted.
As a result, Shui seized the opportunity to stuff herself with the most expensive items on the menu and took a good chunk out of my already thin profit margin.
The other side also lost money since, to prevent the Big Eaters from eating their product, they ended up buying food from outside sources to feed them, resulting in a loss.
In short, this business rivalry ended up hurting us the most.
[Gumihou: When you start doing price wars, that’s it. Game over for the sellers.]
[1] Changed ‘Scorching Sand Floor’ to ‘Desert Pillar’, since that makes more sense
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