The Fourth Calamity: Starting with Dungeon Slimes

Chapter 117 The Welder's Cooperation with the Sky

"So, Chief, you mean you're planning to order two mechs from us?"

Jiang Chen called over the amateur welder and Tianqiong.

Jiang Chen nodded in agreement and stated his own requirements.

"That's right, I need two of them, and they must be defensive types with sufficiently high defense."

"These two mechs need to be completed as quickly as possible. My order price is 3 per unit, with a maximum of 5."

Ten thousand."

Upon hearing what Jiang Chen said, Tianqiong and the amateur welder exchanged glances, a hint of excitement flashing in their eyes.

Keep in mind that this price isn't cheap. Even if they poured all their costs into it, it would probably only be 2 at most.

The price ranges from 10,000 to around 30,000.

If you operate it properly, you can earn more, but if you don't operate it properly, you'll at least break even.

Jiang Chen had naturally calculated this price long ago.

If this mech uses high-quality materials, its cost price could be around 3, based on current market prices.

Of course, the purpose of providing a price fluctuation is to allow them to use good materials and achieve the highest reward.

Jiang Chen also made a promise that if the mecha they produced this time met his requirements, then he could give them his future orders.

To put it bluntly, this order was just a trial run.

If the mechs they produce fail to meet the requirements and are extremely subpar, then they know without a doubt that they will lose all future orders.

For this reason, they will definitely do their best.

Jiang Chen wasn't worried at all about whether someone else would make the production if they weren't there. First of all, he was about to advance to the next level.

The number of players summoning at the next tier has increased again, and during this time, Jiang Chen would also open the official website and browse the players' forums whenever he had nothing else to do.

"The factory that amateur welders and Sky Dome started is getting a very positive response on the forum."

"The main reason is that the attacking salty fish likes to update the game progress whenever he has nothing to do, and then, I don't know if he was bored, he even went to calculate the profits of these two factories."

"The result was that the income was simply outrageous."

"This has made these two quite famous among the players."

"Many people know that you can make a lot of money by crafting equipment, so among the players I know who haven't entered the game yet, there are at least forty or fifty people who want to run a factory."

"Amateur welders can indeed be cunning and cheat, but if I recruit these people and give them orders, it will be a huge blow to their business."

It was for this reason that Jiang Chen was not worried about them cheating or shirking their duties.

Jiang Chen was all too familiar with the players' situation. If he didn't let them know, there would be more to this business. If he didn't let them know, there was a possibility that someone else might replace them.

Jiang Chen was confident that, given their personalities, even if he bought a mecha from them for 30,000, they could reduce the cost to 5,000 or 6,000.

When they get to the battlefield, they'll be easily taken by the enemy and dismantled for parts, which will be embarrassing.

Pulling himself out of his thoughts, Jiang Chen looked at the two of them.

"So you two are probably already quite clear about the general situation."

"There will definitely be plenty of follow-up orders, but the prerequisite is that the mechs you produce meet my requirements in all aspects, or exceed my expectations."

"Otherwise, we definitely won't give you any more orders."

Upon hearing what Jiang Chen said, both the amateur welder and Tian Qiong repeatedly assured him.

"Don't worry, buddy, we've got this covered."

"Our factory will definitely handle everything perfectly for you, Boss. Remember to give us more orders next time."

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"Yes, Chief, you can rest assured about the quality. We would never cut corners."

Hearing their assurances, Jiang Chen nodded.

"In short, the matter is now in your hands, and you must make sure things are done quickly."

After giving these instructions to the two men, Jiang Chen left, leaving them to gather together and discuss the details of manufacturing the mecha.

The amateur welders at least have experience in building mechs, while Sky Dome has absolutely no experience.

However, Jiang Chen distributed the orders to two factories instead of just one.

The purpose is self-evident. After all, some things cannot be monopolized by one company. Without competition, where does the quality come from? Where does the cost reduction and price compression come from?

However, it is clear that in terms of actual manufacturing experience, neither factory is much better off. Although the amateur welders have some successful cases, they have only produced one unit. Their experience is not that extensive.

"Tianqiong, I won't hide it from you. I have my own plan for this matter. My idea is for both sides to cooperate."

As soon as Jiang Chen left, the amateur welder shared his thoughts.

"Dude, what do you mean by this?"

Hearing the amateur welder suddenly say this, Tianqiong was also a little puzzled.

"Let me analyze the current situation for you, and you'll probably understand."

The amateur welder then added.

"Let's talk about the manufacturing of this mecha first. The manufacturing of this mecha is very difficult. Although we have experience with one mecha, there are many things involved, and it took us a long time to overcome the necessary technologies."

"And a large part of it was completed with the help of Moses. In fact, we did not have the technology ourselves. That is to say, the cost of manufacturing the mechs was not low at the time. Part of it was given to Moses. Otherwise, our mechs would not have been able to go into the water at all."

Hearing what the amateur welder said, Tianqiong was also a little surprised. To be honest, he had always thought that apart from the magic circles and such, which were carved by Moses, the other parts of the mecha should have been completed by the amateur welder and his team.

It turns out that things weren't like I thought at all.

"So that's the situation now, and I won't beat around the bush with you. Originally, I wasn't planning to tell anyone else about this, but after thinking it over, we'll have many competitors who want to firmly grasp this market, so I'll tell you the truth."

"Manufacturing mechs involves many special magic arrays and special materials for propulsion, among other things. In short, there are many things to consider, and our knowledge reserves are insufficient."

"Or rather, the magic skills we possessed were absolutely impossible to accomplish, but Moses was different. Later, we also went to learn some of the necessary skills from Moses, but because the mechs weren't selling well, we gave up after learning half of them."

Upon hearing the amateur welder's explanation, Tianqiong nodded thoughtfully.

"And you're telling me all this now because the NPCs are preparing to put the mechs into production, so you're telling me this, right?"

Tianqiong knew very well that if he didn't tell Moses about this, and then both of them went to Moses, they would end up having a price war over the project schedule or other reasons. In the end, neither of them would benefit, and Moses would actually gain the advantage.

"You're right, of course, that's only one reason. In the past two days, I've noticed that many players on the forum don't currently have beta test qualifications, but they keep applying, and quite a few players are saying that they'll also be setting up factories when the time comes."

"You probably understand what this means. This game recruits beta testers based on whether they have a special skill. Those who want to run factories basically have relevant professional knowledge."

Speaking of the amateur welder, his gaze drifted to the sky.

"We can indeed monopolize the manufacturing industry now, but the problem is that once other players enter the market, the number of factories may increase to four, five, or even more, and at that time our advantage will be gone."

"Then, do you think they might try to make knock-offs of the mortars and such we produce? Do you think they might try to replicate our production lines? These things aren't difficult for them."

"This part of the market will definitely be allocated to them in the future, because we can't monopolize this part of the market. But the only thing I can think of that we can monopolize is this mecha."

"There was no market for mechs before, so there was no point in us trying to monopolize them."

"But now NPCs need mechs and will place many orders with us later on, so we can make money from this."

"And the enormous technological barriers of mechs are the foundation of our survival."

Hearing this, Tianqiong roughly understood the amateur welder's thoughts, and he agreed with them.

"What you said makes sense. Many of the things we make are not difficult for anyone with even a little knowledge to replicate."

"But if we're developing mechs or war fortresses, which require extremely high technological barriers, then it's a different story."

"If we can do this deal well, then if we can get future mecha orders, we can make money from those orders."

After thinking for a while, Tianqiong finally made a decision.

"In that case, let's work together for now to complete this round of mecha missions, and then continue to work together to research new technologies and learn the skills needed to build mechas."

"Then we won't have to worry about others taking our jobs."

After thinking for a moment, Tianqiong asked the amateur welder for his opinion on the new mecha.

"By the way, welder, have you made any progress regarding the mechs the leader requested?"

Upon hearing this, the amateur welder nodded.

"Actually, we had a plan for defensive mechs from the beginning."

"We even produced the design blueprints, the internal structure, and the mecha's skills, but then the mecha couldn't be sold, so the project was shelved."

"We already have the blueprints for this mecha, but we still need to optimize the blueprints and other details."

As he spoke, the amateur welder took out the blueprints they had designed earlier from his backpack.

Of course, this is just a rough sketch. The detailed drawings are stored on the computer hard drive. This sketch is for NPCs and other players to see, mainly for promotional purposes.

At that moment, when Tianqiong saw the sketches that the amateur welder had produced, he was also stunned.

"This...isn't this just like Dunshan from the game Honor of Kings?"

That's right, amateur welders, their envisioned defensive mech was designed based on the prototype of Dunshan.

Even the skills are similar, except that compared to Dunshan, which can only defend the front, their mech is designed to provide all-around defense without any blind spots.

"Weren't we trying to save trouble back then? Besides, defensive mechs don't need to consider so many things. As long as they can move, can stand, and can defend, that's OK."

"As for attacks, we can only say they're better than nothing. Our initial idea was for this mech to complement our current mechs."

"It just didn't work out in the end, but luckily the NPCs have placed an order now, and it just so happens to be a defensive mech, which we happened to have the blueprints for back then."

"So the next step is quite simple. We just need to optimize it based on our drawings, and then we can start operating. However, there are a few issues here."

Upon hearing what the amateur welder said, Tianqiong looked at him.

"Please explain the situation in detail."

"The most crucial factor is the size of the mech."

Upon hearing what the amateur welder said, Tianqiong looked puzzled.

"Don't you have a mech now? Let's make it the same size as that mech."

Upon hearing this, the amateur welder shook his head.

"If it could be made to this size, would I be so troubled? First of all, the materials used for defensive light armor are definitely very sturdy."

"You must be well aware of the materials used in our mechs. They are made by melting down various magical equipment and combining it with other metals to create a brand new metal alloy."

"To put it more accurately, this alloy could be called a magic alloy. What are its properties? To put it simply, this alloy is like magic equipment."

"You can also understand it as mechs being made of magical equipment, no, to be precise, they are made of materials that are even more precious than magical equipment."

"So you should understand what I mean."

Upon hearing this, Tianqiong naturally understood. To put it bluntly, the cost of the mecha was extremely high.

The cost increases by one meter for every meter increase in height and one meter for every meter increase in width, needless to say.

This is why a good mech can cost tens of thousands of gold coins just to manufacture, and that's based on the prices in the dungeon.

Outside the dungeon, normal prices for a piece of magical equipment range from tens or hundreds of gold coins for the cheapest, to thousands or even tens of thousands for the most expensive.

To create a mech at this price by simply using a large amount of magical equipment would likely cost hundreds of thousands or even millions in the outside world.