Chapter 742 - 761: A Bellwether Revitalizes the Entire Industry
Chapter 742: Chapter 761: A Bellwether Revitalizes the Entire Industry
They developed some vegetable seeds.
Oh, look, new progress in research.
Then they cloned a few more organisms.
Oh, look, even more progress.
The scientists at the Agricultural College were absolute geniuses, replicating one ingredient after another, but what was the point?
Restaurants were ultimately a rich person’s game.
The general public had no way to master the art of "cooking," so market demand remained minuscule.
To increase their returns even slightly, the College had no choice but to raise the prices of all its better-selling products, essentially robbing Peter to pay Paul.
But the hole was just too big. Even as they patched it, the College’s other expenses were still hammering new holes in the wall.
Just raising prices wasn’t enough. After some deliberation, the Agricultural College researchers also started selling their technology and seeds. If certain products sold well on the market and attracted buyers, they would license out the technology for a fee.
The Agricultural College may have looked down on such small profits, but to small-time entrepreneurs and the moderately wealthy, it was a handsome return.
After selling off a raft of technologies, the Agricultural College could finally breathe again.
Later, to play it safe, the College slashed its production facilities to control costs, shifting its focus entirely to research and development.
The Agricultural College still maintained its pace of releasing new developments each week, but its production capacity had plummeted.
Of course, this entire humble state of affairs began to slowly turn around after the appearance of a streamer named Jiang Qiuqiu.
At this point, the administrator couldn’t help but sigh. "Sometimes, salvation comes from outside your own world."
On Federation Live, Jiang Qiuqiu burst onto the scene. She took the Food section by storm, weaving one delectable fairy tale after another for the culinary world.
She wasn’t one to keep secrets, either, and loved to teach cooking on her live streams.
And because the food she made was just so incredibly delicious, many people were inspired to learn how to cook themselves.
And if you want to learn to cook, you need ingredients, right?
Although they had sold off the technology for many common ingredients, the researchers still had some exclusive tech up their sleeves!
Like crabs, for instance!
"Looking back, I have to say, I’ve got a great eye for spotting a winner. I was the one who held onto that one!"
the blue-clad administrator declared passionately.
"...Wasn’t it actually because you thought they were so ugly they’d scare off investors? You kept it because you were afraid you wouldn’t be able to close a deal on it, right?"
"!"
In any case, because the Agricultural College still held a monopoly on the technology for certain animal-based ingredients, whenever Jiang Qiuqiu and her fans searched for them, they were always directed to the official source.
A single person’s purchase is insignificant.
But when ten people, a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand, then ten million—even hundreds of millions of people—all came to buy, the College was stunned!
The system, which had never seen such traffic, quickly crashed and burned.
The delivery staff, who had never dealt with such a massive situation, were also stunned.
Likewise, the leadership, who had never seen so many orders, were completely gobsmacked.
The sudden surge in traffic was exhilarating. The Agricultural College made an on-the-spot decision: hire robots! Hire them! Hire a hundred of them!
Rent one hundred robots to pack interstellar parcels!
"Thinking back, I’m actually quite fond of those times..."
"Yeah, we should send you back there."
"On, on second thought, never mind."
Everything that followed was a turning point for the industry as a huge wave of consumers flooded in—
Where there was demand, supply soon followed.
Over the course of a single year, the Agricultural College submitted formal applications to their superiors a total of six times.
Each time, they begged for approval to expand, begged for funding, and begged for permission to support more robots.
And because they had real results to show for it, the higher-ups approved their requests quickly.
The dilapidated little sheds were replaced with grand, climate-controlled glass conservatories.
The small office was rebuilt into a large one.