Chapter 743 - 762: The 100 Million Crabs That Strangely Evaporated
Chapter 743: Chapter 762: The 100 Million Crabs That Strangely Evaporated
The production facilities were also restored.
All the rented robots were purchased outright.
Later, in addition to the live streams, Taobao Food also emerged. Although many restaurants bought their own vegetables, the owners still had to come to the Federal Agricultural Research Institute for certain specialty meats. Just like that, the market was slowly revitalized.
"Let’s not talk about that. What are we going to do about the crabs?"
"There aren’t many of the blue crabs from the live stream left. We estimate they’ll sell out after just one more day online. Raising crabs takes time. Should we just delist the product?"
"Why delist it? The product has accumulated so many good reviews. We shouldn’t delist it. Let’s just mark it as ’out of stock’ for now. The expedited growth cycle is only fifteen days, which isn’t too long." The person in red made a very reasonable point.
"The problem is we’re riding the coattails of the live stream. In fifteen days, Jiang Qiuqiu will probably have moved on to a new dish. Will the crabs still sell then?"
"Of course they’ll sell! I refuse to believe she can come up with a dish even simpler than steamed crab!"
"! You’ve got a point!"
Since they weren’t a business-focused organization after all, the meeting between the few of them felt more like a casual chat. After over an hour, a new decision was finally reached.
New crab ponds would be established immediately to cultivate a new batch.
All the existing crabs would be caught and sold off in a flash sale at midnight the day after tomorrow.
Then, the money from the sale would be used to purchase more new robots!
Ah, ever since the agricultural scientists at the base had experienced what robots could do and gotten used to ordering them around, purchasing smart robots had become the Research Institute’s biggest expense.
People who worked with the land were just that simple.
The crabs were still in the ponds, but the three old-timers in red, yellow, and blue were already discussing how to spend the money from the sale.
Only the slightly younger person in the white shirt on the far left had a cunning glint in their eyes.
On the afternoon when crabs became scarce, the Federal Agricultural Research Institute posted a statement on the Star Network:
[Due to the recent high demand for crabs, our institute’s production has reached its limit. We currently have only one final batch of crabs left in our ponds. We are in the process of harvesting them. We estimate the total harvest will exceed 100,000 tons, which is approximately 100 million crabs. All crabs will be available in a Taotao Fresh flash sale at 0:00 AM the day after tomorrow. Those who are interested, please take note of the time! The next crab pond will be ready in about 15 days. If you miss this one, you’ll have to wait another 15 days.]
[Finally, our institute possesses mature crab farming technology, excellent crab breeds, and low-cost cultivation requirements. Anyone interested in purchasing or licensing our crab farming technology, please call 9***3 to get in touch with our institute. We wish you all success in getting your crabs tomorrow!]
The Ju people went wild.
’What is this? We finally get a dish that literally anyone can make, and this is what happens? This is it? We can’t even get any!’
At this point, some people started flexing in their social circles, showing off the hauls of blue crabs they had bought back when they weren’t scarce at all.
It wasn’t just the Ju people who were in an uproar; Taobao Food was, too.
A new dish had appeared. Everyone could make steamed crab, but the second dish, Crab Roe Noodles, was not so simple. A group of Taobao Food shop owners who were skilled at rolling noodles saw their chance and wanted to sell Crab Roe Noodles.
And so, amid great anticipation, midnight finally arrived.
The Ju people were famous for their lightning-fast fingers.
The moment the link on the webpage lit up, they immediately started placing their orders. They left all the miscellaneous options like size at their defaults. Just—just click the crab! Confirm!
One Ju person saw the page redirect to payment, an irrepressible smile spreading across their face. But then, after waiting and waiting for the backend to process, the Star Coin payment failed.
...
?
’What the hell.’
By the time they got back from the payment page, the link was already grayed out.
The legendary 100 million crabs had vanished just like that.
-
「Meanwhile, inside Jiang Qiuqiu’s foodie circle.」
[Question: Have these people all been single for 200 years? What kind of hands are those, shadowless hands?]
[I have a reasonable suspicion that someone hacked the Star Network. This is way too fast. There’s no way 100 million crabs went that quickly.]
[Even I couldn’t get any.]
——No way, for real? Holy crap! Even a big shot from the military academy couldn’t get one? Is your connection bad on the frontier?
[I’m at home. The connection is smooth. The payment just failed.]
Everyone had originally come to the circle to complain, and also to subtly flex about how popular their Juju was—popular enough that 100 million crabs could be wiped out in an instant.
But as they kept talking, something started to feel off.
[This?]
[Everyone posting here was waiting for the sale tonight, right? This is so weird. Did not a single person manage to buy any?]
[Some did. Here’s a link to the thread. But it’s way too few... Only a couple of people I know actually got them.]
’So, did they really release 100 million crabs at midnight?’
’How strange.’