The live sales went terrifically well.
The online sales began at midnight. People were more hyped than ever.
The 900,000 helmets listed on the official website were sold out within two minutes. The website server almost went offline because of the huge amount of traffic. Just like that, 900,000 helmets were gone, not a single one left.
Project Director Li Guangwenâs mouth was wide open as he looked at the sales number on his screen and didnât say anything.
The employee sitting in front of him spoke.
âThis is crazy... Two minutes after we went live, all 900,000 helmets were sold out.
âJudging by the data from Star Sky Technology, the number of registered users on the Phantom system has already exceeded 300,000.â
Li Guangwen frowned and asked, âHow is it so little?â
The employee sitting at his computer said, âProbably because some users bought more than one machine.â
After all, online purchases were not as easy to control as in-person purchases. Even though the limit for each user was set to one unit, some users could bypass the limit by using fake mobile phone numbers and changing their IP addresses.
An employee sitting nearby suddenly asked, âDo you think there are resellers stocking up?â
âFor sure...â Li Guangwen nodded and clapped his hands. He said, âBut itâs fine, the reseller market wonât affect us. The new factory at the Jiangcheng industrial park is about to open soon. It will double our capacity!â
When the employees heard the project manager, they smiled.
There was a joyful atmosphere in the sales department office.
Even though they did not actually contribute a lot to the sales strategy, the launch of the HV-1 helmet was a huge success!
They were going to get huge bonuses!
...
Jin Ling University.
Dorm 201.
Even though they couldnât afford to buy one, they were getting excited just by watching the reselling price increase.
Yang Shuang looked at the number on his phone. His hands were trembling as he spoke.
âThis is crazy... The price of one helmet is over 100,000!â
100,000...
If I could buy one for 12,000, thatâs almost 90,000 in profit!
He started to regret not going to Shanghai and lining up at the conference.
Wu Di was sitting on his chair, scrolling through his phone. He suddenly stood up and walked over to Yang Shuang. When he saw the number on Yang Shuangâs phone, he was astonished.
âA hundred grand for one helmet? Who is buying these?â
Last night, these two were talking about the HV-1 helmet that Huawei was about to release. They were still agonizing over the 12,000 yuan price tag, which was almost their entire year of living expenses.
But now, the situation was even bleaker.
How were they supposed to find 100,000?
Forget about it.
Yang Shuang: âThis thing is selling like hot cakes... Apparently, there are foreigners that are buying it from our website as well.â
Wu Di: âHow do you know that?â
âBecause someone posted a Tiktok of some foreigners sitting in an airport, using the airport wifi to access the website. Unfortunately, none of them were able to buy one.â
Duan Siqi was sitting by the side, listening to the whole conversation. He couldnât help but join in.
â... Are they crazy? I heard that the Phantom system can only run on the Star Sky Technology cloud computing network. Whatâs the point of buying a helmet? They canât even use it. Might as well buy a pair of VR goggles instead.â
He had been studying the VR industry for a while now, and he had a certain understanding of the Phantom system. The researchers at Star Sky Technology were also happy to talk with him. Mostly because none of this was confidential information, not to mention they already had public registered patents.
Yang Shuang shook his head and spoke.
âWho knows, maybe they want to use it as a motorcycle helmet? But I think you canât see anything after you put it on... Maybe we just donât understand how rich people think. Apparently, some people flew all the way here just to buy one. Do you think they care about 12,000 yuan?â
Wu Di sighed and said, âFor f*ck sake, this is horrible!â
Yang Shuang suddenly remembered something.
âOh yeah, CEO Duan, didnât Star Sky Technology send you a helmet?â
Duan Siqi paused for a second and felt the gazes behind his back.
He turned around and saw the envious eyes of his roommates.
Duan Siqi paused for a second and quickly explained, âDonât even think about it! My helmet is limited to closed beta players! No way Iâm selling it! Iâm going to pass it on to my kids.â
âLimited to closed beta players?â Yang Shuang looked at his phone and said, âI think someone listed it for sale yesterday, let me see... Jesus.â
Wu Di leaned forward and asked, âHow much is it?â
â30... million.â
The dorm went silent; the only sound they could hear was the laptop fans.
Yang Shuangâs hands trembled; he almost couldnât hold his phone anymore.
âThatâs enough to buy a Lamborghini, right?â
Wu Di gulped and said, âThatâs enough to buy a house in Shanghai.â
âThatâs crazy! This is crazy!â
When Duan Siqi heard thirty million, his heart dropped to his stomach.
He dropped his pen on the table as he covered his face with his hands.
F*ck sake...
This is just a VR helmet!
I played with it so much, Iâm sick of it!
Is it really worth that much?!
According to his understanding, even though this was a limited closed beta-tester helmet, the only thing it gave was a closed beta medal to the playerâs account. The player could log into the Phantom system and choose whether they wanted to display that medal.
Other than showing off that someone was a âclosed betaâ tester, this medal was useless. There wasnât any closed beta player privilege or advantage.
Thirty million for a medal.
Duan Siqi didnât know what was going on.
Just like his roommates said...
This was crazy...