Chapter 501 - 275: "Cyber Mine."_3

He felt a momentary daze.

As if Doomsday hadn’t arrived.

He was still in the modern city, and everything felt like a dream.

So unreal and illusory.

"Mining robots?"

Many people stared blankly at the overwhelming posters. It was the first product they had seen that could replace slaves in mining, and it was a robot capable of working continuously for 24 hours. Wasn’t this work efficiency higher than that of slaves?

...

"Only selling 5000 units?"

"Yes."

Chen Mang, standing next to the floor-to-ceiling window, gently nodded: "I’m not sure if many people will buy it, so let’s see how the sales go first?"

The market is hard to imagine, and any conceptual product must be tested in the market to know how well it will be accepted.

Only rookie entrepreneurs would imagine the market without any research.

A mining robot costs 2500 to produce and sells for 9998, with a profit margin of about 7500.

If all 5000 units can be sold, the profit would be 37.5 million.

The profit margin isn’t very large.

It’s far less than the "Spatial Bag," which costs 1 unit of wood and sells for 50,000 units of iron ore, equating to a 50,000-fold profit... a profit margin that drives capitalists crazy.

But no train would buy this in bulk; they usually only buy a few for personal use, not hundreds or thousands.

But the "Mining Robots" are different.

If this thing is to be widely used, significantly increasing the trains’ production efficiency, buying seven or eight is meaningless; you need to buy at least a hundred to form a scale.

This is a volume-based product.

Volume-based products have to have low-profit margins. If the profit margins are too high, people can’t afford them...

...

Three hours passed.

Only a little over a hundred "Mining Robots" were sold, all purchased by many Train Captains, each buying one or two.

Chen Mang was initially puzzled about what use these Train Captains had for buying a mining robot.

It was later found out by sending Mr. Li to inquire.

These Train Captains bought one or two mining robots purely for motivation, telling the slaves on the train that if they didn’t mine well, they could be replaced at any moment. They were not that important to the train; giving them food was a favor!

"..."

After learning the reason, Chen Mang was expressionless and remained silent for a long time before saying softly.

"A long time ago, I heard a fable."

"Sardines are a kind of fish that easily die during transport. One day, a fisherman accidentally put a catfish in with the sardines, and unexpectedly, the sardines stayed active to avoid a predator, resulting in most of them surviving."

"This phenomenon was later classified as activating the original group’s vitality and competitiveness by introducing external stimuli."

"In management science, it’s also called the catfish effect."

"It can effectively boost employee motivation."

"My original intention was to sell a production tool, but I didn’t expect everyone to buy it to use as a catfish."

No train made bulk purchases.

This was actually expected.

After all...

This is Doomsday; there’s no "Slave Association," no one cares about the treatment of slaves, and there’s no salary—just the provision of meals is enough, and slaves have nowhere to appeal.

This leads to.

Even though the "Mining Robot" is already extremely cheap and even ridiculously cheap, it is still not as cheap as "slaves"...

Nothing more can be said.

He can’t manage the affairs of other regions, and it’s impossible for him to demand that all trains improve slave treatment; hardly anyone would pay attention.

"But this is good too."

Chen Mang nodded: "When the trains develop in the future and find a way to remotely trade slaves or can operate across regions, they can buy all the slaves at a high price from them and put them in the Fixed Star’s Cyber Mine."

"And then sell them the mining robots."

Just then—

Ai looked at the changing information on the screen and suddenly spoke: "Train Captain, a Train Captain has taken out nearly 10 million units of iron ore to purchase 1000 mining robots in one go!"

"Oh?"

Chen Mang’s eyes lit up: "Go find out why the Train Captain is buying them, find his pain point, and see if we can tap into it."

Soon.

Mr. Li returned once again.

"Master Mang, that Train Captain is a high-level Train Captain who suffered heavy losses in a natural disaster, and nearly all his slaves died. Slaves in high-level areas are very scarce, and he was worried until he came across our mining robots for sale, so he bought 1000 units."

"Exactly."

Chen Mang smiled with satisfaction; this was his target group!

It’s been nearly two years since Doomsday.

The survivors have been split up among various trains.

There might still be survivors hiding in the urban ruins in the white zones, but in those high-level areas, where can survivors hide? Slaves are hard to come by, and when they’re gone, they’re gone—losing one means one less.

This customer base is the main user group for "Mining Robots."

"Very good."

This situation means there’s another source of iron ore.

Chen Mang, leaning on his cane, looked at the bustling street and nodded in satisfaction: "I’ll leave you here to keep watch, I’ll head back first. Contact me immediately if there’s any emergency."