Chapter 19 - Family Directions

Alexander Smith

In any case, settlements that players plan to build in the foreseeable future is good to know but it has no direct impact on Alex's immediate interest anyway. His highest priority now is securing the four beta player slots that each player can obtain. With the latest major announcement, what he and his brothers believe that they will have plenty of time to complete is now an urgent matter. With players cultivation higher than what it was in phase one and access to spirit energy battery, Alex fears that all twelve level two spirit gathering arrays will be completed in another Earth month in the worse case scenario. His family needs to leave for a frontier settlement as soon as it is feasible.

Although the sect has already clarified that players don't need to rush in their endeavor to obtain all four beta player slots before the twelve level two spirit gathering arrays are activated and all is good as long as the can complete it before the end of phase two, there other consideration Alex needs to account for. At the top of the priority list, he needs to maintain the head start that he has managed to secure for his family in . Competition is intense and he is now aware of three other workshops that are also producing magic machineries. Thankfully, the magic machineries made by his family are of better quality and being the first in the market has its advantage. This doesn't mean that he can let his guard down. He and his business competitors are more than happy to mind their own business for the time being since demand far outstrip supply.

However, such a scenario will not last forever. With money to be made, new business competitors will continue to enter the market until there won't be enough business to satisfy everyone. Alex is already sure that price war is inevitable the moment the pie is not large enough for everyone to share. It will only take one of his business competitors to start undercutting price to gain market share forcing others to react. In any case, he will not be the one to start a price war. The magic machineries business is not a mass market business where pricing is a key factor. It is far more important to command a high technical skillset and having the ability to solve clients' problem. The real money is in providing high-end customized machineries for specialized needs.

On this, he is already working in collaboration with an alchemist to fine-tune the fasting pill production line. Though fasting pill is only a grade one pill, the market for it is huge since a single pill can replace the need for a single meal. It's compact size made it the ideal meal substitute when resupply is a challenge. For that reason, pretty much all cultivators going on adventures will have a stash of fasting pills in their storage bag. Once his collaboration succeed, the family will soon have a share in the pill production line machineries market. In comparison to the more general magic machineries, it has a much higher entry requirement threshold and will eliminate players that are more than happy to copy the work of others.

Not to put all eggs in one basket, Henry has been continuing his research on a numerically controlled magic lathe machine. It won't be long before he is ready to create the first prototype. Once successful, his family will join the ranks of being a patent owner. It will be fantastic news for the family if what both Alex and Henry have been working on works out. Even if only one of them is successful, the family's business will still gain a much firmer foothold in .

Regardless of how he felt about his competitors, Alex must not let his guard down. He might not be afraid of fair competition but that doesn't mean that his business competitors will not resort to dirty tricks to survive. One dirty trick he has to safeguard against is being cutoff from the supply of strategic key minerals. The bulk of a magic machinery are built from good old steel that is in great supply but some of the core components need magic minerals that are not found on Earth to be created. Without those magic minerals to complete the core components, it is like a car without its engine. Therefore, the frontier settlement chosen must also ultimately help the family to establish a secure supply line of needed magic minerals. 

The imminent departure to the frontier settlement has forced Alex to take on less orders, reducing their business income and market presence in the short term. It is a necessary step his family will have to take sacrificing short term gains in favor of laying a more solid long term foundation. Both his brothers are in consensus they should bring in more dependable allies into the game. Since his father side of the family can't be depended upon, it made their decision pretty straight forward roping in only relatives from their mother's side.

The first is off course to persuade their mother to join the game. With years running the family's business before it was sold, Alex can offload most of the business administrative and financial task to his mother. This will free up his time to focus more on the operation side of the business. Next are his two aunts. His eldest aunt, Eliza has chosen to retire early ever since her children completed university and began working. Convincing her to play shouldn't be too difficult. As for her second aunt, Ellie? She works as an auditor and loves her routine very much (getting her to try anything new wouldn't be exactly easy). It's good that Joshua is her favorite nephew. He will just get Joshua to persuade her.

Moving on is his two aunts' husband. Among the two, Alex believes his second aunt's husband, Ethan is a lost cause for the time being. He is also an auditor and a workaholic who loves his job too much. It will take less effort to get him into the game after his whole family has been roped in. As for his eldest aunt's husband, Lucas, there is a lot of promise there. According to his mom, Lucas's company is downsizing and he is considering taking up the company's voluntary separation scheme. With potential, Alex firmly believes that it will be much more worthwhile for Lucas to build a new career within the game. More importantly, it will be far better for Lucas to leave the company with dignity rather than being forced out a few years down the road.

Last among the family relatives are his five cousins. Eliza and Lucas have three children while Ellie and Ethan have two children. Sure, all five of them have decent jobs working for large multinational companies but none of their career path's potential can beat promising future. Furthermore, it is not like having a career in real life and playing is a mutually exclusive choice. Their cousins can do both for the time being just like how Alex is juggling between work and the game. However, he and his two brothers are already considering quitting their job to fully focus on the game the moment goes live. Their recent income playing the game have already exceeded their monthly take home pay.

As per their plan, roping in the relatives on his mother's side will take up nine of the close beta player slots they can obtain leaving three more slots to be used as they see fit. These nine slots are the most important and at the very least, they will need to obtain nine slots before the twelve level two spirit gathering arrays are completed. Even if there is a delay for remainder three slots, Alex wouldn't mind it too much.

Of the three remaining slots, Henry has claimed one of it for his best friend since Grade One while the last two slots are left to Joshua. He met both of them in high school and has been best friends ever since the three of them spend all their free time playing online games after school. Since Alex and Henry have not shown much interest improving their combat skills, Joshua is adamant in bringing them in to form his own party.