Chapter 501: Automobiles deployed
Michael immediately transported himself back to Main Street in the Upperwood District.
There, he was welcomed by Sheina and the rest of the crew all eagerly working as they began decorating their headquarters and their store for the eventual opening of their company.
"Lord Michael. Welcome back. How do you like the place?" Sheina asked, bowing.
Michael looked around the room and felt like he was transported back to his previous world. The lobby of their new headquarters looked exactly like one of those high-rise buildings from large cities that were very spacious, had a modern and simplistic design yet still showed luxury quietly.
The whole place was powered by a generator running in the background, powering the lights and all the operations needed like the plumbing and other such systems.
At the very front of the lobby was a large signage of REBORN, in all caps and had subtle yellow lighting on the background.
"I like it. It feels very professional," he praised them.
"We’re glad you like it, Lord Michael. There are some things that you still need to settle though, would you like to meet with Kong to discuss the elevator?"
Michael was confident of Kong’s skill. He didn’t need any help. "I trust him on this," he said. "For now, I want to meet with Castelle and discuss the plans for opening up our store."
Sheina nodded and guided Michael down to the lowest part of their headquarters, ten floors underground. This was their strategic meeting place for all Reborn major decisions.
Castelle had already made herself a home in one of the rooms. She made an office and a personal lounge, which was quite small and wasn’t that befitting of a CEO like her.
"You know you could have made it larger," he told her.
"I’m fine with this, Young Master. I only need a bed to sleep in and I would be satisfied."
Castelle couldn’t be argued with. Even after all this time, she still wore her Vanderbilt Maid uniform despite being the CEO and head of all operations of Reborn for a few years now.
"Let’s talk about our department store on Main Street. How is it going?"
Castelle took out a few papers from her envelope and began giving it to Michael.
"We have prepared a specific list of items that we think are going to do well in Metropolis. This is compiled from all the customer information that the Shadow Orcs have gathered in the Upperwood District.
We are of the opinion that we should be selling items that people are already familiar with. Of course, our products are a lot higher in quality, so people will naturally want to buy ours instead.
This will get them through the door. Now in order to distinguish ourselves from the other companies, we think that it’s best if we now introduce them to items that they’d never seen before. This will leave them a lasting impression and allow the Reborn name to naturally be spread in the customer’s mindspace."
Michael looked at Castelle’s report and found nothing wrong with it. "Okay, let’s go with your plan. Have you started the delivery of the items?"
Castelle nodded. "The trucks are on their way to Metropolis as we speak. We have taken them from our stockpile in Angora City, so they will probably arrive in one or two days tops."
According to her reports, there would be about ten trucks in total going to Metropolis, carrying all the items they were going to sell in the department store. And in the future, about five more trucks would come every week in order to replenish their goods.
And once demand goes up, they would probably have to increase the delivery of items even more.
Thankfully, the Duchess had already assured him that the guards at the wall would allow them passage once they arrived.
Now, all he had to do was wait.
"There is one more thing that I want to do. Sheina, I was just recently given stewardship of a mansion near the castle of the Duchess. I’m planning to build a soda factory there."
Sheina’s eyes widened. "Soda, Lord Michael? That is a very interesting product indeed."
"This is perfect!" Castelle claimed. "It will allow us a better foot in the door if we focus all our efforts in advertising soda to our customers!"
Since the Reborn company offered anything and everything, there wasn’t really a distinct product that they were known for. This would make it hard for people to remember them, since they didn’t know what they offered.
Of course, this was no problem in territories that they already conquered. But for Metropolis where they were unknown, one breakthrough product was all they needed to get their name in the zeitgeist of Metropolis.
People would know Reborn for their sodas. And once they got to know Reborn better, then their other products would become popular as well.
"Sheina, have our engineers design a factory for the sodas. I’ll give them all the details so please assemble a team for me."
The white-scaled Dragonborn nodded and immediately gave a list of the engineers she needed. With the help of the Shadow Orcs, those engineers were directly teleported to their meeting room.
"Thanks for meeting with me," he said to them. "This is what we need to do..."
He told them the specifications of the factory, what they produced and what operations were needed to get that end result.
After all, they weren’t just making the sodas in the factory. They were also making the glass bottles needed to sell them.
"This is doable boss! Just give us a few days and we can get the draft done!" said one of the engineers.
...
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...
One day passed...
Back in the Association Headquarters, Claudia buried her head into her desk as piles and piles of paperwork came into her room.
"Miss Claudia! The Crocodile Leather company is requesting a duel with their rival, the Alligator Club."
"Miss! Two high-ranked wine companies are requesting their own Sanctum Duel. They wish to ask if we can get them ahead of schedule."
Claudia groaned. "No! We are already backed up as it is."
She was having trouble with the influx of duels because everyone was in a hurry to prepare for the Parade.
And if the timing couldn’t get any worse, the auction at Barnaby’s Vault was also close at hand, further increasing everyone’s desire to stock up with as much money and power as they could store.
"Umm...Miss Claudia! There seems to be a commotion in our lobby! There’s a lot of bigshots requesting your presence!" said one of her employees, hurriedly.
Claudia sighed and got up off her desk and walked to where the commotion was taking place.
And as she got there, she saw that there were quite a few high-ranking company leaders waiting patiently in their chairs.
They weren’t at the level of the Legacies, but they were still up there in terms of ranking.
For example, the Crocodile Leather company was in the 312th spot, while the Alligator Club was in the 325th spot.
"Mister Crocodile, Mister Alligator...what have you come here for?" Claudia asked them.
The Crocodile man, wearing crocodile leather all over his body like a cowboy, tipped his hat at Claudia.
"We’re here to get a duel, ma’am! I want to get his spot in the product approval!"