NOVEL WEB Chapter 166: The Shop's Struggles
Evening.
Ethan pushed open the door to the villa.
The familiar scent hit him, bringing an immediate sense of calm. But the thought that Lyla was no longer here filled him with a sudden, heavy sadness.
He climbed the stairs to the second floor, where the door to Lyla's bedroom stood ajar. Ethan paused at the threshold, memories flooding back.
Before his rebirth, Lyla had hidden her identity, accompanying him in the game as Moonbeam for four years. On the first day of his new life, he had knocked on her door in the apartment building, asking for the time. Later, when he was stuck without a VR headset to log into the game, Lyla had shown up like a miracle, gifting him the very thing he needed.
When he discovered her true identity, it all clicked—the childhood memories, the near-death experience, and their eventual separation. Moving into this villa together, the days they'd spent side by side, it all came rushing back.
Suddenly, Ethan realized just how integral Lyla was to his life.
Though they'd had a long, sweet conversation that morning, Ethan couldn't shake the feeling that Lyla was hiding something from him. Whatever it was, she hadn't shared it, and he hadn't pressed her. He trusted her completely. If she was keeping something from him, he believed she had her reasons.
During the day, with Victor, Leo, and Williams around, he'd been distracted. But now, alone in the vast, silent villa, the weight of her absence pressed down on him like a boulder, making it hard to breathe.
He checked the time: 5:40 PM. Ethereal would be online in twenty minutes.
It had been a while since he'd logged into the game. Ethan took a deep breath and headed to the bathroom to freshen up.
By the time he finished, it was exactly 6:00 PM. Without bothering to dress, Ethan climbed into the VR capsule. After all, he was alone now—no one to judge him for his lack of modesty.
As soon as he logged in, a system notification popped up: his offline double experience had maxed out.
Harmony City was bustling, as always. It was peak login time, and players materialized around him in waves.
Ethan felt a strange sense of disorientation, as if he'd stepped into another world.
[Ding… Your friend 'NoPaperOnTheBigOne' has sent you a video call request.]
He had been about to head to the city center to check on his shops when the notification came through. It was from Mad Engineer.
Ethan accepted the call, and the man's weathered face appeared on the screen.
"Boss… sniff… You're finally online!" Mad Engineer burst into tears the moment the call connected.
Ethan was taken aback. "What's going on? Calm down and explain."
"Sob… Boss, I need money, or I'm going to get beaten to death… sob…"
"Hold on, I'll be at the shop soon," Ethan said, realizing he wouldn't get a clear explanation over the call. He ended the video and sprinted toward Central Plaza.
From a distance, he could see NoPaperOnTheBigOne standing outside the All-You-Need Engineering Shop, anxiously scanning the crowd.
"Boss!" Mad Engineer spotted Ethan from afar and bolted toward him.
As Ethan approached, he noticed that both the 'All-You-Need Engineering Shop' and the 'All-You-Need Potions Shop' were thriving. Customers streamed in and out, the shops buzzing with activity.
"Looks like you've been running the shops well," Ethan remarked, surprised. He'd assumed that after being away for eleven days, business would have suffered.
"Boss, if you hadn't come back soon, the shops would've gone under!" Mad Engineer said, following Ethan into the engineering shop.
Ethan casually opened the shop's financial records.
To his surprise, the shop's funds had ballooned to 3,400 gold coins. He hadn't expected such a massive profit.
"If the shop's making this much, how is it on the verge of collapse?" Ethan asked, puzzled.
"Scroll back to the second day after you went offline," NoPaperOnTheBigOne said.
Curious, Ethan adjusted the date and began reviewing the records.
It didn't take long for him to understand the problem. When he'd left, he'd only deposited 30 gold coins into the shop's operating fund. At the time, he hadn't thought much of it, just a casual amount to keep things running.
Initially, with lower customer traffic, the funds had been sufficient. As the shop's popularity grew, the balance between profits from sales and the daily expenses for materials had been manageable.
But on the second day after Ethan went offline, Celia had delivered two blueprints and three recipes to the shop: intermediate bullet and arrow engineering blueprints, and three intermediate potion recipes—Slow Health Recovery, Instant Health Recovery, and Slow Mana Recovery.
NoPaperOnTheBigOne had immediately appraised the blueprints and recruited players willing to sign contracts to learn and produce the items. Once produced, the items were listed in the shop for sale.
This was when things took off. The system recognized the player-run shop's inventory and removed the same items from the system stores. Suddenly, the All-You-Need Engineering Shop and the All-You-Need Potions Shop became the only places in Harmony City where players could buy intermediate bullets, arrows, and potions—and at prices significantly lower than the system stores.
The shops exploded in popularity.
But with success came a new headache: the shop's operating funds were insufficient. The daily automatic material purchases were limited, which in turn limited production. Every day, the items would sell out almost immediately, leading to shortages and frustrated customers.
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Some players even began reselling the items at inflated prices. Other shops, still limited to producing beginner-level items, started spreading rumors and slandering the All-You-Need shops, accusing them of hoarding, monopolizing the market, and profiteering.
Realizing this wasn't sustainable, NoPaperOnTheBigOne turned to Celia for help. After discussing the issue, Celia withdrew 2,000 gold coins from the Renegade Alliance guild's treasury to support the shops. She would have given more, but the guild itself was struggling. With only 5,000 gold coins in its treasury and 10,000 members to support, the guild's finances were already stretched thin.
In fact, Renegade Alliance was doing better than most guilds. Many others were operating at a loss during this early stage of the game, with limited revenue streams.
Renegade Alliance's stability was largely due to their success in recent battles, which had filled their treasury with equipment that could be exchanged by guild members. Without that, they would have had to spend a fortune buying equipment to meet demand.
NoPaperOnTheBigOne deposited 500 gold coins into the engineering shop and 1,500 into the potions shop. Even with the additional funds, the shops could only barely keep up with demand. Each day, as soon as the servers went live, the shops would start producing and purchasing materials, but they could only sustain operations for about an hour before running out.
Most gatherers and crafters would sell their materials in the morning and not return until the next day—or even several days later. As a result, the shops' current inventory of 3,400 gold coins was misleading; it was only because they hadn't started purchasing materials yet.
Ethan checked the material inventory and saw that it was nearly depleted. The shelves were almost empty, and several engineers were idle in the workshop upstairs.
As NoPaperOnTheBigOne explained the situation, Ethan did some quick math. The shop had started with just over 30 gold coins, and after depositing 500 gold, it had managed to generate a daily profit of around 250 gold coins.
The realization hit him like a freight train. The engineering shop alone was bringing in the equivalent of $450,000 per day. The excitement was short-lived, however, as NoPaperOnTheBigOne's next words dashed his hopes.