blogombal Chapter 050 Plans Can't Keep Up with Changes
Chapter 050 Plans Can't Keep Up with Changes
Once the conversation turned to purchasing fixed assets and "property-owning professions," the conversation flowed freely.
In the ensuing conversation, Lu Chen gained a more detailed understanding of other productive professions.
For example, shops selling black bread and equipment outside coal mines and power plants.
Price: 40 years per room.
The price of black bread is [4 minutes] per slice, and no price fluctuations are allowed.
The purchase price needs to be negotiated with the food factory that produces black bread, and it is generally between 3 minutes and 45 seconds and 3 minutes and 50 seconds per slice.
The profit margin is very thin, less than 15 seconds per piece.
Sales are quite good, with tens of thousands of units sold every day.
By adopting a strategy of low profit margins and high sales volume, the total profit is approximately [42 hours] per day.
Equipment such as mining suits, helmets, and insulated clothing requires negotiating purchase prices with clothing factories. The profit per set of equipment is approximately [1 hour].
As for second-hand equipment, it is considered a private transaction between the shop and the parasite, and is not subject to regulation.
In summary, it's a stable profit of 42 hours per day, plus the occasional sale of a set of equipment for 1 hour, and the profit from buying and selling second-hand equipment.
Equipment is rarely bought; its popularity is negligible.
Therefore, the daily profit of such a store is around 42 hours, with effective revenue for 18 hours.
...
For example, Lu Chen and Yu are currently in the 'sandwich' shop.
[70 years] One room.
Two slices of black bread, cost approximately [7 minutes 30 seconds];
A few diced pickled vegetables [10 minutes];
What looks like luncheon meat slices—more accurately, protein slices—costs [15 minutes].
The total cost of [32 minutes and 30 seconds] is combined to make a basic sandwich, priced at [45 minutes].
The profit margin is [12 minutes and 30 seconds] per serving, and approximately 250 servings can be sold per day.
Daily profit is around 50 hours, with effective returns around 26 hours.
...
……
It can be said that these twenty or so "property-owning professions" basically cover all aspects of the 18 districts.
Apart from the banks, medical clinics, recovery centers, and major factories that belong to the Time City government—almost all places run by 'people' are occupied by these twenty or so professions.
One of them has a very interesting commonality.
—Apart from the "super-rich" such as farmers and ranchers, most people in property-owning professions must personally manage their shops.
Because their effective benefits are generally between 1 day and 2 days.
If you want to be a hands-off owner and hire people to run the store, then most of their effective revenue will have to go towards paying wages.
After all, the effective benefit of Parasite No. 243 lasts for at least 30 minutes;
The daily wage for someone to mind the shop should be at least one hour a day for them to be willing to come.
Those with lower effective income—such as rope hotels—only have 10 hours a day, making it impossible to hire people.
This gave Lu Chen new ideas.
Firstly, most of the "property owners" in District 18 are essentially self-employed individuals.
They own the property rights and operating rights of the shops, which allows them to obtain relatively substantial and effective income and maintain a fairly good standard of living.
They have no worries about food and clothing, are able to save money, and basically have no pressure to survive.
However, they cannot completely "retire" and simply collect rent.
Secondly, Lu Chen vaguely sensed that this system design seemed somewhat deliberate.
—The City of Time seems to be using this method to prevent the people of District 18 from accumulating too much wealth, which is 【time】.
Workers can earn a maximum of 6 hours of effective income per day;
Most property owners can only get a maximum of [2 days].
After deducting necessary living expenses, and the medical costs that inevitably arise from drinking sewage...
"Most people are just 'living'."
"And it takes all my strength just to barely stay alive."
"Scavengers who have the opportunity to make huge profits also need to deposit their extra time in banks, and their wealth shrinks due to 'savings service fees'."
These words left Yu speechless, both amused and exasperated, but she did not refute them.
Lu Chen wasn't the only one who felt this way.
Jade, which is also a resurrected being, has this feeling as well.
—I can't accumulate [time].
Acquiring time is difficult; accumulating time is even more difficult.
It was as if an invisible hand was pressing down on most of the people in District 18.
However, unlike Lu Chen's solemn expression, Yu once again placed her hand on her left chest, on the gold brick that was in the inner pocket of her trench coat.
"This is one of the reasons why gold is scarce."
These words drew Lu Chen's attention back.
Then Yu said in a deep voice, "For example, us."
"Every time I leave the city, I deposit any extra time into the bank."
"The more time we have, the higher the bank's fees will be, and the greater our losses will be."
"The richer you are, the faster your wealth shrinks."
"But gold doesn't need to be stored in a bank; you can carry it with you at all times."
"Holding gold can prevent our wealth from shrinking due to bank savings service fees."
Upon hearing this, Lu Chen nodded thoughtfully.
Almost instinctively, he looked at Yu's left chest, which she was covering with her hand, and then nodded slightly.
"Most fixed assets are not worth buying."
"Things that are worth buying are things we can't afford."
"Therefore, the best way to deal with this gold brick is to keep it as accumulated wealth and store it intact."
Yu nodded slightly, then shook her head slightly.
"We cannot buy fixed assets—at least not for the time being."
"But it's not completely unusable."
"We can take a small portion and exchange it for some things we need on the black market."
"For example, weapons and radiation protection suits."
"And, car modification parts."
As she spoke, Yu leaned back slightly against the back of the sofa.
He lit another cigarette, and as the smoke swirled around him, his gaze grew even more profound.
"We'll need weapons next time we leave the city."
"—Number 3994 must be dealt with as soon as possible."
"With weapons, it will be much safer to leave the city in the future."
...
"As for modifying pickup trucks—as long as they are faster and have a longer range, we might consider taking a long detour to the northern suburbs to take a look."
"Or, go to a region 300 kilometers outside of a radiation-free zone, but within 500 kilometers: a region with low radiation levels."
After saying that, Yu flicked off the cigarette ash and then fell into deep thought.
Lu Chen nodded thoughtfully, agreeing with Yu's judgment.
1000g of gold is indeed a lot.
However, the fixed assets available for purchase are not cost-effective.
Rather than buying a rope hotel or a black bread shop, I'd rather keep them in my hands and save them up.
In the future, once you've accumulated enough rare resources worth 400 or even 500 years, then you can consider whether to buy a farm or ranch.
Thinking this, Lu Chen subconsciously lowered his head and looked at the [timer] on his left arm.
【00:123:21:56:07】
...
It's past 22 PM.
"We should go back."
As soon as he finished speaking, Yu, who was sitting opposite him, remained completely still.
After a while, she got up from the sofa and looked at Lu Chen with a smile.
"Tonight, to the black market."
"If we're lucky enough, we can buy everything we need tonight."
...
"After we've made all the preparations, we won't wait for number 3994 to come back."
"—Skip the queue and leave the city."
"That hibernation pod area is far from the time to be abandoned."
"At least, it's not us who should give up."