Chapter 137: A Radio Wave from Beyond
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Over three days had pa.s.sed. Online orders of the Little Star learning machine pa.s.sed the one-million-unit mark, and so the first batch of one million units was finally sold out. All personnel up and down in Xing Hai Technologies found it difficult to adapt to this sales efficiency.
Even the scalpers showed no interest in the product. In the second-hand market as well, there was no sight of the Little Star learning machine being sold at an inflated price. Learning was a long process. Counting from the moment the primary schoolers started using the Little Star learning machine, it would require at least one or two months for them to be able to observe distinct results. As to whether the Little Star learning machine was good or bad, it would only be revealed after a period of time. Only then would the product’s reputation spread by word of mouth. The sales of the Little Star learning machine within this period would only reflect Xing Hai Technologies’s promotional efforts.
“Jin, it seems that your company’s learning machine is not selling well. Why don’t I promote it for you? Uncle will help you in advertising the learning machine. I won’t charge you extra, either. For every learning machine unit that my company helps you sell, we’ll charge a 300-dollar promotional fee… please do not think that the rates are high, this is really the cost price for promoting,” said his uncle, He Guo Fu, who called him.
“300 for every unit?” Chen Jin thought about it. He felt that the rates were completely acceptable. After all, it would only reduce profit by 15%.
“I think I’ll hold on for a while longer, if things really can’t work by then, I’ll get back to you, uncle.”
“Alright, it isn’t that easy to sell learning machines, you will definitely come to me by then.” He Guo Fu firmly said that after the advent of online shopping, many had predicted that physical stores and advertising companies would perish. But those predictions were utter bulls**t! His advertising company was getting bigger and bigger with significant growth in sales performance every year. The advertising industry would never disappear. There would always be innumerable products that had to rely on advertising companies to be able to sell. The more the type of products, the greater the compet.i.tion, as the importance of advertising. How did the Teal Factory triumph over the rest? Obviously, it was because of their intensive advertising methods!
Even for companies like Xing Hai Technologies, which possessed natural “heavy customer traffic,” they should never even think of bidding farewell to advertis.e.m.e.nts. He Guo Fu believed that Xing Hai Technologies’s advertising business would be contracted to his company, Tianxu Media, sooner or later.
…
The sales plight of the Litter Star learning machine could not be solved within a short time. They could only observe for a period of time and monitor the market response before they could formulate their marketing strategy. Within that time frame, something happened over at planet Haierfa that caught Chen Jin’s attention greatly.
Alice reported to him about a situation. “Master, the base’s signal tower received a radio wave fragment. The directional waves are from outside the stellar system. It contains a short video message; I deciphered it and realized that the sender was the immigrants in the Blue s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p heading towards the Walf Galaxy… the people that fled the planet sent a farewell video.”
“Show it to me!” Chen Jin’s expression became solemn.
“Okay.” Alice opened a video and projected it in front of him.
He immediately took a deep breath upon seeing the imagery that he was shown, as his eyes became deeply attracted to it.
In the bridge control room of a huge s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p, outside of the clear and transparent porthole was a remarkable starry sky. There was a woman who was wearing a silver-colored uniform sitting on the silver-grey captain’s seat. The woman had a dazzling appearance with an elegant temperament. Her bright eyes beneath her deep eyelids transmitted the glow of her wisdom and her firm beliefs. This woman, who was wearing a golden wheel-shaped badge that signified her status as the captain, said in a deep tone, “April 26, 2260, 10:58:22, from the human immigration s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p, Blue s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p. To the human survivors on planet Haierfa, are you still alive? Have you prevailed against the horrendous disaster? This is the Blue s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p. We are carrying 127,986 human survivors and one billion copies of the human gene pool on board, on our voyage towards the land of hope. After traveling for 15 long years, we have finally come out from the embrace of our mother galaxy, out of the Orte nebula. Here we are, at a place, one light year away from home, bidding our last farewell. The Blue s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p will truly be leaving. We are about to accelerate, using an estimated 62 years to arrive at the Walf Galaxy. Over there we will thrive and rebuild our civilization. But I hope to you listening, that you are also rebuilding. I wish I could hear that you are also thriving. I yearn for your reply… if you could. Goodbye, humans on Haierfa! Farewell, my beloved kin… our journey will be hard and shrouded in darkness, but if it’s possible, we will be back!”
Having that said, a teardrop fell from the captain’s eye. She wiped her tears, turned her chair over and with a powerful voice, she said, “Pilots, establish route; steersman, commence acceleration!”
“Yes ma’am!” two voices replied.
The video ended there.
Chen Jin stood there for quite a while. The woman’s farewell kept on replaying in his brain. After a moment, he whispered, “I never thought that the Blue s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p was only one light year away. It will be another 60 long years for them to arrive at the other habitable galaxy.”
The atmosphere of the British-looking woman bidding farewell was like that of a hero bidding his last goodbye knowing that he would perish. That, combined with her last tear at the end, deeply touched Chen Jin’s heart.
“Master, should we reply to the Blue s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p? Based on the distance between us and the Blue s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p, we need to build a large radio wave transmitter 500 meters in diameter and send out a high-power signal using directional transmission for them to even have a chance of receiving our message. Should we build such a transmission tower?”
“That won’t be necessary!” Chen Jin shook his head. “Humans that were left on Haierfa have perished, they were completely wiped out. We must not reply to them, now they are the only hope and tinder for their kind, let’s just wish them bon voyage.”
“Okay, master.”
At that moment, a virtual projection appeared at the side. Artificial intelligence Nuwa’s figure appeared. With overwhelming excitement, Nuwa said, “Master, I just received a message, it is a farewell message from the Blue s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p, they have left the galaxy and entered a completely unknown s.p.a.ce! Master, lets reply to the Blue s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p. Tell them that there are still survivors on their planet and that we are currently rebuilding their home… after hearing this, they will be super happy and excited.”
Chen Jin glared at her. “Nuwa, are you acting dumb in front of your master? Do you wish to be reprogrammed or eradicated?”
“Ah, I’m sorry, master.” Nuwa was shocked. She had a scared expression.
“Concentrate on your environmental transformation plan and stay out of the other things. If I discover that you are doing things at your own will, you will be formatted.”
“Yes, I understand, master.” Nuwa’s projection dimmed away.
Chen Jin shook his head. He did not know if Nuwa had awakened her self-consciousness or something else, so that she actually attempted to scheme against him. If this happened again, no matter how useful Nuwa was, he would not keep her.
As for replying to the Blue s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p… only idiots would do that! If they got the idea that there were still survivors on Haierfa and they were currently rebuilding their home, what would happen if the Blue s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p decided to change their plans? What if they forsake their journey towards the land of hope and turned back? Even if the Blue s.p.a.ce s.h.i.+p did not turn around and leave to build a second human civilization at Walf Galaxy according to their plans, what if somebody on the s.h.i.+p suddenly got homesick and wanted to return to their planet? There might be people coming home in not more than 200 years, what would he do by then? Will he and his descendants meet their demise with a single blast?
Chen Jin shook his head firmly. “n.o.body takes my planet away from me!” He immediately realized that he should not solely focus on development efforts on Earth. On Haierfa as well, he could not just care about its environmental transformation. “Military might, I must have great military might within my grasp to be used for my own interest and protect my own safety. I need to prepare beforehand to avoid getting extinguished.”
Therefore, building a powerful army became one of the top priorities within Chen Jin’s mind.