Chapter 42: Face and Basin
As the start of the school term drew closer, Yuta had been busy for the past two weeks dealing with the affairs of the plastic basin company ever since finishing his previous job.
After searching several factories, Yuta set his sights on a small factory priced at 5,000,000 yen.
This factory had six injection molding machines and fifteen employees, with an annual revenue of only around 10,000,000 yen. After deducting taxes, wages, and various other expenses, the remaining profit was negligible—essentially just breaking even.
It was essentially a money-losing factory!
A factory that isn't losing money wouldn't be sold for just 5,000,000 yen.
This impending bankruptcy plastic factory struggled to even maintain rent; the premises were leased rather than owned.
The 5,000,000 yen included raw materials, machines, and existing equipment, and the current employees could continue working.
Retaining the employees was actually a challenge. While they had experience, their salary demands would undoubtedly be higher than those of new hires. Typically, the normal procedure would see these employees searching for new jobs themselves once the factory went under.
In this country, if someone has accumulated massive debts, they can apply for bankruptcy through the bank, clearing all personal savings and debts. They can then wander as a destitute for a few years without owing anything.
However, this does not apply to loan sharks; high-interest loans do not support the notion of bankruptcy. You either repay them, or if you die, your family must continue to pay!
The original owner had applied for bankruptcy, and since no one was left to take over the factory, coupled with the fact that the employees were those who needed to support their families, Yuta was able to easily purchase the small company through an installment payment plan.
For just 200,000 yen, Yuta temporarily gained control of the factory. However, as soon as there was no money to purchase raw materials, once everything in the factory was used up, the workers would inevitably have to disperse.
Additionally, there were issues regarding the factory's water and electricity bills next month. If money wasn't made within half a month, that 200,000 yen would be down the drain, and he would also owe a significant amount to the state!
Fortunately, the first batch of plastic basins had already been produced, and at the same time, the light novel was also published!
The task requirement was simply to have a company, so it didn't matter if it went bankrupt; after all, the rewards of +1 Agility and +1 Charm had already been earned!
Yuta took the initiative, bringing along several basins that bore the clearly half-hearted and poorly designed expressions. He went to a department store and convinced a few shop owners, who were reluctant to let go of him and wanted to take him out for dinner, to buy a batch of plastic basins.
"Hey there, would you like to buy a few plastic basins?"
After a full day of sales, Yuta realized one thing.
Being good-looking has its undeniable advantages!
"The five hundred plastic basins sold today were all because of my face. What the hell am I even writing light novels for?"
Yuta fell into contemplation. He initially thought that printing some silly designs on the basins would certainly make them sell better.
But then…
"I never imagined I could have such a pulling power!"
A plastic basin that cost 200 yen piece was somehow sold by Yuta for 500 yen each—that's charm for you!
The plastic basin factory was completely relying on Yuta's connections to keep afloat. With Yuta constantly hustling, several nearby areas were all selling basins from his factory.
Even if other manufacturers lowered their prices, they couldn't compete with Yuta's charisma!
The department store didn't solely sell plastic basins; they weren't particularly concerned about this small income. They purchased and displayed Yuta's basins mainly because they wanted to maintain contact with him, and besides, it didn't cost them much—especially since it wasn't their own money!
In this cutthroat competition, other plastic factories had begun to reduce their basin production, as they weren't exclusively plastic basin manufacturers.
Once this large area was taken over by a bunch of silly designs, many young people became curious about who the characters on those basins were, which led them to check out Yuta's light novel.
...
The monthly summary meeting of Dengeki Bunko was held at the end of January.
The editor-in-chief patiently listened to reports from various editors about the performance of the authors they oversaw.
Today, the editor-in-chief wasn't particularly concerned with everyone else's results; he already had a general understanding. What he was most focused on was…
"I currently have two authors whose books are being published. One is the emerging light novel author, Utako Kasumi, whose representative work, 'Love Metronome,' has sold over 500,000 copies since its release across five volumes."
Machida Sonoko paused briefly and scanned the conference room before continuing, "The other author is a newcomer who just joined this month and began publishing only half a month ago. They've had no online serialization, making them a complete rookie: August 9th's Weather is Clear."
This was Yuta's pen name, a name he had chosen quite casually and without seriousness!
"Since the publication of August-sensei work half a month ago, it has already sold 120,000 copies. The publisher is continually adding to the print run, and I'm also reaching out to other bookstores to stock it. I believe this number can continue to rise for quite a while; we might break 200,000 copies within the month!"
The editor-in-chief nodded at Machida Sonoko. "August-sensei work is indeed excellent. An animation company has already contacted me regarding this. I'll leave this matter to you; please discuss the animation possibilities with August-sensei and also ask if they have any plans for continuing their work."
"Understood!" Sonoko replied eagerly.
Many believed that "KonoSuba: God's Blessing on This Wonderful World!" would become popular, but neither Sonoko nor many others expected it to take off so quickly; it was quite a surprise!
Unbeknownst to many, various plastic basins featuring silly characters had overwhelmed the plastic basin market. Even Sonoko household plastic basins had to be replaced with blue basins featuring the silly character Aqua.
Want to avoid using these plastic basins?
Sure! You could go and buy metal ones instead!
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