Whoooa!
Xue Wenhui’s announcement sent shockwaves through the crowd.
After all, nothing like this protection agreement had ever existed in the genetic-organism industry.
Scarcity made genetic organisms valuable.
Since the market allowed them to be bought and sold freely, and adequate regulation was lacking, scalpers had naturally emerged to buy them up and resell them at inflated prices.
Worse still, cases of genetic organisms being abused, beaten, and subjected to all kinds of inhumane experiments were far from uncommon.
Some genetic companies even purchased organisms developed by their competitors and dissected them to obtain information that hadn’t been made public.
Consequently, when Zhengming Company announced its protection agreement, nearly half of those who had expressed interest in Sunkern immediately lost interest.
Among them were both scalpers and representatives of competing companies.
Quite a few ordinary people also protested, considering the agreement somewhat overbearing.
It wasn’t that they had any malicious intentions; they simply disliked being subjected to such strict conditions.
Jiang Ming had several reasons for introducing the rental plan.
His primary goal was to get the promotion of Pokémon off to a good start.
He believed that any reasonably decent person who spent enough time interacting with Pokémon would inevitably come to love these adorable little creatures.
The rental system would lower the barrier to interacting with Pokémon while keeping ownership of every Sunkern firmly in Zhengming Company’s hands.
That way, if any problems arose in the future, the company could intervene and put things right.
Although those memories came from a distant past, Jiang Ming still remembered one fundamental truth: Pokémon weren’t pets.
They were companions with whom people could live and fight side by side.
They had feelings, too.
They could hurt, cry, and laugh.
That was why he wanted people to respect Pokémon and treat them as they would their own family.
As for those who intended to resort to underhanded tactics behind his back, Jiang Ming almost wanted to see how many people in Coastal City would dare to disregard his elder brother.
Watching the crowd gradually thin out, Xue Wenhui showed little concern.
Given Zhengming Company’s current production capacity, they couldn’t provide many Sunkern anyway.
Having fewer people competing for them wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.
“Everyone!”
Xue Wenhui spoke up again.
“Genetic organisms are difficult to cultivate, so we’ll initially be accepting only a limited number of reservations. Delivery will take one month.”
“One per person. First come, first served!”
However, those who had stayed until then showed no intention of leaving.
“Mr. Xue, just tell us all the remaining requirements at once! I’m not leaving anyway!” a young woman shouted from the crowd, her eyes burning with enthusiasm as she gazed at Sunkern.
“Exactly! Come on, tell us!” several others immediately echoed.
They were dressed in ordinary clothes and, under normal circumstances, would never have been the target customers for genetic organisms.
Thanks to Jiang Ming’s rental plan, however, they finally had an opportunity to interact with Pokémon.
Watching the scene from backstage, Jiang Ming smiled.
Wasn’t this exactly why he’d gone to all this trouble?
Seeing the people below cheering enthusiastically, Xue Wenhui swept his hand through the air.
“Then let the reservations begin!”
The reservation process proceeded in an orderly fashion, and the available slots were quickly snapped up.
Those who weren’t lucky enough to secure one could only sigh in disappointment before leaving.
After the press conference ended, Xue Wenhui returned backstage with a spring in his step.
“Xiao Ming, that was brilliant! Just look at how popular Sunkern is!”
He was practically beaming.
“Uncle Xue, you’re giving me too much credit. I only came up with the idea. You’re the one who executed it so well!” Jiang Ming replied modestly, offering a little well-deserved flattery.
Xue Wenhui’s smile grew even wider.
“Excellent! Xiao Ming, you’re finally starting to think like a businessman!”
Watching the two exchange compliments, Liu Haoyun couldn’t help asking in confusion, “Uncle Xue, Xiao Ming, what exactly are you two talking about? Won’t this whole arrangement leave you taking a huge loss?”
It was hardly surprising that Liu Haoyun couldn’t understand their reasoning.
In this world, the revival of spiritual energy had forced humanity to focus on survival for much of the past century.
Apart from the last three or four decades, people had spent most of their time figuring out how to stay alive.
Naturally, many of the marketing strategies Jiang Ming had known in his previous life had never developed here.
That’s right.
Marketing.
Jiang Ming certainly had his own reasons for introducing the rental plan, but he couldn’t simply explain his entire strategy to Xue Wenhui.
Instead, he’d wrapped it in a more conventional business proposal.
Broadly speaking, the current genetic-organism market resembled the pharmaceutical industry in the early stages of Jiang Ming’s previous life.
Because the creation of genetic organisms was unpredictable, companies had to recoup their initial investments whenever they successfully cultivated organisms suitable for sale.
They also needed to generate sufficient funds to support future research projects.
All of this kept the prices of genetic organisms exceptionally high.
With the System’s help, creating new Pokémon was as effortless for him as eating or drinking.
Production costs simply weren’t the obstacle they were for other companies.
So the rationale he’d presented to Xue Wenhui was straightforward: open up the market and ensure that Zhengming Company’s genetic organisms earned widespread public recognition before its competitors could catch up.
The ultimate goal was to make Zhengming Company the first name that came to mind whenever people thought about genetic organisms.
This approach might incur some losses at the beginning, but compared with the enormous profits it could generate in the long run, those initial costs would be negligible.
Only by building that kind of public trust could Jiang Ming eventually introduce the concept of Pokémon and gain widespread acceptance for it.
And for Coastal City, which was struggling with electricity shortages, Sunkern was the perfect key to opening that market.
Imagine a future in which every household in Coastal City could rely on Sunkern to meet its electricity needs.
The household electricity that could be saved, combined with the electricity generated by the city’s own Sunkern, could free up a substantial amount of power for other uses.
And perhaps that would only be the beginning.
As Xue Wenhui imagined the future Jiang Ming had described, he felt a surge of renewed energy.
He even felt ready to indulge in a little youthful recklessness himself.
Only Jiang Ming knew that using Sunkern to generate electricity was merely a stopgap measure.
Once he began creating Electric-type Pokémon—or Pokémon like Rolycoly—Coastal City would finally have a chance to escape its dependence on an inadequate power supply.
In the days that followed, more and more Sunkern hatched safely in the laboratory.
Xue Wenhui immediately arranged to install another ten cultivation chambers.
With all the cultivation chambers operating together, the company finally began to ease its awkward production bottleneck.
Another half month passed.
By the time the first batch of Sunkern had matured, Jiang Ming still hadn’t handed them over to the people who had made reservations several days earlier.
Instead, he personally arranged to deliver them to the Coastal City Energy Bureau.
With Jiang Zheng’s influence working in their favor, and Sunkern’s genuine ability to assist with power generation speaking for itself, Xue Wenhui had needed only one visit to the Energy Bureau to finalize the arrangement.
Southern Suburbs of Coastal City — Solar Power Generation Center, Energy Bureau.
Jiang Ming followed a large truck loaded with Sunkern to the facility.
“Mr. Jiang! Welcome, welcome!”
As soon as Jiang Ming stepped out of the vehicle, one of the power station’s department heads hurried over to greet him.
An ordinary person certainly wouldn’t have received such a reception.
But Jiang Ming wasn’t just anyone—he was Jiang Zheng’s younger brother.
“Good to meet you, Director Ye!” Jiang Ming greeted him in return.
“Oh, don’t bother with all that ‘Director’ business. I’m just an employee doing my job!” Director Ye replied, affecting a modest expression.
After exchanging a few pleasantries, Director Ye led Jiang Ming and the Sunkern to the location they’d agreed upon beforehand.
Unlike the extensive arrays of solar panels installed elsewhere, the panels here had been set aside specifically to accommodate Sunkern.