359: Chapter 360 Annual Income of Three Billion! Zhang Wei: This is what you call a 95% profit margin!

The second batch of Federal Alloy supplies arrived on the sixth day.

This time, it was twenty tons.

The transport convoy departed from the Tianhai City military base and arrived at the outskirts of D-3 under the escort of security personnel arranged by Chen Shu. Instructor Su Qing personally inspected and accepted the delivery, checking the model and purity of each box—twenty tons of alloy, packed in forty standard military containers, half a ton per box.

Zhang Wei stood nearby, checking items off the list one by one with a focused expression, as if he were counting his private savings.

"Purity meets the standard." Instructor Su Qing put away the testing equipment.

"Great! Signed for." Zhang Wei pressed his fingerprint on the electronic receipt and then directed the Law Creatures to move the alloy boxes into the warehouse.

Taking advantage of the gap during the transport, Zhang Wei started chatting with the liaison officer sent by Chen Shu.

The officer was a young man in his early thirties named Zhou, with a shrewd look on his face.

"Brother Zhou, has the lease contract for the Law Creatures been finalized on your end?"

Officer Zhou pulled a contract out of his briefcase and handed it to Zhang Wei: "The first draft is out. Take a look."

Zhang Wei took it and flipped through it, his brow furrowing tighter and tighter.

"Monthly rent of 18 million per unit? What happened to the 30 million I quoted?"

"After evaluation by the Military Procurement Committee, Law Creatures with Second Transition Peak combat power are compared to the average annual salary of a Federal Professional squad of equivalent combat power—"

"Stop, stop, stop." Zhang Wei raised his hand, "You can't use a Professional's salary as an analogy. Professionals get injured, they die, they take leave, they get moody, and they might mess up a mission because they argued with a colleague. Do Law Creatures have these issues?"

"Well—"

"Law Creatures patrol 24 hours a day without interruption. They don't eat, drink, sleep, take annual leave, or need social security. They won't be in a bad mental state because of a breakup—tell me, are you really pricing this kind of perfect employee according to the salary standards of an ordinary Professional?"

Officer Zhou was a bit dazed by his rapid-fire delivery.

"And—" Zhang Wei flipped to the charging clause of the contract, "You quoted 3 million for the charging fee? I quoted 5 million. You cut it by 40%?"

"The charging fee is based on the Federal standard energy supply stations—"

"Can your energy supply stations provide Dao Source-level charging? They can't, right? Then on what basis are you using your standards for pricing? This is exclusive technology, the only one of its kind in the world. Go look on the market and see if there's a second person who can create Law Creatures."

Officer Zhou fell silent.

Zhang Wei slapped the contract onto the table: "Go back and tell your superiors: 25 million monthly rent per unit, and 4.5 million per charging session. This is the bottom line; no counter-offers accepted."

"25 million? You quoted 30 million before—"

"That's called a quote, do you understand? When doing business, of course you quote a bit higher to give the other party room to bargain. But you came in and cut it to 18 million right away—that's not bargaining, that's robbery. Our Boss Lin wiped out a Church of Calamity stronghold and eliminated a huge threat to the Federation, and you're using this pittance to brush us off? Where's the sincerity?"

Officer Zhou's expression was quite a sight.

He was from a military background and was completely out of his depth in a war of words with a pure businessman. But the military had sent him precisely because he was the most 'eloquent' one in the procurement department—now he realized he had run into a real tough customer.

"I can't make the call on this price. I need to take it back for instructions."

"Go ahead and ask. But let me remind you—the delivery date for the first batch of ten Law Creatures is in three days. If the contract isn't signed by then, delivery will be delayed. For every day of delay, the price goes up by 1%."

"This—"

"Supply and demand, basic economic principles. The Federation is desperately short of combat power; can you afford to wait? The exotic beasts in the Rift Zone won't wait for you to haggle over prices."

Officer Zhou grit his teeth and left with the contract.

Instructor Su Qing had stood by the whole time without saying a word. Once the man had left, she glanced at Zhang Wei.

"Are you treating the Federal Military Department like a sucker to be fleeced?"

"Sister Su, this isn't fleecing. This is reasonable pricing," Zhang Wei said self-righteously. "Do you know how much the Federation spends on Rift Zone defense every year? Two trillion. A monthly rent of 25 million per unit means only 300 million a year for ten units—compared to two trillion, that's not even pocket change."

Instructor Su Qing didn't say anything more. She wasn't good at business matters and wasn't interested. But she admitted that Zhang Wei really had a knack for the negotiation table.

That afternoon, Chen Shu called personally.

"Zhang Wei, the military has reviewed your quote."

"And?"

"23 million, and 4 million for the charging fee. This is the military's final counter-offer."

Zhang Wei thought for a moment: "24 million. Charging fee stays the same at 4.5 million. This is my final counter-offer."

The other end of the line was silent for five seconds.

"Deal."

Zhang Wei hung up and made a note on his terminal.

24 million per unit per month. Ten units. Annual rent: 2.88 billion.

Charging fee of 4.5 million per session. At least two charges per unit per month. Annual charging fees for ten units—108 million.

Total: Annual revenue of approximately 3 billion.

As for the cost of manufacturing ten Law Creatures—alloy plus Law Residue plus Lin Qi's labor—Zhang Wei counted on his fingers for a long time and came up with a figure: about 80 million.

Profit margin: over 95%.

Zhang Wei drew three exclamation marks after the number.

Then he ran to report to Lin Qi.

"Seven! It's signed! 3 billion in annual revenue!"

Lin Qi was at his workbench creating the second batch of Law Creatures. He didn't even look up: "Alright, I got it."

"Aren't you going to be even a little excited? 3 billion, Seven!"

"Excited? When have you ever seen me get excited?"

"You smiled when you won 600 billion in the Prodigy Championship."

"That was 600 billion. Can 3 billion compare to 600 billion?"

Zhang Wei's expression slumped for a moment, but he immediately perked up again: "3 billion is just the start! Once the Federation gets a taste of the benefits, the second and third batches of orders will come. And I'm planning to launch a product line of Law Creatures with different combat power levels later—the basic Second Transition model, the advanced Third-Turn model, and the flagship fourth-turn model—"

"I can't make fourth-turn ones yet."

"Then we sell the concept first! Pre-sales! Seven, once your strength grows a bit more in the future, won't you be able to make them?"

Lin Qi finally looked up and glanced at Zhang Wei.

"If you used that brain of yours for Cultivating, you'd be at least a Third-Turn by now."

"Cultivating is so bitter. Making money is much more fun."

Lin Qi shook his head and continued with the work at hand.