Penghai City.
Three in the afternoon.
An open field in the southern suburbs.
Chen Yi checked the cameras, gestured to his employees, and began another day's livestream.
"Ta-da! Welcome, brothers and sisters, to Yi Yi Flying Store! Today, we're proudly launching a brand-new handmade model aircraft!"
Chen Yi greeted the camera, then pulled over a box of components from beside him.
"A 70mm ducted fan with twelve-blade turbofan components. This is the main body of the model aircraft engine: an electric motor that provides power, the core component that drives the aircraft."
"A 100W ESC, with an ultra-high-speed motor built around a silicon steel sheet. It offers high efficiency, high precision, low friction, and low noise.
Paired with the 70mm twelve-blade ducted fan, it could instantly unleash a powerful 3,300 grams of thrust.
First, we'll assemble the engine, then fit it into a fully handmade model aircraft shell. Combined with a high-capacity battery and remote-control module, your model aircraft dreams can easily come true!"
Chen Yi took out the components one by one and skillfully assembled the model aircraft.
"You can buy the components and assemble it yourself, enjoying the fun of hands-on assembly."
"Or, for an extra twenty yuan, you can choose to have the complete aircraft shipped to you, ready for a test flight right out of the box."
Chen Yi displayed the assembled aircraft to the camera several times, then tossed it into the sky.
On the other side, Qin Xiaoyu, the employee responsible for coordinating with him, immediately switched on the remote control.
She controlled the aircraft as it shot upward in a steep climb, soaring into the sky and performing all kinds of rolls, side flights, and inverted flights.
Chen Yi adjusted the livestream camera, following the model aircraft as it whistled through the sky in circles.
"It's 96 centimeters long, 39 centimeters wide, and 18 centimeters tall. Maximum speed: 210 kilometers per hour. Maximum flight time: 58 minutes. It comes with an eight-megapixel camera and supports tenfold zoom."
"How much does a model aircraft like this cost?"
"788!"
"Just 788, and this premium model aircraft is yours!"
"For an additional 100 yuan, you'll also receive two ultra-high-capacity lithium batteries, giving your model aircraft more power, longer flights, and longer fun!"
"As they say, when buying a car, you look at the model. When playing with drones, why not play with model aircraft?"
"For 788, you can't buy a square meter of housing or trade it for a car, but you can own a model aircraft of your own. You can control the power of flight and experience the charm of the skies."
Chen Yi shouted with great emotion.
More than an hour passed.
After displaying three handmade model aircraft in succession, Chen Yi ended the livestream and went over to ask another employee on the team.
"Keke, how were today's sales?"
"Boss."
Xia Keke, who handled the online store's operations and customer service backend, turned her computer around. "We only sold three model aircraft during the livestream just now, and the number of concurrent viewers never exceeded three hundred."
"Only three?"
Chen Yi froze. "How was today's traffic on the other platforms?"
"Very bad. Down 7.6 percent from yesterday and down 37.9 percent from a month ago."
Xia Keke took out the statistical report and marked today's traffic data.
"I understand."
Chen Yi nodded. "Don't worry about that. The weather is unpredictable during the rainy season, and it looks like it's about to change.
Let's pack up the equipment and head back."
"Brother Yi, our store's traffic and order volume have been getting lower and lower lately, and the views on the videos we upload have also kept dropping."
Qin Xiaoyu did not start packing immediately. With worry written all over her face, she asked, "Is our handmade model aircraft store not going to make it?"
"That isn't something you need to worry about."
Chen Yi neither confirmed nor denied it, merely smiling as he reassured her. "Even if the store really closes, your salaries won't be reduced by a single cent."
"Oh."
Qin Xiaoyu understood.
She did not ask anything else, only dejectedly began packing up the various model aircraft and components.
"Let's go. We're heading back."
Chen Yi helped load everything into the car.
He drove back to the store, and just as they arrived, torrential rain came pouring down from the sky.
"Keke, edit today's livestream recording and upload it to Shu Zhan, Weibo, and Xigua Douyin."
"Xiaoyu, take inventory of the store's stock and give it to me before you get off work at six."
After assigning tasks to the two employees, Chen Yi went upstairs to his second-floor office and assembly area.
"Ding! Due to... reasons, the system's eighteenth reboot has failed. Please collect Consciousness Waves as soon as possible to maintain the system's quantum collapse state and stabilize the system spark..."
"Where did this scam message come from? Don't they know I downloaded the Anti-Fraud Center app?"
Chen Yi took out his phone, glanced at the message on the screen, grumbled, and opened his livestream account.
"Thank you all for your support during the livestream just now. Yi Yi Flying Store sold 140 flying model aircraft and achieved a sales breakthrough.
Now, I'll livestream the hand assembly process.
Every model aircraft will be assembled tonight and shipped tonight, so we can get them into your hands as soon as possible."
Chen Yi placed his phone on its stand. Without caring how many viewers there were, he chatted with the camera while assembling the model aircraft that had just been ordered.
However, Chen Yi, who had disabled all other message notifications during the livestream, had no idea what was happening.
As he chatted during the livestream and viewers came and went, messages kept appearing one after another in his phone's background.
"Consciousness Wave intervention detected. Observer effect stabilized. Quantum collapse state stabilized. System spark stabilized. Program loading. Current loading progress: 8/100" ".Current loading progress: 21/100" ".Current loading progress: 48/100" "Loading complete. Completing life binding."
Soon, an hour passed.
Even while chatting as he worked, he had assembled all three model aircraft.
Chen Yi found an excuse to end the livestream, packed up the assembled model aircraft, then stood up and looked around at the place that had consumed four years of his youth.
"The store's orders and video traffic are declining irreversibly. We've been operating at a loss for the past six months."
"Without core technology, you can still get a piece of the pie during the growth phase of a market. But once it enters the stock phase, lacking technology means becoming cannon fodder."
Chen Yi recalled his experiences over the years.
Five years ago, after graduating from vocational college, he joined DJI Drones as an assembly worker—commonly known as screwing in screws.
He worked there for a little over half a year.
Then, by chance, Chen Yi discovered that civilian drone assembly was practically a blank market. He decisively resigned and opened an online store selling assembled drones.
At the same time, he created social media accounts and filmed drone assembly and flight videos to drive traffic to his online store.
In less than two months, he became popular.
By integrating online and offline resources, orders at his online store began soaring wildly. Along with revenue from video views and advertising—
In just two and a half years—
He achieved his goal of buying a car and a house outright in Penghai City, while saving several million yuan.
Then, two years ago, assembled drones and FPV drones entered a fiercely competitive market, and countless related social media accounts and online stores were driven to despair by the competition.
Chen Yi decisively shifted to the model aircraft field and continued making money for over a year.
But half a year ago, everything changed.
The constant impact of short videos caused his video views to plummet.
It was not just that view revenue and advertising revenue had nearly vanished.
The declining traffic also caused his online store's order volume to collapse.
On top of that, model aircraft had entered the stock phase, and countless fanatics of cutthroat competition flooded into the field.
A bunch of students from the Seven Sons of National Defense had even started posting videos online, showing off rockets built from scratch to crush the competition.
Faced with such brutal competition, other store owners with technology and channels began working on more technically demanding turbojet model aircraft.
As for store owners like him—vocational college graduates who had always manually assembled drones and electric ducted-fan model aircraft—they could only slowly lose their competitive edge.
"Forget it. If the store closes, it closes."
"Even though I lost some money over the past six months, what I have left is still enough for me to enjoy myself for a few years. I can get an off-road vehicle and spend a few years traveling around the country."
"I should go see whether Xiaoyu has finished tallying the inventory parts. In the next few days, I'll clear them out to Old Zhang in the same business—holy shit, what is this?"
Chen Yi moved aside a model aircraft and was about to leave.
Suddenly, a translucent interface appeared above the model aircraft.
[Item: Handmade Model Aircraft] [Attributes: Energy x7.3, Speed x4.2, Stability x4.6, Strength x2.3, Appearance x5.1] [Consciousness Waves: 3089] [Adjustable Attributes: 0] [Note: This is a crudely designed toy aircraft with mediocre performance!]
A strange interface displayed a series of different attributes.
Behind every attribute were two tiny plus and minus signs.
The plus signs were gray and unavailable, while the minus signs were bright and selectable.
"Consciousness Waves... That sounds kind of familiar."
Chen Yi thought for a moment, then picked up the phone on the table.
After unlocking the screen, more than a dozen messages popped up.
"Consciousness Wave intervention detected. Observer effect stabilized. Quantum collapse state stabilized. System spark stabilized. Program loading. Current loading progress: 48/100" "Loading complete. You have obtained 3,000 initial Consciousness Waves. Beginning life binding." "Binding complete. Greetings, esteemed host." "Through the system's control over the Quantum Domain, you can adjust the attributes of items you create, develop various advanced technologies, and establish a super-dimensional civilization."
Chen Yi stared at the messages, then at the translucent interface floating beside the model aircraft, and could not help falling into deep thought.
Before you continue