Market Research

Besides those two points, Huo Yuhao's greatest gain had undoubtedly been getting to know Bei Bei and Tang Ya. Although their relationship was still nothing more than a chance encounter and a nodding acquaintance, no matter what, they were the first two people Huo Yuhao had met after coming to Shrek Academy.

When one was unfamiliar with a place and knew nothing about it, things could become quite troublesome. Thus, after meeting Bei Bei and Tang Ya, Huo Yuhao could use them as an opening to gradually get to know the people in their circle, thereby developing his own social connections at Shrek Academy.

Huo Yuhao did not rush into setting up his stall. Instead, he took Huo Yun'er from Shrek's West City Gate and randomly sampled food from the stalls along Food Street. The two wandered around while eating and drinking, looking just like newly arrived freshmen who had come to register at Shrek City, strolling around Shrek Academy with a parent.

Although the main purpose of bringing his mother out was to eat and drink, Huo Yun'er still had a task to carry out.

Before long, Huo Yuhao was carrying a bag full of various local snacks packed to take away, while Huo Yun'er held a half-eaten candied hawthorn skewer, chatting with the owners of every stall as she ate.

The two wandered around from noon until the sun was nearly setting. By then, aside from all kinds of food, Huo Yuhao was also carrying quite a few new clothes, most of which were for him.

Although Huo Yuhao repeatedly insisted that he grew taller every day at his age and did not need new clothes, Huo Yun'er always used the excuse that she had already bargained the price down and it would be inappropriate not to buy them, choosing quite a few new outfits for him.

However, Huo Yuhao eventually found a way to counter this irresistible maternal love.

Whenever Huo Yun'er happily picked out an outfit for Huo Yuhao that was not too expensive and looked neat and presentable, Huo Yuhao would always find several new outfits from the racks that suited Huo Yun'er even better. Without bargaining, he would simply buy them with his eyes closed. Only then did he curb Huo Yun'er's enthusiasm for urgently adding to his wardrobe.

After returning to the inn where they were temporarily staying, Huo Yuhao took out paper and pen and began drawing a rough layout of Shrek City's Eastern District based on their day of wandering around Shrek City.

In particular, regarding the various buildings within Shrek Academy, thanks to successfully entering and taking a look around at noon, nearly all of them were laid bare beneath Huo Yuhao's pen, aside from the Inner Court on Sea God Island, about which he knew nothing.

Next, Huo Yuhao raised his head and thought over the layout of the shops and street stalls outside Shrek Academy.

Outside Shrek Academy, the West City Gate led directly into Shrek City, so it had the most shops and the greatest flow of people. The South Gate and North Gate were slightly less busy, but they still had a considerable number of shops.

The East City Gate, however, faced directly toward Star Dou Forest, leaving no space for shops. Yet precisely because of this, it was the liveliest of the four school gates when it came to street stalls.

Eighty percent of the stalls there were food stalls, with every kind of food imaginable. The remaining twenty percent were stalls selling supplies needed for hunting soul beasts. From Soul Tools to high-year Soul Beast Feces Powder, they were quite fully stocked.

According to the information Huo Yun'er had gathered from stall owners while eating away, shop rental costs around Shrek Academy were extremely high. Even the worst locations cost several thousand Gold Soul Coins per month, while slightly larger shops in better locations had rents that soared directly into the tens of thousands of Gold Soul Coins.

For that reason, Huo Yuhao temporarily gave up on his original idea of renting a shop right away to sell grilled fish and other barbecue. He planned to start by setting up a stall at Shrek Academy's East Gate and selling grilled fish.

Huo Yun'er's main task that afternoon had been to ask around about all the complicated matters concerning stalls and shops around Shrek Academy, while Huo Yuhao naturally had his own task to handle as well.

From his observations, although the shops near Shrek Academy were also mainly focused on food and drink, they only accounted for around sixty percent of all shops. Among the remaining forty percent, beverage shops selling things like sour plum drink, herbal tea, and yogurt made up roughly half.

As for the final twenty percent of shops, they covered all sorts of businesses: entertainment venues for students to relax, specialty Soul Tool retailers, and secondhand Soul Tool repair shops, among others.

Huo Yuhao naturally had little interest in entering those lines of business, but he was very interested in the secondhand Soul Tool repair shops by the West City Gate. Anyone who could open a shop in a place like Shrek City, where every inch of land was worth a fortune, must not only possess solid technical skills but also have decent connections.

At present, Huo Yuhao had no way to study Soul Tool technology at Shrek Academy yet. If, after selling grilled fish each day, he could become an apprentice at one of those secondhand Soul Tool repair shops, then even if he had to work for free for two years, Huo Yuhao felt that it would not be entirely unacceptable.

Early the next morning, Huo Yuhao went to a nearby Blacksmith Shop. To be honest, although the emergence of Soul Tools had dealt the Tang Sect quite a blow, their impact on the traditional blacksmithing trade had not been as great as imagined.

After all, Soul Tools had not yet developed to the point of producing strange contraptions like self-heating Soul Tool iron pots or self-plowing Soul Tool hoes.

When he had gone shopping with Huo Yun'er the day before, Huo Yuhao had ordered a set of grill ovens from this Blacksmith Shop. In addition, he had ordered some iron skewers for threading meat and an iron rack.

The forging costs of these iron tools were not high, but this was Shrek City. The labor fees for having tools made were even higher than in Star Luo City, making Huo Yuhao's heart ache.

Even so, Huo Yuhao restrained his miserly instincts from flaring up and honestly paid the deposit for the work.

After all, although making such a set of equipment was not difficult, it was quite time-consuming. It would take at least over two hours to finish. Spending only a few Silver Coins to save himself more than two hours, perhaps even four hours, of cultivation time was a deal Huo Yuhao considered quite worthwhile.

Of course, rational thought had helped Huo Yuhao make the right choice, but watching his savings shrink day by day still pained him deeply. As he left, he kept muttering about how he should have known better and had another set made at a Blacksmith Shop in Star Luo City.

It was not as if Huo Yuhao did not already have a barbecue grill, but the one he had made back then was clearly only suitable for a small gathering of a few people. It was absolutely insufficient for doing business.

As he made his way to the East City Gate, Huo Yuhao could not help feeling somewhat surprised. Although he had first gone to the Blacksmith Shop to pick up the barbecue equipment he had ordered, the streets were already extremely lively by then, with vendors selling everything imaginable in a dazzling array.

Clearly, they had the same goal as Huo Yuhao: they had all gathered here to do business with Shrek Academy's students.