Sold Out

Early the next morning, Ning Yifan got up at five thirty as usual. After finishing his run, he returned to his rented apartment and opened the seller dashboard.

Overnight, another thirty-odd Phantom Projectors had sold. Added to the more than eighty sold earlier, that brought the total to over 120 in just two days!

The rented apartment where Ning Yifan lived had quite a bit more empty space now.

Looking at the store's sales orders, Ning Yifan estimated, "At this rate, they'll all be sold today. I'll ship them all out together tonight."

Then he added regretfully, "It's a shame I'm almost out of stock. I don't have a large sum of money right now to buy more parts, so all I can do is watch the last batch sell out. Otherwise, I could make a lot of money this time around."

The products had been sold, but to receive the money buyers had paid through the platform, he still had to wait for them to confirm receipt. It had only been two days since the first orders came in.

Only a few buyers had a habit of confirming receipt as soon as their packages arrived. Most were still testing their projectors and could take a few more days before confirming. They had seven days to return them for any reason, after all.

With no money coming back in yet, Ning Yifan couldn't afford to buy many more parts to assemble projectors, even if he wanted to. He might as well leave things as they were.

He could wait until most of the money had come back in before deciding what to do next. Besides, now that he had a system, why was he still assembling projectors every day like a factory worker on an assembly line?

In a few days, Ning Yifan would have learned how to make the Fully Automatic Production Robotic Arm. Wouldn't it be much more convenient to assemble one and have it handle the processing and assembly of the projectors? It would be fast, wouldn't need wages, and wouldn't need anyone to watch over it. That would finally free Ning Yifan from boring, repetitive work.

Just as Ning Yifan had expected, by five that afternoon, the remaining sixty-odd projectors had all sold out. Ning Yifan temporarily took the products off his Taobao and JD.com stores.

He contacted the SF Express courier he'd gotten to know over the past two days. After shipping out all the packages, Ning Yifan went back to his leisurely routine.

No need to rush. There was no end to the money he could make!

He could make his next move after a few days, when some of the buyers had confirmed receipt and the money had arrived.

Ning Yifan had already planned out his next steps.

It wasn't long before buyers who had been ready to purchase a Phantom Projector but couldn't find the product online got in touch.

The buyer and seller's chat window.

"Hey, boss, what happened? Why are they suddenly out of stock?"

Ning Yifan patiently explained the situation.

"We only made two hundred projectors in this batch, and they've all sold out. Naturally, there aren't any left."

The buyer who'd asked about it saw Ning Yifan's reply and asked regretfully,

"About how long until the next batch is available?"

"I heard about this product from a friend. Honestly, it's incredible."

"I'd been looking forward to buying one to try out at home. Who knew it'd be sold out? What a shame."

"Don't worry. They'll be back in stock soon. Once some of the money comes back in, the company will order parts and start producing more. It won't take long."

"Then how long, exactly?"

"About ten days."

It would take about ten days for the money to come in, for the projector parts to be purchased, and for the parts to be shipped to Ning Yifan. Then production could resume.

By then, Ning Yifan would have built the Fully Automatic Production Robotic Arm, just in time to help assemble the next batch of projectors.

Having gotten a rough estimate, the buyer stopped worrying. "All right, ten days isn't long. I can wait!"

The buyer who hadn't managed to get one ended the chat with a sigh.

Over the next few days, Ning Yifan received messages from several more customers asking about the product.

To avoid being bothered by customers contacting him, Ning Yifan added an explanation to the automatic replies: the products had been taken off the shelves because they were sold out, and the second batch wouldn't be available for about ten days.

Most of the customers asking about the product had heard of it from friends. They'd seen how well it worked and wanted one for themselves.

A small number were looking to buy a second one. Although a projector cost a full five thousand yuan, a few thousand yuan wasn't that much for many people. Especially among those who had bought one after watching the video, most could afford to buy another.

After using it for two days, they thought it was fantastic. Watching movies and shows or playing games on a massive 200-inch screen was an absolutely unbeatable experience!

Naturally, they wanted to share such a great product with others, show it off to their friends, or buy another one as a gift for family or friends so they could experience what it was like to watch something on a 200-inch screen. Those were all perfectly normal reactions.

Two hundred units might have seemed like a drop in the ocean compared with the more than a billion people in the Dasha Kingdom.

Yet those two hundred projectors had won over more than a hundred fans. Those fans were now recommending the product to people around them, helping more and more people hear about it, see it, and experience it for themselves. Compared with online review videos, the people taking their projectors everywhere to show off how great they were made the real sales experts!

You could see it and touch it, and it was much better than an ordinary TV. Its huge 200-inch screen could even be used as a monitor. So tell me, weren't you tempted?

The only shame was that even if you wanted one now, they were temporarily out of stock. All you could do was watch the friends who had bought a Phantom Projector first show off every day, telling you how great it was and how amazing the huge screen felt to use. They'd talk about how 8K movies looked different from ordinary ones, too.

On the second day after the Phantom Projector sold out, more than a hundred customers contacted Ning Yifan to ask about it.

On the third day, the number of inquiries rose again, reaching over three hundred!

As time went on, the first batch of customers continued recommending the projectors to more people around them. Then the customers who received theirs later began spreading the word, too.

Whenever customers chatted with their friends, it often took only a few lines before they started talking about the Phantom Projector they'd recently bought.

"I just bought this amazing product, the Phantom Projector. It has 8K resolution, and it works great in the daytime. It's even clearer than a monitor..."

"Come over to my place to watch a movie. A 200-inch, theater-quality screen is amazing!"

"Have you ever played a game on a 200-inch screen? I feel invincible!"

"Don't you play Speed Racer? It's even more fun on a screen this huge!"

"You don't believe me? I've got a video to prove it. Still don't believe me? Come over and try it at my place, haha!"

Five days after the Phantom Projector sold out, inquiries reached their peak, with more than five hundred in total!

Most people who came into contact with the Phantom Projector in real life became interested in it and then searched for information about it online.

So many people wanted this projector, and plenty of viewers left comments on the few review videos online.

"I want to buy one, but I can't! Isn't that infuriating?"

"That's what you get with a small manufacturer. Even if they have enough orders, they can't make many units. I think this product will be out of stock for a while."

"I thought spending five thousand yuan on a projector was incredibly irrational. But now it's sold out. My Phantom Projector, you're amazing!"

"I've been following the Phantom Projector for days. A friend has one, and I've been going over to watch movies and play games with it every day. I can't wait to get one myself. The second batch won't be available for about five more days. I've been training my Kirin Arm already. I hope I manage to snag one!"

"I watched the review video again. I can't believe I thought the uploader had been paid to praise this projector. I only hesitated for two days, and it sold out! Isn't that infuriating?"

"Come on over and have a blast! The Phantom Projector turns an entire wall of your room into a screen—it's incredible! The Home Cinema really lives up to its name. If you didn't manage to get a projector, come take a look!"

"I'll pay an extra five hundred yuan. Anyone willing to sell me a projector? I want one to try out."

However, after the Phantom Projector sold out and its fans had spent a few days showing it off and recommending it to every friend they could, they gradually quieted down.

On the sixth day after the Phantom Projector ran out of stock, inquiries dropped sharply, with only a little over two hundred.

On the seventh day, the number fell to just over a hundred.

A week after the projectors sold out, nearly all the customers who had received theirs had confirmed receipt. The money held by the Escrow Platform had also gradually arrived in Ning Yifan's bank account.

Over the past few days, Ning Yifan had occasionally taken software development jobs through a freelance platform to make a little extra money. Combined with the proceeds from the 194 Phantom Projectors, his bank account now held 1.12 million yuan, enough to order a large batch of equipment parts!

Ning Yifan took one million yuan and continued buying parts for the Phantom Projector. Since this was his second order and the quantity was somewhat larger, some manufacturers had lowered their prices on the parts. The latest batch brought the cost of each projector down to about 1,800 yuan, and contained enough parts to assemble 550 Phantom Projectors.

Ning Yifan used the remaining 120,000 yuan to have the parts for the Fully Automatic Production Robotic Arm custom-made.

That was right. Over the past few days, Ning Yifan had unlocked the Technology Tree for the Fully Automatic Production Robotic Arm and learned how to make this piece of cutting-edge technology.

With the Fully Automatic Production Robotic Arm to help, he believed the production and sales of his projectors would reach a whole new level.

After unlocking the Fully Automatic Production Robotic Arm, Ning Yifan chose another piece of cutting-edge processing equipment from the Technology Tree to study. He kept to a fixed schedule of seven hours of sleep and study each day, preparing to manufacture even more impressive high-tech products for his company in the future.