Chapter 14: The Fox Borrows the Fence's Might - 1

Previously.

I visited Utaha of the Engineering Department and asked her to service our facilities and help with designing additional ones.

And two weeks passed.
Isn't that too much of a time skip, you ask?

Should I write about all the bullshit we went through—Utaha visiting the factory, designing and modifying the facilities, and going through hell to increase production?
I can already see the readers leaving if I did that, so I'll start the story from the point where everything was sorted out.

"What are you doing by yourself, Boss?"

"Just thinking."

"Boo~! We're all working, and you're just lost in thought~!"

"S. What are you doing?"

"Slacking off."

"In front of the boss?"

"Isn't our company basically a flat hierarchy?"

Hmm.
She's got a point. We're pretty much all like friends here.

...We've strayed a bit. Getting back on track. A month has passed since the factory was established.
A lot has happened in that time. We took in employees at the factory.

Committing terrorism in Millennium, hiding the fact that we committed terrorism from Millennium to get a contract, driving a truck into Millennium to get selling rights, entrusting our facility maintenance to Millennium's Engineering Department, and even doing business in Millennium...

"A thug, huh?"

"You're only just realizing that?"

No, that's not fair. Weren't they the ones who tried to steal our patent in the first place?
The terrorism part was just... unfortunate.

"Anyway, why are you here?"

"The maintenance on the FSR is finally finished. I came to guide you."

"Oh, really? Let's go."

Having gone through so much, the factory has grown in many ways as well.
While we're at it, maybe I should give a little introduction.

First, the place I'm at is the second floor, which is entirely for amenities.
It's natural for a company to have amenities, but I guess you could say our factory is a little different.

"Whose pillow is this?"

"It's mine! Pretty, right?!"

"Pretty or not, why is there a pillow in the dining area!"

The boss is a runaway teen and all the employees are former sukeban, so the company is basically their home.
So our daily routine consists of sleeping in a corner on eleven mattresses with our own personal bedding, and when work is done, we either rest on the newly bought sofa and watch TV, or eat at the large dining table before going back to sleep.

Where do we wash up, you ask? You expect too much from a small business.
The bathhouses in Kivotos are pretty good, you know.

"Is everyone working hard?"

"Yes!"

"The boss isn't working!"

"You're getting a pay cut, you little shit."

"Wow, what a shitty, exploitative boss."

Of course, I'm kidding. I haven't even decided your salaries yet.

"...Come to think of it. It's almost been a month."

"A month since what?"

"Since I hired you guys. We first met about four weeks ago."

"You're right."

I need to set the girls' salaries soon.
Come to think of it, wasn't I supposed to receive 300,000 yen from Kaiser every month?

Not that I have a problem even if they don't give me that kind of money anymore.

"How's it going?"

"Great. There's surprisingly little for us to do, isn't there? Just bring the materials, and when the finished product comes out, we pack it. That's all there is to it."

There are currently twelve production lines in operation.

Pistols, submachine guns, assault rifles, sniper rifles, shotguns, machine guns. And their respective ammunition.
One person is assigned to each firearm type. Since guns have a slower production rate than bullets, the schedule itself isn't too tight.

The Goto sisters, Arin and Sarin, are the supervisors. They're too valuable to be stuck on a production line.
To be precise, Arin is steadily working as our accountant, while Sarin is continuously researching and inspecting the machinery.

Lately, she's been talking about things I don't understand again, like attack attributes. Explosive, Piercing...
From what I've gathered, her goal is to increase the number of bullet types for each firearm to four. That means we'll have to overhaul the facilities again.

The two who aren't here are on sales duty. For now, since our only store is the Millennium branch, we don't need a lot of staff.
Ah, I found out recently. I never gave any specific orders, but the eight of them had been taking turns on sales duty amongst themselves. I guess it's like a duty roster.

Now then, let's take a look at our daily production output.

"A?"

"Yes, Boss."

As I asked Arin, she immediately sent over a report.
The report contained most of the information about the factory.

A brief summary of each facility is as follows.

[Guns: Up to twenty per day, cost is 40,000 yen.]
[Ammunition: Up to twenty thousand rounds per day, cost is 80,000 yen.]

"For your information, pistols and sniper rifles are different from other firearms. Pistols cost half as much, while sniper rifles cost about 1.5 times more."

In other words, the cost for maximum daily production is roughly 720,000 yen.
Two weeks ago, that would have been a "Is this right?" kind of expense. But things are different now.

"Sales are being adjusted to aim for a profit of about 50% of the cost price."

At this rate, the selling price for one gun would be about 3,000 yen.
Since existing Kaiser guns are around 5,500 yen, we definitely have a price advantage.

"Looking at it again, it's just ridiculous. How can they charge double?"

Theoretically, our maximum daily earnings are 1.08 million yen.
Sometimes our earnings dip, so it's reasonable to estimate it at around 1 million yen.

So, how much have we earned so far?

"Twelve million yen."

"Wow."

That's the amount of cash I currently have on hand from our earnings so far.
That's why the 300,000 yen I'll be getting from Kaiser soon seems like nothing.

'Though it was just last month that I was about to raid the break room because I didn't even have that 300,000.'

But at the same time. Wow! It's positive! But it's also true that it's far from enough.
In 11 months, we have to meet Kaiser's "expectations", but do you know what our market share is right now?

0.01%. No, it might be even less, too small to be tallied.
Right now, our competitor, Kaiser Industries, has a monthly revenue of 2 trillion yen. At our current rate, our annual revenue is 200 million yen.

Actually, that's to be expected. It's ridiculous to think we could overtake a company older than I am in just one month.
Of course, that's not to say we can't overtake them in the future.

What does this mean? It means it's time for selection and concentration again.
How does Industries make so much money?

Surprisingly, selling firearms themselves isn't that profitable.

Even if you sell a hundred thousand guns, a single tank is more expensive.
In fact, ammunition is more profitable than guns. Unlike bullets, which are consumables, guns are durable goods, so they last a long time and are replaced less frequently.
In fact, we're already starting to see a surplus of about a hundred units for some of the more minor firearm types.

So how do they make money?
Grenades. Missiles. Consumables like flashbangs and smoke grenades. Items like bulletproof vests, riot shields, and helicopters are also profitable.

"So you're going to build a tank? That sounds fun!"

"You shouldn't seek fun in your work, S."

"Are you crazy? We don't have the money."

How can a company with a total capital of 12 million yen build something that starts at a selling price of 200 million yen?
Of course, that price is likely heavily inflated by Kaiser. But that doesn't make it any less reckless.

"Let's start small for now. For example, yes. How about building an additional store in Millennium?"

As if questioning my words, Sarin spoke up.

"Do we really need to? I think we've gotten everything we can out of Millennium."

"Of course we do."

The promotion we've done so far has been promotion 'for Millennium'.
What we need now is promotion 'through Millennium'.

"We need to set up branches outside of Millennium, you see."

To do that, it's logical to increase our number of branches within Millennium first.
We need to check for any minor issues in advance and solidify our foundation.

"What's the price of a factory site like right now?" 

"It's about 50,000 yen per pyeong."

"That's definitely expensive."

"Including the building and facilities, it's estimated to cost at least 100 million yen."

A new factory seems premature.
Then we'll have to increase the number of stores.

"Is there really any point in increasing the number of stores?"

"Think a little, S. You don't even want to go to the convenience store right in front of the factory, so do you think Millennium students would want to come all this way to buy a gun?"

"Ah."

As Arin just explained, increasing the number of stores is significant in itself.
Putting everything else aside, it roughly means our net profit will double.

There's the problem of our production capacity lagging, but we can manage that with the stock we have on hand.
Building a new store isn't something that can be done in a day or two either.

Of course, the president of the Millennium student council had one built in a day, but it would be difficult to expect such a favor again.
If it becomes a real problem, we can just build new facilities for the firearm types we're short on. Having a comfortable amount of money really puts my mind at ease.

"Anyway. So what do you think we should do now?"

"Raise the estimated 20 million yen needed to open a new store?"

"...It costs that much? Anyway. That's not it."

We don't have enough people to guard the factory and operate the machines while we're designing the interior.
On top of that, if we build a new store, who's going to manage the staff there?

"The conclusion is one and the same."

We need to hire more employees.

 

That evening. After changing into our pajamas, we held a simple meeting on our mattresses before going to sleep.

"For those reasons, we need to hire more people. What do you all think is the best way to recruit?"

The first to give an opinion was Arin.

"First of all, advertising is impossible."

"That's not an opinion, sis!"

...After that, several other opinions came up.

"How about we hand out flyers in Millennium?"

"Millennium students have their lives all planned out. Would they really come to a shitty, I mean, a small business like this?"

"What did you just say?"

The opinion to recruit from Millennium.

"There's this place called Gehenna next door, with kids who are easy to exploit for cheap. Why don't we entice them?"

"Are we Kaiser? Let's get a grip."

The opinion to recruit from Gehenna.

"We're sukeban too, so can't we just gather other sukeban?"

"Sarin, think about it. Do you really think that species would work quietly?"

"Are you being racist, sis?"

"Haaaah..."

The opinion to recruit sukeban.

After hearing all these opinions, I came to one conclusion.

"Should we just give up?"

"It's not a bad idea, but it's not a good choice in the long run."

In the end, we couldn't come up with any good ideas and decided to just go to sleep.
We have to work tomorrow too. There's no rest for us.

"Greetings. You're a little late."

"...Are you that mad dog?"

"I am. Which would make you the Calamity Fox, I presume?"

At that moment. While Arin and Sarin were fighting over blankets.
A completely different atmosphere was brewing elsewhere in Kivotos.

The interrogation of the Calamity Fox, Kosaka Wakamo—who had become a named, wanted criminal in just one month after becoming a delinquent—had begun.
And the person in charge of that interrogation. Was Valkyrie's mad dog, also recently regarded as the next Director of the Public Security Bureau. Ogata Kanna.

"The SRT did a fine job."

"I, as well. I never imagined I would lose to just four students."

"They may be troublesome, but their skills are undeniable. Now then. Let's begin the questions."

Kanna put down the coffee she was drinking and began speaking as she flipped through the documents.

"Assault, robbery, leading a majority of sukeban and Helmet Gang members, destruction of property... Do you have any excuses for these incidents?"

"Well, even if I were to explain, would you even try to understand?"

"That depends on you."

"Huhu, is that so. It's a shame, but I have nothing more to say."

"...Take her away."

And so, Wakamo was dragged back to the detention center.
If she were to go through the proper procedures, Wakamo would probably be released after being imprisoned for at least five months.

But the Calamity Fox is not one to be underestimated.

She could escape with the help of her subordinates on the way to the detention center, then build up her forces by raiding a suitable location. And then resume her activities.
And and...

"...I must continue."

An unlucky fox brings about disaster.
Terror erupts on the path she walks, and with every word and action, a terrible calamity spreads like a dark cloud.
She cannot stop it, and furthermore, no matter what she does, the power of that calamity only grows.

Naturally, this is due to her 'Mystic,' but she has no way of knowing that.

The Calamity Fox will continue to move forward.
And so, perhaps in the distant future, there might be a path where she is saved by a certain adult...

"Ah, Boss. Can you hear me? I've spotted a decent weapon shop in Millennium."

At least. This time.

"It's called... 'Nong Jang'."

She will take a faster shortcut than that path.

Right now, she may think it's a strange name, but in exactly one month.
The Calamity Fox will be within the farm's fence.