Chapter 23

– So cute!

– I wish I had a daughter like Hana too, hehe…

– But the hair color and eyes are so unique… Is she even human?

– Look at the channel name above, probably a humanoid monster or something.

According to Starlight Research Institute’s channel, Hana’s “Haru” category was gaining popularity at an impressive rate.

It wasn’t like it suddenly got hundreds of thousands of views, but compared to the videos previously uploaded to the channel, the view count was 2-3 times higher.

So, maybe because the channel was about to blow up, I found myself in a situation where I had to wear *this* kind of outfit.

“Hana, can’t you just try this on once?”

“No!”

Bora held up a flowy dress and spoke to me. I hadn’t forgotten I was a guy, so I firmly refused.

Even though I was currently wearing a hoodie and shorts, if I put on that dress, I felt like whatever masculinity I had left would completely disappear.

“If you wear this, I’ll do one thing you like…”

Seeing Bora’s dejected expression made me feel bad. After all, Bora was going through all this trouble because of me, and it felt a bit wrong to keep rejecting her.

“Then…”

As I hesitated, I saw Bora’s expression brighten instantly. It felt like things were going her way, but since I also needed to gain popularity, I figured I’d have to endure wearing the dress.

“Fine, I’ll wear it, Bora.”

“Thank you, Hana!”

Bora started giggling and began taking off my clothes. I shouted that I could do it myself, but it seemed like Bora wasn’t listening. Luckily, it was just the two of us in the room, so no one else saw me in my underwear.

If Bald Man or Haru were here, it would’ve been embarrassing, but with just Bora around, it was somewhat manageable.

And so, I ended up wearing the flowy dress Bora handed me. Looking in the mirror, I saw that the cuteness of a child from that age group was overwhelmingly radiating from me.

Even if I were just wearing a sack, my face would still look incredibly cute, but with this adorable dress on, the cuteness factor seemed to have doubled.

I spun around in the dress for no reason.

“How do I look, Bora?”

“The… the best!”

Bora seemed even more excited than I was. Even though I was the one wearing the dress, for some reason, Bora looked happier about it. Bora could look pretty too if she dressed up, but right now, she looked like a tired office worker.

Bora grabbed a camera and started taking pictures of me. There wasn’t much content—just me watching TV or basking in the sunlight while answering a few of Bora’s questions.

The dress suited me so well that Bora couldn’t stop smiling.

“Hana, you know you have class today, right?”

“Yeah.”

Every day, I was learning about this world’s common sense and various things. I already knew most of it, but I pretended to study hard. Maybe if I kept this up, they’d give me a mobile phone or something.

With only a TV in the room, I got bored sometimes. Since there was no internet, it was hard to see how my videos were being received.

Bora said if I studied a bit more, she’d buy me a hundred phones, so I was patiently learning little by little.

I couldn’t wait for the day I’d finally be able to leave this building.

Since it had been a while since I wore something Bora wanted, she took a few more photos for her personal collection before finally letting me go. I guess it was because I usually didn’t wear stuff like this.

I felt like I was doing overtime as I struck a few poses for Bora’s photo requests.

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[Let’s explore the benefits of Starlight Green Tea—not your ordinary green tea!]

[What’s the magical ingredient in Starlight Green Tea bags?]

[“We can’t sell it fast enough!” Consumers are clamoring for Starlight Green Tea, even if the price goes up.]

Over a month after Starlight Green Tea was introduced, media coverage about it started increasing.

Since even the reporters enjoyed drinking Starlight Green Tea, the articles often included complaints about how they couldn’t get enough due to limited supply.

The executives at Starlight Food couldn’t help but grin as they read the flood of articles.

Why? Because the articles suggested that even if they raised the price insanely high, there would still be an overwhelming number of consumers willing to buy it.

“This is great. The articles are leaning in our favor, aren’t they?”

Kim Sehee, the CEO of Starlight Food, smiled as she spoke. She was a direct descendant of the Starlight Guild, but being the sixth child, she…

Compared to her older brothers and sisters, it seemed like she didn’t inherit a lucrative business.

Kim Sehee, battered by competition, felt utterly fed up and, tired of the bloody management disputes, ended up taking over Starlight Food as if she were being chased out.

Starlight Food probably didn’t even account for 1% of Starlight Guild’s sales.

She cursed the heavens for giving her five siblings ahead of her, but still, being born as a chaebol’s daughter, she grew up without lacking anything.

But then, luck came her way when the humanoid monster captured by Starlight Research Institute turned out to have an incredible talent. It brought in billions of won in sales just by sitting there—how could she not be happy?

However, from her perspective, it might not be enough to satisfy her older siblings, who would probably scoff at it. They were dealing with trillions, while she was still in the billions. The difference in scale meant they didn’t really care.

Kim Sehee secretly wished they would continue to ignore her. She gathered Starlight Food’s executives.

She composed her face, suppressing an unconscious smile with superhuman patience, and spoke to the executives.

“Then, we should set a new price for Starlight Green Tea.”

At her words, everyone stiffened and started glancing at each other. Online and offline, there was already an overwhelming demand for Starlight Green Tea.

Frankly, even if they sold it for 10,000 won per teabag, people would still buy it. High-end spices were selling like hotcakes at prices that would make ordinary folks’ eyes pop.

Now, Starlight Green Tea no longer needed to worry about what other green teas were doing.

The strategy of winning consumers’ favor with low prices and then sharply increasing the price of Starlight Green Tea was effective.

If they had sold it at a high price from the start, it wouldn’t have flown off the shelves like it did now. If it were more expensive than other brands, consumers wouldn’t have bought it without even trying it.

Originally, they planned to sell it at a high price, but the previous version of Starlight Green Tea, which didn’t include the special ingredient, flopped, so they had no choice but to sell it cheap.

The stigma of the failed green tea wasn’t easy to shake off. If it hadn’t flopped before, they might have sold it differently.

“How about raising the price to 1,000 won? Even though Starlight Green Tea has good effects, they’re relatively minor compared to others.”

“I think we could raise it to 5,000 won. Our green tea may have minor effects, but it’s not that far behind.”

“If we’re raising it, why not go all the way to 10,000 won?”

“Raising it to 10,000 won would overlap with the Saber Tiger mane sold by Starlight Guild. The Saber Tiger mane sells for 10,000 won per strand and has a much better concentration effect than our green tea, though it has some side effects and a short duration. If we start selling our green tea at 10,000 won, consumers might resist psychologically.”

“And if we raise the price beyond 10,000 won, there are plenty of alternatives to our green tea. Our green tea is praised by consumers because it’s cheap and abundant compared to its performance.”

“Then we should lower the price a bit. We can’t have overlapping products in the market, especially since we’re all part of the same family.”

Various opinions poured out during the meeting. With all the executives from the factory gathered, there were quite a few, and since Kim Sehee wasn’t usually authoritative, even lower-ranking employees could speak up confidently.

Even after hours of discussion, no conclusion was reached. Since humans can’t read consumers’ minds, they had to capture the unpredictable, reed-like hearts of consumers.

Capturing those hearts was both difficult and challenging.

As the marathon meeting dragged on, Kim Sehee slowly tapped her desk with her fingers, deep in thought.

As the CEO, if she spoke, the meeting would end there, so she couldn’t easily say anything.

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