The elevator spat Ethan Cole into cold air and glass. Above the garage, the city still burned at 1:20 a.m.—LED billboards blinking, buses sighing at red lights, a thousand windows lit like open eyes. He hugged the ruined box tighter and walked until the ache in his chest turned into motion.
His phone chimed in his palm.
[Newbie Task: Make 1 sale within 24 hours.]
[Reward: Traffic Boost ×1]
A sale. He didn't even have a product—unless junk counted.
He set the box on a bus stop bench and sifted. Paper cups. Dead pens. The framed photo—face down now. Beneath it, a plain matte-black phone case he'd ordered months ago by mistake. New in pouch. Generic, but clean.
His screen flashed again:
[Eligible product detected.]
[Suggested platform: Amazon | Fulfillment: Merchant (FBM)]
[Issue: GTIN required. → Temporary GTIN Exemption granted (Trial).]
Ethan exhaled. He still had an old Amazon seller account—opened in a fit of ambition years back, then forgotten. He ducked into an all-night diner, bought a coffee to pay the rent on a corner booth, and opened his laptop.
Wi-Fi connected. Seller Central loaded. Credentials remembered.
Dashboard: zero sales, zero reviews, zero everything.
[Tutorial Support enabled. Create listing now? Y/N]
"Y," he whispered.
A guided form slid in, step after step—category, title, bullets, price. The System filled each box with crisp language that sounded like a human who knew what sold. Ethan adjusted where it made sense.
Title: Minimalist Slim Phone Case—Matte Grip, Pocket-Friendly
Price: $11.99 (free shipping)
Condition: New
SKU: COLE-CASE-001
Images were the problem. He didn't have a light box. He had a napkin, a desk lamp, and a table. He wiped the surface, set the phone case down, propped the lamp with a salt shaker, and shot six angles with his phone.
The System overlaid a grid, auto-cut the background to clean white, straightened edges, boosted contrast—not magic, just ruthless efficiency. The photos looked like they belonged on a real store shelf.
[Listing Quality Score: 84/100]
[Publish? Y/N]
Ethan checked shipping settings—FBM, 2–4 days, $0.00—and hit Y.
[Listing Live]
[Countdown: 23h 11m]
Good. Except "live" meant nothing without eyes.
The screen pulsed:
[Optional Boost: Keyword Radar (Trial) → +22% click-through on matched terms]
[Cooldown: 72h | Compliance audit risk: +5%]
[Activate? Y/N]
There it was—the price of power. Risk, in fine print. He thought of the VP's smile through the half-open window. He thought of the ring disappearing under someone else's hand.
"Y," he said.
The diner window rattled as a truck went by. On-screen, a heat map of real-time searches bloomed. The top cluster pulsed "minimalist phone case," "matte grippy case," "no-logo slim case." Long tails scrolled like a tide.
[Recommendation: Adjust title + bullets to mirror high-intent phrasing.]
He tweaked:
Title → No-Logo Minimalist Phone Case (Matte, Anti-Slip, Slim Fit)
Bullets → Pocket friendly. Camera lip. Soft-touch grip.
[A/B title test deployed.]
[Estimated impressions in next 60 min: 240–420]
The coffee went cold while he watched the dashboard flicker. One visitor. Bounce. Two visitors. Add to Cart: 1—abandoned. He cut the price to $10.99, not a penny more.
[Price change accepted | Buy Box eligibility: 0% → 24%]
A red icon blinked at the corner of the listing.
[Warning: Competing offer detected on your ASIN.]
[Seller: "PrimeChoiceGoods" | Price: $7.69 | Shipping: Free]
Ethan's jaw set. He clicked through. The competing storefront was bare-bones but old—feedback in the thousands. The kind of seller that could sleepwalk through undercuts all night.
The System slid in one more card:
[Counter-Options]
• Bundle +1 (2-pack) → New price tier, avoids direct undercut.
• Image Variant → Add lifestyle photo; increase CTR +8–12%.
• Micro-PPC (Trial) → $5 test budget on "no-logo slim case."
[Note: Using any option increases audit risk by +1–3%.]
He didn't have ad money. He had five dollars and a heartbeat.
Ethan pulled the phone case back out and took one more photo—his hand holding it against the diner's chrome edge, city lights blurred behind it. Clean. Human.
[Lifestyle image accepted.]
[CTR uplift expected.]
He added a 2-Pack child listing at $18.99 and hit Publish again.
A new visitor landed. Three seconds. Five. Ten. The cursor hovered over Add to Cart.
The bell over the diner door chimed as someone left. Ethan didn't look up. He watched the only thing that mattered: the tiny cart icon on his screen filling with the smallest, loudest orange.
[Order Placed: 1 unit — $10.99]
He didn't breathe for two beats. Then he did, and it felt like the first full breath since the garage.
[Task Progress: 1/1]
[Reward Unlocked: Traffic Boost ×1 (Next hour)]
[System Tip: Early momentum amplifies visibility. Keep pushing.]
Outside, a bus hissed away from the curb. Ethan closed the old photo app, slid the frame into the trash, and stood.
The red icon returned, brighter this time:
[Alert: "PrimeChoiceGoods" adjusted price → $6.99]
[Buy Box threatened.]
Ethan's eyes narrowed. The game wasn't over. It had finally begun.