On the factory side, two production lines are running in three shifts, 24 hours a day, yet still unable to meet the huge market gap. The market department must coordinate supply uniformly and temporarily limit supply to ensure everyone has some to sell.

Under this situation of supply shortage, the effect of the Yellow Storm bait has further been mythologized by the majority of the black pit angling friends.

In some regions, there's even a grand spectacle of being hard to find the bait, with price gouging appearing in fishing gear groups and live broadcast rooms.

After the main company gathered the relevant information, they immediately issued notices to agents about regulated business practices and severely punished a few typical rule-breakers, thus stabilizing the overall sales situation of new fish bait.

...

About four hundred kilometers away from W City is M City, where a young black pit player in his early thirties is driving his Great Wall off-road vehicle, excitedly heading to a fishing gear store he regularly frequents.

This guy is a fan of Zhang Yang. He hasn't been playing black pit for long, only a little over half a year, but he has always trusted Zhang Yang Company's products. Recently, he found out through a live broadcast that Zhang Yang released new products, so he inquired everywhere to buy them. As soon as the offline fishing gear store received them, he bought a complete set of the Yellow Storm bait.

Based on his angling skill level, in a typical session with a two hundred yuan fishing fee, he usually catches about three to five fish. Occasionally, catching ten or eight fish is like burning high incense during New Year.

But recently, this buddy's black pit results have significantly improved. Using the Yellow Storm bait with a 2211 mix ratio as recommended by Zhang Yang, adding a little Musk Herbal Wine, and not adding any other secret ingredients, the practical effect in several pits he regularly visits has been excellent.

It's Saturday again today, and tomorrow morning there's a scheduled fishing session, so this buddy comes to the fishing gear store to replenish his supplies.

"Hey! Master Liu is here again, what do you want to buy?" The fishing gear store owner, enthusiastic about customers with a strong addiction to fishing, greeted him as he entered.

"The usual, four packs of Yellow Storm bait, two packs of original flavor, and two packs of black sugar flavor. The fruit and sweet potato flavors aren't finished yet, so I won't get those this time. Also, I'll take one board of 2.0 hand-tied hooks!" Liu Chengbin said skillfully.

"Alright, four packs of bait for 112, plus 25 for ten sub-lines, that totals 137 yuan, let's make it 135!" The owner quickly packed the bait into a plastic bag.

"Are more people coming to find this bait lately? In Xiaomeng Village, this bait is incredibly effective. Those who ask me where I got it, I always say I bought it here!"

"I'll treat you sometime! Indeed, many anglers came looking for it! Since I started dealing in Yellow Storm bait, business has improved a lot!"

"Of course, I'd never deceive you! Their Musk Herbal Wine is also extremely effective, I use it together, you should stock some too. Despite its high price, it doesn't require much use, it's very handy!"

"Alright, I'll replenish some stock soon!"

...

During their chat, two more cars parked at the store entrance, two middle-aged men in their thirties and forties got out, scrutinized the fishing gear store sign, and walked in for the first time.

"Hello, do you have Yellow Storm black pit bait here? Give each of us a set! Oh, isn't this Master Liu? You're here too! Here, have a cigarette!"

Half a year ago, 'Master Liu' was just a black pit novice, but now, thanks to a bait, he transformed into a fishing expert in the eyes of the fishing gear store owner and anglers, confidently enjoying others' admiring glances.

...

Such events are happening in many places. The Yellow Storm, due to its ultra-strong wide-spectrum and outstanding practical fishing effects, rapidly swept over large northern black pits, crazily snatching the black pit bait market originally belonging to the Little Yellow Face.

The growth in the number of anglers is relatively delayed. For most players, after using Little Yellow Face, the sales of Japan-imported Marukyu bait declined.

The same logic applies, Yellow Storm dominated a large portion of anglers' bait boxes, causing the old version Little Yellow Face's sales volume to naturally shrink rapidly.

Baoding Little Yellow Face Factory.

Wang Defa glanced at the weekly factory sales shipment report compiled by the sales manager in his office, his face turning extremely ugly.

"Last week, why was the factory shipment volume so low? Only a third of the previous average shipment volume, what happened?" Wang Defa asked harshly while smoking.

"President Wang, a lot of old customers reported to us, our Little Yellow Face's sales in stores are continuously dropping. Original black pit anglers are all going to buy Yellow Storm bait!"

"Yellow Storm? The one produced by Zhang Yang Company?"

Speaking of Yellow Storm bait, Wang Defa has a deep impression. After reluctantly paying for two black pit competitions, the main prize was snatched by Zhang Yang and his team, making Wang Defa's actions effectively helping others succeed.

"Yes, that's the one! Many old customers even called me to inquire if we could make that bait! Indeed, the effect is excellent!

Earlier, the first batch of adventurous anglers benefited from it in black pits! Subsequently, spontaneous publicity led to rapid increase in attention! Although our Little Yellow Face has a cheap procurement price, people don't recognize it!"

"Alright, I understand! Go buy a set of their bait samples, I'll figure out how to make some myself! Isn't it just puffed bait? There's no bait that Wang Defa can't make!!"

"Okay! I'll get right on it!"

...

In the next few days, Wang Defa focused his attention on cracking the Yellow Storm bait formula.

But after tinkering back and forth for a long time, he still couldn't produce a product with more than eighty percent similarity.

Compared to ordinary Little Yellow Face, Yellow Storm used higher puffing ratio production equipment. To reduce stickiness and lighten weight, adjustments were made in the raw material ratios of soymeal and cornmeal.

Additionally, to enhance bait protein, Zhang Yang included large amounts of plant oils and imported roasted fish powder. The exterior of the product looks similar, but on a microscopic level, the material grades are very high.

The original Little Yellow Face was merely floating water granules screened, with some common attractants added, allowing for easy imitation. But this high puffing ratio Yellow Storm bait, without knowledgeable assistance, simply researching blindly for days, weeks, or months wouldn't achieve high production formula restoration.

Unyielding Wang Defa enlisted the help of several friends to research for a week but still failed to produce bait with close data match. Gritting his teeth, a wicked thought emerged inside him.

Unable to achieve high restoration like Little Yellow Face formula cracking, he decided to take a different route, to fake it!

Among the original, black sugar, fruit, and sweet potato flavors, the original bait had the largest use. To accommodate the overall bait's weight and condition, this bait's status was closest to the original Little Yellow Face, hence Wang Defa focused his main breakthrough there!

With a plan in mind, Wang Defa quickly began retesting in his small workshop.

If the color wasn't right, he used industrial pigments to adjust; if protein was insufficient, he used the lowest grade leftover shrimp powder and fish bone powder; if puffing degree was lacking, he worked on grinding mesh count.

After a series of deliberate adjustments, Wang Defa concocted a bait package with around eighty percent appearance similarity.

With the original flavor bait done, Wang Defa found some leads. He applied the same process to the other flavors, adding large amounts of essence and industrial pigments in the basic bait, consciously ignoring weight issues, and achieved similarly close conditions for other parameters.

Besides the bait's performance and condition, Wang Defa also put great effort into bait packaging.

Zhang Yang Company's bait was called Yellow Storm, so Wang Defa contacted a packaging factory and created a printing template with Yellow Frenzy and registered the corresponding trademark.

The illustration on the bait packaging bag almost mirrored Yellow Storm's color scheme with subtle differences, like Li Kui and Li Gui; without close inspection, they were quite difficult to distinguish at first glance.

Thus, after a series of preliminary preparations, the fake Yellow Frenzy was introduced to the vast angler market through the accumulated sales channels.