Chapter 34: Startup Funds | Monsters Are Coming
One hour later.
With flashes of white light, 52 figures appeared at the resurrection point in Emperor's Mound Village.
The moment they entered the game, Yang Tianxuan and the members of the Weapons Development Division were stunned by the scene before them, finding it hard to believe this was a game world.
Driven by habit, they immediately began testing the world's realism.
Gravity perception tests, stone-throwing to observe parabolic trajectories, scent sensitivity tests, coordination tests… While other players watched them like a group of lunatics, they became completely convinced by the game's authenticity.
"Boss, the Lunar Eclipse Race's technology has made another leap forward. They've actually created such a realistic game world," marveled the white-haired elder standing beside Yang Tianxuan.
Hearing this, Yang Tianxuan said nothing. His internal shock was beyond words.
He had long dreamed of testing weapons inside a virtual environment.
He had previously attempted weapon testing inside Sin Land, a virtual game released by the Lunar Eclipse Race five years ago.
But the results had been unsatisfactory, and he eventually abandoned the idea.
In reality, building a perfectly accurate physics simulation game was harder than reaching the heavens.
He had thoroughly analyzed the enormous technical obstacles involved.
Leaving aside the insane server capacity required, everything else would also need to reach absolute perfection, interaction frequency, data processing volume, rendering quality, and much more.
Furthermore, the virtual world would need to simulate all real-world physical phenomena, gravity, light, materials, sound, etc., demanding computation far beyond human understanding to ensure the accuracy and real-time responsiveness of the physics engine.
To achieve perfect realism, every detail of the virtual world had to be intricately simulated, buildings, vegetation, terrain, weather changes, massively increasing the burden on the data processing centers.
Moreover, the enormous amount of data generated at all times in-game would need to be processed and updated in real-time, including information produced by player interactions.
For example, when players damaged the environment, the game would have to immediately update the scene accordingly.
Considering all these variables, creating a fully realistic game was, in Yang Tianxuan's mind, practically impossible, equivalent to creating an entirely new world, consuming resources at a 1:1 ratio.
In other words, building a perfect Earth simulation game would theoretically require consuming resources equal to that of an entire planet.
And yet, the reality before his eyes was undeniable, the Lunar Eclipse Race had somehow used unknown technology to create a flawless, loophole-free virtual game.
As he marveled at the immense technological gap between the Human Federation and the Lunar Eclipse Race, a fire ignited within Yang Tianxuan.
With such a realistic virtual environment, they could now push their work to the limit, free from concerns about environmental damage, personal safety, or any of the usual constraints.
"Boss, I've looked through the shop. There are no tools or equipment for us to start weapons development; we'll have to build everything from scratch… but the shop does sell spirit stones. We could start by making Psionic Firearms."
Hearing this, Yang Tianxuan nodded in agreement.
Creating powerful technological weapons would require forging equipment, processing machinery, measurement and calibration tools, an entire manufacturing pipeline that would take significant time to build from nothing.
But Psionic Firearms were different. They were an early weapon technology provided by the Lunar Eclipse Race to humans.
Weapons could be forged by altering the energy pathways within spiritual ores, embedding spirit stones as power sources, and engraving aura compression arrays.
When the trigger was pulled, the firearm would draw energy from the embedded spirit stone, compress it into bullet form, and launch it with compressed aura force. Upon hitting a target, the unstable psionic projectile would instantly detonate, creating area-of-effect damage.
For early exploration, this technology was far more practical.
"Then let's start by manufacturing a batch of Psionic Firearms," Yang Tianxuan finalized the plan.
At that moment, a middle-aged man with a scruffy beard asked in confusion.
"Director, the problem is, everything in the shop requires Sacrificial Power to purchase. I checked all over the system panel but found no recharge function. Where are we supposed to get the startup funds to buy materials and make Psionic Firearms?"
Yang Tianxuan: "…"
Faced with the startup funds problem, Yang Tianxuan fell into deep thought.
"Have you contacted Qin Ye yet? He entered the game ahead of us. Ask how much Sacrificial Power he has on hand that we might borrow."
"I just added him as a friend. I'll ask now," the middle-aged man said, opening his friends list to initiate contact.
A moment later, he looked toward Yang Tianxuan somewhat awkwardly.
"He only has 239 Sacrificial Power, nowhere near enough for our startup funds."
"Then we'll buy Sacrificial Power from other players. We'll pool the funds ourselves for now and won't submit a budget request."
With a plan in place, they took action immediately, flooding the regional chat with dozens of buy orders offering a 20:1 exchange rate.
However, their messages were quickly drowned out by other players' posts, some even mocking them for dreaming, saying their price was no better than robbery.
This made Yang Tianxuan and the other members of the Weapons Development Division realize their offer was far too low.
They began steadily raising the price.
From 20:1, they climbed to 100:1, yet still no players were willing to sell their Sacrificial Power.
Yang Tianxuan was utterly dumbfounded.
Sensing something was wrong, he reached out to Qin Ye for clarification.
The answer shocked him.
The in-game exchange rate for Sacrificial Power had already risen from 50:1 to 150:1, and even then, few players were willing to sell.
There were two main reasons for this.
First, Sacrificial Power consumption far outpaced production. Players needed all their Sacrificial Power just to improve their own strength, leaving nothing to sell.
Second, the price of Sacrificial Power had been steadily climbing, and players generally believed it would continue rising.
Many gold-farming players planned to spend Sacrificial Power early to boost their strength, then earn more later. Selling too much Sacrificial Power early would leave them lagging behind others in growth, severely shrinking their profits down the line.
Understanding the situation from Qin Ye, Yang Tianxuan fell into contemplation.
If they kept raising their buy price, their salaries wouldn't sustain such spending. But submitting a funding request would be a tedious, time-consuming bureaucratic process.
With no recharge option and no reasonable way to purchase Sacrificial Power, Yang Tianxuan was at a loss once again and called Qin Ye via voice chat.
"Little Ye, is there any fast way to earn Sacrificial Power?"
"At the moment, there are three ways to farm Sacrificial Power. First, leave Emperor's Mound Village and hunt monsters of all types. Second, explore the world and, if lucky, find harvestable spirit plants. Compared to those two, I recommend you use the third option."
"What is it?" Yang Tianxuan asked immediately.
"Go mining in the Shadowed Cavern!"