CREAK!
Just as he was about to get back to it, Shen Fei suddenly heard the door to the next room open.
Is it 8 a.m. already?
He glanced down. It was already 8 a.m. He had been busy all night.
Better get some sleep. If Dad catches me still playing games, he'll freeze my accounts again...
For the sake of the long-term campaign, Shen Fei didn't rush things. The game invasion was still 29 days away. There was still time!
He quickly shut down his computer and lay on his bed. To prevent his sister, Shen Yue, from causing trouble, he even quietly placed a damp towel over his computer tower.
Of course, before shutting down the computer, he had activated the auto-battle mode in the game. This was a new privilege activated at VIP 10. With his newly upgraded Ninth Tier Lightning Ball Defense Tower, he could still one-shot the current monster waves.
Auto-battling to keep gaining experience and raising his Crystal's level was absolutely necessary...
. . .
"YAWN!"
"Yaaawn~"
At 10 a.m., Shen Fei and his sister, Shen Yue, were yawning as they sat at the dining table for their meal.
"What's with you two?" their mother asked with a frown.
"Shen Fei just had to wake me up to play games last night. Look, I have dark circles under my eyes!" his sister, Shen Yue, complained directly, exaggerating for effect.
"You sold the villa and sports car registered in your name?" Their father coughed twice. Instead of getting sidetracked by Shen Yue, he got straight to the point.
Shen Fei had sold his villa and sports car overnight. Of course, it hadn't escaped his father's informants.
"Yes!" Shen Fei answered without batting an eye. "I'm making a statement. I'm going to devote myself completely to the family business!"
Can't afford to provoke the old man. Who knows, if the hundred million I have isn't enough later, I might have to secretly sell some of the family's shares... There's less than a month left. I have to keep him fooled.
"Ewww~~~~"
The moment Shen Fei finished speaking, his sister Shen Yue made a sound of disdain.
"What is it?" Shen Fei shot her a glare.
"Nothing~~, the congee is a little hot. I'm just cooling it down." Sticking her tongue out at Shen Fei, Shen Yue swung her pink slippers back and forth under the table.
"Alright, it's good that you've truly come to realize this!" his father said. "There's nothing wrong with playing games, really. Just don't get so absorbed that you lose your ambition! In that case, come with me to visit an old client today!" His father wiped his mouth and immediately made the arrangement.
As a business tycoon, his father naturally knew his son was lying. His son couldn't possibly quit games cold turkey, unless... he was dead! But the fact that he was willing to show this attitude and follow the family's arrangements was already a huge step forward. His father understood that these things had to be taken slowly.
That was also why, after Shen Fei had shown his attitude last night, his father had immediately unfrozen his bank cards. He really didn't want his son going back to being some kind of game streamer...
"Okay!" Shen Fei nodded obediently.
. . .
"Boss, this is bad!!"
At the headquarters for Tower Defense of Ten Thousand Realms, the head of the operations department had just started his shift when he sprinted to the boss's office.
"What's wrong?" The boss, who owned over a hundred pay-to-win games, didn't know what could be so exciting.
"Boss, we've found a whale! A hundred-thousand-yuan spender! What do we do?" the operations manager said excitedly.
"What else? Get the shills online, give them top-ups, have the female streamers call him 'big brother'—isn't this the standard playbook?" the boss asked, surprised.
Their company had a complete set of methods for retaining whales. Besides, it was just a hundred-thousand-yuan spender. While important, it wasn't enough to get the operations manager this worked up.
"Boss, it's for an old game! The least profitable one, Tower Defense of Ten Thousand Realms! Someone topped up over a hundred thousand yuan in an hour this morning, and they've already spent it all..." The operations manager was thrilled.
If it were a normal game, he naturally wouldn't be this excited. But for an old game that only brought in three to four hundred thousand yuan a month, for someone to drop over a hundred thousand in a single hour… this wasn't normal.
"Is that so?" The boss's interest was piqued.
Soon, Shen Fei's top-up and spending records were pulled up and examined clearly.
"The real-name verification shows he's an adult, so it's not a minor spending recklessly. We definitely need to pay attention to this!" the boss muttered with a frown after reading the information.
"He only upgraded his Defense Tower to the Ninth Tier and then left? Did he think it was boring after hitting the max level at Ninth Tier and quit?" the operations manager guessed at the customer's thoughts.
"Then go update the game! Unlock the Tenth Tier level cap for me!" With a whale finally appearing in a dead old game, the boss decided to push out an update. Anyway, updating a small game like this was just a matter of a few lines of code. If they could squeeze out a bit more money, they would.
"Right!" The operations manager nodded and quickly went to make the arrangements.
. . .
"Oho?"
What a coincidence. I just found this game, and it already updated the Defense Tower's level cap?
In the afternoon, after obediently following his father to meet some business partners, Shen Fei returned to the new office his father had arranged for him at the company. He sent the female secretary away and immediately logged into his tower defense game.
Then, he saw that the "MAX" tag on his Lightning Ball Defense Tower, which he had just upgraded to Ninth Tier this morning, had disappeared. Obviously, the game company had unlocked a new level cap for Defense Towers.
Good news! Then let's keep spending!
With a faint smile, Shen Fei started topping up his account again. He had only tested the waters this morning, but now that he'd confirmed there was nothing wrong with the game, he could go all out with his spending and upgrades.
WHOOSH~
WHOOSH~
WHOOSH~
The highest single top-up was 64,800 yuan. All Shen Fei could do was click the top-up button relentlessly.
[Your VIP level has increased to 11!]
[Your VIP level has increased to 12!]
...
[Your VIP level has increased to 15!]
[Your VIP level has increased to 16!]
...
「Two hours later.」
Shen Fei's VIP level had reached the current maximum of 20. In the game, he had already poured in over six million yuan.
Not bad. This way, the game company won't shut down the game so easily! With a whale like me around, they'll definitely maintain the game properly!
Maxing out his VIP level awarded him another huge pile of various items. Shen Fei discovered that the most useful things for him were a few Crystal [Attributes] and a special Defense Tower blueprint.
[Attack Aura LV1: Crystal Attribute, all Defense Towers' Attack Power +10%]
[Durability Aura LV1: Crystal Attribute, all Defense Towers automatically recover Durability at a rate of 10 points per hour.]
[Range Aura LV1: Crystal Attribute, all Defense Towers' range +10%]
[Mist Defense Tower Blueprint: Allows for the construction of a special mist-releasing Defense Tower.]
"Not bad!" He nodded, looked over the rewards from increasing his VIP level, and then continued the auto-battle mode.
After auto-battling all morning and through noon, with the help of a double experience buff, his Crystal was almost at the Seventh Tier.
"Let me check the auction house for any special Defense Towers and treasures!"
Now that the top-ups were done, Shen Fei, who was about to start synthesizing new Defense Towers, planned to go on a shopping spree for blueprints first. In order to defend against all sorts of bizarre and strange invading monsters, he had to have a wide variety of different types of Defense Towers. He needed towers to deal with Exotic Beasts, Demons, Ghosts, Evil NPCs, and bosses. He had to have all kinds of Defense Towers.
Moreover, he also needed support-type towers, like ones that added buffs, Auras, or special Attributes.
. . .
[Star-Slaying Tower Blueprint: A special blueprint that can summon an attack beam from high in the sky. At max level, it has a chance to destroy a mountain peak. Price: 1,200 Gold Coins.]
[Gale Tower Blueprint: A special blueprint that can summon a Tornado. At max level, it has a chance to summon a Wind Dragon. Price: 1,200 Gold Coins.]
[Armor-Piercing Tower Blueprint: A special blueprint that can release a defense-reducing Aura. Price: 1,200 Gold Coins.]
. . .
Browsing the blueprints in the auction house, Shen Fei couldn't help but laugh.
It cost over a hundred thousand yuan to get one tower to Ninth Tier, but a blueprint is only 1,200 Gold Coins. So cheap!
Buy!
Buy!
Buy!
Without another word, Shen Fei started buying. He quickly began to clear out the auction house.
. . .
"Boss, big news!"
"That guy isn't a hundred-thousand spender—he's a mega-whale in the ten-million-yuan league! He's already topped up 6 million!"
"This is a mega-whale!!!"
Back at the Tower Defense of Ten Thousand Realms headquarters, after discovering Shen Fei had topped up 6 million, the operations manager, shouting at the top of his lungs, burst into the boss's office again.
"Six million!!?" The boss was stunned when he heard the amount.
Currently, the highest top-up record at his company was a whale who had spent 1.2 million in one hour. Rumor had it he was the son of a coal baron in real life. The boss never expected that the tower defense-loving whale from this morning, who had only spent a hundred thousand, was actually a super-mega-whale. He'd dropped six million in one go!
"What are you standing there for? Get the development team manager in here! I need more staff! Prepare for a major version update!" the boss immediately started giving orders. "Get Dai Mei from the customer retention team, too! Tell her to get her girls on this! We have to hold on to this mega-whale!"
「Half an hour later.」
A balding man in a plaid shirt asked, looking very confused, "Boss, this is a tower defense game. Isn't it too jarring to add these Elements?"
The boss adjusted his tie and shouted back, "As long as the mega-whale likes it, I don't care if you put some cartoon lumberjack fighting a giant superhero in there!"
Not giving his subordinate another chance to question him, the boss laid out his plan: "Alright, next, Operations, I want you to find out everything you can about this mega-whale. See why on earth he likes this tower defense game! Development team, I want you working overtime tonight! We're doing a major upgrade to the game! Retention team, get your people on it, now! Deploy the shills and have others start drama with him! This guy must be retained! If you can't, you can all pack your bags and get out!"
Although he had over a hundred pay-to-win games, the boss's company was still a small one with only a few hundred employees. Now, a mega-whale who could spend 6 million had appeared. No matter what, the boss had to keep him. He felt this was a chance for his company to reach the next level.
"Yes!"
"Yes!"
His two subordinates nodded hastily and hurried off to get busy.
. . .
Why are so many people suddenly trying to add me as a friend?
After buying over a dozen special Defense Tower blueprints and cleaning out all the experience books from the auction house, Shen Fei saw his friend request tab flashing rapidly.
A huge crowd of people wanted to add him as a friend.