"Alright, Bro, I'll get on it right now!" Sun Yu replied without a second thought. "You don't have to worry about a thing!"
Previously, he had actually asked Shen Fei why he didn't just develop his own game or buy the game company instead of wasting hundreds of millions. Shen Fei had simply told him to avoid any private contact with the game company and communicate only through official channels. Although confused, Sun Yu followed Shen Fei's instructions. Because of this, Sun Yu understood that he could only acquire the items through normal player trading. He couldn't secretly call the game company and ask them to create a specific item for him.
The good news was that because he had been running the betting pools for a week, Sun Yu knew most of the "rich people" in the game. After all, anyone who could place bets in the pools was willing to spend on Krypton Gold, and these players controlled most of the resources in the game. Luckily, he happened to know them.
Brother Fei is a beast! After replying to Shen Fei, Sun Yu quickly began contacting his acquaintances, marveling to himself.
At that moment, Sun Yu was ranked 18th on the Combat Power leaderboard. He had played this game before, and with the boost of five million, his Combat Power had risen very quickly. But even so, his current Combat Power was just over two million, completely incomparable to Shen Fei's. An hour ago, Shen Fei's Combat Power had broken through two hundred million. Now, seeing the number one "Floating City" on the homestead leaderboard and then looking at his brother's Combat Power, which had already surpassed two hundred and thirty million, Sun Yu just wanted to shout, "My brother is a beast!"
Sun Yu was ecstatic. When they were kids, he loved to follow Shen Fei around, basking in his reflected glory. Now, he was getting that same feeling in *Tower Defense of Ten Thousand Realms*. Shen Fei had told him not to reveal their relationship, and he himself had intentionally downplayed their connection because of the betting pools. In fact, he had even deliberately told everyone that the Divine Beast pet Shen Fei gave him was something he bought from the big shot "Skyrocketing."
Even so, Sun Yu was very happy. He had tried to persuade Shen Fei that spending money like this might be inappropriate, but Shen Fei had simply replied, "I have my own plans." After that, Sun Yu completely immersed himself in the game. Unlike Shen Fei, whose Krypton Gold spending was driven by a powerful purpose and ambition, Sun Yu simply loved the game for what it was. He didn't even need Shen Fei to ask; he threw himself into it completely and enjoyed every moment.
Meanwhile, after giving Yu his task, Shen Fei continued to study his homestead and butler. He began to plan the final step: the method for spending Krypton Gold on "Gemstones," a money sink whose cost was the sum of all previous projects.
「On the *Tower Defense of Ten Thousand Realms* game forum」
When they saw Shen Fei's Combat Power jump by tens of millions, breaking two hundred million and then soaring past two hundred and thirty million, the other players went wild again. This was especially true for those who had bet that morning that the "Skyrocketing" account's Combat Power would only increase by a few million. They completely lost it.
They had lost too much! Even though they had been losing for nearly a week, faced with odds of several hundred to one, they still fell for it. It couldn't be helped; the greedier one was, the more one stood to lose. That's just human nature.
Over the past week, many of the rubberneckers and trend-chasers had drifted away. They realized Shen Fei was a solo player who never responded or reacted to anything. But even so, the number of players in *Tower Defense of Ten Thousand Realms* was still more than ten times what it was a month ago.
Just a moment ago, many people were still using Megaphones to spam the world chat, cursing Shen Fei for not increasing his Combat Power, which had made them lose their bets from yesterday. No one expected that, in the blink of an eye, his Combat Power would shoot up by tens of millions again. This made many people completely lose their minds.
Who does things like this? Increasing it by tens of millions at a time? Can't you just increase your Combat Power steadily so we can ride your coattails? Can't you just take it nice and easy? Do you have to be so erratic? So hot and cold, so fast and slow, all this teasing and edging? This is too much!
"2 million reward for the big shot Skyrocketing's WeChat!"
On the forum, the bounty on posts asking for Shen Fei's information had risen again. In the past week, some dedicated people had calculated Shen Fei's spending and found that the total had reached seven hundred million. Faced with a Krypton Gold whale of this magnitude, many "professional little fairies" weren't ready to give up. Even though Shen Fei had ignored everyone for over twenty days, they still hadn't lost hope.
"Everyone, be careful! That 'Brother Chongtian's Alt' is a scammer! He scams people for money and sex!" On the forum, people were also exposing accounts that were taking advantage of the chaos.
"Sisters, a scammer took nudes of me, what do I do! He tricked me, said he was Brother Chongtian, and even made his own private server. He showed me the account on the private server, and I didn't realize it was fake, so I believed him..."
"Sisters, on an unrelated note, I just got a DNA test back. The baby isn't my husband's! That scumbag!"
"Ditch the scumbag and join the Brother Chongtian Tower-Building Support Group!"
All sorts of posts were flying around the forum. Aside from the shocked and complaining male gamers, posts from female players took up a huge portion of the discussion. Regardless of the posts' content, the forum's popularity was undeniable. After brewing for a week, the *Tower Defense of Ten Thousand Realms* forum was now as popular as those for some major games.
"Extra! Extra! Three other games have reportedly seen the emergence of billion-spending whales!"
"Stop bullshitting. Haven't they all been investigated? They're all shills."
On the forum, some people were still discussing how other game companies were also reporting massive whales. This was a copycat move by many game companies after they discovered that *Tower Defense of Ten Thousand Realms*'s revenue had multiplied several times over because of the news about its own whale. Unfortunately, none of these newly-emerged hundred-million-level whales could withstand scrutiny. The all-powerful player base descended upon them and quickly exposed them as shills. On the contrary, their baseless hype and fabricated news about hundred-million-dollar spenders attracted the attention of official newspapers, creating significant risk.
In short, the game forum at this moment could be summed up in one word: chaos.
Faced with this situation, the *Tower Defense of Ten Thousand Realms* company kept a low profile. They didn't release any information at all. They knew that the matter of the "Seven Hundred Million Bro" had put them in the eye of the storm. One wrong move, and they could be hammered by the iron fist of the authorities. No one dared to say a word.
The commotion on the forum had nothing to do with Shen Fei. He had never even visited it. At this moment, in the game, he was continuing his research on "Gemstones."
What the hell? This is a total rip-off!
Looking at the information related to Gemstones, even though Shen Fei had topped up a billion, he felt this system was a pure money grab.
Gemstones were divided into Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, Level 4, and so on, all the way up to the highest, Level 9 Gemstones. They were also divided into different types: Attack Speed Gemstones, Range Gemstones, Attack Power Gemstones, and so on. Five Level 1 Gemstones could be combined into one Level 2 Gemstone, and this pattern continued. A five-to-one synthesis!
In other words, a single top-level, Level 9 Gemstone required 1,953,125—nearly two million—Level 1 Gemstones to synthesize. A Level 1 Gemstone was worth one Gold Coin. By that calculation, a max-level, Level 9 Gemstone was worth almost two million.
Not only were Gemstones much more expensive than Defense Towers, but they weren't even as powerful. At this price, these virtual Gemstones were even more expensive than real jewelry! This "Gemstone" system was a truly thankless Krypton Gold sink, designed purely to devour money.
According to the rules, each Defense Tower could be socketed with one Gemstone, and each piece of Tower Master equipment could be socketed with three. All told, if Shen Fei wanted to socket all of his equipment and Defense Towers with max-level Gemstones, he would need to spend over 1.2 billion. That amount was more than all the money he had. The cost of this "Gemstone" project was higher than all his previous Krypton Gold spending combined.
Forget it. I'll just go for Level 8 or Level 7 Gemstones...
A single Level 9 Gemstone could increase a Defense Tower's single Attribute—like range or Attack Speed—by 100%. But it was just too expensive. Even he couldn't afford it. This was clearly a fail-safe Krypton Gold sink designed by the game company. Shen Fei had finally reached his spending limit.
Time to plan which type of Attribute Gemstones to synthesize... Looking at the Gemstone exchange interface, Shen Fei began to plan. He currently had 170 million Gold Coins left. Max-level Gemstones were out of the question; he could only aim for Level 7 or Level 8 Gemstones.
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
Meanwhile, as Shen Fei's Combat Power broke through two hundred and thirty million, someone suddenly started slamming their fist on a table.