In the Nanshan Villa District, Shen Fei, who was eating breakfast with his family, had no idea what was happening at the game company.
"You've been working hard lately, son!" his mother said, taking a bowl of congee from the maid and placing it in front of him.
"It's nothing. I'm just doing my part," Shen Fei nodded.
He knew his mother was referring to how he had spent the entire week shadowing his father to learn the family business.
"Yes, you've done quite well this week!" Father Shen nodded in affirmation.
"Who would have thought?" his sister, Shen Yue, chimed in, a look of utter surprise on her face.
Shen Fei's behavior this past week had completely exceeded his family's expectations.
He, however, remained unfazed. As he ate, he mulled over how to get money from his family. The hundred million-plus he had was almost gone. His Defense Tower setup still had gaps, and he needed to keep pumping money into it.
His family's company had a market value of over three billion. The majority of the shares were in his father's hands, while his mother held a small portion. The equity structure was very clean, and all the liquid capital was on the company's books. To get his hands on a large sum of money, he'd have to find a way to use the shares.
Looks like I'm destined to be the unfilial son... Looking at his parents and sister, Shen Fei made a decision.
A week ago, he had encountered Taiyi Zhenren in the game. Over the past week, while improving his own strength, he had also been investigating other powerful players. Furthermore, the results of his investigation were exactly the same as the future he knew. He understood that he couldn't stop what he was doing.
First, I'll top up my family's game accounts!
After breakfast, he rummaged through the house, turning things upside down, and managed to scrape together over three million. Before going after the big money, Shen Fei planned to give his parents' and sister's game accounts a boost, providing them with a safety net.
His father only played Chinese chess, his mother only played a crop-stealing game, and his sister only played Traveling Frog. He knew upgrading their games wasn't a waste of money. In the future, after the games invaded reality, the inheritance of in-game abilities would be augmented based on the amount of money spent.
The baseline for this augmentation was one million in spending. If your total top-ups equaled one million, you could fully inherit all your in-game abilities. But if you spent less than one million, the inheritance would be reduced to a certain degree. Of course, this reduction wasn't linear; it had specific thresholds. For example, a one-yuan first-time top-up would grant 5% inheritance, and so on.
Shen Fei planned to top up at least one million for each family member.
SWOOSH.
SWOOSH.
SWOOSH.
Having already found out his family's game account information, Shen Fei quickly got to work. First up was his father's Chinese chess game. Very few people topped up on this kind of board game platform. With his one-million-yuan deposit, his father's account instantly became number one on the VIP list.
Then, his father's chess pieces changed from their ordinary wooden color to a brilliant gold. The characters on the pieces also became animated. He tried making a move to test it and discovered that whenever a golden piece landed on the board, a corresponding special effect would appear.
For example, after moving a Horse, a massive Celestial Horse with golden wings would materialize and fill the entire screen. And whenever a Soldier piece moved, the silhouette of a golden soldier holding a long dagger-axe would appear over it. When the most powerful General or Marshal pieces moved, the shadow of an emperor seated on a golden throne would manifest. The Marshal emperor held a golden scepter, while the General emperor wielded a sharp, black sword.
After becoming the number one VIP, the pieces even made special sounds when played. For instance, with the Cannon piece, the rumbling sound of cannon fire would erupt in the game whenever it moved. Of course, the opponent could disable these special effects in the game settings. After all, people who played board games were there for the game itself and weren't particularly impressed by such effects.
But when the time came for the game abilities to be inherited, these abilities would be anything but ordinary...
SWOOSH.
After funding his father's game, Shen Fei logged into his mother's crop-stealing game. Soon, after another million was spent, his mother also became the number one VIP. The number of farmable land plots she had instantly increased to 108. Furthermore, all the plots turned into golden soil that boosted growth speed by 10,000%. She also gained countless character skills that increased plant growth speed, reduced pests and diseases, and improved watering and harvesting efficiency. The game even rewarded her with many unique plant seeds that didn't exist on Earth, such as breadfruit trees and spring water fruit.
On to Shen Yue's!
After topping up his mother's game, Shen Fei put the remaining one million into his sister's Traveling Frog game. The little green frog in the game instantly transformed into a red Flame Fire Frog. Besides the red fire frog, there were other frog skins as well: the Sky-Swallowing Frog, Magic Swamp Frog, Voodoo Frog, Ice Frog, Lightning Frog, Eight-Legged Golden Toad, Thousand-Year Bullfrog, and so on. The one million activated all the special skins. Shen Fei also spent all the topped-up travel beans, buying skills that increased the frog's speed, size, luck, and other stats.
That should be about right! After quickly pumping three million into his family's games, Shen Fei nodded slowly.
With that, his family now had a basic level of protection.
In his previous life, his family hadn't spent any money, so even with the random inheritance, they hadn't gotten any useful game abilities. On top of that, he had been living alone, away from home, working as a livestreamer. He wasn't by their side at all. By the time he inherited his own in-game abilities and rushed home, his family had already died in the chaos.
This life, with the safety net of his top-ups, he no longer had to worry about his family's safety. His father's thirty-two specialized chess pieces, his mother's 108 plots of golden soil, and his sister's various mutated frogs, combined with his own Invincible Defense Tower, meant his family would be absolutely safe after the game descended upon reality. The tragedy of his family's gruesome death in his past life would absolutely not happen again.
"I'm heading out to meet some friends!"
After secretly topping up his family's games, Shen Fei left the house alone and found the fixer again.
"What!!!!!" The fixer was stunned speechless. Shen Fei had just said he wanted to pledge his family's company shares for a one-billion-yuan loan.
"You can't be serious! Young Master Shen, what are you trying to do?" the fixer asked, dumbfounded.
Ten days ago, Shen Fei had sold off all his mansions and luxury cars, claiming he was going home to properly take over the family business. The fixer never expected that just a few days later, this young master would be trying to pledge the family business itself. Was his whole purpose in inheriting the family business just so he could pledge it? The fixer even wondered if he was going to pledge the business just to spend the money on games.
"Just tell me if you can do it or not," Shen Fei said, ignoring the fixer's skepticism and quickly laying out his demands. "Pledge the shares in my old man's name for one billion! I'll pay it back in half a year, and you can charge the highest interest rate! And during these six months, the creditor is not allowed to publicly declare their ownership of the debt!"
"Are you serious?" the fixer confirmed again.
As a fixer who specialized in serving wealthy businessmen, he certainly had the ability to quickly get his hands on one billion—or more accurately, to connect with a businessman or chamber of commerce that had a billion to spare. The shares Father Shen held were worth far more than one billion, so he was confident someone would be willing to take the deal. He was just trying to confirm if Shen Fei was truly serious.
"I'm serious. It's no problem. I can wait right here and sign now!" Shen Fei nodded with conviction. I'll get the money in my hands first. As for what happens in six months... you can just wait and see!
"Alright! Wait for me!" The fixer was a decisive man and acted quickly.
Although the shares were owned by Father Shen, as his son, Shen Fei still had the standing to sell them. To the mysterious people who dared to buy these kinds of special "shares," as long as you were in line to inherit them, you had the power to sell them. They had plenty of methods to make Shen Fei the actual owner of the shares.
Watching the fixer leave, Shen Fei let out a long breath. The pressure on him was immense, but he had to do this. To get the money as quickly as possible, he had no other choice.
"It's done!"
That night, Shen Fei met with the fixer again. He signed several documents, provided his fingerprint, and filmed a video confirmation. Afterward, one billion yuan was instantly deposited into his bank account.
"Bye!" After reminding the fixer one more time that the creditor was not to show their face within the next six months, Shen Fei promptly left.
"Right!" the fixer nodded without saying much else.
The person—or rather, the business consortium—that could fork over a billion yuan wasn't afraid of Shen Fei taking the money and running...