Shen Fei slept with the game company's boss...
Meanwhile, the forums for *Tower Defense of Ten Thousand Realms* exploded. Many night owls saw that "Skyrocketing," the player ranked first in Combat Power, had boosted his score by several million points again. Then, after opening Skyrocketing's Attributes panel to check, they discovered he had acquired over fifty more Tenth-Tier Defense Towers.
All hell broke loose.
"Not bad, not bad... Keep it up, shill! Make *Tower Defense of Ten Thousand Realms* break the Krypton Gold record!" someone posted after sharing a screenshot of Skyrocketing's character stats on the forum.
Countless comments followed.
"I mean, why would they hire a shill like this and introduce so many new Krypton Gold items? For a niche game that's already been out for three years, this makes no sense!" one user commented, completely baffled by the company's strategy. "What's the point of entertaining themselves? Are they just moving money from their left hand to their right to inflate assets?"
"Could it be that they're trying to drive traffic to their other games?"
"Could it be that the boss wants to sell the company and is trying to inflate the price?"
"Could it be that hackers have taken over the company?"
"Could it be that aliens have invaded..."
All sorts of theories popped up, the vast majority from people just trying to be witty. Not a single person believed that Shen Fei wasn't a shill but had actually spent that much money.
He spent tens of millions again!
In the shadows, personnel tasked with gathering information on the Skyrocketing account quietly recorded the information from the forum.
...
"What's with the dark circles?"
At the dining table, Mrs. Shen gave her son a strange look as she ate breakfast.
"It's nothing. I stayed up late reading last night," Shen Fei said without batting an eye. He was already experienced in the art of lying to his parents about not playing games.
Today, he still had to go with his father to visit clients in the morning, a task he had grown accustomed to. He understood that his father was deliberately having him meet more people.
Unfortunately, he had already secretly sold his father's shares.
If Dad found out about this, he'd definitely break my legs.
However, he knew that the business consortium capable of coming up with a billion in cash would have some degree of credibility. At the very least, they had a public reputation to uphold. For the next six months, those people wouldn't come looking for trouble.
And after six months...
RING! RING! RING!
Just as he finished eating and was about to leave with his father, Shen Fei's phone suddenly rang.
CLICK!
Seeing it was an unknown number, he hung up immediately.
RING! RING!
Unfortunately, the phone rang again. After hanging up two or three more times, an exasperated Shen Fei finally answered the call.
"Excuse me, is this Mr. Shen?"
To his surprise, the voice on the other end was a woman's—incredibly gentle and pleasant.
"Speak!"
Shen Fei didn't know who was looking for him, but he figured it probably wasn't the business consortium that gave him a billion.
"Mr. Shen, it's like this. We're from the Tomi Tower Defense Game Company, and our company specializes in tower defense games..." the gentle-voiced woman quickly introduced herself.
As Shen Fei listened, his brow furrowed.
My information was sold!
He could tell they were trying to poach him for another game.
"Someone called me and asked me to play another tower defense game. The only time I've ever given out my phone number was when I registered on your platform!"
After hanging up, Shen Fei immediately used his dedicated VIP channel to leave a message for the official staff of *Tower Defense of Ten Thousand Realms*.
It goes without saying that his message sent the game company into a frenzy. Shen Fei, however, simply left quickly with his father.
...
Another week flew by. During this time, Shen Fei had pumped another two hundred million into the game. By now, all 512 of his Defense Tower slots were filled with Tenth-Tier towers.
After a busy week of merging towers and topping up his account, his Defense Towers were finally all set. Over the course of the week, he had blocked countless phone calls, private messages, texts, and emails trying to recruit him for other games.
WHOOSH.
Gazing at the dark night sky outside, Shen Fei stretched languidly and opened his Crystal panel.
[Name: Crystal]
[Tier: Ninth Tier (Max)]
[HP: 500,000]
[Properties: Healing, Attack Aura, Durability Aura, Range Aura]
[Skill: Invincible]
[Defense Tower Count: 512/512]
[Defense Tower Tier Cap: Tenth Tier]
[Total Combat Power: 52,833,960]
All 512 of his Defense Towers were now Tenth Tier, at a total cost of 280 million Gold Coins. His total Combat Power had soared to over fifty-two million. Meanwhile, the former number one player, "Taiyi Zhenren," currently had a Combat Power of 6.7 million, and that was after he had upgraded a good number of his own Defense Towers to the Tenth Tier.
With this much Combat Power and this level of spending, if I inherit all this after the game invasion, then I... Looking at his vast number of high-tier Defense Towers, Shen Fei couldn't help but let his imagination run wild.
In his past life, Taiyi Zhenren, with his three-million-plus Combat Power, had been able to defend Xia Country's largest cave heaven, Fanghu Cave Heaven, with his massive number of Defense Towers after the game's stats were inherited. He was imagining what it would be like for him when he inherited his own stats...
No, I need to get even stronger!
With 700 million in funds still on hand, Shen Fei certainly wasn't going to stop the flow of Krypton Gold. Even though he was already nearly ten times stronger than the top tower defense player from his past life, he had to keep spending. The new events in *Tower Defense of Ten Thousand Realms* gave him room to grow even stronger, and the 700 million he had gave him the ability to keep upgrading.
I have to push myself to the absolute limit. My Defense Tower count is maxed out. Time to test them out in the Heaven-Reaching Tower!
Looking at his fully loaded defenses, Shen Fei opened the Heaven-Reaching Tower interface. This was a public dungeon that could be farmed an unlimited number of times each day.
SWOOSH!
He clicked confirm, and his game screen changed. He had entered the first floor of the Heaven-Reaching Tower.
The Heaven-Reaching Tower has a total of 99 floors. Clearing each floor for the first time grants a reward, which resets once a week. Currently, the highest cleared floor in the Heaven-Reaching Tower was the 89th, a record set by "Taiyi Zhenren."
FLASH.
His vision shifted, and Shen Fei found himself on the first floor. Seeing the stadium-sized arena, he quickly familiarized himself with the rules.
From the first to the tenth floor, you can place 2 Defense Towers.
From the eleventh to the twentieth floor, you can place 4 Defense Towers.
From the twenty-first to the thirtieth floor, you can place 8 Defense Towers.
And so on. Above the ninetieth floor, you can place all 512 Defense Towers.
"Start the wave!"
Knowing his own Combat Power, Shen Fei quickly placed two Tenth-Tier Defense Towers in their designated spots and started the first wave. Soon, a distant wormhole opened, spawning a large swarm of Low-tier kobolds.
SWISH!
Before the kobolds could advance more than a few meters, a single sweep from the Tenth-Tier Defense Towers instantly wiped them all out.
[DING!]
[You have cleared the first floor of the Heaven-Reaching Tower. Reward: First-Tier Defense Tower Blueprint Fragment x1]
The moment the reward appeared, Shen Fei's view shifted, and he was on the second floor.
[DING!]
[You have cleared the second floor of the Heaven-Reaching Tower. Reward...]
Three seconds later, he appeared on the third floor.
And so, he began to instantly clear floor after floor.
It didn't matter if they were ghosts, plants, beasts, zombies, Demon Fiends, insects, or robots. Nor did it matter if they were bosses, minions, or elites. And it certainly didn't matter if they were flying, aquatic, or burrowing monsters.
He insta-killed every monster wave the moment it spawned. There wasn't a single type of monster that could withstand his assault for even ten seconds.
Soon, he had cleared the 89th floor and was standing on the 90th floor of the Heaven-Reaching Tower.
"Continue!"
With a wave of his hand, 512 Tenth-Tier ultimate Defense Towers were instantly placed. With the formation set, Shen Fei started the wave.
...
While Shen Fei was speed-running the Heaven-Reaching Tower, some players who stayed online all night—specifically to watch the "Skyrocketing" account for laughs and see how much money would be spent—noticed a change on the Combat Power rankings.
The number one spot was still held by Skyrocketing, his Combat Power leagues ahead of second place. But his score had jumped from yesterday's forty-eight million-plus to today's fifty-two million-plus.
Everyone who played *Tower Defense of Ten Thousand Realms* knew what an increase of five million Combat Power in such a short time meant. It meant that another twenty million had been spent.
"Extra, extra! Skyrocketing's Combat Power increased by 5.07 million today, a difference of only 0.3 percentage points from yesterday!"
"A warm congratulations to *Tower Defense of Ten Thousand Realms* for continuing to dominate the global Krypton Gold charts, and even pulling further ahead!"
"Fifty million! Will he go for it? Go, go, go, go, go!"
Some trolls and jesters were already shouting on the forums. For more than ten days straight, Shen Fei's Combat Power had been rapidly increasing every single day, averaging several million points—which meant he was spending over ten million a day. This not only provided endless entertainment for the veteran players, who were more than happy to have a "shill" like this to liven things up, but it even led some to call over their friends to join the game just to watch the spectacle. Many players speculated that the game company had created this shill as a reverse psychology tactic to drive traffic.
"Place your bets, place your bets! For Skyrocketing's Combat Power to increase by 5 million tomorrow, the payout is 1 to 1.01! For an increase of 10 million, the payout is 1 to 2! Tomorrow..."
A certain player in the game, the famous Brother Kaipan, was even taking bets on the matter.
SWOOSH!
Just as everyone was noisily joking around on the forum, someone suddenly posted a screenshot of a game announcement:
[Congratulations to player Skyrocketing for defeating the final boss, the Abyssal Executioner, and clearing all 99 floors of the Heaven-Reaching Tower! The first-clearance reward has been increased tenfold! You have obtained a full set of orange-grade Tower Master equipment!]
...
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