BLUB. BLUB. BLUB.
「The next day.」
In Villa 42 of the Nanshan Villa district, Shen Fei's family was eating breakfast. His younger sister, Shen Yue, was once again blowing bubbles into her congee. Honestly, what her older brother, Shen Fei, had just said made her want to roll her eyes.
"Son, is there something you can't just tell us now?" his mother asked curiously after tapping Shen Yue on the head to stop her rude behavior.
Just a moment ago, her son, Shen Fei, had announced that the entire family had to be home that evening because he had something important to tell them. This struck the other three as very strange.
You have something to announce, but you can't do it now? You have to wait until tonight? What kind of trick is this?
"I'll just remind you all, tomorrow is April Fool's Day…" Shen Yue mumbled from the side, seeing the curious looks on her parents' faces.
Her older brother had lied to their parents, saying he was taking a week off, but in reality, he had spent the entire week holed up in his room playing games. He might have been able to fool their parents, but he couldn't fool her. She didn't believe a word her brother said. Just now, their dad had said that since her brother's week off was over, he should go to work with him today. In response, her brother came out with this line about everyone coming home tonight for a major announcement. Shen Yue figured her brother was just making things up to get out of going back to work at the company.
"I really do have something! It's very important!" Seeing his parents look at him doubtfully because of his sister's words, Shen Fei couldn't help but repeat himself.
There were only a dozen or so hours left until April Fool's Day. The moment the clock struck midnight, marking the start of the day, that voice demanding a choice would appear. He had to ensure that his entire family chose the game he had poured money into for them. Otherwise, if they randomly got some other crappy game, it would be a huge loss.
This inheritance of game abilities wasn't a matter of automatically inheriting from the game you spent the most on or were best at. Instead, if you didn't make a choice, one would be randomly selected from all the games you had ever played. Take Shen Fei, for example. If he didn't make a choice, he could end up with the "chicken dinner" game he had already given up on. He could even inherit abilities from some other random, crappy games he'd played in the past.
He had no idea if his parents, when they were younger, had ever played games like "Soul Fighter," "Legend of Mir," or "Zhengtu." What if his parents weren't with him and didn't inherit from the game he'd spent a million on for them, but got a random one instead? That would be a disastrous loss! Losing out was a small matter. The real problem was the trouble it would cause for their inheritance in the future!
Therefore, he had specifically stressed that the entire family had to be home tonight.
"And you, did you hear me?!" Shen Fei shouted, seeing his sister Shen Yue's nonchalant expression. "If you dare run off tonight, I'll break your legs!"
"Hmph." Shen Yue wrinkled her nose, snorted softly, and went back to her congee.
"Dad, I'm not coming in today. I'll go the day after tomorrow!" After informing his family, Shen Fei said this to his father and left immediately.
Hmph! I knew it! Seeing her brother's actions, Shen Yue thought to herself.
WHOOSH.
Returning to his bedroom, Shen Fei opened the game again. Even though all the top-ups were complete, he could still run dungeons and kill monsters to get more items. When the game invasion began, some items could be inherited as well. In the time between the voice of choice sounding on April Fool's tonight and the game inheritance starting tomorrow night, he could continue to farm for items.
"Hm?"
Logging into the game, he saw that the Text Game of his steward, Sky Control, had ended. After returning from his travels, his steward's level had reached the same Tenth Tier as his own. Just as he was about to take a closer look, Shen Fei suddenly froze. He saw that his mailbox icon was flashing rapidly, indicating something of great value was inside.
"Holy crap!!!"
Opening the mailbox, Shen Fei was dumbfounded to see a Level 9 Gemstone. Someone had mailed him a Gemstone worth two million? He read the attached letter and only then did he realize that he actually had fans. And these true fans had actually crowdfunded a Level 9 Gemstone for him. The ones leading the effort were a few *Tower Defense of Ten Thousand Realms* streamers who made a living by broadcasting his game data, analyzing his playstyle, and leeching off him, the whale.
Holy hell... Why am I a little touched by this...? They actually crowdfunded a Gemstone for me, and one worth two million at that... I've heard of crowdfunding to sleep with an actress, but this is the first time I've heard of crowdfunding a Gemstone...
Taking the stone from his mailbox, Shen Fei felt a little emotional. Because he was running out of money, he had only socketed his Defense Towers with Level 8 and Level 7 stones. He never expected his fans would actually crowdfund a Level 9 one for him. This thing was worth two million!
Alright, I can't just take your stone for free!
He looked at the mail and saw that several thousand people had participated in crowdfunding the Gemstone. After a moment's thought, Shen Fei contacted the leader, a streamer named Gun'Er.
"AHHH!!! TYCOON!!!"
"WHOA!!! TYCOON!!!"
"Tycoon, whatever you need!!!"
His friend request was accepted instantly, and the person on the other side excitedly typed a string of exclamation points.
"I received the Gemstone, thank you. Can you pull everyone who crowdfunded it into a group chat? I want to thank them all!" Without mincing words, Shen Fei stated his request directly.
When the apocalypse arrived, humanity would only be able to exist in one place: the Base City. Although the types and names of the Base Cities would vary, their function would be more or less the same. Even though he had a Floating Island, his parents, sister, and others would still need to live in a Base City. After all, humans are social creatures.
If these several thousand fans who sent him the Gemstone all inherited their in-game Defense Towers, they could form an incredibly powerful city. Because of this gift, they already had a natural alliance. The affinity he had with these fans who were willing to spend money on him was definitely higher than with others. This was far better than randomly recruiting people. Because of a single Level 9 Gemstone, Shen Fei's thoughts instantly raced far ahead. He even started planning how to Command these several thousand players, all of whom would inherit abilities from the tower defense game.
"Okay!"
"Okay!"
"I have the list, and I have everyone on my friends list!"
"Tycoon, I'll add you on QQ!" the streamer Gun'Er replied excitedly.
Soon, Shen Fei was pulled into a large group chat with several thousand people. The group name was "Soaring High Fan Club."
What a cringey name. To think I have a fan club...
Silently roasting the name, Shen Fei saw the chat, thousands strong, begin to flood with messages welcoming him.
SWOOSH! SWOOSH! SWOOSH!
Without a word, Shen Fei started sending out red packets the moment he entered the group. In one go, he sent out red packets totaling over two million. They had crowdfunded a two-million-yuan gift for him, and he was sending out red packets of a roughly equivalent value.
"Bro! Is two million enough? Do you need more?" A message from Sun Yu popped up on Shen Fei's WeChat.
Shen Fei, having poured all his money into the game, certainly didn't have two million anymore. But Sun Yu did. This was the money Sun Yu had saved up from running the betting pools, with over two million left.
"It's enough. Go do your thing! And don't run around for the next two days!" After casually replying to Yu, Shen Fei turned his attention back to the QQ group.
Because of his two-million-yuan worth of red packets, the QQ group exploded! Countless people started spamming sticker packs that said things like "The boss is so generous!" and "Kowtowing in thanks to the boss!"
"Everyone, take the red packet money and pump it all into *Tower Defense of Ten Thousand Realms*. I'll call the game company and have them develop a guild function so we can all join a guild and play together!" Shen Fei typed in the QQ group.
Of course, his claim about calling the game company to develop a guild function was a lie. He didn't want to have any dealings with the game company at this final hour and risk something happening to his game account. He said it purely to get everyone to pour their money into the game so that they would receive something in return when the inheritance began.
"Alright, if you're free, it's best if everyone gets online at 12 AM tonight. I'll be on the world map sending out Gold Coin red packets!"
With that final instruction, Shen Fei logged out of the QQ group. If these four to five thousand people obediently spent all the red packet money on the game and logged on at midnight to choose *Tower Defense of Ten Thousand Realms* for their inheritance under his guidance, then in the future apocalypse, both the overall strength of Xia Country and humanity's ability to resist would be greatly enhanced. He could even use this to establish a powerful Base City—a Base City composed entirely of Tower Master players!
Although these players were scattered across different places in reality, and it would be difficult to gather them and their families together, anything was possible in a future where game abilities were inherited. He himself, for example, had a Teleportation Gate Defense Tower ready to accomplish this very task.
WHOOSH.
Ignoring the chorus of agreement from the numerous fans in the QQ group, he opened WeChat and sent another message to Yu before turning his attention back to the game.
"Have you put the money into Uncle Sun's game yet?"
Like Father Shen, Yu's father, Uncle Sun, also played a chess game. He had previously arranged for Yu to make a top-up for him as well. After midnight tonight, when the selection period ended, the top-up channels would also close. Therefore, the top-ups had to be completed beforehand.
"I did! I put in over a hundred thousand!" Yu, who hung on Shen Fei's every word, replied quickly. He found it strange to be putting so much money into his father's casual game, but at Shen Fei's request, he did it anyway.
"Good! For the next two days, you and Uncle Sun stay at home and don't go anywhere. Especially tonight and tomorrow night, you hear me?" Shen Fei repeated what he had said before.
"No problem, no problem!" Yu answered immediately. "But… my dad's on a business trip!"
But then, he said something that left Shen Fei stunned.