Liang Chuan realized he had still underestimated the players' development speed.
In just two days,
the Bloomfeather outpost had gone from nothing
to a small tribal settlement.
But after thinking about it,
this pace was actually reasonable.
Players were assisted by game skills—
building houses was like playing Minecraft:
one block on top of another,
no foundations, no cement,
yet the resulting houses were unbelievably sturdy.
The durability depended entirely on the material tier.
Farming was the same.
With skill support, crops that usually took months
could be harvested in three days.
If the crops' Growth Status stayed at Perfect,
they could even mature once per day.
On top of that, this was everyone's first time playing a fully immersive game.
Most players immediately entered full grind mode.
Unless their life was in danger, they absolutely refused to log out.
With skill assistance + insane grinders,
it would be strange if development wasn't fast.
During these two days, the players had also helped Liang Chuan accumulate a massive amount of bio-energy.
His reserves had climbed back to 5,500 points.
He could summon a new batch of players anytime.
But he didn't burn through all of it in a rush.
Increasing the player population had to match the outpost's capacity.
Right now, both outposts had 600 total players,
and food + housing were still severely lacking.
Everyone was hungry and sleeping in the cold.
If he summoned too many newcomers now,
the famine problem would only get worse.
They needed to wait until
WaiBiBaBu and the Farmer players expanded farmland,
harvested a few batches,
and learned Natlan's Perfect Growth methods from Oloron.
"No wonder so many strategy games lock population behind farms.
No food + mass production = suicide."
Liang Chuan muttered.
Suddenly—
"Look! They brought something back!!!"
"Move aside! Something good!"
"Damn—someone actually killed that giant thing?!"
The outpost erupted with excitement.
Players rushed in one direction.
Liang Chuan followed to watch the commotion.
He arrived to see SteelRealMan,
FlipGardenFirstAssassin,
and several other top-tier combat players
carrying the dismantled remains of a Ruin Guard back to base.
"Huh? They actually managed to beat a Little One?"
Even Liang Chuan was surprised.
"Everyone! This is the monster that drops Chaos Devices!
To kill this thing,
our ten-man squad lost five people outright,
and two more are half-dead!
Only three of us can actually walk!"
SteelRealMan pointed at the Ruin Guard.
"We're not telling you this to show off—
just to make sure you understand how hard this thing is to kill.
To make up for our losses,
we've decided to sell the Ruin Guard remains.
Whatever Chaos Devices it contains,
they can be used for the main quest.
You all know how valuable that is."
"Then why don't you dismantle it yourselves
and sell the materials?"
A player asked.
"Because none of us have the Engineer class.
If we start taking it apart blindly,
we might damage the drops."
SteelRealMan grinned.
"And besides—
we don't actually know how many Chaos Devices a Ruin Guard contains.
Wouldn't it be exciting to open it blind?"
Oh.
A monster loot gacha.
The surrounding players' eyes lit up instantly.
Liang Chuan raised an eyebrow.
Good grief. Others gamble with gemstones…
you guys start gambling by dismantling Ruin Guards.
Marketing: max level.
Selling raw materials wouldn't create nearly as much hype.
The "no Engineer" excuse was obviously just a tagline.
"How much do you want for the remains?"
A player asked eagerly.
"Starting price: 100,000 credits."
SteelRealMan announced.
"HUH?!"
Players collectively gasped.
In most average Blue Star worlds,
credits had a 1:1 ratio with real currency.
Meaning—
They wanted 100,000 real-life money
for a monster corpse.
"This isn't greed,"
SteelRealMan quickly explained.
"The 100,000 is just the minimum.
We need to resurrect the brothers who died.
Because the Bio-Energy Terminal is now Level 2,
conversion efficiency improved,
and players are killing more monsters,
the price for bio-energy dropped a bit—
But it's still 1 bio-energy = 500 credits.
The five who died have a total of 20 levels.
They need 200 bio-energy to revive.
That's exactly 100,000 credits."
Hearing this,
the surrounding players sucked in sharp breaths.
This game…
the resurrection cost was insane!
They said there was no death penalty—
but in reality, dying was expensive as hell.
Even Liang Chuan touched his chin.
Am I… squeezing the players too hard?
Yes?
Good. That's the point.
Players existed to be squeezed.
He wasn't here to act like a game dev pampering users.
Plus, as the Bio-Energy Terminal leveled up,
efficiency would skyrocket.
20% now—
later 50%, 100%, even 200%.
Once that happened,
killing a random Abyss creature would give dozens of bio-energy.
Reviving would be pocket change.
Just then—
"100,000, right? I'll buy it!"
A familiar voice rang out.
Everyone turned—
It was SunsetWarGod,
the whale who had fought alongside them against the Fatui earlier.
He'd heard someone was selling a Ruin Guard
and rushed over.
This time, he wasn't alone—
he had brought a full squad of ten new players with him.
◇ I'll be dropping one bonus chapters for every 10 reviews. comment
◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 100 Power Stones.
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on P@treon if you're interested:
https://www.patreon.com/Mindsmithstudio