Chapter 62: Reversal of the Poles

Ignoring Deng Li Buduo, Lin Bai looked at the waiter: "Xiao Wu, starting from today, double the prices of all dishes in the shop."

The waiter was stunned: "Boss, isn't that too expensive? Our shop's prices are already higher than others. Now, all the restaurants in the city have a similar style to ours, and there are already few customers coming; if the prices go any higher, no one will come."

"It's fine, just raise them as I told you. Ordinary commoners won't come to our shop to eat, and those willing to come here to eat won't mind spending a little more money," Lin Bai said.

The second batch of closed-beta players had unlocked the top-up function, and these lucky ones who could play the game while live-streaming to earn money would certainly not be stingy with the money they topped up into the game.

When there were few players, the impact might not have been significant.

In the future, as large numbers of players flooded in, there would be even more "pay-to-win" players; a massive influx of foreign capital into this world would certainly cause a shock to the existing price levels.

The NPCs in the game were not low in intelligence; perhaps they wouldn't realize this at first, but after a long time, prices would definitely rise.

It was better to raise them early and reap the benefits; besides, he was a viral shop, and if he didn't take the opportunity to fleece them now, he wouldn't find such a chance once the trend passed.

After leaving Jiamu City in the future, there would be no shortage of places where money was needed.

With the influx of players, it was hard to say how many social problems would be brought, or how many wild ideas would emerge; it probably wouldn't be as easy to raise funds then, so accumulating more wealth in advance was always good.

"..." Deng Li Buduo looked at Lin Bai in surprise, recalling the reply the Game Company had given him, and in a daze, he actually had a misconception.

The bugs on Lin Bai were simply arranged on purpose, just for the Game Company to create a virtual star to earn money from fans like them.

Thinking about it, it was terrifying!

While Lin Bai was taking precautions and arranging for his shop to raise prices.

The second batch of players who chose Jiamu City as their novice village also encountered the first setback of their lives.

Blacksmith Shop.

"Master, I want to learn a craft from you." A player named "Weapon Refinement Master" knocked open the door, interrupting Zhang Shutang who was swinging a sledgehammer inside, and said confidently.

"Pay five taels of silver first, food and lodging not included," Zhang Shutang straightened his back, glanced at the player in front of him, and said coldly.

"..." The smile on "Weapon Refinement Master" froze on his face. Mimicking the methods on the forum, he said, "Master, I know two methods of fire-refining gold..."

"If you aren't paying, turn right and leave. I don't accept you here, and no other place will accept you either," Zhang Shutang snorted.

Once bitten, twice shy; the betrayal of Deng Li Buduo had broken his heart, and the Blacksmith, having been influenced by Lin Bai, had learned even earlier the methods for dealing with these gifted geniuses.

The most basic point was that one could not treat them as human beings.

Collect the money first; even if they betrayed him later, he wouldn't be too heartbroken.

What master and disciple? In the end, it was nothing more than a business.

Ever since Lin Bai arrived, strange things had been happening frequently in Jiamu City recently, and the frequency of geniuses appearing seemed a bit too high.

Once there were too many geniuses, they weren't worth anything.

The same scene was also happening at the Zhang Family Boxing Hall, the Mo Family Sword Hall, and the Wu Family Blade Hall.

Last time.

The players had spent five hundred copper coins to enroll, but the next day they ran off to the City Lord's Mansion to apply as Dark Guards.

No martial arts hall was willing to recruit these fickle players.

After all.

Behind the martial arts halls were the chain industries they operated; they would select outstanding Disciples from batches of apprentices to rush into their own factions or send them into the army to replenish fresh blood for their industries.

No one was willing to do useless work.

According to the normal plot development, players would also reveal their talents after learning for a period of time, and then be arranged for various tasks, completely integrating into this world.

But now, because of Lin Bai's intervention, everything had changed.

When a group of players went to the martial arts hall to sign up, they were actually rejected, and if they insisted on signing up, the tuition fees were raised to an astronomical price.

Enrollment required at least a ten-tael silver deposit, and if one quit halfway, the deposit would not be refunded...

When players entered the game, the system only gifted two hundred copper coins, while the exchange rate opened by the Game Company was 1 Yuan to 100 copper coins, and the ratio of silver to copper coins in the Xianxia World was 1 to 1000.

According to this conversion rate, players had to top up one hundred yuan to learn Basic Martial Arts.

One hundred yuan wasn't much, but the game had just started!

Most players were live-streaming while playing the game, and with enthusiastic viewers gifting them, they could afford to pay-to-win.

But at the same time.

They easily learned the prices of other novice villages from the reactions of the viewers.

In novice villages without Lin Bai's interference, prices were all normal.

So who would be willing to be this sucker?

And the players who felt they had been treated unfairly discovered that they couldn't even walk the path of crime.

On the day the players arrived.

The Dark Guard players at the City Lord's Mansion were quickly promoted by Xu Longyun to Security Officers, specifically responsible for town security, and even their wages were raised.

The previously cold-shouldered Dark Guards suddenly received tasks, and one by one, they were naturally full of enthusiasm, catching their fellow players who broke the law with extra diligence.

They were granted new occupations, and catching criminals also gave experience points; as long as they could level up, they didn't care if you were a player or not.

Moreover, they were familiar with the players' tactics and had high levels, so catching players was practically a sure thing.

The players in Jiamu City were busy for a whole day.

As a result, they found that the easiest occupation to obtain was joining Lao Mi's Beggar Sect.

Although Lao Mi painted the prospects of the Beggar Sect in glowing terms, the Beggar Sect had no Skills other than begging!

Not everyone was willing to be a Beggar in the game.

……

And so, that very evening.

The Xianxia World forum exploded once again.

……

"The prices in Jiamu City are artificially high; whose fault is it?"

"Will the modern marketing model of Deng Li Buduo screw over subsequent players?"

"Hellish start, the most difficult newbie village in history."

"Is the excessively high NPC intelligence really beneficial to the game's development?"

Most of the posts were just analyses of the game, and players who chose Jiamu City became the targets of everyone's ridicule.

But when one post was published, it immediately attracted everyone's attention:

"Shocking revelation: the mastermind behind Jiamu City's hell mode is highly likely to be Lin Bai, the shopkeeper of Kitchen God Rice Divination!"

The ID that posted it was called 【Xianxia's Number One Paparazzo】;

The post contained videos and screenshots.

It detailed the entire process of Lin Bai buying the Haunted House and establishing Kitchen God Rice Divination, even including the prices.

Feng Liu, the clerk from the agency, and the young apprentices from the carpenter and Blacksmith shops all appeared on camera, and of course, there were interviews with the Dark Guard of the City Lord's Mansion...

The post highlighted several key points:

At the beginning of its construction, the design of Kitchen God Rice Divination was Flaw, and at that time, 【Deng Li Buduo】 had not yet joined the Blacksmith Shop;

Before the players from the City Lord's Mansion joined the Dark Guard, they already had their own professions, but in front of Kitchen God Rice Divination, they were induced by Lin Bai's words to abandon their originally chosen professions and join the Dark Guard;

Lin Bai was a frequent visitor to the City Lord's Mansion; after he entered and exited the City Lord's Mansion several times, Jiamu City launched a vigorous movement of "Flaw-ification," during which 【Deng Li Buduo】 and the City Lord's Mansion had no interaction whatsoever;

The game officials responded that there were no bugs in the game; the bug that Lin Bai praised to everyone was very likely a new type of marketing campaign directed and acted by himself;

Finally.

The paparazzo reached a conclusion.

If the unique NPC Lin Bai had not developed super-strong artificial intelligence and broken free from the Game Company's control, then he was a virtual idol tool created by the Game Company for the purpose of amassing wealth……

……

As soon as the post by 【Xianxia's Number One Paparazzo】 was published.

It instantly ignited the traffic of the entire forum:

"The great god Deng Li Buduo is actually a fraud; my heart is broken, I'm switching from a fan to a hater."

"Black-hearted Game Company, give me my money back!"

"It's a trap, everything is a trap; Mom, I'm never playing games again, I'm going to study hard."

"A bunch of stupid humans, compared to ordinary BOSSes, isn't an NPC like this more challenging? Why are you reacting so strongly? I wasn't interested in this game before, but now, the game has successfully piqued my fighting spirit. Lin Bai, here I come!"

"Exactly, when have players ever been afraid of NPCs? Even the strongest BOSS has a time when they get taken down; the more cunning the BOSS, the more satisfying it is to fight them! My big blade is already thirsty. Isn't it just hell difficulty? I'll just throw money at it to level up my Skill."

"To the person above, congratulations, you have successfully fallen into the Game Company's trap."

"If you don't have money, why play games……"

(End of this chapter)