Chapter 34: Startup Capital

One hour later.

Successive flashes of Bai Guang appeared, and 52 figures logged in at the respawn point of Di Zhong Village.

The moment they entered the game, Yang Yang Tianxuan and other members of the Weapon R&D Department were stunned by the scene before them, unable to believe this was actually a game world.

Driven by their profession, they immediately began testing the world's simulation fidelity.

Gravity perception tests, throwing stones to observe parabolic trajectories, olfactory tests, body coordination tests... Amidst the looks of fools from other players, they were thoroughly convinced by the game's realism.

"Boss, the Moon Eclipse Clan's technology has made another leap forward; they can actually create such a realistic game world," the white-haired old man standing beside Yang Yang Tianxuan exclaimed.

Hearing these words, Yang Yang Tianxuan offered no response; the shock in his heart was beyond description.

He had long harbored the idea of testing weapon performance in a virtual environment.

He had conducted weapon tests in the virtual game "Land of Sin" released by the Moon Eclipse Clan five years ago.

But the results were unsatisfactory, and he ultimately chose to abandon the idea.

In fact, creating a game that perfectly replicates real-world physics is harder than climbing to the sky.

He had carefully analyzed the series of problems that needed to be overcome.

Leaving aside the terrifying server capacity required for this game, standards in every other aspect must reach absolute perfection, such as interaction frequency, data processing volume, and even image rendering quality.

Secondly, the virtual world needs to simulate all physical phenomena of the real world, including but not limited to gravity, lighting, materials, and sound; this requires computing power beyond comprehension to ensure the accuracy and real-time performance of the physics engine.

To achieve perfect realism, every detail in the virtual world must be meticulously simulated, including buildings, vegetation, terrain, and weather changes; these details will greatly increase the burden on the data processing center.

Secondly, the massive data generated anytime and anywhere in the game must be processed and fed back within an extremely short time, including information generated by player input.

For example, when a player destroys the environment in the game, the information must be collected and the environmental changes altered in real time.

Considering various variable problems, creating a completely realistic game was nearly impossible in Yang Yang Tianxuan's conception, because this equated to creating a brand new world, and the resources consumed would have to be 1:1.

That is to say, creating a game that perfectly simulates Earth would theoretically require consuming the resources of an entire Earth.

But everything before their eyes was undeniably real; the Moon Eclipse Clan had truly created such a perfect and flaw-free virtual game through some unknown technology.

While sighing at the huge technological gap between the Human Federation and the Moon Eclipse Clan, a flame rose in Yang Yang Tianxuan's heart.

With such a realistic virtual environment as assistance, they could fully exert themselves without worrying about environmental destruction, personal safety, and a series of troublesome problems.

"Boss, I checked the Shangcheng; there are no devices available to support our weapon research and development, so everything must start from scratch... However, there are Spirit Stones for sale in the Shangcheng, so perhaps we can first produce a batch of Spirit Energy firearms."

Hearing this, Yang Yang Tianxuan nodded in agreement.

Manufacturing powerful technological weapons requires solving problems such as forging equipment, processing equipment, and measurement and calibration tools; starting from zero means undergoing the tedious process of going from nothing to something.

At this stage, without sufficient resources, they had no way to start.

But Spirit Energy firearms are different; this is one of the early weapon technologies provided by the Moon Eclipse Clan to humanity.

Weapons can be forged by altering the energy paths of Spirit Mines, then inlaying Spirit Stones to serve as bullet drivers, with Spirit Qi compression arrays inscribed inside.

After pulling the trigger, the firearm automatically draws energy from the Spirit Stone, compresses it into a bullet shape inside, and fires it out propelled by the internal Spirit Qi; upon contacting the target, the unstable Spirit Energy bullet instantly explodes, causing area-of-effect explosion damage.

For early-stage exploration, this technology is clearly more practical.

"Then let's produce a batch of Spirit Energy firearms first," Yang Yang Tianxuan confirmed his subordinate's proposal at this moment.

Just then, a middle-aged man with a scruffy beard in the team asked in confusion:

"Director, the problem is that everything in the Shangcheng requires Shou Shou Jili to purchase; I searched the game's function panel and couldn't find a recharge function. Where do we get the Li De Fang Fa to buy materials and make Spirit Energy firearms?"

Yang Yang Tianxuan:...

Facing the problem of having no Li De Fang Fa, Yang Yang Tianxuan fell into deep thought.

"Have you contacted Qin Ye? He entered the game before us; ask how much Shou Shou Jili he has that we can borrow."

"I just added him as a friend; I'll ask right away," a middle-aged man of about thirty in the team said, then summoned his friend list and attempted to connect to Qin Ye.

Not long after, the middle-aged man looked at Yang Yang Tianxuan and said somewhat awkwardly:

"He only has 239 points of Shou Shou Jili, which is completely insufficient for us to use as Li De Fang Fa."

"Then let's first buy Shou Shou Jili from other players; we'll cover the costs ourselves for now and won't submit a funding application."

With the idea formed, they immediately took action; dozens of messages buying Shou Shou Jili appeared in the regional channel, with a purchase ratio of 1:20.

But these few messages were quickly drowned out by information posted by other players, interspersed with several player jokes claiming they were dreaming, asking what difference the offered price made compared to robbery.

This made Yang Yang Tianxuan and the other members of the Weapon R&D Department realize that the purchase price they offered was too low.

They chose to gradually raise the price.

From 20:1, the purchase price gradually climbed to 100:1, yet still no player was willing to sell their Shou Shou Jili to them.

This left Yang Yang Tianxuan completely bewildered.

Feeling something was wrong, he immediately contacted Qin Ye, who had entered the game earlier.

The reply he received shocked him.

The price of Shou Shou Jili in the game had long risen from 50:1 to 150:1, and not many players were willing to sell their Shou Shou Jili.

There were mainly two reasons.

First, the consumption speed of Shou Shou Jili far exceeded its production speed; the Shou Shou Jili in players' hands wasn't even enough to consume for improving their own strength, let alone selling it.

Secondly, the price of Shou Shou Jili has kept rising; players generally believe the price of Shou Shou Jili will continue to climb.

The Neng De Xiang Fa of many resource-gathering players is also to first consume Shou Shou Jili to improve their strength, then earn more Shou Shou Jili once they are powerful; selling Shou Shou Jili in the early stage would cause their own strength to lag behind other players' growth, leading to a significant shrinkage in late-stage returns.

Having understood the reason from Qin Ye, Yang Yang Tianxuan fell into deep thought.

Continuing to raise the purchase price was something their wages could not withstand, and the funding application process was too tedious, requiring time to wait.

With no recharge channel and no way to buy Shou Shou Jili at a reasonable price, Yang Yang Tianxuan, unable to think of a solution, could only voice-connect to Qin Ye again:

"Xiao Ye, is there any fast way to earn Shou Shou Jili?"

"At this stage, there are three ways to earn Shou Shou Jili: the first is to walk out of Di Zhong Village and hunt various types of monsters outside; secondly, to get lucky while exploring the world and encounter cultivable Spirit Plants; compared to the first two methods, I recommend you take the third method."

"What method?" Yang Yang Tianxuan immediately asked.

"Go to the Dark Cave to mine!"

(End of this chapter)