Chapter 358: On How to Scientifically Harvest Fear

"If it's a miniature teleportation array, it doesn't need many spatial materials, so the price won't be too steep."

"Exactly how much will it cost?"

"Here's the deal: you purchase the spatial materials yourself, I'll draw up a list for you, and the construction will be handled by our Gold Coin Merchant Guild's team. You just pay 400,000 Shou Shou Jili as a labor fee."

Hearing the Gold Coin Merchant Guild's quote, Wei Shan felt an instant pang of heartache.

He had toiled for over half a year to scrape together 1,390,000 Shou Shou Jili, and the labor fee alone was going to take nearly a third of his assets.

They say knowledge is wealth, and this moment was undoubtedly the best proof of that.

But if you lack the ability and don't love to learn, yet still want to chase your dreams, this Shou Shou Jili absolutely has to be spent.

"Fine, let's go with your plan. Send me the list, I'll head out and purchase the materials right now."

"Hold on, I need to calculate the materials required based on the plan you provided."

A corner of the Imperial Tomb Village plaza.

While waiting for the procurement list, Wei Shan closed the private chat window and summoned the Star Vein interface.

The currently embedded Painful Painful Minghun are Ink Flame, Gargoyle, and Extreme Speed.

He didn't plan to keep any of these three Painful Painful Minghun.

Going forward with the summoning path, the two Painful Painful Minghun of Dread and Nightmare are the mainstream choices, and subsequent Painful Painful Minghun will also focus on support and amplification effects.

Dread is a sixth-generation Painful Painful Minghun, with a purchase price reaching 100,000 Shou Shou Jili.

The Nightmare Painful Painful Minghun is fourth-generation, priced at 12,000 Shou Shou Jili.

For his third Painful Painful Minghun, he chose the Light Shield Painful Painful Minghun, focused on self-preservation support; for the fourth, the Qi Devouring Painful Painful Minghun, which boosts spiritual power endurance.

After completing the dismantling and embedding.

For the allocation of stored evolution points, he raised the Nightmare Painful Painful Minghun directly to level 75, as it is the core Painful Painful Minghun for his next plan.

With the remaining evolution points, he raised Dread to level 59, Light Shield to level 38, and Qi Devouring to level 50.

Among them, the Dread Painful Painful Minghun has two growth modes.

The first is consuming evolution points to raise the Painful Painful Minghun's level, which significantly boosts the combat power of the Dread evil spirits summonable at each stage.

The second growth system advances through Fright Value, allowing the summoning of stronger-tier Dread evil spirits at each stage.

The summoning build centered on the Dread Painful Painful Minghun mainly revolves around the second growth mode.

The evolution points he had hoarded as a stubborn holdout in the Ah Le Training Camp for over half a year were once again spent in a large chunk in a short time.

Reconfiguring the Star Vein brought a significant amplification in spiritual power intensity as his strength rose.

But even this wasn't enough.

He immediately headed to the functional building in Imperial Tomb Village: the Rule God Pillar.

Using the "God Shift" function, he adjusted the amplification ratio of his Painful Painful Minghun attributes to Spiritual Power (90%) and Qi-Blood Intensity (10%).

This allocation scheme significantly boosts both the intensity and recovery efficiency of spiritual power.

As for the problem of his squishy body, he's playing a summoner—who still melee fights these days?

The task of charging in for close-quarters bayonet work naturally has to be left to the summoned beasts.

Next came the performance upgrades for his armed vehicle... After updating himself from head to toe, Wei Shan received the materials list sent by the Gold Coin Merchant Guild.

After closing the chat window, he summoned the Trading House interface and began searching for the materials on the list.

The spiritual materials recorded above are basically all hot commodities in the Trading House, with transparent pricing, so the listing mode is almost always fixed price.

The auction mode, on the other hand, is hard to sell because of the time limit.

Only those niche spiritual materials, or new spiritual materials, go through the auction mode, which charges an extra 1% handling fee.

Spatial materials are also among the most expensive basic commodities in the Trading House.

Purchasing according to the list, the Shou Shou Jili number in the balance column plummeted rapidly, and before long, 400,000 Shou Shou Jili had been spent.

To avoid losing money on trades, he used the plugin provided by the Gold Coin Merchant Guild to compare prices throughout.

It shows transaction fluctuation curves for hot commodities, letting you know the exact price of an item at a glance.

For some commodities with short-term price spikes, he wasn't in a rush to act.

Constantly refreshing the Trading House interface, players would list items at reasonable prices, and he could just lock in a purchase directly.

This is also the habit of many veteran players.

It's also why many commodities get snapped up the instant they're listed.

As long as the price is reasonable, spiritual commodities are very easy to sell; many veteran players in need will camp out refreshing the page to buy.

After purchasing all the materials on the list, more than half a day had passed.

The total expenditure was 627,600 Shou Shou Jili.

He transferred these materials directly to the Gold Coin Merchant Guild's professional team via cross-spatial trade.

As for the worry that the other party might take the materials and run off, there was absolutely no need to worry.

The Gold Coin Merchant Guild is a gold-standard nameplate; the reputation it has built up over the years is already as solid as a rock.

The other party quickly replied, saying they would contact him once the construction was complete.

Ending the conversation, Wei Shan summoned the forum and began looking up information.

All other issues had already been sorted out.

Now all that remained was the detailed layout plan after entering the Ru Xiao Shi Jie.

There were three plans in his conception.

The first plan was simple and brutal.

After entering the Ru Xiao Shi Jie, find the most prosperous, most densely populated area in that world, and build a Nightmare experience scenario.

Then directly rob the beings on that world's wealth rankings, using their funds as experience prizes.

For example, challengers who come for the experience can claim a prize based on how many rounds of the courage challenge they complete within the Nightmare Illusion.

Use cash rewards to drive more challengers into the arena.

This way, challengers make money, and he can also earn Shock Points from it, forming a revenue cycle.

If money runs low, continue robbing; if they refuse, beat them.

As a player, one doesn't have to hide their identity and lurk in the shadows; one can absolutely solve all problems through violence.

As for the potential risk of confronting the world.

Even if the creatures of the small world cause trouble, they are no match before absolute power.

It's just that the process will be somewhat tedious.

The second plan is to take the route of infiltration and subversion.

The core is to use fear as bait, weaving a net with others' hands.

The horror experience venues built will not let the outside world know they are related to supernatural powers, or to powerful creatures from other worlds.

The benefit of doing this is that it fits the cognitive level of the small world, avoiding turmoil on a realistic level.

Continuously harvest Shock Points through voluntary means.

The benefit is reduced operational tedium; using native creatures as a cover, once opened, it basically requires no further attention.

One can even let the native creatures responsible for operations gain some benefits.

Let them serve as his agent within the small world.

The premise of this model is that the creatures of the small world enjoy seeking thrills and are willing to experience a horror atmosphere through horror scenes.

If the creatures of the small world have no demand for "horror-oriented" content.

It is better to simply and brutally adopt the first plan, attracting challengers directly through profit.

The third plan is even more straightforward: descend as a World-Destroying Demon King.

Bring destruction and death to the small world.

The advantages and disadvantages of this plan are both extreme.

The advantage is the ability to gain massive Shock Point revenue in a short time.

But it cannot be operated long-term.

A plan to destroy the world must involve a large amount of death and destruction elements.

If it is merely "world-destroying intimidation," there may be Shock Point revenue in the early stages, but once the creatures of the small world discover it is all thunder and no rain, they can no longer continue harvesting Shock Points.

If it is truly world-destroying, bringing absolute oppression to the small world in the guise of a Demon King, it is still short-term revenue.

The fear emotions of the struggling creatures of the small world will gradually turn to despair, numbness, and even giving up on oneself.

After making a big haul in the early stages, the small world will basically be ruined in the later stages.

Re-cultivating the small world to restore normal order is too tedious and requires consuming a vast amount of time and energy.

Therefore, the "World-Destroying Demon King" is a plan that drains the pond to catch the fish.

The pros and cons of the three plans are all obvious; Wei Shan has not yet decided exactly which to choose.

But he leans more towards the first two plans.

He intends to play the game Monster World for a lifetime; sustainable development is the model he prioritizes.

If a small world is ruined within half a year, when the next small world appears is unknown, and no substitute can be found for the time being.

Therefore, this small world should be played with caution.

Secondly, it also considers the impact of world-destroying behavior on the heart.

Although this is just a game, the realism of Monster World has long blurred the line between virtual and reality.

The fear and will to survive in the eyes of creatures before death show no sign of falsity.

Many times, he almost forgets this is a game.

As a player, one can indeed act without restraint, but he also has a sense of righteousness in his bones.

Letting cities melt in magma, turning rivers blood-red, letting parents hold their children and cry desperately amidst ruins... merely imagining those scenes makes him feel it is too cruel.

He can accept harvesting Shock Points using nightmare illusions; after all, this is a spiritual-level experience that will not truly take away lives.