Monsters Are Coming
Chapter 34: Startup Capital

Chapter 34: Chapter 34: Startup Capital

One hour later.

Bursts of white light flashed repeatedly, and 52 figures logged into the resurrection point of the Imperial Tomb Village.

As soon as they entered the game, Yang Tianxuan and the members of the Weapon Development Department were stunned by the scene before them, unable to believe this was actually a game world.

Driven by their profession, they immediately commenced testing the world’s realism.

Gravity perception test, throwing stones to observe parabolic trajectories, olfactory tests, body coordination tests... Amidst the dumbfounded stares of other players, they were completely convinced by the realism of this game.

"Boss, the technology of the Moon Eclipse Clan has made a leaps and bounds improvement, they can actually create such a realistic game world," exclaimed the white-haired elder standing next to Yang Tianxuan.

Hearing this, Yang Tianxuan did not respond, his heart’s shock was beyond description.

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

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

But the results were unsatisfactory, and he eventually gave up.

In fact, creating a game that perfectly replicates real physical performance is harder than reaching the sky.

He had meticulously analyzed a series of issues that needed overcoming.

Not to mention the terrifying server capacity needed for this game, other standards must reach absolute perfection such as interaction frequency, data processing capacity, and even image rendering quality.

Additionally, the virtual world needs to mimic all physical phenomena of the real world, including but not limited to gravity, lighting, materials, and sound, requiring computing power beyond cognition to ensure the accuracy and real-time capability 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, adding significant burden to the data processing center.

Moreover, massive data generated anywhere in the game must be processed and fed back in a very short time, including player-generated input.

For example, when players damage the environment in the game, the information must be collected and the environment modified in real-time.

Considering various variable issues, creating a completely realistic game was nearly impossible in Yang Tianxuan’s vision, as it amounted to creating a brand new world requiring a 1:1 resource consumption.

That is to say, creating a perfect simulation of Earth theoretically requires the consumption of an Earth’s worth of resources.

But everything in front of him was real; the Moon Eclipse Clan truly created such a perfect virtual game through some unknown technology.

Feeling the immense technological gap between the Human Federation and the Moon Eclipse Clan, a fire kindled in Yang Tianxuan’s heart.

With such a realistic virtual environment at their disposal, they could fully exert themselves without worrying about environmental destruction, personal safety, and other troublesome issues.

"Boss, I’ve checked the store, and there are no equipment available for our weapon development; we have to start from scratch... However, there are Spirit Stones for sale in the store, perhaps we can first make a batch of Spiritual Ability Guns."

Yang Tianxuan listened and nodded in agreement.

To manufacture powerful technological weapons, issues such as forging equipment, processing equipment, and calibration tools needed to be addressed, a cumbersome process from nothing to something.

Currently, lacking sufficient resources, they were at a standstill.

But Spiritual Ability Guns were different, this was one of the early weapon technologies provided by the Moon Eclipse Clan to humanity.

Weapons could be forged by altering the energy pathways of Spiritual Ore, then embedding Spirit Stones to drive the bullets and engraving internal arrays for compressing Spiritual Energy.

Upon pulling the trigger, the gun would automatically draw energy from the Spirit Stone, compress it into a bullet shape internally, and with the push of internal Spiritual Energy, shoot it out. Upon contact with the target, the unstable Spiritual Energy Bullet would instantly burst open, causing a ranged explosion damage.

For initial development, this technology was obviously more practical.

"Let’s make a batch of Spiritual Ability Guns then," confirmed Yang Tianxuan at this moment.

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

"Director, the problem is that all items in the store require sacrificial power to purchase, and I can’t find any recharge function in the game’s control panel, where do we get the starting funds to buy materials and make Spiritual Ability Guns?"

Yang Tianxuan: ...

Faced with the issue of no startup funds, Yang Tianxuan fell into deep thought.

"Have you contacted Qin Ye? He entered the game before us, ask him how much sacrificial power he can lend us."

"I just added him as a friend, I’ll ask now," said a middle-aged man in his early thirties from the team, who then accessed his friend list trying to connect with Qin Ye.

Soon after, the middle-aged man looked towards Yang Tianxuan with slight embarrassment:

"He only has 239 points of sacrificial power, not nearly enough for us to use as start-up capital."

"Then let’s start buying sacrificial power from other players, the costs will be pooled by us for now, we won’t submit a request for funds."

With this idea in mind, they immediately started acting, and several messages to buy sacrificial power appeared in the regional channel, with a buying rate of 1:20.

However, these few messages were quickly overwhelmed by other player’s messages, which included a few taunts joking about their unrealistic pricing, comparing their offer to robbery.

This made Yang Tianxuan and the members of the Weapon Development Department realize that their purchase price was too low.

They chose to gradually increase the price.

From 20:1, climbing slowly to 100:1, but still, no player was willing to sell their sacrificial power to them.

This left Yang Tianxuan completely baffled.

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

The response he received was surprising.

The price of sacrificial power in the game had already risen from 50:1 to 150:1, and few players were willing to sell their sacrificial power.

There were mainly two reasons.

Firstly, the consumption rate of sacrificial power far exceeded its production rate, and players did not have enough sacrificial power to enhance their own strength, let alone sell it.

Secondly, the price of sacrificial power was consistently rising, leading most players to believe that the price would continue to climb.

Many hardworking players thought it better to use their sacrificial power to boost their strength early on, and after becoming stronger, earn even more sacrificial power. Selling sacrificial power early on might cause one’s power to lag behind other players, leading to diminished returns in the later stages.

Learning the reasons from Qin Ye, Yang Tianxuan fell into contemplation.

Continuing to raise the purchase price would strain their salaries, and the process for applying for funds was too cumbersome and time-consuming.

Without a recharge option and unable to purchase sacrificial power at a reasonable price, Yang Tianxuan, at a loss for solutions, had to voice call Qin Ye again:

"Xiao Ye, is there any quick way to earn sacrificial power?"

"There are three ways to earn sacrificial power at this stage," replied Qin Ye. "The first is to leave the Imperial Tomb Village and hunt various types of monsters outside, the second is to be lucky enough during world exploration to encounter minable Spirit Plants, compared to the first two, I recommend the third way."

"What way?" Yang Tianxuan immediately asked.

"Go to the Dark Cave to mine!"