This Game Is Too Real
Chapter 121: Four-Digit Rewards and Rights to Explore Relics

Chapter 121: Chapter 121: Four-Digit Rewards and Rights to Explore Relics

[Task Reward: 1500 silver coins, 1000 contribution points, 4 free weapon upgrade opportunities.]

[Warm Tip: Due to the workbench you recycled, the weapon shop at Outpost 404 has unlocked the "weapon modification" option. Do you wish to announce the squad information to all the server players? Yes/No]

The next morning,

the four little players logged into the game and confirmed their dungeon earnings through team leader Old White’s VM.

"Holy shit! Four digits!?"

"Brother Guang is amazing!"

"We’re rich, we’re rich!"

After deducting the 225 silver coins for Elena, there were still 1275 silver coins left, which meant each person could get 318 silver coins!

Compared to most players with less than a three-digit balance in their bank account, this was undoubtedly a huge sum of money!

Looking at Night Ten, who was grinning like a pig brother, Old White glared at him fiercely.

"Don’t you fucking go showing off on the forum! I’m warning you!"

Saying this, he poked the "No" option.

Night Ten said with a playful grin,

"Would I do that? It’s called sharing the joy in my heart with the forum brothers!"

No sooner had he spoken than he received three eye rolls in reply.

But jokes aside, Night Ten knew better than to flaunt carelessly.

Keeping a low profile and making money might go unchecked, but causing public outrage could compel even the game managers who might want to protect you to consider the feelings of the majority of players.

silver coins!

The most expensive weapon at the current weapon shop, the 9mm steel pipe rifle from Giant Stone City, was only 150 silver coins. And that was after the price had been slightly increased after the 7mm steel pipe rifles sold out!

It’s like when someone worked hard and toiled through quests for several days, happily saving up enough money to buy their first steel scrubber, filled with a sense of achievement, and then you just jump out, splashing your four-digit dungeon reward right in their face.

Other than making those hardworking, tool-like players feel like they had their brains screwed, what was the point?

The game isn’t reality, and from the perspective of the game company, the overall gaming experience of the players is what matters most.

Don’t say that planner Brother Guang is just a member of the group chat.

Even if Brother Guang was his real father, he’d probably want to sacrifice him to appease the heavens.

Objectively speaking, the rewards from their dungeon this time indeed had an impact on balance, completely outclassing the regular task earnings of players at the same level by two orders of magnitude.

Last night, they discussed in the cow and horse group for a long time, and the consensus they reached was only about 800 or so.

After all, compared to the brutal meat grinder at the entrance to the Greenhouse Ruins, having a couple of hundred Eaters scattered over two floors of an underground parking lot and dealing with Crawlers was tough, but that was an issue from several versions ago.

With equipment, levels, and the ability to lay traps and plan tactics in advance, the actual difficulty wasn’t as outrageous as Night Ten made it out to be.

If [Professor Yang, King of Thunder and Lightning] found out that they made four figures from a dungeon, he’d probably rant about them having inside information again.

"I’m thinking about how to spend it..." Fang Chang stroked his chin, "200 silver to get Old White a set of steel armor should be no problem, and 100 silver—"

"Alright, alright, stop calculating," Old White waved his hand to interrupt Fang Chang, "set aside 200 silver to save up as guild funds, and once we have enough, we’ll build our guild building. The rest everyone can split and decide what equipment to buy on their own."

"I agree," Wild Wind nodded, "But 200 might not be enough, we still have to bid for the exploration rights to the Greenhouse Ruins dungeon at eight o’clock."

Old White: "Hiss... Would setting aside 500 be enough?"

"Definitely," Fang Chang said with a smile, "just consider how much money the others have, and you’ll know. I bet it won be over 200 silver. If the bid starts below 200, we’ll just slap down 200 and snipe it!"

Old White nodded.

That made sense.

Unless several players pooled their money together, other players had no chance of competing, and even if they did, it wouldn’t matter—they could definitely outbid them.

"How are the Contribution Points divided? And what’s the deal with the weapon upgrade opportunity exactly?" Night Ten suddenly asked.

"Let’s just divide the Contribution Points evenly, that’s 200 for each person including Elena. Anyway, we’re all citizens now, just waiting for the new version to release higher status levels. As for the weapon upgrade... I reckon it’s about adding a grip to a gun or engraving some sort of sight, but my imagination is limited, we’ll see when we get there," Old White said as he stroked his chin, analyzing haphazardly.

Wild Wind: "I plan to add a winding mechanism to wind up my Crossbow, and replace the foot pedal with a bayonet."

Night Ten: "That’s just overkill, man."

Wild Wind: "You don’t understand, it makes it more Wasteland-style."

"I’ll pass, I’ll give my chance to Old Yi," Fang Chang didn’t want the workstation to ruin his "Dawn" which he treasured so dearly.

Night Ten: "Pfft, who the heck is Old Yi?"

Fang Chang: "I certainly can’t call her Old Na, can I?"

The three of them froze simultaneously.

Uh.

That was cold.

...

In the Wasteland, it was around seven in the morning.

The distant Sun gradually rose, and the sparse sunlight seeped through gaps in the forest, casting light over the pristine snow.

Nomads in the camp carrying large and small plastic buckets headed to the lake for water, while players also emerged from the sanatorium elevators, beginning their leisure time after getting off work.

At this moment, a large crowd had gathered tightly at the door of the sanatorium.

Standing at the center of the crowd, Chu Guang, clad in heavy armor and carrying a large hammer, began to speak in a solemn and serious voice.

"Now, up for auction is the exploration rights to the First Floor of the Greenhouse Ruins."

Hearing this, the surrounding players began whispering to each other.

"Why are they only auctioning the first floor?"

"Dummy, of course you have to clear the first floor before you can tackle the second and the basement levels!"

"I remember there were 5 floors above ground and 10 below, right?"

"I know, and I think the controlled nuclear fusion generator is on the ninth floor! The tenth connects to the urban drainage system? The Devil Moth’s Lair must be there!"

After glancing at the players discussion, Chu Guang didn’t linger for long. He simply narrated the difficulty of the dungeon, the expected number of monsters, and so forth, effectively introducing the auction item.

Then, he announced the start of the auction.

"... A minimum guaranteed reward of 200 silver coins for the dungeon clearance, with a starting bid of 100 silver. Each bid must be at least 1 Silver Coin higher."

Mosquito promptly raised his hand.

"150—"

His words were cut off before he could finish.

"200 silver!"

As Fang Chang raised his hand, the players around him gasped in astonishment.

"Damn, they’re bidding 200 silver for a dungeon with a clear reward of 200 silver? What’s the point?"

"That’s outrageous!"

"What do you know, that 200 silver is a guaranteed minimum reward. If you clear out all the cocoons and sell them, do you think it’ll only fetch 200 silver?"

"Well, it’s not certain. Maybe you don’t know, but cocoon piles of the Devil Moth are already heaped up like small hills next to the warehouse, and the purchase price has already been heavily discounted several times. If there are no other new findings, those remaining Devil Moth’s Cocoon might not even sell for 200 silver."

Wasteland OL currently has two markets, one is the NPC warehouse, and the other is the market by the north gate.

During the closed beta, the number of players was too few and their spending power wasn’t high. Right now, if you want to make money, you mainly have to rely on the NPC warehouse orders.

Wasteland OL’s Economic System is quite interesting.

To prevent an oversupply of a single resource and severe inventory backlog, the NPC warehouses for each type of resource would preset a blue line and a red line.

The blue line represented the "reserve limit," while the red line represented the "inventory warning line." These two lines maintained a balance of supply and demand, primarily based on the demands of the industrial district.

If the resource reserves exceeded the blue line, that is, the reserve limit, for every 10% exceeded, the purchasing and selling prices would drop by 10% based on the current rates, effectively reducing production and spurring sales.

If it dropped below the red line, the inventory warning line, for every 10% below, the purchasing and selling prices would rise by 10%, encouraging increased production and tighter consumption.

Here’s a fun fact, the vast majority of players did not have private warehouses.

Smaller amounts of resources could be stuffed into storage lockers, while bulk resources either had to be sold to the factories in the industrial district or piled up on one’s private land.

Random piles would be considered abandoned, up for grabs by other players and NPCs.

Now, never mind the NPC warehouses, even the storage in Teng Teng’s little cottage was stuffed full of these cocoons, and with several days of dumping, the purchase price of the Devil Moth’s Cocoon had already fallen to 1 Silver Coin each, with the selling price also pinned to the floor.

It was said that if inventory exceeded the blue line by five times, a "circuit breaker" mechanism would be triggered, where the Manager would set a "white line," locking the selling price and halting purchases until inventory fell below the white line.

This situation had not happened yet, but judging by the current pace, it seemed imminent.

The Devil Moth’s carcasses and Spirit Leaves were in the same boat; both materials had very low "blue lines" to begin with. The warehouses had little desire to keep reserves, and their purchase prices continuously took a nosedive, with only the newbie hitchhikers bothering to transport them back.

"Why bother worrying about others not making money," looking at these sand sculptures fretting about other people’s lack of profits, Brother Mole gazed at the sky, sighed deeply, and shook his head, "You guys simply don’t get the rules of this thing... Do you think they care about the 200 Silver Coins of revenue? So what if they don’t make money?"

"What do you mean?"

Gnome King Riches was stunned for a moment, completely puzzled.

Not making money in a dungeon?

Then what the fuck was the point?

Forget about bullets, you’d even have to pay to buy a new axe if the old one broke!

Brother Mole gave the little fool a meaningful glance.

"Clearing the first level unlocks the entrance to the second level above ground and the first level underground, right?"

Gnome King Riches: "Uh, what then?"

"The maximized prioritized exploration rights could last up to 7 days," Brother Mole paused, then continued indifferently, "If it were me, I’d sell the second floor’s prioritized exploration rights to another team... just 200 Silver will do, then concentrate forces on the underground first level."

"Holy shit?!"

At last, Gnome King Riches got it, his eyes widening in shock.

"Isn’t this snowballing like crazy?!"

"As long as you clear it within the period of the prioritized exploration rights, attacking one floor after another, in theory, you are indeed snowballing."

Brother Mole sighed enviously.

"The first level guarantees a profit of at least 200 Silver... and there are ten levels beneath that."

If it weren’t for knowing these people had just cleared a major dungeon, and he had zero chance of outbidding them, he would definitely try to snatch a bid.

After all, the markup inside was terrifyingly high.

Damn!

If only you could pay to win!

Brother Mole had a premonition.

If these guys continued to snowball like this, Wasteland OL might have the Guild System up and running even before the closed beta stage ended.

Or perhaps even more expensive game mechanics than the Guild System.

After all, the most expensive equipment in the shop was only in the triple digits.

He truly couldn’t fathom what these people would even spend their Silver Coins on once they made more than triple digits.

...

After obtaining the exploration rights to Greenhouse Ruins, the Cow and Horse Team didn’t start their raid right away but instead recruited 5 old players who had participated in this dungeon before, forming a 9-person squad.

All of their Levels were above LV4, with most specializing in the Strength Type and Agility Type.

Among them was a certain Mole.

Old White, who had taken on the role of team captain, walked up to the five strangers and began to speak.

"The first floor has been pretty much nibbled away. I reckon the remaining resources might barely scrape together 200 Silver. Unless there’s a surprise, the final clearance reward should just hit the minimum guaranteed."

Gnome King Riches nodded.

"Indeed... Those noobs are too damn wild."

Old White: "You can’t blame them for being wild. After all, there was something wrong with the previous gameplay mechanics. Dozens of people squeezed into one instance, and we didn’t dare to speak up on the Forum. It’s different now. The gameplay’s become more regular, which is better for everyone."

After a pause, Old White continued.

"If the final dungeon revenue is 200 Silver, you five can split that money; the four of us will abstain. Whatever exceeds 200, we’ll take forty percent, and the rest is still yours to split."

Midnight Chicken Killing said in a daze, "Won’t you guys be at a loss?"

"Don’t worry about that," Fang Chang said with a smile, speaking frankly, "Our goal is the exploration rights to the second floor above and the one below."

Old White shook the VM on his arm.

"If there’s no issue, then I’ll start drafting the team contract."

VM’s team feature allows for drafting team contracts. Apart from a few templates provided by the official website, you can also customize your own.

If a dispute arises, the Outpost Base will arbitrate based on the content of the contract to determine the ownership of the spoils and rewards.

After the five players received the team invitation and confirmed it, they exchanged glances, none raising any objections.

Especially Mole and Brother Fu Gui, who had communicated earlier and already knew what the objectives of the members from the Niú Mǎ team were.

These big shots weren’t interested in picking up the leftovers. Their real targets were the stages after the next and the one following that.

But what Mole didn’t expect was that they would overlook even these remaining 200 Silver Coins and directly offer them to these strangers.

How fat must these guys be!

After clicking confirm on the VM screen, Mole clenched his fists and gave a bow.

"Brother, I’m counting on you. I just hope to get a sip of the broth following you."

Fang Chang said with a laugh, "Good brother, don’t say that. We’re counting on learning how to run Insect-type Heterogeneous Nest instances from you. Don’t worry, the next time a good opportunity like this comes up, we definitely won’t compete with you!"

I don’t believe you for a second!

Mole sighed inwardly.

As expected.

To get rich quick, one must find a way to explore high-value resource points. Following behind others for the leftovers holds no future.

Looking at Mole, Old White said with a smile,

"Brother, you know what, why don’t you join our group? We’re planning on creating a Guild, hang out and play together when we’ve got time."

Night Ten chuckled and chimed in, "How about being the vice president? When the Guild is set up, we’ll have you as a vice president."

Mole looked up at the sky and shook his head.

"Thanks, but I’ll pass on the Guild. In other games, I had neither the money nor the time to compete for t1. Now that I’ve encountered such an awesome game... I want to be the big leg for once."

A vice president in an MMORPG is just a fancy title with no real play.

At least as a beta player, if he didn’t play as a Guild president, wouldn’t that be a waste?

Fang Chang and Old White both smiled at him, showing understanding, and dropped the subject.

"Let’s get the party started; no more talk, it’s all about the money!"

"Charge, charge, charge!"

"Let’s do this!"