Seed Funding

Chapter 34: Seed Funding

One hour later.

With flashes of white light, 52 figures respawned at the Emperor's Tomb Village spawn point.

The moment they entered the game, members of the weapon research and development department, including Yang Tianxuan, were stunned by the scene before them, finding it hard to believe it was a game world.

Due to their professions, they immediately began testing the world's realism.

Gravity perception tests, throwing stones to observe parabolic trajectories, olfactory tests, body coordination tests... under the bewildered gazes of other players, they were completely convinced by the game's authenticity.

"Boss, Moon Eclipse Clan's technology has made another leap. They've managed to create such a realistic game world," exclaimed an elder with white hair standing beside Yang Tianxuan.

Yang Tianxuan didn't respond. The shock in his heart was beyond words.

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

He had previously conducted weapon tests in Land of Sins, a virtual game released by Moon Eclipse Clan five years ago.

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

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

He had meticulously analyzed the numerous challenges that needed to be overcome.

Setting aside the terrifying server capacity required for such a game, all other aspects needed to meet 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 computational power beyond comprehension to ensure the accuracy and real-time performance of the physics engine.

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

Furthermore, the massive amount of data generated at any given moment within the game needs to be processed and fed back in an extremely short period, including information generated by player input.

For example, if a player destroys an object in the game environment, the information collected needs to be used to change the environment in real-time.

Considering all these variables, creating a completely realistic game was, in Yang Tianxuan's conception, almost impossible. It would be equivalent to creating a new world, requiring resources on a 1:1 scale.

In other words, theoretically, creating a game that perfectly simulates Earth would require the resources of an entire Earth.

But everything before him was undeniable. Moon Eclipse Clan had truly created such a perfect virtual game, without any flaws, through some unknown technology.

While lamenting the vast technological gap between the Human Federation and Moon Eclipse Clan, a flame ignited within Yang Tianxuan's heart.

With such a realistic virtual environment, they could fully unleash their potential without worrying about environmental damage, personal safety, and a host of other troublesome issues.

"Boss, I've checked the mall. There are no devices that can support our weapon research and development for sale in this game. We have to start from scratch... However, the mall does sell Spirit Stones. Perhaps we can start by manufacturing a batch of Spirit Energy Firearms."

Hearing this, Yang Tianxuan nodded in agreement.

Manufacturing powerful technological weapons requires solving issues related to forging equipment, processing equipment, measurement and calibration tools, and a series of other problems. Starting from scratch would involve a tedious process of going from nothing to something.

Without sufficient resources at this stage, they couldn't even begin.

But Spirit Energy Firearms were different. This was one of the early weapon technologies provided by Moon Eclipse Clan to humanity.

Weapons could be forged by altering the energy pathways of spirit ores, then embedding Spirit Stones to act as ammunition, and inscribing spirit energy compression formations internally.

Upon pulling the trigger, the firearm would automatically draw energy from the Spirit Stones, compress it internally into bullet form, and launch it with the propulsion of internal spirit energy. Upon contact with a target, the unstable spirit energy bullet would instantly detonate, creating an area-of-effect explosion.

For early-game exploration, this technology was clearly more practical.

"Then let's manufacture a batch of Spirit Energy Firearms first," Yang Tianxuan affirmed his subordinate's suggestion at this point.

Just then, a scruffy middle-aged man in the team asked doubtfully:

"Director, the problem is that everything in the mall requires Sacrificial Power to purchase. I've searched the game's function panel and couldn't find a top-up function. Where are we going to get the seed funding to buy materials to make Spirit Energy Firearms?"

Yang Tianxuan: ...

Facing the problem of no seed funding, Yang Tianxuan fell into thought.

"Have you contacted Qin Ye? He entered the game before us. Let's ask him how much Sacrificial Power he has that we can borrow."

"I just added him as a friend. I'll ask him now." A middle-aged man around 30 years old in the team said, then brought up his friend list and attempted to connect with Qin Ye.

A moment later, the middle-aged man looked at Yang Tianxuan with a slightly awkward expression:

"He only has 239 points of Sacrificial Power. It's not enough for us to use as seed funding."

"Then let's purchase Sacrificial Power from other players first. We'll cover the costs ourselves for now and won't submit a funding request."

With an idea, they immediately began to act. Dozens of messages appeared in the regional channel, offering to buy Sacrificial Power. The exchange rate was set at 1:20.

However, these messages were quickly drowned out by messages posted by other players. Interspersed were a few messages from players making sarcastic remarks, thinking they were dreaming and that their offer was no different from begging.

This made Yang Tianxuan and the other members of the weapon research and development department realize that their purchase price was too low.

They chose to gradually increase the price.

Starting from 20:1, the purchase price gradually climbed to 100:1, but still, no players were willing to sell their Sacrificial Power to them.

This completely baffled Yang Tianxuan.

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

The reply he received astonished him.

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

There were two main reasons.

Firstly, the consumption rate of Sacrificial Power far outpaced its production rate. The Sacrificial Power players held wasn't even enough to improve their own strength, let alone sell.

Secondly, the price of Sacrificial Power had been steadily increasing, and players generally believed it would continue to climb.

Many gold-farming players planned to first use Sacrificial Power to enhance their strength, and only then earn more Sacrificial Power once they were powerful. Selling Sacrificial Power in the early stages would cause their strength to fall behind other players' growth, leading to significantly reduced profits later on.

Understanding the reasons from Qin Ye, Yang Tianxuan fell into thought.

If they continued to raise the purchase price, their salaries wouldn't be able to withstand such consumption, and the process of applying for funds was too cumbersome, requiring time to wait.

With no top-up channels and unable to acquire Sacrificial Power at a reasonable price, Yang Tianxuan, unable to think of a solution, once again connected with Qin Ye via voice call:

"Xiao Ye, do you have any quick ways to earn Sacrificial Power?"

"There are currently three ways to earn Sacrificial Power. The first is to leave Emperor's Tomb Village and hunt various types of monsters outside. Secondly, there's a chance to encounter harvestable spirit plants while exploring the world. Compared to the first two methods, I recommend the third one."

"What method?" Yang Tianxuan immediately asked.

"Go to Gloomy Cave to mine!"