Startup Funds

An hour later.

Flashes of white light appeared one after another, and 52 figures logged in at the respawn point in Emperor's Tomb Village.

The moment they entered the game, Yang Tianxuan and the other members of the Weapons Research Department were stunned by the scene before them. They could hardly believe this was a game world.

Given their line of work, they immediately began testing the world's realism.

They tested their sense of gravity, tossed stones to observe their parabolic trajectories, tested their sense of smell and their physical coordination... Under the bewildered stares of the other players, they were thoroughly won over by the game's lifelike quality.

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

Yang Tianxuan didn't respond. The shock he felt was beyond words.

He had long thought about testing weapon performance in a virtual environment.

He had tested weapons in the virtual game Land of Sins, released by the Moon Eclipse Clan five years ago.

But the results had been unsatisfactory, and in the end, he'd given up.

In fact, creating a game that perfectly replicated the physics of reality was harder than reaching the heavens.

He had carefully analyzed the many problems that would need to be overcome.

Never mind the terrifying server capacity this game would require. Every other standard would also have to be absolutely perfect, from interaction frequency and data processing volume to image-rendering quality.

Furthermore, the virtual world would need to simulate every physical phenomenon in the real world, including gravity, light, materials, and sound. That would require computational power beyond human understanding to ensure the physics engine's accuracy and responsiveness.

To achieve perfect realism, every detail in the virtual world would need to be simulated with precision, including buildings, vegetation, terrain, and changes in the weather. These details would greatly increase the burden on the data-processing center.

On top of that, the enormous amount of data generated by the game at every moment would need to be processed and fed back in an incredibly short time, including information generated by player input.

For example, if a player damaged the environment in the game, the environment would need to change in real time once the information had been collected.

Taking all the variables into account, creating a completely realistic game had seemed nearly impossible to Yang Tianxuan. It would be tantamount to creating an entirely new world, and would require an equal amount of resources.

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

But there was no denying what he saw before him. Through some unknown technology, the Moon Eclipse Clan had created a perfect virtual game with no discernible flaws.

As he marveled at the enormous technological gap between the Human Federation and the Moon Eclipse Clan, a fire ignited within Yang Tianxuan.

With such a realistic virtual environment to support them, they could give it everything they had without worrying about environmental damage, personal safety, or any of the other troublesome problems.

"Boss, I checked the shop. It doesn't sell any equipment that could help us develop weapons, so we'll have to start from scratch... But it does sell spirit stones. Maybe we can make a batch of Spirit Energy Firearms first."

Yang Tianxuan nodded in agreement.

Producing powerful technological weapons required forging and machining equipment, measuring and calibration tools, and a host of other things. Starting from zero meant going through the painstaking process of building everything from the ground up.

At present, they didn't have enough resources to get started.

Spirit Energy Firearms were different, though. They were one of the early weapon technologies the Moon Eclipse Clan had provided to humanity.

They could be forged by altering the energy pathways in spirit ore, then fitted with spirit stones to power them like bullets, with an array carved inside to compress spiritual energy.

When the trigger was pulled, the firearm would draw energy from the spirit stone and compress it into a bullet inside the weapon. The compressed energy would then propel it forward. Upon striking its target, the unstable spirit-energy bullet would explode, dealing area damage.

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

"Then we'll make a batch of Spirit Energy Firearms first." Yang Tianxuan approved his subordinate's proposal.

Just then, a scruffy, middle-aged man in the group asked in confusion,

"Director, the problem is that everything in the shop has to be bought with Sacrificial Power. I've looked all over the game's function menu and can't find a way to top up. How are we supposed to get the startup funds to buy materials and make Spirit Energy Firearms?"

Yang Tianxuan: ...

Faced with the lack of startup funds, Yang Tianxuan fell into thought.

"Have you contacted Qin Ye? He entered the game before we did. Ask how much Sacrificial Power he has that we could borrow."

"I just added him as a friend. I'll ask him now." A middle-aged man in the group, who looked to be in his thirties, brought up his friend list and tried to contact Qin Ye.

A little while later, the man turned to Yang Tianxuan with an awkward expression.

"He only has 239 points of Sacrificial Power. That's nowhere near enough for us to use as startup funds."

"Then we'll buy Sacrificial Power from other players first. We'll pool the money ourselves for now and skip the funding request."

With a plan in mind, they immediately got to work. Dozens of messages offering to buy Sacrificial Power appeared in the regional channel, at a rate of 1:20.

But the messages were quickly buried beneath posts from other players. A few mocking comments were mixed in, with people telling them to quit dreaming and saying their offer was no different from robbery.

Yang Tianxuan and the other members of the Weapons Research Department realized that their offer was too low.

They decided to raise the price bit by bit.

They gradually increased their offer from 20:1 to 100:1, but still not a single player was willing to sell them Sacrificial Power.

Yang Tianxuan was completely baffled.

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

The answer he got surprised him.

The price of Sacrificial Power in the game had already risen from 50:1 to 150:1, and few players were willing to sell what they had.

There were two main reasons.

First, players were spending Sacrificial Power much faster than they could earn it. They didn't even have enough to improve their own strength, let alone sell any.

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

Many players who made a living doing odd jobs planned to spend their Sacrificial Power on improving their strength first, then earn more once they grew stronger. Selling it early would leave them lagging behind other players, causing their gains later on to shrink considerably.

After understanding the reason from Qin Ye, Yang Tianxuan fell into thought.

If they kept raising their offer, their wages wouldn't be able to cover the expense. The funding application process was also too cumbersome, and they'd have to wait for it to go through.

With no way to top up and no reasonable way to buy Sacrificial Power, Yang Tianxuan couldn't think of a solution. He could only call Qin Ye again.

"Xiao Ye, is there a quick way to earn Sacrificial Power?"

"At this stage, there are three ways to earn Sacrificial Power. First, leave Emperor's Tomb Village and hunt different kinds of monsters. Second, while exploring the world, hope you get lucky and find harvestable spirit plants. Compared with those two methods, I recommend the third."

"What method?" Yang Tianxuan immediately asked.

"Go to Gloomy Cave and mine!"