Forum War

"Haha, making money off players really is the easiest!"

As soon as the five suckers had left, Li Si dropped all pretense. He grabbed several thick stacks of bills and planted a big kiss on them before packing up and heading home.

Today's haul was far better than he'd expected. The female player Ye Xi had bought the two-piece set and paid for additional appearance customization, for a total of twenty-eight thousand dollars. Li Ritian had also gritted his teeth and booked the customization service, handing over another two thousand. All told, that came to fifty-six thousand dollars.

And those were US dollars. Converted into yuan, it came to at least three hundred thousand, nearly four hundred thousand.

He'd originally expected to get only the twenty-six thousand from Li Ritian. He hadn't imagined he'd make an extra sale, let alone earn another four thousand dollars just by acting on a whim.

It was an outrageous profit, beyond outrageous. That ramshackle electric-shock device had cost less than a hundred dollars to make, and changing its appearance had only involved swapping out a few pieces of fabric. He'd made several hundred times his investment with practically no effort.

"Heh heh, now I've got the down payment for the rest of the parts. Maybe I can even earn enough for the final payment by next week. It all depends on whether Li Ritian comes through."

After taking a cab home, Li Si stretched out on his sofa and happily counted the bills in his hands again and again.

Even when he'd made over a hundred thousand from programming jobs, he'd never been this excited. Back then, the money that came in was just a string of numbers—and he'd earned it by coding day and night.

It was nothing like the thick stack of crisp green bills in his hands now. He'd gotten them without lifting a finger, and having tasted success, his mind was already full of all sorts of shady ways to fleece people.

A voice-over by Some Roaring Guy: At this moment, he was not fighting alone. Tencent, his father from back on Earth, stood with him. So did the creators of countless cash-grab mobile games. Generation after generation of Precursors would bless him as he ventured ever farther down the path of the unscrupulous Merchant.

Ahem... back to the point.

After spending more than ten minutes placing a generous order for a large batch of parts, Li Si finally came to his senses and pulled himself away from the lure of money.

The first thing he did after coming around was open the forum and check on his next money-making scheme.

Just as he'd expected, the very first post on the forum was pinned and highlighted in red. It had several thousand replies.

<HAHAHA, you scrubs! From now on, call me the Thunder King!>

"Pfft! The Thunder King? Why not change your surname to Yang while you're at it!"

Li Si burst out laughing just from reading the title.

He didn't even have to guess who'd posted it. It was that obnoxious Li Ritian, who loved showing off on the forum more than anything.

He clicked in, and sure enough, the poster was Li Ritian. First, he posted the stats for the Thunder King Battle Suit, then rambled on about how clever he was to have spotted the hidden in-game merchant and shelled out for the high-tech gear.

The replies below were full of envy and jealousy. People praised him, asked how much it cost, and tried to wheedle the hidden merchant's location out of him. The comments kept coming.

But Li Ritian was Li Ritian. He couldn't change his habit of picking fights. He posted a reply mocking everyone: "You couldn't afford it even if I told you the price. If you're broke, get lost. This is a game for rich, handsome guys."

The onlookers exploded, cursing and swearing for hundreds of replies.

Unfortunately, Li Ritian was even more ruthless. His family already had a bunch of online shills on standby, so he brought in hundreds of them to argue back. The post ended up with more than three thousand replies.

"Heh, should I add some fuel to the fire?"

Li Si stroked his chin as if deep in thought, but his hands had already started typing on the virtual keyboard.

"Player name: Hao. Location: spotted today in the parking lot of Osir Tower. Call me a good Samaritan. You're welcome!"

Anonymous. Post. Done in one smooth motion. Then he sat back with some melon seeds and watched the show.

"OP, you're a good person. I'm booking a flight right now. I'm gonna beat his ass!"

"Booking a flight +1"

"...+2"

"Here to watch the chaos. Please post a video of him getting beaten up!"

The moment Li Si's reply went up, dozens of replies appeared below it in quick succession. Clearly, Li Ritian's taunts and his shills' arguing had already infuriated plenty of players.

But even after another hundred or so replies, Li Si still hadn't seen the response he was hoping for.

Just as he was debating whether to jump back in and fan the flames himself, a new reply finally appeared.

"Um, just asking... did none of you notice that the good Samaritan said today?"

"What about today? Today is... holy crap!"

"Today, at Osir Tower in New York? I'm booking a flight too! Nobody try to stop me!"

"Booking a flight +10086. And we should beat up the OP while we're at it. Sign up below if you want to join the group."

"Signing up +1"

"Got it!"

Seeing everyone talking about coming to New York, Li Si's lips curled into a smile.

This was exactly why he'd deliberately chosen to trade with Li Ritian. He'd been sure that, given Li Ritian's personality, he'd show off the moment he got his hands on a good piece of gear. And with his habit of picking fights, it was almost impossible for him not to get into an argument with the other players.

Li Ritian's family worked in online media, so having him moonlight as a paid poster was nothing unusual. He had a whole army of shills at his beck and call, ready to defend him and flame people. Getting attention and stirring up a hot topic was ridiculously easy. If Li Si had posted on his own, he never would've gotten this kind of result.

The players in the game were bored and waiting for something to happen. This news would definitely get them heading to New York ahead of schedule. Once they arrived, making money would be easy.

Were the players broke right now?

Of course not. They'd started with at least twenty thousand dollars, and most of their starting templates came with jobs. After a month or two, they'd have saved up a decent amount in wages. By pooling their money, they could easily come up with more than twenty thousand dollars.

The only thing that had held back Li Si's money-making plans was how scattered the players were. Now that problem was solved, a massive windfall was sure to follow.

"Now all that's left is to wait until next Sunday. But before then, I need to stock up a bit more."