Forum War

"Haha, it really is simple to earn money from players!"

Watching the group of five suckers depart, Li Si immediately dropped his facade, grabbed the several thick stacks of banknotes, and planted a fierce kiss on them before neatly packing up his stall to head home.

Today's harvest was far beyond his expectations. The female player Ye Xi had purchased a two-piece set plus additional aesthetic modifications for a total of 28,000 USD, and Li Ritian had also gritted his teeth to pre-order modification services, handing over another 2,000 USD, totaling 56,000 USD.

This was in US dollars; converted to RMB, that was at least over 300,000, nearing 400,000.

He had originally only expected the 26,000 from Li Ritian; he hadn't anticipated an extra deal, nor that a sudden flash of inspiration would net him an additional 4,000 USD.

This was nothing short of profiteering at its finest. The cost of that raggedy shock device was less than 100 USD, and modifying the appearance was just a matter of swapping out a few pieces of fabric—a profit margin of several hundred times over, achieved with ease.

"Hehe, now the down payment for the remaining parts is covered. Maybe I can even earn enough for the final payment by next week, depending on whether that guy Li Ritian delivers."

Taking a taxi all the way home, Li Si lay on his sofa, blissfully counting the banknotes one by one, over and over again.

It could be said that even when he earned over 100,000 from previous programming gigs, he had never felt this heart-racing excitement. After all, those arrivals were just strings of numbers, and they were earned through days and nights of grinding out code.

Unlike the stack of solid, green bills in his hand now, which he had obtained without the slightest bit of effort. Having tasted the sweetness, his mind was already overflowing with devious schemes to swindle more money.

BY a certain roaring voice-over: At this moment, he is not fighting alone. Tencent-daddy, far away on Earth, is with him; the creators of countless pay-to-win mobile games are with him; generations of pioneers will bless him as he walks further and further down the path of the unscrupulous merchant.

Ahem... back to the topic.

After fussing for over ten minutes and grandly placing a large order for parts, Li Si finally managed to sober himself up from the temptation of money.

The first thing he did upon regaining his focus was to open the forum, concerned about his next grand money-making plan.

As Li Si expected, at the very top of the forum was a glowing red pinned post, and the number of replies had already reached several thousand.

<Hahaha, you losers, from now on, call me the Thunder King!>

"Pfft! Thunder King? Why don't you just change your surname to Yang!"

Just looking at the title of the post, Li Si burst out laughing.

He didn't even have to guess to know this was posted by that jerk Li Ritian; that guy loved nothing more than showing off on the forums.

Clicking in, sure enough, the poster was that very guy. He first posted a screenshot of the Thunder King Battle Suit's stats, followed by a long-winded rant about how clever he was to have keenly discovered a hidden game merchant and spent money to buy this piece of black-tech equipment.

The replies below were filled with envy, jealousy, and hatred, with endless comments praising him, asking for the price, or trying to fish for the location of the hidden merchant.

However, Li Ritian was Li Ritian after all; he couldn't change his habit of being a jerk and provoking people. He directly jumped into the thread to mock everyone: "Even if I told you, you couldn't afford it. You poor losers without money should just quit the game; this is a game for the rich and handsome."

This completely ignited the onlookers, who proceeded to curse him out for hundreds of replies.

Unfortunately, Li Ritian was even more ruthless. He had a team of internet trolls at home on standby, and he immediately brought in hundreds of people to flame back, flooding the post with over 3,000 replies.

"Tsk tsk, should I add some fuel to the fire?"

Li Si rubbed his chin, looking thoughtful, while his hands were already subconsciously typing on the virtual keyboard.

"Game Name: Hao Bruce, Location: Spotted today at the Osir Tower parking lot. Please call me Red Scarf, don't thank me!"

Anonymous, send, done in one go. Then, he sat back to eat melon seeds and watch the show.

"The OP is a good person! I'm booking a flight right now to beat the crap out of him!"

"Booking a flight +1"

"...+2"

"Strongly watching, requesting a video of the beating!"

As soon as Li Si's reply was posted, dozens of replies popped up below. Clearly, Li Ritian's mass mockery and his army of trolls had already pissed off quite a few players.

However, after another hundred replies, he still hadn't seen the content Li Si was hoping for.

Just as he was hesitating whether to jump in himself to stir the pot further, a post finally appeared.

"Wait, let me ask a weak question: did you guys not notice that classmate Red Scarf said it was today..."

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

"Today, New York Osir Tower. Damn, I'm booking a flight too, nobody stop me."

"Booking a flight +10086. By the way, I'm going to beat up the OP. Anyone wanting to form a team, sign up below."

"Signing up +1"

"It's done!"

Seeing a group of people clamoring to come to New York, the corners of Li Si's mouth curled into a smile.

This was why he specifically chose to trade with Li Ritian. He had calculated that with Li Ritian's personality, buying a good piece of equipment would definitely lead him to show it off. And with that guy's habit of provoking others, it was hard for him not to get into a flame war with other players.

Li Ritian's family worked in internet media, and using trolls was a common occurrence for him. With a massive army of trolls under his command to wash his reputation and flame others, attracting attention and hyping up the heat was incredibly easy. If Li Si had relied on posting himself, he would never have achieved this effect.

The players currently in the game were bored and expectant. With such news breaking out, it would definitely lead them to gather in New York ahead of schedule. Once the people arrived, money would naturally be easy to earn.

Were the players poor?

Of course not. Their starting capital was at least 20,000 USD, and most of the starting templates had jobs. After a month or two, the accumulated wages were quite substantial. Pooling together to come up with over 20,000 USD was absolutely no problem.

The only thing that had hindered Li Si's money-making plan before was that the players were too scattered. Now that this problem was solved, the next step would definitely be a bumper harvest.

"Next is to wait for next Sunday, but before that, I need to prepare more stock."