Nash Equilibrium

After finally defeating the Snake Emperor, Han Yang had just wanted to rest for a while when his phone began chiming nonstop with message notifications. When he picked it up, he saw a flood of inquiries pouring in.

"How much to take down Planet Devourer? How long will it take? Do you think my stats are good enough?"

"How much for Crimson Iron Behemoth?"

"What do you charge for taking down Avenger?"

These inquiries were all high-end jobs on the same level as the Snake Emperor. Han Yang was delighted. Forgetting about rest, he immediately began replying. Based on the stat screenshots his customers provided, Han Yang continued offering relatively favorable prices as usual.

Jobs others dared not take, he would take. Prices others dared not offer, he would offer!

Revival Game Studio's business boomed once again. To take on these high-priced jobs, Han Yang even had to temporarily stop accepting some ordinary orders.

There was no helping it. Business was simply too good, and four computers could not keep up.

But Han Yang did not assign all four computers to these high-priced jobs. No matter how many high-priced jobs there were, he would only take on two at once, using two computers for them while letting the other two continue handling ordinary jobs.

The reason was simple: Han Yang did not have enough computing power.

That chip, which could barely reach a frequency of 30 KHZ after overclocking, simply could not provide that much computational capacity. The harder a BOSS was to defeat, the greater the technical demands and the greater the demand for computing power. Simultaneously operating two computers on high-end jobs was already his limit.

Even so, Han Yang's earnings surged once more.

The two computers dedicated to high-end jobs saw their average hourly earnings skyrocket to 39 yuan, while the two dedicated to low-end jobs also rose to 7.1 yuan per hour. Together, the four computers brought in nearly 2,200 yuan a day, or more than 60,000 yuan a month!

That income was certainly high. For anyone else, it would have made them an object of envy, but Han Yang was still not entirely satisfied.

He was still making money too slowly.

There was no helping it. In Han Yang's plans, every aspect of the next-generation chip needed a major upgrade. At the very least, it had to provide him with more than ten times the computing power. That meant much higher demands for machining precision and components. Naturally, the price would soar as well.

The materials for the previous chip alone had cost nearly 10,000 yuan. This time, the materials would cost at least 70,000 or 80,000 yuan.

He was earning more, but his expenses were also huge. Han Yang was still stretched thin.

"It was time to change my business strategy and maximize profits."

Han Yang began thinking quietly.

His computing power was fixed, and so were his four computers. How to make the best use of existing equipment and conditions to maximize profits without changing the current situation was a subject with an entire field devoted to it.

That field was the famous Nash Equilibrium.

Nash Equilibrium fell within the realm of game theory. Put simply, it was the study of optimal strategies.

Every aspect of daily life could involve Nash Equilibrium. For example, if a bun shop made 1,000 buns a day, it would have leftovers and waste; if it made 800, it would not have enough to sell. At the same time, setting the price too high would mean fewer buyers, while setting it too low would lower profits but attract more buyers. In that situation, Nash Equilibrium theory could determine how many buns should be made each day and how much each bun should cost to maximize the owner's income.

Now, Han Yang intended to use this theory to formulate his optimal pricing strategy.

He had already moved past the early stage where he could only attract customers through low prices. He could raise his prices appropriately now.

For Han Yang, raising prices would likewise reduce the number of customers, while lowering them would bring in more customers than he could handle. Taking too many high-end jobs would squeeze out low-end jobs while also exceeding his computing power. Taking too few would waste computing power.

His goal now was to keep all four computers working at full capacity without shutting down, keep his computing power constantly operating at its maximum, and then make the most money possible.

Based on his actual circumstances, Han Yang quickly drew up an extremely complicated equation and entered all kinds of parameters into it.

"Total computing power, 30 KHZ, price parameters, time parameters, customer traffic parameters, conversion rate, transaction rate..."

More than twenty parameters were added to the equation. After calculating for a moment, Han Yang arrived at the final conclusion.

"Prices need to be directly tied to computing power expenditure. The average price should be 8.5% below the market rate to maximize profits."

That way, the daily order volume would remain slightly above capacity. There would not be too much backlog, nor would there be no jobs to do. His computing power usage would also remain high, neither exceeding what he could support nor causing computing power to go to waste, ultimately achieving maximum profits.

Having calculated the result, Han Yang immediately updated the shop and appropriately raised the prices of all its services.

As expected, the price increase immediately triggered customer backlash, and the transaction rate instantly dropped. Many customers saw the higher prices and directly canceled their orders.

But that was fine. It would just reduce the order backlog.

After trying it out for two days, the overall situation stabilized. When Han Yang reviewed the numbers again, he immediately saw that the four computers' combined average hourly earnings had increased once more, reaching around 120 yuan.

That meant an income of 2,880 yuan a day, or roughly 86,000 yuan a month.

Han Yang was fairly satisfied with that figure. However, he also understood that at this stage, the potential of both his equipment and computing power had been tapped to the limit. Without increasing his computing power or expanding his scale, his income could no longer rise.

"Then I'll keep things this way for now."

Han Yang thought to himself, "I can also start buying materials for the new chip bit by bit. There's no need to buy everything at once. Once I have them, I can try making some less important parts first and build up experience."

For the next month or so, Han Yang did not plan to make any major moves. Stability would come first.

At that moment, in places Han Yang could not see, Revival Game Studio's reputation was quietly spreading. Through the word-of-mouth of many old customers, more and more players stuck on BOSSes began seeking him out on their own.

"Boss, you can handle Light Eater, right? Here are my stats. You can? Great... What? I have to queue? Three days from now? Boss, can I pay extra? Even extra money won't do? You're really turning down money?"

"Boss, I've confirmed receipt and left a positive review. I'd also like to book in advance—Tree Demon in five days."