Initial Development

It had already begun to take shape as a Soul Master town, with all kinds of shops lining the streets.

There were tea houses for leisure and conversation, restaurants for dining, and various other stores.

For example, shops selling high-grade jade would conjure gemstone-shaped items within the Dream Space for sale. Transactions could be completed directly in the Dream Space: customers transferred Dream Coupons into a designated account set up by Li Ming, after which the shop owner shipped the goods offline. Once the customer received the goods, they returned to the Dream Space and clicked confirmation, and the Dream Coupons would be transferred into the shop owner's account.

There were also all sorts of other shops.

Blacksmith shops selling ironware and protective gear, clothing stores selling garments, miscellaneous shops selling Soul Beast materials, and so on.

They mainly catered to the high-end market, with wholesale as their primary business.

After all, the Soul Masters here all had powerful backers. Whenever they made purchases, the sums involved were never small.

There were quite a few of these shops, with more than one in each industry. They competed fiercely for business, making Commercial Street look exceptionally prosperous.

The only slight trouble was that disputes sometimes arose during transactions.

For instance, the quality displayed in the Dream Space might not match the offline goods, or the goods might not be received offline at all.

The former could simply be handled through returns, but the latter was more troublesome. Satellite AI could retrieve camera footage and assess the situation by confirming information such as whether a delivery person had appeared, but the results were not necessarily accurate.

However, Li Ming merely provided the platform. He charged no fees and took no responsibility for mediating disputes.

In the end, Li Ming introduced several commercial rules: first, the Positive Review System; second, Reputation Scores.

The former applied to shops, while the latter applied to individuals.

Every shop displayed a rating on its signboard, calculated by AI based on various data. If a rating fell too low, the shop would be forcibly closed.

Reputation Scores were divided into excellent, good, passing, and failing. Whenever an unresolvable transaction dispute occurred, both the shop and the individual would receive a deduction.

A single deduction would not directly lower their rating, but once enough points had been deducted, the rating would decline.

For individuals running shops, Reputation Score deductions merely made merchants more cautious in business, encouraging them to establish better delivery procedures and avoid losses.

However, once a Reputation Score dropped to failing, the AI would remove them.

Thus, while the commercial system was far from perfect, it could remain stable.

It was precisely this commercial prosperity that opened the way for the circulation of Dream Coupons.

There were plenty of people exchanging Dream Coupons for Gold Soul Coins offline.

By now, the exchange banks of the two great empires had opened in every town and city.

It was just that during the Closed Beta, he collected neither taxes nor rent, so he had lost out on quite a bit of money.

Still, Li Ming had made up for it through other means.

As he walked, he suddenly turned into a shop. It was a restaurant, decorated in an extremely modern style.

The sign outside prominently displayed the words "McIntosh."

Li Ming went to the counter and used a self-service machine to order and pay. Soon, a tray appeared before the counter, carrying Iced Cola, fries, a Burger, and Chicken Wings.

He picked up the tray, walked to an empty table in the corner of the restaurant, and began eating heartily.

The food here could not fill his stomach, but it truly tasted excellent.

A set meal like this cost only one Dream Coupon, or one Gold Soul Coin. It was naturally not cheap, but many people were willing to pay for the flavor. After all, the taste they experienced was real, and so was the emotional satisfaction it brought.

This fast-food restaurant alone could earn him a hundred Gold Soul Coins a day.

There was also a Milk Tea Shop next door. Milk tea was cheaper, only 0.1 Dream Coupons per cup, but the low price meant considerable sales, earning him fifty Dream Coupons a day as well.

There was a Tavern next door too, and that was where the real money was. It brought in at least two hundred Dream Coupons a day. There was no shortage of drunks in this city, and they could experience genuine intoxication in the Dream Space.

Of course, the Tavern made so much money mainly because Li Ming had monopolized that industry.

Unlike restaurants, which anyone could open, there was only one Tavern.

And it was all profit with no costs. With these three shops in hand, he could earn ten thousand Gold Soul Coins a month.

And this was only during the Closed Beta.

"This tastes incredible. Too bad Tang San and the others can't get in here!"

While eating, Li Ming heard those words and could not help looking toward that table. A man and two women were seated together.

The man had been the one who spoke.

"I heard more people will be able to enter once Purple Heaven City enters Public Beta. Unfortunately, the fifty Closed Beta slots my father bought have all been used. Otherwise, I could have given Tang San and the others a slot."

One of the girls said arrogantly.

Li Ming withdrew his gaze. As the city lord, he naturally knew the identities of the three.

One was Ning Rongrong, while the other two were Dai Mubai and Zhu Zhuqing.

Ning Rongrong had probably been taken back by Ning Fengzhi of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan to confirm the slots.

As for Dai Mubai and Zhu Zhuqing, Li Ming knew about them.

After all, he also ran an intelligence business, which had flourished over the past six months and earned him quite a few Gold Soul Coins.

People from the Star Luo Empire had provided portraits of the two and asked him to help locate them.

Li Ming charged four hundred Dream Coupons as a service fee and remotely assigned slots to the two of them.

As for the others from Shrek Academy, they could not enter without slots.

Just then, Li Ming sensed a fragrant breeze pass by him. Looking up, he saw a woman with waist-length golden hair, skin whiter than snow, and golden palace robes take a seat beside him, separated from him by an empty table.

Li Ming looked at her face. Her features were flawless and exquisitely beautiful, with a high nose, soft red lips, and a pair of striking phoenix eyes. Yet her gaze was cold and devoid of emotion.

Judging by her skin and appearance, she was at most in her twenties.

Noticing his gaze, she slightly turned her head toward him. She carried an air of majesty and nobility that no one could simply imitate.

Li Ming gave her a faint smile, withdrew his gaze, and continued eating.

The woman beside him was Qian Renxue.

Her slot had clearly come from the Heaven Dou Empire's royal family. Since she had disguised herself as the crown prince, the royal family would naturally assign her a slot.

When she first entered the Dream Space, Satellite AI had even reported an error.

That was what drew Li Ming's attention to her.

At first, she had entered the Dream Space using the appearance of the disguised crown prince, Xue Qinghe.

This did not differ from the appearance Satellite AI had observed in reality, so she successfully passed Satellite AI's identification.

Only after some time did Satellite AI discover the error and submit an anomaly report to him.

Only after reviewing it did he understand what had gone wrong.

She had appeared in the Dream Space using her true appearance.

Normally, Satellite AI's identification program could not upload data for a falsified appearance like this into the Dream Space.

But she had exploited a loophole.

She had first entered the Dream Space using Crown Prince Xue Qinghe's appearance, then used her ninety-nine-thousand-nine-hundred-and-ninety-nine-year Seraphim Soul Bone to directly alter her appearance within the Dream Space.

This successfully bypassed Satellite AI's identification program. It was equivalent to first uploading the data into the Dream Space, then altering the data within the Dream Space.

She had even created an independent account, with a different user ID.

It was this incident that made Li Ming realize that Soul Skills might also take effect in the Dream Space. They were essentially hackers.