Startup Funds

One hour later.

White light flashed in succession as fifty-two figures logged in at the Respawn Point in Emperor Tomb Village.

The moment they entered the game, Yang Tianxuan and the other members of the Weapons Research Department were stunned by the sight before them, finding it hard to believe this was a game world.

Professional instinct immediately drove them to test the world's realism.

Gravity perception tests, throwing stones to observe their parabolic trajectories, smell tests, physical coordination tests... under the gazes of other players who looked at them like idiots, they were utterly won over by the game's realism.

"Boss, the Eclipse Race's technology has made another leap forward. They can actually create such a realistic game world," the White-Haired Elder standing beside Yang Tianxuan exclaimed.

Yang Tianxuan offered no response. The shock he felt was already beyond words.

He had considered testing weapon performance in virtual environments long ago.

He had once conducted weapons tests in the Land of Sin, a virtual game released by the Eclipse Race five years earlier.

But the results had been unsatisfactory, and he had ultimately abandoned the idea.

In truth, creating a game that perfectly reproduced real-world physics was harder than reaching the heavens.

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

Leaving aside the terrifying server capacity such a game would require, every other aspect would have to meet absolutely perfect standards, including interaction frequency, data processing volume, and even graphics rendering quality.

Furthermore, the virtual world would need to simulate every physical phenomenon in the real world, including but not limited to gravity, lighting, materials, and sound. This would require computing power beyond comprehension to ensure the physics engine's accuracy and real-time performance.

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

In addition, the enormous amounts of data generated everywhere in the game at every moment would need to be processed and receive feedback within an extremely short time, including information generated by player input.

For example, when players damaged the game's environment, the environment would need to change in real time after that information was collected.

Considering all the variables, creating a completely realistic game was nearly impossible in Yang Tianxuan's conception, because it would be equivalent to creating an entirely new world, with resource consumption at a one-to-one ratio as well.

In other words, creating a game that perfectly simulated Earth would theoretically require an entire Earth's worth of resources.

But everything before him was undeniable. Through some unknown technology, the Eclipse Race had truly created a flawless virtual game in which he could find no defects.

As he marveled at the enormous technological gap between the Human Federation and the Eclipse Race, a flame rose within Yang Tianxuan.

With such a realistic virtual environment to assist them, they could give their work everything they had without worrying about environmental damage, personal safety, or a whole host of other troublesome issues.

"Boss, I checked the shop. This game doesn't sell any equipment that could support our weapons development. We'll have to start everything from scratch... but the shop does sell spirit stones. Perhaps we could make a batch of spirit-energy firearms first."

Yang Tianxuan nodded in agreement.

Manufacturing powerful technological weapons required resolving a series of issues involving forging equipment, machining equipment, measuring and calibration tools, and more. Starting from scratch meant going through the tedious process of building everything from nothing.

Without sufficient resources at this stage, they had no way to get started.

But spirit-energy firearms were different. They were one of the early weapons technologies the Eclipse Race had provided to humanity.

Weapons could be forged by altering the energy pathways in spirit ore, then fitted with spirit stones to propel the bullets, with a Spiritual-Energy Compression Array inscribed inside.

Once the trigger was pulled, the firearm would automatically draw energy from the spirit stone, compress it into the shape of a bullet inside, and fire it with a push of internal spiritual energy. Upon contact with a target, the unstable Psionics bullet would instantly burst apart, dealing explosive damage over an area.

This technology was clearly more practical for early exploration.

"Then let's make a batch of spirit-energy firearms first." Yang Tianxuan endorsed his subordinate's suggestion.

Just then, a stubble-faced middle-aged man in the group asked in confusion:

"Director, the problem is that everything in the shop has to be purchased with sacrificial power. I searched through the game's Function Panel, but I couldn't find a top-up function anywhere. Where are we going to get the startup funds to buy materials for spirit-energy firearms?"

Yang Tianxuan: ...

Faced with the problem of having no startup funds, Yang Tianxuan sank into thought.

"Have you contacted Qin Ye? He entered the game before we did. Ask him how much sacrificial power he has available for us to borrow."

"I just added him as a friend. I'll ask him now." After speaking, a man in his thirties in the group brought up his friends list and tried calling Qin Ye.

Before long, the man looked at Yang Tianxuan with a slightly embarrassed expression and said:

"He only has 239 points of sacrificial power. That's nowhere near enough for our startup funds."

"Then let's buy sacrificial power from other players first. We'll pool our own money for now and skip submitting a funding request."

With a plan in place, they immediately got to work. Dozens of messages offering to buy sacrificial power at a ratio of 1:20 soon appeared in the regional channel.

But those messages were quickly buried by posts from other players, with a few mocking remarks mixed in. The players thought they were dreaming, asking how the price they offered was any different from robbery.

This made Yang Tianxuan and the other Weapons Research Department members realize that their purchase price was too low.

They chose to raise the price gradually.

Their offer climbed from 20:1 to 100:1, but still not a single player was willing to sell them any sacrificial power.

Yang Tianxuan was utterly bewildered.

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

The answer 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, sacrificial power was consumed far faster than it was produced. Players did not even have enough to improve their own strength, much less sell any.

Second, the price of sacrificial power had kept rising, and players generally believed it would continue to climb.

Many players who farmed for money also planned to spend sacrificial power on improving their strength first, then earn more once they became stronger. Selling sacrificial power early would leave their strength unable to keep pace with other players' growth, greatly reducing their earnings later.

After learning the reasons from Qin Ye, Yang Tianxuan sank into thought.

If they kept raising their offer, their salaries could not sustain that kind of expenditure, while applying for funding involved an overly cumbersome process and a wait.

With no top-up channel and no way to buy sacrificial power at a reasonable price, Yang Tianxuan could think of no solution and had no choice but to voice-call Qin Ye again.

"Ye, is there any way to earn sacrificial power quickly?"

"At this stage, there are three ways to earn sacrificial power. The first is to leave Emperor Tomb Village and hunt various types of monsters outside. The second is to get lucky while exploring the world and come across spirit plants you can harvest. Compared with those two, I'd recommend the third method for you."

"What method?" Yang Tianxuan immediately asked.

"Go mining in the Dark Cavern!"