Chapter 218:
Murphy chatted with a group of “impatient players” on the forum for a while, bringing them good news that a batch of new helmets would be distributed within a month.
This wasn’t Murphy making empty promises.
He could confirm that he would definitely have new helmets in half a month, because in half a month, the 6,000 armed Blood Servants captured by Nordtov would be sent back to Transia.
This had been confirmed by Lady Palen from Bataxin city.
Murphy’s “food manager” emphasized this point in a confidential report to the lord, saying that the “informant” newly developed by the Winter Wolf Legion had been sent to escort those prisoners from the railway construction site in the Great Wilderness to Transia.
It would take time for so many slaves to return to Transia from the freezing Great Wilderness, and Nordtov still needed to fill in the vacancies. Murphy conservatively estimated it couldn’t be done in less than a month, but as long as the prisoners returned to Transia, it would count as an increase in the population. This was Murphy’s confidence in making the promise.
There were still 10,000 captured Blood Servants waiting to be sent back from the Goldflower Kingdom, which meant Murphy already had 160 guaranteed helmets in hand.
These were enough to cover all the “impatient players” currently on the forum, and even give one to each of those “mysterious identity” guys.
He glanced at the application area, where a large number of applications were waiting for approval, totaling nearly 500. It seemed that the “promotional efforts” of the little players were quite effective. Thanks to various “CGs” they recorded with the helmets being constantly forwarded in various online groups, more and more people came out of curiosity, which also made Murphy’s review work extremely heavy.
“Why are there so many Paradox Interactive players?”When Crimson Citadel entered the sunlit daytime, Murphy, hiding in his office, rubbed his brow and sighed:
“These war criminals are really everywhere. But now is the construction period, it’s not good to recruit too many war hawks, so I can only let you wait a bit longer. When Black Disaster approaches, it will be time for you to put your skills to use.”
Murphy grinned, approved about 50 applications and sent out invitation codes after reviewing, but the distribution of game helmets would have to wait, after all, he didn’t have spare resources at hand now.
Murphy was about to close the forum when he found that a tester named “Medical Insurance Warrior Great Sion” had sent him a private message in his admin inbox.
Medical Insurance Warrior Great Sion: 【Boss Boss! I’m a small content creator on a certain site, I want to organize the current materials on the forum to make some derivative content, may I get authorization?】
This private message made Murphy fall into silence.
He realized that this could perhaps become a new “promotional method”, but such proactive promotion might also bring him certain “troubles”.
However, having an extra channel to reserve some qualified manpower wasn’t a bad thing.
With this consideration, Murphy replied to the private message.
Alpha: 【Are you there?】
After waiting for several minutes, the other party finally replied.
Medical Insurance Warrior Great Sion: 【Yes yes yes! Boss, sorry about that, I was just playing the “Smuggler’s Woods Interception Battle” dungeon with some buddies, nearly wiped on the Wolfsbane BOSS’s claws.
What can I do for you?】
Alpha: 【You just said you’re a content creator, planning to make derivative content from our game’s materials, right? Are you doing this professionally?】
Medical Insurance Warrior Great Sion: 【Embarrassed.jpg, no, it’s just a hobby, I don’t even have 100 followers, my main job is in sales, I just stream some games in my spare time.
When filling out the form, I was just thinking that adding more might increase the chances of getting approved, sorry for the misunderstanding.】
Alpha: 【It’s alright, listen to me, our company currently has no plans to promote the game and probably won’t in the future, but derivative works are fine, we’ll open up the copyright in this aspect. You can create derivative content from the materials, but don’t help us promote too officially, it’s best not to even mention the game’s name!
We don’t need that right now.】
Medical Insurance Warrior Great Sion: 【Ah, really? Can’t even mention the name? Alright, I’ll try. Our game’s quality is top-notch, I’m already addicted, it’s a shame not to promote such a good game and let more people play it.
But, if my followers see the materials and want to apply as well】
Alpha: 【Let them fill out applications, you can create your own group, and follow the normal procedures for the rest. We have a very professional and effective screening mechanism for this, of course, you should also have a focus when recruiting followers.
RP players, strategy game players, and players seeking immersion are the top priorities.
Skip those who prefer the evil faction.
There’s no place for them in the current test plan.】
Medical Insurance Warrior Great Sion: 【Oh, okay, anything else I need to be reminded of? When can I start working on the materials?】
Alpha: 【You can start now, but I must warn you, the quality of images exported from the helmet might severely decrease on other devices, this is unavoidable, currently similar products on the market can’t handle some of the design specifications of our game.】
Medical Insurance Warrior Great Sion: 【Why not just make a CG movie then? I have friends who specialize in this, we can use high-quality first-person perspective in the game for a one-shot!
No secondary editing would be more authentic, and I’m not very confident in my editing skills anyway.】
Alpha: 【Hmm, that’s not a bad idea. Let your friend fill out an application, we’ll give them a test slot later.】
Medical Insurance Warrior Great Sion: 【Okay, thank you Boss for giving me this opportunity! So how about the revenue? Do I need to pay for some copyright】
Alpha: 【No need, if you do well it’s all yours, the development team encourages derivative works. If you really feel uncomfortable about it, then just fulfill your responsibilities as a tester in the game, conscientiously advance the plot to help us better complete the test plan.】
Medical Insurance Warrior Great Sion: 【Mmm! No problem! I’ll do my best.】
Seeing the little player so earnest, Murphy burst out laughing. It was the first time he had seen little players so enthusiastic about working without pay, which made him feel even better.
Hmm, perhaps cultivating a few content creators in another world could also become an effective promotional method?
He glanced again at those guys with the “Intelligence Gatherer” trait who were active among the “impatient players” on the forum. After all, he had already been “targeted”, right?
They couldn’t possibly cross over to another world to catch him, could they?
If they really could do that, Murphy would rather thank them.
Speaking of which, even the living conditions of being arrested and imprisoned for “illegal crossing” would be much better than staying in Transia, right? The only question is, is the world on the other side the Earth he once lived on?
Hmm.
Probably not, right?
The vampire lord laughed at his own thought.
He took out his old pocket watch to check the time, stood up and stretched in his office, wearing the Frostfang blade and waving to summon Necessary Evil to follow.
He was ready to find a place to start today’s sword practice.
With the help of the sword training master “Evil Master”, he had finally practiced all the sword techniques imprinted on the magic sword to Novice level, but the Summoner knowledge still needed hard work and diligent study to hone. Next, there was still much to be busy with.
——
“Sigh, I never thought that I, with my lifetime of reputation, would end up wiped out by a group of ghouls, it’s really fucking frustrating.”
Offline, at a foot massage parlor.
Meow King, wearing a loose bathrobe, sat in a massage chair and let out a long sigh. He placed his feet in a warm medicinal bath tub and put a towel on his face, looking boneless.
Besides him, the four big guys and cousin Little Hand were also there, six people arranged in a circle enjoying their rare leisure time.
Although Meow King’s software outsourcing studio hadn’t been officially closed, it was basically as good as shut down. They had been immersed in the game for a whole week, playing to their heart’s content, but after the unexpected setback, they had to return to the real world to gather.
Taking this opportunity, Little Hand, as the team’s accountant, reported the finances to everyone.
“The gold coins distributed by Brother Stick, the equipment that everyone doesn’t need, and the two deeds we got, we kept one and traded the other to Little Rich Brother. If we exchange at a 1:10 ratio, just counting last week’s income, it’s about 100,000, minus expenses.
Uh, actually there weren’t many expenses, each person can probably get over 10,000.”
Little Hand calculated on his phone for a while, then turned to the others and said:
“This isn’t good, the income doesn’t meet the standard at all. Forget about what I said before, this doesn’t even reach your previous income levels.”
“We haven’t even set up the framework yet, what are you calculating? And this income is already not bad for just starting out, we were prepared to starve for three months,”
Black Stockings complained:
“Besides, didn’t we decide to be information brokers in the future? But none of the three situations our brother Meow King summarized were sold, leaving people disappointed for nothing.”
“You guys don’t understand shit!”
Meow King pulled down the towel on his head, curled his lip, and said:
“Our information only has a gimmick, of course it won’t sell for a good price, but don’t rush. I plan to take a trip to the ruins of Seicob City in the north during this mission to eliminate the gnolls. There must be some good information there, it’s just a matter of how much we can get.
Think about it, even Brother Stick and his team need a long time to collect scattered information when exploring for treasure. It doesn’t matter if we spend more time, after all, we’re just starting our business, it’s better to be slow than to rush.
And to be honest with you, I have a big job on hand now.”
“How big?”
Nofap took a sip of juice beside him and asked. Meow King grinned and said:
“Big enough that if we pull it off, us brothers won’t have to worry about making a living for at least 5 years!”
“???”
The others exchanged glances, no one spoke, but their eyes were full of doubt.
“What? You don’t believe me?”
Meow King snorted, putting on an air of “holding all the cards”. He snorted and said:
“Do you remember the game announcement for version 2.0 mentioning a mysterious Expansion Pack that’s about to be released? It was just briefly mentioned, and no one has paid attention to it until now, let alone discuss it on the forum. Everyone just treated it as a gimmick.
But I tell you, I’ve already guessed what that Expansion Pack is about.
Black Disaster!
To be precise, the gnoll tide running out from the Dark Mountain range is a crisis that could overturn the continent. The development team didn’t lie, they really embedded clues about this event into the current game progress.
For example, if you chat a bit more with those 30 members of the Blood Pact Knights team, they’ll turn the topic to their concerns about the Black Disaster. And when you go to Maxim to turn in weapons you don’t need, that guy occasionally says ‘This thing will definitely be useful for preparing against the Black Disaster’.
Most importantly, that vampire Andrei from the Thorn clan!
He occasionally drinks tea alone in the Blood Vulture Halls. If you go over and recite some poetry to him, if he’s satisfied and in a good mood, he’ll give you a few books. Sometimes there’s one called 《Black Disaster and Transia: Chronicles of Calamity》.
I flipped through it the other day and found that it’s a collection of stories specifically recording the four historical Black Disasters.”
“Awesome, Brother Meow!”
Led More Than Three to Five Pecks blinked and said:
“So, you mean the reason why the Thorn clan and the Blood Pact Knights are sending people to Transia at this time is because the fifth Black Disaster is coming?
You think there’s a business opportunity in this?”
“Of course! The time limit for our main quest in Chapter 1 is 6 months! If I were to guess, the end of Chapter 1 would be when the Black Disaster officially breaks out.”
Meow King narrowed his eyes and slowly explained his plan:
“This is a war!
The entire Transia and even the whole continent will be involved. We know the news of the impending war several months in advance. If this were in reality and you happened to have some capital on hand, what would you do to maximize profits?”
“Stockpile supplies?”
Little Hand said, rolling his eyes:
“Mainly war supplies, like gunpowder and such.”
“Medicine! Food.”
Old Tune also pulled down the towel covering his face and said:
“Of course, weapons would be best! Make some war profits. I think I know what you mean, but we don’t have capital on hand! That’s in the game, the in-game currency we have combined isn’t enough to collect raw materials.
The gold coins Brother Stick got last time were all bought by Little Ashina.”
“Sigh, that’s the regrettable part. We’ve caught the opportunity but can’t eat alone, unless we can quickly find another similar treasure.”
Meow King shook his head and said:
“So, I plan to make a trip to Seicob City to see if there’s any profit to be made there. If we can get some startup funds, then we’ll do it ourselves. Spend 4-5 months stockpiling various supplies and sell them to Lord Murphy when the war breaks out, or simply sell them to other factions at several times the price.
Make a fat profit in one go!
If we can’t get the funds, then we can only cooperate with others.”
“If you can think of it, others can find the information too,”
Little Hand said in a low voice:
“Especially those girls, I heard they’re all high IQ. This news definitely can’t be kept secret. I think we might as well team up with them in advance. At worst, we split the profits evenly. We’ll treat this as tuition.
In the future, when we have enough capital on hand, we’ll go solo.”
“Actually, there’s another way,”
Old Tune suggested:
“We could team up with Brother Stick. Didn’t he start a company with Little Rich’s support? He’s paying salaries to support his nine subordinates every month. If we can negotiate, let Little Rich provide the money, we provide the manpower, plus Brother Stick and his brothers’ execution ability. With both sides joining forces, we might really be able to pull this off!
The main question now is, what do we stockpile?”
“Weapons are definitely the most profitable,”
Meow King narrowed his eyes and said:
“Have you noticed that the guns in the game are different from those in reality? And I know that among this batch of new players entering the game, there happens to be someone who claims to be very Proficient in this area.
Brother Stick is also half an expert.
No matter how good a single-shot dwarf hunting rifle is, how can it compare to a rapid-fire AK when it comes to real warfare?
Don’t forget, we have data on all firearms from World War I to the present, which can even be found online. The only problem is, how to turn them into physical objects in the game.”
“Damn! Brother, you’re planning to be an arms dealer in the game!”
Little Hand exclaimed, and the other four big guys burst into laughter.
But after laughing, these six men who originally came for a “foot massage” enthusiastically continued to discuss their business, talking for two or three hours straight before finally shaping their overall plan. They even bewildered the familiar boss of the establishment.
Hey, have you guys changed your ways?
If you really want to chat, why not go to a teahouse? What are you doing here?