Chapter 338: 338 desperately needs money

“Mr. Chen, Mr. Chen.”

Secretary Wen called out softly, and Chen Xu opened his eyes, hearing the announcement that the plane had landed successfully, his expression was somewhat peculiar.

“Mr. Chen?”

“It’s okay, let’s go.” Chen Xu stood up, and as he exited the cabin, the flight attendant gave him a bright smile, but he didn’t notice at all. His attention was completely focused on the interface of the dream device.

It showed that the network was still connected.

Could it be because of the higher latitude here?

He was a bit puzzled.

However, this was undoubtedly great news. If the network could only be connected while high in the sky, that would be too inconvenient. To earn credit points, one would have to fly specifically.

The two of them left the airport, and of course, a car was there to pick them up.

He came to Beijing this time at the invitation of several major battery manufacturers to discuss the standard for new lithium-metal batteries. Cai Weiyi was also invited, but the guy had come over two days earlier.

For meetings like this, Chen Xu just went through the motions to maintain his presence. He had to attend, even though it was only for show.

The meeting wouldn’t start until tomorrow. Originally, he planned to sightsee around Beijing, places like Tiananmen and the Great Wall. After all, how could he come to Beijing without seeing these sights?

But now, he had lost all interest in that idea. After returning to the hotel, he asked Secretary Wen for some rest and stayed alone in his room to carefully research the dream device that had connected to the network.

This dream device was not merely a game console; it incorporated the functions of a network terminal, like a phone. It could make calls, take photos, play games, browse web pages, shop online, and even watch videos. It could do everything.

This time, as soon as Chen Xu entered the interface, a prompt popped up, “Dear player, according to your location, you are in an extremely remote area, and the company has covered the network for you at no charge. According to the pricing standards, your network fee for one natural month is thirty thousand credit points. Please pay the network fee as soon as possible. If you fail to pay within a month, you will be included in the list of untrustworthy individuals.”

Seeing this number, Chen Xu blurted out, “Swindlers.”

Thirty thousand credit points.

He possessed two talents and had spent several months in the game to earn only five hundred credit points. With such efficiency, earning thirty thousand credit points would require spending several hours in the game every day.

Moreover, Mu Shang had told him that the purchasing power of credit points was extremely solid. He had saved for three years to scrape together just enough pocket money to buy a virtual dream device.

That meant the monthly fee for his internet now equated to the cost of three devices.

This was unabashed price discrimination.

He cursed, but canceling the network package was out of the question.

When an opportunity to access an extraterrestrial network presented itself, he wouldn’t let it go, no matter how difficult it was.

“This must be the shopping mall.”

What Chen Xu cared most about was whether he could acquire high-tech alien products through the device.

He searched and saw a civilian 3D printer for only one hundred thousand credit points. His eyes lit up; with some hard work for a year and a half, he might be able to afford it.

Having a 3D printer would make creating anything extremely convenient. Why bother upgrading the entire industrial system bit by bit?

Then he saw the shipping cost, with an unintelligible number of zeros following it. He thought his eyes were deceiving him. He clicked to see the figures clearly: tens, hundreds, thousands… one hundred billion?

A product worth one hundred thousand credit points had a shipping cost of one hundred billion?

Was there no justice in the world?

He was shocked.

Then, he noticed a price explanation next to it. Upon clicking, it explained that because the location was too remote with no shipping route to the area, the fee included all costs associated with establishing a new route.

Damn capitalists, doesn’t that hurt your conscience?

Even for the most remote locations, at least set up a post office, right?

Chen Xu couldn’t help but sarcastically comment and completely gave up on the idea of purchasing the 3D printer.

One hundred billion–he wouldn’t earn that in his lifetime.

Next, he visited a forum, mainly looking at educational posts. Searching, he almost couldn’t help but swear again. Most posts required payment, some cost a credit point and others a few, varying up to a dozen or so.

The only free posts were system announcements.

This crappy game seriously needed to be played; everything cost money. There was not a trace of the spirit of internet sharing.

Without a doubt, that alien civilization was a purely commercial society.

Thinking this way, encountering the helpful Mu Shang, who had given him quite a bit of enlightening information, made him even luckier.

Over the past few months in the game, Mu Shang had taught him a lot of common knowledge about the game. At last, he wasn’t in the dark anymore, although many details were still not very clear.

How did that saying go? The money that needs to be spent, must be spent. The more you understand the game, the better you can earn money.

Chen Xu picked a few posts that appeared frequently and that he wanted to quickly understand, posts with many positive replies. After clicking to purchase, he spent nearly fifty credit points, which was one-tenth of his total.

However, these posts were indeed full of valuable information. For example, one of them introduced various talents in the game and even listed their strengths and weaknesses. It was a real eye-opener.

Throwing precision and a sense of crisis were among the talents described. The listed disadvantages made his heart skip a beat. No wonder Mu Shang had told him not to casually reveal his own talents; otherwise, it would be easy to become a target.

The post explained how to exploit the weaknesses of various talents.

Every talent had its own limitations; none were invincible.

Of course, that didn’t include the cheaters with five talents that he had encountered before.

Another post taught newcomers how to make money, which was also the most expensive post, costing a full twenty credit points.

Thankfully, this post was worth the money. Earning credit points in the game wasn’t just about selling Gold Coin and equipment, which required no technical skill.

Collecting various pieces of information in the game, like instances and triggering special quests, could be sold for money. He could also publish technical posts on the forum, like the author had, work as a hired hand for rich players for a salary, or even become a sparring partner…

Finally, the poster stated that another way to make money was to develop your own game. If it became popular, and other players spent money in it, you could earn a share of the revenue, truly earning money while sitting down.

However, this method required a significant investment and high risk. Every year, countless people made games, but probably less than one in ten thousand ever made money from them.

The details for creating games, as well as various strategies, were attached for free at the end of the post.

He glanced over them and suddenly his eyes locked onto one item, and he couldn’t tear his gaze away.

PS: I’ll write a chapter before boarding. High-speed train tickets are hard to get. I struggled to snatch one.