Chapter 339: 339 Game Concept

“Is that even possible?”

Chen Xu stared at the unremarkable description, his face filled with surprise.

Included in the dream device was a clause stating that once players became game developers, they could activate new privileges. One of these privileges was the ability to allow others to enter the game through their dream device, although it was limited to just this one game, and the number of slots was one thousand.

It was also noted that the purpose of this clause was to reduce the costs for game developers.

Initially, dream devices were expensive, and renting artificial intelligence was too costly, so it was cheaper to hire staff to act as NPCs. Many people couldn’t afford dream devices and joined game studios to earn money while playing games, a job many were willing to take.

However, now that the prices of dream devices had dropped to a level accessible to the average person and the cost of renting artificial intelligence had plummeted to about one-tenth of an average salary, there was no longer any need to hire people to act as NPCs.

The reason this clause hadn’t been removed was solely because the company manufacturing the dream devices regarded it as part of gaming culture.

It was evident that the person who wrote this post was a seasoned, hardcore player; there were many such in-jokes peppered throughout the post.

Then, Chen Xu fell into deep thought.

This function was useless to alien civilizations, but not to him. On Earth, he estimated he was the only one with a dream device, and if people wanted to play such a game, not just a thousand, but ten million could be found at any time.

However, he needed to think carefully about the impact this decision could have on humanity as a whole. It required careful consideration.

He thought for a while, still unable to make up his mind.

Finally, he thought, “I should discuss this with them first.” With that, he pushed open the door and walked into the plaza.

Entering the plaza was akin to entering the game.

Inside and outside the game were entirely different worlds, even the flow of time differed. In the personal center, the flow of time was the same as reality. Once in the game, the flow of time changed.

Chen Xu now understood that this plaza was a beginner’s area, full of newcomers like himself. To enter the official game area, sufficient points had to be accumulated.

Just by staying in the game, one could earn points. In other words, the longer a player played, the sooner they could move to the official area. This time was one year, in-game time, of course.

Achieving special accomplishments in the game could also earn higher points, shortening the time to enter the official area.

In the official area, there were more players and more so-called “whales,” leading to a richer variety of games and, naturally, more opportunities to earn money.

Chen Xu walked up to the nearest door and stepped through.

An expanse of starry space appeared before him, and a voice sounded, “Choose the game you want to enter.”

The first entry into the game was random. From the second time onward, players could choose their own.

He opened the directory and began selecting from the categories.

“This one looks okay.”

There were too many games listed above, and he didn’t know which to choose, so he just picked one that was popular.

After confirming his choice, he appeared in a large hall bustling with people.

“This is more like a newbie village.”

He glanced around; all characters were in chibi style–this was a cute-themed game, also centered on fighting monsters to level up, but it looked not at all bloody.

It was said that such games had a good market because they were very popular with girls. Naturally, where there were more girls, there were more men.

After leaving the hall, he was in a village bustling with people.

This place was much livelier than the last game, just this starting village alone hosted thousands of people, the entire village was teeming with them.

He walked out of the village, and outside, a large group of people were killing monsters.

This style felt quite familiar to him. As a high school student, when he visited internet cafes, he would see similar scenes–crowds of people hacking away at monsters.

He ran quite a distance until he could no longer see other players before he decided to bring Yang Jinxia in.

After waiting around leisurely for half an hour and killing some monsters to level up twice, a burst of colorful light shone, and her figure appeared beside him.

When she appeared, she just saw Chen Xu using a blue orb to scatter a chubby blue rabbit and exclaimed, “This isn’t where we were before?”

Chen Xu grabbed her hand and started walking, “Changed games, let’s talk over there.”

Yang Jinxia saw he had turned into a chibi animation character and found it quite amusing, commenting, “So there are games like this too, it looks like a cartoon.”

“Such games are mostly played by girls and children,” Chen Xu led her to a safe zone before stopping.

Yang Jinxia asked him, “Why did you rush to bring me in? I was on a phone call and got a bit delayed.”

“Some unexpected situations arose. Wanted to consult someone,” Chen Xu took a deep breath and explained that the dream device could develop personal games and could allow up to a thousand people to enter a personal game.

Yang Jinxia’s expression gradually turned serious. She naturally understood what kind of impact this could have on Earth’s civilization if Chen Xu really decided to put it into action.

Lastly, Chen Xu said, “This is an excellent opportunity for us. If we earn enough credit points, we can obtain countless black technologies. We can do everything we want.”

“But, this will also draw scrutiny from the outside. If we stand out too much, it would be very easy to expose ourselves,” Yang Jinxia pointed out sharply.

Chen Xu felt somewhat troubled and spoke, “That’s what I’m most worried about. If such black technology games appear on Earth, the countries will not just overlook them. When we continuously present new technologies, we will definitely enter the radar of these countries.”

“Even without evidence, they will suspect that the game is related to us. At least, they will suspect that we have reaped huge benefits from this game.”

Yang Jinxia thought for a moment and suggested, “Like this, we can have people who enter the game sign a confidentiality contract, and if they reveal the existence of the game, their game qualifications are revoked.”

Chen Xu’s eyes lit up, “That’s actually a good idea, but I’m not sure if such a contract can be signed.”

Yang Jinxia said with a mocking smile, “Of course it’s possible. Like the playmate contract we signed initially, it had such clauses.”

Chen Xu could only pretend not to see and said, “If that can be achieved, the chances of the game being discovered would be greatly reduced. After all, they have no way to prove the game’s existence.”

Since the game was played in a dream and couldn’t be screenshotted, naturally, there would be no evidence. Even if someone breached this clause and revealed something, not many would believe it.

This way, at least for a certain period of time, the existence of the game would not be known by mainstream forces.

Once the game levels up and can accommodate an increasing number of people, by then, he would also have massive resources and social status. Even if the existence of the game was revealed and he was suspected, it wouldn’t matter.

As long as he became one of the most powerful people in the world, outer suspicions couldn’t shake his foundation.