Ten Thousand Ways To Eliminate Players-Chapter 62 - 0 Polar Reversal

Lin Bai ignored Dumbelldore and turned to the young waiter. "Little Wu, starting from today, double the prices of all dishes in the shop."

The waiter stared in shock. "Boss, isn’t that too expensive? Our prices are already higher than others. Now, all the restaurants in the city offer similar cuisines. We don’t have many customers to begin with. If we raise the prices even higher, no one will come."

"It’s fine. Go ahead and raise the prices. Ordinary people won’t come to our restaurant anyway. Those who are willing to come eat here won’t mind spending a bit more," Lin Bai said. The second batch of closed beta players had unlocked the top-up function. These lucky individuals, who could stream live while playing and earn money, would surely not be stingy when spending in the game. When the number of players was small, the impact might not be significant. However, once a large number of players flooded in, there would inevitably be many ’whale’ players. This massive influx of external capital would definitely impact the existing prices in this world. The NPCs in the game weren’t unintelligent. They might not realize this at first, but given enough time, prices would certainly rise. He who raises prices first, benefits first. Besides, his was an internet-famous shop. If he didn’t seize the opportunity to fleece them now, he’d never get another chance once the hype died down. After leaving Jiamucheng, there would be no shortage of places to spend money. The influx of players was bound to bring countless social problems and who knew how many novel ideas. Raising funds might not be so easy then, so accumulating more wealth in advance was always a good idea.

"..." Dumbelldore gazed at Lin Bai in surprise. Recalling the game company’s response, he suddenly had a strange feeling. The bug on Lin Bai wasn’t a bug at all; it was deliberately orchestrated by the game company to create a virtual star and fleece money from fans like them! The implications, upon deeper reflection, were terrifying!

While Lin Bai was planning ahead, arranging for the price hike in his shop, the second group of players who chose Jiamucheng as their Novice Village also faced their first major setback in life.

「At the Blacksmith Shop.」

"Master, I want to learn a craft from you." A player named Artifact Refining Master knocked on the door, interrupting Zhang Shutang who was swinging a large hammer, and said confidently.

"Pay five taels of Silver first. Food and lodging are not included," Zhang Shutang straightened his back, glanced at the player before him, and spoke coldly.

"..." The smile froze on Artifact Refining Master’s face. Following the advice from the forum, he said, "Master, I know two flame methods for refining gold..."

"If you don’t pay, turn right and leave. If I don’t accept you, no other place will either," Zhang Shutang snorted. A lesson learned is a lesson earned. Dumbelldore’s betrayal had deeply hurt him, and having been influenced by Lin Bai through constant exposure, Blacksmith Zhang had long since learned how to deal with these exceptionally talented geniuses. The most fundamental point was not to treat them as human. Collect the money first. Even if they betrayed him later, he wouldn’t be too heartbroken. What master and disciple? In the end, it was all just business. Since Lin Bai’s arrival, strange things had been happening frequently in Jiamucheng, and the rate at which ’geniuses’ appeared seemed a bit too high. Once geniuses became plentiful, they were no longer valuable.

The same situation had occurred in the Zhang Family Punch Palace, Mo’s Sword Gym, and the Wu Blade House.

「Last time.」

The players had paid 500 Copper Coins for admission, only to ditch them the very next day and run off to the City Lord Mansion to enlist as Hidden Guards.

These fickle players, no martial arts gyms were willing to recruit.

After all, these martial arts gyms had their own chain businesses to support. They would select outstanding disciples from each batch of apprentices to join their own factions or be sent into the army, replenishing their enterprises with fresh blood.

No one wanted to waste their efforts.

According to the normal storyline, players would, after a period of training, reveal their talents, subsequently be assigned various tasks, and thoroughly integrate into this world.

But now, because of Lin Bai’s intervention, everything had changed.

When a group of players went to the martial arts gyms to sign up, they were unexpectedly rejected. If they insisted on enrolling, the tuition fees were raised to astronomical prices.

A deposit of at least ten taels of Silver was required for entry, and if they withdrew midway, the deposit would not be refunded...

When players entered the game, the System only gifted them 200 Copper Coins. The exchange rate opened by the game company was 1 yuan to 100 Copper Coins, and the ratio of Silver to Copper Coins in the Immortal World was 1:1000.

According to this conversion rate, players had to top up one hundred yuan just to learn basic martial arts.

One hundred yuan wasn’t much, but the game had just begun!

Most players were streaming their gameplay live. With enthusiastic viewers sending gifts, they could afford to spend money on the game, even if it meant pay-to-win.

But similarly, they could easily learn about the prices in other Novice Villages from their viewers’ reactions.

In Novice Villages untouched by Lin Bai, prices were all normal.

Who would want to be the sucker in this scenario?

The players who felt they were being treated unfairly soon discovered that even the path of crime was closed to them.

On the day the players descended, the Hidden Guard players from the City Lord Mansion were quickly promoted by Xu Longyun to peace officers, specifically responsible for town security. They even received a pay raise.

The previously overlooked Hidden Guards suddenly received tasks. Naturally, they were all fired up, exceptionally proactive in arresting their fellow players who broke the law.

Having been granted a new profession, they also gained experience for arresting criminals. As long as they could level up, they didn’t care if you were a player or not.

Coincidentally, they were familiar with the players’ tactics, possessed high levels, and catching players was practically a guaranteed success every time.

The players in Jiamucheng busied themselves for an entire day.

It turned out that the easiest profession to get into was actually joining Crispy Rice’s Beggar Gang.

Although Crispy Rice painted an incredibly rosy picture of the Beggar Gang’s prospects, besides begging, the gang offered no skills whatsoever!

Not everyone is willing to play as a beggar in a game.

「That night.」

The Immortal World forum exploded once again.

"Who’s to blame for the inflated prices in Jiamucheng?"

"Will Dumbelldore’s modern marketing model trap future players?"

"Hell Mode start, the toughest Novice Village ever."

"Are high-intelligence NPCs really beneficial to the development of the game?"

Most of the posts were just analyses of the game, and those players who chose Jiamucheng became the butt of everyone’s jokes.

But when a certain thread was posted, it immediately attracted everyone’s attention:

"Explosive news: the mastermind behind Jiamucheng’s Hell Mode may very well be Lin Bai, the Shopkeeper of Chef’s Divine Food Stall!"

The poster’s ID was ’Immortal Realm’s First Papparazzi’.

The post contained videos and screenshots.

It meticulously detailed Lin Bai’s entire process, from buying the Dreadful Mansion to establishing Chef’s Divine Food Stall, even including the prices involved.

Feng Liu, the clerk from the Tooth Line, young apprentices from carpentry and blacksmith shops—all made appearances. Of course, there were also interviews with the Hidden Guards from the City Lord Mansion.

The post highlighted several points:

At the beginning of Chef’s Divine Food Stall’s construction, the design was flawed. At that time, Dumbelldore had not yet joined the Blacksmith Shop.

Before the players from the City Lord Mansion joined the Hidden Guards, they already had their own professions. However, in front of Chef’s Divine Food Stall, Lin Bai verbally manipulated them into abandoning their chosen professions and joining the Hidden Guards.

Lin Bai was a frequent visitor to the City Lord Mansion. After he entered and exited the City Lord Mansion several times, Jiamucheng launched its vigorous ’flawed design’ campaign. During this period, Dumbelldore and the City Lord Mansion had no interaction whatsoever.

The game officials responded that there were no bugs in the game. The ’bug’ Lin Bai boasted about to everyone he met was very likely a self-directed, novel marketing ploy.

「Finally.」

The paparazzi concluded:

This unique NPC, Lin Bai, if he hadn’t developed a super-strong artificial intelligence and broken free from the game company’s control, then he must be a virtual idol tool, manufactured by the game company for the sole purpose of raking in money...

As soon as Immortal Realm’s First Papparazzi’s post was released, it instantly caused the traffic on the entire forum to explode:

"’Great God Dumbelldore is actually a charlatan who gained fame by deceiving the world! My heart is broken. From now on, I’m a hater, not a fan!’"

"’Heartless game company, refund!’"

"’Traps! It’s all traps! Mom, I’m never playing games again! I’m going to study hard!’"

"’You bunch of foolish mortals! Compared to your average, run-of-the-mill bosses, isn’t an NPC like this more challenging? Why are you all overreacting? I wasn’t interested in this game originally, but now, it has successfully ignited my fighting spirit! Lin Bai, I’m coming for you!’"

"’Exactly! When have players ever been afraid of NPCs? Even the strongest boss can be taken down. The more cunning the boss, the greater the sense of accomplishment when you defeat them! My great blade is already thirsting for action! So what if it’s Hell Mode? I’ll just spend money to power up my skills!’"

"’To the poster above, congratulations! You’ve successfully fallen for the game company’s ploy.’"

"’If you don’t have money, what game are you playing...’"

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