Chapter 94: Chapter 94: Will Tier-4 Planes Cost 10,000 per Square Meter?

Doudou temporarily stayed behind with Master Xiao Xiong to conduct tests on doppelganger transmission.

Simply getting his comics autographed was no longer enough to soothe the pain of working overtime; he needed custom fan-designed Mechanical Warrior figurines to be produced.

Yes, Doudou also wrote fanfiction.

A true otaku has to learn to create their own content.

Fanfiction wasn’t some rare new thing; on the contrary, it had a rather long history.

In fact, many great literary classics had fanfiction-like qualities.

Feilin Continent was no exception. Famous legends, adventurers’ journals, and Knight novels all had numerous derivative works.

*Firepower Young King* and *Mechanical Warrior* were naturally no exception.

He’d even heard rumors of crack pairings like Liffey x Mike.

Zog Group had a business practice of granting copyrights to creators of exceptional fan works, allowing them to produce merchandise.

Every quarter, there was a selection event called "This Fan Work is Awesome!"

The top-ranking works would be chosen, and merchandise based on their fan-made designs would be produced to rake in some cash.

Using the fans’ designs to take the fans’ money.

Could you call that being a copyright troll?

’This was called fulfilling the fans’ wishes and building a better community environment.’

Of course, the original creators got a cut of the profits.

As for those who produced merchandise privately without permission, a Beastman would soon be knocking on their door.

Doudou’s fanfiction, however, had never ranked well.

He always wrote about a Red Copper Dragon that transformed into a human, defeated the Mechanical Warriors from the comics, and then synthesized an ultimate dragon-form Mechanical Armor to save the world.

It’d be a miracle if a story that trashed the original protagonist could ever rank well in the competition.

This dragon-form Mechanical Armor figurine probably wouldn’t sell well on its own, but it might pass as a common-tier item in a blind box set.

’Just consider it back pay for some of the wages he’s owed recently. As long as the kid is happy, that’s what matters.’

’Not counting the costs for copyright and design, a simple clay figurine didn’t cost much to make anyway.’

While the man and the Dragon were working closely together for the sake of figurines and binge-watching shows, exploring new methods of video signal transmission...

Zog was on his way to buy the ownership rights to a plane of existence.

Before he left, Zog asked a question he’d been curious about for a long time: why Master Xiao Xiong never left Songmu Town.

"Because if I go to a big city, there will always be people with higher status and greater skill. But in Songmu Town, I’m the one everyone revolves around."

That was Master Xiao Xiong’s reply.

’So honest,’ Zog thought. ’And it makes so much sense.’

Zog arrived at the nearest Mage Guild outpost.

Theoretically, the number of planes was infinite—a deduction from the Spellcasting School, though its validity wasn’t guaranteed.

But in the past few millennia, the easily accessible planes had already been all but discovered.

A few hundred years ago, discovering new planes was still a very promising and lucrative business.

It was also during this period that the ownership rights to all other planes—aside from the stable material and elemental planes—were bought and sold.

For example, the major unstable material planes were all in the hands of powerful nations or great families.

The commercial teleportation and storage item businesses were also monopolized by these organizations.

For these planes, it was no longer a question of price; they simply weren’t for sale.

But for the kind of plane Zog needed, the situation was much better.

"Pick one."

A staff member from the Mage Guild placed a large pile of Scrolls in front of Zog.

"Naming rights, usage rights, or permanent ownership? If you’re just looking to carve a name into it, I’d suggest just buying the naming rights. Once the time is up, the name is removed," the staff member explained helpfully.

"What do you mean?"

Zog hadn’t realized there were so many options when buying a small plane.

"You’re not buying naming rights for a plane as a memento? You know, like ’Jack Loves Anna Forever.’ That sort of thing is popular lately."

"Huh?"

Zog’s face was a perfect picture of bewilderment.

’What kind of trend is this?’ It felt just like carving names into a tree, spray-painting them on a wall, or getting a tattoo of "So-and-so heart So-and-so."

"If you buy the naming rights, they expire and are automatically removed. If you buy the ownership rights, you’ll have to pay again at the Guild to change the registered name. So if you two break up, it’ll cost you."

"I’m not buying it as a memento," Zog said, sensing an incredible bargain was at hand.

"Then what else can you do with these, uh, functionally-limited planes?" the staff member asked, curious.

The term "garbage planes" almost slipped out, but his professional training kicked in and he held his tongue. Offending a customer was bad for business.

"For... fun," Zog bluffed. "I’ve got more money than I know what to do with, so I want to buy something niche to show off my status."

The staff member leaned back, his expression turning to one of solemn respect.

"Of course. It’s your money, spend it as you wish. Naming rights are two Silver Coins per plane, usage rights are 5 Silver Coins, and ownership is 30 Silver Coins."

"Silver Coins!"

"Of course it’s Silver Coins. What, you thought it would be Copper Coins?" the staffer thought with disdain. ’And he calls this showing off his status?’

"How many do you have for sale in total?" Zog asked immediately.

Forty minutes later, every staff member in the small outpost had been mobilized. They finally finished tallying a total of 21,394 non-material, unstable planes.

The purchase request was sent to the Guild’s headquarters via a material-transporting Magical Device that looked a bit like a fax machine.

A confirmation of approval came back quickly.

Both parties signed the contract immediately, each seemingly afraid the other would change their mind.

The Magic Guild, feeling like they’d found the sucker of a lifetime, even gave Zog a five-percent discount and waived the odd change.

In the end, Zog spent 6,090 Gold Coins. Carrying the freshly signed contract, he slipped out of the Guild outpost, sent off by a neat line of waving staff members.

It felt like he had bought over twenty thousand Bitcoin for less than a cent apiece.

The technology for cross-planar doppelganger data transmission wasn’t even fully developed yet, and he had already monopolized the entire network.

In the future, anyone wanting to use this technology would have to pay a licensing fee, and then a network access fee on top of that.

Controlling the network is always more profitable than just making the product!

Zog returned to Songmu Town, completely satisfied.

Doudou and Master Xiao Xiong were just finishing a series of tests. A flickering image appeared on the television in the room.

It was playing the audio drama *Evil Magic Law*.

"So? Is it feasible?" Zog asked.

"It’s feasible, alright," Doudou replied, "but if too many doppelgangers are transmitted through the same plane, they can easily cause interference."

"Then how many planes do you think we’d need to cover the main cities on the Feilin Continent?"

Zog’s initial goal was just to get television service to the major cities; the remaining areas could wait for further technological developments.

"A few dozen, at least," Doudou said, scratching his head.

"Done," Zog declared. "We won’t just cover the main cities; we can cover the entire Feilin Continent without a problem."

Zog wanted to invite Master Xiao Xiong to join his Zog Group.

The master refused, but he did agree to be available for consultation on any future technical problems, and very nobly stated that he required no payment.

’Just because he’s noble doesn’t mean I can be cheap. Goodwill isn’t an infinite resource; it eventually runs out.’

So, he decided to cater to the master’s hobbies.

From now on, Master Xiao Xiong’s gaming account would have unlimited in-game purchases, free of charge.

Any new games would be added directly to his account upon release, also for free.

The master expressed his profound gratitude.

Zog also expressed his profound gratitude. Who would have thought that a certain Xiaomage’s vision of paying salaries with virtual currency would be realized by him here.

He stayed one more day in Songmu Town. After touring a few local attractions the next day, he finally started his return journey in the afternoon.

’If he didn’t do some sightseeing, he’d feel like he’d wasted the money he spent on the inn that night.’

Upon returning to Twin Tower City, he received a message from Yuno. The research and development for the miniaturization of the Ghost Camera was essentially complete and ready for commercial use.