Chapter 245: Wicked Amusements
With the return of the lottery-winning guys, this VR open beta came to an end.
Bai Mo did not explicitly provide a payout table for killing monsters in the game; instead, he created a sense of mystery.
"People are mostly unwilling to believe official news; they trust more the interesting tidbits they've gossiped about from various sources," he believed that not explaining would be a better choice.
Because no matter what he, as the official representative, said, the opinions of those who thought they were shills would still not change.
And those guys who got the money, within three days, would leak the amounts they received through various channels, and the news would then easily spread online.
Regarding the speed of changing a person's perceptions, Bai Mo felt that if he didn't use Spirit Arts like brainwashing, he was far inferior to all sorts of online rumors.
After seeing several youngsters building new houses in their hometowns, all their relatives and neighbors knew they had truly struck it rich; otherwise, with salaries of only one or two thousand, they wouldn't be able to afford building them at all.
The speed at which gossip spread between people was even faster than the flu virus. As the event fermented, the news of the few people striking it rich in the game's open beta spread like wildfire, and the figure of one million yuan made many people restless.
"Two thousand bucks for one helmet? Why don't they just rob us?!" Half a month later, when the first batch of household VR helmets went on sale, the crowds rushing to buy them almost flattened the major sales points. "Quick, give me three, there are three of us in the family!"
Not to mention, many people were already very curious about the newly emerged VR system. Just the reason of being able to truly experience the world-destroying power of cultivators, which made many people's blood boil, was enough to make many ordinary people who had no chance to cultivate in reality throw themselves into it.
Coupled with the ten basic welfare Contribution Points issued by the Contribution Point system every month, two thousand yuan was equivalent to simply foregoing two months' worth, a cost the vast majority of people could afford.
"What exactly are you doing?" Since this month began, a total of fifteen people had become millionaires overnight because of it, causing the entire society to grow fanatic about this VR system. This made Chen Bo, who had originally just intended to quietly watch the show, unable to help but come forward and ask.
"Throwing out a hundred million allows one to see such an entertaining spectacle, watching tens of millions of people chase and bite at the bones he threw out, like rabid dogs. Don't you think it's worth it?" Bai Mo said with a wicked sense of amusement.
"The cost of one helmet is fifteen hundred, and I set the selling price at the Contribution Point Center at two thousand. In this month, nearly forty million were sold, which means the pure profit alone is twenty billion. When will I ever finish throwing it all away..."
He directly ignored the fact that this VR system, covering the entire Hua-Ya, had a cost as high as several hundred billion, and that most of this money was actually Contribution Points issued by the system.
"If you want to be Santa Claus, that's your business, but be mindful of the boundaries; don't let society fall into chaos." As a national administrator, Chen Bo was clearly more concerned with social stability.
"I am bringing hope to ordinary people to change their destinies. Who do you think is truly destabilizing society?"
Chen Bo said nothing more. As someone who truly managed the entire nation from a macro perspective, he was also clear that social stratification was rapidly solidifying. The newly emerged cultivators and most of the original privileged classes formed an even stronger eternal class.
Constantly using various resources to rapidly grow stronger, they, whether in talent or strength, or the capital they possessed, left ordinary people unable to keep up.
Spirit-energized brains allowed everyone who could complete brain spirit-energization to possess thinking that surpassed the peak level of ordinary people and even stronger perceptive abilities.
And the appearance of the Thousand Souls Scripture further illustrated the notion of "no money, no cultivation" to the fullest, because cultivators supported by a large amount of soul-type Spirit Materials cultivated this technique at roughly ten times the speed of ordinary people who lacked resource support.
"By the way, I've already had my assistant transfer this year's money to the treasury's account," Bai Mo added.
"Hmm, but they seem to be at odds with you," Chen Bo said jokingly. "They're constantly proposing in meetings that we reclaim control."
"Let's give them a charge of inciting civil war," Bai Mo wasn't being serious; he just said it teasingly.
As people who lacked no money whatsoever, the several cultivators who had entered the Xuanhua Stage, referencing Sarcasky's extensive act of devouring vampires, were daily consuming large amounts of spirit material medicinal cuisine specially prepared for them, to accelerate as much as possible the outward extension and growth of their spirit clusters, until they completed the immense accumulation required for this stage.
The colossal investment brought about rapid growth in power. Chen Bo knew clearly that Bai Mo, who was equally wealthy enough to rival a nation, had a power growth rate at this stage that was absolutely no less than his own.
What he said about starting a civil war was absolutely no joke; he truly possessed such an ability.
These past two years, after the Contribution Point system officially got on track under Bai Mo's management, it would transfer approximately two hundred billion in surplus to the Central Government's treasury.
The reason he would do this was that the system's surplus was simply too massive. Through the appraisal of items and data, the low-buy, high-sell acquisition of Spirit Materials, a two percent tax on every transaction within the system, and finally, the most terrifying: currency issuance—relying on these businesses, which were almost entirely profit without initial capital, the profits over these two years had already approached five hundred billion.
The number of projects he could simultaneously undertake alone was still very limited. Even with annual surpluses in the hundreds of billions, even if he exerted his utmost effort and simultaneously ran dozens of large projects, he still couldn't use it all.
As for the spirit material medicinal cuisine aspect... even if he were to eat until he burst, he wouldn't use up five billion a year.
To prevent too much money from molding and going to waste, he ultimately handed over nearly half of the funds, allowing them to arrange its use.
As for the people at the Research Institute, relying on their own achievements and strength, each of them had plenty of money, so he also had no need to provide funding.
Countless warriors, for the one-million yuan reward, one after another embarked on the path of hunting monsters.
Anyway, from the perspective of those who hadn't experienced it, this was ultimately just a game; no matter how many times they died, it wouldn't have any impact on the real world.
The vast majority of those joining the excitement were ordinary people with no relevant experience. In the game, everyone only had initial stats of six ones.
And when fighting monsters in the wild, many people behaved as if they were on a picnic, always thinking they could easily strike it rich.
These people quickly experienced the cruelty of reality. A wilderness death rate exceeding ninety percent caused the enthusiasm of most people to begin to wane.
Although it wasn't real death, and the pain was controlled to one-tenth of real sensation, watching one's helpless self being torn apart by a monster was absolutely not a good experience.
After each death, it required two days in the virtual world—which was twenty-four hours of revival time in the real world—and total experience points would be halved, though for these blank slate newcomers, it made no difference..
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