Happy knew about this as well. The official developers had a specific think tank that would estimate the psychological pricing. It would bring about the greatest benefit possible to the company and the uploader, so Happy agreed to it without hesitation.
Once both sides came to an agreement, Happy no longer needed to personally handle the remaining matters. The official developers from the game soon uploaded the battle at Common Reed Bank and pinned it at the top of the forum. They also instantly revised the website and opened up another website that contained battle replays that could only be viewed after the players paid for it.
Compared to the price Happy thought they would set, the price the official developers set exceeded his expectations.
It was not too expensive, but it was definitely not cheap!
50 RMB!
[Enjoy the grand first person view of the top-ranked player on the Famous People Rank as he beheads the enemy leader while surrounded by an army of ten thousand. Uncover the secrets of the elite Happy.]
In the beginning, not many people responded to the video
After all, they had become used to free battle replays and did not want to pay for it. Thus, they chose to observe the situation so that they could slowly digest the unique features of that different system.
The official developers had clearly been planning the pay-to-view system for a long time. They explained everything about it clearly, such as how the players could get a Rare Edition choice once they logged into the game. If they chose that function, they could buy any battle replay they wanted and project it. Then, they could experience another person's senses as they went through the battle.
And the words used in the advertis.e.m.e.nt were also incredibly tempting.
Quite a number of students from the University of South City quickly chose to experience the battle once they received the news. A crazed trend of experience the battle at Common Reed Bank stirred up at South China Martial Arts Ranking Board.
The process was rather long, but after the sudden appearance of pirates on Happy's ship, everything moved like a movie.
Its main character was Happy, who appeared at the perfect time at every location, and everyone got to see his adventure through his eyes!
Then, they saw General Yang's plot. Happy alone had to face countless soldiers who suddenly appeared among the people at Common Reed Bank. Then, the Murong Clan's fleet experienced a shocking change!
"What the heck?!"
"Are they shooting a movie now?"
The astonishing change that happened to the cargo sh.i.p.s and the very real sounds of springs and triggers allowed the people to experience the feeling of their blood boiling and their emotions surging when the battle broke out!
Happy had jumped on the bridge wing and faced countless martial artists by himself. His actions allowed countless people to experience the great confidence of the strongest player on the Famous People Rank. They held their breaths, and the great heroic feeling of fighting against multiple people alone surged in their hearts to the point that they almost exploded...
'Kill!'
Everyone's field of vision changed very quickly.
Happy satisfied everyone's d.e.s.i.r.es when he leapt from one ship to another. He charged forward in a rampage and killed madly. His actions dazzled the viewers, and they were lost in wonder. It was as if they were the ones who were invincible in the crowd.
Of course, there were also many elites who experienced the battle replay. Most of them were shocked by how Happy chained his attacks and astounded by the medicinal pills he took. It was clear that they were the exorbitantly-priced Dew Pills.
They were shocked, but they also discovered multiple secrets!
The various discoveries made them feel very touched. They felt as if they had bought something worth their money.
The hype did not die down then though.
The sh.i.p.s were badly damaged. When Happy had to defend against a siege, everyone felt a great wave of solemnity wash over them, and they thought that they were about to die as a martyr…
But Happy did something that made everyone descend into frenzy again.
Alone, he charged out of the encirclement and rushed to a group of Life and Death elites in the distance.
The dazzling sight, level-headed strategy, and magnificent skills caused everyone to watch from the start to the end with bated breath. When General Yang died and everyone lost their will to fight before Happy… the battle replay ended!
*****
It was more than an hour long!
Many people thought back on it, and an unprecedented, crazed wave stirred up in the forum. They fell over each other to discuss how unexpectedly good the battle replay was, and how valuable it was. They also spoke of their discoveries and how moved they were by the battle replay.
The posts that filled the forum all talked about the same topic!
Any post that tried to bring up another topic was immediately drowned out by a thousand other posts right after they emerged, and they could no longer be found.
The grand spectacle intrigued the many people who had been watching from the sidelines!
It was especially so when they learned that they could experience something that no normal battle replay could show them. After hearing that, a continuous stream of people decided to pay to experience the battle…
In fact, when some players asked others whether they had experienced the battle through Happy's senses and received a "no" as their answer, the person who had not experienced the battle would get scorned.
"Tsk tsk, those lunatics that are the official developers are indeed good, they actually integrated everything until it feels like an action film. I even want to experience it the second time after I experienced it once. I refuse to believe that it won't be a popular item on sale…"
Once Bai Lang and the others logged off the game, they began talking about it excitedly with their friends who had come to crash at their dorm.
"It's mainly because Happy is good, right?"
"That's right!"
"Hehe, that's right. Damn it, Happy's definitely going to be rich! Tomorrow, I might as well resign from my post as developer and be his manager," Qi Ci joked through gritted teeth.
Chen Fan decided to be a wet blanket.
"Forget it, we'll definitely not be able to. We actually agreed to the deal when they offered us a 10% share in the profit when we could have gotten 50% share. Happy won't be at ease if he lets us handle public relations. Xu Xin might be able to though."
Qi Ci and Bai Lang cackled and nodded.
Their other friends in the dorm looked at each other at a loss. They did not understand what the three wolves were talking about.
*****
After some time, her phone rang, snapping her out of her reverie.
Before, when she saw the name on the phone, she would be very happy, and she would even look forward to it slightly. But right then, when she saw that name, she felt as if a great weight had been placed on her heart, and she even felt a little uneasy.
Still, she pressed the receive button.
"Hello…"
Her voice was very soft, and there was even a faint quiver that she did not notice.
The person on the other end of the phone noticed her abnormal tone, however. He was silent for a while. Then, a gentle and pleasant male voice traveled into her ears.
"What's wrong? Are you sick?"
"No…" Xu Yao touched her slightly cold arm and s.u.c.k.e.d in a deep breath before she returned to her usual calmness. "What is it?"
"It's the same thing." The tone on the other side changed. "Your progress has been too slow lately. Things have changed again. Not only is Happy secretly supporting Beautiful Robes Faction and making them stronger swiftly, he is also thinking about supporting another sect. He seems to want to set up his foundation in Hubei's Baokang."
"I've heard about this as well. It does seem to be true."
"But that's not all. Right now, he's
working with the official developers to promote the walkthrough system through the pay-to-view battle replays. By the looks of it, it's very successful. This person is not only ambitious, but also very reluctant to be drawn to anyone's side…"
The voice on the phone turned very cold, and Xu Yao's heart shuddered. "Are you saying…"
"We have a new plan now!"
Chapter 318 - Shennongjia
Half a day later, Happy received a call from a liaison of the official developers of World of Martial Arts.
The liaison told him in an excited tone that the results of the pay-to-view battle replay he provided received an outstanding success. In just half a day, more than ten million people around the world had bought it, and as of then, the view count was still rising swiftly. Even with conservative estimations, they believed that the view count would pass fifty million.
Happy was naturally very excited to hear that.
The liaison said with great admiration that by then, Happy had earned more than two hundred million for himself. With just one phone call, he became a new millionaire of the younger generation in China.
Happy was stunned silent for a long while.
If more than ten million people bought the battle replay, it meant that half a day ago, he had been a person with an average net worth, but then, he was someone with more than two hundred million to himself.
It was a huge free lunch that had come hurling at his head, and it shocked him so much that he was rendered speechless for a long time. In fact, he did not even remember how he ended the call…
Even though he had long since predicted that it would happen, when he really obtained the expected result, his mind still went blank.
"Two hundred million."
Happy sat down on the couch in the living room and s.u.c.k.e.d in a deep breath. He felt slightly lost at the wealth he had suddenly obtained. It did not feel real.
However, that feeling did not last long.
He remembered his own goal. 'Isn't this two hundred million basically heaven sponsoring me so that I can take my revenge?'
This two hundred million and the profit he might gain later would serve as his trump cards…
When Happy thought of this, his head swiftly cleared up. He washed his face and looked at it in the mirror. His jawline was becoming more prominent, and there was a faint hint of maturity about him. He smiled and returned to his bedroom resolutely.
The great wealth did not make him lose his self, and neither did it make him forget his original goal. He continued living his life peacefully.
*****
Happy's destination was Baokang in Hubei province.
Not far from Baokang County Town was an ancient forest that was so dense its borders could not be seen!
It was known as Shennongjia!
It was rumored that Yan Emperor, who was also known as Shennong [1], had collected herbs there, saved people, and tasted all the herbs, which was how that place got its name. It was also an indirect way to show that Shennongjia was rich with herbs, plenty of which were very valuable.
Baokang could not really be considered a famous county town, but as time progressed in the game, more players came to know about the mysterious Shennongjia and the countless herbs protected by Blood S.u.c.k.i.n.g Grass, Blood S.u.c.k.i.n.g Wood, and other fierce creatures. It gradually became a place for players to earn money.
Rich resources always attract many forces of power and their hungry eyes.
Since a month ago, many sects had began to settle down in Baokang one after another. They varied in size, and there were more than one hundred of them. However, there were not that many herbs at the borders of Shennongjia. Every day, murders happened at the regions where herbs were easiest to gather.
Sometimes, the players would kill for one hundred-year ginseng, or a large area of Lingzhi mushrooms or tuber fleeceflowers. And once the murders started, the players would fight nonstop, and it was very easy for the innocent to get dragged into the mess.
In the end, many players began to treat that place as a poisonous ground. They did not dare to approach it at will!
*****
Compared to the herb fields, there was another area in Shennongjia that was even more popular.
The mines!
Right then, there were a lot of people who treated creating weapons and armor as their occupation compared to those creating medicine. Much more people went to fight in the mines every day since in just a single night, they could get from ten to one hundred normal iron and copper ores. Sometimes, they could even get a few pieces of black iron that had a pretty good color.
Some of the lucky people could dig out gold and silver, which they had no problem selling for a few thousand or ten thousand taels of silver.
Over the last couple months, news of people digging out supreme grade ores appeared once every few days, and once they sold it to the guilds, there were rumors that they earned hundreds of thousands of taels of silver.
Days ago, there were even rumors that someone had dug out a beautiful deep blue crystal in the crystal mine. It was apparently a grade two crystal ore, and it was known as Una-something… In the end, it was bought by a high-ranking member of some guild on the spot, and they made the trade with two million taels of silver.
Even though the people who mined had not been able to gain any sort of success during the early stages of the game, digging mines could still get them some money every day. Sometimes, if they were lucky, they could even gain some degree of wealth. Hence, the mines attracted quite a lot of people, and they lived their lives digging every day. Even though the task was boring, they still enjoyed themselves.
On that day, a group of people headed to a crystal mine to the northwest of Shennonjia.
From the distance, Thunderous Battle and his group heard the loud sounds of metal striking against rock. The sounds were frequent and very noisy, and the further they went in, the louder they became!
"Wow!"
They entered the cave and walked down the humid and dark tunnel, but in less than thirty-two feet, the area in front of them became much brighter! The group was stunned by the bustling activity inside.
It was a hall in the mining cave, and it had a diameter that was less than ninety-eight feet. Yet there were more than two hundred people squeezed in there who swung their pickaxes at the body of the mountain madly. Quite a number of people stood behind those who were mining, talking to each other while looking around anxiously for empty spots.
"... We can actually turn this place into a dieting spot."
"Damn it, their equipment is already so good, and they still came to snatch our business?"
A group of players who were waiting for a chance to get some work in the mines noticed the ten or so people at the entrance and cursed under their breaths.
At that moment, someone by the side took note of the group entering the depths of the place and smiled as if he had been relieved of a great burden.
"They're people headed to the second level."
"Second level? So many people? The entrance fee isn't cheap. Besides, will those people even agree to it?"
The people in the area showed their skepticism.
The second level of the crystal mine had only been discovered recently since it was behind a strange mechanism located in the chamber at the end of the first level. No one could dig out any ores or do any sort of mining there. However, there was a groove in that place which could contain eight Berthierites. If they placed them in there, the players could enter the second level, but only eight would be allowed through.
The drop rate of high-grade ores in the second level of the crystal mine was very high. In the first few days of its discovery, news of someone digging out a high-grade ore came out almost every single day, and they appeared at a rate that was much higher than in the first level!
*****
Thunderous Battle and his group approached the place and went straight to the chamber with the mechanism. The martial artists' expression
s changed slightly, and they got up swiftly. They raised their arms and blocked Thunderous Battle and his group before speaking in an unruly tone, "Brother, sorry to say this, but the second level is currently not available to outsiders. Go back."
When Thunderous Battle heard that, he looked at the person who had spoken and smiled instead of flying into a rage.
Bang!
The man was sent flying away by a punch and crashed against the wall.
Chapter 319 - Act in Prescribed Order, Eliminate
Thunderous Battle had reached Baokang two days ago. During them, he teamed up with the people from Beautiful Robes Faction. They went to the herb areas, metal mines, and crystal mines in Shennongjia one after another. They also checked out the situation of each sect in Baokang County Two.
Once they investigated the situation, they learned that it was very complicated! All their plans of intimidating everyone and gaining their footing in a short amount of time disappeared without a trace.
All the regions with herbs at the borders of Shennongjia were chock full of Blood S.u.c.k.i.n.g Grass, and they were very annoying. Blood S.u.c.k.i.n.g Wood would also stand tall in the area to lead people to their deaths quietly. People got terrified from a single look at them. However, bloody fights occurred nonstop in those dangerous areas every day. As long as someone noticed a valuable herb, more than one hundred people would engage in a chaotic battle, and sometimes, there were even more people!
Thunderous Battle did not want to participate in such group battles that consumed a lot of energy. After all, as of then, he had not even thought of a name for his sect. There were also very few people in his sect. If they joined such a chaotic battles, they would not even know how they died.
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