Chapter 120 - Evolution
Once the System Announcement ended, every single player began looking for a safe location, preparing to log out of the game.
Although many players held resentment towards the System upgrade, God’s Domain was quickly entering nighttime. Even if they stayed in the game, they would not be able to do much. The only things they could do were to trade off the day’s harvest or chat with their companions, enjoying their time.
Shi Feng took this chance to immediately run towards the Auction House of Red Leaf Town, clearing out items such ore, herbs, and various other materials; as long as they were rare materials, Shi Feng bought them all. After purchasing all the items he could and filling his bag up completely, Shi Feng ran towards the Bank, intending to return to the Auction House once more to do more shopping.
Unfortunately, the system notified him that he only had three minutes remaining to logout. He would not have enough time to make a return trip from the Bank.
“Hah… I only managed to buy this many…” Shi Feng looked at the time, releasing a helpless sigh.
Fortunately, he had obtained quite a number of Gold Coins from the trade just now, allowing him to purchase materials worth more than a dozen Gold Coins.
Soon after, Shi Feng headed to the Hotel, preparing to log out.
On his way, he met many players who were uncontrollably excited over the System upgrade that was to come. They all started a discussion amongst themselves, anticipating the benefits that would come with this System upgrade.
Shi Feng only wanted to chuckle at them due to their anticipation.
Without a doubt, there would be benefits from the evolution of God’s Domain. However, many would be unexpected.
After arriving at the Hotel, Shi Feng paid a fee of 10 Coppers to rest for a day.
Meanwhile, the other players noticed Shi Feng was extravagantly spending 10 Copper Coins to rent a room. They could only obtain such an amount after putting their all into grinding monsters for five to six hours. Such spending was simply too wasteful. However, when they saw that Shi Feng had already reached Level 7, none of them dared comment on his actions. A Level 7 player was definitely a character at the apex of Red Leaf Town. If they accidentally provoked Shi Feng, it would not be an impossible matter for them to die back to Level 0. After all, these sorts of incidents often occurred in Red Leaf Town. These players could only inwardly look at Shi Feng in disdain.
One could be quite capricious when one was rich!
Shi Feng only minded himself as he entered one of the guest rooms, paying no heed to those other players. He would not bother explaining to those players the reason why he chose to rent a room and not just log out of the game from a random location.
As the morning sun rose, Shi Feng got up from his bed, removing the advanced gaming helmet from his head. It was eight o’clock in the morning, just in time to start his usual morning training.
At that moment, Shi Feng’s phone rang, the caller ID showing it was Blackie calling him.
“Blackie, did something happen?” Shi Feng answered the call, asking curiously. Normally, Blackie would not take the initiative to contact him unless it was an urgent matter.
“Brother Feng, something big has happened! Quick, turn on your TV! Right now, the news channels are showing it right now. Almost every TV channel is showing it!” Blackie said with ragged breaths, his tone greatly excited. If Shi Feng was unfamiliar with Blackie, he might’ve thought Blackie had been doing some sort of extreme exercise.
Shi Feng turned on the old and small TV in his broken down apartment. He then switched the channels, discovering that every TV channel was interrupted by the same news report.
“Today at 5 a.m., the top 1,000 largest global corporations all announced their decision to invest in God’s Domain. They wish to improve the development of the virtual economy further. At the same time, each of these corporations will all be establishing their own God’s Domain Workshops.
“As for the latest report on God’s Domain, according to official statistics, all the vendors selling the God’s Domain virtual gaming helmets were flooded with customers within the short three hours since the announcement. This is all due to the corporations across the globe investing in the game. As a result, the player population of God’s Domain suddenly increased by over 800 million users. At the same time, the current player population was boosted to 1.8 billion users, breaking the world record for the number of players of any virtual reality game.”
……
Various news constantly played on the television. The news reports were advertising the idea of making God’s Domain a second world for mankind, encouraging everyone to experience the game. Also, to further advance the data collection by the Main God System, further completing God’s Domain, the price of the basic virtual reality helmets reduced from 8,000 Credits to 4,000 Credits. As for the price of advanced virtual reality helmets and virtual gaming cabins, those remained unchanged.
“That was fast,” Shi Feng revealed a faint smile after listening to these reports. However, he was not shocked by them.
Although… the report arrived slightly earlier than he expected.
In Shi Feng’s previous life, these reports only surfaced after ten days of God’s Domain’s operation. Due to these large corporations investing themselves in God’s Domain, virtual reality games began receiving an extensive range of attention. The entire virtual gaming world similarly burned like a raging inferno, and the previously retired gaming experts all joined God’s Domain. Moreover, the few remaining popular virtual reality games were forced to shut down due to the popularity of God’s Domain. As a result, all the affected gamers transferred to God’s Domain, instantly causing the game’s player population to explode. The competition within the game similarly grew fiercer.
All virtual reality games had a definite similarity with each other - limited resources. If the original population of a single Town suddenly grew from several thousand to over ten thousand, the number of players competing over the available resources greatly increased. Naturally, the prices of items would also greatly increase.
“So that’s why…” Realization suddenly struck Shi Feng.
It was no wonder why the number of people buying the Glimmer Chestplate Forging Designs had increased. It turned out that it was all due to these large corporations investing in the game and the additional 800 million new players joining the game. These players were all Level 0; so, naturally, their need for equipment was intense. They would not hesitate to buy the Glimmer Chestplate Forging Designs, forging a large amount of Glimmer Chestplates and earning a lot of money.
“What a shame. These new players came at such a bad time.” Shi Feng pitied the players who had just joined God’s Domain. The timing they chose to join was just too unfortunate. Of all the times they could have chosen, they chose to join immediately after God’s Domain had its first evolution. With this, they were destined to be doomed.
The upgrading of God’s Domain was the game’s self-evolution. However, nobody understood the true meaning of this matter. Only after they experienced it for themselves would they come to understand fully.
The reason Shi Feng chose to use the words ‘evolution’ instead of ‘upgrade’ was because ‘evolution’ represented evolving and adapting. It was survival of the fittest, in short. While players were living their lives in God’s Domain, the Main God System constantly collected various data from the game. When the data collected reached a certain degree, quantitative change would become qualitative change, which meant evolution.
Virtual reality allowed players the ultimate experience of a realistic fantasy world. However, the process of turning something ‘virtual’ into ‘reality’ was just incredibly difficult. Moreover, God’s Domain was an extremely realistic world in which magic and superhumans existed. Hence why the existence of the Main God System. The System’s purpose was to turn God’s Domain into an even more realistic world, constantly perfecting and evolving God’s Domain.
Shi Feng felt the main perpetrator for hastening the evolution should be himself.
His reasoned that, in his previous life, the Hell Mode of the Team Dungeon was cleared exactly a month after God’s Domain’s opening, with the upgrade following soon after. Right now, the Hell Mode of the Team Dungeon had been cleared, and similarly, the game announced a System upgrade almost immediately. In the end, they greatly expedited the schedule.
Thinking up to this point, Shi Feng suddenly felt he should be more careful with his future actions.
Due to his good luck this time, he was able to have a chance encounter with Aqua Rose from Twilight Echo. This fortunate encounter allowed him to earn over ten million Credits easily. Even now, Shi Feng felt like he was in a dream. However, after this evolution, it was practically impossible for him to earn that much money so easily.
If he did not earn a large sum of money during this time, now that the major corporations have decided to involve themselves, in addition to God’s Domain’s evolution, his plans in God’s Domain would suffer severe disruption.
Finished reading the reports, Shi Feng proceeded to train his body. This was an assignment he had to carry out every single day. Now that the major corporations have entered God’s Domain, they would surely have poached plenty of veteran gamers and newcomers with great potential. They may even recruit experts from fighting tournaments. These experts’ standards were entirely different from the average player’s of God’s Domain. They would only take a short time becoming an expert in the game. With the proper guidance, their development would have rapid progress.
The arrival of these players would massively impact God’s Domain.
In order to maintain an even greater advantage, Shi Feng needed to quickly and diligently train his body. Training his body would hasten the absorption process of the energy from the nutrient fluids, providing even more nutrients and increasing the activity of the brain. This way he would be able to increase his combat prowess in God’s Domain further.
After going through his morning training, Shi Feng prepared to leave the house to restock his nutrient fluids. He would also search for a better home. It would have a negative impact on his body if he continued staying in this rented apartment, surrounded by an unhealthy environment. Since he had earned quite a bit of money, it was high time for him to switch to find a new place.