Chapter 1387: 457. Invest in the future

The Metal Ancestor Dragon’s craving for Soul Constructs was seen as a potential threat by Noland Lee, the Assassin Angel and Scroll Angel, as well as the Order Plane’s Core.

With a “major business” and an incredibly high number of players under its control, the Order Plane’s Core felt somewhat desperate and cornered.

Facing the covetous Metal Ancestor Dragons, it had a sense of urgency.

Using Noland Lee as a communication medium, the two Angels and the Order Plane’s Core reached an indirect exchange.

Together, they came up with a highly feasible plan.

That plan was “fishing.”

The Metal Ancestor Dragon wanted to acquire a large number of Soul Constructs to explore the Illusion Space, didn’t it?

Hadn’t it reached some sort of cooperation with the Angel Enterprise Alliance?

Well then, let’s proactively deliver a batch of Soul Constructs into their hands.

This batch of Soul Constructs would be rigged by Noland Lee with backdoors, becoming something akin to remote-controlled bombs.

Usually, the Soul Constructs would provide Noland Lee and others with firsthand information from within the Illusion Space.

At a critical moment, they would go “bang” and explode, thwarting the Metal Ancestor Dragon’s plans and, by the way, self-destruct to cover their tracks.

The plan presented two technical challenges.

First, the backdoors installed on the Soul Constructs were not to be discovered by the Metal Ancestor Dragons or the Angel Enterprises Alliance.

Second, ultimate control over the Soul Constructs must remain in the hands of Noland Lee and should never fall to the Metal Ancestor Dragons like the ones on the transport ships did.

Only with both challenges addressed would the plan be truly viable.

Figuring out how to install the backdoors was left to the Assassin Angel and Scroll Angel, a technical issue.

How to maintain ultimate control over the Soul Constructs once the Metal Ancestor Dragon had deeply infiltrated them was something for the Order Plane’s Core to consider.

With this division of labor, Noland Lee became the most leisurely one, spending his days issuing tasks to players to guide them in plundering Angel Crystals, and studying Magic Pets to enrich the types and outputs of Magic Eggs.

To engage players more and encourage their initiative, Noland Lee thoughtfully provided a lottery system.

Previously, for every 100 Angel Crystals players delivered, they could earn a vial of Basic Angel Essence, which was used to nourish Magic Eggs.

Now, on top of that, Noland Lee added an additional bonus–a chance to randomly draw a Magic Egg.

The Magic Eggs in players’ hands were acquired from the Academy’s usual tasks and were of white quality.

The lottery pool provided by Noland Lee included higher quality Magic Eggs in green, blue, purple, orange, pink, red, and other colors.

Every 100 consecutive draws guaranteed a green.

Every 300 consecutive draws guaranteed a blue.

Every 1000 consecutive draws guaranteed a purple.

Orange, pink, and red all depended on luck.

This kind of lottery scheme was all too common, but undeniably effective.

Moreover, the lottery chances were handed out through the completion of raid tasks, which was quite fair.

But Noland Lee soon had to acknowledge the cunning of the players.

A group of players who called themselves “Rib Warriors” and “Brick Movers” analyzed the lottery pool’s payout.

One of them wrote a large amount of data and characters, which summarised into one sentence:

Instead of personally delivering Angel Crystals to the Academy to earn lottery chances, it is better to directly sell the Angel Crystals to those in need, exchanging them for real-world money.

Regardless of whether this analysis was accurate or not, the temptation of money was tangible, and few could resist the lure of real-world currency.

Imagine this.

Others decisively sold their Angel Crystals to Merchants, guilds, or buyers after each Fleet task, earning money for movie tickets, dining out, buying powdered milk, and other expenses, thus smoothing out life’s minor financial gaps.

And what about you?

Besides a thumb-sized vial of essence and the boredom of waiting for a Magic Pet to hatch, what have you gained?

People always bend to real-world issues.

Even players who abhor the idea of treating games as work and making money in games to buy ribs, eventually had to sell their Angel Crystals, forgoing the chances of drawing and the essence for a fuller real-world wallet.

There was no other way.

The profits from selling Angel Crystals to others were just too great.

When the individual price of Angel Crystals was under 10 yuan, the “Brick Movers” had already started selling aggressively.

When the price reached 100 yuan, casual players began to be tempted, no longer going fishing or hanging around, and joined the rush for Angel Crystals instead.

When the price per Angel Crystal hit 200 yuan, the Brick Movers regretted breaking their legs after selling too early, while casual players switched to becoming professional Brick Movers and those who considered themselves “regular players” had to swallow their pride and join the rush.

As the price per Angel Crystal climbed to 300, 400, or even 500 yuan, the majority of players thought the game was crazy.

It’s just a game, how could its virtual items reach such astonishing prices.

As many players wondered who was buying Angel Crystals in large amounts, for the long term, and at any cost, a video released by the Cucumber Slice Team went viral on social media.