Chapter 985: Chapter 544 Recent Players Are Really Rich Chapter 985: Chapter 544 Recent Players Are Really Rich “Wang,” Fang Cheng called out, “I need one set of Primordial Spirit Activation.”

“Three hundred merits, thank you.”

“Why is it so expensive today?”

“You think it’s expensive? I think it’s expensive too, but where can you find a cheaper Primordial Spirit Activation these days? It’s all this pricey, alright.”

The player who had asked about the price agonized for a long time, but the temptation of leveling up while AFK was too much to resist. They bought the Elixir Pills and then went to hang up their account.

One Elixir Pill could let you level up while AFK for three hours, and by taking more, you could accumulate up to twelve hours. You could just leave it there and not worry about it.

If you had enough merits, you could also buy the Second Primordial Spirit service from a Dan Medicine practitioner, which was like starting a mini-account to hang up there and grind for spiritual power, while your true self could do something else to keep improving your abilities.

And the improvement of spiritual power gave the players another boost in strength; some players were already capable of crafting more advanced Magic Artifacts, allowing them to travel back and forth between multiple planets.

However, although their power had increased, the fundamental problem of the players hadn’t been solved.

Merits were still not enough.

And with the opening up of AFK leveling, the gap in players’ merits had become even greater. Some players lived their daily lives on a tight budget, and had to count every merit they spent with their fingers.

Moreover, because merits couldn’t be traded, it put many players in a state of desperate craving for merits, resulting in a barrage of savage comments under the Weibo of Fang Cheng Studio.

“The game is pretty good; it just doesn’t allow topping up.”

“I am a rich second generation. Before playing ‘Nebula,’ my life was a whirlwind of hedonism and luxury. After playing ‘Nebula,’ I’m grinding for merits every day, and my old friends think I got locked up in jail.”

“Other games: Why do you top up so much? Fang Cheng Studio’s games: Why won’t you let me top up?”

“Since I started playing Fang Cheng Studio’s games, I’ve only had one request: Please let us top up, I beg you.”

“That’s it, I’m going to take the college entrance exam. I want to be the first out of the exam hall, so I can ask Fang Cheng to open a top-up entrance!”

Seeing the messages below Fang Cheng Studio’s Weibo, other game companies only felt one thing.

Jealousy!

Absolute jealousy!

If their games had this scale and enthusiasm, they would surely line up various gift packs, turning their players into tycoons.

Monthly and mini cards were just the basics, and daily, weekly, monthly, seasonal, and annual gift packs were the norm.

You could top up to improve your success rate in Alchemy, to succeed in transcendence, you could even sell merits, helping you reach the pinnacle of life in minutes.

But what about you!

What are you doing?

Please don’t disrupt the market!

Normally, Fang Cheng Studio would completely ignore this kind of comment.

Looking at the thousands of comments piled high below the Weibo post, Wang Xiaoying laughed disdainfully, “The boss has never liked money. No matter how much they want it, he’s never going to open that gate, right, boss?”

“That’s right, I’ve never seen a boss so unattached to worldly desires,” Huang Ping nodded in agreement.

“The boss’s heart is probably filled with nothing but games; anything else is just trifling to him,” Xiao Douzi said earnestly, looking at Fang Cheng, making Leon beside him feel that these people were even more sick.

But even he couldn’t imagine what Fang Cheng would look like if he liked money, so he just had to accept it.

To everyone’s surprise, Fang Cheng actually started to think about it.

He could feel that his path in cultivating the Tao was complete, that ascension was imminent, but there was still one layer of karma that wasn’t fulfilled.

Calculating with his fingers, he discovered that his opportunity for achieving the Tao was connected to the game, and now he needed to help the players complete this layer of karma.

However, the players’ strength was currently too weak; many things couldn’t unfold, making it too difficult to fulfill this layer of karma.

After all, it was karma related to himself, so it was indeed a bit troublesome to directly make up for it.

The best method was to owe the players some karma, giving him a reason to tie his own fortune with the players’, which would allow him to better complete this layer of karma.

Thinking it over, Fang Cheng realized that having players buy some extra but rather useless items seemed appropriate.

After pondering for quite a while, he looked at the game’s Dustfire and hesitated before asking, “Huang Ping, what do you think would be a reasonable amount to charge if we opened an in-game purchase channel? The items should be the least useful kind, making people feel that buying them would be a bit of a loss.”

This statement, much like thunder on the plains, stunned all the employees at the studio.

What on earth are you saying, Boss?

Xu Qingling touched Fang Cheng’s forehead and then her own before asking in confusion, “Boss, are you feeling alright?”

“Yeah, Boss, don’t you hate pay-to-win games?” Monkey said panic-stricken, “I thought I’d only ever work on buy-to-play games in my life.”

“Maybe we should make a call and have someone from the hospital come over to check. Something’s not right with the boss.”

“Forget it, my car’s downstairs; let’s just go straight to the hospital.”

Watching his colleagues get worked up, Fang Cheng sighed and then told everyone, “I’m not joking. Think about it seriously and come up with a proposal. Money isn’t the goal here; the aim is to help players progress faster.”

After thinking for a bit more, he added, “Don’t make it too expensive. We want them to gain merit easily and advance their strength more quickly. Xiao Douzi, how long would it realistically take players to max out their growth in ‘Nebula’ if they played seriously?”

“A conservative estimate would be thirty years,” Xiao Douzi said proudly, “When we were developing it, I aimed to have players engaged for a lifetime.”

“Let’s shorten that then. The faster, the better.”

Before long, an update announcement for “Nebula” was released.

In the announcement, Fang Cheng Studio indicated that they were about to introduce a paid duplication service.

Seeing this announcement, the players had mixed feelings.

They were happy that they could finally spend money on a game they loved, proving their devotion to the game with their wallets and enjoying it even more.

After all, the content was already exciting as it was, and the thought of what could come after the introduction of spending was unfathomable.

Their concern, however, was that “Nebula” had too many potential pay-to-win aspects.

Player skills could be bought, Cultivators’ cultivation could be bought, some Governor’s Planetary Technology, and Weather System enhancements could be bought, and the expenditures seemed bottomless.

Yet not spending would leave them feeling restless, a truly vexing sensation.

Amidst great anticipation, the new update from Fang Cheng Studio finally arrived.

In this update pack, Fang Cheng Studio introduced just one feature — outfits.

Players could draw a set for just ten dollars.

The outfits had no attributes and provided no special bonuses.

Aside from looking good, they had no other features; wearing them was simply about a special tab that didn’t replace any other equipment.

These outfits were replicas from various worlds, some full of technology, others were classic and vintage.

The purchased outfits could be given away or worn by NPCs to foster relationships.

This gift didn’t disrupt the game balance, perfectly meeting Fang Cheng’s criteria for a purchase that felt a little unsatisfying yet attracted others to buy.

Everyone had thought this update might displease the players since nowadays, players were all about high-stakes gaming, and a mere outfit hardly seemed enough to satisfy them.

But to Fang Cheng Studio’s surprise, the monthly revenue for “Nebula” went through the roof.

A 12 billion income pushed “Nebula” straight to the top of the charts, indicating that, on average, each player spent 400 dollars, more than the cost of the game itself.

Looking at this figure, Fang Cheng had only one thought.

Players these days really do have money.