Conquering OtherWorld Starts With a Game

Chapter 33.3: Players' Inner Circle

After about an hour of gameplay, several players who hung out with Brother Lahong, like Phantom and Guileless Gale, ran over to different construction sites and shouted, "Brothers and sisters, listen up! The market's highest price for copper coins is ten to one! We support various transaction methods, with guaranteed credibility. If you want to sell, do so quickly!"

The price of copper coins didn't fall after the auction for the Undead Horse concluded. There were two reasons for this: First, most players had sold or lent their previously accumulated copper coins and didn't have much money left; second, many people believed that valuable items worth spending on would be released, so the value of copper coins wouldn't fall much and many players were hoarding coins.

Sure enough, when the Spider Cave was released and advanced NPCs started selling equipment and weapons, the copper coin market came alive once more.

"Looks like they were wiped out again." Jia Luo shook her head sympathetically.

"Most likely," Yang Ying agreed. "These people are really strange. Why do they keep trying over and over when they know they can't win?"

"Don't you get it? Don't be fooled by Brother Lahong and Vanilla Boss acting all friendly and working together. They're actually competing with each other below the surface." Jia Luo smirked. "It's hard to say whether dungeons would be introduced to this game in the future. Right now, the only place where players can farm monsters is the Spider Cave. Whichever side manages to establish a stable presence there and can consistently farm will have solo players and small teams flocking over to them.

"Even if these people can't join their Blood Alliance for the time being, they can still be arranged as reserve members of their own secondary or tertiary alliances," Jia Luo continued. "With the limited player population in this game, the key is to gather people to your side in advance. By doing so, the opponents won't have a chance to grow, and the position of the top Blood Alliance will be secured."

Yang Ying looked at Jia Luo in astonishment, then turned toward Zheng Qingyue. Though they hadn't known each other for long, Yang Ying trusted Zheng Qingyue's intelligence.

Zheng Qingyue nodded. "Jia Luo is right. By laying a solid foundation for the 'top Blood Alliance' now, when new players join the game in the future, those that are strong will likely join the top Blood Alliance."

"Who knew there were so many intricacies in playing a game?" Yang Ying couldn't help but be amazed.

Zheng Qingyue chuckled. "Didn't Brother Lahong and Vanilla Boss specifically approach us to chat? They wanted to recruit us."

"Huh?" Yang Ying was a little slow to catch on. "Wasn't all that just normal conversation?"

Zheng Qingyue shook her head with a smile. Yang Ying, who was two years older, didn't lack intelligence, just that she was a bit unconcerned with minor details.

Patiently, Zheng Qingyue explained, "I sent Tang Jia to join Vanilla Boss' team because he's a somewhat popular streamer who cares about his image. If Tang Jia joined Brother Lahong's team, I reckoned she wouldn't be able to come back to us."

Yang Ying: "…"

"So, that's why I don't like joining those big guilds and factions in games. I can tolerate mandatory activities, but I can't stand all the scheming and infighting," Jia Luo remarked. "In a game I played before, there were several factions on the server, constantly vying with each other. When one faction couldn't surpass the others, they invited a studio from another server to engage in 24-hour vendetta killing against their rival factions. There were endless flame wars every day, and it became incredibly annoying."

"Ohh!" Yang Ying was intrigued. "I thought studios were just like Eight At Once and his bunch that are always diligently doing manual labor. I didn't realize they played so fiercely!"

Zheng Qingyue smiled. "It's quite normal. In some games, the top guilds are actually studios. Studios will do anything to make money. Paid assassinations, seizing resources from regular players, and even monopolizing certain special materials on the server. Eight At Once and his group, who focus solely on gold farming, are in the minority."

Jia Luo nodded in agreement. "Exactly. Thankfully, this game has a small player base and high entry requirements. If it were open registration, regular solo players wouldn't have a chance to receive manual labor quests from zombie NPCs. Studios would monopolize them. Three copper coins go for 30 yuan at present, and one hour of gameplay only equals half an hour in real-time. Just imagine how eager studios would be to snatch such opportunities."

"If studios monopolize the majority of the copper coin production from zombie NPC quests, the price of copper coins wouldn't be just 10 yuan each," Zheng Qingyue explained.

"That's right, they would definitely drive up the prices," Jia Luo agreed with a nod.

Yang Ying got slightly befuddled the more she listened… Should she be happy that there weren't that many players and celebrated the fact that she could work as a manual laborer in the game?

"Seems like playing games isn't as simple as it appears, huh," a player who was also doing the same quest as them couldn't help but speak up after listening for some time.

"Yeah… um?" Jia Luo turned to look at the player who had been silently laying bricks. "Ji Tang? I haven't seen that ID before."

The player with the ID Ji Tang displayed above his head and wearing only beginner gear without a waist pouched gave Jia Luo a friendly smile. "Hello, I'm a newcomer who just logged into the game today."

"What the hell! Watch where you are going!" A group of players heading to log out at the spawn point were nearly knocked into and shouted out.

"Are you a 'nepo'?" Zheng Qingyue asked curiously. "Do you know someone from the development team?"

"Um… I don't know anyone. This helmet was given to me by someone, and I have no idea how it came about," Ji Tang replied calmly.

Upon hearing the word "given," Yang Ying scrutinized the new player with curiosity. Although Yang Ying was a gaming newbie, she had been playing for quite a few days and had also spent time browsing the forum.

Besides five-figure sums offered to purchase unbound helmets, there was also a trend of people queuing up to be the first to get helmets… This actually made Yang Ying nervous deep down. She had messaged her younger brother via social media several times, asking if the helmet he had given her would cause dissatisfaction among others or result in him being fined.

Because her own helmet was a gift from her brother, and even though Ji Tang had denied it, Yang Ying subconsciously regarded this new player as a fellow "nepo"—meaning someone related to personnel on the game development team, like a relative or friend.

"Have you played games before?" Yang Ying, feeling a sense of camaraderie, took the initiative to strike up a conversation with Ji Tang.

"I played before I enlisted," Ji Tang replied in earnest.

"Oh, so you've served in the military?" Now Jia Luo was also interested. She sized up the player and specifically viewed the wall in front of him. "Speaking of which, you have a certain military air, and you've built this wall quite well."

"I'm from the countryside, and my family's financial situation wasn't great. During vacations while I was studying, I would work on construction sites. I also helped relatives and neighbors with house construction and expansion," Ji Tang explained, slightly embarrassed.

Ji Tang's voice sounded very young, and in general, it was quite difficult for a young male to admit to a group of young ladies he had just met that his family's financial conditions weren't good. Most people couldn't help but succumb to vanity and boast or embellish their own image. However, Ji Tang's honesty quickly gained the favor of several female players, and they included him in their conversation.

Ji Tang, who mustered up the courage to join the conversations after listening quietly for a while, secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

It could be said that he had accomplished his initial task of infiltrating the inner circle of players.