Chapter 62 - 062 Polar Reversal
Lin Bai ignored Dumbelldore and turned to the young waiter. "Little Wu, starting from today, double the prices of all dishes in the shop."
The waiter stared in shock. "Boss, isn’t that too expensive? Our prices are already higher than others. Now, all the restaurants in the city offer similar cuisines. We don’t have many customers to begin with. If we raise the prices even higher, no one will come."
"It’s fine. Go ahead and raise the prices. Ordinary people won’t come to our restaurant anyway. Those who are willing to come eat here won’t mind spending a bit more," Lin Bai said. The second batch of closed beta players had unlocked the top-up function. These lucky individuals, who could stream live while playing and earn money, would surely not be stingy when spending in the game. When the number of players was small, the impact might not be significant. However, once a large number of players flooded in, there would inevitably be many ’whale’ players. This massive influx of external capital would definitely impact the existing prices in this world. The NPCs in the game weren’t unintelligent. They might not realize this at first, but given enough time, prices would certainly rise. He who raises prices first, benefits first. Besides, his was an internet-famous shop. If he didn’t seize the opportunity to fleece them now, he’d never get another chance once the hype died down. After leaving Jiamucheng, there would be no shortage of places to spend money. The influx of players was bound to bring countless social problems and who knew how many novel ideas. Raising funds might not be so easy then, so accumulating more wealth in advance was always a good idea.
"..." Dumbelldore gazed at Lin Bai in surprise. Recalling the game company’s response, he suddenly had a strange feeling. The bug on Lin Bai wasn’t a bug at all; it was deliberately orchestrated by the game company to create a virtual star and fleece money from fans like them! The implications, upon deeper reflection, were terrifying!
While Lin Bai was planning ahead, arranging for the price hike in his shop, the second group of players who chose Jiamucheng as their Novice Village also faced their first major setback in life.
「At the Blacksmith Shop.」
"Master, I want to learn a craft from you." A player named Artifact Refining Master knocked on the door, interrupting Zhang Shutang who was swinging a large hammer, and said confidently.
"Pay five taels of Silver first. Food and lodging are not included," Zhang Shutang straightened his back, glanced at the player before him, and spoke coldly.
"..." The smile froze on Artifact Refining Master’s face. Following the advice from the forum, he said, "Master, I know two flame methods for refining gold..."
"If you don’t pay, turn right and leave. If I don’t accept you, no other place will either," Zhang Shutang snorted. A lesson learned is a lesson earned. Dumbelldore’s betrayal had deeply hurt him, and having been influenced by Lin Bai through constant exposure, Blacksmith Zhang had long since learned how to deal with these exceptionally talented geniuses. The most fundamental point was not to treat them as human. Collect the money first. Even if they betrayed him later, he wouldn’t be too heartbroken. What master and disciple? In the end, it was all just business. Since Lin Bai’s arrival, strange things had been happening frequently in Jiamucheng, and the rate at which ’geniuses’ appeared seemed a bit too high. Once geniuses became plentiful, they were no longer valuable.
The same situation had occurred in the Zhang Family Punch Palace, Mo’s Sword Gym, and the Wu Blade House.