The players [Loves Fried Rice with Egg] and [Better Off Stir-Fried Rice Noodles] were laughing as they walked off together, chatting animatedly.
Liang Chuan, standing nearby, was completely baffled.
Wait a second… Players were already making money off this game?
And what was this "Trading Platform" they mentioned?
What on earth were "Credit Points"?
He suddenly felt like a total rookie.
So, he tossed those questions at the system.
The response came almost instantly.
System: [The Trading Platform is the official marketplace of "Genshin: Initiate."
Credit Points are the currency used on the platform.
Since players come from various parallel versions of Blue Star, real-world currencies can be exchanged for Credit Points to enable fair trading.
The exchange rate is determined based on the purchasing power of each player's home world.
Credit Points can also be refunded back into cash at the same rate.
In addition, for every trade made on the platform, a 5% Credit Point fee will be deposited into your account.
You can also use Credit Points to purchase items listed by other players.]
"Damn, this system's really professional!
While I was asleep, it basically set up a cross-universal auction house and currency exchange system…"
Muttering to himself, Liang Chuan opened the Trading Platform to take a look.
A massive number of listings had already appeared.
Boar Meat, Sweet Flowers, Mint, Dragon Meat Palms, Sunfire Chrysanthemums…
Anything edible was going for sky-high prices.
There were even player-crafted items like [Wooden Armor], [Dull Sword], and [Basic Control Collar] for sale.
Those pieces of equipment and tools were priced fairly reasonably—
but the most absurdly expensive item by far was Bioenergy—used for player resurrection.
At that moment, 1 unit of Bioenergy was selling for 1,000 Credit Points,
and even then, it was sold out the instant it was listed.
Liang Chuan couldn't help but sigh.
Clearly, quite a few of these players were loaded.
Ding!
System: [Bioenergy Terminal has met the upgrade requirements!
You can now upgrade the Bioenergy Terminal to Level 2!]
Hearing the prompt in his head, Liang Chuan quickly opened up the terminal's data panel.
[Terminal Upgrade Requirements]
Bioenergy Converted: 1000 (Progress: 5500 / 1000)
Upgrade Materials: Wood ×100, Stone ×100, Metal ×100
(Current stockpile: Wood ×213, Stone ×198, Metal ×100)
"Looks like while I was resting, quite a few players worked on base upgrade missions and gathered a ton of materials."
Satisfied, Liang Chuan nodded and immediately confirmed the upgrade.
A pleasant rising chime echoed throughout the outpost, audible to every player.
Moments later, shouts of excitement erupted—
"Holy crap! I donated 50 units of wood and got 500 EXP! Plus 50 silver coins as a reward!"
"I handed in 20 stones—400 EXP! 40 silver coins!"
"Ha! I nearly blistered my hands mining 10 metals, and it gave me 1000 EXP and 1 gold coin! Leveled up three times instantly!"
The news spread fast.
Players who hadn't contributed anything instantly regretted it.
Wood, stone, and metal—most players had plenty, but they'd hoarded them instead of joining the upgrade mission.
Now, seeing those juicy rewards, they realized the truth:
doing missions was the real way to level fast and earn currency!
One after another, they rushed to dump all their materials, piling them into a small hill outside the [Wooden Shelter].
Even Liang Chuan was stunned by the scale of the mission rewards.
Turning in some basic materials for that much EXP and money?
Given that players only got 1% EXP per monster kill…
to earn 1,000 EXP, they'd have to slaughter a thousand Abyss Hilichurls!
"Wait a minute—if they're all getting that much EXP… where's my 99% cut?"
He quickly asked the system.
System: [Mission rewards are issued directly by the system and are not included in the Host's share.]
"…Right."
Liang Chuan gave an awkward chuckle.
Fair enough.
He was the one posting the missions, but the rewards came from the system.
He was already getting player resources basically for free.
And now he still wanted a share of their mission rewards?
That was just wishful thinking!
Once the Bioenergy Terminal finished upgrading to Level 2,
a new flood of data appeared in Liang Chuan's mind.
[Bioenergy Terminal]
Level: 2
Conversion Efficiency: 20%
Stored Bioenergy: 1350
Players Summoned: 505
Players Alive: 500
Bioenergy Needed to Summon a Level 1 Player: 10
[Next Upgrade Requirements]
Bioenergy Conversion: 10,000 (Progress: 5500 / 10,000)
Materials: Wood ×500, Stone ×500, Metal ×500, Chaos Device ×100
Upgrade Effects:
Conversion Efficiency: 20% → 30%
Can construct up to 3 player bodies simultaneously
Can create a third Bioenergy Terminal
"Well, the next upgrade mission's doable—only need 4500 more Bioenergy.
But the materials… that's the tough part. Not just wood, stone, and metal anymore—now we need 100 Chaos Devices."
Those dropped only from Ruin Guards and Ruin Hunters—
autonomous combat machines that would massacre the current player base.
"With how weak the players are now, fighting those things is just suicide.
Even Xiao Bao wouldn't need to transform—he could wipe them out with a few rockets."
Liang Chuan sighed, frowning.
"Looks like I'll have to wait until this batch of players gets a major power boost before I can think about upgrading the Bioenergy Terminal to Level 3.
For now, I should focus on getting everything that can be improved at Tier Two done first."
Visit my patreon for more chapters
Advance 30+ Chapters Available
patreon.com/WhiteDevil7554