Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

Chapter 839: Chapter 798: The Ultimate Sucker?

When buying Copper Coins, Shuihua assumed it was just a method for Cloud Dream to milk money from the pay-to-win players and didn’t think much of it.

But now seeing a whole row of five-star spirit beasts in the exchange, all priced in Cloud Dream Points, she realized these goods were all cash transactions.

Though it wasn’t a direct purchase of virtual items with Daxia dollars, it was a roundabout way. First, you need to recharge your Daxia dollars into [Cloud Dream Points], then make transactions.

However, fundamentally speaking, the fact that cash transactions were happening hadn’t changed.

[Cloud Dream Points] could always be cashed out, and not just in Daxia – in almost all countries with stable financial systems, Cloud Dream Points can be cashed out into national currencies.

To some extent, it was even more reliable than many sovereign currencies.

And Lincoln intentionally added the transfer of [Cloud Dream Points] to protect the benefits of the players and avoid transaction risks – for example, a situation where a player sells an item and receives money, only to find their bank card frozen the next day.

Of course, Cloud Dream didn’t set up this exchange for free: Cloud Dream would charge a transaction fee for every transaction.

The cash transaction would take 5% commission, while Copper Coin transactions would take 10%.

The commission from cash transactions could create revenue for Cloud Dream, this goes without saying.

The commission from Copper Coin transactions, however, could recollect Copper Coins, preventing inflation within the game.

As for the 1 million Copper Coins available on the exchange, compared to what the players consumed, it’s negligible.

— Even though “Pokémon” has only just started in Daxia and a few surrounding countries, it still managed to achieve impressive data of 3.4 million active players on a workday. The Copper Coins they consumed in transaction fees easily exceeded the 1 million available, not to mention once the game fully rolls out.

Go to 𝗈𝘃𝕘𝘰.co

Confidence in reaching 10 million players not only comes from the confidence of the development team led by Little Chun, but also is fully believed by the outside media.

After all, the main purpose of these 1 million Copper Coins isn’t to make money, but to add some fun for the players.

However …

“Would there really be a sucker dropping 180k to buy a virtual pet?”

Shuihua’s simple values made it hard for her to accept such an outrageous act.

Really like Blue Phoenix?

Then catch it!

If you can’t catch it, buy a lower-starred one.

Shuihua searched for the prices of lower-star Blue Phoenixes and found that as soon as you drop one star, the price of a four-star Blue Phoenix immediately falls to $6000, and if it’s one-star, the price drops even lower to under $10.

You can even buy it with Copper Coins.

Reasonably speaking, even though a four-star spirit beast priced at $6000 still seems excessively expensive in Shuihua’s eyes.

But since it’s the first day of the server opening, the irrational transactions and the excessive pricing were commonplace, and Shuihua could understand.

Only this particular sum of $180k, she couldn’t wrap her head around.

Even if it were a six-star, with the label of “highest star level,” “use it for a lifetime” and the like, Shuihua could persuade herself to accept it.

But it’s just a five-star!

Why would you do that??

After fretting for quite a while, Shuihua looked at her own four-star Pixiu, her eyes starting to shift –

This creature is worth seven or eight thousand dollars!

Because Pixiu has always symbolized “exorcism, fortune attracting, and luck boosting”, along with its cute appearance, its current price was indeed high.

“What if I found a rich owner for you so that you could enjoy some fortunes too?”

Pixiu shook its head profusely at her suggestion.

Shuihua gave Pixiu’s head a few pats then turned her attention back to the main task at hand –

Purchasing a spirit beast.

As for five-star, it was out of the question. She would never empty her vault for a spirit beast.

Lowering her standard again, there’s the four-star.

The prices at this rank fluctuated a lot.

Yet, even the lowest price started at $3000 — there may be lower priced ones, but they would be snapped up the moment they appeared and would never enter Shuihua’s line of sight.

As it was the first day of the servers going online and the first hour of the exchange opening, there was no official guide price. Everyone just priced their items based on their gut feelings while fearing they’d sell at a loss; hence, they marked their prices as high as possible.

After looking around, Shuihua still felt whoever bought was a sucker.

Lowering her standards again to a three-star.

The price dropped another decimal place to a few hundred dollars each.

Finally at this price range, Shuihua reluctantly accepted and spent $360 to buy a Double-eyed White Feather Bird to add to her collection.

Even so, after the transaction, she felt a pinch for quite some time.

But watching the Double-eyed White Feather Bird flying up and down in her bedroom, she felt it was not too much of a loss.

At the same time, she also sort of understood the value of having this cash trading market launched by Cloud Dream –

There were many players like her, who, due to studies or work, didn’t have time to run around outside to personally catch spirit beasts, especially the ones they liked.

The existence of the exchange allowed busy players to have their favorite spirit pets.

— Of course not now, but after waiting a few days, waiting for the market sentiment to cool down and the spirit beast prices to return to a rational level.

Even if she didn’t have time to use it for battles, she could still take it to work like a real pet, making full use of the companionship value of “Pokémon”.

It’s a win-win!

The last regret for Shuihua was: she was not able to buy Zou Wu in the Exchange.

The little creature was truly adorable, and she really wanted to have it.

However, the conditions for Zou Wu to appear were harsh. It only spawns when players reach a milestone of 10 kilometers. If you failed to catch it, it would reappear after another 5 kilometers. If it was captured, it would only spawn again after another 10 kilometers.

That led to hardly ever meeting Zou Wu for many players. And for those who met it, they mostly just had one and wouldn’t easily sell it, making the number of listings very few.

Shuihua didn’t manage to see one, at any rate.

— Although she might not buy it even if she saw one…

Each person could only get one “Mountain and Sea Scroll”. One must personally capture Zou Wu to get it, so she definitely wanted to catch one by herself.

Under this circumstance, if Zou Wu was priced too high, she definitely wouldn’t buy it.

Without the “Mountain and Sea Scroll”, the idea of buying low-star spirit beasts to create high-star ones and sell them, then use the money to buy other high-level spirit beasts, was unable to be executed.

With this thought, Shuihua lowered her head to look at the homework on her desk, already half completed. Suddenly, she shut her textbook and stood up.

She may as well go for a night run!

She should first meet her exercise goal of 10 kilometers!

Before closing the Exchange, she looked up the extravagantly priced Blue Phoenix worth 180,000 out of curiosity.

But to her shock—

It’s gone!

Did the seller remove it?

Or was it… purchased by someone?

Did an extreme big spender actually show up!?

Shuihua blinked, then searched again for the golden toad priced at 30,000.

And it, too, turned out to be gone.

“…”

After a few seconds of silence, Shuihua closed the Exchange silently, changed into her sportswear and left her bedroom, going through the living room to change into her running shoes.

“Where are you going at this hour?” Mom asked, peeking out from the kitchen, addressing Shuihua who was about to leave.

“Going for a night run while memorizing vocabulary!” Shuihua answered proudly.

She then waved her phone and left, closing the door behind her.

“Why did this child suddenly start running at night?” Mom was a bit puzzled.

“It’s not a bad thing. It’s better than always staying in the bedroom, just reading or playing games all day.” Dad commented.

“True.” Mom nodded, “I will prepare some juice for her to drink when she gets back.”

…

Shuihua started up the gaming mode of her Eight Sides Headband, warmed up briefly, and started jogging around the complex.

But she quickly noticed, surprisingly: There seemed to be a lot of people jogging at night!

Now it was winter, and normally, no one would be going for night runs at all. But now there were so many people that they had to form a queue in the narrower sections of the path. Many of them didn’t seem to be the type to exercise regularly.

The only thing they all seemed to have in common was that each person’s head was sporting an Eight Sides Headband!

‘These people… don’t tell me they all have the same idea as me?’

Shuihua was a bit stupefied.

After finishing one lap, the number of people hadn’t decreased at all. In fact, it seemed to have increased!

Lance was waiting downstairs and began to run by her side when he saw Shuihua.

Shuihua puzzled, “Are you done with your training for today so early?”

“No, there’s an “Iron Fist” competition tomorrow, so I got the day off to rest today.”

“Why are you running and playing ‘Pokémon’ then? Do you have enough energy?” Shuihua was worried that Lance wouldn’t rest well, which might affect his performance in the competition the next day.

But Lance instinctively raised his voice, replying: “Of course I have enough energy! My physical condition is superior!”

Shuihua nodded unconvinced, “Ok, ok. My physical condition is not as good as yours. I can’t talk while I run. I need to focus on my run.”

“Okay.” Lance agreed, and didn’t say anything more.

The two ran silently side by side.

At this very moment, Chasing Wind opened his live stream room and started showing off the spirit beast he had just acquired to his audience—

The five-star Blue Phoenix!

Worth 180,000!

Currently, the most expensive spirit beast in the whole “Pokémon” game!