63: Chapter 63 Adding Monsters; Tang Yao's Abnormality

Outside the Main God Space, it was pitch black in every direction, an endless, sight-swallowing darkness.

And within this darkness.

A faint touch of yellow appeared.

At first, it was somewhat hazy, but soon, this yellow solidified into chaotic and dense yellow soil.

Chen Mo calculated his balance and stingily pulled out a few mountain ranges, dotting them with a few trees with sparse branches...

Looking from afar, this newly born yellow earth wasteland bordering Xiao Huang Village was truly pitifully desolate.

But there was no helping it.

Given his current budget, it couldn't compare at all to when he created Xiao Huang Village.

Every little bit saved counted.

Yet, even in such dire straits, he chose to expand the game map instead of recruiting players. This, it turned out, was inextricably linked to Tang Yao.

Tang Yao's gaming experience over the past few days had shown him a critical problem with Fantasy Jianghu—the currency recovery mechanism was extremely imperfect.

In other words... there were no pay-to-win sinks, and it couldn't stimulate the players' desire to spend!

Taking Tang Yao as an example, she clearly had strong purchasing power, but she just wouldn't spend; she kept hoarding the fantasy points she earned.

If she hadn't happened to be interested in a house, who knew how long she would have kept saving.

Given her personality, she might have saved up two or three thousand.

And Chen Mo, as the Main God, would likely only be able to watch this unusable pile of main god points with tears in his eyes when an otherworldly invasion occurred.

It truly lived up to the saying, "Money unspent, person gone."

Therefore, Chen Mo made up his mind. The top priority right now must be to perfect the game content—

Increase currency consumption points, stimulate consumption, boost development, and strive to make every player spend what they have in hand, cultivating a spirit of daring to spend and being willing to spend!

And after much thought, the most effective method was, of course, to let players leave the village to fight monsters.

Grinding monsters for loot—this was undoubtedly something most players were interested in.

However, the treasures on the monsters, and the monsters themselves, all required main god points to create.

It was equivalent to Chen Mo losing a sum of main god points every time a player killed a monster... This kind of losing business definitely couldn't be done.

Then, the cost for players to fight monsters had to be increased.

For example... equipment wear, potion consumption, time loss...

So, one thing was certain: the monsters had to be strong.

As for exactly how strong, that was an art form.

If they were ridiculously strong, players would die the moment they met them, spending fantasy points for Resurrection, only to stand up and die again... This might seem like it could Harvest a sum of main god points, but once the players died a few times, they would just walk around the monsters.

Moreover, such meaningless deaths would never allow players to improve.

...

Chen Mo had thought about these things long ago. Now, organizing them in his mind, he already knew what to do. The only problem was... the budget was really a bit low.

Fortunately, ordinary monsters only needed to be endowed with combat instincts, without adding too much intelligence. Correspondingly, the required main god points were much less than for the villagers of Xiao Huang Village.

So, Chen Mo, pinching his main god points, managed to perfect the monsters as well.

What remained to be done was to wait.

Wait for the first meeting between players and monsters.

---

As soon as Hu Gualing entered the game, he appeared in the smithy.

Wang Dachui, who was forging iron, saw him and shouted, "You're finally here! Come over and give me a hand!"

"Wait a moment, I'm going to look around first!"

Hu Gualing tossed this sentence over his shoulder and strode outside.

Just as he stepped out of the courtyard gate, he heard quite a commotion. Looking in the direction of the sound, he saw a cloud of dust rising in the distance.

He had originally intended to check out Xiao Niao's Trading House, but seeing this commotion, he couldn't help but walk over.

Upon getting closer, he discovered it was Tang Yao leading a group of people building a house.

The house already had a wooden frame assembled.

At this moment, Tang Yao was carrying a bucket of mud, mixing it with straw... plastering it onto the gaps in the wooden boards, while a piglet named "Sharp Tooth" was running around in circles behind her.

Hu Gualing walked up, "Is there anything I can help with?"

Tang Yao turned her head to glance at him, then continued plastering the wall as she said, "You didn't accept the quest, so you won't get paid for the work. Go do your forging; I'm waiting for my sword."

Hu Gualing couldn't help but scratch his head... The matter of forging the sword was likely still a long way off.

With a guilty conscience, he looked uncomfortably at the house under construction... It was really quite large; no wonder just buying the land cost one hundred taels of silver.

What a waste, though.

With so much silver, it would be better to improve one's own strength. Maybe she could even go out of the village to fight a BOSS; she could have paid for the cost of several houses with that money!

Moreover, a house could only be lived in within the game, while improving strength could affect reality...

Hu Gualing thought of this and suddenly felt something was wrong.

Could it be that Tang Yao didn't know the secret of this game? Otherwise, why would she waste money on buying land and building a house?

But theoretically, she had so many fantasy points, which clearly meant she had been playing Fantasy Jianghu for quite a while; there was no reason she wouldn't have discovered the unusual nature of this game.

Then...

Hu Gualing realized, a bit belatedly, that something was very wrong.

He tentatively asked, "Have you been watching the news..."

Tang Yao naturally shook her head.

Hu Gualing continued to ask, "Then... do you scroll through short videos or chat online?"

Tang Yao stopped what she was doing and turned her head curiously, "What's wrong? Did something big happen?"

Meeting Tang Yao's innocent and curious gaze, Hu Gualing's expression became somewhat unnatural, "No, nothing big. I'll go practice my forging now..."

"Alright, good luck." Tang Yao was immersed in the joy of building her house and didn't notice Hu Gualing's abnormality, turning back to continue plastering the wall.

Hu Gualing turned and walked away. He hadn't gone two steps when he suddenly heard Tang Yao's voice from behind— "Oh, right..." It startled him so much he stumbled and nearly fell.

Listening carefully, it turned out Tang Yao had remembered something and said casually, "I've built the house now, so I should have more money to spare in the future. If you're short on money, you can borrow from me."

"Good, good, thank you so much." Hu Gualing mumbled a perfunctory reply and hurried away from the place.

Something was wrong; this Tang Yao was nine-tenths suspicious.

He had clearly been on the trending headlines, and even the person in charge at Nadi had called him personally.

Even if Tang Yao hadn't watched the video and didn't know his appearance, she should at least have heard the name "Hu Gualing".

But looking at her reaction, it seemed like she was completely unaware of this matter...

Hu Gualing thought for a long time but couldn't figure it out, so he could only keep this matter in his mind.

Fortunately, Tang Yao didn't seem to have any malice toward him; on the contrary, she was very friendly, so he probably didn't need to worry too much.

However, he still needed to figure out her specific situation as soon as possible, otherwise, he would never feel at ease...

Thinking this, Hu Gualing walked toward Xiao Niao's Trading House.