170: Chapter 170: A Guessing Game? Benefits for All Players

The Dragon Domain front line was still in the heat of battle.

The outskirts of Black Wind Valley were ablaze with light, and the popularity of the world channel remained consistently high.

Players were showing off their points and Dragon Crystals while flooding the chat with "Boss Lin Zhe is awesome" and "Lord Lin Chen is the eternal god."

In the meeting room of the Official Operations Department, Zhou Ming stared at the backend data until his eyes nearly turned green with envy.

"The popularity is too high."

"The live stream viewership is constantly exploding."

"Player discussion volume is also through the roof."

"In a time like this, not running an event would be a massive loss."

Several planners nearby nodded in quick succession.

"Manager Zhou, we stayed up all night and came up with a plan."

"The Rebellion Suppression Betting Event."

"We'll let players bet on how many days it will take for the rebellion to end, and also guess how many rebel leaders and elite mobs will be killed during this suppression."

"Bets will be made using maple coins. It gives them a sense of participation and drives revenue."

Zhou Ming's eyes lit up. "And the rewards?"

A planner hurried to project the plan onto the light screen.

"Players who guess correctly will be rewarded with bound copper coins and a commemorative title voucher."

"The amount of bound copper coins isn't high; it's mainly just for the fun of it."

"As for the maple coin revenue..."

The person coughed and said cautiously, "The majority goes into the official event pool."

"We just need to leave a little sweetener for the players."

Zhou Ming stared at the plan, finding it more and more pleasing to the eye.

Good grief.

The popularity came from Lin Zhe.

The bets came from the players.

And the money went to the officials.

This event would be a gold mine.

He slapped the table. "Send it to Lord Lin Chen for review."

As soon as he said that, the room went quiet for a moment.

They all knew.

If the officials wanted to launch any event now, it had to pass through the hands of that little ancestor in Falling Maple.

But Zhou Ming gritted his teeth anyway. "Send it! This is a betting event, it's not too exploitative. It should pass."

Ten minutes later.

On a hill in Luofeng Village.

Lin Chen was holding a Spirit Honey Cake, with a rules screen floating in front of him.

He scanned the planning proposal sent by the officials, and his small face immediately turned cold.

"Betting the players' money."

"Giving the players a few measly copper coins."

"And you take the rest?"

"You sure are dreaming."

Beside him, Lin Yueyao blinked. "Bad officials."

"Yeah, bad."

Lin Chen raised his small hand.

Snap!

The entire proposal was rejected on the spot.

In the official meeting room, the screen in front of Zhou Ming suddenly turned red.

[Review Rejected]

[Reason for Rejection: Too greedy]

Zhou Ming's mouth twitched violently.

The next second, a newly modified draft of the rules was sent back.

Lin Chen's childish voice played simultaneously.

"Listen up."

"You can have the betting event."

"But I'm changing the rules."

On the screen, new clauses lit up one by one.

"First, all maple coins bet by players will enter the prize pool."

"Second, 90% of the prize pool will be rewarded to the winning players."

"Third, the remaining 10% will go into the Luofeng Public Account to continue providing benefits to all players on the server."

"Fourth, those who win will receive additional Dragon Crystal fragments on top of their share of the prize pool."

"Fifth, the officials are responsible for covering any deficit."

"If there's a loss, the officials make up for it."

"If there's a profit, you only take the operating costs."

"Do you understand?"

In the meeting room, the group of planners was dumbfounded.

Zhou Ming's eyelids twitched even more frantically.

90% to the players?

10% to the Luofeng Public Account?

Officials covering the deficit?

How the hell are we supposed to make money then!

Isn't this just working for the players for free!

His face was almost frozen as he forced himself to speak: "Lord Lin Chen, if we do this... the official profit will be almost zero."

Lin Chen nibbled on his Spirit Honey Cake. His voice was soft and sweet, but his words were anything but.

"If there's none, then there's none."

"The event's popularity was built by my dad's fighting. Why should you get the players' money for nothing?"

"If you want to launch it, follow this."

"If you don't want to launch it, I'll start it myself."

As the last sentence fell.

A chill ran down Zhou Ming's spine.

Start it himself?

If Lin Chen really started it himself, the officials wouldn't even get a crumb of this event's participation.

He gritted his teeth and squeezed out a smile that looked worse than crying. "Launch it! Launch it according to Lord Lin Chen's rules!"

He had no choice.

He didn't dare refuse.

Soon, a server-wide announcement popped up.

[Server-wide Betting Event: Dragon Domain Rebellion Suppression Betting is officially open!]

[Betting Content: Suppression completion time range, key battle outcome range]

[How to Participate: Consume maple coins to place bets]

[Event Rules: All maple coins bet will enter the prize pool; 90% rewarded to winning players, 10% injected into the Luofeng Public Account]

[Additional Rewards: Winning players can receive Dragon Crystal fragment rewards]

[The officials assume the responsibility for covering any event deficit]

As soon as the announcement came out.

The world channel went silent for a second.

Then it completely exploded.

"Holy crap? 90% of the prize pool returned to players?"

"Has the official department changed its ways?"

"Changed its ways my ass, it's obvious Lord Lin Chen modified it!"

"Winning also gives Dragon Crystal fragments? I'm in!"

"Who wouldn't participate in this event?"

The players went wild instantly.

Originally, many people were afraid the officials would pull some stingy and deceptive betting scheme.

But once they saw the rules.

Good grief.

This wasn't shearing the sheep.

This was openly giving out welfare.

In Holy Light City, Luofeng Village, and the Black Wind Valley camp, betting discussions were everywhere.

"I'm betting on within seven days!"

"I'm betting even faster. With Boss Lin Zhe's advancement speed, it doesn't look like he's taking it slow at all."

"Stop talking and place your bets first!"

Once the betting panel opened, the maple coin numbers jumped up frantically.

One million.

Five million.

Ten million.

Thirty million.

By that night, it had directly surpassed fifty million maple coins!

The official backend was dumbstruck.

A technician's voice trembled: "Manager Zhou, the betting volume is too fierce. The prize pool's starting capital isn't enough to balance the fluctuations..."

Zhou Ming's face darkened. "How much are we short?"

"We need at least another million maple coins, otherwise the event pool will easily become unbalanced in the early stages."

Dead silence filled the meeting room.

One million.

And the officials had to pay for it themselves.

Zhou Ming's heart was bleeding as he gritted his teeth and slapped the table.

"Fill it!"

"What else can we do but fill it!"

So, the officials tearfully added a million maple coins in starting capital to the event prize pool.

When the news spread, the players laughed their heads off.

"Hahaha, the officials are actually using their own money to pad the prize pool for us?"

"I get it now, the officials really are the Lin family's errand boys."

"Follow the Lin family, and there's always meat to eat!"

"Lord Lin Chen is so generous. The officials wanted to profit, but he forced them to spit it all back to the players!"

On the hill in Luofeng Village, Lin Chen watched the steadily rising number of participants and swung his little legs with satisfaction.

"Now this is what an event should look like."

"It's only useful if the players are happy."

Lin Yueyao held her scepter and nodded obediently. "Big brother is the best."

On the other side, Zhou Ming watched the notification on the backend [Official has injected 1,000,000 maple coins in starting capital], his mouth twitching incessantly.

He wanted to make a profit.

Instead, he lost a million right off the bat.

But no matter how unhappy he was, he could only honestly monitor the event's operation, not daring to say a word.

Because now the whole server knew.

The events released by the officials weren't decided by the officials.

They were decided by the Lin family.

Whoever wanted to keep all the benefits for themselves...

...would have to get their teeth knocked out first.