Chapter 56: Chapter 56: Open the Door, Food Delivery!
Wu Chang didn’t change his own nickname, but rather the nickname of the clone in Shadow-Facing Face.
The clone has all the player’s permissions, which naturally includes having an independent nickname.
As part of him, he can freely choose which nickname to display on the leaderboard.
After being reminded by Divine Tongue and the fluctuation of killing intent, he checked the forum and found out that it wasn’t unprecedented for players at the top of the leaderboard to use nicknames for advertising.
However, those who used to do such things were players ranked in the top ten of small leaderboards, such as the proficiency rank for Life Skills.
The leaderboards where ranks were fought for through sheer strength are occupied by core players of major forces and don’t need such methods to earn money.
Especially the speedrun leaderboard, it’s the one that showcases individual ability the most, and no one has used it for advertising yet.
The advertising spot in the top ten of a small leaderboard costs ten thousand Rotten Silver Coins per period.
In Abyssal Game, a period refers to the shortest cooldown time of a dungeon, which is fifteen days.
The leaderboard Wu Chang is on is certainly more valuable, but how much more exactly, he couldn’t estimate for now, so he just filled in twenty thousand for starters.
A leaderboard’s top spot for twenty thousand.
He underestimated the allure of being at the top of the speedrun leaderboard, or rather, underestimated his own popularity.
Less than a minute after changing the nickname, his registered temporary mailbox showed 99+ new messages.
After filtering out various solicitations from forces and messages that weren’t about advertising but rather about collaboration, he finally filtered down to a contract.
Ten minutes later, the top spot on the C-Level and B-Level speedrun leaderboards was renamed to:
"Brocade Chamber of Commerce buys dungeon-produced antiques at a high price."
Before changing the nickname for the clone, Wu Chang made sure to learn a bit about the sponsor.
Brocade Chamber of Commerce is a commercial alliance, belonging to the second-tier forces. They’re purely a commercial organization, doing everything purely for money.
For instance, the advertisement they’re running now is for their high-end customer service.
Although Abyssal Game is independent of Blue Star, it hasn’t escaped Blue Star’s influence.
The appearance of the 1 Rotten Silver Coin to 1000 yuan exchange rate indicates that quite a few people are willing to exchange the Rotten Silver Coins they earn from desperate work for real-world currency.
Despite every player knowing that Abyssal Game is a platform to change destiny, and that every Rotten Silver Coin is extremely precious,
faced with real challenges, many players have no choice but to make a decision.
The tradeability of Rotten Silver Coins quickly made wealthy players in reality wealthy in the game as well.
When they have so many Rotten Silver Coins they can’t spend them all, they’ll seek something different.
Like antiques and artworks from another world that can be brought back to reality.
To meet the needs of this class, Abyssal Game has even spawned a profession, the Art Appraiser.
They appraise the antiques produced in the dungeons, testing how high Inspiration needs to be to appreciate the beauty of a particular antique or artwork, and use this to determine rarity.
Many high-Inspiration artworks can auction for tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands, of Rotten Silver Coins.
Spending tens of thousands of Rotten Silver Coins on an antique or artwork that doesn’t increase combat power sounds absurd, but when exchanged, it’s only a few tens of millions of Chinese yuan.
Compared to their real-world counterparts that auction for over a hundred million but don’t possess any extraordinary features, the items produced in dungeons are far superior both artistically and in rarity.
When other billionaires host private exhibitions with a 600 million yuan "Sunflower," and you present a dungeon-produced "Old Sunflower"; when others show an 800 million yuan "Scream," and you present a dungeon-produced "Cry of the Ancient God," wouldn’t this be a dimensional reduction strike?
Whether they’d go mad after seeing it is another story, but in terms of showcase, the arrangement is clear.
Calculated thus, the cost-effectiveness of dungeon artwork skyrockets.
Ding-dong ding-dong.
With the clinking of metal coins, Wu Chang’s account increased by forty thousand Rotten Silver Coins.
If all goes well, in half a month, he’d have another forty thousand Rotten Silver Coins credited.
It’s a shame the lowest-level clearing leaderboard can’t be selectively muted; choosing personal information would reveal the level at which the dungeon was cleared.
He didn’t want to expose too much information and risk people digging into his background; otherwise, selling all four leaderboards, even with a buy-three-get-one-free offer, he could earn tens of thousands a month in Abyssal Game.
Looking at the balance in his account, he jubilantly punched the air.
This was the money-making avenue he had been looking for.
If traffic can be monetized, who would still laboriously be a Life System player running a small physical stall?
But then he thought, while he’s still converting the traffic he fought hard to gain into Rotten Silver Coins, the clients behind the sponsors were already starting to indulge in Abyssal Game, and he wasn’t as happy anymore.
He clicked his tongue, vowing that if he had the chance in the future, he’d have to find an antique lamppost from the dungeon and sell it to Brocade Chamber of Commerce.
With the credit of Rotten Silver Coins, he first spent eight thousand to upgrade Thunder Skill Fragment to D-Level.
Then he began browsing armor and potions.
Given Abyssal Game’s attention on him, the next dungeon probably wouldn’t be easy.
Although the D-Level Earth Lizard Hide Armor was cost-effective, it wasn’t strong enough anymore; he needed to custom-make a set of more effective armor.
With more Energy points in Attributes, in addition to health recovery potions, he also needed to buy Energy recovery potions.
Roughly calculating, he realized there weren’t many Rotten Silver Coins left of the money that just came in.
The fluctuation of killing intent and Divine Tongue weren’t wrong; it’s indeed difficult for a lone wolf player.
Leaving the Crimson Courtyard, his consciousness returned to reality.
Wu Chang was preparing to pack up and check out when he suddenly heard a knock at the door.
"Is anyone there?" A cheerful voice sounded at the door.
Wu Chang asked, "Who is it?"
"Delivery from ’Have You Eaten?’, please open the door to receive your order."
Wu Chang squinted his eyes, leaning slightly forward with vigilance, looking toward the door.
He did order a delivery, but ’Have You Eaten?’ deliveries are usually placed directly at the front desk of the hotel.
Moreover, he had an ominous feeling about the person outside.
The person pretending to be the delivery guy outside was strong, likely also a player of Abyssal Game, and they were coming for him.
When was his identity exposed?
Was it the email from Brocade Chamber of Commerce?
It didn’t make sense; inside was a standardized contract; upon signing, the nickname change and the credit of Rotten Silver Coins would be automatically completed under the manipulation of Abyssal Game.
Could it be...
He suddenly thought of a possibility, relaxing his tensed body, pretending he hadn’t noticed anything, and shouted:
"Just a moment!"
Jogging to the door, he opened it to find two unfamiliar men, not the delivery guy from ’Have You Eaten?’
The one standing in front and knocking was a baby-faced young man, about the same age as Wu Chang, clearly a fresh graduate.
Behind the young man stood a middle-aged man around thirty-five or thirty-six, slightly built, with a buzz cut, strategically positioned to block the escape route from the e-sports hotel.
Wu Chang frowned and asked, "Who are you two?"
The baby-faced man took out a police badge, smiling innocently, and said:
"We’re from the criminal investigation team of Wanghai Headquarter. Half a month ago, you heroically stopped a criminal on the Route 17 bus at Nanshi Station, correct?"
Wu Chang nodded, "Yes."
"We’d like to invite you back with us to make a statement."
Wu Chang was silent for a moment, then asked, "Are you really detectives?"
The baby-faced man smiled and said, "Your anti-fraud awareness is quite strong. This is my badge number; you can call to verify on the spot."
"No, what I mean is, it took you this long to come to me for a statement about something that happened half a month ago. Isn’t your efficiency a bit low?"
As soon as Wu Chang said this, the baby-faced man and the buzz-cut middle-aged man fell silent.
The baby-faced man opened his mouth, unsure how to explain, and looked imploringly at the middle-aged man.
The moderately thick-skinned middle-aged man braced himself and said, "The bureau was busy with work lately, and we believed you weren’t a bad person, so we delayed it for a while."
This was actually true.
As soon as Bloodthorn had been delivered to the police station by enthusiastic citizens, they had to evacuate the whole city due to an earthquake alert before they could record anything.
For a long time afterward, they were busy wrapping up the work from that day, running around frantically.
It wasn’t until a few days ago when the hospital confirmed they couldn’t wake Bloodthorn that they called the police to visit, reminding them of the incident.
Wu Chang shrugged, taking charge unexpectedly, "In that case, let’s hurry up and go."
The baby-faced man and the middle-aged man exchanged a glance, following Wu Chang downstairs.
Arriving at their car, Wu Chang opened the door and sat in the back seat on his own, while the baby-faced man sat in the driver’s seat, and the buzz-cut middle-aged man joined Wu Chang in the back.
As the car drove smoothly, they soon saw Wanghai Headquarter, yet the car didn’t stop and continued forward.
The middle-aged man wanted to say something but noticing Wu Chang’s usual expression without any doubt or surprise, he remained silent.
The car made a few turns, finally stopping at the entrance of a members-only fighting club.
The three got out of the car, the baby-faced man used facial recognition to unlock the door, led Wu Chang into the club, and then turned to him, saying:
"Welcome to the Anomalous Phenomena Management Bureau."