Jiang Qiao stood on the obsidian ground, watching the two guilds leave.
Jiang Qiao had watched the entire battle between Cola Mania and Leaping Nuclei, including Mo Shigui's 1v1 challenge and Zhao Mingwei's 1v10.
"As expected, it's still not enough." Jiang Qiao said as he watched the two guilds leave.
"What's not enough?"
Hai Lan was eating a cheeseburger today, the kind with cheese sauce on the bun. Jiang Qiao could see that it was the oily kind.
"The players' reactions, whether it's their consciousness or their physical reactions, are … unable to display the strength they should have right now." Jiang Qiao said.
Before, Jiang Qiao didn't think much of it, but after watching Zhao Mingwei's 1v10 performance, Jiang Qiao's feeling grew stronger and stronger.
Right now, the first tier of players had reached the pinnacle of level 55, but their physical reactions weren't at the level they should have.
Their skills could deal level 55 damage, but their attack speed, movement speed, and battle reaction speed couldn't keep up with the standard of a Holy Ghost.
However, awareness, reflexes, and physical fitness were all things that could be trained in the Holy Ghost Game. Zhao Mingwei was one of the best among them. The other professional players had also greatly improved their reflexes and physical fitness because they practiced PvP for a long time.
But … the PVE players' awareness and reaction speed improved very slowly, because they didn't need to pay attention to the monsters' attack speed.
They didn't need the large monsters, but the Annihilation Legion and other invading enemies were all humanoid monsters.
"So we still need to find some sparring partners?" Jiang Qiao was already thinking about how to play the Inner World.
Jiang Qiao needed to find some NPCs with high combat skills like the Lancers from before to be sparring partners.
"Let's go, Hai Lan." Jiang Qiao said.
"Where to now?" Hai Lan's mouth was full of cheese.
"Time to perfect the Inner World's gameplay. With the players' current construction progress, the Teleportation Gate will be ready in less than two days. The timing is just right."
Jiang Qiao opened the System Book, which displayed a map of the Inner World.
Currently, Jiang Qiao had invested close to 200,000 points of creation energy in the Inner World to build two Inner World regions.
The first area was located in the busiest pedestrian street area in Jiang City. The second area was located in the upper city, which was also the busiest area, the Bund.
These two regions were connected in the Inner World, but there was nothing in the Inner World at this stage.
Apart from that … there was something else.
Jiang Qiao flipped through the pages of the System Book in his hand, and a new line of text appeared on the new page.
'Holy Spirit Fund: 0'
"Also, we should start inviting some members to join our Holy Spirit Fund," Jiang Qiao said as he closed the System Book in his hands.
"Who should we invite?"
"Of course it's the first two guilds to pay our Holy Spirits." Jiang Qiao said.
… …
A day later, in the Viva Nuclei club.
Recently, Boss Yin had been crazily working on Holy Spirit, but apart from that, he was still very concerned about the operations of the company under him.
The Intercontinental Competition's victory brought to the Viva Nuclei club was … the number of advertisers that came over to ask for cooperation increased. Not only that, but the dividends from the Pro League also increased by about 3%.
This 3% was equivalent to about 2 million in income, and it was a long-term income.
However, the majority of the club's income came from the advertisers. Now that the Monarch Descent club had the hottest player, Zhao Mingwei, they were probably tired of accepting so many advertisements, right?
It really made people jealous!
The price that Boss Yin had to pay for recruiting new members in the Holy Spirit Fund was that the club's budget was a little tight. However, they just needed to accept a few more advertisements from the Viva Nuclei club.
The key was how to make money from Holy Spirit. This wasn't the kind of small money that could be earned from farming gold. In the end, they still needed to rely on the guild's operations to turn losses into profits.
Boss Yin had already thought of some methods, but he needed time to put them into practice.
However, just as he was thinking about the future development of the Holy Spirit Guild … an email notification suddenly popped up.
This was a completely unfamiliar email notification, but the name at the beginning of the email caught his attention.
'Invitation from the Holy Spirit Fund.'
Holy Spirit Fund?
What's that?
Boss Yin thought it was some scam email at first, but after clicking it, he discovered that it was … a very exquisitely crafted scam email.
'Viva Nuclei Group Ltd., congratulations on being selected as a partner of the Holy Spirit's offline activities. Please select the store you wish to cooperate with and the format …'
There were still scams that leeched on Holy Spirit's popularity these days?
However, when Boss Yin clicked on the link in the email, he realized that it wasn't as simple as a scam, because this link led to the Holy Spirit's official website, and it was the kind of official website that was officially verified.
He took out his own anti-virus software and scanned his computer, then used various anti-phishing software to test it, but he didn't find any problems.
Could it be true?
Boss Yin began to look at the contents of this webpage … The webpage's background was pitch-black, and a map of the upper city was displayed in the pitch-black background.
Three places in the Bund area of the upper city's map were marked, and Boss Yin was familiar with these three marks — they were the hot pot restaurants under his banner.
Viva Nuclei Group wasn't just an e-sports club. To be precise, the e-sports club was something that Boss Yin had built for fun. Their group's real wealth came from real estate and a big brand of hot pot restaurants.
Boss Yin had heard Air Bubble call him the tasteless title of Hot Pot Prince a few years ago, but in recent years, Boss Yin no longer cared about his family's business and concentrated on running the club, so this dark history title had gone with him.
Boss Yin clicked on the hot pot restaurant with the best business on the Bund, and a few new options popped up.
'Please select the product you wish to promote offline.'
Seeing this line of notification, Boss Yin instantly understood … Wasn't this the advertisement for the game's joint offline promotion?
Dispute had done this before, but if he wanted Dispute to promote a certain product, that company had to at least pay Dispute's parent company tens of millions in advertising fees, or else there would be no discussion at all.
How much was the advertising fee for the Holy Spirit?
Zero.
'Hint: The Holy Spirit Fund's first offline collaboration is free, but it only lasts for seven days.'
So it was just a trial?
Boss Yin instantly laughed out loud when he saw this notification … The main thing was that he knew that the Holy Spirit's offline collaboration was useless, unless the Holy Spirit used the game qualification as a reward. Otherwise, using game items as a reward … was completely useless.
Because the Holy Spirit only had 120,000 players, and these 120,000 players were scattered all over the country. Who would go to this hot pot restaurant in the upper city just for a game item?
No, it was still a little useful. It was free anyway, so why not give it a try?
And Boss Yin just happened to be lacking a mount.
After Boss Yin randomly chose a set meal that was enough for five people from his own hot pot restaurant, a new option popped up below.
'Please select the reward for the offline promotion.'
He could choose all the rewards?
But there were only three.
These three were all mounts. One was a Rainbow Unicorn, one was a fat chicken called Fei Qiu, and the last was a mount called Battlefield Wheelchair.
Boss Yin directly chose Fei Qiu without even thinking, because he had already asked around and found out that Fei Qiu was the strongest mount in the Holy Spirit!
Moreover, it was also the rarest mount!
Currently, there were only seven Fei Qiu players in the Holy Spirit server …
'Offline activity generation in progress. Generation completed, estimated to be released in 12 hours.'
"Such a rare mount should be able to attract many Holy Spirit players, right?
Is the investment paying off so soon? "
Boss Yin saw the words Holy Spirit Fund and instantly had an idea … It seemed that the Holy Spirit officials weren't without desires. Boss Yin didn't know what the Holy Spirit officials wanted right now, but this offline activity had indeed paid off for him.
Just as he was about to make a call and ask the owner of the hot pot restaurant on the Bund to cooperate with this offline activity for publicity … a window popped up on his computer.
Boss Yin was already used to this kind of annoying pop-up window, so when he was about to cross it out of habit, the two lines of text on the news window made his hand bounce back as if he had been electrocuted.
'Shocking!
The ace player of The Sovereigns Descends, Zhao Mingwei, has chosen to breach the contract and retire!
The professional player of Legend of War, Lord Xiao, has to bear a whole 300 million penalty fee! '
Boss Yin instantly fell silent when he saw this headline. Below it was another headline that really … caught his attention.
'In two days, the first holographic projection show in human history will be held at the Bund in Upper City. When the time comes, a delegation from many countries will come to enjoy the show.'
Boss Yin rubbed his forehead … In the end, he changed his phone number from the owner of the hot pot restaurant on the Bund to Mo Shigui.
"Coach Song, have you seen the news of Player Zhao's retirement?" Boss Yin asked.
"Yes, he told me about it yesterday." Mo Shigui's voice was calm.
"Can you contact him in real life?" Boss Yin asked again.
"Boss … I don't think you can poach him. He … doesn't really like being a professional player."
Mo Shigui could only use this tactful method to tell Boss Yin that the reason for Zhao Mingwei's retirement wasn't because he didn't get along with the management of Sovereign Descends. He had thought about it for a long time.
"No, I just want to help him," Boss Yin said again.
"Help …?"
Mo Shigui tried to guess what Boss Yin was trying to do. Boss Yin couldn't possibly help Zhao Mingwei pay the 300 million penalty fee, right?
That was too extravagant, and Zhao Mingwei definitely wouldn't accept it.
"I know the boss of Sovereign Descends. He has a good heart, but he's a bit stupid … So there must be some shady parts or loopholes in his contract with Player Zhao. I can find a lawyer to help him fight a lawsuit," Boss Yin said.
"…"
Mo Shigui didn't know what to say. He opened his mouth, but couldn't find the words to reply.
"Player Zhao is a talent. We can't let money in real life affect his gaming state. Didn't he contribute to the recent Jump Core dungeons?" Boss Yin said in a deep voice.
"Yeah."
Mo Shigui knew that although Zhao Mingwei was a member of Jiang Qiao's guild, Jiang Qiao was now living in the Jump Core stronghold, so Zhao Mingwei naturally settled down as well.
"If you know him, arrange a meeting with him at a hotpot restaurant on the Bund in two days. Ask him about the details and see if he can handle the public opinion these two days."
Boss Yin chatted with Mo Shigui as he looked at the Dispute forum. Right now, the Dispute forum had completely exploded. Basically, the entire internet was slandering Zhao Mingwei. In one night, he went from a holy monk to a deserter from the battlefield. Only a small portion of true fans were speaking up for Zhao Mingwei, saying "Maybe he's tired?"
But this small portion of voices couldn't be heard. Once the slandering started, no one could stop it.
"He won't care about this. He's probably sleeping at home right now. I'll talk to him." Mo Shigui paused for a moment, then said, "Thank you."