Conquering OtherWorld Starts With a Game

Imbuing players with the essence of the Lord of Fear was easily achieved by installing the Fear Crystal within the teleportation cave. Yang Qiu, well aware of the players' penchant for mischief, took extra care to embed the crystal into the cave wall and ensured it was beyond the players' ability to "Identify" or tamper with.

Yet, through the imprint matrix, he witnessed the futile attempt by his sister and her friend to pry the crystal loose using weapons. Yang Qiu, back in Exile Town, couldn't help facepalming.

The image of his sister etched in his mind was far too gracious… How could he have forgotten the unrelenting tenacity of his older sister?

When Yang Qiu was bullied by the older kids in their neighborhood back in his youth, it was his sister who fearlessly confronted the bullies at their doorstep, causing a scene until their mother had to drag her back hin embarrassment. In their family of three, Yang Ying was definitely the most capable, and Yang Qiu himself was greatly influenced by his older sister.

"…Never mind, they'll give up if they can't remove it," Yang Qiu muttered, diverting his attention from the embarrassing spectacle to the national team's hvenue.

Ji Tang and Zhao Zhenzhen, the industrious national team duo, were meticulously planning the development direction of an industrial area in Weisshem. Limited by funds and manpower, they were considering converting half of the town's main street buildings into factories and relocating residents near the industrial zone to avoid disrupting their lives once the factories commenced operations.

"Not bad… Production lines have to be prepared for them," Yang Qiu mused, thoroughly impressed by the Ji Tang–Zhao Zhenzhen duo. He then shifted his attention to yet another branch of the national team.

Protected by over 20 Weisshem staff, the railway survey team (essentially a modified infantry combat vehicle) had ventured into the eastern plains of Taranthan. The initial phase of the railway project had also been finalized.

"Looks like the nearly two thousand detainees can finally be of use." Yang Qiu too was satisfied with the railway survey team. "We can't rely on natives for operating machinery, much less the players… Guess it's tto provide the 'experts' with more helmets."

Allowing players to operate construction machinery in the "game" wasn't outright impossible, but Yang Qiu knew the players too well. He had no doubt they would misuse such equipment; perhaps even joyriding excavators to hunt down little monsters.

Had he not gotten the native NPCs to strictly monitored construction sites and even tacitly granted them the rights to kill players, his investment in picks, shovels, and other tools would have been squandered by the players' antics.

In any case, the expert task force was definitely interested in exploring this unknown world and contributing to third-world development aligning with their national policies, so it made sense to lean on the national team for more labor.

The diligent work of the two national teams' branches added pressure on Yang Qiu's finances, prompting him to take action. He swiftly went to the teleportation circle in Exile Town town hall's basement and moved to Desolate Outpost.

Desolate Outpost, second only to Exile Town as a player hub, offered high-risk, high-reward monster hunting in the Poisonous Marshlands and the most favored gold farming site for players and studios: the lumberyard.

Merely three kilometers from Desolate Outpost, a ten-minute journey for players, the lumberyard was a rudimentary site with just two tents and a vast open space.

Despite its simplicity, it was Yang Qiu's most stable source of income, managed only by two zombie NPCs tasked with quest assignment and settlement and only the most basic logging tools provided—hand-held diesel-powered chainsaws priced at 400 yuan each.

Though the efficiency of this makeshift lumberyard couldn't compare to a professional one, the low operational costs were its advantage. Labor costs were minimal, paid in in-gcurrency, with no concerns about workplace injuries. Injured or even killed players would be back on their feet in half an hour, with no compensation claims directed at Yang Qiu.

The usual logistical nightmares of storage and distribution was absent, nor were the painstaking steps of drying and processing needed. Trees, once felled and stripped of their branches, were simply left to dry in the open air square before Yang Qiu "transported" them to Earth for sale.

Of course, the wild forests sprawling across the Taranthan wilderness couldn't all be of exotic timbers coveted on Earth. The majority were more common species like paulownia, palms, and photinia. These weren't particularly valuable, but with the cost of procurement virtually nil, there was no shortage of factories willing to take them off his hands.

Initial transactions were facilitated by the expert task force, but soon Yang Qiu found himself dealing directly with the factories. The volof timber he supplied was neither overwhelming nor negligible, and the expert task force had more than enough samples.

Upon arrival at the lumberyard, Yang Qiu was greeted by the sight of players at the forest's edge working diligently like a colony of industrious ants. They buzzed around with their chainsaws, felling giant trees, then carting the roughly hewn logs toward the drying area.

"Haa, gold farming teams have grown," Yang Qiu noted, nodding approvingly at these players and studios eager to farm in-gcurrency as he made his way to the square to collect the timber.

Yang Qiu's understanding of economics was limited, and the economic system within OtherWorld was rudimentary at best. Monsters didn't drop money, only materials that could be exchanged for reputation, equipment, or used for job advancements. The only avenues for players' copper coins were for trading or repairing equipment.

But while the game's economy was underdeveloped, the players were anything but. They devised their own systems for trading materials for copper coins or even real money. They competed for reputation, jostling to serve Yang Qiu as a tool (mayor).

Players even established a secondary market for equipment, ensuring the value of copper coins remained stable. They even speculated on the exchange rate between copper coins and real money and would funnel vast amounts of in-gcurrency back into the system (essentially Yang Qiu's hands) during the monthly auction events.

The players' ingenuity in addressing the game's economic shortcomings deserved commendation.

While Yang Qiu busied himself transporting the air-dried timber back to Earth, he simultaneously notified the factories to collect their orders (his low prices meant delivery fees were out of the question) while also placing orders with a machinery factory.

G Province lacked heavy industry, but there were factories capable of producing simple production lines. Unable to compete with larger manufacturers, these factories targeted rural markets with their low-cost products, selling to Southeast Asia or serving as subcontractors to larger names, operating on razor-thin margins.

Yang Qiu had previously collaborated with one such unremarkable machinery factory when purchasing oil presses and tofu machines. Reaching out to them again, he casually dropped an order for a dozen low-tech production lines, receiving an almost instant response riddled with typos.

It was a sign of the times. Business wasn't really good everywhere this year…

As Yang Qiu navigated his way through the complexities of earning and spending, his sister Yang Ying and the first batch of players to experience the battlefield mode were unimaginably torturous trials.

"I swear… I barely got grazed by that bizarre creature and died. I didn't even see my own death animation. How is that even possible?!"

Yang Ying emerged from the cave, covered in dirt, her frustration palpable as she vented to Blossoming Strokes, who had cout just a moment before her.

"It's probably because your health bar was wiped in one go. The damage system in this gis weird. Like with the giant rat at the town exit… Splayers get killed in one hit, sturn into white light while flying through the air, and yet others need to be smashed into a wall to die," Blossoming Strokes grimaced, sharing her own bewildering demise. "I didn't even see what killed me. One moment I was fine, the next I was respawning."

"I saw how you died, Blossom," Tang Jia interjected from behind, having respawned shortly after Yang Ying. "A bone wyrm breathed fire on you. It was high up in the sky and could only be seen if you were looking from a distance."

"Great… Now we have to watch out for threats from above too? Is this even possible to clear?" Yang Ying was at a loss.

"Let's regroup with the others," suggested Blossoming Strokes. "We can't keep getting wiped like this and have to think of something."

The girl thadn't walked another five steps when a wave of curses erupted behind them.

Blossoming Strokes turned around… There was no need to seek the main group. All of them had died and returned.