Chapter 506: Infiltrating Enemy Territory Again!
The power-leveling agent was stunned. Holy crap? This is insane!
But there was no helping it. The studio hadn’t carefully calculated exactly how much money they could make before this.
Because a lot of the data was hidden, like the maturation time of each crop, the specific selling price, and so on.
The number of fruits produced by each seed wasn’t fixed; it fluctuated randomly within a certain range. Plus, you could steal other people’s crops every day, so the actual daily earnings were pretty hard to calculate.
Clearly, this studio hadn’t bothered to do the math either. They just slapped their foreheads and thought, "This thing can make money, so let’s do it."
After all, it was a free game with almost no investment.
Now, with Chen Duxiu’s reminder, the agent suddenly realized—it really didn’t make money, did it?
And to buy that dog, they might have even lost money…
Chen Duxiu cheerfully patted him on the shoulder. "Alright, with your math skills, you might as well say goodbye to running a studio…"
…
Many studios were cursing up a storm. They said there was no way such a good deal existed in the world. Chen Mo had obviously planned it all out!
No wonder the big studios hadn’t bothered with this game. They had dedicated number-crunchers who, after a quick calculation, knew the returns were pitifully low!
Only some inexperienced small studios, after a snap decision, thought that since the in-game currency could be exchanged for real items, it must be profitable.
And they got taught a lesson in no time…
Obviously, exchanging in-game currency for real items was a big gimmick to attract more players.
Just like in some card games where you could exchange in-game currency for real stuff—if you wanted that many coins, you first had to top up enough money or win enough.
For the designer, you can’t get wool from a dog. It might seem like they were giving players a lot of benefits, but it was all paid for with money taken from the players themselves.
These studios not only failed to make money from "Leisure Farm," but they also bought a bunch of dogs and ended up paying Chen Mo instead…
Of course, the game really did allow exchanging in-game currency for real items. But many people overlooked the time cost. Even to exchange for the lowest-tier recharge card, you had to play for a very long time. During that period, players became part of the game experience, just like free-to-play users in pay-to-win games.
So no matter how you calculated it, Chen Mo was still making a profit…
For wealthy players, they didn’t care about the small real-world rewards. They cared more about the thrill of stealing others’ crops and protecting their own. They’d rather spend money on dogs, which was a revenue stream for Chen Mo.
For players unwilling to spend money, a few recharge cards were already tempting enough. These people would log in on time every day to steal crops, haggling over every detail. While they might make a small profit in money, they invested a huge amount of time and provided active users for "Leisure Farm," so Chen Mo still came out ahead.
And this game also kept supplying Chen Mo with a steady stream of happiness points and resentment points…
Stealing someone else’s crops generated happiness points; having crops stolen or getting bitten by a dog while stealing generated resentment points. Although these points were relatively small, every little bit counted.
Especially after messing with those studio accounts, a huge wave of resentment points came flooding in, making Chen Mo laugh out loud.
Not only that, but even the in-game shop provided Chen Mo with a lot of resentment points.
Many people posted online: "Damn, the shop system in 'Leisure Farm' is way too ridiculous!"
"Black fertilizer that turns gray!"
"Volatile black fertilizer that turns gray and volatilizes!"
Many people were driven crazy by the fertilizer names in the shop. Every time they bought fertilizer, they generated a huge burst of resentment points for Chen Mo.
"Hehehe, making such a simple game and still harvesting this many resentment points—I’m a genius!"
Chen Mo thought smugly.
…
…
While Chen Mo was busy making games and tricking people into generating resentment points, his competitors weren’t idle either.
Outside the experience store, a tall, beautiful woman was peering inside.
"Alright, calm down. I’m just an ordinary player now, here specifically from out of town to try out the games."
The woman muttered to herself, calming her nerves. She patted her ample chest and walked into the experience store.
Her name was Feng Yingwan, and like Jin Jieguang before her, she was here to spy on the enemy.
To be precise, Jin Jieguang had sent her.
Recently, Jin Jieguang felt like his left eyelid wouldn’t stop twitching, and he couldn’t sleep well.
Although the "Gunfire Chronicles" project was still steadily in development, with the core gameplay mostly complete, Jin Jieguang still felt something was off.
Last time, Jin Jieguang came to spy on the enemy, and Chen Mo had bamboozled him so thoroughly that "Ancient Cataclysm" got talked into oblivion. This time, Jin Jieguang still felt something was wrong, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.
Maybe the biggest clue was—why would Chen Mo reveal so many future plans at that meeting?
Logically, Chen Mo lived up to his name: he wasn’t much of a talker. Especially when it came to game-related content, he usually didn’t say too much and always kept some cards close to his chest.
Was there some conspiracy or trap waiting for him to fall into?
But no matter how much Jin Jieguang thought about it, he couldn’t figure out what the conspiracy could be.
Copying everything from "Overwatch" and just adding a competitive mode—how could that be a problem?
Maybe Chen Mo was just on a roll after winning so many awards and casually blurted out his future plans?
Something still felt off.
Jin Jieguang was uneasy, so he decided to send Feng Yingwan to spy on the enemy again.
This time, Jin Jieguang was more cautious. He strongly suspected that Chen Mo might already recognize him, so he couldn’t go himself.
Feng Yingwan had just joined the company two months ago. As a young and attractive woman, she should have a natural advantage in spying, right?
Feng Yingwan was also very nervous.
Before she left, Jin Jieguang repeatedly warned her that Chen Mo was an extremely dangerous person. She had to be careful, careful, and even more careful!
But from the photos, Chen Mo looked pretty young, with a kind face—well, no, delicate features.
Feng Yingwan had a strange feeling that Chen Mo was just an ordinary senior student. How could someone like that be extremely dangerous?
Still, Feng Yingwan kept reminding herself: never judge a book by its cover. The person she was up against was an S-class designer, a dangerous figure who had the entire Imperial Dynasty Interactive tearing their hair out. If she let her guard down, this mission would surely end in miserable failure!
Feng Yingwan entered the lobby and saw Chen Mo sitting on the sofa, reading a book.
Was finding the target really this easy? She wasn’t quite used to it.
Feng Yingwan suddenly felt like backing out. She had expected to go through some trouble to meet Chen Mo after entering the store, but instead, he was just sitting on the sofa in the lobby. This threw her off, as if all her careful plans had been disrupted.
Feng Yingwan calmed herself down, sat on the sofa opposite Chen Mo, and greeted him.