Chapter 26 Nonexistent Things

"Front row special price for Gold Coin 1:152! Bosses, send me a message!"

"Dancing Nuclear Guild is buying Gold Coins 1:153! Direct message."

When Jiang Qiao and Xia Shan passed by the commercial street, they saw two players there buying Gold Coins.

1:152 means that one Gold Coin can be exchanged for 150 yuan in reality, which is already a significant amount of money.

The players in Holy Spirit are too scarce now, and the production of Gold Coins is also low. The saddest part is… no players responded to them.

They didn't just yell to let passing players know, but also had chat bubbles over their heads that kept refreshing this feature.

But the players on the commercial street were in groups of threes and twos, occasionally seeing a few players around level 25 from the first batch and some level 1 newcomers.

So no one paid attention to them. Gold Coins were exceptionally scarce now. NPC shops didn't just sell potions, but also scrolls that could release one-time use magic and some alchemical items.

These were very useful for players' leveling.

"The Gold Coins in this game are too expensive," Xia Shan calculated carefully. If they were really buying Gold Coins at a ratio of 1:152, her two months' salary might not even afford 100 Gold Coins.

"Then just go level up, no need to rush," Jiang Qiao said.

"I'd better go do the newbie quests first. Thank you, big shot, for helping me. Can I add you as a friend?"

Xia Shan had played MMORPGs before. She knew that holding onto a big shot was definitely beneficial at times like this.

"Sure."

Jiang Qiao added Xia Shan as a friend. She ran towards the newbie guide area.

"Satisfied?" Hai Lan, in ghost status, suddenly said to Jiang Qiao. "She doesn't seem hostile at all."

'Maybe Number 13 made an error. She doesn't seem like someone related, but it's still necessary to keep an eye on her.'

The reason Jiang Qiao approached Xia Shan was because there might be a connection between her and someone from the game review department.

The official organization didn't scare Jiang Qiao. Number 13 was on Jiang Qiao's side now. Jiang Qiao came to keep an eye on her to avoid them causing him trouble in the game.

In fact, Xia Shan did cause a little trouble for Jiang Qiao, but she did it as a player, not as a member of the review department.

Players causing trouble was what Jiang Qiao was more than happy to see, after all… Jiang Qiao himself was a player who loved to cause trouble.

When Jiang Qiao was about ready to start leveling up by himself, another street-crier player caught his attention. This time, that player wasn't buying Gold Coins.

"Buying Holy Spirit activation codes! Thirty thousand each! Direct message if you have one!"

"Buying Holy Spirit activation codes! Thirty thousand each! Direct message if you have one!"

With this shout and a chat bubble, players on the commercial street all turned to look, including the two guys buying Gold Coins.

The 1:152 price wasn't particularly eye-catching, but 1:30000 was enough to grab attention.

Thirty thousand yuan was a significant sum for the players on the commercial street, equivalent to their salary for several months to half a year or even a year's worth of meals.

But Holy Spirit activation codes? Those things... simply didn't exist.

"Hey, hey, hey, thirty thousand yuan. Should we sell one?" Hai Lan started to get ideas at this point.

She learned quickly, especially when it came to buying food. Because of this, Jiang Qiao had limited her pocket money, setting a rule that she could only order takeout twice a day and each meal couldn't exceed 100 yuan.

This made Hai Lan value money in the real world very much. Thirty thousand yuan equaled about 300 takeout meals!

"No need to sell it," Jiang Qiao said. During his past gaming experiences, he hated overpriced activation codes the most. Every time he wanted to play a game in closed beta or alpha testing, seeing an activation code priced at 88,000 yuan made him want to strangle the scalpers and the developers.

"Thirty thousand yuan!" Hai Lan had completely lost any dignity as a creator by now.

"So what? I'm not lacking money."

Jiang Qiao had the capital to say this. Although he was a fourth-year student, his web novel royalties income was comparable to most company managers', earning two to three thousand yuan a month without any issues.

However, Jiang Qiao had temporarily not considered making big money off Holy Spirit.

Because Jiang Qiao knew he could already afford anything he wanted. It was nothing more than a top-spec computer and a top-spec VR device. He didn't have any big needs beyond that.

The real need for money would probably come when Holy Spirit started holding professional competitions.

"I…"

"You don't lack money either." Jiang Qiao and Hai Lan were connected in mind, knowing what Hai Lan wanted to say. "Whatever you want to eat, I'll buy it for you. No need to disgrace this game by scalping activation codes."

"You said it. Tonight, I want that garlic butter lobster takeout." Hai Lan compromised.

Jiang Qiao nodded lightly to agree with Hai Lan's suggestion. The player buying activation codes had already been shouting for almost ten minutes.

During this time, one or two players had approached him to ask about the selling process but found out that he didn't know what an activation code was either, which led to the deal completely falling apart.

Jiang Qiao felt it was unbearable and stepped forward to communicate with the player named "Swordsman."

"Brother."

"Hey! Friend! Do you have an activation code?"

Before Jiang Qiao could finish speaking, the Swordsman excitedly approached him. As his name suggested, he played as a warrior, and his level was already 25, having switched to the agility-based variant class, Swordsman.

"Why do you think I would have an activation code?" Jiang Qiao asked.

"Your level is high; veteran players always have some connections, right?" he said.

"That reason… is flawless, but the game has only been live for twelve days." Jiang Qiao was a bit speechless.

"Friend! If you have one, sell it to me. I'll instantly transfer the money via Heaven's Pay." He seemed convinced that Jiang Qiao had an activation code; otherwise, Jiang Qiao wouldn't have come over to talk to him.

"Why do you desperately need an activation code?" Jiang Qiao asked.

"My brother is a streamer. This game, Holy Spirit, will definitely become popular in the future. He wants to stream it, but he lacks activation qualification," the Swordsman explained while sending a sweating forehead emoji.

"Why not let him stream your gameplay?" Jiang Qiao thought of another solution.

"I'm a streamer myself. Yesterday, this game could only be logged into via mobile, which was very weird. Today, it can be played with VR equipment. I streamed it to show them, but they still don't believe it." The Swordsman said, feeling helpless.

"I see. What platform? What's your room number?"

Jiang Qiao had a thought. He wasn't rushing to promote Holy Spirit because a good game didn't need promotion. With the streaming industry being so developed, one streamer could attract a lot of players to a new game.

Not to mention professional players, who were pretty much traffic magnets. Jiang Qiao believed if Zhao Mingwei started a stream playing Holy Spirit, half of the world's players would flock to Jiang Qiao, asking, "Are you selling activation codes for thirty thousand each?"

But Jiang Qiao would definitely not sell. Selling one would lead to selling a second, making money with overpriced activation codes but destroying the game's reputation. Moreover, Jiang Qiao didn't have extra activation codes to sell now; the only hundred player slots had already been distributed.