Chapter 337.1: Unfathomable Light

As soon as the message was posted in the group, the group fell silent for a moment. Then, everyone started chatting again.

Old White: Yenching got the Olympic bid!

Ample Time: Wow Twing's 3G network is fast.

Gale: Hey! Are you a guy or a girl?

Night Ten: Damn it! Did you guys see my message?

God damn it! I thought of you guys first when I saw the way to get rich.

Ye Wei, holding his phone, looked both puzzled and amused. Just as he was about to explain, the message of Brother Ample Time popped up again.

Ample Time: We did. Everyone in the group has already been talking about it for a while, so your message didn't surprise anyone.

Night Ten: ???

What? For a while?

Ye Wei was puzzled and quickly scrolled up with his index finger on the screen. Sure enough, he saw the news of the sudden surge in the price of silver coins that everyone was discussing.

God damn. So it was me who had been living under a rock.

Ye Wei's expression was a bit subtle.

I wanted to show off to everyone but now it has become very awkward.

Ample Time: Let's just get to the conclusion straightaway. The acquisition parties that popped up on the official website probably have some serious background.

Quit Smoking: What do you mean? Can you explain it?

Ample Time: Do I even need to explain? Would a normal person spend a hundred million to buy a bunch of digital coins?

And it was not just one person. It was as if a group of people had agreed to buy it together in advance!

Ignoring the trades conducted using other currencies, in the RMB trading area alone, there were tycoons throwing in a hundred million, splitting the order for 2 million silver coins into 20 smaller ones with the price range set between 55 to 45 RMB. Since the orders were anonymous, it was impossible to determine if they were placed by the same person. However, the amount of orders on the website couldn't deceive people. Placing orders on the silver coins trading platform was not just a matter of entering a number. Verification of funds was also required.

Garbage: Are these people crazy? (stunned)

Mosquito: Damn, I suspect it’s manipulation from the game company!

Ample Time: That possibility cannot be ruled out, but it's very unlikely. Generally, big companies with a slightly larger player base don't bother with these micro-operations, especially a game company that gives you free equipment to play with, masters cutting-edge technology, and has millions of followers.

Quit Smoking: So, what do you think they're up to?

Ample Time: I think it's related to that auction.

Ye Wei who was staring at the phone screen was puzzled for a moment.

Night Ten: Auction?

Ample Time didn't say a word, instead, he shared Light's post in the group. He even highlighted the key points for them just in case his good buddies would miss it.

Ye Wei was dumbfounded just by looking at the words circled with a red pen.

Night Ten: What the heck...Isn't this just Light's usual nonsense?!

Isn't talking nonsense in the posts Light's usual style? All veteran players know that! And how can there really be an auction? What will they be auctioning? An automatic banana feeding machine?

Ample Time: Well, although that's the case, what if someone takes it seriously?

Ye Wei tapped on the screen.

Night Ten: How... Can anyone take this seriously?

Ample Time: Haven’t you seen? It might be related to the battery.

Battery?!

Wasn't Light working at a gaming company? Ye Wei was confused.

Ample Time: Let me ask you guys. How many years do you think that helmet is ahead of our current 5G smartphones?

Gale: ... This is simply not comparable, isn't it?!

Ample Time: That's right! It's incomparable. These two things don't seem like they are from the same era. But this is where the problem is! An organization with mysterious technology suddenly claims that they're going to auction off some unknown technology... Now, imagine if you were someone working in a related field, wouldn't you be interested?

Ye Wei who was staring at the phone screen was stunned.

Putting it like that... It does make some sense.

Although Light often joked that their company's servers were potato servers, in reality, how could a fully immersive virtual reality game that could accommodate thousands of players simultaneously run on potato servers?

Not only were they not potato servers... It might even be superior to the Tianhe X supercomputer! It could even be the legendary quantum computer, and it was not the experimental kind that was still being developed in labs, but the mature supercomputing arrays composed of several quantum processors.

His mind went blank for a second, Ye Wei felt that his imagination had reached the limit.

Garbage: Oh man... the more you talk, the more I feel like our game is made by aliens. (shivers.jpg)

Quit Smoking: Why don't we just tag Light and ask him directly? (nervous)

Old White: Light won't reply to game-related questions, and he hasn't been online for a long time. It won't help.

Quit Smoking: But I still don't get it. If they really need money... Why go through all this trouble? Just go for the open Beta and they'll make a fortune, right?

First, pre-sale, then deliver subpar products. Wasn't this how the industry operated nowadays? Instead, it was more peculiar to see companies developing products seriously behind closed doors!

Ample Time: Mhm, it is indeed strange. I guess... Light might be telling the truth that their servers really can only allow a few thousand people to be online at the same time.

Tomato Eggs who had been silent spoke up suddenly, If Light was telling the truth, then those programmers that he sacrificed...

The group went silent.

Old White: Ahem, alright, enough with the irrelevant topics... We were supposed to discuss the price of silver coins. How did we end up talking about Light? Let's leave Light aside for now and talk about your plans.

Oh yeah finally!

Ye Wei was most interested in this topic, typing with a smile that wouldn't fade from the corners of his mouth.

Night Ten: Obviously... I should buy a house.

He had already thought about it. Rent in Jiang City was not expensive, and second-hand houses were even cheaper. While the silver coins were in such high demand, he planned to cash out a couple of million first, buy a property near the school, then buy another for his parents.

At that time, if his classmates asked him how much his property management fee was, he could just pull out two sets of keys and ask, "Which one are you asking about?"

It might be a bit cheesy but it didn’t matter! He just wanted to show off for enjoyment.

When he noticed strange looks from the buddies in the lab nearby, Ye Wei immediately realized he was carried away by the joy again. He cleared his throat and restrained his exaggerated smile.

A lot of messages kept popping up.

Quit Smoking: Rich guy!

Garbage: Awesome!

Ample Time: This is good. Improving your life is reasonable. However, when it comes to larger transactions, you must be careful.

Ye Wei was puzzled, looking at the phone screen. Careful being...

Ample Time: Tens of thousands, or even a million or two is not a big problem, nobody will pay attention to such a small transaction. Some small business owners can also have transactions at this level. As long as you pay taxes legally and don't get involved in any criminal cases, the bank will only give you a call to ask if you want to buy their products. But once the amount reaches the tens of millions or even hundreds of millions, you have to carefully consider the transaction partners and methods.

Anonymity and security were always only relative concepts and not absolute. Unusual personal account transactions would be flagged by the bank for heightened monitoring. If the money transferred was in foreign currency, it would become more than just a tax issue.

However, what Ample Time worried about the most was not the money but the identities of those buyers. It was fine, if it was just a legit company. But what if it was not a legit company, but something much more complicated?

Ample Time even had a feeling that in some hidden corner, an entirely different game was unfolding.

In fact, this game may have been ongoing for quite a few rounds now, and both sides have reached an initial understanding, maintaining a seemingly stable equilibrium through an unspoken agreement.

Mosquito: If it is really that good, why don't we team up and pool some silver coins and buy it ourselves? (sly smile)

Although it sounded a bit absurd, there was actually room for such an operation. The bosses of the Bull and Horse Brick Factory and Goblin Technology were in the group, along with a large number of players who entered the game in its early versions. Although 1 million silver coins were a bit expensive, everyone could still manage to pool that amount. Not only 1 million, if they gathered a few more veteran players, pooling 2 million was also not a big problem.

The most crucial thing was that there were only a few sellers on the silver coins trading platform. They could easily do bid rigging if they collaborated. At that time, even if there was external funding, they would only be able to stare at the trading platform, unable to do anything. As long as the official website did not reveal the buyer's identity, no one would know who bought the item eventually.

Ample Time: I know what the hell you want to do. I admit it's an option, but I don't want to be the one sticking out. Besides, even if they really give me some battery design or whatever, I won't be able to know what to do with it. Playing games is my main job. I don't have the energy or time for anything else.

Old White: Lol, just what kind of unmotivated talk is this... But then again, I don't have the qualifications to say anything. My suggestion is the same as Ample Time's. Only cash out some silver coins to improve your life. Wasteland Online has just entered the closed Beta so if you cash out all of it now, it would result in a big loss.

Mosquito: Sigh, you guys are so ambitious... Running a company and playing games don't conflict!

Bid rigging was not something one person could do; it required everyone to participate to ensure that the chance of winning was on their side. Honestly, Mosquito was quite interested in Light's auction item. Not that he expected it to be very valuable, but mainly because he was a bit overly curious.

What if it was a good thing? Just buying it and taking a look wouldn't hurt. If it was really useless, he could easily add another zero after the price and sell it. After all, the auction was still 3 days away, but there were already people on the official website offering 100 million for silver coins. Since those buyers really wanted it so much, then 100 million real-world money for that item shouldn't be expensive, right? Moreover, if the trade was conducted using the real-world currency, Light wouldn't charge a transaction fee.

However, on second thought, Mosquito felt that what Ample Time said did have a point. It was indeed not a wise choice to hastily get involved in things they weren't familiar with.

Mosquito: ... Fine then, what you said makes sense. After careful consideration, this matter indeed seems a bit strange. So it's better to observe it first.

Ample Time: I'm glad you think so. By the way, I have a suggestion.

Quit Smoking: What suggestion?

Ample Time: When Night Ten mentioned buying houses earlier, it made me realize that in the future, there will be many chances to cash out silver coins. However, frequent individual transfers are risky, so why not register a company? We can transfer money to the company, and then transfer money back to our personal accounts. Even though it adds one extra step, it's convenient for tax payments and more compliant.

Ye Wei's eyes lit up after seeing the message. The idea was brilliant!