A professional virtual game player.

This was Li Dong’s occupation… Of course, the prefix “hardcore” could be added.

Moreover, he was a seasoned player who had more than 20 years of experience in the first online virtual game, Galaxy Era.

No one knew that game better than him.

And during the game’s golden age, he had earned millions in income by writing strategy guides, selling scientific materials, and exchanging various in-game resources… It was enough for a cozy and comfortable life.

However, young people have a strong desire to enjoy life; they have no plans to buy a house or a car. They are only concerned with living a carefree life.

After just a few years, nearly all of that money had been squandered.

At that time, the popularity of Galaxy Era had gradually cooled.

Plenty of online virtual games that were more exciting and fun had appeared on the market, including genres like magic, cultivation, mecha, and so on. The gameplay was new and original, and was more thrilling to the senses; hence, they attracted a large number of players.

This naturally caused a great amount of Galaxy Era’s players to migrate to other games.

After more than a decade of the game’s golden age, players had generally matured. Resource exchange activity declined, and money could no longer be so easily earned. The game had entered the “silver age.”

Li Dong’s monthly income was reduced from hundreds of thousands to only $10,000 or so.

The days were getting worse.

Of course, this was also an inevitable law. Even the most well-liked and fun game could only maintain its popularity for a decade or two, and then its position would gradually weaken.

In addition, Galaxy Era had a fatal flaw. Because it was too realistic, even if the game’s execution efficiency was more than ten times that of a conventional situation, it was unavoidable that one had to spend more than ten years, in real time, to fight in an interstellar war spanning ten light-years.

Not many players could endure such a long wait.

After all, in this fast-paced era, people preferred to pursue sensory thrills that could be gotten in ten minutes, a few minutes, or even ten seconds.

Galaxy Era was labeled an “old game” that was outdated. It was inevitable that its standing would weaken.

However, Li Dong never gave up. He became even more excited during these couple of days, and explained this to his wife, who was standing in front of him.

“Honey, I think my great opportunity has arrived. Our days will continue to improve.”

Mu Wanqiu glared at him. “You mean that you’ve agreed to find a job, and work hard to improve the current situation of our home?”

“No, I think that there’s still a chance for me to strike it rich in the Galaxy Era. Haven’t you seen the announcement about the game updates? The annual income of 2 trillion will be evenly distributed across the 200 billion star systems. Each star system can bring $10 in revenue.”

“What’s the use of this?” Mu Wanqiu said with a cold expression. “You can’t even buy a package of noodles for $10, but you think you can get rich with this?”

“Of course. My current ‘Eastern Jupiter Civilization’ occupies about 180 star systems, and my scope of influence covers most of the planets within a radius of 25 light-years. Multiply by 10, and the annual dividend income is about $1,800.”

“Haha, $1,800. Do you want everyone in the family to starve?”

“But I’m confident that I can increase the number of star systems under my control within a year. The annual dividend will be $100,000, which is not much different from what you earn from your work.”

Li Dong spoke with confidence, as if he had mastered the secret to success.

“How is this possible? You can’t occupy that many star systems, even with a hundred years’ time. Conventional interstellar warships can accelerate up to 0.2 times the speed of light. The average economic speed is only 0.1C. The overly slow pace of Galaxy Era has become its Achilles’ heel.”

Mu Wanqiu was also a veteran player who had been playing Galaxy Era for more than ten years. She knew the characteristics of the game, and this was her conclusion: that it was a boring strategy game that required a long feedback time. Hence, she slowly stopped playing it.

Only Li Dong remained addicted.

“After the version is updated, it will resolve the slow pace of the game.

“Although it is not explicitly mentioned in the announcement, the era of the all-out interstellar war is indeed coming.

“Interstellar warships have a maximum speed of 20 times the speed of light, multiplied by 3.3 times, which is the rate of execution. In one year, the radius of my influence can be increased to 100 light-years, and I’ll control nearly 10,000 star systems, which will represent a pretty good increase in my income.”

Mu Wanqiu drew a blank, “Twenty times the speed of light? How can there be such rapid speed? Isn’t it impossible?”

“The super light speed curvature engine. A player made a significant breakthrough in this area, which directly triggered the version update,” Li Dong said.

In truth, the overly slow pace of Galaxy Era was due to the slow speed of the interstellar warships. This, in turn, was due to the lack of progress in super light speed aviation technologies.

Over the years, a large number of players from the science and technology community had entered the field of Space Technology, hoping to find solutions to the problem and make the era of inefficient communication a thing of the past.

Hard work paid off. Countless brains and thoughts had been involved in this effort. Finally, due to a genius’s miraculous flash of inspiration, Space Technology achieved a breakthrough.

The super light speed curvature engine had the potential to become a reality.

The changes brought about by this were revolutionary.

“With the super light speed curvature engine technology, the mobility of dispatching a warship in an interstellar war will be hundreds of times faster than that for a common warship. Not only does it have an advantage in military strength, but also, if it is faced with a strong opponent, it can easily escape. This thus forms a generational difference. The big devour the small, the strong will bully the weak, and a full-scale war is about to start.”

“You talk like you have mastered this technology. If others have this technology but not you, how do you plan to conquer tens of thousands of star systems?”

Mu Wanqiu rolled her eyes at her husband. She had no idea where his self-delusional confidence came from.

“Who said that I didn’t? I have a good friend who sent me a copy of the curvature engine for free. If he was selling it to someone else, he would price it at one million, at least. But because I’ve helped him a lot, he gave it to me as a generous gift between friends.”

Li Dong looked at her and asked, “How about it? Can you give me another chance to show off my skills?”

This…

Mu Wanqiu was silent for a while. It was a long time before she nodded. “Ok, I’ll give you another year.”

She agreed to let Li Dong try.

Firstly, she was very familiar with the game, Galaxy Era. Although the game had a slow pace, the level of realism and intelligence in the game was much better than that of other virtual games on the market. The potential was still there.

Secondly, she believed Li Dong’s ability. After all, Li Dong had earned at least tens of millions through this game in the past two or three decades, allowing the family to live comfortably for a period of time.

And now, Xing Hai Technologies had thrown out such a large bait. There were only a few veteran players of Galaxy Era left; hence, the competition had diminished. If Li Dong put his all into getting the best deal, obtaining 10,000 star systems would be really easy.

Finally, she shook her head helplessly.

“It seems that my man is tied to games for life. I was also swindled by him—that’s how I got together with him. Hmmph, if I had known this, I wouldn’t have played any games.”

…

On the other side.

After deciding to turn Xing Hai Technologies’ rights to the income from its core assets into a reward in the game, Chen Jin immediately got into trouble, and developed a headache.