Dragon, choose cultural victory to make money

Chapter 262: Survivors in the Survivor Bias

"You mean, I pay and find a group of people to play games?" The city lord wondered if he had heard it wrong.

Paying people to play games, this must be the most outrageous thing he has heard this year.

It's even more outrageous than the devil forming a group to play games.

After all, demons have always existed in small numbers in the continent of Felin.

Moreover, he often receives complaints about the harmful effects of games, such as people becoming addicted to games and detaching themselves from real life, games inspiring violent evil thoughts in people's hearts, apprentices not taking their work seriously, and wizard apprentices not being interested in studying spells and so on.

The city lord has always turned a blind eye to this. In his opinion, there are many things that people can be addicted to, and if one thing is gone, there will be another.

To be honest, he was quite annoyed with these people. They opposed all kinds of entertainment, even alcohol, as if everyone should live a life of asceticism with them.

But this cannot be said publicly, after all, that group is a considerable force.

If the city lord publicly recruits professional players, it means he is showing his support for the game.

In the aristocratic value system, there is no right or wrong, only whether it is worth it.

Is the profit he gets from organizing professional players worth the opposition from conservative forces?

"Yes, father, that's what I mean." Grace answered affirmatively.

As she spoke, she took out a plan. She had thought about this matter seriously. Even if the city lord didn't come to ask tonight, she would find a chance to tell him.

Grace continued, "Hiring professional players is essentially the same as training racehorses and gladiators. People are happy to support players or teams from the same region as them, and regard watching competitive games as an entertainment in their lives. Perhaps after a long time, the local audience will even share the honor and disgrace of this team."

At present, Felin does not have a project as popular as "football" because of the existence of extraordinary powers, and games involving physical confrontation may be doomed to fail to be promoted.

Games based on virtual reality do not have similar problems.

The only problem is that a game can’t stay popular for that long, but the good news is that there will always be popular games.

The city lord nodded after hearing this. Now the nobles have gradually realized that providing some entertainment to the civilians can effectively reduce their rebellious sentiment.

"Moreover, training a group of players is not just a pure financial investment. If it is handled properly, there may be money to be made." Grace added.

"Oh? How to make money?" The city lord became excited. He was no longer sleepy when talking about making money.

"According to the Drogo Group, the competition will not be held once and for all, but will be held every year and become a regular event. This year is just a test run, and more events will be added in the future. Then, with enough exposure, the players who play the game can also become stars and idols, just like those who play the magic shadow."

"Like Raul?"

This is the only magic shadow actor the city lord knows, but unfortunately he rarely acts now.

"Yes."

When it comes to the Phantom Star, the city lord knows where the profits come from.

Nowadays, any actor who can be named by most people has countless endorsement advertisements.

Ever since businessmen discovered the benefits of celebrity advertising, they feel embarrassed to say that they are selling products without hiring a few endorsements.

In fact, this practice has existed since ancient times. In the past, gladiators would start selling goods on the spot in the arena after defeating their opponents.

But the influence of Gladiators cannot be compared with that of today's stars. Many fans nowadays will even buy the endorsed products even if they have no use at all in order to support their idols.

“But can a game player have as much influence as a magic star?”

"It's difficult. After all, the audience of current games is far less than that of Magic Shadow, and not all game players love competition, but..."

Grace changed the subject and said, "Game competition has an advantage that Shadow doesn't have. It's a competition, and the result of the competition is uncertain, and everything is uncertain..."

"They will attract gamblers." The city lord continued what Grace had not finished.

Gamblers are a group of creatures that cannot be understood by common sense. They will open a bet on anything that seems to be able to open a bet.

Compared to their inexplicable gambling games, the game competitions at least looked like the real deal.

"Therefore, the gambling industry will be happy to sponsor the competition and the players in the competition, which is another considerable income, as long as it is guaranteed..."

"There is no fake match." The city lord added.

Fixing matches is something that only low-level bookmakers would do, just to make a quick buck and ruin their future reputation.

When the match-fixing was exposed, gamblers were crazy but not stupid. They would not bet with a bookmaker with a criminal record.

Maintaining the fairness of the competition and the uncertainty of the results is the way to keep the entire system running.

"The city needs a representative who is prestigious enough to prove the fairness of the event."

"And I am the most suitable representative." The city lord saw a mountain made of gold coins appear in front of him in a trance.

Now he declared Drogo to be his godfather, and to hell with the conservatives.

When the fantasy time was over, the city lord suddenly realized a potential problem. "As the city lord, if I take the lead in gambling, wouldn't it be bad for my reputation?"

Grace really wanted to answer that we nobles are not good people in everyone's eyes.

But she was a careful planner and took this into consideration.

"We can call it a game lottery instead of this name. It is issued through competitions, and people voluntarily buy the tickets with the probability of winning. It is not gambling, and we don't force them to buy it."

"Yeah, we didn't force them to buy it."

The city lord's eyes lit up. Letting Grace take care of this matter was definitely one of the wisest decisions he had ever made in his life.

"Grace, you are a genius!"

"Now is not the time to be happy, father," Grace said calmly, "Our current task is to win the game against the devil, otherwise people's enthusiasm for this event will surely decrease."

"Oh, yes, you are right. According to your calculation, how much funding will it cost?"

"Three thousand gold coins."

"Three thousand?"

It’s not that the city lord can’t afford three thousand gold coins, but this number is far beyond his expectations.

"It costs so much money to play a game?"

Grace was prepared for the city lord's doubts.

"According to the competition system, one side needs at least five players. The rules of the team competition are a ring match. Each side starts with the first player. The winner keeps the ring and the loser leaves. This continues until one side has no more players left. The last player is the main player. The other players play against each other in a best-of-three format, while the main player plays against the main player in a best-of-five format."

"Wait," the city lord interrupted, "If that's the rule, then theoretically, as long as there's one particularly strong player who can defeat five opponents at once, then the other four can just find someone to make up the number."

An experienced city lord should know how to save money everywhere.

"That's just an ideal situation. First of all, we can't find such a strong player. Even if there is one, his physical strength can't support him to play so many games in a row. Game competitions are also very tiring."

The city lord knew this. He was already sweating profusely from playing with the AI ​​just now. As for the game video he saw, he suspected that his hands would break if he continued playing like that.

"Isn't there a player named Toto? If we bring her in as the main player, we can save at least two spots."

Even the city lord who hardly plays games has heard of Toto's name.

"Toto is a half-elf, and he's not from Sutton either." "What's the problem with that? A half-elf is half-human, so you have to be flexible in what you do."

"More importantly," Grace continued, "she is a direct invited contestant to the finals and does not need to participate in the auditions."

The city lord rubbed his beard helplessly, "Well, I thought most of the three thousand gold coins were for her."

"We do want to invite her, but not as a player, but as a coach."

"Coach? I need a coach to play a game?"

"Not only that, we also need equipment for the players, a closed training venue, supporting chefs, service staff, and video equipment to watch recordings of other competition areas in order to study the devil's habits. And then there is the money that the players need..."

Grace counted them one by one.

"Three thousand gold coins is already the minimum budget. Ideally, I would like to have five..."

"Okay, three thousand. That's it. It's settled. Three thousand gold coins in exchange for victory over the devil."

The city lord had no choice but to agree to Grace's request.

Grace smiled with satisfaction, "A wise decision, father."

"What about the contestants? Has anyone been chosen?"

"There are several candidates, all of whom were found in the ladder. The first one is this one, the candidate for the main general, Leon..."

---------

Lyon now lives a life of day and night reversal.

In order to achieve his goal, he devoted almost all his energy to Red Alert training.

He attended a boarding school, and during the day he would seize every opportunity to sleep in class, and he had even mastered the skill of sleeping while standing in the classroom as a punishment.

After testing these days, I found that math class is the easiest to sleep in. I don’t even have to actively fall asleep. Hearing those messy formulas is like being hypnotized.

At night, he would climb over the wall and run out of school to the White Bread and Wine game store.

The store has reserved a special sandbox for him, and other players are not allowed to use it after dark.

The process after Lyon arrives at the store is usually to play a few guided games to make money.

Guidance games are of no use to him in improving his level, and he may become a loser because of playing too much with low-level players. He usually only earns the minimum money he needs.

So Leon became the only person eating black bread in the white bread game store.

With the improvement of food processing level and grain planting technology, few people regard the most unpalatable black bread as their staple food.

That thing can't be considered food, at most it's a life-sustaining substance.

It’s not that Leon was without living expenses, but he spent all his limited money on running the machine.

Even if there is a discount for accommodation, it is still not cheap for a poor student.

He managed to hold out for several weeks on a diet of black bread and cold water, while also playing high-intensity games all night long, and he lost visibly more weight.

Later, the guy at the front desk couldn't stand it anymore and shared some of his daily dinner with Leon.

In his words, "I'm afraid you'll die here in a fight one day."

Leon's situation improved after the news of the Human Devil Game War came out.

After that, more and more people started feeding him, and after a few days, he didn't even have to operate the machine himself, as the money had already been paid by his fanboys.

Now he is Sutton South's hope.

Although Leon repeatedly declined, saying that he was participating in an individual competition and didn't know who would be playing against the devil in the team competition, the people in the store were determined that he had to be the one.

Especially in the central region, after the news of the defeat of the humans in the royal city came.

The owner of the game store waved his hand and said that from now on, little Leon would not have to pay to play games in this store, and he would also provide dinner, supper, and breakfast.

The only small request was that Lyon’s personal Weibo account should feature an advertisement for the White Bread and Wine game store.

The boss is very self-aware. He estimates that he will not be able to get the sponsorship for the team competition, so he will take up the personal sponsorship spot first.

From then on, Leon became the store's big star. He was welcomed by other players every night when he came. When the game started, half of the store would go to watch.

If there is any benefit to staying up late to play games, it is that the experts are online at this time.

It’s strange to say why staying up late to play games has become a common habit among all gaming masters.

The devil masters from hell are now in Feilin, so they will also meet Leon in the game.

Whenever he met those devilish masters, the players watching in the store would be more nervous than he was.

If you win, you will immediately become excited, as if you have won the fight yourself. What a devilish master, he is nothing but a stunner.

If we fail, they will help us find excuses, such as being careless, being sleepy, or the game lagging. Anyway, it’s not our little Leon’s fault for not having good skills.

They will also help find problems together.

Lyon knew they meant well, but the problems they found were a bit too unrealistic.

Whenever someone comes over and says, I think you should have played this or that just now.

He would always answer with a smile, yes, yes, yes.

There is no need to spend time arguing with them.

Tonight, Leon climbed over the school wall as usual. He had been eating well recently, so he was much more agile than before in climbing over the wall.

He is a very organized player. He sets training goals every night, including testing the tactics he came up with during the day and how many games he wants to play and win against masters.

He really likes the feeling of making a little progress every day.

After working hard these days, he has already made it into the top 20 in the ladder rankings. When facing Toto, who is ranked first, he has gone from being completely powerless in the beginning to being able to win one or two games out of ten.

As for those devil players, he has already encountered most of them. Although he still loses more than he wins, his winning rate is gradually increasing.

He was confident that if he continued to practice for a while, he would be able to completely surpass those devils.

His goal is to surpass Toto.

Oddly enough, those devilish tactics weren’t new, they were just fundamentally good to an unbelievable degree.

I don’t know what kind of pressure they are under during training every day.

He moved his wrists while running. He had felt some discomfort in his wrists since the day before yesterday, but he didn't care too much about it.

A little discomfort can't stop his dream.

He ran all the way to the door of the game store, but saw two figures he didn't want to see.

"Dad, Mom!"

(End of this chapter)