The Monster is Coming

Chapter 402 Maritime Landscape, Two-Power Trend

The news that the Shell Clan had won a huge fortune in the City of Destiny had sparked heated discussions among all races in the trading market of Dream Island.

Most trading teams that land on the island are cautious about this suddenly emerging gambling city of destiny.

The art of strategy is fraught with unpredictable risks.

They have more trust in tangible and visible trading channels like the Gold Coin Merchants Association.

Instead of gambling games like Fate Casino, which may involve unknown behind-the-scenes interference.

They can't even see the odds of winning.

However, the news of the Snail Clan becoming rich overnight is highly credible.

The Shell Clan and the Bitter Demon Clan, sworn enemies, had been at the attention of many forces for decades before the Gold Coin Merchant Guild arrived on Dream Island.

After the trading market opened, both races became frequent visitors, and many trading teams witnessed firsthand the scene of them vying to purchase war resources.

Their war situation was, to some extent, transparent to the eyes of each ethnic group.

By simply observing the procurement of resources, one can roughly analyze the relative strengths and weaknesses of the two sides in the war's trajectory.

Recently, the Snail Clan has been behaving unusually, buying up large quantities of goods in the trading market, far exceeding their previous limits. They have even started ordering "Gold Coin Potions," which they would never have dared to touch before. This unusual behavior provides irrefutable evidence for the rumors of getting rich overnight.

Behind all of this, the throat of fate is fueling the flames.

In terms of development strategy, Minghou's ideas are completely opposite to those of the Gold Coin Merchants.

It could even be said to be the opposite of what is being said.

The Gold Coin Merchants Association's core reputation is built on absolute neutrality and confidentiality.

While providing resource conversion channels for trade teams landing on the island, the chamber of commerce also offers anonymous trading services. As long as the client pays an additional commission, the chamber of commerce can act as an intermediary to fully handle the transaction.

Even after the transaction is completed, a paid delivery service can be provided.

Both parties to the transaction can remain in each other's sight throughout the entire process.

This system caters to the desire of various forces to avoid revealing their true strengths and weaknesses, and even the need of many smaller forces to keep their wealth hidden.

However, the Destiny Casino built by Destiny Throat has a different development model.

He doesn't need anonymous clients; he needs legendary stories.

Cases like the "snail shell tribe" who became rich overnight serve as the best advertisement.

Therefore, instead of helping to cover it up, he will fan the flames and spread the news in the most exaggerated way.

They wanted every corner of the Azure Star Sea to know: in the City of Destiny, miracles really do happen.

Whether participants can keep their windfall after winning a huge sum of money and leaving the casino, or whether it will attract even stronger covetous people and disaster, is never within the scope of the magistrate's consideration.

Desire is the best soil for nourishing a gambling city.

It will push the desperate loser or the ambitious back to his gambling table.

Life Throat has a very clear understanding of the positioning of the gambling city.

Only those groups who are driven to the brink by reality and have nowhere else to retreat will regard the City of Destiny as their last lifeline and be willing to gamble everything to try for a vague miracle.

The case study is that of Ye Ming, the general of the Mingwu tribe.

The Gold Coin Merchant Guild, however, operates on a different model, fostering a stable ecosystem where the strong get stronger and the weak seek supplies.

Its customers encompass all needs, from top-tier powerful groups to the smallest micro-groups, and its scale is destined to grow infinitely as its trade network expands.

Destiny Casino, on the other hand, deals with extreme emotions outside of the norm.

The core target customers were crystal clear from the beginning: those who saw no hope in the established order, yearned for instant success, or were desperate gamblers and desperados who had nothing left but a worthless life.

In this world, those who truly become addicted to games of chance are not the resource-rich, methodical forces.

In the eyes of these forces, the stable development of the ethnic group is the core need.

Therefore, in terms of publicity, what the throat needs is sensationalism, not privacy protection.

Let those forces in dire straits see the hope brought by the City of Destiny, and even specific cases.

The need for entertainment exists among all ethnic groups, but the scale of betting is destined to be small.

The only thing worth risking everything for is a desperate situation.

……

The Primordial Altar.

Qi Sheng turned his gaze away from Dream Island.

Qi Sheng greatly admired the Destiny Casino model created by Minghou.

Besides providing an additional channel for tax collection.

The casino model touches on an area that the Gold Coin Merchant Guild has difficulty penetrating: the acquisition of top-tier resources and rule-based resources.

For the vast majority of races in the monster world, ordinary resources and the power of rules are two completely different concepts.

The monster world is home to endless spiritual minerals, spiritual plants, and even the creatures themselves, all of which can be considered renewable spiritual resources.

As long as the tribe is strong enough, it can continuously open up new resource points wherever its blade strikes.

To use force to obtain the nutrients needed for development.

However, this is a horizontal expansion model.

The power of rules represents a vertical leap in a civilization.

The rules brought by many descending forces are the ultimate embodiment of a race's wisdom, technology, and heritage, and also the cornerstone for building a unique power system and moving towards a higher dimension.

Creating a set of rules requires an enormous amount of resources and a long period of technological accumulation and trial and error.

This process can be viewed as a civilization's "ascension plan".

Therefore, no race with even a modicum of foresight would ever put the power of rules into the trading market to exchange for ordinary development resources or war materials that can be obtained through war or time.

Doing so is tantamount to cutting off one's own foundation.

A more realistic example is the "Blue Light Generation".

This race views resources as weeds, but regards the power of rules as a priceless treasure.

The highest-level rule-based resources will not be sent to the Gold Coin Merchant Guild's trading market by any clan.

But the casino, Destiny City, bypassed this barrier.

Rules exist as a bargaining chip; you might not necessarily lose, you might even win.

A gambler in dire straits might use rule-based power to gamble on a possible future.

From Qi Sheng's macro perspective.

The Gold Coin Merchant Guild and the Destiny Casino complement each other in their development and revenue models.

The Gold Coin Chamber of Commerce is building a stable and inclusive ecosystem.

Like a giant resource heart, it maintains the blood (resource) circulation of the surrounding sea area through the flow of low, medium and high-end resources, earning stable tolls from the huge flow of resources.

Fate Casino operates a high-risk, high-premium penthouse hunting ground.

In terms of regular profits, Destiny Casino may only make a small profit.

However, there is a probability that, at a very low cost, one can harvest rule-level resources, whose value cannot be measured by conventional means, or the foundational resources of a civilization.

One is responsible for both providing aid and generating new blood, maintaining the basic foundation.

Another is responsible for plundering cutting-edge value.

The combination of these two approaches achieves a comprehensive and thorough understanding of the value extracted from this sea area.

To paraphrase a player on the forum: From now on, all creatures in the Azure Star Sea will be bound to face three things in their lives: death, the Gold Coin Merchant Guild, and lingering at the gates of the Destiny Gambling City.

Death is the end of life, and it can also be tomorrow, which may come at any time.

The Gold Coin Merchant Guild is an existing order that cannot be bypassed in the process of development. Not connecting with it means falling behind and being eliminated by the times.

Destiny Casino is a poisonous ray of dawn in this unpredictable monster world.

No group in this world can have a smooth journey.

In times of hardship and despair, people often turn their attention to the gambling city that may bring hope or despair, and hesitate about whether to take a desperate gamble.

From development to death, Alan and Minghou joined forces to complete the harvesting loop.

But this is not oppression.

Both present opportunities for all the sea creatures.

Perhaps by leveraging the system advantages provided by players, they can stand out in the monster world and gain new opportunities for development.

Turning his attention back, Qi Sheng then summoned the tax payment data for the Destiny Casino over the past few days.

Although the casino has been operating at a loss these days.

However, the tax rules he established will not change.

They will still extract profits according to the previously set ratio.

Moreover, it is drawn directly from the operation of the rules of the City of Destiny, and has nothing to do with the amount of winning or losing in the gamble.

The Destiny Casino model has two ways of generating profits.

The first type is the normal mode, which is available to all ordinary gamblers.

In this mode, the Fate race will not use any Fate Soul characteristics to interfere with the odds of winning the game, relying entirely on the randomness of probability itself.

The casino's system doesn't include the concept of a bookmaker taking a tax, so the odds remain stable.

The energy derived from the rules of Destiny City generated during the gambling process is the main source of Destiny's Throat's profits.

This is a steady source of income that will not harm the gambler's probability.

The second mode, which Lifethirst calls: Hunting Mode.

When a heavyweight gambler appears and bets extremely high-value chips (such as top-tier resources like rule fragments or civilization treasures), Fate Throat will selectively intervene.

By secretly using the traits of good luck and bad luck, the balance of probability is affected, greatly increasing the chances of Destiny City winning.

However, such intervention is not guaranteed to be successful.

Gamblers can still win by relying on their own luck, even with interference.

Regardless of the mode, Qi Sheng will extract 30% of the rule-derived energy profit from each game.

Even if in this round, the Fate faction suffers a greater loss than gain in terms of total profit, they will still continue to draw cards.

Because taxation is based on the energy derived from rules.

In the long run, this will not affect the stable revenue source of Destiny Casino. It is certain that in the future, Destiny Casino will remain an important source of tax revenue, similar to the Gold Coin Merchant Guild.

Without continuing to pay attention to the operation of the Destiny Casino, Qi Sheng's gaze then shifted to the Ascension Sea.

The conflict between the Mist Clan, the Ascended Clan, and the Book Words has taken a new turn after the Gold Coin Merchant Guild intervened.

The Ascended Clan was already at a disadvantage.

The Mist Clan holds an absolute advantage in every aspect, and with the Gold Coin Merchant Guild providing war resources and even various recovery potions, they are in a strong position.

The core reason why this war did not end quickly was that the Mist Clan adopted a strategy of attrition.

Multiple Mist Legions did not forcefully attack the core island chain of the Ascended Race, but instead continuously patrolled, probed, cut, and devoured the periphery.

With the support of the Gold Coin Merchant Guild, the Mist Clan is confident of victory and has no need to rush.

The reason for this decision was that General Yeming of the Mingwu Clan considered that the fierce confrontation brought about by a full-scale war would inevitably lead to huge losses for the Mingwu Clan.

It knew that the monster world was fraught with danger, and that unknown and powerful enemies could appear at any moment.

Therefore, Ye Ming has always been stockpiling war power to ensure that it can launch a powerful counterattack at any time when war breaks out.

With the help of war resources provided by the Gold Coin Merchant Guild, core combat forces are basically unharmed in war and can be quickly restored to their status through potions.

This gave the Mist Clan the confidence to employ a strategy of gradual encroachment.

Secondly, a large number of resource production points in the Ascension Sea are already controlled by the Mist Clan, which limits the development speed. In the eyes of Ye Ming, it is nothing more than a trapped beast that will be devoured by the Mist Clan sooner or later.

But recently the situation has changed slightly.

The Ascended Clan also received assistance from the Gold Coin Merchant Guild.

Although it did not reverse the decline of the Ascended Clan, it significantly increased the losses of the Mist Clan in the war.

The Gold Coin Merchants Guild is the biggest beneficiary of this ongoing war.

The fiercer the battle between the three forces, the more war resources they need to purchase, and the higher the profits the Gold Coin Merchants Guild can earn.

The Mist Clan comes second.

They occupied large tracts of islands and seabed resource extraction channels that originally belonged to the Ascended.

However, being in the midst of war, the core energy of the Mist Clan had to be focused on suppressing the enemy, and they could not immediately invest manpower and resources in large-scale mining.

Once the war ends, these occupied resource production channels will quickly thaw and transform into a driving force for development.

This led to a period of rapid rise for the Mist Clan.

During this phase, the Gold Coin Merchant Guild can still profit from it, since the Mist Clan still chooses the Gold Coin Merchant Guild for processing the resources they mine.

Therefore, whether in times of war or stable development, the Gold Coin Merchants Guild can remain calm and collected.

Of the three forces fighting in the sea, Qi Sheng actually favors Shu Yan the most.

In its early stages, Shuyan was completely suppressed by the Ascended Clan, but now it has become a force that surpasses the Ascended Clan.

The included "story chapters" contain 293 war systems.

Turn any page and you'll find a brand new war legion.

This growth model is modeled after the entire Black Tide troop system, which is also the future direction of Shuyan.

Shuyan even created a legion with the ability to devour life, aiming to devour the creatures of opposing forces through war in order to gain additional growth.

Shuyan's mastery of "holding, writing, and calligraphy" gives him the ability to reshape the system at will.

Therefore, it has the strongest growth potential among the three forces.

When a force faces a new challenge, studying the opponent's system and then formulating a countermeasure requires time, effort, and even a huge investment of resources.

Shuyan does not have this kind of trouble.

With the Inspiration World as a channel for system optimization, Shuyan receives a large amount of inspiration for optimizing the war mode every day.

Realize testing and application within the domain at any time.

Despite the invasion of the Mingwu Clan, Shuyan was not under much pressure.

With the Ascended Clan leading the main battlefront, Shu Yan's task is to expand the Mist Clan's battle lines and alleviate the pressure on the Ascended Clan.

During this period, Shuyan's growth accelerated once again.

Qi Sheng observed that in addition to the optimization of the war system, Shuyan's progress also included the update of the small world story distribution model.

The reading, thinking, and other behaviors of readers in the small world can all allow the book to extract the rules derived from the book: reading power.

The popularity and discussion surrounding a work are among the channels through which Shuyan can acquire resources.

Before this, Shuyan relied on storytellers and other cultural disseminators in the small world as the medium for spreading stories.

Recently, in order to better disseminate her work, Shuyan tested new dissemination channels in different mini-worlds.

For example, in a small world called Shunjing.

Shuyan tested a model that combines short videos with stories.

The appeal of text in this world is far less than that of video, especially short, fragmented videos.

After observing the world, Shuyan pondered a question.

Could we combine this short video format, which has the strongest reach in this small world, to help spread the story?

Shuyan conducted a test on this.

The model involves having those beings inspired by Shuyan create edited videos, paired with stories created by Shuyan, and accompanied by simplified copywriting for dissemination.

The content of short videos does not need to be complicated.

Shuyan aims to immerse the audience in the story, not just the video.

Therefore, the visuals in short videos are generally dominated by atmospheric empty shots, such as scenery or other content that does not contain a specific narrative.

The main purpose is to draw the audience into the atmosphere required by the story.

The video itself is just a prelude; the real content is the story provided by Shuyan.

Appearing as subtitles or voice-over can attract a wider audience.

To create this model, Shuyan controlled a large number of short video creators, providing them with story inspiration.

They are similar to storytellers in the world of cultivation, in Shuyan's eyes, but they generate reading power for him in a different way.

This innovative system, implemented in many smaller worlds, has resulted in a significant increase in the benefits of reading and speaking skills.

After his growth accelerated, Shuyan was no longer satisfied with defensive tactics.

Judging from the legion system of Shuyan's architecture, Qi Sheng's next goal will revolve around restraining the Mingwu Clan.

As for the Ascended Clan...

On Shuyan's strategic chessboard, the Ascended Clan's position has already changed.

They are no longer the opponents that Shuyan needs to deal with with all her might.

Rather, it is a pawn used to wear down and delay the main force of the Mist Clan, and also a stepping stone that it will soon trample under its feet to elevate its own position.

It was pleased to see the Ascended Clan struggling under the pressure from the Mist Clan, because this bought it the crucial time for development and strategic planning.

At this moment, Shuyan was focusing all his energy on one thing: building a brand-new story legion that could completely counter the Mist Clan's war system.

What it aims to recreate is the glorious feat of defeating the Ascended Clan with the weak and crushing them underfoot.

This is also the path that Shuyan has always chosen.

It regards powerful enemies as whetstones, attempting to temper itself under the pressure of adversity.

The advantage is that each victory over an opponent leads to significant growth.

The downside is that a slight misstep could lead to utter ruin.

But Qi Sheng could completely understand what Shu Yan was thinking.

Shuyan has great ambitions; it wants to become the "Heavenly Way" of the monster world.

This means that the challenges it faces have long surpassed mere survival.

In a monster world teeming with powerful races, risks are ever-present, no matter which path you choose.

Conservatism and isolation may bring temporary stability, but they will inevitably be ruthlessly devoured when an unpredictable crisis strikes due to insufficient strength.

The shadow of impending war looms over all powers, including Shuyan.

Therefore, Shuyan chose this path, a path fraught with peril, transforming uncontrollable external risks into controllable internal dynamics.

Rather than passively waiting for unknown disasters to strike, it is better to proactively choose known formidable adversaries as opponents and take control of the pressure of survival.

Every collision with the "whetstone" may result in shattering, but if successful, it will bring about leapfrog growth.

Furthermore, the trials and tribulations of war can forge a powerful force specifically designed to serve the war effort.

This is also why Qi Sheng pays close attention to Shuyan.

It is quite similar to the Lord of Bliss in some respects.

One prioritizes survival over innovation, sacrificing development efficiency but avoiding risks.

One focuses on development, with innovation as a secondary aspect, and while taking on the risks of development, it also achieves a faster growth rate.

Both are innovation-driven and seek new growth opportunities through innovation, but they follow two completely different development paths.

The landscape of the Cangxing Sea will soon be reshuffled.

It is foreseeable that the Ascended race will soon become a thing of the past, existing only in the memories of veteran players.

New players will only be able to see records of the Ascended Clan in the annals of glory.

The backwardness in all aspects means that the Ascended Clan will inevitably be eliminated, and that time is not far off.

What follows will be a war between the powerful Shuyan and Mingwu tribes.

The Mingwu Clan excels in the present, possessing a profound cultural heritage.

The future holds countless uncertainties.

The outcome of this conflict is currently difficult to predict.

Qi Sheng was particularly looking forward to seeing if Shu Yan could turn the tide again under immense pressure and adversity.

The new legion system, which is currently being perfected, may be able to establish an absolute systemic advantage over the Mist Clan at the war level, thus helping to create a situation where the weak defeat the strong.

Time will tell.

After compiling a detailed list of intelligence information on the Azure Star Sea and the Ascension Sea, Qi Sheng turned his attention to the "Illusory Flower Plain" region.

　I was quite busy today, so here's 5700 words~
　　
　
(End of this chapter)