Chapter 260: The Horror of the RNG Mechanism
Translator: Limostn Editor: Tennesh
On the second day, the sales of Chen Feng's loot boxes entered a new height. By word of mouth, they became even more popular as more and more people find out about the existence of this cheap yet unique research paper.
Buy, buy, buy!
After being used to all sorts of expensive prices all this time, they were sure that these loot boxes of Chen Feng's sold at one point per box were in fact extremely cheap! A lot of them did not need the solution for too many of the problems, so by purchasing these loot boxes, they would be able to purchase the solution they wanted for an extremely cheap price! If they were lucky, only a slight amount of points would be required!
Besides that, a single point was sufficient for them to obtain the solution for one of the top 100 problems. The solution for these problems would normally be worth at least 30 points per solution! Now, if one was lucky enough, one would be able to get the solutions for the problems with the highest difficulty in one go, how profitable! Based on their experience, the solutions for these highest-difficulty problems would normally be worth 100 points per solution!
Here, Chen Feng was selling them like some random cabbages!
Buy, buy, buy, buy!
Everyone was going crazy. At all the branches, producers were going on shopping sprees.
Further agitating everyone was the news released this morning: Chen Feng's loot box would stop selling in one month's time.
That was also the time in which the competition for this year's excellence award would end.
Shua!
This caused an uproar.
"Damn, there's a time limit?"
"I knew Chen Feng was only selling it this cheap to get the excellence award…"
"Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah, quick, buy quick."
"I don't care if the solution I get is something I needed or not, just buy it first before deciding what to do with it."
Everyone was going crazy.
Even those who would normally not buy any research papers started buying a bunch of Chen Feng's loot boxes when they heard this.
This was simply the sale of the century. If they were to miss this, the same thing might never appear again. Buying the loot boxes became the only common topic of all producers.
In the learning forum… at all branches… almost all producers were talking about this.
Someone posted a thread. "Hahaha, I managed to get an SSR-tier drop with a single contribution point!"
"Wow, I envy your luck."
"Is this for real?"
"666666666."
Countless people replied.
Similar threads appeared without stop. There was nothing one could do about this, as the amount of people who had bought the loot boxes was simply too high. Due to the huge amount, there would be a small amount of lucky ones that managed to get a high-difficulty solution from the loot boxes, which would tempt the other producers to continue buying without stop. As for the unlucky ones, they were too busy buying new loot boxes instead of posting threads documenting their bad luck.
Chen Feng's public image and popularity were increasing without stop. This caused an uproar so huge that even non-producers heard of it. Once again, Chen Feng became the trending topic.
Currently, Chen Feng had secretly returned to his rented room at Gold City. He was silently reading all the posted threads as he lamented inwardly: What a bunch a naive kids…
In his memories, back then, when free to pay games with microtransactions had first been released, this was how he'd behaved as well. It was a free game! The spring of the gaming era had arrived…
Next… he finally got a clear understanding on what "free" meant, what "cheap" meant, and what "RNG" meant!
In this world where strength reigned supreme, economic studies were not popular. As such, the economic structure here was quite lacking compared to Chen Feng's previous world, to the point where items such as loot boxes had never appeared here before.
Shua!
Shua!
The figures running in the background changed without stop. Only the seller, Chen Feng, knew how terrifying this figure had reached. Based on the records, currently, the highest amount a single buyer had spent on the loot boxes was no less than 20,000 contribution points!
The amount of contribution points this guy had spent was still increasing. In other words, this sad brother here had failed to get the solution he'd wanted from the loot boxes?
Chen Feng tried checking his records. Mhm… This guy had a full collection of all R-tier and SR-tier drops. As for SSR-tier drops, he still lacked one to complete his collection.
He had gotten 200 sets of SSR-tier drops from the loot boxes. However, among them, he kept getting repeat drops from the loot boxes, with the highest repeat solution at 50 times while the lowest at 10 times. As for the particular drop he required, he had yet to obtain it from the loot boxes.
"How pitiful…"
Chen Feng mourned for him.
This brother here was truly extremely unlucky!
Apart from this brother here, there was also a huge amount of unlucky gamblers who had also spent several thousand or several tens of thousands contribution points. Nearly all of those who had spent this much were all trying to get some particular SSR-tier drop.
Chen Feng exhaled in relief. "Fortunately, I left Star City in time."
"Hu—"
From the amount of contribution points those people could afford to spend, it was obvious that these were all super-powerful seniors. If his location was discovered by them…
Mhm…
He might not be able to avoid getting beaten up. However, as Chen Feng studied the records, in two short days, the contribution points he had earned had surpassed 80% of the producers based at the research institute. Moreover, his contribution points were increasing without stop at an extremely fast speed, with the speed increasing as well!
This method of sale was truly quite scam-like. However, it was also undeniably an undefeated method. Naturally, the premise of this succeeding was to first ensure that his popularity and prestige were sufficient. Otherwise, he would most probably end up getting himself chopped into pieces by some angry gamblers…
He recalled that in his previous life, there had been one particular author called "Minus Ninety Degrees."
Although this guy was tall, handsome, and wrote some good stories, due to pirates, his income had been too low. There had been several times where he'd almost stopped writing because of that. Next, this author had requested Chen Feng's advice. Chen Feng had given this guy a good method of making money: RNG-style novels!
That's right, RNG-style novels. Only a single subscription point was required to read each chapter. However, for each chapter:
Fifty percent probability of it being a filler chapter.
Forty percent probability of it being a chapter where the main plot progressed.
Ten percent probability of it being a chapter where the story reached a climax.
One percent of probability of it being the conclusion of that particular arc.
What a perfect system!
It was rumored that, subsequently, in the first month after he'd implemented that system, his remuneration had reached six figures, creating a miracle. However, he had subsequently disappeared. According to the rumors, he was still being hunted by his readers or something…
As Chen Feng thought of that, he sighed endlessly.
To forge iron, one's own body had to be strong as well. This was a sales method not everyone would dare to implement.
"Two more days at most."
A toying smile appeared on Chen Feng's face.
Soon, these people would all experience for themselves the horror of RNG!
As of now, they were all still happily gambling on the loot boxes. For the casual gamblers who only spent 10 to 20 contribution points on the loot boxes, they would obtain a huge amount of R-tier and SR-tier drops with a low amount of repeat drops. As such, these people would start talking about their success online, attracting the envy of countless people. If one was lucky enough to obtain an SSR-tier drop, one would be able to create an uproar online.
Was that worth the contribution points? For these people, of course it was!
However, when the producers that truly needed these solutions to solve their problems saw this, their hearts would start aching as they noticed how low the probability was for them to get the solution they wanted out of the 100 solutions a loot box might contain.
This was especially true when there was simply no limit placed on repeat solutions one might obtain.
This was too scam-like, right?
If the solution they wanted was some R-tier drop, it was somewhat easier, since the amount of R-tier drops were higher. Hence, the probability for it to appear would be higher. If the solution they wanted was some SR-tier drop, it would be somewhat harder. If it was some SSR-tier drop… they might as well kneel down and start praying for good luck.
"Something seems wrong with this, right?"
Some started realizing the issue. Fortunately, these people were still blaming their luck for this instead of questioning Chen Feng's method of sale.
Suddenly, a thread called "Bastard Chen Feng! Refund me my contribution points!" appeared at the learning forum. This caused a huge uproar.
The content of the thread:
"Bastard Chen Feng, refund me my contribution points! All those SSR-tier threads posted on the forum must be fake, right? Do SSR-tier solutions even exist in the loot boxes? I doubt it! For a single SSR-tier solution, I wasted 10,000 contribution points, yet I have not even gotten a single SSR-tier solution! Not a single one! The f*ck are you f*ckers showing off at the forum for? My 10,000 contribution points! F*ck this loot box! Chen Feng, refund my contribution points!"
Bang!
This caused a huge uproar on the whole forum. The only reason for this was because the thread had been posted by a master producer.
If this thread was considered as the fuse, then the first reply to this thread would be the trigger for the fuse, for the upcoming storm.
Username: Unchanging Fate
Status: Master producer
Reply:
"Hahahahaha! Fake! It's all fake! There are simply no SSR-tier drops in this loot box! No, don't touch this king here! This king here does not want to eat medicine! This king here is not crazy!! Let this king go. All you traitors are trying to hurt this king!! Protect the king! Protect the king!"