Building a sect from scratch.

Chapter 493 Project Team Meeting
The second phase of the Zhonghuajia project has just been approved and is under construction. Workers are working in three shifts, and the roar of various machines on the construction site is almost non-stop day and night.

However, even so, it won't be completed in a short time. Unlike the simple buildings in the first phase that prioritize practicality, the second phase also needs to consider the design of actual experimental sites and higher-standard security measures, so it will take at least several months before it can be truly put into use.

Therefore, the entire project team's general meeting has now been moved from the cramped small conference room to the large conference room at the Phase 1 project site—although it is far smaller than the largest venue with 10,000 people (to avoid censorship), it can still accommodate several thousand people.

Strictly speaking, this conference is the first conference held after the first phase of the project base was put into use, and it is also the conference following the previous talks with Fang Xianyu.

Of course, this meeting was an internal meeting of the Chinese government; it was neither announced to the public nor attended by Fang Xianyu.

Its true purpose was actually a special "report".

"...To date, we have made breakthrough progress in 112 projects, including long-stagnant pharmaceutical technology and military industries, as well as high-tech fields such as artificial intelligence and bionics that have reached a bottleneck in development. As a result, the industrial scale of most related industries has increased by more than 40%, and the scale of some industries has exceeded one trillion yuan..."

"...At the same time, Wang Qiqing and his team have achieved groundbreaking results in their anti-gravity research, which makes the 'South Heavenly Gate Project' expected to be officially established within this year..."

"...China will seize the initiative and may even lead the world, ushering in a new era for humanity—the space age!"

"Clap clap clap..."

As soon as he finished speaking, enthusiastic applause erupted in the conference room.

Although everyone knew that due to their research on the Guixu Realm, the Chinese nation had recently achieved a series of groundbreaking results, this extremely direct report still shocked everyone.

What's shocking isn't the results presented in the report, but the investment required to achieve them—it was just a small project team!
The project team consisted of fewer than two hundred researchers in total!
Even then, we still need to include the disciples of those research gurus who came to help out to make up about a hundred people!
Not to mention the funding, it's less than a fraction of other national-level large-scale projects!
With such a ratio of input to output, how could it not excite everyone!
But soon, Director Wang's (Aunt Wang's) speech, delivered after she took over the microphone, left everyone at the meeting speechless—

"...Due to alpha's requirements and the project team's need for confidentiality, after debugging, some non-profit commercial operations were conducted on the game 'Ten Continents Chronicles.' However, during the brief trial operation period, the revenue generated by 'Ten Continents Chronicles' exceeded 10 billion, and this was even under the condition that there were de facto limits on in-game top-ups and spending. The net profit exceeded 1 billion..."

"...Since α did not give clear instructions regarding the revenue of 'Ten Continents Chronicles,' this money, after deducting the salaries and allowances for personnel traveling to the Guixu Realm, will be temporarily frozen in the public account of the 'Ten Continents Chronicles' operations team..."

This profit was unexpected by everyone.

Unlike most games on the market, while the in-game purchases in *Ten Continents Chronicles* may seem substantial at first glance, there are de facto "caps." For example, purchasing cosmetic items is limited to a limited number of accounts, eliminating the possibility of scalpers hoarding multiple items to resell. Furthermore, there are no unlimited spending options like gacha pulls or gift packs; the primary expenditure is always on cosmetic items in the in-game store—and even buying all of these wouldn't cost much.

This also reflects what Aunt Wang meant by "operation not for profit".

Even so, it's astonishing that it can still generate such revenue. You have to know that some popular games, even with unlimited recharge options, only generate a few times more revenue than "Ten Continents Chronicles" at their peak—and this is just the revenue from a few months!

Immediately afterwards, Director Wang began to report on another aspect of the matter.

"...After multiple tests and data analysis, we have discovered that some of the spells and formations of the Void Realm are actually effective on Blue Star. This is a very important milestone and a testament to the technological achievements of Blue Star!"
"However, after research and confirmation by the project team's researchers, these effective spells and formations, even in the Void Realm, do not directly interact with 'spiritual energy' when they take effect, nor do they depend on 'spiritual energy' for operation. This indirectly reflects that 'spiritual energy' may indeed not exist on Earth, but it still opens an unprecedented door for the technological development of China..."

After Director Wang finished his speech, everyone began the discussion and proposal (solution) session.

In addition to suggesting increased financial support and investment for the project team, it was also proposed to expand the number of people participating in the project—this has always been a difficult problem, the difficulty lies not with China, but with Alpha's refusal to loosen the quota restrictions.

In addition, there were many other random proposals, such as setting up new research groups and projects, opening a separate account for the profits of "Ten Continents Chronicles" as a private account for Alpha on Earth as a gesture of goodwill, etc. The "conference" lasted until sunset before it was announced that it was over.

Mo Yu and Mo Ye are half-siblings under Professor Wang's tutelage—of course, they just happen to share the same surname when they joined his school.

One of them is pursuing a PhD, and the other is a first-year master's student. They wouldn't normally care whether they attended this conference or not, and in fact, they were quite resistant to this "lab team building" because they were busy completing limited-time battlefield missions in the game.

But Wang Qiqing, adhering to the principle of letting his children see the world, insisted on bringing them over one in each hand, and even secretly hid two oranges to coax them in.

At first, the two of them were excitedly looking around, but later, one after the other, their eyelids started to droop.

I finally made it to the end of the meeting, but the first thing my professor asked me was, "How's your programming going lately? How much of your paper have you written?"

The drowsiness in the two vanished instantly, and they exchanged a startled glance. Before they could even speak, they heard Wang Qiqing utter a devilish whisper:
"I have time tomorrow since I'm off. This timed battlefield mission is most likely a long-term project, so there's no rush. Besides, Old Farmer and the others are keeping an eye on it. You two should send me your papers first so I can take a look!"

"Oh, by the way, if there's anything inappropriate, it's best to revise it tonight. I don't want to lose face in the education field."