The Fourth Calamity: Starting with Dungeon Slimes

Chapter 150 Jiang Chen's Troubles

After receiving accurate information, the players immediately began to take action.

The players prepared the supplies relatively quickly, taking about three days to transport all the necessary supplies to the entrance of floors 55 to 54.

Meanwhile, the two combat mechs have also basically arrived.

Besides these, a lot of other food and supplies have also arrived one after another.

The players were well-prepared for this battle, and they were even more excited about it than before.

It wasn't an improvement in strength. In fact, apart from leveling up, there wasn't much improvement in other aspects during this period, and the leveling up was also very slow. After all, now that the level is high, more experience is needed, so reaching the maximum level is not so easy.

The biggest difference between this battle and previous ones lies in the improvement of the system. Over this period of time, due to various developments and the implementation of various policies by the leader, a mature system has gradually formed here.

This is what players care about most, because the systematic combat method is completely different from their previous combat mode, and the combat effect is also completely different.

Compared to other combat modes, they are extremely curious about how the systematic combat mode will perform in this game world. If it works well, then their opponents can also determine their future combat routes.

However, one thing is certain: the effect will be excellent, at least in their eyes, because in the two days since the decision to start the war was made, so many supplies have already been prepared.

Keep in mind that these supplies were transported down from the 60th floor in one trip after another.

This path is not easy to traverse; different monsters appear on different levels, and the routes vary. Transporting these items to their destination as quickly as possible, especially considering one level is a maze, presents a significant challenge for the players. To ensure they can navigate the maze's changes immediately, the players have deployed a large number of people here, all to understand how the maze is evolving today.

In addition, players have simulated the changes in the maze and drawn many different terrain maps.

This allowed the new route to be found 10 minutes after the maze changed. As for the other levels, some of the paths were difficult to navigate, so many players took turns using earth magic to repair the paths.

This is how a shortcut and relatively smooth road was built. In addition, the road still needs maintenance due to the constant traffic of heavy trucks and other vehicles.

This area also needs to be maintained immediately. In short, almost all players have taken action, and everyone has played a different role in the mobilization of resources in this war. For this reason, from construction to maintenance and security, there are people in different positions responsible for this road.

Under normal circumstances, if players were to transport these supplies in the same way as before, it would probably take at least 10 to 15 days. But now, with this system, they have reduced the time to just two days.

The improvement is self-evident, and compared to using similar strategies like spatial rings or item spaces, this strategy seems very cumbersome, but in reality, both spatial rings and backpack spaces have limited capacity.

Even a good space ring is considered good if it has about two cubic meters of space, and it is very rare and expensive.

You can definitely bring things, but you can't bring too much.

Players using transportation utilize backpack space and heavy trucks for transport, maximizing the transport capacity on each trip.

According to players' speculation, this battle is not an ordinary one, but a long one, which places high demands on all aspects, including the transportation of supplies, and makes subsequent supply replenishment particularly important.

The systematic transportation model has now begun to show results. Basically, when the war starts in the later stages, players will no longer need to worry about the transportation of supplies. As for ammunition and other issues, there is basically no need to worry either. The factory run by the amateur welder is now fully operational.

Because of the previous battles, the factory run by the amateur welder now has a complete equipment and weapon production line. Although it only produces the most basic shells and launchers, it is already considered automated for the players.

With these mortars and ammunition, even if the enemy outnumbers them, the players are confident that a single charge will wipe out most of their forces, not to mention any follow-up attacks.

It doesn't matter if they send more people later, since the supplies of materials and ammunition are very plentiful.

This systematic combat model has its advantages, but also its disadvantages. The advantage is that supplies can be replenished in the shortest possible time, but the disadvantages are also obvious, the biggest problem being the financial burden.

"So war is really a high-income business. Anyone who wants to go to war with a lower income is just dreaming."

Jiang Chen watched as truckloads of supplies were being hauled towards the battlefield, and he couldn't help but feel a headache coming on.

After understanding the other party's situation, it was natural to start a war. However, the problem was that the war was different from the past, when the players felt like they were just a makeshift operation.

If you go out to fight at this time, with a little organization, a whole bunch of people will go there. If they lose, they'll be resurrected and come back to fight again.

"But now it's become a system. First of all, when the war starts, all kinds of supplies and other things must keep up. Although these things are managed by the players, the biggest problem now is the war funds."

"Different positions and different systems need people, so why would someone give up making big money on the front lines to come and maintain logistics? Naturally, there must be enough benefits. The players on the front lines certainly won't give these benefits, so in the end, they fall to me."

"So the current situation is that in order to maintain the war, to ensure every position, and to ensure that there will be no shortage of supplies when the war starts, these players responsible for logistics need to be paid. Although there are only about 50 players in charge of logistics, they need to be paid at least 30 gold coins per day for them to be willing to continue."

"That's equivalent to an average of 1500 gold coins per day. But that's not the main point. The main point is this 1500..."

The gold coins were given to them out of thin air, without any normal trading between players or by exchanging ores for gold coins. This means that these 1500 gold coins simply exacerbated inflation.

"And most importantly, I can't favor one player over another. The players responsible for combat will also receive an extra income. This income is necessary; otherwise, if the income of the players responsible for combat is low, it will dampen their enthusiasm and have a counterproductive effect on future mobilization. So this kind of war funding is a must. Although it is settled based on the victory of each battle, on average, each player can receive at least 5 gold per day in war guarantee income, which means that several thousand gold have been added out of thin air."

"Moreover, the longer this continues, the more necessary it will be to spend several thousand gold coins every day, and these expenses will be purely due to inflation."

Thinking about this, Jiang Chen also had a headache; his economic system was far too fragile.

A fragile economic system can only maintain normal operation, but if a war breaks out and war mobilization is needed, then the situation is completely different.

Since there's a war, resources will naturally be crammed into our side, and we'll earn more. But the biggest problem is that we have too few people, and the resources we crammed in will only accelerate inflation.

The root cause is that the current level of population mobility is insufficient. Only when the population is large enough will this problem not occur.

The main reason for this is that these war resources are considered spoils of war by the players in the game's setting, and it is absolutely impossible for them to be looted for their own use.

In a normal battle, after players win the previous battles, the loot they collect will belong to them.

This way, a large amount of war resources can be accumulated without causing inflation. Instead, it can stimulate the economic cycle because these equipment can be resold to players.

However, the problem lies in the fact that, as a game, it's inevitable that players will collect loot. If you dare to manipulate this aspect, you'll be in big trouble in no time.

So for others, war is a way to make huge profits, but for Jiang Chen, it only exacerbates inflation.

"So the frustrating thing is, tell me, what exactly happened?"

"What should have been a profitable business has instead turned into a situation where the current economic system is truly unsustainable."

"Now, the first way I recycle gold coins is by selling equipment. But I don't have much equipment left, and players can be self-sufficient now. So, as the war progresses, more and more equipment will be available for players to acquire themselves. Therefore, I basically don't need to continue selling equipment."

"

"So, after losing this source of income, the only remaining source is taxes. But with so many people in our family, how am I supposed to collect them? How much can I collect? Besides that, there's the income from resurrection coins."

"Taxes must be kept within a reasonable range. Although tax rates are commonly high in games, typically around 10% of profits."

This benefit is a consensus among most games, so Jiang Chen simply adopted it without players noticing anything different, since other games operate this way.

The problem is that I can only collect taxes in the normal way now. There are very few tax items, and the amount of gold coins I can collect is not much. If I create a pretext, I can indeed collect a lot more, but it will most likely cause trouble. Even the map development method I came up with this time, which I originally thought would reduce inflation, has been ruined by the Salty Fish gang.

He never expected that the group of Salty Fish would actually know how to play the game, and actually ran off to other levels, which left him speechless.

Now things have really gotten worse. Not only did their plan fail to recover much gold or curb inflation, it actually exacerbated the problem and directly triggered a war.

"This can't go on any longer. If it continues like this, who knows what will happen to the financial system? The ratio of game currency has already dropped from five RMB to two RMB. If it keeps dropping like this, it might reach 1:1."

"Even a score of 1 to 0.x is possible. If this continues, what's the point of me playing?"

The exchange rate between in-game currency and real-world currency is decreasing, which means that the game's economic system is collapsing faster and faster.

"It seems we have to think of another way."

"But what can I do in this dungeon? No matter how I trade, the game currency will only increase, because in situations like this, I have to release my stored gold into the market."

"The only solution I can think of right now is to fight our way out, leave the dungeon, and get to the outside world. Then everything will be much easier, because once we're outside, we can trade with other races, and the players' gold can circulate to other places and be diluted by other races."

"In that case, no matter how many gold coins I distribute, it won't affect the current economic system. In fact, with the exchange of gold coins with other races and the purchase of all sorts of things, the exchange rate of gold coins will actually appreciate."

Thinking of this, Jiang Chen couldn't help but feel a headache. It was easy to say that he could launch an attack, but with his limited manpower, how could he possibly launch one?

There's simply no way to launch it.

Unless I advance to the next tier, which would increase the number of players I can summon, and not only that, the players' own strength would also increase. In that case, I should have the basic conditions to make a move.

Of course, that's not the main point. The main point is what happens after the attack goes out? How to defend it will become another problem.

"Holy crap, this is getting more and more complicated. We have to consider everything. It's too difficult to break down."

"I don't know how long my fragile economic system can last, but in any case, I must solve the problem before the economic system collapses."

"Otherwise, we're really doomed."

Jiang Cheng knew very well how damaging the collapse of the economic system would be to the players; it was like painstakingly grinding for half a month.

I originally thought my income would be 1000 RMB, but when I looked it over, it was only 100.

Anyone would be mentally broken in this situation, and over time, the game would become increasingly uninteresting.