To ascend, I had no choice but to create games

Chapter 492: Chapter 291 The Problem with Linhua City_1

Due to the large number of players, these players specifically established guilds to facilitate the attraction of like-minded players to play together.

When opening the current player guild list, Gong Gong was directly dazzled by it.

There are thousands of player guilds now, with some guilds having as many as a thousand members and others having only a few, highlighting an unequal distribution of wealth.

The philosophies of the players also differ, with some coming just to eat, while others come to promote their local specialty foods, and some simply come here for fun.

All the major cuisines can find their supporters, some even coming from overseas. Fortunately, the game’s translation system is powerful, so communication isn’t an issue.

Above these guilds are the official NPC organizations.

They are the NPCs who manage Linhua City, some of whom are Cultivators. They usually remain aloof, only stepping in for mediation and management when situations arise.

It’s very difficult to raise their goodwill, but as with having a health bar implies the possibility of being defeated, having goodwill implies the possibility of a strategy, so many players are still trying to raise goodwill to see if there’s any plot.

After looking for a while, Tai Yin asked in confusion, “Strange, why do so many guilds require contributions of recipes, or completing certain guild quests, in order to officially join?”

“To prevent some people from joining just to scam the recipes and then run away,” said the Military Governor after reading some explanations. “After all, recipes are a very important resource, and many were collected by players through hard work. It wouldn’t be fair to those players if someone just joined the guild to take the recipes and leave.”

Tai Yin nodded in understanding but still asked in confusion, “But aren’t the conditions too high?”

“Every seemingly ludicrous rule has its reason; behind it are painful lessons learned.”

“There are just too many of these human principles.”

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“No way around it, humans are often not rational. And it’s not just humans; we Artifact Spirits are the same.”

The three gathered together to analyze the current situation and found that while Linhua City appeared prosperous, it was not easy to make a name for oneself.

The ways to make money easily had been mostly figured out by earlier people, with what’s left being either pure manual labor or requiring high technical skills.

Joining a local guild was one strategy, but joining did not mean worry-free living. Even players who had just joined were only low-level staff within the guild, and even with good skills, it would be hard to stand out.

As they sifted through the posts on Game Inn, the three discovered that Linhua City had become a fiercely competitive place.

New players who arrived here first needed to find a guild to pay their respects to and offer up several thousand silver as a greeting gift.

After joining, they had to hand over all their recipes as the guild’s assets, but they still had to spend time earning points to even look at the guild’s recipes.

If a newcomer raised questions, they would be mocked by the veteran players. In the end, the new player had to either compromise or leave.

Some player guilds had even developed to the point of hiring people to play the game to obtain more resources, with skilled players potentially earning tens of thousands a month.

After reading these posts, Gong Gong and the others realized that Linhua City was a great place to visit occasionally, but living there permanently was likely to be very tiring.

After perusing the posts, they refrained from joining a guild and chose a location to open their own shop.

But then, an unexpected problem arose.

The shops here would not rent to them.

Although there were many vacant shops by the roadside, the NPC landlords stated that these shops had connections with various guilds and were reserved for members of those guilds.

Even when Gong Gong offered more money, the landlords appeared troubled and said they really could not afford to provoke those guilds.

The only place available for rent was a small space in a remote area with insufficient customer flow, yet expensive rent. However, it was still somewhere they could settle down.

But no sooner had they opened their establishment than a second problem arose.

The suppliers wouldn’t make deliveries.

Back in Nanan City, suppliers of vegetables and meat would eagerly deliver the goods to their doorstep, and they just needed to cook.

But here, the suppliers simply ignored Gong Gong and the others, even when they offered to pay extra.

Don’t ask; it’s the guilds’ arrangement.

If you’re not a member of a guild, you can only purchase items at designated places, and the sellers won’t deliver. Gong Gong could only pick them up herself.

Tai Yin didn’t really mind, treating it as a walk, but Gong Gong sensed the potential for more trouble.

As expected, more troubles emerged.

The route for the wagons carrying domestic sewage always went this way. The stench lingered even after the wagons had passed, driving away the rare customers who did show up.

Hooligans seemed to particularly like this place, coming by every day and being a constant nuisance.

Consequently, the newly opened restaurant hardly had any patrons, and Gong Gong, despite her cooking skills, couldn’t attract a single customer.

The popular restaurants’ cooking skills were far inferior to Gong Gong’s, but simply by joining a good guild, they were pushed to the top tier, enjoying glory they otherwise wouldn’t deserve.

Furthermore, Gong Gong discovered that while Linhua City seemed prosperous and abundant in gourmet food, in reality, very little trickled down to the average person.

The price of gourmet food was high, and some NPCs could only look at the dishes, weighing their purses before walking away.