Infinite Realm

"Haha. Indeed." Cyanide laughed.

"Random question but I and some viewers have been wondering, do you have any plans of making a comeback to the industry?"

"Not at the moment. I'm pretty satisfied where I am right now." Cyanide smiled.

"Uhm, where are you at now?" The female host, who had finally recovered from the shock of Cyanide's appearance, asked.

Recalling that Hashimoto wasn't introduced as a retired player or even beta-tester, Sato was interested in knowing who he currently was.

"Well, apart from some part-time beta-testing, I'm also working as a developer. I'm one of the developers of Martial World, as well the current most hyped game, Infinite Realm."

"Oh wow. Sugoi~" The female co-host praised.

While in the current world, developers didn't earn as players, it was only dependent on the popularity of their game. And since not much constant effort was put in, quite a number of people preferred working at the back-end of the VR gaming sector.

"Alright, now back to the interview. About a week ago, the first-ever dungeon was unlocked in IR. Following that, more bad more dungeons popped up right after. By now players must have gotten used to their existence but what we want to know, or rather verify, is some of the rumours that have recently started to become prominent." The male host said.

"Indeed. We've been hearing a lot of stuff recently and we decided to get you onboard to clear away any random doubts and ideas." The female host added.

"Okay then. I'm yours now so ask away."

The male host then said,

"So with the appearance of the dungeon, a lot of players have become my more pumped about the game, especially the rankings. However, a few other players water wondering when the other features of the game would be released. Say, for instance, the Fiat to Coin conversion."

"Apart from having to sell their coins traditionally, where a buyer and the seller meets up, there's no other format and the present one is quite risky to some. There have already been accusations of some sellers attacking their buyers all over again and robbing them of the traded coins. Because of this, the financial transactions in the game have dropped according to the Hermes guild's report. Obviously, this isn't a good thing" The female host added.

"So now, a lot of players were wondering when the official trade store would be open. If there's any that is."

"Hmm. That's a good question. Well, we all know that the official trade store will not only help the players make some cash out of the game but it would also increase the game's popularity and boost profits. So it's guaranteed that there would be one. In fact, according to what I'm aware of, it should be launched within the week." Cyanide answered.

'So soon?' Sato couldn't help but exclaim mentally.

'But that's still good.'

Apart from guilds and clubs that made money from sponsorships, donations, and competitions, solo players and independent teams made their money through the exchange store. There they could sell off their gold coins to other players in exchange for cash which could be used in the real world. The more advanced features of this even enabled players to sell off their equipment and weapons in auctions or player-owner stores for cash. In other words, rather than selling a piece of equipment to others in exchange for coins, players could do so in exchange for cash.

Though it was true that before the official exchange stores and features were activated, some players had already begun making transactions with real cash, the efficiency and rate of doing so through the system was a lot better and cheaper. There was also the fact that players couldn't be scammed if they relied on the system's guidance so it could be said that the exchange store was way better than regular transfers between players.

'I need to focus more on blacksmithing then.'

Sato's plan for creating funds for his team was through the sale of products made by the lifestyle class holders in his team. This consisted primarily of him, Fudo and Xue Yan, as the trio each possessed the most lucrative subclasses when it comes to making money.

"Also, there are a bunch of other new upgrades in place for lifestyle players. We know that they have no interest in fights so the development team has made certain considerations on their behalf. Though for now, they won't be able to witness any of that." Cyanide added.

"You see, the town stage is a low-level introductory stage for players. During that period, they don't have access to a lot of features and they don't really come in contact with much of the world or the plot within the game. You can even say that they have things easy to an extent. However, the city stage changes all of this. Players now have more freedom to explore their surroundings, relate NPCs, and experience a whole different life from the one we have here. 

"At the city stage, you could say that they can finally come into contact with the 'Infinite' part of the game." 

"Interesting."

"Truly amazing." 

Both co-hosts praised.

"So now we have information relating to the game world, do you have anything for us concerning Infinite Realm in the real world?" The male host asked.

The female co-host nodded as she added to the statement,

"That's true. Infinite Realm just bumped up in rankings from 12th place to 7th place. Do you guys have any plans on how to not only maintain this rank but possibly improve on it? It was once mentioned that the goal of Infinite Realm is to become number one. Could we know how you guys plan on doing this?" 

Cyanide spread his hands open as he replied, "What more can we do other than what we have done already. Players will have to experience the world on their own and decide whether the game truly deserves the top spot. 

"As for how our next series of operations, I can't say much but there is a plan of hosting an international competition sometime during this year. The plan isn't solid and could still be called a suggestion, but if it does happen, it would be worth participating in and viewing."

"Oh? What are the chances of it happening?" The lady asked with interest.

"As I said, it's still in the consideration stage and there's no solid plan yet. But better safe than sure, I think the pro players put there should be prepared for one." Cyanide said with a strange smile.

"A competition already?" Sato couldn't help but be surprised.

VR gaming competitions were quite popular, especially ones involving any of the top 10 VR games, more so for the top 5. Just the earnings from broadcasting rights and attendance would be a lot, thanks to the massive popularity of VR games.

Infinite Realm currently had the potential to make it to the top 5, so an organised competition from them would be worth it. This was even more so since it would be their first-ever competition and the studio behind the game would want it to be a blast. The rewards alone would surely be very impressive and the participation number would be very high. And since the company would want to use that opportunity to make their mark, the number of channels that would be broadcasting the matches would be a lot and this meant that players, guilds, and clubs could gain a lot of popularity from the competition so long as they did well even in one match.

'So there's both the exchange store and the upcoming competition. Sigh, I need to start making preparations, fast.'

The show was already coming to an end and the main host was already wrapping up the interview with Cyanide, hence, there was no reason for Sato to keep watching. With that in mind, he departed from the sitting room and headed upstairs towards his room, where he downed a bottle of Grade E energy drink before grabbing his VR helmet and preparing to log in.

'Using a VR helmet isn't satisfactory. I need to change to a cabin once I can afford it.'

With that as his last thought in reality, Sato put on the helmet as his consciousness departed from this world.