You have to know that [Sweet Haven]is one of those mobile games that heavily relies on in - app purchases. Even when players treated it as a casual game in the early days, they still spent a significant amount of money. Lincoln had casually spent tens of thousands just playing around. Those big spenders on the top - up leaderboards would often splash out hundreds of thousands or even millions. If the game had been more well - known, the big spenders might have been even more extravagant.
Unfortunately, after the version update, [Sweet Haven]completely shut down the top - up channel, and players permanently lost the advantages that came with spending money. The same went for Lincoln. The huge fortune amassed by his family over three generations became nothing but worthless paper after the apocalypse. This was one of his greatest regrets, something he couldn't stop thinking about even on his deathbed.
"Now, it's different. I'm back!"
"This time, I'll pour every single cent of my fortune into this game!" His eyes blazed with determination as he said this.
After ordering the villagers to start repairing the dilapidated Hero Tavern, he turned his attention to the beginner recruitment gift packages on the screen. Each package cost $998, but he didn't even bother to look closely. With a wave of his hand, he clicked to buy them all.
[Congratulations! You've obtained the beginner recruitment gift package, getting 10 common recruitment tickets, 1 rare recruitment ticket, 1000 gold coins, 1000 pieces of wood, and 1000 gems.]
[Congratulations! You've obtained the beginner recruitment gift package...]
After purchasing the beginner recruitment gift packages, new recruitment gift packages popped up on the system: intermediate, advanced, and luxury ones. Without any hesitation, Lincoln clicked to buy them again. After a flurry of operations, there were over 1000 common recruitment tickets and hundreds of rare recruitment tickets in his inventory.
Lincoln frowned slightly. He wasn't entirely satisfied with the number of recruitment tickets in his inventory. Recruiting the initial heroes was a crucial matter. Generally, the strength of the initial heroes determined the military strength of the territory in the early stage. The qualities of the initial heroes were divided into: common, elite, rare, master, grand - master, legendary, epic, glory, and mythical. Each level was further subdivided into 1 - star to 5 - star. With each upgrade in quality, the hero's potential would be greatly enhanced. A good initial hero could make the territory develop at breakneck speed in the early stage. On the contrary, an ordinary initial hero would have little effect. The highest quality of an initial hero was legendary. To obtain heroes of higher qualities, one had to rely on awakening or other methods.
In his previous life, Lincoln had tried his best but only managed to cultivate a 4 - star, fifth - rank rare hero, which was only mediocre among all the lords. Now that he had a second chance, he naturally wasn't going to settle for mediocrity. He wanted to recruit the best heroes!
Lincoln looked at the recruitment tickets in his inventory again. Obviously, these tickets were far from enough if he wanted to recruit high - quality initial heroes. According to his estimation, with over 1000 recruitment tickets, he could at most recruit a rare - quality initial hero. After all, the probability of summoning a rare - quality hero with a common recruitment ticket was less than 1%, and with a rare recruitment ticket, it was only 5%. The probability of summoning heroes of qualities higher than rare was even lower. The probability with a common recruitment ticket was 0.001%, and with a rare recruitment ticket, it was only one - thousandth.
"If all else fails, I'll have to use gems to buy recruitment tickets," he muttered, lost in thought. If he used gems to buy them, a common recruitment ticket cost 100 gems. Since the exchange rate between gems and real - world currency was 1:1, that meant each recruitment ticket cost $100 in real money. But this amount of money didn't matter to him now. After all, he lacked everything except money.
Just as he was about to splash a fortune to top up a large number of gems, a message on the public chat channel caught his attention.
[Colorful Pony]: Bundle offer! [10 common recruitment tickets] + [1 rare recruitment ticket] for only 200 gems!
Lincoln's eyes lit up instantly. "Right! Why didn't I think of this?"
Before the doomsday version update, hero recruitment tickets were one of the least - valuable items in [Sweet Haven]. Like Lincoln's tavern before, most players' taverns in their territories were in a state of disrepair. Even if someone occasionally recruited heroes, it was just for show. Players would rather build more fish ponds and cultivate more fields than spend resources on training heroes and troops. Apart from most players being casual gamers, there were very few situations in the game that required the use of force before the doomsday version update. Many players even criticized the recruitment tavern in the game, thinking it was a useless building.
Sure enough, after the player named [Colorful Pony]posted this trading message, there were soon replies below.
"Haha, who would buy recruitment tickets these days? What's the use of them?"
"Exactly! I've got several in my warehouse, which were system rewards before. I might as well use them as kindling."
"Come on! The recycling shop will at least give you one gold coin for each, haha."
Seeing the other players' disdain, [Colorful Pony]replied helplessly, "I have no choice. I got these from an event treasure chest just now. It's too much of a loss to sell them to the recycling shop. I spent days grinding to get that chest."
As soon as these words were spoken, there were even more players on the chat channel gloating.
"Pfft, haha. Dude, how unlucky can you be? You spent so long grinding and only got this junk. It's so useless!"
"I still suggest you sell them to the recycling shop. Not even a dog would want this stuff. It'll just gather dust."
"Maybe you should wait? Isn't there a new mode coming out in a few days? Maybe the recruitment tickets will be valuable then."
"Come on, the guy above is just daydreaming. This is just a casual game. Recruitment tickets are completely useless."
"Right! I've hoarded dozens of them in my inventory and can't sell them at all. Dude, just give up."
Rainbow Pony was extremely helpless. Just as he was about to listen to those players and sell the recruitment tickets to the system store, a sudden message popped up:
[I'm a Big Spender]: @Rainbow Pony, how many recruitment tickets do you still have? I'll take them all.
As soon as this message appeared, the other players went crazy.
"Bro, are you kidding me? You're buying this junk?"
"Hehe, there really is a fool. I'm dying of laughter."
"Is this guy a newbie? Buying these things is useless. Even the best heroes will just sit at home and do nothing. It's better to recruit more villagers to farm the land."
Of course, the so - called "fool" could only be Lincoln. Rainbow Pony was also stunned, but then came the joy. Anyway, it was lucky to have a "fool" take over. He was afraid the other party would regret it, so he immediately replied on the public screen, "I still have five in my warehouse. If you want them, I'll sell them all as a bundle for 200 gems."
[I'm a Big Spender]: I'll take them all. Also, I'm buying recruitment tickets across the whole channel. 10 common recruitment tickets = 100 gems, 1 rare recruitment ticket = 100 gems.
When everyone saw that the guy really wanted to buy, the whole channel immediately became lively.
"Damn, I've got some too, rich guy. I have 30. Do you want them?"
"I have 30 too, all from treasure chests before."
"I have 10. I'll sell them all for just 90 gems!"
"..."
Many players would get some recruitment tickets when they completed certain tasks or opened treasure chests. They thought the price in the recycling shop was too low, and they didn't see any use for them themselves. So, over time, these recruitment tickets just piled up.
For Lincoln, he wasn't嫌少 (in the sense of not caring if there were few) about a hundred tickets, nor was he嫌多 (not caring if there were many) about a thousand. He took them all without hesitation. The players who sold the recruitment tickets were extremely grateful to Lincoln, thinking he was an extremely kind person.
"Thank you, big shot! Thank you! There are still good people in this world."
"Wuwu, I've hoarded these recruitment tickets for months. Finally, a good person has taken them over. I knew these good things wouldn't be wasted."
Of course, while some people thanked Lincoln, more people mocked him.
"Hehe, what a fool. After being flattered a few times, he's really getting carried away. What's the use of collecting a bunch of junk? It's so funny."
"Right! With that money, you could go to a foot - massage parlor and have a good time. Wouldn't that be better?"
"Who knows? Maybe he wants to draw a mythical hero?"
"Even a legendary hero is useless, right? You won't even be able to use them."
"..."
Looking at the full - screen of mockery and sarcasm, Lincoln curled his lips into a playful smile. After the apocalypse, the price of these recruitment tickets would skyrocket geometrically. A single rare recruitment ticket could be sold at an astronomical price, but now the players were selling them all to Lincoln in bundles.
"I wonder if you'll still be able to laugh after the version update in a few days?" He smiled and ignored these sarcastic remarks, instead continuing to increase his efforts to buy recruitment tickets.
In a short while, the number of his common recruitment tickets increased from the initial 1000 to over 8000, and even the number of rare recruitment tickets soared from 100 to over 600. And the cost was only less than a hundred thousand gems, which was less than ten thousand dollars in real - world currency. Compared with the future value of the recruitment tickets, this amount of money was just a drop in the bucket.
Seeing so many recruitment tickets in his inventory, Lincoln was extremely excited. Just then, a private chat message flashed in his chat box:
[Bro, I have a precious - grade recruitment ticket. Are you interested?]