Chapter 4: Chapter 4: The Fontaine Trio
There was no way they were going to reshoot. How could they possibly reshoot when the program's effect was so good?
Ye directly had Bao'er upload the video.
And then, the players from another world immediately saw it.
"Isn't the Hydro Archon just too cute?"
"Is this what a god is like?"
"I wonder if she'll be this cute in the game too?"
"Hey, shouldn't the focus now be on the amount of information contained in this PV? Unlike most of the previous PVs, this one is clearly setting up plot hints."
"What's the use of having hints? The game hasn't even had a beta test yet. We don't know anything about the story or the settings. We can see there are hints, but we have no idea what kind of plot points they're setting up."
"It's like the 'Footprints' PV. When you watch it, it feels really impressive, but you have no idea what it's actually about."
"Anyway, it's launching tomorrow. After playing through the main storyline of version 1.0, we can come back and watch these two PVs again. By then, we should have some new insights."
"Speaking of which, I'm still a bit skeptical about whether this game is real. The world's first open-world game—promoted by this company called miHoYo that just popped up out of nowhere. They haven't released a single game before, and not a single employee has even shown their face. The version 1.0 preview livestream only had cartoon characters and voice actors."
"Why be skeptical? Genshin Impact is a free game. Downloading it doesn't cost anything."
"That's exactly what makes me skeptical. How can there possibly be a free game in this world?"
"So what's there to be skeptical about? It's free! If it's false advertising, just uninstall it, right?"
"If what miHoYo is saying is true, and Genshin Impact is a truly free open-world game, then the development costs would have to be at least several hundred million, right? How can it be free? Is miHoYo not making any money?"
"I think it's possible that the download is free, but if you want to play the next chapter of the story, you'll have to pay. It's like some games where if you don't spend money on equipment, you can't beat the boss."
"Wow, you're a genius!"
"Exactly, that must be it. After all, how can there really be a free game in this world?"
"That's fine, as long as the game is fun."
Ye didn't pay too much attention to the discussions from the other world. After filming the PV with Astoria and sending her off to Mondstadt, Ye got busy with more important matters.
Over the next month, Ye prepared to temporarily hand over his work to a suitable person while also planning for a long journey.
Of course, he didn't forget to relieve stress by indulging in dreams at night.
It wasn't just Furina. Although Furina was used by Ye for stress relief at least once a week, Ye wasn't the kind of man to hang himself on a single tree. So, over the past few months, he had been living a life of ease and pleasure.
Ah, all the stress was gone. It was wonderful.
Indeed, compared to Bao'er's gaming theory, the Nameless Dream Theory was the real stress-relieving treasure!
With this thought, Ye, now fully prepared, walked into Furina's tea room.
This was usually the place where the trio who governed Fontaine—one human, one god, and one dragon—held their meetings.
Furina found regular meetings too boring, so she prepared this room, setting up tea and snacks that each of the trio liked before the meetings.
Of course, only Furina got the tea and snacks, and they were all the finest pastries from various nations. What a spendthrift.
Besides that, Neuvillette wasn't much better.
What was prepared for Neuvillette was usually filtered water from all over Teyvat—the transportation costs were at least ten thousand times more expensive than the water itself. Every time Ye saw Neuvillette drinking that water, he wanted to kick him.
Are you drinking water? That's money!
To ensure that Fontaine's Chief Justice could drink this kind of water from all over Teyvat every day, the salaries of the entire Hydro Dragon Corps, numbering in the thousands, made Ye's scalp tingle.
After all, Teyvat wasn't a safe place. Danger could lurk anywhere, and the members of the Hydro Dragon Corps, who could travel all over Teyvat and even fetch water from extremely high-risk areas, were naturally highly skilled and well-compensated. Just thinking about it—no, Ye still wanted to kick him!
If it weren't for Neuvillette's contributions to Fontaine and his importance far outweighing these costs, Ye would never have signed off on it.
Huh? You're asking about Furina and Neuvillette, but what about Ye? What does he get during meetings?
Well, of course, Ye wouldn't waste money like the other two. What was prepared for him was just various snacks and soda.
Picking up a skewer, Ye looked contentedly at the crystal shrimp on it.
This kind of crystal shrimp currently sold for only 300 Mora per pound on the market. Today, Ye was eating this—what a down-to-earth snack!
Ye never wasted money like Furina and Neuvillette. He always ate these cheap and filling snacks, so he was utterly disgusted by the other two's extravagance.
But what could he do? One was the Hydro Archon of Fontaine, and the other was the Chief Justice. Ye could only sigh helplessly.
Sighing, he ate the crystal shrimp.
Not bad. Cheap, but really tasty.
"Ah! Isn't this crystal shrimp?"
Furina looked at the crystal shrimp on Ye's plate with surprise.
"Yes, it's only 300 Mora per pound on the market now."
Ye emphasized how cheap the crystal shrimp was, hoping to make Furina feel ashamed.
"Has it been successfully mass-produced already?"
Furina directly grabbed one from Ye's plate, eating it while happily saying:
"Didn't they say the first time we tried it that it would take at least five years to achieve mass production? Oh, right, I remember now. Ye, you funded the Fontaine Research Institute again, didn't you? Not bad, not bad. Although I thought it was a bit wasteful at first, now that I'm eating this, I feel like that billion Mora wasn't wasted."
The Fontaine Research Institute, at the request of the Supreme Prelate, spent a total of one billion Mora in research funding to successfully breed and mass-produce Teyvat's newest variety—the crystal shrimp. And it only costs 300 Mora per pound. What a benevolent act!
Ye felt a wave of self-satisfaction, then quickly changed the subject: "Let's not talk about that. Let's get to the main topic."
"I still don't know what this meeting is about."
Furina asked while eating:
"Are you planning to fund the Fontaine Research Institute again to develop new ingredients?"
"Although we will be spending money, it's not for that. It's about Inazuma."
Ye spoke calmly:
"Lady Furina, I would like to request permission to personally visit Inazuma."