Rebirth of the Godly Prodigal

After they left the virtual world, Hong Dali breathed a sigh of relief—it felt good to squander 20,000 Galaxy Dollars. There was still sufficient time to complete the mission. One hundred and eighty thousand to go, I should be able to keep my handsome face…

“Is everyone back?” Hong Dali began to count heads when they walked out of the room.

“Young Master,” Ling Xiaoyi was already waiting in the living room. She stood up once she saw Hong Dali. “I went out to take a walk just now and I’ve gotten a rough understanding of the commodity prices.”

“En, tell me about it.” Hong Dali tugged on Li Nianwei to sit down and deftly laid on her thigh. “Just give me a summary, don’t be too specific. I won’t remember it anyway…”

“Okay.” Ling Xiaoyi nodded with a smile and began to introduce. “In general, the prices are not much different from the prices in Heavenly State. Because this is the Galaxy Alliance Center, hence, the land is slightly more expensive at mid-range. On average, it costs about 1,500 Galaxy Dollars. An ordinary small spacecraft is about 5,000 Galaxy Dollars. The clothes cost about two hundred Galaxy Dollars for a set. Naturally, the prices for luxury accessories are high. As for food, the cost is slightly higher. A mid-range meal for four people costs around one hundred Galaxy Dollars.”

Xiaoyi was savvy, indeed. Everything from clothing, food, housing, and transportation. With this estimate, one could roughly understand the standard of living.

Overall, as the Galaxy Alliance Center planet, consumption was indeed higher—after all, one Galaxy Dollar could be exchanged for five hundred ordinary slaves…

But in terms of quantity, it was as little as Heavenly State…

Hong Dali appeared satisfied. The key was that it would be simpler to calculate in the future…

“Oh, oh, oh. Okay. So-so.” Hong Dali laughed. “Anyway, I just need a rough understanding. I only need to worry about squandering and nothing else.”

“Alright, Young Master.” Ling Xiaoyi nodded.

As they talked, a robot servant came over and bowed respectfully to Hong Dali. “Master, I just received a message. A gentleman named Fang Han said that he would like to have dinner with you. Will you accept the invitation?”

Aye? Fang Han is quite sincere. The invite came so fast?

“En, okay. Let him know I’m available tonight. I can make it anytime.” He had just arrived and there was nothing important he needed to do anyway. He had all the time in the world.

“Yes, Master. I’ll send your message immediately.” The robot left immediately.

In this Galaxy Alliance Center, every family had a robot servant like this.

Such robot servants were different from advanced AI butlers like Tang Long. It took care of trivial matters around the household. For example, reminding its master to wake up to work, receiving invitations, or it could arrange for the spacecraft to send its master home after the master went out drinking.

It was only 4 PM in the afternoon. It was still early. Hong Dali thought for a while and said, “My appointment is for dinner, it’s quite boring now. Let me see what I can…”

He wanted to see if there were any movies to watch. As he said that, James rushed out of the room and shouted anxiously when he saw Hong Dali, “Young Master Dali, I got a big discovery! Big discovery!”

“What discovery? See how anxious you are.” Hong Dali asked, “What did you find out?”

“Movies! Movies about this Galaxy Alliance Center!” James said excitedly.

What discovery was there on movies?

“What is it, speak slowly, there’s no rush!” Hong Dali sat up. “What did you discover?”

“Good news!” James said, “We wanted to see how the movies are like here, right? I found out that there’s no piracy for movies here! No piracy at all!”

No piracy!

What situation was this?

“Ah, this is good.” Hong Dali stared with his eyes wide open. “How did they get rid of piracy?”

Piracy was an uncontrollable problem in any country on Earth. Even in the relatively developed Merika, piracy existed. But the impact was not so big. Hence, it was a little strange that James was able to declare so excitedly that there was no piracy here.

“It’s like this.” James said, “For example, on Earth, after a movie stops screening in cinemas, when people want to watch it again, they’d resort to piracy. Right?”

“En, that’s the case.” Hong Dali nodded. “Then?”

“It’s different here!” James said happily, “The movie screenings here are all holographic projections! And it is chargeable every time it screens! Simply put, anyone who wants to watch a movie needs to pay! It’s about one Galaxy Dollar to five Galaxy Dollars each time. You pay every time you want to watch. The important thing is,” James was a little crazy when he got to this point. “Any movie will be permanently stored in the database and its screening available in the entire Galaxy network! That means, if we make a film, we will charge every time someone wants to watch it. One year, two years, ten years, twenty years! As long as someone wants to watch it, we will continue to profit!”

If the lack of piracy was good news, this was even better news!

Chargeable for life, no piracy!

This was too powerful!

For example, on Earth, a movie had just been released. 10 million people watched it and the box office was 400 million. It seemed like a lot, but when the screening ended, there was almost no income.

But it was different here!

A movie had just been released. 10 million people watched it and the box office was 400 million. It seemed like the same on the surface, but there was a continuation to it! In other words, even if ten or twenty years had passed since the movie was first screened, there were no pirated downloads. If one wanted to watch it, he had to pay! During the screening period, 400 million. When people watched it the following month, one Galaxy Dollar each time. One million families watched it, one million Galaxy Dollars. Two months later, one million people watched, another one million Galaxy Dollars! Many a little makes a mickle! It may not be a lot in the short term, but how about one year later? Two years? Ten years? Twenty years?

Earnings might be doubled!

In addition to the fact that there was no piracy…

The profit from the movie would be more than just a few millions or tens of millions, it would be hundreds of millions or billions! The vast difference!

“Oh, oh, oh!” Even Hong Dali was shocked. “In that case, it’s really profitable to make movies here!”

“But…” As he got to this point, James was a little moody. “In order to make movies here, big investments are required, very big investments!”

“They film scenes of real planets exploding. An uninhabited planet costs at least one million Galaxy Dollars. And it’s auctioned. Everyone knows making movies is profitable, hence, an inhibited planet could be bid from a few million to tens of millions. It’s not easy. Planets are not available for purchase to the rich. After all, there’s a great impact when a planet explodes. It could cause regional unrest in the universe. Hence, when an uninhabited planet is to be used for making movies, a professional team needs to assess it and the time taken is quite long. That makes it more valuable. One could not buy it even if they have the money.”

There were countless planets in the universe. But who knew what kind of chain effect it would have on populated planets when one exploded? Hence, the auction of uninhabited planets was very popular. On the contrary, no one would buy planets that couldn’t be used for making movies no matter how cheap they were.

“In that case…” Hong Dali thought for a while. “It doesn’t matter. Anyway, we can’t make movies now. We’ll talk about this later.”

“En, it seems like that.” James nodded and said, “I’ll go back first. The technology they use for filming here is much more advanced than on Earth. We need to learn more from them.”

The technology gap was too big. Hollywood’s technology was considered advanced on Earth, but it was not enough in the universe.

“Alright, go along.” Hong Dali waved his hand. “Get the robot servants to buy some food for dinner. We are going out.”

“Okay, Young Master.”

Now that he had a general understanding of the environment here, Hong Dali leaned on the sofa and took a deep breath. He was quite happy. “Aiya, it seems that if I want to squander in the future, I just have to make movies here. That’s the best. Haha.”

Making movies, burning money, were there better ways to squander?

Everyone rested for a while. Li Yang and the rest returned as well. Hong Dali’s team was complete. At that moment, the robot servant approached and said, “Young Master, Fang Han’s people are waiting outside.”

Since they were here, Hong Dali stood up and snapped his fingers. “En, let’s go.”

Out of the villa, Fang Han had sent a silver spaceship about fifteen to sixteen meters in length to pick them up. The spacecraft was streamlined and very beautiful. The material was also quite good. Considering Fang Han’s status, the spaceship looked expensive.

Indeed, Ling Xiaoyi whispered, “Young Master, this spaceship is mid-range. It costs about one hundred thousand Galaxy Dollars and it’s considered not bad.”

En, a spaceship that cost one hundred thousand Galaxy Dollars. Fang Han was indeed a rich young master.

Soon, the door opened and Fang Han alighted with Xue Ji. Once he saw Hong Dali, he smiled and said, “Haha, Brother Dali, I’m here. Aiya, the surroundings look good here.”

“Hehe, so-so. I just bought it.” Hong Dali put out his hand as he laughed. “We meet again so soon.”

“Etiquette from your side, haha!” Fang Han laughed as he shook Hong Dali’s hand. “Get on board, everyone. We’ll go to a good place. It was not easy to make a reservation.”

At that moment, Xue Ji saw Ling Xiaoyi and the others. She asked curiously, “These are…”

“Respected lady, hello.” Li Yang nodded and bowed. “We are Young Master’s lackeys. My name is Li Yang. This is the first time we’ve met!”

“Hehe, you even bring your lackeys out with you.” Xue Ji thought that it was interesting. “It’s quite special. Let’s board the spaceship.”