615 Ridiculous Demand

"Yesterday at midnight, all 200,000 units of level one property were sold out with an average sell price of 111,000 US dollars. The highest final price was 300,000 US dollars." Xia Shiyu's voice shook as she reported to Jiang Chen, but she still tried to keep a stern expression.

She didn't think that the project that burned through a lot of money would be so profitable.

Before the construction was even complete, tens of billions were already in their hands and the majority of the capital cost was recovered.

But she knew that the reason why the price was so high was partially due to the excessive coverage by the media, and partially due to the terrifying promotion capability of the virtual reality platform. One gifted Penglai City investment value while the other gave Penglai City enough room for imagination.

Even a great branded product has the fear of not selling, not to mention one that is still under construction.

But Jiang Chen didn't seem too pleased with the price.

"The price is bolstered to 300,000 US dollars… it is almost close to the housing market in Hua." Jiang Chen was shocked.

Based on his plan, even the level three property that would be open for sale were only starting at 200,000 US dollars. The investors' energy was hard to believe, but the price being bolstered too high may not be beneficial for long term benefits.

"This is the result of using user's ID to limit purchases. If we didn't restrict each user being able to only one level one or two properties, the average price probably would have doubled. Because of the purchase restriction, it decreased the appreciation potential of the property," Xia Shiyu said, pushing up her glasses.

"What about the level two property?" Jiang Chen nodded and asked again.

There were 100,000 units of level two property with a bidding price of 50,000 US dollars; the size is 110-120 square meters; the primary target is the middle class.

Xia Shiyu continued to report.

"All level two units were sold with an average price of 217,000 US dollars; the highest price was 600,000 US dollars."

[An average price of 10850 RMB per square meter... this is insane. Is this even the housing price of a new developed area? The location of the level two units are not even considered "city center" at all.]

Other than the concepts of a high tech city, a tourism area, and a high degree of freedom, the investors didn't investigate other factors such as quality of life, education, transportation, work environment at all.

Although Future Group accepted refunds, it was calculated based on the initial bidding price. Therefore, if someone purchased a level two property with 600,000 US dollars, Future Group will only refund the starting bid of 100,000 US dollars, unless it will be sold to an investor willing to take over.

"Some real estate developers proposed a partnership opportunity; they are willing to purchase ten thousand units of both level one and level two properties at the unit price of 200,000 and 400,000 US dollars. They also promised to bolster the price of the remaining units to a price of 300,000 and 600,000 , as long as we agree to lift the purchase restriction and permit everyone to possess three units of level one or level two properties." Xia Shiyu continued.

"The value created by a worker in a life time is far greater than the value created by a property. We are creating an endless gold mine. If we exchange the gold mine into cash too early, it will be too shortsighted." Jiang Chen sighed.

When he was creating Penglai, he didn't plan to make it into a product. Although he admits that bolstering housing prices was the fastest way to make money.

But if he really wanted money, why not just make Future Group public?

This is the faster method. With Future Group's profitability, it can easily break the trillion mark…

Wall Street investors came more than once to him, and even flew to Coro Island to wait for Jiang Chen at the door of Future Building. They wanted to convince him to go public on NASDAQ and everyone believed Future Group's market cap would smash the trillion mark.

"This is my thought too, so I rejected them for you." Xia Shiyu grinned.

From Jiang Chen's insistence of remaining private, she already understood his thought process.

"You know me the best." Jiang Chen nodded while looking at her.

"Ahem," Xia Shiyu coughed and looked away somewhat red. Then she changed the topic, "Also, regarding the problem with commercial land, over 95% of our clients in the landmark building, The Heart of the Sea, applied to enter Penglai. These companies include hotel, dining, retail, and life sectors. But some companies hoped that the renovation could be done by their own people because of existing contracts.

"That's not possible," Jiang Chen shook his head. "Penglai's construction material mostly uses bubble aluminum and graphene, the construction and renovation can only be done with construction robots. They'll have to renegotiate the contract."

Xia Shiyu nodded.

"The last is education. We already sent out invitations to 12,300 top teachers from over one thousand schools worldwide. But we didn't receive very positive responses… they seem to remain cautious in teaching internationally."

Based on the construction plan of Penglai City, there will be fifteen elementary schools, ten junior highs, eight high schools, and one university to provide education services to Xin.

But the lack of a teaching force was a painful problem.

It was easy to find elementary and junior high school teachers, but it was more problematic for high school. As to the university professors… only a few computer science professors researching robots and artificial intelligence accepted the invitation without hesitation.

The professions with benefits, like doctors and teachers, naturally were influenced by qualification requirements and culture backgrounds, therefore their stance to immigrate were more cautious compared to other professions.

"We seemed to have misunderstood something," Jiang Chen abruptly spoke.

"Mhmm?" Xia Shiyu looked at him.

"Since we have the Phantom Helmet, why do you need to build schools?" Jiang Chen asked.

Xia Shiyu's eyes lit up but soon her eyebrows furrowed again.

"I know what you mean; it is in theory possible to use virtual reality teaching to replace classroom teaching. But a school's purpose is not only to educate knowledge; it is also the window for children to get to know society. It is ultimately why online education will not replace classrooms."

Jiang Chen shook his head.

"From some perspective, you're right. But from another, it is not completely correct." Jiang Chen paused. "Since our group's name is Future, we are operating in the high tech industry. Thus, as the management team, we must stand at the peak of the new era."

"Could you be more straightforward?" Xia Shiyu asked.

"The con of online classroom is reducing the social interaction of children. But if we completely replicate everything in the actual classroom in virtual reality, is there really a reason why classrooms have to exist? We can completely replicate the classroom, podium, blackboard, and tables in virtual reality. Our teachers and students can freely enter the classroom from anywhere. The helmet is the key!"

"But… that is too risky." Xia Shiyu shook her head. "We haven't completely understood the side effect of replacing a classroom setting. And education is something that will require five or even ten years to verify."

"I know." Jiang Chen sighed.

It was indeed a risky choice.

On the timeline of the apocalypse, PAC didn't even replace classrooms until the year 2270. He personally experienced it first hand in the virtual reality inside Fallout Shelter 005.

Despite being technologically advanced, PAC still maximized the amount of old traditions in people's daily lives. They could use the virtual reality study system to master a skill quickly, but they prevented any students below high school to use this system.

They thought that pushing a person too fast will exhaust a person's potential. The education the student received may help them become a skilled engineer, but they will never be an innovative scientist. Scientific thought process could only be obtained through exploration, and exploration could be experienced by studying.

Without him noticing, Jiang Chen realized that he became someone that could influence the development of civilization.

The 22nd century was a mirror where he was fortunate enough to see the other side, but there was no need to go on the old path.

He took a deep breath, suppressed the odd emotion in his mind, and expressed his decision with an undertone.

"Cancel the previous plan of building elementary, junior high, and high schools, change the original building locations into a square, gymnasium and other facilities. Set Penglai City as the pilot city for 'basic education in virtual reality'. All students within Penglai will use the student version of Phantom to receive basic education.

"Teachers don't need to immigrate to Xin. They only need to pass through the hiring process set by the Penglai Education Department before being permitted to teach at any location and receive the agreed salary. Education content will be monitored and audited by both human and artificial intelligence and any non-qualified content will result in deduction of a teacher's score. When a teacher's score reaches zero, and teacher's qualification is removed. Also, student examination will be done offline and recorded into their personal profile."

"The class distribution software will divide student based on race and hometown to learn basic knowledge with teacher of the same mother tongue. All students must command the official language as well as another language. Based on the student and parents' willingness, small quantities of 'international class' and 'advanced class' will be established for special education."

"All basic education will be required to volunteer in public facilities such as squares and gymnasiums and all credits must be met before being permitted to complete the semester."

"Virtual reality classroom and virtual reality social program will be developed by Future Technology."

"University will be taught offline using the current education method."

"That's all… for now."

Using virtual reality to teach, but not using the virtual reality study system and instead replicating the traditional classroom.

It was an attempt different from that world…