The Homefront Combat Club, a club known only to the world's top billionaires, was founded by Huang He, the current richest man in the world.
Although Boss Huang was the richest man in the world, he had never joined the circle of top billionaires. This was because he was the only Chinese person in this circle, while the remaining 70% were Americans. Boss Huang knew that even if he joined, he would only be ostracized, so he had always ignored it, acting as if the circle didn't exist.
This circle also disdained Boss Huang. Therefore, although Boss Huang was nominally the richest man in the world, many people in the circle actually had more assets than him. They did not take this Chinese person, Huang He, seriously.
A mere Chinese person was not qualified to join this top-tier circle.
However, the situation had now loosened up somewhat because Boss Huang had created the Homefront Combat Club.
For the world's top billionaires, their desires were no longer simply about money. Even extreme female or male companionship could not satisfy their desires.
What they needed were things that were extremely stimulating, and that others, aside from themselves, the top billionaires, could not experience.
Thus, Homefront Mechs became the best choice, as currently, only Jiangnan Corporation in the entire world could produce giant mechs that could stand and move freely in cities.
The price of such a giant mech was 5 billion U.S. dollars, which successfully excluded 99.99% of the world's billionaires.
99% of them could not afford 5 billion U.S. dollars, and among the 1% who could, 99% were unwilling to invest such a massive amount of U.S. dollars into a metal behemoth.
After all, besides the purchase price of 5 billion U.S. dollars, the annual maintenance cost was as high as hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars. If they also wanted to use it frequently for entertainment, the cost of each repair would be hundreds of millions or even billions of U.S. dollars. Since only Jiangnan Group could do this work, the price was naturally dictated by Jiangnan Group alone.
Furthermore, the production was extremely limited. As of now, only 8 Homefront Mechs had been manufactured in total, making it an enjoyment exclusively for top billionaires.
As for this club, it was an accidental creation. Once, a bearded prince came to find Huang He to complain that although he had bought his Pangu Mech, he could only keep it as a statue in the city and had no chance to activate it.
After all, if this thing fell over during operation, it would be extremely fatal to the surrounding buildings, and it might even kill hundreds of citizens. The bearded prince's throne would then be in danger. Therefore, he proposed the idea of creating a dedicated combat arena for Homefront Mechs to have fun.
Initially, this arena was planned to be built in the desert of the Great Food Kingdom. However, the problem was that since the bearded prince succeeded to the throne, the country's economic problems had been continuously declining. If the bearded prince were to build such a recreational facility in the country at this time, it would likely be immediately opposed by the entire population.
At the same time, there were considerable opposition forces within the royal family, who could seize this reason to cause trouble. The bearded prince dared not take the risk but did not want to give up this entertainment. Therefore, he simply proposed whether such a club could be built on the island that Boss Huang had reclaimed from the sea.
The reasons were also very compelling. First of all, if the club was located on the island, it could completely isolate the eyes of all ordinary citizens, and even some powerful figures within the Great Food Kingdom. They would have no knowledge of such a thing.
In addition, the club was constructed by Jiangnan Group, and the funds used were naturally from Jiangnan Group. Even if the common people knew about it, it would be difficult for them to use this as an excuse to oppose the bearded prince.
Boss Huang agreed without much hesitation, as he himself wanted to find such a playground where he could freely pilot a Homefront Mech for his own amusement.
After all, for Boss Huang, piloting a mech was the greatest pleasure he could experience.
With the combined efforts of these two local magnates, such a club was naturally established.
However, the bearded prince was a big talker. After the club was built, he could not help but show off to his billionaire friends, and the news gradually spread to the circle of top billionaires.
When these billionaires heard about it, they were immediately interested and flocked to join. Huang He found it very troublesome, so he set conditions: every member who wanted to join had to purchase, at the very least, a fully paid pre-order for a Homefront Mech, with prices ranging from 5 billion to 9.8 billion U.S. dollars depending on the model.
In addition, they had to pay a 100 million U.S. dollar annual fee to the club, and also pay the corresponding construction costs for all buildings damaged during gameplay.
Boss Huang initially thought these conditions would scare away many top billionaires. However, what could the truly top billionaires care about matters of a few hundred billion dollars? In the end, a large number of top billionaires frantically found ways, and the pre-order schedule for Homefront Mechs was already booked for five years, which finally secured 18 members for the club.
Of course, the current number of Homefront Mechs was definitely not enough. Therefore, Boss Huang simply leased out his Fuxi Homefront as a public rental. The fee for each rental was as high as 100 million U.S. dollars, but the billionaires who had pre-ordered Homefronts that had not yet been manufactured still flocked to it. Boss Huang earned over 3 billion U.S. dollars annually just from rental fees.
And almost every few days, top billionaires would pour their wealth here... Just casually fighting, the cost to rebuild a building would be millions of U.S. dollars, plus the cost of at least ten million for maintenance each time it was used. What else could this be if not pouring wealth?
Playing with cars and planes were now things that only small-time millionaires did. The truly top billionaires played with Homefront Mechs.
Moreover, through this club, Boss Huang finally met several big figures from the four major financial groups. For example, the eldest son of the DuPont Group was one of those who had the best relationship with Boss Huang, because he greatly approved of many of Boss Huang's concepts and behaviors, and they had a lot in common.
It was precisely because of this that Huang He understood that the eldest son of the DuPont financial group was likely one of his greatest rivals.
"Boom!" Suddenly, a loud sound came from inside the battlefield, accompanied by flames. Then, a barrage of debris hit the bulletproof glass outside the stands, causing the high-strength glass to crackle.
"That bastard Musk, why did he secretly equip Zhu Rong with missiles again? What if someone gets hurt?" Boss Huang grumbled.
Although Homefronts came with weapon systems, weapons were strictly prohibited during two-player battles within the club.
After all, it was difficult to guarantee that the defensive capabilities of the cockpit could withstand the attack of heavy weapons. However, Musk repeatedly violated such rules. He liked to equip his Homefronts with weapons and then blast them all over the map, leaving behind ruins everywhere. This was his ultimate thrill.
Fortunately, Musk still had basic reason and never fired at the cockpit, otherwise, he would not have lived for many days.
But the problem was that if he aimed at other parts, it would also cause extremely serious damage to the opponent's Homefront, and the maintenance personnel of Jiangnan Group found it very troublesome to repair.
At the same time, because the weapons were used in violation of regulations, all related expenses had to be paid by Musk. In addition to this, he also had to pay a corresponding fine. Musk had already spent nearly 50 billion U.S. dollars on this matter, but he was still enjoying it. In the end, he just wanted to conclude his matches with various missiles.
However, today was basically a windfall for Musk. Who would have thought that Bt, which he casually played with back then, with 100,000 units only equivalent to one U.S. dollar, could now rise to the terrifying price of 30,000 U.S. dollars per unit? Furthermore, in this era, Musk did not have the burden of Tesla, nor did he have various other whimsical high-tech industrial lines to burn money. Therefore, money was truly just a number that he could squander at will.
The battle ultimately ended with Musk's victory, but he also received a payment statement totaling 2.4 billion U.S. dollars. This money was used to rebuild the damaged buildings and to maintain and repair the Gonggong Homefront that was hit by missiles.
After these two, it was the battle between Fuxi and Kunpeng. Originally, Kunpeng was supposed to undergo about 5 rounds of testing by maintenance test personnel to confirm that all systems were normal before the actual battle could begin.
But DuPont did not want to wait any longer. So he found Huang He to be his opponent for the first match.
In terms of performance and functionality, Kunpeng, which had been classified as a third-generation Homefront, was naturally stronger than the second-generation Fuxi. However, now that they were in actual combat, Huang He's current extensive combat experience would become the most potent weapon to easily defeat this combat novice.
DuPont played three rounds in a row and was completely suppressed by Huang He, never winning. In fact, DuPont paid Boss Huang 100 million U.S. dollars in training fees to undergo professional pilot training for the next month.
DuPont believed that after he completed his training and with the current strongest third-generation Homefront, he would definitely be able to beat Huang He soundly. Huang He sneered at this and then looked at the fourth-generation Homefront in his factory and chuckled.