The Legendary Mechanic c1-1385
Page 111
Frenzied Sword, Bun-hit-dog, and Maple Moon were not attractive enough as examples. Very few highly skilled players came. Maybe it was because they felt triggering hidden storyline required luck; therefore, they did not take it seriously.
Han Xiao decided to go for a strong approach, to let the highly skilled players see that there was a way with a higher chance to trigger Black Phantom’s hidden storyline.
This is a good strategy. It’s killing two… many birds with one stone. Han Xiao was satisfied.
Even this won’t attract you‽ I doubt that.
…
The forum had a chat room function. At this time, there was a room with a password that had people joining in continuously, and the notifications kept popping up.
_____________________
Jade Green Sky entered the chat room.
Jupiter entered the chat room.
Morning Snow Twilight Frost entered the chat room.
Your Mom Collapses When I Cry entered the chat room.
_____________________
About a dozen people entered the chat room. They were all chairpeople of famous guilds in China, and they formed a circle themselves.
“Is everyone here?” Mountain Rain, the chairman of Drizzling Rivers Guild, spoke first.
“Nope,” Your Mom Collapses When I Cry said.
The chairman of Nine Gates Guild, Three Times Three Equals 9, asked, “Where’s Old Qi? Did anyone invite him?”
“Never mind, he spams all the time. We would never get things done with him joining in,” Cowherd Star, the chairman of Chrysanthemum Guild, said.
“Who opened the chat room? What serious matter are we talking about?” Jupiter asked.
Jade Green Sky cut in and said, “Yo, isn’t this the rich house of esports? I heard you have not been running your God squad well recently. Lousy chairman. When you step down, I will light firecrackers in front of your club doors to celebrate. @Jupiter”
“Fu*k off,” Jupiter snapped back.
Morning Snow Twilight Frost sent a funny smiley face.
“@Mountain Rain, Rainy Kim of your Thunder Storm has been quite active lately and always goes on TV shows. Can you help me ask for a signature?” Your Mom Collapses When I Cry asked.
“One for 3,000, no negotiating,” Mountain Rain answered.
“Damn, are you robbing me? Can you have some morals?”
Cowherd Star cut in and said, “My signature is free, do you want it?”
“Go away, your signature is not even worth enough to be used as toilet paper. I could consider if it’s from lady Yao Yao. @Seven Colors of a Peptachord[a] 1 ”
“Stop insinuating. She’s not even here.” Cowherd Star was upset.
Morning Snow Twilight Frost sent a funny smiley face.
“Stop talking nonsense, let’s talk about the matter, I’m very busy,” Jupiter said.
“You? You’re basically a mascot,” Jade Green Sky sneered.
“Go away!”
“Okay guys, I will pull us back to the topic,” Mountain Rain declared. “You guys have all seen the posts in the forums about the main storyline missions from Black Phantom.”
“Yes, we saw it, what are you saying?”
“We should come up with the money together. Then we let the pro players accept the main storyline missions from Black Phantom.”
“You want to share the risk? But only one person can accept each mission.”
“No, what I mean is that the pro players can form a team to complete it. It’s positive competition.”
“That sound pretty good, I will have to ask the expedition group for their suggestions,” Jade Green Sky said.
“I’m in. There definitely won’t be any objections from the club,” Cowherd Stars said.
“I’m fine with anything, smile!” responded Three Times Three Equals 9.
“Haha, I remember the pro players of Guild of Gods is all in Southern Continent. They can’t meet Black Phantom. You can’t play with us @Jupiter. Quickly kick him. He’s a spy here to collect intelligence,” Jade Green Sky mocked.
“You motherfu…”
_____________________
Jupiter has left the chat room.
_____________________
Morning Snow Twilight Frost sent a funny smiley face.
[a]Google is suggesting that this should be Pentachord, is that right?
Chapter 196 - It's the Tanabata Festival Tomorrow. I'm upset.
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Han Xiao was about done with harvesting the players in this novice village. He smugly counted the experience—he had gotten a huge amount yet again.
However, nobody had bought the referral letter so far, but Fisherman Han was patient—him giving out main storyline missions had already made a storm on the forums. Sooner or later, someone would come.
One last novice village left. Maybe I should delay it a while so that these large guilds have enough time to raise the money, Han Xiao thought.
This time, two players walked toward Han Xiao next to each other. Their IDs were Wind Chaser and Dragon Tail, which attracted the attention of other players. They were rather famous players of the Nine Gates Guild and the Fanatics Guild.
Han Xiao’s eye twinkled. The highly skilled players have finally come.
“Black Phantom, we want to buy the referral letter,” Wind Chaser said.
“Sure.”
Wind Chaser and Dragon Tail had received the funds from the guild of their clubs. A team was the face of a club, so as pro players, they were treated well. They took out 250,000 each.
The players around looked at them with envy. They had never seen such a large amount of money.
“Can’t believe someone can actually afford it.”
“Large guilds are really rich.”
“No wonder pro players are stronger than us. If I had such resources, I would be able to go pro, too.”
“You think just anyone can be signed by a club?”
“If we rob their money, we’ll be crazy rich.”
“Don’t be stupid. Putting aside the fact that pro player would completely skunk you, even if you succeeded, the guild will chase you everywhere, or maybe Blank Phantom will kill you first.”
The crowd talked among themselves.
He received 500,000 in one shot, then wrote the referral letters on the spot and gave them to the two pro players. He told them the location of a Dark Net stronghold in the Western Continent and said, “Take my letter there, and you can join the Blood Pact Society.”
He paused and then said, “Seems like I can trust you. I have some tasks here. Would you like to help me?”
“That’s what I’ve been waiting for.” Dragon Tail immediately accepted the mission. He wanted to accept one after another but was notified that only one mission could be accepted.
This had been set by Han Xiao—one referral letter for one mission.
“Shit, only one mission can be accepted. I thought I could accept all of them.” Dragon Tail was unhappy.
Han Xiao raised his brows and said, “Leave it if you don’t want to do it.”
Dragon Tail shut up. If he did not accept the mission, the money would have gone to waste.
Wind Chaser had no choice but to choose the same mission. The two clubs behind them had joined forces to do the mission as a team. Luckily Dragon Tail accepted a mission that was in the Western Continent.
“If you can complete the mission, there might be more things you can help me with.” Han Xiao hinted that in order to unlock his ‘hidden storyline’, first they had to complete this mission.
Pro players were always in a rush. They left immediately after accepting the mission.
Five mission targets, two in the Western Continent, two in the Northern Continent, and one in the Southern Continent—he had to make sure they were all accepted by someone. Fortunately for him, all these continents were part of his schedule.
Although the main storyline mission was A
-grade, this was the easiest first round. Han Xiao separated the mission targets into many smaller missions that had a difficulty of around grade D, so the single mission experience quota could suffice for the experience he was rewarding.
In the later rounds, when the difficulty becomes higher, my quota might not be enough by then.
He felt that he needed a way to increase his quota. Levelling up was not an option at the moment, so he had to go for organizations and legendary points. There was no need to think about these at the moment.
Wind Chaser and Dragon Tail were normal pro players, and they didn’t have a very good battle record in my previous life. I shall observe for now.
Han Xiao was strict in choosing his spare tires. He was not going to choose every pro player.
…
Fanatics and Nine Gates posted about their players buying the referral letter on the forums, which was a promotion of themselves to increase their fame within the players. The huge amount of money that they had spent attracted many players’ attention, and they were all amazed at what they had done.
Han Xiao’s face also showed up indirectly because of the advertisement from these two clubs. The clubs that followed after would also mimic the same actions so that they did not lag behind. Han Xiao guessed that his face would probably appear many times on the forums.
Without stopping, Han Xiao came to the last novice village in the Western Continent. As he was harvesting experience, there were other pro players that used the funds from their guild to exchange for a chance to accept the missions. Normal players could only watch and envy from the sidelines.
Another mission in the Western Continent was also accepted by a pro player. Han Xiao could finally relax and happily sell his abilities, at the same time paying attention to the forums and the Dark Net.
“Hmm? New episode of ‘Galaxy Times’. Titled… Creation of the Professional League?”
Han Xiao felt wide awake. He had always paid a lot of attention to this show, so he clicked in immediately.
“Hello players,” the male host greeted, “this is Galaxy Times, dedicated to sharing first-hand game information. Your gaming career is our top priority.”
“Spring, I have been quite anxious recently,” the female host commented.
“What’s wrong, Autumn?”
“I fell in love with a man. He doesn’t speak much, and he’s so handsome, but he’s never looked at me seriously and never talks to me.”
“Don’t worry, I think you two suit each other very well.”
Female host was surprised. “Really?”
“Of course, he’s handsome and cool, you’re short and ugly, how suitable.”
“…”
It was the awkward opening joke again. The style felt very nostalgic to Han Xiao.
The screen was filled with comments.
A lot of players watched Galaxy Times. In less than a month after beginning, they had already become the go-to show for the players. After all, they had the official background, so they had a lot of first-hand information.
They chatted for a while to bring up the atmosphere. Then, the male host said, “Alright, let us get back to our main topic. In today’s show, we will be digging deep into the most popular topic—Inhuman Phenomenon—the news from pro players, and we also invited Li Ge to be our guest. Be sure to stay.”
The contents of the show were interesting as always. They started off by going through the progress of players in all various planets while giving some comments on the level leaderboard.
“Currently, the highest-level players are already closing to level 20. Level 20 will be the first class advancement, so I wonder who will receive this honor. The first player to receive a class advancement will be recorded in the books of gaming history as a milestone.”
“As everyone can clearly see, the players on the top of the leaderboards are mostly not pro players. The Japanese players have the highest number of players on the list; as everyone knows, their base camp planet is the Lonnie Planet, where technology and magic coexist. They are at the peak period of the civilization, which is very suitable for getting missions and levelling up. There are also quite a number of players from France and America while there are not many from China. Oh, I see someone I know. Maple Moon, do you guys remember? Not long after the official launch, she received more than 100,000 experience points, which was from the first prize pool mission the players have seen.”
“Speaking of the Black Phantom, from the beginning of the game till now, he has been the center of attention for the players in Planet Aquamarine, and recently, something has happened again. He continuously appeared in novice villages to give out guidance and rewards, and not long ago, he showed another main storyline mission, but it had a prior requirement of buying an item that was priced at an outrageous amount of 250,000 Aquamarine dollars! If players from other planets want to know how much this means, please move to the currency exchange panel, and look at how many resources can be purchased with 250,000 Aquamarine dollars.
Players from other planets envied Planet Aquamarine. Why did they not have such a great novice guider?
Chapter 197 - Responses from All Sides (1)
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
The male host changed the topic. “Recently, an event has raised wide discussion among the players. The NPCs in the game have expressed extreme curiosity over the unique characteristics of players. Every planet has witnessed different reactions and labelled this phenomenon differently, such as Chosen Ones, Inhumans, Genius Phenomenon, which was very exciting and surprising. It’s like NPCs have their individual minds and are not as rigid as NPCs in other games.”
“If every NPC has an individual mind of their own, the amount of computation needed will be extremely high, but Galaxy is using the latest light speed computers. Its limit is unknown,” the female host said.
Players wrote their speculations in the comments. The fact that NPCs seemingly had their own intelligence and interacted as freely as a person would in the real world was very new and exciting.
The hosts read from their scripts. They talked about the situations on various planets and made some speculations.
From the players’ perspective, they only knew the NPCs attitude toward them and not the responses from the organizations, but Han Xiao did. Recently, the information on the Dark Net had almost all been about the contact with Inhumans. The rapid increase in the number of players had given a lot of pressure to the organizations.
All the organizations agreed that, if the number of Inhumans grew continuously without a limit, it would bring endless potential dangers and subversively impact the current social construct, but they could not find a way to suppress that growth at all.
Luckily, Inhumans were weak and easy to control.
The organizations in Planet Aquamarine had yet to notice that the strength of players was growing at a very fast pace. Before they were LV 20, their power was still in the category of normal humans.
Han Xiao shook his head. When the level of the players is high, these organizations are going to be really shocked.
The topic of the Inhuman Phenomenon had ended. The male host said, “… we have invited Li Ge to join us today. Good to see you, Li Ge.”
Li Ge, the god tier player that ranked second in China, sat between the hosts with a smile on his face.
Galaxy Times frequently invited highly skilled players for an interview and discussion, so the female host asked Li Ge what his view on the Inhuman Phenomenon was.
“I think this is part of the game’s plot, to give the players a feeling that it is real. When I was playing, I kept having the misconceptions that I was in a real world, and I think that is what the developers want us to experience. As a unique character in a real world, everything that occurs required improvisation, and there will almost never be any repeated events. It’s all new and exciting. I have high hopes for what Galaxy can achieve in the future.”
“Talking about the future o
f the game,” the male host said, “our channel has received first-hand news that the international esports association has confirmed that they will be hosting the first ever pro league, and they have also informed the countries to host competitions. What is your view on this?”
“I would say that it means I have yet to lose my job.” Li Ge laughed. “On a serious note, strong esports clubs have all stepped into Galaxy. They will definitely be preparing for it, and I think it will be a great fight. Hopefully, I can lead China to a good result.”
The comments exploded again. The players were very excited about the creation of pro leagues. It was going to be a big event. There were also other comments like “Li Ge is so handsome!” and “Love you hubby” that came from the female fans.
“The competition has been established, and pro players will have to quickly prepare for it. Do you have any advice or tips that you can share with us?
Li Ge thought for a while and said, “We pro players have to distribute the experience points logically in our abilities in a way that suits our strengths best. Therefore, we stick to a steady pace and won’t rush our levels so that we can familiarize ourselves with the controls in every level and improve our skills, which is why there are almost no pro players in the level leaderboards. Oh, there are a few from Japan. Well, as you know, they like to show off,” he mocked lightly.
“We pro players will grab every opportunity to become stronger. Black Phantom in our Planet Aquamarine has become very famous recently. I think I’m going to try my luck too… but that’s if he returns to the Southern Continent.” Li Ge sighed.
The rest of the show was mostly chitchat.
After he watched finish the show, Han Xiao thought, Pro leagues are going to start soon. All the clubs will be preparing themselves and not wasting any time. My customers should be increasing.
Li Ge—a god-tiered player that ranked second in China, someone whose status was so much higher than Han Xiao in his previous life that Han Xiao was not even qualified enough to be in contact with him—had said that he would come to find him.