His goal was not to obtain this pot of money but rather to stimulate the consumers’ desire for consumption, emptying the players’ wallets before using this long-term discount activity to make players generate money quickly. Thus, they would work harder to participate in the war. Through this, their experience would fill up and empty out for him, then rinse and repeat… Continuously draining the players wallets would keep their fighting spirit up!
A mature leek would know how to engage in self-fertilization!
“Now that the players have spent all their money, I guess we can start soon…” Han Xiao’s eyes narrowed as the corners of his mouth curled up.
In fact, emptying the players’ wallet was just the prelude prepared by Han Xiao. The real harvest had just begun!
In the Logistics Department, the amount of equipment left in the deposit did not even hit triple digits. As the players put on their new equipment, they felt content at how rewarding the buying spree was. Their desire to spend money was not yet over, however, and they opened the faction store to browse if there was anything else that they could take advantage of.
Looking at the sky-high prices even after discounting for the top-tier equipment, the players were moved, but they could not afford it even with the discount. Thus, they could only look away in resignation. It was at this time that someone found out the faction store stocked a lot more Profession Knowledge compared to the previous Version.
As they closely scrutinized it, the players received a huge shock.
The faction store actually contained the Basic and Advanced Knowledge of the various Psychic, Mechanic, Esper, Psychic, and Magic Professions!
There were even a few Professions that had High-End Knowledge!
Everyone present clearly remembered that in Version 2.0, the Black Star Army did not have a complete copy of all knowledge for the five major professions.
In fact, the Basic and Advanced Knowledge for each Profession could easily be gathered as long as one had money. With the current financial power of the Black Star Army, Han Xiao had gathered all the various lower-tier Profession Knowledge in the past seven years and even bought over a few high-end knowledges.
Having reached this level, the Black Star Army members under Han Xiao were numerous, with people of all different Professions. Buying this many different types of Knowledges was so that he could conveniently groom more warriors.
However, in the eyes of the players, this had extraordinary significance. In order to obtain profession knowledge, players in the various Star Fields had to increase favorability of the various profession mentors as well as the favorability of the faction they were in, and this was troublesome.
However, in the Black Star Army, they were able to master the profession knowledge of the classes, which signified that they did not need to find a mentor, and this would save them a lot of time and energy. This was an advantage that players from the other Star Fields did not have!
The most surprising thing was that, not only did the amount of Profession Knowledge increase, they actually did not require money!
Learning knowledge in the previous versions required money. However, this time, in the faction store, knowledge only required one’s Faction Contribution Points as well as experience!
Although the experience cost of learning a Knowledge remained, the required Faction Contribution Points had halved!
“They actually made Knowledge free of charge?”
“This doesn’t make sense. Why is it that Profession Knowledge does not require money now? Won’t it be a loss for us since we bought it last version using money?”
“Wait, I’ve discovered the reason!”
If a problem could not be solved, they could ask Phillip. Some of the players took the initiative to open the subprogram and ask, and they quickly got the answer.
Due to the scale of expansion for the Black Star Army, training camps had been established in various places. In order to train up members of the army on a large scale, the exchange pattern for Knowledge had thus been altered. Members of the army could apply for the Knowledge so long as they had enough contributions instead.
This system not only applied to the players but also to NPCs. This was equivalent to the induction training for the Black Star Army.
The crowd was astonished and realized even more about the great cause of the Black Star Army. This Star Cluster level Organization was indeed miles apart from its past, with high generosity and a proper system in place.
“So, we also receive the same welfare?” Other than a portion of people feeling depressed that they had spent the money in vain, the rest were all overjoyed.
“So, does that mean that we all need not pay whenever we wish to learn Knowledge next time, just use our Contribution Points!”
“Damn, this is too good!”
“It’s indeed a Faction for growth. The treatment is awesome!”
The majority of players were relieved, and they could feel the practical benefits of the development that the Black Star Army had undergone in the past decade.
When comparing faction benefits, the Black Star Army had left the rest in the dust!
How blissful!
“Just now, the three consecutive chain missions awarded us quite a bit of contribution points, enough to buy a few of the Knowledges. My Basic Knowledge is not complete yet.”
“Hehe, I’m out of money, but learning Knowledge does not require money!”
“The faction contribution points are even at a fifty percent discount. This benefit is really too good, too profitable!”
With the mentality of ‘since I can take advantage, I might as well do it’, the group of players immediately used up all the experience points that they had saved to obtain all the various Knowledges.
Following the buying of the Knowledge, the dry experience bank of Han Xiao started to fill up once more.
“Finally…”
Han Xiao let out a deep breath, feeling relieved.
This was what he needed the most!
He had abolished the monetary price for Knowledge to gain a large amount of the players’ experience. However, because the system also took into account NPCs, Han Xiao had thus made it into a system of contribution points for Knowledge.
For his normal members, experience was an intangible object, so if there was no requirement in terms of contribution points, it would be equivalent to giving it away, which would result in serious problems. This was his bottom line for maintaining the system of the faction.
In order to allow players to fork out the experience to purchase the Knowledges, Han Xiao had utilized the three guiding missions earlier to send the players a wave of contribution points. Following which, he had then used the ploy of halving prices to incite the players’ desires, emptying their purses.
After they had finished spending, the players would definitely want to take advantage of the system with the fifty percent off. At this time, they would then discover that Knowledge did not require money, and with their contribution point prices halved, a portion of the players would use their experience to learn various Knowledges. The reason it was only a portion was because knowledge could be learned at any point in time, but Han Xiao wanted to harvest some player experience in this short amount of time.
After being deprived for a decade, he could bear it no longer!
After considering that it was necessary to maintain the value of the contribution of the camp as a secondary currency and that it could not trigger ‘inflation’ in the process, Han Xiao did not give out too many contribution points to the players… or else he would have just thrown the players a motherload of contribution points, to the extent that they would reach the [Reverence) relationship, allowing them to learn all the knowledge they wanted. Not only would he empty their purses, he would also empty their experience bars, robbing them of both resources!
It’s better to harvest slowly. I’ll save some experience for them, allowing them to rise to Grade B. I cannot just pull my leeks out from
the roots…
Han Xiao was acutely aware that he could not pull out the seedlings to make it look like they were growing
Watching his experience counter skyrocket, he licked his lips, a moved expression on his face.
It had been ten years. Finally, he could fill up his experience slot, this bottomless pit!
Chapter 721 - The World Doesn’t Lack ‘Smart People’
Through the forums and internal message system within the army, the players who were in the other bases also received news about the discount they could get if they participated in the war.
Around ten days later, more than a million players gathered at the headquarters of the army and chose to participate in the war.
A portion of the players fell for Han Xiao’s marketing strategy and surrendered their entire wallet to him. In just half a month, they provided the Black Star Army with a few hundred million in pure profit.
However, most of the players still placed their focus on leveling up. For example, all the professional players focused fully on leveling up during the start of the version, and the number of players who chose to learn new knowledge were the minority.
Han Xiao did not feel discouraged. When the players became fat with experience and had some extra experience points, they would definitely purchase the various knowledge from the army; it was only a matter of time before their experience became his. Just the profit from this half a month was more than the total that he had earned over the past seven years.
The players happily enjoyed their new equipment while Han Xiao happily counted his money.
In just half a month, Han Xiao increased his level to 217, and he was only three levels away from level 220.
After this round of harvesting, he had pretty much emptied all the savings of the players, and they needed some time to recover.
The players’ savings are still too little. At the end of the previous version, many of the players went to participate in the preliminary round of the Pro League for fun and used all their experience points leveling up their skills. It is best I feed them until they are fat first.
In the lounge of the conference room, a group of officers were playing cards and creating a loud commotion. Han Xiao sat on the sofa alone and began thinking of his future plans.
After this battle, I should be able to gather enough experience to reach the next promotion mission. The gap to becoming a Beyond Grade A Super is becoming narrower.
While it would not be that easy for him to become a Beyond Grade A Super, Han Xiao was satisfied with his current progress. The other Beyond Grade A seeds still could not find a way to break into the Beyond Grade A realm and were stuck at a bottleneck. On the contrary, his growth was only reliant on his leveling speed, and he did not have any real bottlenecks.
Furthermore, he still had a stash of Mission Completion Cards. As long as he had sufficient experience, his growth would be smooth.
Just as Han Xiao was thinking, a loud cheer could be heard from the side.
Lagi had a look of resignation on his face as he made his classic pessimistic remark. He then stood up to leave his seat. On the other side of the table, Reynold sat down with his back straight and a calm expression on his face. He nodded slightly as though to say, Thank you for letting me win.
“Not bad, our Logistics Manager won five games in a row.”
“Tsk, I lost 50,000 Enas. I should’ve bet on Reynold instead.”
“Our vice commander was completely thrashed. His skills are just too lousy.”
“The logical thinking process of a Mechanic is truly amazing… but why is His Excellency Black Star so terrible at playing cards?”
Sylvia turned around and said to Han Xiao, “Teacher! Someone is talking bad about you!”
Han Xiao snapped back to reality and walked toward Sylvia with his hands behind his back. Standing behind Sylvia, he bent down slightly and placed his chin on Sylvia’s head. His gaze then swept past all the officers with an expression that said, Let me see who is talking bad about me.
Because the majority of the officers had participated in the battle a few days ago, almost all the core members of the army were present in headquarters. Han Xiao had held a short meeting before this, and after the meeting, everyone had gone to the lounge to play cards and opened a betting station.
Han Xiao was not interested in participating in any activity that relied on luck.
Reynold was originally studying a blueprint by the side, but after Sylvia lost a few games in a row, she insisted on dragging Reynold into the game to vent some anger for her.
While Reynold did not like wasting time on entertainment activities such as Wayne Cards, he would occasionally be invited to join a game or two and thus had his own deck.
Playing Wayne Cards seemed to be a part of all the officers’ resumes.
While all the officers had powerful combat capabilities, they usually did not manage administrative matters. When they were not deployed, they also had hobbies like an ordinary individual.
Since he had decided to play, Reynold naturally treated every game seriously. He had a powerful logical reasoning skill, and he had always been good at playing cards. He won five games in a row and did not even show his sister Rossellin any mercy.
Reynold collected his cards and looked around expressionlessly. “Who else?”
“Teacher, why not you play a round too,” Sylvia then said with a cheeky smile.
“I bet that Black Star will lose,” Harmon said honestly. “It is a sure win bet.”
“Not bad.” Han Xiao snorted. “I will beat whoever dares to win against me to death. Who wants to play?”
“No no no.”
Everyone waved their hands immediately. You’re the boss. You’re the strongest. Of course, we won’t dare to play.
Reynold knocked on the table lightly and said, “If no one is playing with me, I shall take my leave.”
Right at this moment, Herlous stepped forward and sat opposite Reynold. Let me take you on.
“I shall let you understand the true meaning of skill.”
“It should be the true meaning of luck, right?” Reynold replied expressionlessly.
Herlous snorted. “Humph, luck is a type of skill too.”
“It’s over. Reynold’s victory streak shall end here.”
“Reynold, take care of this b*stard.”
Everyone cheered on excitedly.
After seven years of hard work, Herlous had finally stepped into the doors of a Calamity Grade Super. His talent was truly higher than his peers, and he lived up to the name of being a protagonist character. It was as though he had become a Grade A Super just by playing cards.
Among all the officers, Herlous enjoyed playing Wayne Cards the most. Because all his victories usually come from a lucky draw, together with the fact that Feidin did not like to play cards, Herlous had some prestige in the Wayne Card world of the Black Star Army.
Even the players knew that he would never reject an opponent, and even they could find Herlous to play cards against. There were even corresponding missions, and they could obtain experience points if they beat Herlous, even getting the chance to obtain a rare card from him.
After a few lines of trash talk, Herlous started his game with Reynold. Both of them were using a Black Star Army deck.
Five years ago, the Wayne Cards had been refreshed, and despite being a subsidiary of Floating Dragon, the Black Star Army had more Wayne Cards than Floating Dragon. Han Xiao’s card was strengthened greatly with plenty of special effects and high HP. His card had already become a rare card.
Not too long later, Herlous got a few lucky draws in a row. Despite Reynold’s skills being superior, he was still on the losing end.
A thought suddenly sprung up in Han Xiao’s head, and he gave Herlous a (Luck Curse).
“Humph, you are dead.” Herlous drew with confidence, but after glancing at his card, his face froze up.
Wayne Cards were pretty much determined by luck, and Herlous’
Luck attribute was still higher than his after being reduced by ninety percent. But in front of Reynold, he could only lose miserably after a few terrible draws, and Reynold easily turned the tables.
“Eh? Your luck finally isn’t working?”
“Haha, you can also have such a day.”
Herlous’ face darkened, and he quibbled, “What do you lot know? This is a strategic retreat. I will turn the tables in a while.”
Everyone around burst into laughter, and the entire room was filled with energy.
Han Xiao did not join in the fun and returned to the sofa to check the forums.
It had been less than half a month since the release of Version 3.0, and the players from the other Star Fields were still in the exploratory phase. The news that had been released by Han Xiao had become a clue for the other players who were searching for the Main Storyline Missions in the various Star Fields.
This time, the Main Storyline Mission in the Shattered Star Ring was the first to appear again, and the players from the other Star Fields were all extremely jealous. As such, the forum of the Shattered Star Ring was the liveliest, with players from many other Star Fields coming to leave their comments.
Coincidentally, Bun-Hit-Dog’s new video was also released, and it discussed how the Black Star Army was a hidden Main Storyline Mission that spanned across three different versions. A huge wave of discussion was created, and both Han Xiao and the Black Star Army became the hottest topic in the past half a month.
Han Xiao briefly looked through the post, and it was mainly describing his importance and past events. Bun-Hit-Dog helped to boost his fame, which was never a bad thing.
The event that made Han Xiao the happiest was that Galaxy Times introduced the benefits of the Black Star Army according to the players’ information.
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