The Legendary Mechanic

by <unknown>

  The scene was filled with warmth.

  Hila’s eyes became gentle. She stepped back to the side and watched her sister play with her new friends.

  …

  For many days, Aurora smiled brighter, and her health improved at an obvious rate.

  Hila and Aurora settled down. The situation of the expedition war was getting better, and the arena in the sanctuary was also completed. Han Xiao immediately focused on important matters.

  He had set two focus points for the things that he was going to do. One was to make early-stage preparations for leaving the planet, getting resources continuously.

  Another was to improve the ‘Players’ Main City’ plan, strengthening his impression for players and indirectly increasing his influence. The plans that he had for the pro league was a huge business opportunity in his eyes.

  What these two focus points had in common was to gain benefit from the players.

  “He he he…” Creepy laughter echoed in the closed room.

  It has been so long!

  Chapter 273. Our Belief Is... Create Trouble! |

  The new battle prohibition law in the sanctuary was created. Like litter prohibition, guards and rangers patrolled around, and those who disobey would be captured and detained for an amount of time. The players’ main city had to be safe for the players to feel secure, so Han Xiao told Huang Yu to work throughout the night for a proper set of laws.

  If the players wanted to PVP, they could only leave the city or go to the arena.

  The arena was built near the square, very close to the reviving point of the players. Sometimes, the players could hold back during PVP; other times, they might kill the other accidentally, and the person might lose some EXP. Even then, it could not prevent the players from their thirst for blood. As it was a long journey to leave the city, the arena became the top choice.

  The basic structure of the arena consisted of an enormous square, and at the heart of that square was the highest and biggest ring, surrounded by smaller rings. Further outside were spectating seats in the staircase style like a sports stadium. The players could only PVP in the square for free. The rings were all closed, and after some inquiry, they knew that the rings were only for gambling battles where the arena was the dealer, only open to those who paid the fee.

  Although this function was fresh, it was a paid function, and most of the players were broke, so nobody used this function for the time being, only battling for free in the square. The arena was very lively and crowded, and it soon became the official PVP location.

  Huang Yu felt this was a huge waste of resources. Nobody wanted to pay! Not only did it make them no profits, they even had to pay for the repairs. He felt that Han Xiao’s decision was very problematic; it was much better to just let the Inhumans battle outside the city.

  He felt building the arena was useless, but he did not dare disobey Han Xiao, so he could only grumble in his heart.

  The situation surprised Han Xiao a little, but he understood why.

  The players are still exploring at the moment, and obviously, only the players who are confident in themselves will dare participate in a gamble battle. Battling in the ring would attract audiences, and with that will come exposure, so the guilds and pro players will most likely be the ones to pay for the rings.

  The ring functionalities required the players to explore, so it would take some time. However, he was not someone who would just wait.

  I shall start the fire to help them understand the use of having gamble battles in the ring.

  Han Xiao’s eyes sparkled.

  …

  Every few days, Han Xiao appeared before the players to teach them his abilities and earn EXP. The abilities that he placed in the ability shop were mostly basic abilities that the players had already learned—spending experience in his shop could largely increase their ability levels, and it was much more worthwhile than spending the EXP directly on leveling up the abilities.

  This was the main EXP income that he had from the players.

  He did not teach any core abilities because he had to maintain the difference between himself and the players after all. However, he did selectively teach some not so important abilities that the players would learn sooner or later, like the Mechanic abilities [Electromagnetic Energy Extraction] and [Meticulous Repairs], improving the strength of Mechanic class players, acting as the Mechanic mentor, and attracting more players to choose the Mechanic class. Only Mechanic players had such a good mentor like him on Planet Aquamarine.

  The players went through the [Energy Training Technique] incident, so they roughly knew they would naturally learn the strong abilities that Han Xiao taught at higher levels, but most of the players were still willing to learn high-level abilities when they were at a lower level as increasing their current strength had greater benefits in the long term.

  As for the Esper and Pugilist class advancement knowledge, Han Xiao did not plan on selling them for the time being. These were like a trump card; he wanted to earn a large profit once the players had greater purchasing power.

  Every time he appeared in front of the players, he would have a stable income of more than 10,000,000 EXP throughout the day, many times faster than doing missions. The tens of thousands of players in Sanctuary Three accounted for five percent of the total player in Planet Aquamarine—many new players entered the game. The market potential was very high, and the Players’ Main City plan had a bright future.

  That day, Han Xiao appeared at the corner of the square as usual and was completely surrounded by the players. After he farmed some EXP, he saw a large group of guild players with a prefix on the name. They were the players of Sky Territory, and the leader of the group was called ‘Rebels Shall Rule’. He was the vice-captain of their core team one.

  Here comes the opportunity.

  Han Xiao raised his eyebrows. After he finished teaching the abilities, he suddenly acted like he was talking to himself and said, “Sigh, I’ve been quite unlucky recently…”

  Rebels Shall Rule immediately noticed. As an experienced player, usually when an NPC talked to themself, it meant a new mission could be triggered.

  “Mr. Black Phantom, what are you troubled with?” Rebels Shall Rule asked. “Maybe we can help you to solve it.”

  Han Xiao looked at him and shook his head. “No, no, there need to be at least ten people to help me.”

  The people of Sky Territory suddenly felt energized. It was a mission indeed, and it was a team mission!

  This was a mission given by Black Phantom himself, when did he ever scam them?

  Large guilds always had a lot of members. Rebels Shall Rule created a ten-man team on the spot. Seeing this, Han Xiao said slowly, “Sigh, one of my robots malfunctioned, and I can’t control it anymore. I hope you can bring its chip back to me…”

  He set a mission as he was talking.

  ___________

  [Finding Malfunctioned Chip – 1]

  Mission type: Team Chained Mission

  Mission Introduction: Due to unknown reasons, a guard robot has malfunctioned and gone out of control.

  First Round Requirements: Defeat Ranger X204 and bring the chip back to Black Phantom

  First Round Rewards: 25,000 EXP, +1 Relationship Point with Black Phantom

  ___________

  “Chained mission?” Rebels Shall Rule was surprised. Just the reward for the first round was already decent, so the reward would definitely be richer in the later rounds, and it could even increase Black Phantom’s relationship points. The relationship points of Black Phantom would not increase after ten no matter how much money they gave.

  As for his relationship points, all the players had the desire but were helpless. He placed quite a few strong machines in his item shop. There were ones that had blue and even purple grade. However, the relationship point requirement to buy these were all more than ten. They could only look at them—these were all Han Xiao’s ‘bait’.

  Relationship points we
re worthless alone, but he made it worth something, and this was how the currency system was created.

  Sky Territory accepted the mission and left joyfully. The surrounding players saw this and also created teams, but Han Xiao did not bother about them.

  Now the players wondered, why could the Sky Territory trigger the mission but not them?

  However, they were used to the random triggering mechanism for Black Phantom’s missions, so they did not hang onto it—they only were jealous of those lucky Europeans.

  Suddenly, a group with familiar ID and guild name entered his sight, Han Xiao only then spoke again and repeated what he had previously said.

  “Hmm? Hidden mission?”

  The members of the Guild of Gods were surprised.

  These were the players from the official guild of the renowned e-sports Temple of God Club, Guild of Gods.

  Han Xiao was very familiar with them; they suited the target he was looking for.

  After Han Xiao’s identity was exposed, the people of Guild of Gods only then knew that the Zero they were looking for was Han Xiao, and they had missed Han Xiao time after time. Of course, they had failed the mission.

  The guild leader, Jupiter, was furious. He could not enjoy meals and could not sleep well; he was so frustrated that he almost had constipation.

  However, it was too beneficial to stick with Han Xiao, and to not lag behind other guilds, the Guild of Gods had no choice but to come to the sanctuary no matter how frustrated they were. Every guild had teams gathered in the sanctuary.

  “This is quite a good mission.” Jupiter was overjoyed. He had met a hidden mission just by walking on the street—luck was finally with him!

  With a wave, the Guild of Gods created a team on the spot and accepted the mission.

  …

  An hour later, in the North City Side of the sanctuary, a chase was underway. The ten-man team gasped for breath as they chased behind an extremely fast ranger.

  “Fas—faster, don’t let it run away!” Rebels Shall Rule gasped for breath.

  They came to this construction area, following the mission requirement, and chased after this out of control ranger. The ranger had very strong firepower. Many people in their team had died, and only then could they damage the ranger till it had very little armor left. But when that happened, the ranger suddenly started running.

  “Damn it, why is it so agile!”

  The people of Sky Territory had bitter faces. “It’s more familiar with the environment and the terrain than us, has it developed consciousness‽”

  At this time, in the high-rank room at the center of the sanctuary, Han Xiao half-lay on the sofa, holding a laptop in his hands. His fingers were moving across the screen casually, and the image was the vision of that ‘out of control’ ranger.

  This ranger was actually completely under his control. He limited its strength, only letting it out after he took out a huge amount of its ammunition and weaponry yesterday. It was a downgraded version, aimed to give the people of Sky Territory a tough victory. If it was a complete Generation 2.5 Ranger attacking freely with full firepower, more than half of these players would have died in an instant. Of course, the Sky Territory players did not know this—they thought that they were cooperating very well and only through that they were able to almost destroy this ‘out of control’ robot. This was exactly what Han Xiao wanted them to think.

  Out of control? Doesn’t exist.

  “We’ve almost caught up!” The distance got closer, so Sky Territory forced themselves to focus and prepare for the final attack.

  Han Xiao looked at the radar map. Suddenly, he smiled evilly, and he controlled this almost dying ranger to speed up suddenly, distancing itself from Sky Territory after many turns and dashed toward the Guild of Gods, which was searching for the target.

  Jupiter and the rest were shocked when the ranger showed up, then they were overjoyed.

  “That’s the target. Quickly, focus fire!”

  After just one round of attacks, the ranger broke into pieces, and parts were scattered on the ground.

  The Guild of Gods was confused. They had hardly done anything, so why did this robot explode?

  Putting the doubt behind, Jupiter picked up the mission item from the pile of broken parts, [‘Out of Control’ Ranger’s Chip].

  At this time, Sky Territory arrived late, and they were enraged upon seeing what had happened.

  “Damn you, Guild of Gods, you dare to steal our monster!”

  Rebels Shall Rule was furious.

  The target that they had chased through more than a dozen streets had been stolen—anyone would have been angry.

  Furthermore, the Guild of Golds and Sky Territory had always disliked each other.

  …

  The screen turned black.

  Han Xiao threw the laptop to the side, lighted a cigarette, blew out a smoke ring, and started laughing.

  The players did not have a demand for gamble battle, so he created a demand for them. This has always been Han Xiao’s business belief.

  I’m a professional in creating trouble!

  Chapter 274. The Battle |

  “Turns out you guys accepted this mission, too.” Jupiter finally understood why the robot had been like paper—they had stolen the kill.

  Rather than apologizing, Jupiter gloated. The Guild of Gods would never step back when facing other guilds. Furthermore, it was their old rival, Sky Territory.

  “So what if we stole the kill? Suck it up.”

  The argument turned into a conflict very soon. After a group fight, Sky Territory, which was in a sorry shape, was annihilated.

  “Jupiter, I fu*k !^@&*@&… just you wait!” Rebels Shall Rule private messaged Jupiter.

  Jupiter closed the chat window straight away.

  Are you kidding me? Why even play the game if you don’t steal kills?

  They had the mission item, so the people of Guild of Gods returned to complete the mission immediately, and as long as they completed the mission, Sky Territory could only suck it up no matter how unhappy they were.

  However, Jupiter and the people came to the high-rank area but were stopped.

  “We have completed what Mr. Han Xiao told us to. Why aren’t we allowed to enter?”

  “We are ordered to not allow any outsiders in.”

  No matter what they said, the guards did not back off a single step. The people of Guild of Gods had no choice but to leave helplessly.

  They could only wait for Han Xiao to reappear in order to complete the mission.

  The team left, and after walking for a while, their sight was suddenly blocked. A group of rough men surrounded them, led by Jade Green Sky. They had brought the people of Sky Territory to demand an explanation.

  “That’s pretty immoral of you, Jupiter. Our men got the mission first, and the target was also damaged to the last health by us, but you stole the kill out of nowhere. You’ve got to give an explanation,” Jade Green Sky said with a long face.

  “You’re overreacting. If anything, you should blame yourselves for being unlucky.” Jupiter had no fear. The sanctuary was a safe zone; no one could attack, and they were unafraid of being surrounded.

  The eyes of the two clashed midair.

  The guild leaders of the large guilds in China knew each other privately. Jade Green Sky and Jupiter never got along, and there was a reason for this. Their conflict started in the pro scene. Li Ge was the pillar of the Temple of God Club, Hao Tian was the representative of Sky Territory, and Hao Tian lost to Li Ge more than he won. He lost to Li Ge many times during crucial battles.

  Therefore, the contradiction was very strong—they disliked each other.

  This stolen mission became the fuse. Although it was just a small conflict, it might become bigger, more so that they were already rivals.

  The surrounding players saw this and gathered to spectate. It was livelier than the market, and the middle of the road was completely obstructed.

  They argue
d with each other for some time before Jupiter said impatiently, “Jade, what do you want?”

  “Give the mission item back to us.”

  “Keep dreaming.” Jupiter rejected it immediately.

  Why did they have to give it back when they stole the kill? Furthermore, he represented the name of the guild; if he backed off, would others not say that he was scared of Sky Territory?

  Of course, Jade Green Sky would not suck it up either. Both sides not wanting to back off meant the conflict could not be settled; therefore, they had to talk with their strength. However, he did not want to have a large-scale public fight. The results of both of them losing would mean to be exceeded by other guilds.

  Jade Green Sky pondered, and suddenly, he remembered the gamble battle function of the arena. Was that not the most suitable place to settle their conflict?

  “Okay, since you’re not willing to return it, we shall go to the arena and have a gamble battle.”

  “What, why do I have to fight you? There’s no benefit in winning, and I have to give up my thing if I lose. If you lose, you can only give up on what I already have.”

  “Humph, we shall make a bet, too, money, equipment, item, anything at all,” Jade Green Sky said provokingly. “I’m officially inviting you to a battle—accept it if you have the guts.”

  He really wanted this chain mission as Black Phantom’s mission rewards were always rich, and it could increase Black Phantom’s relationship points. It was a good deal.

  However, Jupiter was not provoked at all. He pushed the people of Sky Territory aside and left.

  Anyway, he had the item, and as soon as he completed the mission, he would be the one getting all the benefits—there was no point in taking the risk and fighting a gamble battle.

  The people of Sky Territory were furious. Rebels Shall Rule furiously demanded, “Leader, are we just letting them go like this?”

  “Provocation! Force them to accept the challenge,” Jade Green Sky said angrily. “I’m not going to tolerate this. Ask the members to all publish posts in the forums, provoke them as much as you can!”