The Legendary Mechanic

by <unknown>

  Also, when they attacked the army players, they avoided killing any army soldiers, so it was clearly targeted at the players.

  Suddenly, he had a thought and started searching in the forums. As expected, he discovered some anonymous posts that were censored due to the aggressive language used, which were about the players of the other organizations bragging about killing army players and expressing that they were indeed targeting the Black Star Army. They were also very arrogant, mocking the Chinese players they killed by name.

  “Interesting, so that’s how they’re going to play.”

  Han Xiao suddenly understood the reasoning behind this.

  He was not unfamiliar with this method. This had happened among the players in the previous life too, also during Version 4.0.

  This was a very shady method. The people behind this were undoubtedly the big clubs. Basically, they secretly gathered some of their local players to hunt the players of the target faction. Then, these players would be told to taunt and provoke as much as possible, as aggressively as possible on the forums, to trigger the rage of the target faction players, starting an insulting war. Afterward, they would then let people secretly guide the focus of the situation to race, nationality, and area discrimination, causing hatred.

  The goal of this was to control their local players’ faction preference by creating collective hatred.

  Since the players these clubs could directly control were very few compared to the normal local players, who made up the majority, someone in his previous life thought of this extremely shady and low idea to influence the normal players’ preference in picking factions.

  For example, a faction had a million players, among whom there were 800,000 Chinese players and 200,000 American players. The American clubs would then start hunting the Chinese players, provoking and taunting to make the Chinese players retaliate and insult them too. They would then guide the topic into the hatred between the nations.

  This way, the 200,000 American players in this faction would, of course, not be happy, so they would join the internet war. The clubs would then keep fanning the flames and making the situation worse.

  The result would be, a lot of these 200,000 Americans would quit this faction out of their anger toward the Chinese players, and more American players would not want to join this faction. This was just one of the methods the big clubs used to manipulate the faction preference of their local players. They created hatred, and using that hatred, they increased the unity of the players of their country.

  The reason for this was very simple—the clubs did not want their local players to work for the factions that the clubs of the other countries were in. They only wanted their local players to work for the factions they were in.

  To normal players, the more players in one faction, the stronger the competition. But to clubs, local players represented cheap labor. Be it during normal developments or national wars, as long as the clubs made announcements, the normal players would most likely respond and become free manpower.

  Normal players wanted to enjoy the game freely, which the professional players had to respect too. However, clubs and official guilds were commercial organizations; their goal was to gain achievements in the Pro League and make a profit.

  Therefore, after Version 4.0 started in the previous life, with the Americans in the lead, some clubs started to manipulate their fans at all costs, using all sorts of dirty methods. This led to the forums’ environment becoming contaminated to a certain extent, so the mainstream factions of the clubs of the other countries would be weakened, and they would become stronger… Simply put, they were robbing leeks from others.

  Only clubs of a very few countries did not take part in such things, and the Chinese were one of them.

  The Chinese had always been united, and now that most of the Chinese players were in the Black Star Army, there was no need to use such shady methods at all.

  “Tsk, the first reappearance of this trick, and it’s aimed at me. Plus, it’s from the clubs of multiple countries.”

  Han Xiao thought about it and understood what these clubs were thinking.

  It was basically because the foreign clubs did not want the army players’ forces to keep getting bigger. Otherwise, the army would have too many advantages among the factions. Not only would that reduce the development space of the other faction, but it would also give the Chinese clubs free manpower, which was basically sending money to the enemies, to these foreign clubs.

  “Just as I expected, the army is too outstanding, so the Chinese clubs became targets. Although these foreign clubs are not targeting me, if I let them continue doing this, my leek farm might shrink.”

  Han Xiao did not panic at all. Rather, he smiled.

  “Isn’t this a perfect opportunity to strengthen the sense of belonging of the new army members that is delivered to my doorsteps?”

  Why were the Alliance and the Horde so united? One reason was their background story and the game setting, but the more direct reason was that the players of the two factions were fighting each other all the time.

  Creating a shared target—this was a great way to rapidly increase the sense of unity of a group!

  “Discrimination is a factor in the real life. I indeed can’t deal with that right now, but I can target those main factions that you foreign clubs are in.

  “You’re manipulating players through nationality differences, so I shall make use of the difference between factions.

  “When the foreign clubs gather people to hunt the army players, their factions won’t reward them. Therefore, to them, this is just a matter between the players.

  “However, if I announce a Bounty Mission, stating that as long as the army players kill the players of your factions, they’ll be rewarded, what will happen?

  “At that point, your local normal players might even beat you up!

  “How can those people secretly hired by the clubs compare with the eight million warriors of our army‽

  “You wanted to play dirty? You asked for it!

  “Hehe, since you people can’t be satisfied with peacefully developing your forces and play these dirty tricks all day, let me add more wood to the fire and make your business more popular.”

  Han Xiao grinned wickedly, sat up from the lazy throne, opened the faction interface, and started drafting the Bounty Mission.

  …

  At the same time, on a private player chat channel, the high position members of the professional clubs of many countries were online.

  Among these were America’s Devil and Key; Japan’s Hydra, Amaterasu, and Werewolf; Korea’s Kimchi and Triple Star Bomb; Italy’s Classical and Pizza; and Southeast Asia’s Red Bay, Island, and Titan. Many of the regular attendees of the international tournament were in this channel.

  At this time, the topic these people were discussing was indeed related to the Black Star Army.

  Just like Han Xiao guessed, as more and more players of the various countries changed factions and joined the Black Star Army, these guilds who were not planning to change their factions could not put up with it anymore. They secretly worked together and planned to restrain the Black Star Army’s rapidly growing player base.

  “… The people on our side are moving according to plan. The public opinion part is still in preparation. The players’ emotions need time to be developed,” a high ranking member of the Key club said.

  “The circumstances are actually beneficial to us. China has managed to win two consecutive years. This is their pride, and they have this sense of superiority, so the public opinion will not be tough to manipulate. Steer the topic in this direction, toward how the normal players of the various countries are targeted because the teams of their country did not achieve optimal results, then let the Chinese players insult us. This way, more anger can be created.”

  “Actually, tricks like this are not difficult to see through. The players are quite smart…”

  “Don’t worry. Players will be players.
Once it gets to their head, reasoning won’t be important. The Pro League is a great conversation topic. It’ll be easy to trigger their emotions.”

  “Let’s hope it works. We’re all in different factions. The biggest threat now is the Black Star Army. There are way too many players there. If we don’t weaken them, the Chinese clubs will have way too big an advantage.”

  “It’ll be best if we can isolate them.”

  As for the stand of the Black Star Army, it was not within their consideration. To them, all of this was just between the players. The NPC factions were just the background.

  Chapter 1043. I“ll put up a strong front and make you cry |

  “I’ll god d*mn burn down all your dreams!”

  In the great hall of Black Star Palace, an emotional roar sounded as a white beam of light shone up. It transformed into a revived army player with the ID of [Under the Soaring Clouds]. Naturally, he came from China.

  The great hall had quite a few players coming and going, and hearing this loud exclamation, everyone turned to look at Under the Soaring Clouds. All they saw was him heaving hard with a look of resentment.

  To the side, one of the veterans asked with a tone as though he expected it, “What’s wrong, brother with big lungs? Why the anger? Who f*cked you?”

  “I got squatted[1] by a bunch of foreigners, and they even ridiculed me. This is already the third time!” Under the Soaring Clouds was exasperated.

  “Sigh, it’s now Version 4.0, the World Server. There are players from all sorts of factions outside now, and it can’t be compared to back then when we were in the Shattered Star Ring. You have to watch out for your safety,” the veteran advised before shaking his head and leaving.

  Under the Soaring Clouds’ face was nasty to behold.

  He was a new player that only joined in Version 3.0, and he was more of a casual player, not interested in PK at all.

  In the last version, the World Server had not been opened yet, so as an army player, he was basically only meeting his own people whenever he went out, so he was rarely attacked by others. However, there was no security in the current version. He had done a couple of missions but was maliciously interfered with by players from other organizations.

  He struggled to get used to the huge gap between the two versions, so he felt that his gaming experience had drastically fallen.

  Looking around, he saw that players with foreign IDs were scattered around, basically newcomers who had only joined the army recently. Among them, a small group of players constantly scanned the coming and going army players, looking at him from time to time as well. This sort of performance was most likely from a ‘spy’ sent by a foreign guild.

  “Recently, there have been many squatting incidents, and this is probably the work of those spies. My whereabouts were revealed by them, which caused me to be squatted as well.” Under the Soaring Clouds felt that this was likely, and he gritted his teeth in indignation.

  He disliked the foreign players who had recently joined, and he was not the only one—many of the Chinese players had the same idea as him, as the previous versions were so much more comfortable to play in. Everyone belonged to the same country, but now, since there were more foreigners, they had to be aware of the lurking dangers in their external and internal environments, making many people sick and tired of playing.

  Under the Soaring Clouds belonged to the category of a new player, and he was unlike the veterans who had invested a lot of time into the army. Right now, he could not help but think about changing factions.

  “I really don’t want to encounter the mess of being squatted anymore. It really affects my mood.”

  Just as he was about to act on his words, the communicators of every player in the room rang. The moving players all gave each other a strange look, collectively stopping as they lowered the heads to read the news.

  Under the Soaring Clouds also retrieved his communicator, and when he scanned the notification, he realized it was an internal announcement from the army, and there were three messages.

  _____________

  Army Announcement 1: Newcomer Preferential Treatment Policy

  Addressed to all soldiers of the army: Now is the period of the development in the Flickering World. Recently, we have recruited new warriors from the other Star Fields. In order to quickly integrate the newcomers into the army, we’re re-enabling the policy of supporting the newcomers. Existing members can take the newcomers to perform missions, and both parties will obtain additional benefits. The army will give certain subsidies, which include but are not limited to Enas, Contribution Points, Ammo, and free repair opportunities. The full list can be seen in the Appendix (Expand/Collapse). I hope everyone will actively help newcomers, no matter which Star Field they arrived from. As long as one has joined the Black Star Army, I hope we can all entrust each other with our backs in battle—Army Commander, Black Star.

  _____________

  “It turned out to be this policy.” Under the Soaring Clouds had a shift in heart.

  In the previous version, the army recruited a bunch of Russian and Australian players in the Constellation Corridor. During that time, they also announced a similar policy, which was implemented for a period of time. After results were achieved, this welfare plan was temporarily frozen.

  The effect of this policy had been proven in the previous version. It would mobilize the enthusiasm of older players to bring in newcomers, and it also quickly narrowed the distance between them, encouraging the making of friends. This allowed the Russian and Australian players in the previous version to quickly blend into the army.

  Right now, the Russian and Australian players in the army were different from those new players who had only joined the army recently. They had blended in with the Chinese players for a longer period of time and got along relatively well with them. Han Xiao had thus proposed this plan again in order to quickly integrate the new players from various countries and to allow them to feel the warmth of the old players, eliminating any barriers caused by unfamiliarity.

  Under the Soaring Clouds was not surprised by this announcement… but he was a little upset. Now that many of the old players were being squatted, the army actually wanted them to even lead the newcomers.

  While the spies only accounted for a small portion of the population, he could not help but blame the entire new player group. Thus, in his eyes, this plan sounded like the leader still choosing to help the bully even after he had shown signs of being bullied. The more he thought of it, the angrier he got.

  “This is too much!”

  Under the Soaring Clouds knew that the NPC could not be blamed, but he could not help sulking.

  As he scrolled down to the next messages, he suddenly jerked, and his eyes widened like saucers.

  _____________

  Army Announcement 2: Organization Warning List

  Recently, a large number of immortals have reported to the upper echelons that while they were performing their missions, they were ambushed and killed by immortals from other organizations. After a detailed investigation, we have found this to be true. We have compiled a list of organizations that are deliberately targeting our members. For details, please refer to [Appendix – List of Organizations] (Expand/Collapse). Although immortals do not fear death, their actions are regarded as a provocation to the Black Star Army. Thus, I am issuing a public warning to these organizations to restrain your immortal subordinates before I declare war—Army Commander, Black Star.

  _____________

  Army Announcement 3: Counterattack Permit

  Until these organizations restrain their subordinates and put an end to the ambushes made to our immortals, we will initiate counterattacks. I hereby inform all immortals of the army that they can engage in retaliatory attacks against the above organizations, restricted only to their immortals. It is not our style to be beaten and not fight back. In order to encourage this behavior, the army will subsidize additional supplies, which can be found in [Appendix – Rew
ard List] (Expand/Collapse). Repeated kills are allowed, and to receive rewards, you will need to use the Phillip mini program to upload each battle video in exchange for the reward you are entitled to. Kills on the same person will not be awarded.

  At the same time, for those habitual offenders who have repeatedly attacked members of our army, a special pursuit order will be issued. Every time you kill a designated wanted person, you can exchange it for special reward, please refer to [Appendix – Kill List] (Expand/Collapse). Everyone, please remember, those who offend me, Black Star, will be punished no matter the distance—Army Commander, Black Star.

  _____________

  An uproar sounded as Under the Soaring Clouds finished reading the other two notifications, and many players got excited.

  “Damn, what is this? The army actually moved!”

  “The PKs between players actually caused such a change in the faction‽”

  “Haha, those dumb bitches. Squatting on us? Do you think our identity as army members is given for free‽”

  “This is the feeling of having a backer. It’s really good.”

  “Our Army Commander is truly domineering, tsk, warning the other factions immediately.”

  The recent squatting incidents had left the army players outraged, but it was because they did not have any teams, they could only count on themselves, praying that they would not meet any of those malicious players from the other factions.

  But right now, the Black Star Army had directly issued a faction announcement, with very domineering wording indicating that they could retaliate against their enemies. This attitude made many of the army players extremely comfortable.

  Especially since killing players from other factions would now give them reward, everyone was immediately motivated.

  Han Xiao released three announcements with the intention of a full-scale blow. He first used the Black Star Army to suppress people and skipped through the chain of command to warn the other factions that their people were causing trouble, making them pull those troublemakers back.