Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
In the center camp, Han Xiao looked at the blueprint on the table and wondered how to maximize the advantages of the players.
His mission reward limit had increased—his single mission reward limit was a little more than 60,000 experience, coming up short of a C-ranked mission with 80,000 experience. The daily limit was seven times the single mission limit, which meant that he could give out missions worth up to 420,000 experience daily. He realized that the easiest way to increase this limit was to build relationship points with organizations. Level and ranks would come naturally, and the legendary level could not be gained easily.
Any experience points given out as a mission reward would not be deducted from Han Xiao’s own experience points as long as it was within the stated limit.
For such a large mission like constructing a city, his own quota was insignificant. Thus, Han Xiao pondered carefully and decided on the way that he was going to distribute the missions. That was to divide the construction of Graymetal Ruins into many different departments to take charge, then assign one person to each department who would be responsible for the distribution of missions. That way, he did not have to use his own quota.
Constructing Sanctuary Three was a main storyline, and since he could give out missions to the players, logically, the other NPCs in the team should be able to do so as well.
This should resolve the problem of mission quotas. Although the other NPCs don’t have an interface, they definitely can distribute missions since they are part of the construction team.
The other NPCs would not be limited by his quota when publishing missions for him, and it would still contribute to his mission progress as the mission that he had received was an overall mission. Therefore, the final result of the city that the players helped to build would also be his final result. This difference in the mission was an advantage that Han Xiao had being the overall in charge of the sanctuary; it was the difference in their identities.
Han Xiao suddenly had a new idea—if he ever faced this type of large mission again, he could duplicate this and use his advantage as being an NPC to gain a higher relationship with organizations, thus becoming the distributor of missions and using the players’ power to achieve his goals.
By doing that, I only need to manage the people that are in charge of distributing missions and nothing else. Then, I will have a lot of free time to build machinery to try to meet the class advancement requirement of building five purple quality equipment, Han Xiao thought as he nodded to himself. He could do main storyline missions and also have time to make his own progress at the same time. It was perfect.
Furthermore, this was not an act to con the players. The players could also do missions and benefit from it. Them joining in with the city construction would build a sense of unity. All of the people that took part would have a sense of achievement when the sanctuary was completed, and they would feel honored with the thought— This city was built by us, the players.
It was a win-win!
Han Xiao had an ambitious idea.
I could maybe make this sanctuary into something like a main city for the players, and that would remarkably increase my influence. Everyone that comes to the sanctuary would see my name!
Having decided on the details, he summoned the cadres of the construction team and guard team for a meeting.
Han Xiao looked around and said, “Where’s Liu Zhao? Why isn’t he attending this meeting?”
The people could not react for some time. Then someone carefully said, “You sent him out to approach the wanderers.”
“Nonsense, you think I’d forget that?”
Han Xiao gave a stare. Before anyone could react to it, he coughed and said in all seriousness, “It’s an enormous construction project to start building a sanctuary from nothing. I have divided the blueprint into thirteen departments. This is the information for the construction, exploration, and so on. Every department will have a head who will be in charge. My target is to complete the blueprint construction as soon as possible, best in a month.”
“We don’t have that much manpower, even if we include all the Inhumans outside,” someone said.
“Don’t worry about that. There will be more people sooner or later,” Han Xiao said. He knocked the table with his fingers and asked once more, “All clear?”
Everyone had no choice but to nod. One month was way too much of a rush, but since it was an order from a higher-up, they had to do their best, otherwise they would be in trouble. Although Han Xiao was considered to be rather easy going, no one had forgotten the fact that he was one of the strongest in the organization, a legend who had killed countless people and had the top spot in the current killer leaderboard.
Han Xiao then names the heads of departments. Huang Yu was not mentioned.
Huang Yu was happy that he had nothing to do. Although thousands of Inhumans had come to help, it was still far from being enough. It was impossible to complete the basic layout in a month, so Sanctuary Three would still end up doing it the regular way and take months to complete its construction. By then Sanctuary One would have long been completed. As an assistant, he really did not have many benefits, so he did not even plan to help.
When Huang Yu informed Bennett of how the Inhumans came to help Han Xiao, which Bennett was very calm about and did not have any problems with. It was clear that Bennet had a very close relationship with Black Phantom and trusted him a lot. From that, Huang Yu also had a rough understanding of why Bennett assigned him to be Black Phantom’s assistant—it was because Bennett wanted a capable assistant to help a friend of his.
Sighing, he lamented, It’s all because I’m too capable.
The meeting was coming to an end. When Han Xiao had finished clearing up all the responsibilities of the various departments, his face then turned very serious, and he said in a low voice, “I’ve said all the things I needed to. Now, there’s this extremely urgent mission that must be done first.”
Seeing the seriousness of Han Xiao’s face, everyone became nervous as well.
Han Xiao looked around the table and said seriously, “When you write the name of the sanctuary, remember to include my name.”
The tightened expression on everyone’s face instantly collapsed.
…
The heads of the various departments left the camp and organized their men orderly, following Han Xiao’s instructions. The long-awaited players immediately rushed over and triggered different city construction missions based on their own likings.
The Graymetal Ruins was divided into five distinct areas—North, South, East, West, and Central. The missions that were given to the players were also divided according to the areas. Upon receiving the missions, the players immediately formed teams among themselves and started doing mission together. The night was even more lively than the day.
The first and most important task was to expel the beasts and clean the ruins, only then could the construction commence. Teams of players spread out from the stadium into the various areas of the Graymetal Ruins.
The sound of gunshots could be heard very often—there was quite a number of beasts that lived in the Graymetal Ruins, so the players had plenty of opportunities for combat.
Those construction missions could be repeated, and the rewards were quite handsome. Also, the interface informed the players that they were taking part in the construction of Sanctuary Three, and there would be a large amount of bonus experience when it was completed, which made them even more motivated.
Black Phantom Sanctuary Three—the name of this city had the words ‘Black Phantom’, so the players’ impression of Han Xiao became even deeper.
Having one’s name in the sanctuary sounded very honorable.
By the night of the first day, the players had already cleared out a very large area. Their efficiency had the people of Dark Net completely stunned. This could match up to the amount of work from ten thousand workers!
The players were all superhumans, which enhanced their working ability, and they had guidance from the interface, which gave them very clear and straightforward goals. Every action they made was to complete that goal.
When the players and the Dark Net construction team was busy with the construction, Han Xiao received a call from Maple Moon. He remembered that he had given her a mission to find him when she reached LV 20, so he brought her into the camp.
After a long time apart, Maple Moon looked left and right curiously. Han Xiao also called the other three players—he was going to give these four some extra missions.
The four spare tires had finally met. With Hao Xiao’s ability at the moment, it was more than enough to cultivate four players—Frenzied Sword and Hao Tian, both god players in his previous life, now a Mechanical Pugilist and a Pugilist; Maple Moon, one of the first Mechanics in his previous life who had risen to the pro scene; Bun-hit-dog, a well-known video host.
These four people all had their own uniqueness, and they could assist Han Xiao in different ways. They stood in front of Han Xiao and looked at each other.
As the only female player, Maple Moon received special treatment. The other three nodded toward her as an act of showing friendliness.
“Ah, so cute!” Maple Moon stared at Hao Tian with sparks in her eyes. Her expression looked so thirsty it was like she was going to eat Hao Tian alive.
Beads of sweat rolled down Hao Tian’s forehead. He stood straight and still as he watched Maple Moon dashing toward his arms… more specifically, Bear Cub, which he was holding. She rubbed and stroked Bear Cub and would not let go.
Bear Cub was very confused. It shrank into Hao Tian’s arms and gave Maple Moon’s fingers a few light bites.
“Ah, this is way too cute.” Stars appeared in Maple Moon’s eyes. She looked up and pleaded with Hao Tiao, “God Hao, can you let me hug it?”
“Be clear next time.” Hao Tian’s expression was stiff. He immediately passed Bear Cub to Maple Moon and took two steps backward in relief.
Bun-hit-dog came over, too. He reached out his fingers and teased Bear Cub. Bear Cub was cute and stupid, so its reaction was always a second slower. Its paws kept slapping away the hand that rubbed his butt. Frenzied Sword stood on the side and looked straight at Han Xiao all the time, looking like he was always awaiting an order.
“Enough, enough, stop playing with my bear.” Han Xiao coughed to stop them and said, “I’m building a sanctuary. You guys go help too.”
As he was speaking, he designed extra missions for the four people, which gave them bonus rewards if they complete a certain number of missions from the various head of departments.
Other players did not have this kind of special treatment—Han Xiao only did this because these four were his people.
Naturally, the four did not have any objections. They accepted the mission and walked out immediately. However, Maple Moon stayed. She cautiously asked, “Can I learn abilities?”
Han Xiao nodded and opened up the interface for her. He could teach abilities anytime to these four players. Other than the abilities at the bottom of his chest, the others could all be used to earn him experience.
Maple Moon had also chosen to become a Mechanic, so he could cultivate her like an apprentice. Maple Moon was a casual player who preferred real-life simulation type of gameplay. It was very smart a choice to train her into an assistant. Han Xiao was not stingy about it anyway, plus he quite liked Maple Moon.
In his previous life, Han Xiao had started playing during version 1.0 as a completely new player. He had also chosen the Mechanic class and had experienced losing streaks during PVP[1. PVP stands for player vs player.). There was a time when he had lost hope in the Mechanic class despite how much he liked the class, and he had almost even changed his account. Then, later on, during the pro competition in version 3.0, Maple Moon became a completely unexpected black horse in her first competition, which signaled the rise of Mechanic class and gave a lot of encouragement to Han Xiao. He had even been a fan of Maple Moon for some time when he was young.
Later, when he got more and more skilled, he became one of the masters that represented the Mechanic class. Although he did not become a pro player, legends of the Great Mechanic Han went around. There were always discussions on the forum regarding what a non-pro master player could achieve in a pro league if they had gone, and the Great Mechanic Han had been a constant hot topic.
Great Technician Han grew stronger with time, but Maple Moon was like a comet, leaving an unforgettable mark in the milestones of gaming history then soaring through the sky and disappearing in a flash, only shining during the third and fourth versions of the game. Maple Moon was a casual player after all, so her skills in PK grew at a very slow pace—not everyone had so much interest in improving in a game like the Great Technician Han.
In the later versions, Maple Moon disappeared from the pro scene. It was said that she had discontinued the contract with her club, so her light only lived in the memories of the old players.
The Maple Moon in front of him was pretty and cute, and Han Xiao could not associate her with the person in his memories who had caused a storm in the pro league. Looking at Maple Moon, who was torn between which skills to learn, Han Xiao had complicated feelings.
What will happen this time?
With him changing the storyline, would Maple Moon’s future still be the same as it was in his previous life?
