The Next Step of the Plan

[Does anyone know the background of the players who were online from the start? (2312 replies)]

[Shi Lezhi: Players like Qian Peng and Brother Dao are well-known, so there's no need to mention them.]

Sorted by popularity:

[Hehehe Yo: Anyway, "I Don't Want to Pay Breach of Contract Fees" is definitely "Baron," the strongest mechanic currently active (?). He's the most talented team lubricant I've ever seen. Damn, the STAR Team formed a star-studded lineup specifically for him this year, aiming for the world championship, but then his account disappeared.]

[She Said She Was Bathing: It's just a rumor, not confirmed. Apparently, Baron is hiding in some internet cafe, completely off the grid. The club members are going crazy looking for him.]

[Being 0 or 1 is worse than being 3: "Sakurajima Mai" is the king of the arena's street fights. His strength only ranks in the top ten among assassin players, but his background is undeniably number one.]

[Magical Girl Lu Zhishen: I bought equipment from "Li Yuan" before. She's a professional merchant with a decent reputation. I didn't expect her to actually be a girl.]

[Glory Guild Leader: "Level 8 Great Gale" commanded our guild in a raid last time. He's a professional commander with very high skill. I still have his contact information.]

[Favorite Ice Cream: In the ten years of this expedition, there have been 137 world bosses. 13 of them were killed by a single person, and 7 of those were by Leg Lord. I just don't know if "Lost a Leg" is the real Leg Lord.]

[Glutton: "Golden Wind" is likely someone from the number one guild in the national server, "Golden Wind." Those bastards are disgusting. They not only monopolize a large amount of in-game resources but also hoard many hidden quests.]

[Sour Cola: Are "I Am a Cheat" and "Green Player" playing together? I don't know their backgrounds, but they were both chosen at the same time. They didn't actually use cheats, did they?]

[...]

Seeing his post generating heated discussion on the forum, Li Li put away his mirror and massaged his aching temples, contemplating his next course of action.

In his warehouse, three players were currently stored: "Amulet Owl," "I Am a Cheat," and "Green Player."

After reaching level 10, these three had completed their job advancements with him, becoming Transcendents of the Brass rank, and had all gone offline to rest.

This world had a universally recognized system for identifying the strength of Transcendents.

That system was rank:

Brass: lv10-lv30

Silver: lv30-lv60

Gold: lv60-lv90

Legendary: lv90-lv120

Hero: lv120-lv150

Demigod: lv150-lv???

This was somewhat similar to the cultivation realms in Xianxia novels. Within the same rank, individual strength differences mattered, but each major rank difference represented a dimensional-level disparity.

However, with technological advancements, the difference in strength before the Gold rank had gradually become subtle.

At least among Transcendents of the Silver rank, a significant portion couldn't withstand a single bullet, let alone more powerful artillery shells and explosives.

Therefore, the players he summoned were basically useless until they reached the Silver rank.

From the forum discussions, he learned that Broken Sword Valley was filled with Silver rank monsters, and Aer had confirmed this.

Thus, for these players to level up, they would have to "kill enemies above their rank."

Li Li calculated.

It took 16,456 experience points for a player to go from level 1 to level 10.

That was equivalent to 1.6 units of Faith.

Creating one body, however, required at least 10 units of Faith. If these players died once, he would have to spend 100,000 experience points to revive them.

Of course, if he could bring back the corpses, the cost would be reduced to between one and five-tenths, depending on the corpse's completeness.

After all, these bodies lacked souls. What Li Li performed was not the miracle of Resurrection of the Dead, but merely restoring lifeless bodies to a state of living dead.

He had spent 100 Faith to summon ten players and used 1378 Faith, kept in reserve, to extract Ember for "Amulet Owl."

Extracting one Ember cost approximately 3000 Faith, which translated to 30 million experience points.

The remaining 1622 Faith was naturally drawn from Li Li's own origin.

This wasn't like a deposit where you "borrow X and return X"; it was more like drinking one's own blood to quench thirst. To restore the origin to its original state, it would require several times the amount of Faith.

Yet, over these many days, only four players had reached level 10 and learned a few skills, yielding Li Li a meager 21.45 Faith.

In short, Li Li had invested heavily in these players.

And his investments, before reaching level 30, had almost no ability to repay him and could potentially lead to a complete loss at any moment.

The only fortunate thing was that all ten players could be considered "talented." Not a single one had died yet, and they were thriving under these extremely difficult starting conditions.

If nothing else, "I Am a Cheat" and "Green Player," this human and elf pair, had earned enough experience to reach level 10 by working odd jobs at the slaughterhouse for a few days.

It was just that the poultry they killed seemed to have issues with their taste.

Although the slaughterhouse hadn't suspected them yet, it had temporarily closed due to a large number of returns.

"So the current problem is, if I want to break even, I need to create a stable channel for players to reach Lv30, because I can't expect all future summoned players to be high-level players like them."

Li Li closed his eyes, recalling the monster distribution map of "Despair Expedition OL" that he had obtained from the forum.

If the two worlds were the same, then this world still had quite a few low-level maps. Players who started "Despair Expedition OL" later could choose to spawn there, but that area was a certain distance from the Thirteen City Alliance.

As the summoner, Li Li, due to corruption, was unable to leave the God Banning Barrier, making the Alliance the only starting village for the players.

Perhaps once the world's corruption weakened, he could leave the God Banning Barrier.

But if he wasn't even affected by corruption anymore, why summon a player then!

Okay, a dead end.

Then, he could only trouble his own precious Saintess.

Li Li's current plan was the same as his initial one.

It was to have Aer lead the players to kill monsters at the pre-arranged strongholds outside the city.

He had originally planned to bring the players up to level 10, and once they became Brass Rank Transcendents, he would stop being their babysitter.

But with the current situation outside the city, he estimated he'd have to train them until level 30, not to mention a few individuals who looked down on the advancement provided by the Divine Legion and intended to find their own opportunities for advancement.

To go from level 1 to level 30 required 1,054,568 experience points, and with half of that being taxed, it amounted to 210 Faith per person.

He hoped these guys wouldn't disappoint him in the future...

Li Li once again mobilized the power of the Divine Legion, spending 10 Faith to create a Panda sub-species Beast-Ear Race hero unit.

After some thought, he gave this Beast-Ear Race the ID "Lost His Mind."

Alright, this guy was the lucky winner who received testing qualifications through the forum's discussion activities.

Li Li then took out a mirror, projected a part of his soul onto his own world, and sealed it within the body of this Beast-Ear Race.

He tried to control it, and "Lost His Mind" stood up, curiously hopping around, finding it all very novel.

The alternate self was complete!

He withdrew from "Lost His Mind's" control view, returning to his main body. Holding the Exit Game mirror, he intended to get an upgrade guide suitable for "himself" from the Earth forum.

Just as he was about to reach out and post, he discovered a new thread posted by "Amulet Owl" in the "Speak Freely" section.

In less than half an hour, it had already garnered a large number of discussions and replies.

[What do you guys think, based on the intelligence gathered so far, how was the Thirteen City Alliance destroyed? (212 replies)]