Qian Peng had barely woken up when the barrage of messages on his phone gave him a fright.
He hurriedly opened his phone and looked through them. Once he realized it was about the game, he relaxed slightly and opened the video his friend had urged him to watch.
"I attended a meeting in the game that would decide the players' fate."
This was a video posted by Leg Lord.
Holding his phone, Qian Peng walked into the bathroom and watched while brushing his teeth. Then he could not help grumbling aloud:
"Damn! Leg Lord, you got sold out!"
"Only players can produce monster materials. As long as players unite, what bargaining power does the merchant guild even have? Seriously, Leg Lord, what are you scared of?!"
"Hell, that stone guy is really slippery. Don't let him drag you along with his logic!"
With a toothbrush frothing white foam in his mouth, Qian Peng grew more anxious the longer he watched. He wished he could kick the Shadowfolk attending the meeting out of the video and rush in to negotiate with those old foxes himself.
This was not a First Playthrough game. With monster production restricted, the things that had been tossed away as trash in the First Playthrough should sell for a high price in the world of the Second Playthrough.
The terms offered by those NPCs from the merchant guild looked generous, almost like a win-win arrangement. But they were really treating the players like idiots. In truth, the merchant guild won twice.
Don't let the ingrained mindset from other games limit you!
After quickly washing up, Qian Peng halfheartedly took a bite of toast from the fridge. Without even starting his stream, he immediately put on his Holographic Simulation Helmet.
He did not enter the game. Instead, he shouted to everyone in the player group.
"@everyone, treat the terms Leg Lord negotiated as bullshit. We players are the monopoly. Even if we don't get a seat at the table, don't let the NPCs serve us up as a meal."
"@everyone, it's one thing not to fight for the interests of all players, but he didn't even fight for his own interests. He got sold out and still helped them count the money. In the future, lone-wolf players with no experience should stop butting into this kind of situation."
"@everyone, I checked the video again. The contract the NPCs signed at the end had nothing regarding players. The terms Leg Lord negotiated with the merchant guild were a personal contract between him and the guild. Legally, they can't restrict other players. We don't need to recognize their rules."
"@everyone, has anyone played a merchant before? Since the Transcendence Merchant Guild has secured a monopoly over trade in the outpost, let's invite other factions to set up stalls outside it. Find more buyers for monster materials. We absolutely cannot let the Transcendence Merchant Guild dominate alone."
Qian Peng's words livened up the group, which only had fourteen players.
Even players who had been completely clueless came to understand the special status of players after seeing everyone discuss it.
Players might call themselves self-deprecating names like "toilet uncloggers" and "footmen."
But those terms were mostly used to complain about how little players could participate in the main story of certain games, as well as the unreasonable design of some side quests.
Yet under the gameplay of a "real world," where the entire game world was simulated according to reality, players—the only group in the world capable of cleansing corruption and bearing the duty of saving it—were absolutely not insignificant figures who could be ordered around at will.
They were true saviors.
Every decision they made and every action they carried out would genuinely affect the future of this world.
The soon-to-be-unlocked functions of "shops" and "teleportation" would naturally produce entirely different results depending on the players' level of participation.
With the mayor's full support, Li Li's outpost moved from an abandoned warehouse to an office area atop the city wall.
Several sections of the twelve-meter-high wall had been converted into living areas, like four-story buildings built into the wall itself.
Most of those buildings had been assigned to border units as office buildings, while Li Li directly received one entire section.
From the windows on either side of the fourth floor of the New Outpost, one could see towering trees outside the city and a forest of steel within it.
From here, they no longer had to pass through official checkpoints and could directly reach the quarantine zone outside the city wall, entering Broken Sword Valley.
Merchant guild trucks continuously unloaded batch after batch of goods, piling them in the open area near the outer side of the wall.
The academy's first team of scholars had already arrived at Endemic Plague Village, studying on-site the aftermath of the "corruption" being eradicated. They were eagerly preparing to churn out hundreds of papers from every possible angle.
After a round of haggling, the players sold off the "trash" they had on hand and exchanged it with the merchant guild for a batch of silver-grade enchanted equipment. A few prodigies had even hired Gold Rank mercenary bodyguards and were clearing the monsters along the road with astonishing efficiency.
Li Li felt that the players seemed to be secretly plotting something, but his "social system" had remained stubbornly unfinished, leaving him unable to learn what the players discussed in private.
Huddled within the God Banning Barrier, Li Li was like a computer disconnected from the internet. He could only transfer data through direct contact, like using a USB drive, making him wholly unsuited for a social system that required remote connections.
He had previously planned to use magic to build an in-game social network.
But a social network built with magic could also be cracked with magic. With so many factions watching closely, the entire social network would inevitably be eavesdropped on.
Thus, Li Li faced a difficult choice.
Either he could only learn what mischief the players were secretly planning through delayed methods like the forum, or he could make everything public and let all the natives know exactly what players were like.
Fortunately, it would still be some time before the players cleared the roads to the outpost, so Li Li could set this problem aside for now.
He came to the hall on the third floor, preparing to summon the fifty-one selected new players.
Aperria was already waiting there. Li Li had specifically asked her not to wear her helmet and to let down the long golden hair tied atop her head, displaying both her side as a Magical Girl and her side as a knight.
For players, looks and strength mattered more than anything else.
Once all the newly arrived Blue Star residents had finished customizing their characters,
Li Li spent 5,100 Faith and handed these players over to his new employee.
Unlike the small-scale commotions before, the number of players summoned this time exceeded the total of the previous two batches by several times. The sudden appearance of fifty-one players immediately turned the quiet hall noisy.
"Expedition, hell yeah!!!"
"All eyes on me! I have an announcement! You can sit on the chairs in this game!"
"ohhhhhhhh!!!"
"Damn, you scared the hell out of me. Bro, can you send me the settings for that Elder God face?"
"No, why are you taking off my pants? Aren't the spaces under those elements empty over there?!"
"Playing a game with graphics like this in first person is completely different from the secondhand view in the livestream. This is insane!"
"What do we do next? I'm ready to start exploring the map!"
Aperria stood to one side, completely ignored by the excited players.
Following her lord's prior instructions, she gave these Otherworlders five minutes to familiarize themselves with the bodies they had just obtained.
Once the time was up, she drew her longsword. Sacred golden flames clung to its blade, absorbing all the light in the hall.
In an instant, the still-noisy players found the surroundings darkening, as though they had been abruptly pulled from daytime into a pitch-black night. All they could see was the breathtaking girl standing atop the platform, sword in hand.
"Chosen Ones from another world, you now have two choices."
The golden-haired girl slashed down with her sword. Golden flames spread from its tip, forming a cage of golden fire that encircled the players in the center of the hall.
"First, remain in Iron Wall City and assist my lord in establishing an expansion territory for outward expeditions."
"Second, travel with me to Crystal Seal Village, stake your lives on it, fight to the death, and cleanse the filthy corruption surrounding the village."
Before you continue