The Power of Pay-to-Win!

The Power of Pay-to-Win!

Join the Netherhumanitarian Aid Organization?

You have joined the Netherhumanitarian Aid Organization. Faction template unlocked.

Based on your Charisma check, you will receive the organization's basic public information.

Faction Favorability unlocked.

Faction Leader: "Professor" — personal favorability unlocked.

"Professor" Favorability: Neutral (70/1000)

*Note: Because "Professor" possesses a special specialty, the higher "Professor"'s personal favorability, the higher the faction favorability; the higher the faction favorability, the higher personal favorability becomes—but they will not stack in a loop.

From lowest to highest, favorability is divided into: Blood Feud — Hatred — Hostility — Opposition — Disgust — Indifference — Neutral — Fondness — Respect — Worship — Faith.

The personal favorability of the remaining members has been unlocked.

Assistant Anna: Indifferent (25/1000)

Nordly: Hostile (-65/1000)

Experiment ZX-101: Apathetic (49/1000)

Experiment ZX-626: Fond (200/1000) — Li Aoz was taken to an isolation ward and placed under containment. His straitjacket was not removed, on the grounds that he needed to be observed for some time to prevent him from hurting anyone again.

After all, he had knocked an Alpha-class formal Martial Artist flat with one blow, nearly sending them to the ICU. Whether he had any Aoneng reaction was another matter; his danger level had already surpassed that of an ordinary patient. They had to come down hard on him.

Li Aoz was happy to have some peace and quiet. He had unlocked the faction template, but the quests had not officially begun yet, so he was in no hurry. He took the opportunity to sort out his thoughts.

"Since earlier, I haven't had time to pay attention to the system. The three rewards for descending were unlocking the system, player functions, and the personal panel. I only checked the personal panel and system functions before. I haven't looked at the player functions yet."

Li Aoz first opened the Faction tab under Player Functions. There was only one faction listed inside: — Faction Name: Netherhumanitarian Aid Organization Stance: Chaotic Neutral Rating: H Introduction: "What I want to tell you all is that some people regard survival as everything, while others pursue profit their entire lives."

"Yet even if I must devote my entire life to it, I will prove that humanity still exists upon this wasteland."

"That is Nethermark Humanity."

The Netherhumanitarian Aid Organization was a small organization with sound organization and combat competence above the Outland baseline. It had gathered an enormous medical research team and field operations division, but it rarely participated in resource disputes across the Outland.

Under "Professor"'s leadership, Nethermark Humanity was continuously expanding its influence.

Yet beneath the radiant surface of Nethermark lay darkness unknown to others. Rumors had long circulated through the Outland concerning all kinds of cruel experiments conducted by Nethermark. Some even firmly believed that Nethermark was the source of this Malefic Calamity disaster.

Leader: "Professor"

Position: Experiment

Faction Favorability: Neutral

Contribution Points: 0 Daily Quests: 1. "Clinical Experiment"

"Although I do not believe your existence holds any important significance to us, the results may perhaps differ."

— Cooperate with Assistant Physician Anna in various experiments. Quest Reward: 120 Contribution Points per session.

2. "Physical Training"

"Without a sturdy body, you will be unable to endure the subsequent experimental program."

— Complete the physical training plan formulated by Nordly Crowe.

Quest Reward: 10 Contribution Points per session.

3. "Psychological Counseling"

"You're the new Level 5 Infected? I heard Malefic Calamity severely interferes with the mental state of Level 5 Infected. Don't worry, I'll help you avoid being harmed by it."

— Cooperate with Physician Eleni every day for a psychological evaluation. Quest Reward: 20 Contribution Points per session. — "This template..."

Li Aoz raised an eyebrow, somewhat surprised.

"This isn't the original faction panel. It's the version perfected by the 11.7 Version Patch."

The era he was currently in was earlier even than the closed beta of the legendary Star Abyss, roughly around the internal alpha test that existed only within the developers. If an insider had not leaked information later on, the public truly would not have known that the Main Storyline began in Year 221.

The Faction System had only been added for players starting with Version 1.0. It took eleven versions and hundreds of patches of adjustments before it was finally perfected.

Before his transmigration, Li Aoz had been in Version 14.0: Void Orbit. The template used there had basically been finalized, with no further modifications.

"Hmm... this is a little beyond my expectations."

Perhaps this was a transmigrator's benefit? Aside from enjoying NPC bonuses, he had also brought along the patches from Version 14.0.

Compared to the incomplete version, the greatest difference in the perfected patch was the addition of several particularly useful systems.

Faction Members — allowed him to access the information of every member within the faction at any time.

Faction Infrastructure — allowed him to pay resources to renovate some of the faction's facilities.

Faction Store — allowed him to spend Contribution Points to exchange for various faction resources.

Li Aoz opened Faction Members. The Nethermark Organization had quite a few members—127 in total, large and small. Because his Faction Favorability was not high enough, he could only view each person's level, name, identity, and position. Additional information would have to wait until his favorability increased.

However, one person was an exception.

"Pink hair, blue eyes, not very tall... Hmm, could it be this one? Second row, fifth one... Tch, there are too many women. I'm face-blind."

Following the clues from his memories, Li Aoz searched for a long time before tentatively selecting an avatar. When a complete, clear résumé enlarged before him, a playful expression appeared on his face.

"That's right. It's you."

Name: "Firefly" Ze Xi

Level: Ordinary — Lv. 8 Merchant Position: Logistics "According to the Walkthrough from my previous life, I can buy an Omega-class Aura Awakener from her. This is the key to becoming a Mutant."

Originally, Li Aoz had planned to slowly grind quests and accumulate favorability until he became an official Nethermark Humanity rescuer. That way, he could openly approach Ze Xi and buy the drug from her.

But now, Li Aoz discovered that his faction template was the completed version. He could directly open the Faction Store. After checking, it was exactly as expected: a drug that even Ze Xi, a Black Market Merchant, could obtain was openly available for exchange here.

Esha Experiment Drug - Type VI

This was it. Although the name was different, it was actually the same thing as what Ze Xi had.

"In that case, my plan needs to change."

Li Aoz began to think.

The Overlord Class only had one subordinate branch in its early stages: Mutant. It was also the phase that made many Overlord Class players suffer the most.

The reason was simple. Early on, the Level Cap for an initial class was Level 60, but every twenty levels, the class would face a choice of build branches.

For example, at Lv. 20, a Martial Artist would face two branch choices. One was the Crane School, which focused on improving the physical body and the destructive power of punches, kicks, and techniques. The other was the Dragon School, which focused on enhancing inner strength and began to control Psychic Power.

Choose one of them, and your path would continuously specialize toward a different combat style, eventually forming a build unique to you.

Mages were even more special. Every twenty levels, depending on their race, acquired knowledge, and combat style, a mage would have at least seven branch builds to choose from each time.

Facts proved that mages were masters in every game.

In contrast, due to their own nature, Mutants had no builds or branches to choose from.

Instead, they would undergo "mutation" from time to time, gaining control over different abilities through highly unstable mutant genes. Every mutation was unstable. It might bring new skills, or, if they were lucky, improve the original Aoneng rating. But the most absurd part was that it could sometimes even result in degeneration.

The reason for this was largely because all of a Mutant's abilities lay in their Aoneng.

If a player awakened an exceptionally powerful Aoneng, then playing a Mutant would at least not be so miserable. Instead, it would be as fun and exciting as opening blind boxes.

As a Master Player of the Starcaller class, Li Aoz naturally still chose the Starcaller path. Aside from needing to collect Charisma-specialized specialties, there was another point he had to pay special attention to: if he wanted to advance into a Starcaller later, Li Aoz needed to master four types of Aoneng, and without exception, all four had to be the highest-tier Omega-class Aoneng.

"Although I've prepared myself to suffer, if players really appear later, I can't let them see me suffering this badly..."

It would not be too difficult to obtain these four Aoneng in the middle stages of the game, especially since Li Aoz was familiar with the cosmic map. But getting them in the early stages would be extremely difficult.

If he did not pursue becoming a Starcaller in the end and instead chose to become an Ability User, missionary, mystic, or Echoer, then his miserable experience... his game journey would be much smoother. The latter classes only needed one or two Aoneng to become versatile, and with three, they could basically reach T1 or T2 on the meta rankings.

But only Li Aoz knew that these four mainstream Overlord Class professions would all be far inferior to Starcallers in the future. More than that, he could say with certainty that not a single mainstream profession could compare to a fully developed Starcaller!

The most crucial reason was that all four Aoneng were the most powerful Omega-class.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that taking any one of these four Aoneng alone could immediately and completely rewrite the situation on Azure Planet.

"Now, I can get one from Ze Xi. Counting the Faction Store, plus a personal exchange with Professor—I can directly gather three Aura Awakeners."

No, not just that.

Li Aoz suddenly realized that since he possessed patches from future versions, then according to the circumstances of several later versions, the Player Store he had not checked before should also benefit from those patches.

Which meant...

Li Aoz hurriedly opened the Player Store. Skipping past the dazzling array of goods, he skillfully searched the keywords: Overlord Class, Aoneng, consumables, paid items.

Then he saw a syringe carrying a mysterious, noble golden drug.

"It really exists!"