Assembly

Many people have actually bought those templates for superstar roles.

Superstars don't make money by selling character templates, but rather through revenue from merchandise such as posters, figurines, and custom costumes (cosplay equipment).

Of course, the new skins and outfits launched on the Player Platform are also a major selling point for online revenue. For example, this year, Roaring Heavenly Lord released a "Doctor J" skin, in which he wears a suit and tie, a monocle, and a white mustache. Combined with his muscles that almost burst out of the suit, it creates a bizarre cuteness that has captured the hearts of many straight men, resulting in a hot sale.

In contrast, the new skin for the equally Young Noble is rather unoriginal, simply repeating the same medieval aristocratic style as "Blood Count," "Tango Baron," and "Duke of Destruction."

Fortunately Young Noble is handsome enough and has the charm of a mature man, so he has the support of many female fans, and the sales of the new skin have always been very good.

"How's the player feedback?" Bai Xiaowen asked. The buying frenzy of the past two days only indicated that the initial promotional work was excellent and the CG entrance animation was substantial enough. Only sustained positive reviews could attract more and more Virtual Battle Platform enthusiasts to rush to buy.

"I've been keeping an eye on the forum and am collecting data. I expect to have more objective evaluation data within three days. The few scattered comments we have now are quite subjective, so it's too early to tell the whole story," Sister Zheng said.

Li Shuyi fiddled with her phone, swiping lightly to purchase Bai Xiaowen's Spirit Channeling Prince character on the Player Platform. She laughed and said, "Such a powerful template only costs 99 yuan! Only a fool wouldn't buy it. Xiao Wen, you need to have confidence in yourself."

Awakened players have their own dedicated battle platform, but this doesn't prevent them from applying for an account on the Player Platform as regular players. On the Player Platform, Awakened players don't use their own template; everything is the same as for regular players, for entertainment purposes.

Bai Xiaowen smiled and said, "I've always been confident in myself, but not everyone can handle the role of the Spirit Channeling Prince well. Let's put this aside for now; Sister Zheng can handle it. What are the upcoming schedules?"

Sister Zheng took out a small notebook and said, "Winter break is over, and you need to register at the university. Of course, you've been quite busy lately, so you can consider delaying your registration by a week or two. I can call Jinghai University to apply for the details."

Bai Xiaowen nodded slightly, and Sister Zheng continued, "Just today, while you were sleeping, the Super God Guild sent out a voluntary assembly notice for a road clearing mission in the Wilderness Zone. Guild Leader Li said he hopes you can participate and get to know the other guild members better."

The road clearing operation in the Wilderness Zone is a large-scale project led by the government and jointly participated in by guilds of all sizes in various base cities. It is carried out twice a year, in Spring and Autumn Annals and autumn.

There's no way around it; the mutated beasts in the Wilderness Zone reproduce too quickly, a new generation every few months. To ensure unobstructed roads between base cities, it's necessary to regularly clear monster hordes near the roads. The authorities will divide the roads into sections based on reports from outposts and allocate them through a project bidding process.

Of course, project bidding isn't just about who offers the lowest price; the guild's overall strength must be taken into account. The official ultimate goal is to ensure the road clearing is completed, not how many Psionic Points are saved.

As for how to measure a guild's strength? It's simple: look at the guild's ranking in various leagues...

Some might argue that this method is unfair, but it is relatively fair. Just like the National College Entrance Examination in the Common Era, National College Entrance Examination certainly has many drawbacks, such as exam-oriented education, high scores but low abilities, and the continued advantage of children of officials and the wealthy, it is difficult to find a fairer way to allocate social classes than the National College Entrance Examination.

This road clearing operation is also one of the important ways for guilds of all sizes to earn Psionic Points and maintain their operations.

As for the deep Wilderness Zone far from roads, if there are too many monsters, they may even fight each other for survival, thus giving birth to even stronger individuals. This is why the deep Wilderness Zone are more dangerous, but we won't go into that for now.

Some mutated beast packs deep in the Wilderness Zone will occasionally wander to the vicinity of the road and seize these vacant territories. At this time, the hidden outposts and bunkers set up along the road will issue early warnings and report back to the base city authorities.

The official task of clearing out roaming beast packs will be posted in the Awakened Association's task hall, where a guild or Awakeners team can accept the task and complete it within a specified time limit.

In the Psychic Energy Era, maintaining unimpeded domestic roads is an important political task. If roads are cut off, even normal communication between base cities will be impossible, forming isolated islands, which would truly mean the "nation is no more."

Awakened individuals trade through virtual markets such as Virtual Hall, which generally require transportation via roads between various base cities.

Of course, roads are not the only mode of transportation. In the Psychic Energy Era, there is a very special method—teleportation.

Teleportation Orb, teleportation arrays, teleportation runes... In the Psychic Energy Era, anything is possible.

However, while teleportation is convenient and safe, the cost of each teleportation is simply too high; no matter which method of teleportation is used, it is not cheap.

Just as in the Common Era, transportation and logistics required air, sea, and land transport in parallel, logistics and transportation in the Psychic Energy Era also proceed in parallel. People with valuables or plenty of money (Psionic Points) use teleportation, while others use road transport.

Bai Xiaowen is currently Hero Class, considered a top player within the Super God Guild. It's only natural that he would be needed for the guild's mobilization.

Bai Xiaowen nodded and said, "Okay, Sister Zheng will contact the school later, and I'll postpone my registration. My combat experience bar is almost full; this operation might allow me to reach the level 6 threshold."

Li Shuyi said, "Me too... so I'm also delaying my registration to level up to level 6 with you."

As Elite Class, Li Shuyi's leveling speed is faster than Bai Xiaowen's. However, Bai Xiaowen trained for several more days in the Dead Spirit Lake Treasure Ground Space and completed two more quests in the Black Tide Plane —a main quest "The Secret of the Shadow Labyrinth" and a special side quest "The Prophet's Mission"—and received additional experience rewards, so his experience bar is about the same as Li Shuyi's.

Sister Zheng nodded and noted it down, then turned to the next page of her notebook. "The Super God Potion Shop has already transferred the proceeds from the previous auctions to your account. They now need a new batch of potions."

"I understand." Bai Xiaowen hadn't forgotten this matter.

"Besides that, there are interview requests from newspapers and online media. With the release of the CG for the Virtual Battle Platform, your popularity has been on the rise," Sister Zheng said with a smile. "Will you accept? It will definitely help your fame."

"If it's a local media outlet, then let's decline it. But for national media, we need to consider their circulation and influence."

Bai Xiaowen thought for a moment and said, "I really don't have much time—I have to participate in the guild gathering, make potions, and the CUAA National Championship starts in a month... I also have an important matter that will take up two or three days, and besides that, I want to practice my Battle Specialty and skill proficiency..."

"I understand," Sister Zheng wrote furiously, "By the way, I also have three invitations from live streaming platforms here: Shark TV, Cat Fang Livestream, and Panda Platform. The signing fees and subsequent benefits are very attractive. Would you like to take a look?"

Bai Xiaowen smiled and took the small notebook from Sister Zheng's hand.

The notebook wouldn't contain detailed contract information, only key contract details extracted by Sister Zheng from the three contracts.

"Quite a generous offer."

Bai Xiaowen nodded slightly.

Xiao Jun, who was standing nearby, glanced over and asked, "Ah... how many zeros are in the signing fee?"

Sister Zheng said with a smile, "Of the three platforms, Cat Tooth's signing fee is the lowest, but it's still 30 million. The highest is still Shark, at 39.88 million. Moreover, in terms of subsequent promotion, they all promised immediate top-tier recommendations and were quite lenient about the minimum live streaming time... This is the treatment of a top-tier streamer."

The term "instant top placement" means that as soon as Bai Xiaowen starts broadcasting, her live stream will be displayed at the top of the homepage, regardless of when she starts broadcasting.

Bai Xiaowen shook his head and said, "The contract length is too long. I looked at them and they're all three years or more. I still hope to sign a six-month contract, no more than a year... I don't mind if the signing bonus is reduced proportionally."

After a pause, Bai Xiaowen added, "We won't consider Shark TV."

Li Shuyi gently tugged at Bai Xiaowen's hand. "It's alright, you don't need to worry, I believe in you."

Bai Xiaowen smiled and shook his head, still insisting on distancing himself from Shark TV. One reason was the connection between Fu Qiu and Fu Hong, Shark TV and Titan Potion House, and even the Titan Guild; Bai Xiaowen wanted to keep his distance from Shark TV. Another reason was the fact that Sister Zheng had been kicked out of Shark TV.

If there are other reasons, it's that Bai Xiaowen had an unpleasant experience during a previous live stream where the Shark Platform unilaterally disregarded its promised promotional conditions and made things difficult for Bai Xiaowen.

Sister Zheng hesitated for a moment and said, "That's quite difficult. Everyone can see your potential for development, so they all hope to sign a long-term contract. As for short-term contracts, unless it's a platform that urgently needs a star performer to bolster its reputation, no platform is willing to sign you."

Bai Xiaowen said firmly, "Let's talk about it like this, Sister Zheng. If no platform is willing to sign, then we won't sign a live streaming contract."

Bai Xiaowen also had his reasons. He was currently in a transitional period in the University League, gradually moving away from the stage of relying on live streaming to gain fame.

The reason for still considering a short-term contract is that, at this stage, he does need to occasionally appear on live streams to maintain his Earth Fame. As Bai Xiaowen's professional character template is released on the Player Platform, gaining popularity will become easier, and the importance of live streams will decrease, eventually becoming dispensable.

Furthermore, Shark Platform's previous actions made Bai Xiaowen realize that live streaming platforms are the powerful party, while streamers are always the vulnerable group. Before signing, they may make grand promises, but once the contract takes effect, it's easy for the live streaming platform to renege on the terms it promised.

Therefore, Bai Xiaowen was unwilling to sign a long-term contract that would restrict her.

Sister Zheng nodded. "Okay, I'll talk to them as you said."

A moment later, He Zhiqing peeked out from the kitchen; it was time to eat. Everyone went over with smiles to serve the dishes and rice. The table was full of tempting delicacies, which truly satisfied Bai Xiaowen and Li Shuyi, who hadn't been back to Earth for more than ten days.

Although Bai Xiaowen and his companion sampled many of the so-called "royal special" delicacies from the Black Tide Continent at Camelot Palace, which had a distinctly otherworldly feel, they were still far inferior to the psionic cuisine available on Earth.

While eating, Bai Xiaowen also took out her charged phone and replied to her chat messages.

These chat messages were mainly sent by his university classmates, or more precisely, by the people on the University Team.

The University Team members didn't remain completely idle during this winter break.

Perhaps Inspire by Bai Xiaowen's meteoric rise, the members of the Jinghai University Team all made significant improvements in their skills during the winter break.

Chen Guowei finally reached level 4, stepping into the threshold of Intermediate Awakened.

Feng Zi'ang climbed to level 5.

Han Xu is also level 5, and his combat experience bar has exceeded 50%, so he is advancing towards level 6.

Xiang Hui is approaching level 5, making the fastest progress, thanks to the support of the Radiance Guild. However, Xiang Hui also shared his future plans with Bai Xiaowen. He's lagging behind in Battle Specialty Battle Specialty and intends to take some time to refine his abilities and improve his proficiency after reaching level 5.

Xiang Hui's thoughts coincided with Bai Xiaowen's, which may be due to their family education.

Bai Xiaowen planned to train his Battle Specialty and skills after reaching level 6. As an awakened being close to level 6, his combat skills were generally only LV3 to LV4, which was obviously inadequate. If Bai Xiaowen hadn't had the skill level and Battle Specialty bonuses of the Ultimate Academic Ace and had already enhanced his key skills to LV4 early on, he would have found it very difficult to explore the Spirit Realm.

The Spirit Realm Rules's matching system only considers level, matching Awakened Ones to planes one or two levels higher. Those Battle Specialty don't match their level will naturally be at a disadvantage.

As for the others, such as Liu Fei and Xiao Mingsheng, they have also made progress. However, they did not contact Bai Xiaowen proactively; their situation was only mentioned to them through Chen Guowei's rambling messages.

The following morning, Bai Xiaowen and Li Shuyi went to the meeting point at the agreed time to participate in the guild's operation.

"Good morning, Little Bai, Miss~"

"Old Demon Uncle."

"Uncle Old Demon, could you please stop calling me Miss?" Li Shuyi was a little shy, which made Old Demon laugh heartily.

A young man dressed in a rock-and-roll style, wearing clothes with tiny metal spikes, was sneaking away.

Old Demon Yao grabbed his wrist. "Captain, you can't leave. Little Bai and the others are newbies, you have to say hello."

Nie Kong felt a little awkward and quickly glanced at Bai Xiaowen: "Hmm."

"Uh..." Bai Xiaowen nodded at Nie Kong. Although this guy was a goofball, he wasn't a bad person at heart.