Ninja village upgrade, recruiting villagers!

"By the way, Dai Xiaomei, Emperor of Sinking, what are you planning to spend your contribution points on?" a player asked.

"Upgrades, of course!"

Without a second thought, Emperor of Sinking was the first to pour his contribution points into his chakra level.

Buy!

Buy!

Buy!

Emperor of Sinking clicked the purchase button like mad.

Hum, hum, hum, hum.

The glow of chakra upgrades kept flashing around Emperor of Sinking.

In an instant, the amount of chakra inside Emperor of Sinking had reached an astonishing level.

Emperor of Sinking spent his remaining contribution points on upgrades for his C-Rank Ninjutsu.

Everyone gazed up at Emperor of Sinking in awe. Without a doubt, the difference in contribution points earned from this mission had made Dai Xiaomei and Emperor of Sinking the richest people in the village in one fell swoop.

Naturally, their overall strength had also risen to the top.

Everyone's eyes burned with envy. If they had completed the mission, they would be the strongest person in the village now!

It looked like they would have to work themselves to the bone on missions from now on!

Only by completing missions could they earn such huge amounts of contribution points.

For a moment, all the players were brimming with motivation.

In the distance, Ye Chen quietly observed everything.

Emperor of Sinking's luck had surprised him, too.

At first, Ye Chen had thought it would take at least several days to find Kusagakure.

It might even take more than half a month.

Yet the map exploration mission had been completed in just half a day. Ye Chen had never expected that.

Sometimes, Ye Chen even found himself wondering.

Was Emperor of Sinking really cheating?

How else could his luck be so good?

Everyone else had been desperately searching for Kusagakure.

Meanwhile, Emperor of Sinking had someone lead him straight inside.

Ye Chen shook his head with a wry smile.

He put Emperor of Sinking out of his mind. The most important issue facing him now was Kusagakure.

At this rate, Kusagakure would definitely discover Hidden Jun Village's existence one day.

When that happened, Kusagakure would launch an all-out attack.

Although Ye Chen was invincible inside Hidden Jun Village and did not have to worry about Kusagakure massacring everyone there...

...he could hardly let them blockade his doorstep, could he?

Defeating Kusagakure head-on was his only option.

But Kusagakure's overall strength was actually formidable.

In particular, the village had plenty of ninja, including many Jonin, giving it substantial fighting power.

His own Hidden Jun Village, by contrast...

...had pitifully few ninja.

And they were all merely Genin.

What good would their ability to revive do?

Hidden Jun Village was roughly two hundred kilometers from Kusagakure.

At that distance, revival lost its advantage entirely.

By the time they revived and ran back to the battlefield to take turns fighting, it would all be over.

They would just be charging to their deaths one after another. Help that far away could do nothing for an immediate crisis!

Hidden Jun Village currently lacked the strength to confront them head-on.

And Ye Chen himself was only at Chunin level. He could not leave the village at all.

Ye Chen paced back and forth, thinking.

He currently faced two problems.

First, there were too few players.

Second, the players needed time to improve.

If he could solve either of these problems, the threat posed by Kusagakure would vanish.

Thinking about the player slots, Ye Chen shook his head with a bitter smile.

If only I could get another batch of players.

It would be a tremendous help, both in increasing his own strength and in improving the village's fighting power.

[Ding-dong! Congratulations! More people have learned about your Hidden Sky Village, and it has generated a certain amount of astonishment in the Shinobi World. You have gained 100 experience points and met the requirements for an upgrade. Would you like to upgrade?]

"I can upgrade now?"

Overjoyed, Ye Chen answered without hesitation, "Upgrade!"

[Beep! Upgrade successful!]

As soon as Ye Chen spoke, Hidden Jun Village's status panel changed.

Hidden Jun Village.

Level: 2.

Number of ninja: 9.

Buildings: Gourmet City. Medical Department. Item Shop.

Finally, that looks a little better!

[Congratulations on successfully upgrading your village to level two! You have received recruitment slots for 19 players. (Each upgrade grants twice as many recruitment slots.)]

[Would you like to begin recruitment?]

"Good, very good!"

Ye Chen was delighted by what he saw.

He was short on people right now, and the system had upgraded just when he needed it.

With enough players, why would he fear Kusagakure?

"Recruit!"

Ye Chen issued the command without hesitation.

Earth.

It was Saturday.

With the Spring Festival holiday underway as well, practically every household was visiting friends and relatives.

But things were different from usual. During previous Spring Festival holidays, people had discussed little beyond their income, their children's schooling, celebrities, gossip, and so on.

In short, the topics of conversation during Spring Festival were fixed. There were only so many of them.

Now, however, everyone had a new topic to discuss: Hidden Jun Ninja!

Although Junying Ninja was relatively niche, with only nine participants in its first closed beta...

...the game was simply too well made. Combined with the flood of publicity from major influencers, Junying Ninja had earned a respectable reputation among the public.

At that moment, in an apartment building in northern China...

...Zhang Qiang was chatting with his relatives over a meal.

"By the way, have you heard of Hidden Jun Ninja?"

"Of course! It's the hottest game around right now. And it's incredible. At first, I thought it was just young people exaggerating, but then I watched some videos online, and they blew me away!"

"The graphics, the combat scenes, everything-it blows every other game out of the water!"

"I just can't figure out how they made Hidden Jun Ninja. It's a full-blown AAAAA blockbuster."

"Exactly. I've been following it closely, too."

Even his mother, who normally never played games, looked excited.

The relatives were all a little puzzled. "Auntie Li, you don't usually play games. Why are you following it?"

Zhang Qiang's mother smiled. "Do you have to play games to take an interest? I watched some videos of it a while ago, too. You can see that the scenery inside is beautiful, and you can even eat all kinds of delicious food."

"Even if you don't fight, it would be a lovely place for a vacation. It would be just like taking a trip."

Zhang Qiang and the others fell silent.

They had to admit that his mother had a point.

Hidden Jun Ninja had an incredibly broad appeal.

Gamers, nongamers, and people with all sorts of different gaming preferences-it catered to them all!

That was probably one of the reasons Hidden Jun Ninja had exploded in popularity so quickly.

It drew everyone in. That was what made Hidden Jun Ninja so impressive.

"I just don't understand what Hidden Jun Ninja is doing. Only nine players in the first closed beta? Seriously? Do they expect to make money from nine people? How could they?"

"Exactly. With so few people, what could they possibly test, even in a closed beta? What is the developer thinking?"

"Other games don't offer many closed-beta slots either, but they at least have a few thousand. And there are ways to get one, like applying yourself or entering a giveaway..."

"But Junying Ninja has none of that. They only hand out closed-beta slots after conducting a comprehensive assessment."

At that thought, Zhang Qiang and the others all looked dejected.

And they were far from the only ones.

Many people online had initially discussed how to become closed-beta players.

Some had even considered using cheats or hacking methods to break into Hidden Jun Ninja's official website and modify its servers.

But none of it had produced any results.

Hidden Jun Ninja's servers were like impenetrable armor. No hacking technique could breach them.

So the netizens came up with another idea: find Hidden Jun Ninja's developer and operator, then ask them to provide more closed-beta slots.

But strangely, they could not find any company information for Hidden Jun Ninja at all.

It was as though it did not exist in this world!

In the end, all the netizens resigned themselves to it.

They knew Hidden Jun Ninja was an oddity.

But that did nothing to diminish Hidden Jun Ninja's popularity.

Even now, today, while it was still mealtime, the number of users online on Hidden Jun Ninja's official website app had reached several million.