Inside the castle, Ed was reviewing statistics on the Fir City Operation.
As of this point, January 7th, 909 of the World of Disorder Calendar, players have unlocked 92% of the Fir City map.
With most players opting for the double-reward open map, large areas of Fir City are no longer so complicated for players.
The rate of death due to getting lost is decreasing significantly, attracting more new players to Fir City and choosing to experience this legendary high-difficulty event.
However, as a game that maintains balance throughout, while the map difficulty has been reduced, the difficulty in other aspects has been increased.
Some core building areas that were initially easy to infiltrate, such as the chapel, are now heavily guarded, with Holy Crusaders Knight Order patrolling day and night.
The nights in Fir City are becoming more and more dangerous. According to some players, the Treant Hunter have become increasingly ruthless lately, almost able to smell the players from two streets away.
However, there was some good news, but it was only good news for Ed.
After [ Zhong Lele ] and the others brought the orphans out of Fir City, one less variable remained in the city that could influence Ed's judgment.
The orphans have now all been handed over to the true Soul Returner, " A Huan," for care.
Although he didn't know if having a soldier king from another world as the orphanage director would produce a group of Predators, Ed felt more at ease than handing it over to the locals of the World of Disorder.
Taking various factors into account, Ed ultimately increased the bounty for the unexplored areas on the map.
Those more remote places are indeed less likely to attract players' attention, and Ed is always thoughtful in his actions.
Even though the Second Holy See currently seems to have a significant advantage, the thousands of Holy Crusaders and nearly ten Middle Tier combatants still give Fir City the confidence to fight to the death.
Ed was very worried that if a decisive battle were to break out now, that old man Antiya Lisi would use the ordinary civilians in the city as hostages or expendable resources.
That's why he agreed to the players' Old Bottles, New Wine Plan and hoped they could do their best to bring out as many civilians as possible from the city.
There are less than two months until spring arrives. Once the Fir City map is 100% unlocked and some citizens near the core area have been evacuated, it would be best to gather as much intelligence as possible about the combat capabilities of Fir City's high command...
Once everything is ready, Ed will begin the next phase of Fir City Operation.
Just as Ed was considering the players' gaming experience and making adjustments to his plans, he suddenly received a request to schedule a meeting.
"[ The Great Wei Boxing Champion ]? How could it be him?"
Ed looked at the name of this old acquaintance and clicked "agree" without much thought.
Half an hour later, [ The Great Wei Boxing Champion ] entered Ed's study with his friends.
"What do you need me for?"
The white-haired youth asked with a kind expression, but the hardcore research enthusiast [ Great Wei Boxing Champion ] pointed to another player beside him:
"My lord, this Soul Returner wishes to see you, but because he is not familiar enough with you (meaning he lacks trust), he specifically asked me to help introduce him."
Ed glanced slightly at the unfamiliar player next to him and began to recall relevant information about the player in his mind.
To use a somewhat inappropriate analogy, the players are to Ed what princes are to emperors in ancient times.
For emperors with dozens of children, they were only familiar faces to most of them; only a few were truly valued and could be discussed important matters with.
Ed's situation is not much different from the above. The number of players is constantly approaching 100,000, and Ed cannot possibly be familiar with every one of them.
Similarly, not all players feel that the game must revolve around this nominal faction leader. Everyone has their own way of playing, and doing whatever they want is the essence of this World of Disorder.
Therefore, Ed's relationship with the players, or rather, the degree of importance he attaches to them, can be quantified, which is based on the game statistic of [Trust].
Those who left a deep impression on him to this day were either the first few dozen or a few hundred veteran players at the start of the server, such as the F4 at the beginning and [Pond Fish and Old Abyss], or the kings of pranks like [Aluode] and [Zhong Lele].
The list of this group clearly did not include the Soul Returner named [ Ginseng Rooster ] in front of them.
Seeing his companions actually allowed him to meet Ed in person, and [ the Ginseng Rooster ] was as excited as a fan meeting their idol.
He said in a voice trembling with excitement:
"My lord, I have a plan to weaken the morale of the Fir City army. If this plan succeeds, it will surely cause disunity within Fir City."
Goodness, he's a strategist/strategist type of Soul Returner.
Ed sighed inwardly, but his expression remained unchanged. He simply asked in return:
"If you have your own plan or idea, you only need to submit a report or application form, and I will see it. Is there any reason why you insist on meeting with me?"
[ Ginseng Rooster ] smiled shyly upon hearing this:
"My lord, my plan... might not be suitable to leave any written record... If you agree, I will find a way to implement it myself; if you disagree, then just pretend nothing happened."
Is there even a storyline where the protagonist pays to go to work?
Ed looked at the earnest Soul Returner in front of him and asked:
"Why?"
Faced with Ed's persistent questioning, [ the Ginseng Rooster ] whispered:
"This is truly... against the will of Heaven..."
Good heavens, this is no ordinary strategist, he's a ruthless one too! We must strike hard!
Ed thought to himself that the other party's ID was poorly chosen; they should have chosen something like [ Zhongde ], so that people would know at a glance that they were not someone to be trifled with.
But how vicious can the schemes of World of Disorder really be?
There was no need to turn the villagers into military rations, nor was there any need to put the corpses of those who died of disease onto catapults. As for cruel acts such as killing prisoners of war as sacrifices, let's not even discuss whether they existed; fundamentally, they were not within the scope of the plan.
After thinking for a while without figuring out what the other person wanted, Ed finally agreed to [ the Ginseng Rooster ]'s request.
The study door closed, leaving only Ed, [ Great Wei Boxing Champion ], and [ Ginseng Rooster ] inside.
Briefly summarize your plan.
Some of the more nervous Soul Returner swallowed hard and looked at Ed, beginning to explain their plans.
Ed had already decided to support him to the end after he had barely uttered half a sentence.
He said:
"The core of the plan is—history construction..."