The Sanctuary has implemented regulations prohibiting combat indiscriminately, much like prohibiting urination and defecation indiscriminately. Guards and Ranger patrol the area, and violators will be arrested and detained for a period of time. Players' main cities need to form safe zones to reassure them. Master Han made Huang Yu work overtime all night to develop comprehensive regulations.
Players who want to engage in PvP (player versus player) combat can only do so by leaving the city or going to the arena.
The arena is built near the plaza, very close to the players' respawn point. Sometimes players can hold back during sparring, and sometimes they accidentally kill each other and lose some experience. But even so, it cannot extinguish the players' fighting spirit. Because it is far from the city, the arena has become the first choice.
The arena is roughly structured as a huge plaza with the highest and largest platform in the center. Smaller arenas surround the main platform, and tiered seating similar to a stadium is arranged around it. Players can freely PK in the plaza without spending money, while the smaller arenas are closed off. After inquiring, it was learned that these arenas are reserved for gambling, and the arena is the bookmaker for these gambling matches. It is only open to those who pay a fee, and the arena is reserved for wealthy patrons.
Although this feature was novel, it cost money, and most players were poor, so no one used it for the time being. They just wanted to fight for free in the plaza, so the arena was very lively and quickly became a recognized dedicated PK venue, just like the city gate in a certain game.
However, Huang Yu believed this was a huge waste of resources. No one was willing to spend money, and not only did it fail to generate revenue, the Sanctuary also had to bear the cost of repairing the site. He felt that Han Xiao's decision was problematic and that it would be better to let the Inhuman go out of the city to fight themselves.
He felt that building the arena was unnecessary, but he dared not openly defy Han Xiao, so he could only silently complain in his heart.
This situation surprised Han Xiao slightly, but he quickly understood.
"Currently, players are still in the exploratory stage, and arena betting is clearly something only players confident in their skills dare to do... Arena betting can attract viewers, thus gaining exposure, so guilds and professional players are the most likely groups to spend money on arena betting."
The arena feature requires players to discover it themselves, which will take some time, but he's not one to just wait patiently.
"Then let me give them a push and help them understand the purpose of ring fighting."
Han Xiao's eyes flashed.
Every few days or so, Han Xiao would hang around in front of the players, teaching them his skills in exchange for experience. Most of the skills he put in the skill shop were basic skills that players already had. By spending experience to train the basic skills that players had already learned, players could significantly improve their proficiency, which was more cost-effective than directly using experience to upgrade skills.
This is the majority of the player experience Han Xiao gained.
He didn't teach the essential skills, as it was important to maintain the gap between himself and the players. However, he selectively taught some less important skills, or skills that players would eventually learn, such as the [Electromagnetic Factor Refinement Method] and [Precision Repair], which were exclusive to mechanics. This helped Mechanic Class players improve their abilities, allowing him to act as a mentor for Mechanic Class and attract more players to join the Mechanic Class. It's worth noting that on Planet Aquamarine, only Mechanic Class players had a reliable mentor like him.
Having experienced the [Energy Refinement Method] event, players generally understand the powerful skills taught by Han Xiao. They can learn these skills themselves when they reach higher levels, but most people still prefer to learn advanced skills at lower levels because they can improve their current abilities and have higher long-term benefits.
As for the Advanced Knowledge Esper Class and Pugilist Class that he stole from the Germinal, Han Xiao did not sell it for the time being. This thing was like a trump card, and he wanted to wait until the players' purchasing power was stronger before making a big profit.
Each time someone appears to teach, they can consistently earn over ten million experience points a day, which is many times faster than doing quests. The tens of thousands of players in the Third Sanctuary account for about 5% of all players on Planet Aquamarine (and many new players are entering the game), so the market potential is enormous, and the player's main city plan looks promising.
On this day, Han Xiao appeared in a corner of the square as usual, surrounded by players. After gaining some experience, he suddenly saw a large number of guild players with prefixes above their heads. They were players from the Sky Domain, and the leader was called "Huang Tian Dang Li", who was the vice leader of the core guild.
"The opportunity has arrived."
Han Xiao raised an eyebrow slightly. After imparting the skills, he suddenly muttered to himself, "Sigh, my luck's been bad lately..."
Huang Tian Dang Li startled. As an experienced veteran player, he knew that if an NPC suddenly started talking to himself, it usually meant that a new quest was about to be triggered.
"Lord Black Phantom, what troubles you? Perhaps we can help you solve it," Huang Tian Dang Li asked tentatively.
Han Xiao glanced at him, then feigned difficulty and shook his head. "No, no, I need at least ten people to help me."
The group from Sky Domain immediately perked up. It really was a mission, and a multi-person team mission at that!
This was a mission personally given to us by Black Phantom; when has he ever betrayed us?
The guild had a lot of people; Huang Tian Dang Li formed a group of ten. Seeing this, Han Xiao slowly said, "Sigh, one of my robots has malfunctioned and is no longer under my control. I need you to bring its chip back to me..."
As he spoke, he set a task.
[[Retrieve the Malfunctioning Chip-1]]
[Task Type: Team Chain Mission]
[Mission Description: For some unknown reason, a defense robot has malfunctioned and lost control.]
[First requirement: Defeat Ranger "X204" and return the chip to Black Phantom]
[First Round Reward: 25,000 Experience Points, Black Phantom's Favorability +1]
"A quest involving running loops?" Huang Tian Dang Li overjoyed. The rewards for just the first loop were already substantial. If he continued, the rewards would surely be even more generous, and it would also increase Black Phantom's favorability. You see, once Black Phantom's favorability reaches 10 points, no amount of money can increase it further. This opportunity was rare.
All players are desperately wanting to increase their favorability with him, but are helpless in the face of it. He has put a lot of powerful machines, blue and purple equipment in the item shop, but the favorability requirement to buy them is above 10 points, which means they can only look but not touch, making them "bait" for him to fish.
Favorability itself is worthless, but it is given value by others; this is the origin of equivalents and money...
Sky Domain accepted the mission and left happily. Seeing this, the surrounding players also enthusiastically formed teams, but Han Xiao showed them no respect.
The players were now puzzled: why could they trigger quests in the Sky Domain, but not in the Sky Realm?
However, they were already used to the randomness of the Black Phantom quest trigger mechanism, so they weren't surprised or bothered by it. They could only secretly envy those lucky Europeans.
Suddenly, a group of familiar IDs and guild names came into view. Han Xiao's heart stirred, and he spoke again, repeating the words Huang Tian Dang Li.
"Huh, a hidden quest?"
The members of the Gods Guild who were passing by looked on in surprise.
The visitors were none other than the official guild of the esports powerhouse, Temple Club – the Protoss.
Han Xiao was extremely familiar with them, which matched another target he was looking for.
After Han Xiao's identity was exposed, the Gods Guild and others realized that the Zero they were looking for was Han Xiao. It turned out that their repeated attempts to reach their target had led to mission failures.
President Jupiter was so angry that he pounded his chest and couldn't eat or sleep well, and was so depressed that he almost got constipated.
However, there was no other way. Han Xiao's place had too many advantages. In order not to fall behind other guilds, even if they were frustrated, the Gods Guild could only come to Sanctuary shelter to make a living. Teams from various guilds gathered at the Sanctuary.
"This is a great mission." Jupiter. To stumble upon a hidden mission while walking down the street—this was truly a stroke of good luck!
With a wave of his hand, the Gods Guild immediately formed a team to accept the challenge.
One hour later, in the northern part of the Sanctuary.
A chase is underway, with a ten-man squad from the Sky Domain panting Pursuit a Ranger.
"Quick, quick, chase after him! Don't let him get away!" Huang Tian Dang Li was out of breath, feeling like he was about to vomit bile from running.
Following their mission instructions, they arrived at the developing area and pursued the out-of-control Ranger. The Ranger's firepower was fierce, and several members of their squad lost their lives before they managed to whittle down the Ranger's armor to its last sliver of health through coordinated attacks. At that moment, the Ranger suddenly turned and fled.
"Damn, how can it be so agile!"
The Sky Domain members wore grim expressions. "This robot knows the environment and terrain better than we do! Has it become sentient?!"
Meanwhile, in a high-rise room in the center of the Sanctuary, Han Xiao was lounging on the sofa, holding a tablet computer and casually swiping the screen. The view was clearly from the perspective of the "out-of-control" Ranger.
This Ranger was actually completely under his control. He had limited Ranger strength, and yesterday he removed a large amount of its weapons and ammunition before releasing it. It was essentially a stripped-down version, designed to make it difficult for the Sky Domain players to win. If the fully-powered Generation 2.5 Ranger Ranger to unleash its full firepower, it would basically wipe out most of the players in a single encounter. The Sky Domain players, of course, wouldn't know this and would think that it was their good teamwork and strength that allowed them to slowly grind down this "out-of-control" robot... This was exactly the misconception Han Xiao wanted to give them.
Out of control? Not at all.
"We're almost there!" As the distance closed, Sky Domain forced himself to focus, preparing for the final blow.
Han Xiao glanced at the radar map, then suddenly grinned mischievously. He steered the soon-to-be-scrapped Ranger to accelerate, making several turns before breaking free of the Sky Domain and rushing towards the Gods Guild, who were late in searching for their mission target.
Ranger Jupiter men were startled when the rangers appeared, but were immediately overjoyed.
"That's the target! Focus fire!"
After one round of attacks, the Ranger fell apart, their parts clattering and clattering all over the ground.
The members of the Gods Guild were completely bewildered. They hadn't even done anything yet, so how could the robot have exploded?
Suppressing his doubts, Jupiter picked up the quest item from the pile of parts: ["Out of Control" Ranger's Chip].
At this moment, the Sky Domain finally arrived late, and upon seeing this scene, they were immediately enraged.
"You Protoss, you dare steal my monsters!"
Huang Tian Dang Li was furious.
They chased their target for over ten blocks, only to have their prize stolen by someone else, like a dog snatching away the roast duck they had in their grasp. Anyone would be furious in that situation.
Moreover, the Protoss and the Sky Domain have always been bitter rivals.
The screen went black.
Han Xiao tossed the tablet aside, lit a cigarette, blew a smoke ring, and chuckled.
If players don't have a need for gambling, then create that need for them—this has always been Master Han's service principle.
I'm a pro at stirring things up!