Ten days have passed in the blink of an eye; it's been over a month since version 2.0 was released.
Overall, the situation is good. The number of refugees receiving shelter continues to rise, and the rampant beast hordes are being killed one after another. Players are integrating into the new version, running around and contributing to the overall progress of the main quest. Meanwhile, amidst the disaster relief efforts, a competition is unfolding in the shadows.
These days, Nagokin's strategy has been effective. As the saying goes, even a fierce woman can be won over by persistent persuasion. With the unwavering promotional efforts of Goddora's propaganda team, players have joined the Goddora faction with a try-it-out mentality. Han Xiao was not surprised. Trying different possibilities is in a player's nature, especially since the two factions are not in conflict at this time.
Goddora's image in the players' minds is rather thin, after all, this is the first faction they have personally encountered, unlike Han Xiao, who is already an old friend. However, although Goddora cannot compare with the Black Star Mercenary Group, the benefits are still good, and the technological products of the magic side are indeed attractive.
Nagokin was quite satisfied with the recruitment progress, while Black Star showed no intention of interfering.
However, just as he was feeling happy, a video quietly appeared on the player forum, causing a huge uproar.
Ten days later, Meat Bun released a new video. He now has a huge following, and the video attracted a large number of players as soon as it was released. However, the latest video was not a sequel to the Black Star series, but a side story titled "Planet Aquamarine: The Old Era".
"Not the Black Star series? Tsk, disappointing."
"A side story? That's interesting. I wonder what it's about."
"As is customary, blow the first thing in the bottle before looking at it."
After venting their frustrations, the player opened the video with a sense of anticipation. Although most fans wanted to kill Meat Bun, Meat Bun's videos were consistently high-quality, mainly humorous and entertaining, and could generally provide a pleasant viewing experience.
The video doesn't start with the usual Meat Bun opening remarks; instead, it jumps straight into the content. The opening is extraordinary: a rain of nuclear bombs falls from the sky, hitting the earth and creating a huge mushroom cloud. Everything is silent until the explosion, at which point the background music slowly begins, as if pulling the audience into the scene.
Most people are familiar with this footage; it's the recording of the Six Nations bombing the headquarters of the Germinal. The scene then shifts to some horrific war scenes, which seem somewhat unclear in their theme, sparking much discussion among viewers.
What was this episode about? I still don't understand it.
"It felt a bit chaotic for the first minute or so."
Just as the audience was wondering what was going on, a voiceover suddenly sounded in the war scene. It was Keton's voice, trembling and weak, as he slowly confessed his crimes. This voiceover was edited by Meat Bun from Keton's interrogation recordings, scrambling out the order of Keton's testimony to match the visuals and allow the audience to understand the original meaning of the sentences. This editing enhanced the contrast between the visuals and the voiceover, creating a stream-of-consciousness effect.
As Keton recounts his story, the atmosphere of the video gradually becomes both stirring and sorrowful.
Later in the video, war scenes and interrogation scenes are interspersed to enhance the effect and allow viewers to more intuitively understand the video's theme: the truth of the old era on Planet Aquamarine. The visuals, combined with the interplay of images, present the theme in detail, fully conveying a somber atmosphere. Black Star finally appears at the end of the video, and Meat Bun summarizes this part of the story, focusing on him. This time, Meat Bun doesn't use humor but rather a slightly heavy and sentimental tone, creating a contrast with previous videos, and the effect is excellent.
Ten days ago, Han Xiao used some methods to get Meat Bun to interrogate Keton and learn the truth about the old era. He was 80% sure that Meat Bun would share this secret with other players. Meat Bun was a video creator, and this part of the story about Planet Aquamarine was perfect for making a video that would grab people's attention.
As expected, Meat Bun had a keen sense for news material, discovered its value, and produced a video. He thought he was just lucky to have learned this secret, but little did he know that he had been secretly guided by Han Xiao. After a long period of interaction, Han Xiao was already very familiar with how to use Meat Bun as a weapon of public opinion. He only needed to provide fragmented material, and there was no need to worry about the quality of the videos produced by Meat Bun, as he was a professional.
The video generated a huge response, and viewers were shocked. They never expected the side story to contain such a shocking secret, Planet Aquamarine suddenly became the one who received sympathy.
Goddora didn't have a very clear image in the players' minds to begin with, and after the video's portrayal, she was immediately labeled as "arrogant" and "high and mighty," causing players' goodwill to plummet and their dislike to surge.
Most players are pragmatic, valuing benefits and rewards. However, this is not their only motivation. Players have their own preferences, and sometimes their likes and dislikes are even more important than benefits. Few people like those who are high and mighty and represent authority.
Moreover, after version 1.0, most players had developed an emotional attachment to Planet Aquamarine and automatically sided with Planet Aquamarine, immediately feeling indignant towards Goddora and having a very poor impression of her.
Defiance against "authority" has always been an activity that most players enjoy.
The impact of the video gradually escalated, arousing strong emotions among players. They posted continuously on the Planet Aquamarine forum, and collective behavior made it easier to incite emotions, as if overnight Goddora had become an irredeemable villain.
Some players even shouted the slogan, "Tonight, we are all Ocean Blue people!"
Han Xiao kept an eye on the forum. His goal had been basically achieved. Public opinion was either to elevate himself or to attack the enemy. He hadn't distorted the facts; all he did was expose the "secret." Since the citizens of Goddora had done this, whether or not they were instructed to do so, Goddora had no choice but to take the blame.
--This can be considered as seeking some justice for Planet Aquamarine.
Goddora's benefits were already inferior to those of its own mercenary group, and now, with its identity not being properly maintained, its appeal has plummeted and its stock price has dropped dramatically. If this were a stock price, it would be equivalent to consecutive limit-down days.
As a result of the chain reaction, Nagokin's recruitment situation took a sharp turn for the worse. Some players who were originally willing to join gave up the idea. Since some people had already tested the waters, Goddora faction didn't offer any particularly good benefits, there was no need to go.
The number of players in the Goddora camp plummeted, and many players who had already joined the Goddora faction even returned to Black Star's camp.
Nagokin was completely baffled. Everything was fine just a few days ago, so why couldn't he recruit Inhuman all of a sudden? What went wrong?
He was completely baffled, unaware that a large amount of negative public opinion against Goddora was emerging behind his back.
"With me getting involved, Goddora probably won't be able to recruit many people."
In the room, Han Xiao browsed the forum's activity and let out a long sigh.
Although he and Nagokin had fought side by side, he was essentially the one who saved Nagokin. If he hadn't intervened in Nagokin's mission, Nagokin would have been crippled long ago.
Nagokin scurried over to claim the spoils of victory, thinking Han Xiao wouldn't be angry—how naive! Since the other party was being unreasonable, Han Xiao had no choice but to resort to physics, giving Goddora a good dressing down, and his mood was bright and sunny.
Ten days ago, Han Xiao left the issue of Goddora to Meat Bun and then focused on building the organizational structure of the Black Star Mercenary Group. As more and more players were recruited, he put this matter on his agenda, not only to facilitate management but also to give players a goal to strive for and to show them a system where they could climb the ranks.
This is quite important; it affects the players' morale, essentially giving them something to look forward to in life.
Two days ago, Han Xiao officially set up a ranking system for the mercenary group. Mercenary players of different ranks would receive different discounts when purchasing faction goods and enjoying faction services. The system was divided into six tiers. The first five tiers had no fancy names and were simply ranked from "one star" to "five stars," which was straightforward and easy for anyone to understand.
He originally wanted to use a cooler title, but after thinking it over, he finally chose a simple and easy-to-understand one, like the Sky Ring Alliance. The simpler it is, the more it can highlight the difference in rank.
The sixth level is the highest level, called "Black Star's Eighteen Riders". This level is not fixed, but rather in the form of a leaderboard. Players who reach the "five-star" standard and rank in the top eighteen can obtain this title, and the benefits are significantly higher.
Since the positions of the "Black Star's Eighteen Riders" are determined by the rankings, they are competitive—this is a money-burning machine that Han Xiao specially prepared for guilds and big spenders.
Players can view their rank in the Black Star Mercenary Group in their personal mercenary profile, but since not all players have an interstellar communicator yet, they can only access their profiles through Phillip for the time being.
There are three factors that determine a mercenary's rank: first, the credibility of their personal mercenary profile; second, their current faction affiliation; and third, their total contribution to the Black Star Mercenary Group.
Credit points are accumulated by completing employment tasks; players can increase their personal credit points by continuously completing tasks.
The current faction relationship is also easy to understand. For example, when a player first joins the Black Star Mercenary Group, they are all at the one-star level. To advance to the two-star mercenary level, one of the prerequisites is to reach the [Friendly] faction relationship, which means that the current contribution points are above 1000. After the advancement is completed, it is not necessary to maintain the current contribution points. Even if the contribution points are spent, the level will not decrease.
Total contribution points are the most important factor. For example, if you have 3,000 contribution points and spend 1,000, your total contribution points will still be 3,000, which is equivalent to all the contribution points accumulated throughout your life. To go from one star to two stars, you need to reach a total contribution point of 20,000.
As soon as the ranking system was launched, players studied it out of curiosity and quickly discovered a loophole: total contribution points.
Because if the faction relationship is below Friendly (1000 points), 50 Enas can be exchanged for 100 contribution points. If the current contribution points are between 1000 and 3000, it takes 500 Enas to exchange for 100 contribution points. Thinking about it this way, as long as the current contribution points are kept below 1000, the total contribution points can be increased at the lowest cost!
This discovery thrilled many players, who felt they had found a shortcut.
Han Xiao had anticipated this; he liked it when players felt they had made a profit.
The logic is simple: once you've contributed 1000 points, if you want to save money, you have to spend your contribution points. However, contribution points can only be used to buy faction items, and players have to spend additional Enas to buy things. This cycle repeats itself, essentially urging players to spend money, while players think they're making a profit by accumulating total contribution points.
Furthermore, the other two factors affecting mercenary level are hard requirements, and there are no loopholes, so players cannot use shortcuts to quickly improve their mercenary level.
The "shortcut" to total contribution points is actually a conspiracy by Master Han, who deliberately left a "loophole" to exploit players' psychology, allowing them to discover it on their own.
There are many new members in the mercenary group. Currently, only the first few dozen high-level players who followed him are close to the two-star standard. The system set up by Han Xiao has high requirements. Judging from the current progress of the players, he estimates that basically no player will be able to reach the highest level within one or two versions. This is a long-term plan.
"The formal planning for the mercenary group has only just begun; let's take it slow." In the room, Han Xiao leaned back in his chair, crossed his legs, and muttered to himself.
As long as enough players are recruited, the players' strength becomes equivalent to his own power, and he has enough patience to wait for the players to grow stronger.
Didi--
Just then, an emergency notification popped up on the communicator (www. hetushu. com).
He opened the virtual screen and glanced at it casually. What caught his eye was an urgent news report about the DarkStar, which had been silent for a long time, attacking several Mutation Disaster planets!
Han Xiao's eyes narrowed, his expression turned solemn, and he sat up straight.
"It's finally starting..."