"What are you busy with? There's a war going on outside. Aren't you going to take a look? "
The necromancers used up a large amount of mana to summon dark clouds that blocked out the sun. The skeleton mages summoned their own kind, and a large number of cannon fodder directly entered the battlefield. The battle had already reached its climax … of course not!
Although all of this was true, it wasn't the main point.
The undead had indeed started a war against Oak Town. However, the strange part was that the undead didn't seem to have much fighting spirit. The battle wasn't that intense, and high-level undead like Abominations weren't even sent out.
Although undead mages could summon a sea of skeletons to drown out their enemies, this was a rather effective tactic. But at the very least, the sea of skeletons needed to be accompanied by a sufficient number of support and powerful undead in order to maximize their effectiveness. Simply summoning skeletons and attacking them would be the same as giving the enemy free targets and experience.
Faced with this kind of fragile Skeleton Soldiers that were sent to the battlefield as soon as they were awakened, it would be a waste for the defenders to even use bows and arrows. They could just use the Treants to throw stones at them. If a rolling stone were to roll along the slope, it would be like a bowling ball, sending broken bones flying all over the ground.
"Boring. It's still just a test. What's there to see?"
This was a battle where both sides were testing each other out. What results could be obtained? If you went up and wasted a round of ammunition, losing a few lives, and if you rushed down, you would also lose a few corpses.
"What are you doing? 'Adventurer Evaluation System'? What's this? "
"I'm just adding a patch to the 'Contract Heroes' system."
"Patch? What are you up to this time? "
"Yep. Things that are obtained too easily aren't treasured enough. And if everyone is treated the same, and everyone has the same status as a Contract Hero, that would actually be unfair to those who work hard. That's why I created this credit rating system. The more outstanding an 'employee' is, the higher his or her credit rating will be. "
I chuckled as I said this. It was precisely because of that spy's appearance, as well as the fact that all the mercenary groups and adventurers were on guard against each other, that I discovered many inadequacies in my Contract Heroes system.
"Why are you smiling so strangely? Honor? You're actually so kind? Why do I feel like you're trying to scam people again? "
"No, I just recalled something interesting. What do you think about this system?"
"One heart, two hearts, three hearts, one diamond, two diamonds … one crown, two crowns. What kind of messy pattern is this? Heart, diamond, crown, what's the connection between them? "
"You probably don't understand this. This is a guarantee of credibility. It's the equivalent of gold coins — a sign of credibility. Although there were a lot of scammers and fakes later on, as well as professional counterfeiting teams that became completely unreliable … at least in the beginning, it was still quite authentic."
Actually, it didn't really matter what image I used. Although I used the image of a certain treasure as a joke, the Contract Heroes really did need a slightly clearer credit rating system.
In this world, there was no hierarchy between mercenary groups and mercenaries. Whether a mercenary could receive missions and gain the trust of the employer depended on their past reputation and connections. This was also why there were still people fighting over an empty shell of a mercenary group that had suffered heavy losses and was almost completely wiped out. The reputation that he had accumulated over hundreds of years was his greatest wealth.
In order to establish a trust mechanism that could gain consensus, there must be a new review and deduction organization that was worthy of the people and the countries. This was obviously impossible in the past when the countries were divided.
Mercenary guilds? Many mercenaries treated mercenary guilds as a neutral organization that collected intermediary fees and provided paid services. Many mercenaries even treated mercenary guilds like retired veterans and injured mercenaries. Mercenary guilds would provide mercenaries with alcohol, weapon repair, enchantments, mission introductions, and other services. But most of the time, mercenary guilds would have to rely on mercenaries to pay for their services. Mercenary guilds didn't have any forceful methods against mercenaries.
This was what every country's royalty hoped for. Nobody would want a neutral mercenary guild to have its own will. If that happened, the royalty's power would become quite dangerous.
"Absolutely neutral. Focus on providing support services." This was probably what a mercenary guild should do.
The end result was that mercenary guilds and mercenary guilds naturally lacked credibility in the eyes of adventurers and mercenaries. It was also impossible for countries to recognize other countries' mercenary guilds. That was why when people talked about certain mercenaries or adventurers, they could only say things like "they have a great reputation" or "they sound really powerful." That was why mercenaries and adventurers lacked credibility and persuasiveness.
The lack of a clear evaluation system wasn't a good thing for both employers and employees. After all, employers were afraid that the bodyguards they worked so hard to hire would turn out to be bandits, or that they would spend a lot of money to hire a group of seemingly powerful idiots. Mercenary group members were also afraid that their employers would treat them as expendable or cannon fodder. That was why high-difficulty and high-requirement missions were usually done by private introductions or by mercenary guilds. Veteran mercenary groups would only become stronger and stronger, and newcomers wouldn't be able to receive any decent missions.
This doubtlessly restricted the growth of mercenaries and adventurers. If there was a trustworthy neutral evaluation system to evaluate mercenaries and adventurers, perhaps the situation would be much better. At the very least, a mercenary group with more than 90% positive reviews would be far more trustworthy than a mercenary group with more than 50% negative reviews … Why was it becoming more and more like Xbox!?
Evaluating a mercenary's individual strength and pay could also be related to their credit rating. For example, a mercenary who was able to increase his or her credit rating to Crown would at least prove that he or she had completed enough missions and received enough positive reviews. Naturally, he or she would be able to receive more pay, and would be trustworthy.
"Besides, it's not just for those mercenaries. Look at the battlefield. Don't you feel that something's wrong?"
"I'm not. I'm not interested in such a childish game."
Alright then, I knew that this guy was just saying it. Actually, I also felt that such small, probing attacks were quite boring. However, I did notice that something was wrong.
"In the past, even the most arduous missions would require several mercenary groups to work together. Previously, they lacked trust and understanding, so they would either use a middleman as the leader, or form an alliance of leaders. Perhaps this would be enough to satisfy the small-scale battles before, but there are obvious limitations to this. If this continues, there will be many problems."
That's right, as the Contract Heroes system expanded, and as the "Contract Heroes" grew in power and numbers, the scattered warriors would become more and more important. This battle to defend Oak Town was probably the first time that the Contract Heroes had become the main force. But in the future, it was possible that Contract Heroes would appear in other country-level battles. Continuing to use the old system would seem outdated and slow. This time, many problems had already been exposed.
"Just look at those warriors standing at the front. While they're receiving orders from the frontlines, they're actually looking for people at the foot of the castle walls. They're probably waiting for their real boss's orders. And those archers are even 'stealing kills' to earn points. They're only firing at high-point targets, wasting valuable ammunition. No matter how strong these 'Contract Heroes' are, they're probably just a bunch of loose sand. "
Not mentioning the fact that there were enemy spies among the Contract Heroes, the "Contract Heroes" lacked trust in each other. They were all prideful and didn't like others, so how could they possibly trust someone else's orders? It was only natural that they would push the blame onto each other and push the blame onto others. On the battlefield, it would be quite fatal to lack "absolute authority".
Perhaps it wouldn't be so obvious when things were going well on the battlefield. But if things were going badly, and the leader lacked authority or was filled with selfishness, it was highly likely that there would be internal strife and disobedience. In fact, there might even be betrayals or traitors.
At the very least, the obvious problem right now was that there were far too many commanders. There were far too many people giving orders. Yet, everyone wanted to be a commander, not because they wanted to win the battle, but because they wanted their own people to earn points in a safe and stable location.
That was why, apart from the reputation of each individual's job, there would also be special individuals who would be given the title of "top-level commander" or "professional commander". This would make it easier for them to give orders, and it would also give them some role models and heroes, which would make it easier for us to control public opinion.
However, when I explained this to Harloys, she had a different opinion.
"Why don't we just use a military rank system, such as Sergeant, Corporal, Commander General, and so on? That would be more effective and direct."
I could only smile wryly. It would seem that Harloys was quite talented in magic, but she definitely wasn't any good at politics. I still couldn't count on her for certain things.
"That would be too sensitive. It would be the equivalent of us creating an army. What do you think the royalty and churches of the various countries would think?"
That's right, I could guarantee that the moment we introduced a military rank system, our platform would immediately be boycotted by the various countries.
"Tsk, humans are so troublesome. I'm going out to take a look."
"Notify me if there's any change. Have some of my subordinates keep an eye on the high-level undead, especially those two living humans."
Harloys turned around and left, leaving me behind with my frustrations.
Creating a ranking system would directly affect the credibility and future of our Justice Points Alliance. Not only did we need to make it so obvious that it would be easy to control and obey, but it also couldn't be so strict that it would touch on the sensitive nerves of the various countries. The more I thought about it, the more troublesome it would be.
"How about we add 'likes'? If you get thirty-two likes, your rating will be increased by one rank. Or, as long as you get a certain number of likes, you'll be officially recognized as a big X, or something like that … Right, there's only the things that can be imagined, and there's nothing that can't be done. It seems that I also need to think of a way to prevent the existence of bad job judges!"
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