Ten days passed in the blink of an eye. It had been more than a month since the start of Version 2.0.
The overall situation was good. The number of refugees who were sheltered continued to rise, and the rampaging beasts were killed in batches. The players integrated into the new version and ran around, contributing to the overall progress of the main storyline mission. In addition to the disaster relief, there was a competition going on in the dark.
These days, Nagojin's policy was effective. As the saying went, 'a strong woman is afraid of a strong man.' Under the insistence of Godora's marketing staff, the players tried to join the Godora faction. Han Xiao was not surprised. It was the nature of the players to try different possibilities. Furthermore, the two factions were not in conflict at the moment.
Godora's image in the hearts of the players was very thin. After all, this was the first time they had come into contact with a faction, unlike Han Xiao who was already an old friend. However, although Godora was not as good as Black Star Mercenary, the benefits were not bad. The magic technology was indeed attractive.
Nagojin was very satisfied with the progress of the recruitment, and Black Star had no intention of interfering.
However, just as he was feeling happy, a video quietly appeared on the players' forum, causing a huge uproar.
After ten days, Pork Bun released a new video. He now had a huge number of fans, and once the video was released, it attracted a large number of players. However, the latest video was not the sequel to the Black Star series, but a side story. The title was "Blue Star: Old Times".
"Not the Black Star series. Tsk, disappointing."
"Side story? Interesting. I wonder what the content is. "
"It's an international practice. Watch the beginning."
After complaining, the players opened the video. They were full of anticipation. Although most of the fans wanted to beat Pork Bun to death, the quality of Pork Bun's videos had always been good. They were mainly jovial and humorous. Basically, they could pass a happy time.
As soon as the video started, it did not start with Pork Bun's usual obscenities. Instead, it went straight into the content. The beginning was already extraordinary. A rain of nuclear bombs fell from the sky and hit the ground, creating a huge mushroom cloud. Everything was silent. It was only after the explosion that the background music slowly started playing, as if pulling the audience into the picture.
Most people were very familiar with this video. It was the video of the Six Nations bombing the Germinal Organization headquarters. Then, the video changed to some tragic scenes of war. It seemed like the theme was not clear, and the audience started to discuss it.
"What's on this episode? Why can't I understand it? "
"It felt a little messy in the first minute."
Just as the audience was puzzled, a voiceover suddenly rang out from the war screen. It was Kedan's voice, his voice trembling and weak as he slowly confessed his crimes. This voiceover was made by Pork Bun by editing Kedan's interrogation recording. Kedan's testimony was broken up in order to complement the video. At the same time, it allowed the audience to understand the original meaning of the sentence. This kind of editing enhanced the contrast between the video and the voiceover, giving it a stream-of-consciousness feeling.
As Kedan spoke, the atmosphere of the video slowly became emotional and sorrowful.
Towards the end, the war screen and the interrogation screen were interlaced to enhance the effect. At the same time, it allowed the audience to understand the theme of the video more directly. It was the truth of the old era of Blue Star. With the help of the video, the theme was expressed in detail, fully displaying the sorrowful atmosphere. At the end of the video, Black Star appeared. With him as the core, Pork Bun summarized the story. This time, Pork Bun did not use a humorous style. Instead, he used a slightly heavy and emotional atmosphere to make this video. In contrast to the previous videos, the effect was very good.
Ten days ago, Han Xiao used some methods to get Pork Bun to interrogate Kedan and find out the truth of the old era. He was 80% sure that Pork Bun would share this secret with other players. Pork Bun was a video producer, and this part of the story of Blue Star was very suitable to be made into a video. It was very eye-catching.
In the end, as expected, Pork Bun's nose for news was very sharp. He discovered the value of this and made a video. He thought that he was lucky to have found out this secret, but he did not know that he was secretly guided by Han Xiao. After interacting with each other for a long time, Han Xiao was already very familiar with how to use Pork 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 Pork Bun's video. The other party was a professional.
The response to the video was very strong, and the audience was shocked. They did not expect that the story would actually contain such a shocking secret. Blue Star suddenly became the party that was pitied by everyone.
Godora did not have a very clear image in the hearts of the players. After the video's embellishment, it was immediately labeled as' high above the masses' and 'arrogant'. The good feelings of the players plummeted, and bad feelings rose.
The majority of the players were pragmatic, and they valued benefits and rewards. However, this was not the only motive. The players had their own preferences, and sometimes, the importance of their likes and dislikes would surpass the importance of benefits. Very few people liked people who were high above the masses and represented authority.
Furthermore, after Version 0, the majority of the players had feelings for Blue Star and automatically placed themselves on the Blue Star's side. Immediately, they felt indignant towards Godora and had a very bad impression of it.
Going against 'authority' had always been an activity that the majority of the players loved to watch.
The impact of the video slowly spread, and the players were agitated. They continuously posted on the Blue Star forums, and the collective actions were easier to stir up emotions. It was as if Godora had become an unpardonable evil person overnight.
There were even players who shouted a slogan — Tonight, we are all Blue Star people!
Han Xiao paid close attention to the situation on the forums. His goal was basically achieved. The public opinion was just to raise his own status or to attack his enemies. He did not distort the facts, and all he did was to expose the 'secret'. Since Godora's citizens had done such a thing, whether or not they were instructed, Godora had to take the blame.
— — For the time being, this could be considered as helping Blue Star get some justice.
Godora's benefits were already not as good as his own mercenary group. Now that their status was not good, their attractiveness plummeted. If this was a stock price, it was equivalent to continuously dropping.
Under this chain reaction, the situation of Nagojin's recruitment took a turn for the worse. Some players who were originally interested in joining gave up on the idea. After all, there were already people who had tested the waters. Godora's camp did not have any special benefits, so there was no need to go over.
The number of players in Godora's camp plummeted, and many players who had already joined Godora's camp returned to Black Star's embrace.
Nagojin was completely confused. Wasn't everything fine a few days ago? Why was he suddenly unable to recruit players? What was the problem?
He could not figure it out. How would he know that there was a large amount of negative public opinion against Godora in places that he could not see? He was completely in the dark.
"With me interfering, Godora probably won't be able to recruit anyone."
In the room, Han Xiao browsed through the developments on the forums and let out a long sigh.
Although he had fought side by side with Nagojin, in essence, he was the one who had saved him. If he had not interfered with Nagojin's mission, Nagojin would have been crippled long ago.
Nagojin had rushed over to reap the fruits of victory and thought that he would not be angry. He was too magnanimous. Since he was not being reasonable, then Han Xiao could only talk about physics. After viciously attacking Godora, he was in a good mood.
Ten days ago, after passing the problem of Godora to Pork Bun, Han Xiao did not bother about it anymore. Instead, he focused on building the structure of the Black Star Mercenary. As more and more players were recruited, this matter was brought up to his agenda. Not only was it to make management more convenient, but it was also to give the players a goal to strive for. It was to let the players see a system that allowed them to climb up the ranks.
This matter was more important. It would affect the fighting spirit of the players. It was equivalent to having a goal in life.
Two days ago, Han Xiao had officially set up a level system for the mercenary group. Mercenary players of different levels would receive different discounts when purchasing faction products and enjoying faction services. There were six levels. The first five levels did not have any fancy names. They were directly from 'One Star' to 'Five Star'. It was straightforward and easy to understand.
In fact, he had wanted to use a cooler title, but after thinking about it, he finally chose a more easy-to-understand title. Just like the Sky Ring Army, the simpler the title, the more it could highlight the difference in levels.
The sixth level was the highest level. It was called 'Black Star's Eighteen Horsemen'. This level was not fixed. It was based on the rankings. After reaching the standard of 'Five Star', the top eighteen players would receive this title. The benefits were obviously much higher.
Since the positions of 'Black Star's Eighteen Horsemen' were determined by the rankings, it was competitive. This was a money-burning machine that Han Xiao had specially prepared for guilds and tycoons.
Players could check their position in the Black Star Mercenary in their personal mercenary profile. However, the players did not have a galactic communicator, so they could only check their own profile through Philip for the time being.
There were three factors that determined a mercenary's level. The first was the credibility of the personal mercenary profile, the second was the current faction relationship, and the third was the total contribution to the Black Star Mercenary.
Credibility could only be accumulated by completing missions. Players could only increase their credibility by continuously completing missions.
The current faction relationship was also easy to understand. For example, when a player first joined the Black Star Mercenary, they were all One Star. If they wanted to be promoted to a Two Star Mercenary, one of the prerequisites was to have a faction relationship. In other words, they had to have more than 1000 contribution points. After the promotion, they did not need to maintain their current contribution points. Even if they spent their contribution points, their level would not decrease.
The total contribution points were the highlight. For example, if a player had 3000 contribution points and spent 1000 points, their total contribution points would still be 3000 points, which was equivalent to all the contribution points that they had accumulated throughout history. From One Star to Two Star, the total contribution points needed to reach 20,000.
As soon as the level system was released, the players studied it with curiosity. Very quickly, they found a loophole that they could exploit — the total contribution points.
Because his relationship with the faction was below Friendly (5,000 points), 50 Enas could be exchanged for 00 Contribution Points. If his current Contribution Points were between 5,000 and 3,000 points, he would need 500 Enas to exchange for 00 Contribution Points. Thinking about it this way, as long as he kept his Contribution Points below 5,000 points, he would be able to increase his total Contribution Points with the least cost!
With this discovery, many players were overjoyed. They felt that they had found a shortcut.
Han Xiao had already expected this. He liked it when the players felt that they had profited.
The reason was simple. As long as the current contribution points reached 1000 points, if they wanted to save money, they would have to spend all the contribution points they had. Contribution points could only be used to buy faction items, and the players would have to spend extra Enas to buy the items. This cycle kept repeating, which was equivalent to urging the players to spend money. The players would think that accumulating the total contribution points was a profit.
Furthermore, the other two factors that affected the mercenary level were hard requirements. There was no way to exploit them, so the players could not use shortcuts to quickly increase their mercenary level.
The 'shortcut' of the total contribution points was actually Han Technician's scheme. He used the players' psychology and purposely left a 'loophole' for the players to discover on their own.
There were many new players in the mercenary group. Currently, only the few dozen players that had followed him from the beginning were close to the standard of Two Star. The requirements for this system that Han Xiao had set up were not low. Based on the current progress of the players, he estimated that no players would be able to reach the highest level in one or two versions. This was a long-term plan.
In the room, Han Xiao leaned against the back of the chair, crossed his legs, and muttered to himself, "The mercenary group's official planning has just begun. Let's take it slow."
As long as he recruited enough players, the strength of the players would be equivalent to his own force. He had enough patience to wait for the players to grow.
Beep beep!
At this moment, an emergency notification popped up on his communicator.
He opened the virtual screen and casually glanced at it. What he saw was the emergency news of Dark-star attacking a few Mutation Disaster planets!
Han Xiao's eyes narrowed, and he sat up straight with a solemn expression.
It has finally begun …
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