The Legendary Mechanic, page 160
New dungeons meant new opportunities—the four of them completed the mission and received the reward. A white rhombus crystal appeared in their hands, and they could enter the dungeon by shattering it.
“This is a five men dungeon, so we need one more person,” Frenzied Sword immediately said. “Let’s see if we can at least complete it with ‘Normal’ grade.
Because of Han Xiao, they always stuck together, so they were very familiar with each other.
Hao Tian nodded. “Okay, I’ll ask Rebels Shall Rule from Team one of Sky Territory.”
Nobody had any objections. The four of them came to the square, and after waiting for a while, Rebels Shall Rule ran there full of joy. God Hao Tian was his idol, so he was very happy that he could just be with his idol.
The five of them formed a team.
“Let’s enter the dungeon and take a look.”
Frenzied Sword shattered the crystal. Fog gushed out, covered the five of them, and disappeared from the crowded square.
…
Their vision blurred, and when it recovered, the surroundings had become a forest. It was night, and it was difficult to even see their own hands.
Backward Time Travel Dungeon let the players participate in an event that had happened before by duplicating that event.
The notification showed on their interfaces
_____________
You are soldiers of the Dark Crow Valley Base. Hesla and Stardragon troops are going to invade. Your mission is to protect the Dark Crow Valley Base as best you can.
Dungeon Start Countdown: 10 minutes
Dungeon Goal: Survive until the end of the event. Reward: 15,000 EXP
Optional Mission I: Kill five Stardragon or Hesla agents. Reward: 30,000 EXP
Optional Mission II: Protect the real intel in the base from leaking. Reward: 45,000 EXP
Optional Mission III: Pan Kuang and Ji Jie survive. Reward: 70,000 EXP
Optional Mission IV: Defeat Stardragon and Hesla alliance. Reward: 110,000 EXP
Dungeon Failure Conditions: Annihilation.
_____________
“Such high rewards!” Rebels Shall Rule was shocked. As a very important member of the guild, he had seen a lot and knew a lot. The LV30 dungeons that the players had seen at the moment usually only had two to three missions, and the total reward was 70,000 to 80,000 EXP. Yet, there were five missions in this dungeon with so many rewards!
Rebels Shall Rule then thought about it, and his face turned serious. “However, the higher the reward, the more difficult it will be.”
The other four exchanged looks in confusion.
Is that so?
Never felt any part of the missions from Black Phantom were difficult…
“We are different,” Bun-hit-dog said with a heavy heart. He did not have the heart to correct Rebels Shall Rule.
Frenzied Sword looked at the notification and said with surprise, “The dungeon will only start in ten minutes, but we can already move freely. What does this mean?”
This the first time that they had met a dungeon with a countdown, so they were a little lost.
Actually, the countdown would only appear in more difficult dungeons. The players would enter the event sometime before it happened so that they could do some preparation. The time for the start of the mission was the night when Hesla agents were going to steal the intelligence, so the players had the opportunity to prevent that. If they successfully did and changed the beginning of the story, the difficulty of the entire dungeon would drop from ‘Hell’ to ‘Difficult’. However, the interface did not notify them about this; the players had to explore this themselves.
In the future, when Han Xiao opened this dungeon, after the players in the sanctuary got tortured by it a few hundred times, only then would they find the correct way to start the dungeon.
Of course, at the moment, the five of them were unaware of the importance of those ten minutes; they started the dungeon as usual. However, this was their first time in this dungeon. This type of dungeon was different from those that were just about killing monsters; it was more realistic and more difficult. The five of them had fun in agony, going around and around like headless chickens. They could only follow the job given by the base and patrol.
One day passed this way. During their patrol on the second night, Bun-hit-dog suddenly received a headshot.
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Your teammate [Bun-hit-dog] has died.
_____________
“What‽” The rest four of them were horrified. They looked in all directions immediately, but the forest was dense. The night was dark, and they had no idea where the enemy was.
Bang!
This time, it was Hao Tian who took a headshot. The rest of the three felt like the enemy was everywhere, and they were understandably anxious.
Hao Tian’s voice appeared in the team channel. He said very seriously, “The interface said I received a lethal attack. The person that killed me was Black Phantom!”
They were dazed. It turned out this was a dungeon with Han Xiao in it! And as the enemy!
They were very discouraged.
Han Xiao’s dungeon creation function was to cut out an event that would be generated into a mission. The characters in the dungeon were all mirror images, replaying events exactly as they had happened. It had nothing to do with the original person, and they had a certain amount of dungeon enhancement.
After three consecutive shots, all three of them died. Their visions blurred again, and they were back in the square. They had spent one day in the dungeon, but only ten minutes had passed in the outside world; the flow of time in the dungeon was different.
_____________
Dungeon [Dark Crow Valley Operation] Failed.
Dungeon Cooldown: 3 hours
_____________
The five of them all smiled bitterly.
This was way too difficult. They did not even know how they died.
…
On the other side, Han Xiao saw the return of the five of them from his surveillance image, confirmed the dungeon crystal to be effective, and started pondering.
“Dungeon crystals can only be distributed through mission rewards and can’t be sold for money. Its use to me is to gather more players and give them more benefit, so the players will be more willing to do things for me. Also, the players will know about my experience through the dungeon, which will in turn increase my position. These are all rather indirect benefits… I can’t sell the dungeon crystals, so there’s no direct benefit.”
Han Xiao suddenly paused. He slapped his head and laughed. “I’m thinking about this the wrong way. There’s no need to sell them…”
Chapter 289. The New Round of Business (2) |
The next day, Han Xiao officially started to distribute dungeon missions. The players in the sanctuary were pleasantly surprised.
“Never thought Black Phantom would have dungeon missions as well. Why didn’t they appear before?”
“The Germinal Organization main storyline only ended recently. Maybe it’s to let those of us who didn’t participate in it take part through the form of a dungeon, and Han Xiao is the one to give access to those dungeons.”
“That’s pretty good if that’s the case.”
The players in the sanctuary had not taken part in the war main storyline. There were definitely some regrets. Now that Han Xiao had released a dungeon that was related to the completed main storyline, it was undoubtedly a chance to make fulfill those regrets.
The players swarmed in, but Han Xiao did not give it out for free this time.
He set a mission with one dungeon crystal as the reward. It required something called ‘Contribution Points’. After accepting this mission, purchasing anything from Han Xiao would increase the contribution points.
Since dungeon crystals could not be sold or generate direct benefits, he just had to change his method. He could randomly set the mission requirement, so he made the dungeon crystal into something like a bonus reward to encourage the players to buy things from him, which would, in turn, increase his sales.
The players that were already planning to spend would be even more willing to spend after seeing they could complete the dungeon mission on the way. The players who wanted to complete the dungeon mission would come and buy from him, then realize that the things he sold were all bargains, and they would fall into the trap, forming a cycle.
This was a promotion method!
The effect was very clear. The first time Han Xiao tried it, his sales for that day increased by thirty percent! The results were very great.
The most obvious impact was that Han Xiao’s surrounding area became more crowded than subways, such that he could hardly move.
After getting the dungeon crystal, the players called their friends and created teams to enter the dungeon. Their experience of the process was basically—enter joyfully, die, then come out stunned and confused.
The winning goal was to survive till the end. At the start, everyone died before they could reach the end. Two days later, someone finally completed the dungeon, but the completion rate was pathetic. They completed zero optional missions and completed the dungeon with the lowest completion rate.
The four optional missions were the ones with the highest rewards. They spent money at Han Xiao’s to receive the dungeon crystal, but they only got the lowest dungeon reward. It was a loss, and the players were frustrated.
The difference in difficulty between the optional missions and the completion goal was huge.
“Is this dungeon even playable?”
“Black Phantom killed me for the eighth time. My heart is exhausted…”
The players could not help but complain, share the dungeon’s intelligence and recording, and hope someone could come up with something.
“After dying so many times, I can conclude… if you listen to the base’s order, you’ll die.”
“How do we even complete the optional missions? Is this really an LV30 dungeon?”
A high skill player arranged the intelligence and analyzed the dungeon storyline from the five optional missions.
“The outline of the path should be like this. First night into the dungeon, Hesla agents cause the leak of the base’s fake intelligence. The second night, Black Phantom starts to act by sniping patrols, infiltrates the base with unknown methods, then steals the real intelligence. This night is the key to completing mission two. Then the base enters alert, discovering Black Phantom’s location. The pursuit then starts, resulting in failure. Right after that, a large number of Hesla troops arrive, and the head-on battle starts. There’s a chance to complete mission one here. Then, everyone gets surrounded and defends the base, and in the end, the base explodes. Staying alive till this point will be considered completing the dungeon.”
Tables and recordings were listed there, showing the things to take note of in every step of the dungeon storyline, then it went on to the next topic.
“Obviously, in this case, there is no chance to complete the rest of the two optional missions. From my daring guess, there might be two paths to this dungeon, one of them is the one we experienced, and the other is the hidden storyline that will relate to the last two optional missions and has yet to be triggered by anyone.
“In order to defeat the enemy and make them retreat, I feel it has to be approached from the intelligence. After investigating, I noticed a new opportunity—there are ten minutes to prepare before the dungeon officially starts. This is actually the time before the Hesla agents start to act. If this can be prevented and the intelligence doesn’t leak, the dungeon storyline might be different. However, this is a very tough battle—no one had succeeded yet.
“Lastly, a reminder to all players, do not have any contact with Black Phantom! Once you meet him, it’s most likely death.”
The players were very passionate about dungeons. There were all sorts of analysis posts in the forums. Han Xiao did not know what the dungeon was actually like. Although he had chosen the event, the mission had been generated automatically, but he just had to see the shared videos on the forums to know what the players experienced.
The players are actually on Dark Crow Valley Base’s side. Is it because the dungeon will be too easy if they are on my side?
Han Xiao was speechless. Suddenly, he had a flash of insight.
That’s a good thing, too. High difficulty dungeons have richer reward, and only then will the players be passionate about it for a longer time. It’s based on me, so no one knows about the key points to this part of the storyline more than me. I could use this advantage and make some very specifically targeted machinery and sell to the players to help them complete the mission.
The more the players benefitted from the dungeon, the more he would benefit. His intention was not to have the dungeon discourage all the players. Also, he would make money once again from selling targeted machinery to help the players.
This is a business opportunity!
Han Xiao was a doer. He produced a large batch of targeted machinery the next day. There were a specially-made helmet that protected against ranged sniping and a device that increased the movement speed in the forest. As soon as these were released, the tortured players immediately liked them, and the products were sold out instantly.
When there is demand, there will be market potential.
Han Xiao was very clear about that principle. He grabbed onto all business opportunities and created a new business chain. Han Xiao was too lazy to even count the money he earned—he only knew it was a lot of money.
As Aquamarine Dollars was not a general currency in the galaxy, he kept splurging and converting his money into machinery, material, and rare resources, yet not only did he not have less money because of that, his money continuously increased.
When Han Xiao had still been a player, he had spent every cent with caution. Now, he had more money than he could spend. Even the Fabian Company’s warehouses were bought out by him and needed to be restocked.
It so troubling to have so much money… Han Xiao was troubled for real. He was not planning to bring a ton of Aquamarine Dollars into the galaxy and use it as toilet paper.
…
With new machinery, it was finally easier for the players to complete the dungeon. The new machinery that he built became standard equipment for the dungeon in the mind of the players. Compared to the rich reward in the dungeon, the cost was acceptable, so the players felt it was worth it.
At least one person had to have the equipment in a five men team—it was almost a necessity.
The money stacked up, and Han Xiao earned another bucket of gold. The difficulty level of the dungeon also decreased from NetEase to Tencent 1 . Although Tencent always received a lot of complaints, they were still quite kind compared to NetEase.
The difference between the two could be illustrated by:
Tencent: “You can’t enjoy the game if you have no money.”
NetEase: “You can’t enjoy the game.”
The long-term benefits of becoming an NPC in charge of a dungeon are great. I will not have to worry about attracting players as long as I’m present. This is a Version 1.0 main storyline, so dungeons below LV60 can last me for a very long time. I will temporarily only create Dark Crow Valley dungeon, and once the average level increases, I will make new dungeons. This way, the players’ needs can always be satisfied, and it can last for a long term.
Also, with more dungeons being distributed, the players will know more about my experience, which is very helpful in making a deeper impression in the hearts of the players. I have to let the players know that other than being handsome, I have countless more strengths.
Han Xiao took the players very seriously as it was unavoidable to interact with players if he wanted to grow quickly, and the players were a group of lawless people. Thus, he did not want to stand against them. Although he was very far ahead of the players, once the players grew stronger, they would still be able to cause some trouble when they appeared in groups. The Great Mechanic Han had to admit this; he was never too full of himself.
[Dark Crow Valley Operation] dungeon created a wave in the sanctuary. The sanctuary’s functions were already getting richer with time, and the appearance of the dungeon caused it to improve drastically. In the hearts of the players, the position of the main city was already having its fundamentals.
Chapter 290. Sucker |
Hundreds of resource boxes were stacked neatly in the warehouse. Inside were the countless parts and materials that Han Xiao had hoarded.
This was his secret base below Sanctuary Three. During the construction of the sanctuary, Han Xiao had secretly expanded the base. It was now his hidden stronghold, and every route had authorization identification equipped with guarding machine guns. There were also surveillance cameras in every entrance and countless spider detectors lurking in the dark. The security was very tight.
Han Xiao had a total of three warehouses—one for materials and parts, another for machinery backlog that he built for EXP and to sell to players, and the last was the important warehouse, storing the equipment he was using, including the new mechanical suit, Amphiptere.
All the items in his warehouses were part of his preparation for his interstellar travel.
The recent dungeon function had earned him a lot of profit once again. Money was pouring in, but he had no idea how much he would have when he left the planet. However, the very positive situation did not make him too excited. He saw some problems too.
The money that he earned came from players, and where did the players get their money?
Of course, their money came from other NPCs by doing missions.
Technically, what the players were doing was gathering the fortune of the NPCs everywhere and giving it all to Han Xiao as a form of expenditure, forming a torrent of money. The money was moving and formed an assembly line. He could be considered the destination of this assembly line. Therefore, if the players wanted to earn money, they had to work for other NPCs, and to increase the average spending and purchasing power of the players, he had to increase the number of NPCs in the sanctuary.
