The Legendary Mechanic, page 196
He’s one grade lower than me, so being a mercenary is dangerous for him. If I follow him, I can prevent him from dying accidentally.
After careful consideration, Herlous felt that such a course of action was very advantageous, so he agreed on the spot. “Okay, I’ll join your mercenary group.”
Han Xiao nodded calmly, but in his heart, he was laughing uncontrollably.
Finally! All my effort in convincing him did not go to waste. I’ve finally abducted this main character!
Other than the point of contact of Sunil, Herlous would also be an NPC cadre of the mercenary group itself. He was a high-level combat power!
This job has resulted in great benefits!
Their conversation’s details were not reported to the Superiors, just as Han Xiao suggested. The rest of the Sunils did not know, only Herlous.
Two days later, the Galactic Travel Agency that they had called arrived at Planet Sunil. The group of players followed Han Xiao up the spaceship in anticipation. Suddenly, a tall and wide Sunil in casual clothes walked over. After staying so long in Forest city and seeing the promotions from the military, they immediately recognized that it was Herlous, the character who was being shaped as a hero figure.
“Where’s your armor?”
“Lent to the researcher institution. When they derive the blueprint, I can take it back to use, so I only brought this weapon…”
Herlous turned sideways, displaying the rectangular metal silver block tied behind his back. It was the folded Battleship Slicing Blade.
“I see…” Han Xiao felt a little disappointed. The Commander Class armor was a piece of great equipment, but he did not even meet the prerequisite of the NCO Class armor yet; Commander Class would be even more impossible for him to derive. There would be chances in the future anyway, so there was no need to be impatient.
Han Xiao turned to the players and made the introduction. “This is Herlous, a grade B Super. From today onward, he’ll be our comrade, a new member of our mercenary group.”
Holy! The players’ jaw almost dropped on the floor—they were stunned.
The captain has abducted the hero of a race!
“Why did you join us?”
“What’s your class?”
“Did you make some kind of deal with Black Star?”
They were very curious about this new friend and overwhelmed him with questions. Herlous was surrounded in the middle and felt the passion from his ‘teammates’. He was very not used to it, and he was forcing a smile.
The result of the detection from players was all question marks. They were very curious as to how Han Xiao got in touch with a grade B Super. This was someone who was at the top of high-level areas, probably the strongest in their mercenary group.
Someone who was even stronger than Han Xiao joining their faction had made the players very excited.
After some time, the spaceship slowly landed. Herlous finally escaped from the players and walked to Han Xiao. He stood beside Han Xiao, looking up at the spaceship, and his face was a little stiff.
Han Xiao turned to look at him, raised an eyebrow, and said, “You seem to be a little nervous. Have you never been into the galaxy before?”
“This is my first time.” Herlous rubbed his hands against each other to wipe his sweat off. “I’m actually a little scared of heights…”
“You’re a shame to Pugilists.” Han Xiao was speechless.
They boarded the spaceship. It slowly rose and flew into space with Forest City becoming smaller in their sight. This hiring job was finally complete, and they had left with one more member than when they came. The Catastrophe on Planet Sunil was very beneficial for all of them, especially Han Xiao.
Planting the seed in Sunil this time means I’m on track with the DarkStar storyline. The first step of the plan is also complete. Han Xiao crossed his arms as he pondered.
The spaceship’s destination was Juberly Hub. Before the next operation, Han Xiao wanted to return to rest and digest the things that they had earned on this trip.
…
In Forest City, one of the military bases was open as a recruitment site.
After the Catastrophe, it was the time for new soldiers to join the army again. Youngsters coming of age had to join the compulsory military service and undergo military training. Youngsters came one after another, accompanied by their parents.
Lana was very early. He was only allowed into the recruitment site after displaying his ID card—any unauthorized personnel were not allowed in, including parents.
When he turned back to look, Lana saw his parents waving. They had kind and loving smiles on their faces as usual.
He looked at them with a lot of emotions in his eyes, then followed the group into the military base.
After queuing for a very long time, it was finally Lana’s turn. The officer sitting behind the table said casually without even raising his head, “Name, then take a number to go for a medical examination.”
Lana took a deep breath before saying seriously, “Sir, I’d like to request to join the army.”
The officer looked up and glanced at him. “Do your parents know?”
“No.”
“Youngster, your parents definitely warned you not to join the army, didn’t they?”
“Yes sir, but I believe I’m making the right decision.”
“Once the request is approved, you have to be fully responsible for your decision,” the officer said coldly. “You won’t be allowed to take it back, are we clear?”
“Crystal clear.”
A slight smile appeared on the officer’s cold face. He opened the drawer, inside which was a thick stack of army application forms. He took one out and passed it to Lana.
Lana was about to take it, but he realized that the officer was holding onto the application form too tightly. At that moment, the officer said coldly, “This is your last chance to change your mind.”
Lana snatched the application form with a firm expression.
“Good, the area to join the army is at that side. Don’t block the people behind.”
Lana followed the officer’s finger and looked over. It was an empty warehouse that served as the recruitment site for the official army. Youngsters waiting to fill out their application forms had already filled the entire warehouse.
Chapter 355. Speeding! (1) |
After a month on Planet Sunil, Han Xiao and the others finally returned to Juberly Hub. As soon as they were in the Hub Hall, the first thing that Han Xiao did was change the medium resting room into a large stronghold. The rental increased, from 40 to 100 Enas, as did the space.
The better the faction’s base looked, the more reliable the players would feel. Han Xiao actually thought that a spaceship was the best mobile base, but a spaceship was way too expensive; they would not be able to afford one even if they sold the kidneys of all the players. The human body did not sell very well in the Galactic Organ Market after all.
Excess money was meant for splurging—the consumption concept of a Mechanic was always ‘money spent will always make returns’.
This trip was very profitable. More than ten thousand had landed in the players’ pockets, and Han Xiao would take that off their hands to gather the funds to buy two class advancement knowledges.
Pro players will always use their residual money to buy equipment. There were private equipment stores in Juberly Hub, and these were all Han Xiao’s competitors.
It’s impossible to have the players only buy things from me. Players have their personal preferences, so I can’t rob away their freedom, or it will be bad for faction development. Nobody likes to be forced. Plus, the things I sell might not satisfy all of their needs… Anyway, I only need a part of the players’ fortune, and the profit is high enough.
Although Han Xiao had plenty of ways to make money, he always kept that desire controlled.
He updated the faction exchange list, adding Offensive, Defensive, and Scouting Enlistee Class armor, with a prerequisite of 500 faction relationship points. Then he set the exchange price at 800 Enas.
In the new stronghold, before the players had started roaming outside, someone had already discovered the new items in the faction shop.
“Is this the Enlistee Class armor that we saw in Sunil?” Frenzied Sword said in surprise.
“It is their technology indeed,” Hao Tian said. “Why can we purchase another organization’s equipment from the faction‽”
The players became curious.
Bun-Hit-Dog had a flash of insight and gave a sensible guess. “A mercenary group might be a faction with growing potential. After completing different mission hires, the faction shop will be updated. The more missions completed, the larger the faction will grow…”
The players thought of Herlous joining and the growth potential on the faction interface when they first joined Black Star, and they felt it made sense. Instantly, they became excited.
The actions of the players could make the faction grow!
“We might have joined a special faction!” Frenzied Sword was overjoyed.
They were all pro players, so they immediately realized the advantages of the mercenary group. If they underwent missions from different organizations, the exchange list would be updated with equipment from those organizations, which meant that the more missions they did, the richer the faction exchange list would become. All they had to do was increase the relationship points with the faction itself—it would save them a lot of time!
They were the first batch of players entering the galaxy, and they had gone through a very difficult selection progress. Was joining this faction the hidden benefit‽
The players felt that this specialness of the mercenary group came from Han Xiao. After all, storyline main characters would definitely possess something special. The players trusted Han Xiao very strongly. No matter how shocking the things that he did were, it all seemed possible—this was the impression that Han Xiao had forged in the players’ minds.
To make the players feel that the growth of the faction was ‘driven’ by them, when they clearly saw the growth of the faction, they would slowly develop a sense of belonging. This was the development path that he had set from the start. Now, the players finally felt this specialness and freshness; his strategy had achieved its anticipated result.
At this time, the players had money in their pockets and were willing to spend. A few of them bought the Enlistee Class armor on the spot. Han Xiao did not have any completed products with him, so it had to be built. The other players wanted to observe when the finished product was made.
During the battle on Sunil, every player had been tempted by the single unit armors, but sadly, they had not been given a way to purchase them. Second Prince almost wanted to steal one.
“We have battled for more than a month; let’s all take a break and rest for some time.”
Han Xiao dismissed them, left the stronghold, and rented a mechanical modification room.
He first spent millions of experience and upgraded the armor blueprint level to Lv.6, only then did he start to build. There was still a lot of material left from what he had brought from Planet Aquamarine—only a small part of the Sunil Enlistee Class armor required him to buy materials from the galaxy. The cost to make one was only about 50 Enas.
For the time being, there was no mission for the mercenary group. The players could finally explore Juberly Hub freely, and naturally, they would not just spend money in one place.
There were many shops in the hub center, and it was full of variety and choices. During this resting period, they witnessed equipment from many different civilizations and bought a lot of gear, such as arms with stronger power, small supportive machinery, and so on.
At the same time, they noticed that some machinery shops were selling single unit armors as well. This was very common in the galaxy, and although these armors’ designs were very different from the ones on Sunil, their technology levels were all rather basic. However, these shops were selling them at a way higher price than exchanging in the faction—even the cheapest one was 3,200 Enas, four times the faction price!
The players became worried because of this. They knew that the price was usually correlated with quality, but Han Xiao’s armor was so cheap. Would its attributes be very low?
They memorized the attributes of the armor in the shop and planned to make a comparison when the finished product from the faction was complete.
Although Black Star’s equipment had good prices, when the pro players were rich, they never looked at price, only quality.
…
Herlous went to the mercenary hall alone to register. He joined the Black Star Mercenary Group then opened the mercenary group records.
_____________
Black Star Mercenary group
Credibility Rating: 154
Scale: 53 members
Class C: 52 members
Class B: 1 member
Missions Completed: 1 (Daily Low-Level Missions Excluded)
Active region: Garton Galaxy
Records: [Sunil Defense Battle] (Expand/Collapse)
Creator: Black Star – Han Xiao
Creation date: Galaxy Calendar Year 688, 02 October
Summary: A small mercenary group with a certain amount of combat power and one grade B Super.
_____________
“A mercenary group created little more than a month back. Black Star didn’t lie to me…” When Herlous saw there was only one grade B Super, he knew that he was the strongest in this mercenary group. He could not help but feel a sense of responsibility.
For the future of his race, he had to protect Han Xiao. He hoped that this captain would not choose hiring missions that were too dangerous.
On the other side, Han Xiao received a notification from the interface while he was building armor in the workshop.
_____________
Faction Reward Limit: 135,7000
Faction Leader Level: 80 (+64,000 reward quota)
Cadres: Herlous (B) (+20,000 reward quota)
Faction Size: 52 (+20,000 reward quota)
Renown: 7 (+14,000 reward quota)
Legendary Points: Leader (3) +15% reward quota
Allies and Enemies: None
_____________
His friendliness with Sunil was on a personal level, so it had yet to become a faction ally.
Han Xiao felt refreshed. The faction had gained its first cadre and taken its first step. Plus, the quota had increased by 20,000, showing that recruiting cadres was indeed a good way to quickly increase the quota.
Two days later, Han Xiao had built six sets of Enlistee Class armor. The players could not wait to equip them, and they instantly felt the benefits of the armor.
Single Unit Armor was something that most civilizations would research on when they reached a certain technological level. Its original purpose was to let users have stronger physical capabilities and adapt better to different environments. The first time wearing single unit armor was like opening the gate to a new world for the players.
In the stronghold, a few players that bought the armor were controlling them excitedly. The fresh feeling had them overjoyed, and the other players surrounded them and touched the armor with curiosity.
“How does it feel?”
“It looks heavy, but it’s actually really easy to move. There are parts inside that helps me move.”
Rainy Kim frowned and said, “Piles of iron, they look so ugly.”
All the male players stared at her. It was the first time that they had shared a common enemy.
“You don’t know sh*t. The mechanical suit is men’s romance!”
Chapter 356. Speeding! (2) |
After playing with the armor for a while, only then did the players remember to compare the attributes between the Sunil Soldier Armor with the armor in the shops, and the result was that it was almost the same!
Same quality, a quarter of the price—this was more than worth it!
The players were over the moon. The rest of the players did not observe anymore and paid willingly.
Fifty something people, more than 40,000 Enas, about the price of two knowledges…Han Xiao smiled. There was more!
Right after, he added a new option in the faction shop page—equipment enhancement!
Han Xiao had held back when he built the armor. Their attributes were just the ‘Basic Version’. This was to provide room for enhancement so that he could open another revenue stream!
Repairs and enhancements were long term incomes. Han Xiao had multiple machinery enhancement abilities, so he had what it took to enter the enhancement business. Naturally, Han Xiao was not going to miss this opportunity. Also, he was going to control the level of enhancement that he gave and would not do full enhancements the very first time, leaving room for improvement, hence attracting the players to keep spending.
The Great Mechanic Han was not greedy—by dividing one thing and selling them separately, he could maximize his profits, and the players that did not know this were willing to pay for it. Han Xiao competed with other shops by using cheap, high-quality equipment, to first let the players buy the equipment, then introduce the enhancement option, turning a one-time sale into long term profit.
After all, he had occasionally played single player games in his previous life too, and he was inspired by the gaming companies turning one game into severalDLCs 1 .
Han Xiao felt nostalgic. Back when he was young, he had been an honest man, but his tiny and pure heart had become polluted by society. Turning bad was not one man’s fault, it was the world’s fault.
For the following few days, Han Xiao built all the armor. Every player wore Enlistee Class armor—it was like the mercenary group had its uniform. Although the players were all Supers, Enlistee Class armor still proved to be helpful.
As a firm supporter of the Great Mechanic Han, Frenzied Sword was the first one to buy the enhancement. The attributes of the armor increased by around ten percent after the enhancement. Multiple enhancements of the same equipment would have an increased cost. As for the Enlistee Class armor, the first enhancement only cost 60 Enas, the second cost 100, and the third 150. Every fourth enhancement in a row, the price would have a big leap from the previous one; the fourth enhancement cost 300.
