Chapter 1 The Art of Corpse Camping

Corpse camping was a skill.

To protect the fragile hearts of players, there were multiple resurrection methods to choose from: resurrect on the spot, resurrect in the nearest city or vehicle, resurrect at a specially bound coordinate, or even simply log off without resurrecting. Furthermore, in the Star Field, a player could only resurrect up to ten times every six days, making corpse camping a difficult endeavor.

In his previous life, Han Xiao could do whatever he wanted without issues, largely thanks to this resurrection system.

But even with such strict prerequisites, players still enjoyed corpse camping. Common methods included kidnapping and forcing a vehicle to land. When players were in combat, there were restrictions on logging off, and forced logouts came with penalties, leading to the kidnapping method, where the target was taken to the nearest resurrection point and surrounded. Forcing a vehicle to land was based on the same principle, making the target resurrect in the same location, either on the spot or in the nearest vehicle… However, none of these methods could completely bypass the resurrection mechanism, they were difficult to execute, and even if all locations were blocked off, the target still needed to cooperate by not logging off and running away.

So, all in all, the essential prerequisite for corpse camping was actually just one thing… that the other person was stubborn.

From the id of this poster, [Daddy Arrogance, What Can You Do To Me], Han Xiao could sense that untamed, reckless aura, impossible to hide, like a firefly in the dark, so distinct, so outstanding.

In the post, this [Daddy Arrogance, What Can You Do To Me] was a member of the legion and described his experience in detail.

"Just now, I was performing a solo errand mission in a free competition zone, arrived at a transfer station planet, and encountered a group of unfamiliar players from other factions. They saw me and attacked without saying a word, ganging up on me and killing me."

"I asked them why, and they actually said they just didn't like the look of me. I don't know about others, but I couldn't stand it. I resurrected on the spot and went head-to-head with them, just out of spite. These guys are real assholes, they really just camped me and killed me again and again, using up all my resurrections for today. They even sent me private messages mocking me, damn it!"

"I was eating hotpot and singing songs when I was suddenly attacked. Who did I offend! I've already posted the ids of these bastards. I'm going all out today—my fellow Chinese keyboard warriors, today you're all my daddies. One arrow through the clouds, and a thousand armies come to meet. Please respond to my call and lend me your verbal strength to help me greet their families and let these bastards enjoy the cleansing power of positive energy!"

Han Xiao glanced at it. These ids were clearly American players, all of the Demon race.

Looking down at the replies, he found that this post had become a sea of ​​joy.

In addition to these chaotic replies, there were also some legion players who were also complaining, and there were quite a few people who had the same experience.

However, not everyone was so stubborn. More people had just been ganged up on by other faction players without warning, and the opponents were not only Americans, but also players from other countries, and they were not all members of guilds… It was as if they were specifically hunting legion players.

Han Xiao's heart skipped a beat, and he pondered the reason.

It was probably his butterfly effect. In his previous life, there was no Black Star Army, everyone was scattered. But now, the Black Star Army was the largest player faction, and a big tree attracted the wind.

Judging from the players' reactions, this matter probably had nothing to do with the NPC forces and was entirely a spontaneous act by some players. It was possible that someone was hostile to the legion players, or that large foreign guilds had joined forces privately, nothing more than these situations.

Currently, tens of millions of players were flocking to the Flickering World, taking to the cosmic stage, and increasingly attracting the attention of major forces to the player groups. Tens of millions of people were just a drop in the ocean for a star field, but if it was a group of unkillable Grade B Supers, then it was a force that could not be easily ignored.

As a link in the cosmic ecology, the actions of players would now affect others. Han Xiao's intelligence network feedback indicated that more and more forces were beginning to study the characteristics of players in depth, and more people were also trying to use players. The three great civilizations had also put the recruitment and research of players on the agenda.

The Black Star Army, which foreign players eagerly joined even at the cost of changing factions, had also received more attention. Many forces were curious about the source of Black Star's influence among the undying—although Black Star was indeed very famous, why was the Black Star Army the first choice for so many of the undying? They couldn't figure it out.

However, many players also went to other camps. Therefore, although the situation of the Black Star Army was concerning, it was not so exaggerated. If he really accepted all the players into his camp, the Empire would probably come to ask questions the next day.

"Other forces didn't target the legion, but the players who joined them came to cause trouble first."

Han Xiao carefully read all the replies and found that the most legion players were hunted by the Americans, Japanese, and Koreans.

While attacking the legion players, they also tried to avoid killing legion soldiers, making it clear that they were specifically targeting the players.

Suddenly, his heart skipped a beat. He searched the forum again and found some anonymous posts that had been blocked for spewing foul language. It was a group of players from other forces showing off their kills of legion players and stating that they were specifically targeting the Black Star Army. They were also very arrogant, calling out and despising Chinese players by name.

"Interesting, so that's their game."

Han Xiao suddenly realized and finally understood the cause and effect. His eyes narrowed.

He was no stranger to this tactic. It had happened in the player community in his previous life, also starting in version 4.0.

This was a very insidious trick. The mastermind behind it must be a large club. The method was to secretly organize a group of players from their own country to hunt down players from the target faction everywhere, and then mock them on the forums, arousing the anger of the target faction players and stirring up a flame war. Then, they would arrange for someone to secretly sing a duet to guide the discussion, turning the topic to racial, national, and regional discrimination, igniting hatred.

The goal of doing this was to manipulate the faction selection preferences of players in their own country by establishing hatred.

It was simple to explain because the clubs in various countries could only control their own employees and a small number of peripheral players, which was not many, while the ordinary players of their own country were the largest group and their actions were not under their control. Therefore, some people in his previous life came up with an insidious trick to provoke national hatred in order to influence the faction selection preferences of ordinary players.

For example, if a faction had one million players, of which Chinese players accounted for the majority, with 800,000 players, and the other 200,000 were ordinary American players, then the American clubs would hunt down Chinese players, mock them, and guide the Chinese players to scold them. Then, they would sing a duet to fuel the fire, turning the topic to national hatred.

As a result, the 200,000 ordinary American players in this faction would also be unhappy. They would be drawn into the flame war, and then the clubs would continue to fuel the fire, creating opposition.

The consequence would be that a considerable portion of these 200,000 Americans would withdraw from the faction due to their anger at the Chinese players, and more ordinary Americans from the outside world would also develop prejudices due to this flame war. As a result, the number of Americans joining this faction would decrease significantly… And this was an important means for large clubs to secretly manipulate the faction preferences of ordinary players in their own country, shaping hatred, using hatred, and enhancing the cohesion of players in their own country.

The reason for doing this was very simple: the clubs did not want the players in their own country to work for the factions where clubs from other countries were located, and only hoped that the ordinary players in their own country would work for the factions where their own clubs were located.

With more players in the same faction, the competition would become greater for ordinary people, but for clubs, the players in their own country represented cheap labor. When they came to the faction where they were located, whether it was for peacetime development or national warfare, as long as the club gave a call to arms, the ordinary players would basically respond and become free combat power.

Normal players wanted to experience the game easily, and professional players were also worthy of respect. However, clubs and official guilds were commercial organizations, and their goal was to win rankings and profits in professional leagues.

Therefore, after the opening of the world server in version 4.0 in his previous life, some clubs, led by the Americans, began to do everything they could to control fans using this dirty trick, causing the forum environment to deteriorate to a certain extent in order to weaken the mainstream factions of other countries and enhance themselves in return… In short, they were snatching leeks.

Only a few countries' clubs did not follow suit, and China was one of them.

In his previous life, it was because China's national strength was strong in reality, coupled with some historical legacy factors, that it was often naturally discriminated against by a part of foreign brain defects, so it was very cohesive. Now, the Chinese players were basically all in the Black Star Army, so there was no need to use this kind of harmful trick.

"Tsk tsk, the first time this tactic reappears is targeted at me, and it's still a joint effort by clubs from multiple countries."

Han Xiao's thoughts turned, and he understood the thoughts of these clubs.

It was nothing more than the fact that too many foreign players were flocking to the Black Star Army, and some foreign clubs did not want the player scale of the legion to continue to expand. Otherwise, the legion would have too much of an advantage in faction competition, not only squeezing the development space of other factions, but also allowing the Chinese clubs to pick up a wave of labor for nothing, which was equivalent to helping the enemy for the foreign clubs. Even when fighting in national wars, these ordinary players from various countries might not respond to the call due to faction restrictions.

"As expected, because the legion is too good, the Chinese clubs have become the target of public criticism. Although the group of foreign clubs is not targeting me personally, letting them continue might shrink my leek field."

Understanding this, Han Xiao was not flustered at all, but laughed instead.

Wasn't this an opportunity that was sent to his doorstep to improve the sense of belonging of the legion's newcomers?

Why did the Horde and Alliance each have cohesion? The background story and game settings were one aspect, but the more direct reason was that the players of the two factions were fighting each other.

—Establishing a target was a good way to quickly improve collective cohesion!

Discrimination involving real-world factors was an internal problem for the players. With my current identity, there was really no way to deal with it, but I could target the main factions where you foreign clubs were located.

—You control nationality, and I'll control the faction.

Foreign clubs organized manpower to hunt down legion players, which was basically done with love, and the faction would not give rewards. Therefore, in their opinion, this was just a matter between the players.

What if I issued a bounty mission, as long as the legion players killed the players of these factions, I would give a reward, using the faction policy to strike a blow from a high dimension, allowing the legion players to break free from passivity and organize targeted counterattacks, and what would happen?

—I'm afraid that even the ordinary players of your own countries will be excited to screw you over!

Could the little people secretly hired by the club compare to the eight million warriors of our legion?!

Playing dirty, I'll screw you to death!

"Hehe, since you guys aren't burying your heads in development, can't stand the loneliness, and are playing these dirty tricks all day long, then let me add fuel to the fire and make your business even more prosperous."

With this in mind, Han Xiao smirked, sat up from the Lazy Person Throne, brought up the faction panel, and began to draft a bounty order.

…

At the same time, in an encrypted player chat channel, executives from professional clubs and guilds from various countries were online.

Among them were the American clubs, Underworld and Koi Club, the Japanese clubs, Yamata, Amaterasu, and Werewolf Club, the Korean clubs, Kimchi and Samsung Bomb Club, the Italian clubs, Classic and Pizza Club, and the Southeast Asian clubs, Red Bay, Archipelago, and Titan Club, etc. It could be said that more than half of the regulars on the international stage were in the channel.

At this time, the topic discussed by this group of club executives was related to the Black Star Army.

As Han Xiao had expected, as more and more players from various countries switched to the Black Star Army, these guilds who did not intend to change factions could not sit still. They joined forces privately, intending to curb the increasingly expanding player scale of the Black Star Army.

"...The manpower we organized is acting according to plan, and the public opinion is still being prepared. The emotions of the players still need to be brewed." The executive of the American Koi Club said.

"The conditions are actually in our favor. China has won consecutive championships in the professional league. This is their pride and naturally carries a sense of superiority. We can guide public opinion and let the Chinese players say this, and then rise to the point where ordinary players from various countries deliberately target them because of the poor performance of the teams, allowing the Chinese players to ridicule us, which can create hatred."

"Actually, this kind of trick is quite easy to see through. People nowadays are very shrewd…"

"Don't worry, players are players. As long as they get worked up, the cause doesn't matter. Professional competition is a very good entry point and can easily mobilize their emotions."

"Hopefully it will work. We belong to different factions, and the biggest threat now is the Black Star Army. There are just too many players there. If we don't weaken them, the advantage of the Chinese clubs will be too terrible."

"It would be best if we could isolate them this time."

Many executives discussed at length.

As for the attitude of the Black Star Army itself, it was completely out of consideration—in their opinion, this was just a matter between the players, and the NPC camp was just a decoration.