Chapter 1 The Bountiful Harvest

This newbie village had been thoroughly harvested. Han Xiao contentedly counted his experience points, another great haul.

So far, no one had bought a letter of introduction, but Old Man Han was not arrogant or impatient. He had plenty of patience. The matter of him issuing a main storyline mission had already caused a great uproar on the forums, and sooner or later, someone would take the bait.

"There's only one newbie village left. Maybe I should delay it a bit, give those big guilds time to raise money," Han Xiao thought to himself.

At that moment, two players approached together. Their IDs were Chasing Wind and Dragon Wags Tail, attracting the attention of the surrounding players. They were players from the Nine Gates Club and the Mad Lad Club, and both had a decent reputation.

Han Xiao's eyes lit up. The pro players had finally arrived.

"Black Phantom, we want to buy letters of introduction," said Chasing Wind.

"Alright."

Chasing Wind and Dragon Wags Tail had received funding from the guilds affiliated with their clubs. A team was the face of a club, and as professional players, they had this preferential treatment. The two each took out 250,000.

The surrounding players craned their necks, their faces full of envy. They had never seen such a large sum of money.

"Someone can actually afford it."

"Big guilds really are rich."

"No wonder professional players are better than us. If I had resources like that, I could go pro too."

"Do you think just anyone can sign with a club?"

One player had a sudden idea. "If we rob them, we'll be rich."

"Don't be stupid. First of all, those pros could beat you to death. Even if you actually got the money, the guild would hunt you to the ends of the earth. Maybe that Black Phantom over there would snipe you first."

The crowd discussed animatedly.

Fifty thousand in the bank in one go. He wrote the letters of introduction on the spot, handed them to the two pro players, and Han Xiao told them about a stronghold of the Dark Net in West Continent, saying, "...Take my letter there, and you can join the Blood Contract Society."

He paused and added, "I seem to be able to trust you. I have some work here. Are you willing to help?"

"That's what I was waiting for." Dragon Wags Tail couldn't wait to accept the mission. After accepting one, he wanted to accept another, but was prompted that this series could only accept one mission, and he could not receive other missions at the same time.

This was set by Han Xiao: one letter of introduction for one mission.

"Damn, I can only accept one mission. I thought I could accept all the missions," Dragon Wags Tail grumbled.

Han Xiao raised an eyebrow and said lightly, "If you don't want to do it, then forget it."

Dragon Wags Tail quickly shut up. If he didn't accept the mission, wouldn't the money be wasted?

Chasing Wind could only helplessly choose the same mission. Their two clubs were cooperating, and they would do the mission as a team. Fortunately, the mission Dragon Wags Tail accepted was a mission to act in West Continent.

"If you can complete the mission, I might have more things I want you to help with," Han Xiao hinted that to open his "hidden storyline," they had to complete this mission first.

The pro players raced against time, taking the mission and leaving immediately.

There were five mission objectives, two in West Continent, two in North Continent, and one in South Continent. He wanted to make sure that someone accepted each one. Fortunately, these three continents were all on his itinerary.

Although the main storyline mission was A-level difficulty, this was only the simplest first part. Han Xiao took the mission objectives out individually and separated them into small missions, with a difficulty of around D-level. He could afford the single experience quota for issuing missions.

"When it comes to the later parts, when the difficulty is higher, my quota might not be enough." Han Xiao felt that he needed to improve his quota channels. Upgrading was temporarily hopeless, so he could only start with factions and legend points, and didn't need to consider it for the time being.

"Chasing Wind and Dragon Wags Tail are decent professional players. They didn't seem to have particularly good results in the previous life, so I'll observe them for the time being." Han Xiao was very strict with his choice of backup players. He didn't just pull people in just because they were professional players.

...

Mad Lad and Nine Gates announced on the forums that their players had purchased letters of introduction, which was equivalent to advertising and increasing their own popularity. The extravagance of spending a lot of money made many players watch, and everyone was shouting 666.

Han Xiao also indirectly gained popularity because of the advertisements of the two clubs. It was conceivable that the clubs that came to buy letters of introduction in the future would not be willing to lag behind and would follow suit. Han Xiao estimated that he would be all over the forums many times.

Without stopping, Han Xiao came to the last newbie village in West Continent. While harvesting experience points, there were also new professional players squandering the guild's wealth in exchange for the opportunity to accept missions. Ordinary players could only be envious, jealous, and hateful on the sidelines.

Another main storyline mission objective in West Continent was also accepted by a professional player. Only then did Han Xiao feel at ease, leisurely selling skills, and paying attention to forum and Dark Net intelligence.

"Oh, *Galaxy Times* has released a new issue, the subtitle... Professional League Formation?"

Han Xiao perked up. He had been paying close attention to this program and immediately clicked in.

Male host: "Hello, players, this is *Galaxy Times*, dedicated to sharing first-hand game information and escorting your game career."

Female host: "Xiao Chun, I've been very anxious lately."

"What's wrong, Qiu Qiu?"

"I've fallen in love with a man. He doesn't talk much, and he's handsome, a cool and aloof male god, but he never looks at me directly or talks to me."

"Don't worry, I think you and him are a perfect match."

Female host was surprised: "Really?"

"Of course, he's a cool and aloof male god, and you're a short and hot female ghost. It's a perfect match."

"..."

It was another awkward cold joke that was always there at the beginning of each episode. This style made Han Xiao feel so familiar that he was about to pee his pants.

The barrage was frantically complaining, densely packed.

Many players watched *Galaxy Times*. It had become an authoritative program in the eyes of players in less than a month since its launch. After all, it had an official background and had a lot of first-hand information.

After chatting for a few words to set the mood, the male host said, "Okay, let's get back to the topic. Today's program will analyze the most popular abnormal player phenomenon, the movements of professional players, and also invited Li Ge to be a guest in the studio. Don't go away."

The program content was still detailed. At the beginning, he went through the current progress of players on each planet, and commented on the level list.

"...Now, among the player groups, the highest-level vanguard force is approaching the level 20 mark. Level 20 will be the first advancement. I wonder who can win this honor. The first player to successfully advance will be recorded in the game's historical milestone."

"Then everyone can clearly see that the players at the top of the level ranking basically have no professional players. Among them, Japanese players account for the most. As we all know, the main base of Japan is Loni Star, where technology and magic coexist, and the Crystal Civilization is in its heyday, which is very suitable for accepting missions to level up. France and the United States also account for a lot, and the Chinese side has fewer players on the list. Oh, I saw an old acquaintance, Feng Yue. Remember her? She obtained hundreds of thousands of experience points at the beginning of the public beta, and that was also the first lottery pool mission encountered by all players so far."

"Speaking of Black Phantom, from the very beginning of the game, he has firmly attracted the attention of Hailan Star players. Recently, there have been new developments. He has appeared in newbie villages one after another to provide guidance and benefits. Not long ago, he showed another main storyline mission, and the pre-requisite is a sky-high item worth 250,000 Hailan coins! If players from other planets want to understand the concept of price, you can move to the exchange rate section to view the amount of resources that 250,000 Hailan coins can be exchanged for."

Players from other planets were very envious of Hailan Star. Why didn't they have such a powerful novice guide?