Chapter 1 Players' Hesitation

The players were hesitant, but Han Xiao wasn't in a hurry. There would always be someone willing to be the first to try.

As he expected, finally a cute girl with the ID "Maple Moon" gritted her teeth and spent enough money. Han Xiao immediately raised his favorability with Maple Moon to five points, then suddenly realized that Maple Moon… was a familiar face.

Maple Moon was shocked when she saw the skill learning list.

"I can actually learn the basic knowledge needed for class advancement!"

As soon as she said this, the players all clamored, their excitement soaring.

In the past few days, besides the whales and social butterflies, most ordinary players had experienced the difficulty of class advancement and had no clue how to obtain the basic knowledge. They didn't expect that this mysterious NPC, Black Phantom, would actually impart basic knowledge.

Those players who were hesitating and didn't want to spend money immediately made up their minds that they must raise Black Phantom's favorability to five points. How could they let such a good opportunity slip away?

[Your Basic Assembly has been learned. You have gained 1000 experience and 200 Aquamarine Coins.]

That's right, compared to the closed beta, Han Xiao directly doubled the price of basic knowledge, and it didn't affect the players' enthusiasm at all. Although he only received one thousand experience points each time someone learned a skill, there were a large number of players here, and the accumulation was considerable.

Originally, the most common way for Aquamarine Star players to advance their class was to join a faction. Very few players could obtain basic knowledge before joining a faction. After joining a faction, they had to complete missions to improve their relationship, and then exchange favorability for basic knowledge (of course, they could also spend money to buy it, but it wasn't cost-effective). Han Xiao's move helped the players skip this process and cut them off in advance.

In a short while, hundreds of players learned basic knowledge from him, which was equivalent to easily obtaining one hundred thousand experience points. This number was still increasing.

Business was booming, and Han Xiao had the calmness of Jiang Taigong waiting for the fish to take the bait, dealing with the players while leisurely browsing the forum.

Players from various novice planets were sharing information. The players from the Great Horn Mountain Settlement were excitedly promoting Han Xiao on the forum. He was the first high-level character to appear in a novice village on all the novice planets, and his popularity was very high. One post after another about him was constantly being bumped up.

"This high-level character sells cheap firearms and ammunition, and the quality is excellent. As long as the favorability reaches five points or more, you can learn skills. Not only are there general skills such as Basic Shooting and Basic Combat, but also several basic knowledge skills of the Mechanic class, which can be directly used for class advancement."

"Wow, I've never seen such a high-level character before."

"You can actually learn class advancement knowledge! Great Horn Mountain, right? I'm going there right away!"

"Damn it, we're on a different continent, we can't go."

"Why can't we meet high-level characters in other places?"

"The danger level is extremely deadly? Is there anyone brave enough to try how strong he is? If you die, I'll pay for it. I'm short on cash, so I can only send a fap as compensation."

Many posts also included screenshots. Han Xiao in his black outfit successfully appeared on camera. Many people expressed great appreciation for his black windbreaker and black gloves, which were both handsome and cool. If you didn't look at his middle-aged salty fish face, he was definitely a male model.

Even players from other novice planets were enthusiastically discussing the combat power of the high-level character. The forum had automatic translation, so there was no need to worry about language problems.

"Players are very interested in the combat power of high-level characters…" Han Xiao had a flash of inspiration and came up with a new idea. If he showed his strength, he could attract more people to advance to the Mechanic class. Although he had opened up basic knowledge, there were still many players who were watching. After all, there were still many players who were not interested in the Mechanic class and doubted its combat power. Most players were pursuing a sense of爽 (shuǎng -爽快, feeling great), so the introductions of the Martial Dao class and the Esper class were naturally more appealing to them.

It had to be said that their doubts were correct. The Mechanic class was indeed not strong in the early stages, but… that didn't include Han Xiao. He smiled secretly, preparing to mislead the players. He knew the players too well, a group of people without integrity, who would choose whatever class was stronger.

Imparting skills was pure profit for Han Xiao. Hundreds of players had already learned the basic knowledge of the Mechanic class. If he could deceive… train half of the players in Great Horn Mountain into Mechanics, he would directly get millions of experience points.

The profit in this was astonishing!

Han Xiao was excited.

"Just in time, the Germination's withdrawal troops will arrive in a few days, which is a good opportunity to take action."

…

West Capital.

Mad Blade and Angry Sword were dejected. In the past few days, he had been unable to eat or sleep well. Without Han Xiao, the days felt like years.

Bored, Mad Blade and Angry Sword were browsing the forum when he suddenly saw a bunch of hot posts from Great Horn Mountain players, which turned out to be Han Xiao's interface for selling items.

"Lightweight Powered Arm?!"

Mad Blade and Angry Sword stood up suddenly, with a look of surprise.

He remembered that Han Xiao had also shown this mechanic. Since Han Xiao had always covered his face, Mad Blade and Angry Sword had a guess.

Could Black Phantom be Han Xiao?

"I must go find him!"

…

In order to raise Han Xiao's favorability to above five points, players who were short of money went to the Great Horn Mountain Settlement to take on missions to earn money, and the number of players surrounding Han Xiao decreased a lot.

[Your item Lightweight Powered Arm has been sold!]

Han Xiao was shocked.

He had set the price at 20,000, and someone could actually afford it. He looked at the dozens of players in front of him, and the leader's ID was "Azure Sky." Seeing this person's name, Han Xiao suddenly understood. Azure Sky was the president of "Sky Domain," a large guild in Huaxia. With the guild's financial resources, they could naturally afford it.

Azure Sky was wearing a set of hand-sewn leather armor, and his equipment was a level higher than that of the public beta players. He was a closed beta player, and during the closed beta, he took several core members to other places to explore the map. He learned about Black Phantom from other members of the guild who were in the public beta, and resolutely led the team back.

Although Azure Sky hadn't advanced his class yet, he was preparing to become a Martial Artist, and he immediately took a fancy to the attributes of the Lightweight Powered Arm. Although he couldn't use it now, he bought it and threw it in the warehouse to store it, in case Black Phantom suddenly left. He didn't want to miss the opportunity.

"There are a lot of good things." The people from the Sky Domain guild praised as they looked at the shop list.

Unfortunately, each person had to spend 2,500 to raise their favorability to five points. Although Sky Domain was a large guild, they didn't have much money now. Buying a Lightweight Powered Arm cost a lot of the guild's assets.

Han Xiao suddenly said, "A Germination troop will be passing through here in a few days. I need some people to help me set up traps in the forest. Are you free?"

With that, he set a mission and released it.

The difficulty was E-level, and the content was to set traps in the forest, with no limit to the type. The experience reward was only 500, but Han Xiao specifically set a reward of three points of favorability, which was exactly what Sky Domain wanted.

Azure Sky immediately decided, "Everyone take the mission!"

Han Xiao smiled secretly, using favorability to attract players to do missions, which also supplemented his business chain, linking one thing to another.

He could adjust the favorability at will, giving favorability a price with the previous setting. This method was actually very similar to the principle of currency, making something seem to have value, but in reality, it was worthless, attracting various guilds and players such as Sky Domain and Kill the World to take on missions, which was very effective.

Han Xiao always felt that the monetary system was built on a pile of bubbles, so he always adhered to a belief: spend money when you have it.

Money that isn't spent is a burden that hinders your motivation to work! Just like in Dark Souls!

A large number of players were tricked by Han Xiao into burying traps in the forest. The traps they could use were very simple, mostly animal traps. Han Xiao took the time to take a look, and the forest was densely packed with traps, which would give anyone with trypophobia goosebumps.

When this Germination withdrawal troop came here, they would definitely be taken aback.

The players' animal traps wouldn't have much effect. They were mainly to attract attention. Han Xiao personally set up other traps, which were hidden killing machines.