Chapter 1 The Dawn's Light

The clear light of dawn flowed in the sky, and the morning temperature was cool and comfortable.

Han Xiao drove a truck, heading towards Great Horn Mountain according to the coordinates on the radar. He had been driving all night, but he wasn't tired at all. He had been sleeping while driving, and now he was full of energy.

The open beta had started a few days ago, and the popularity of the forums continued to rise. Han Xiao was specifically paying attention to the Aquamarine Star section, learning about the situation of various novice landing points through the players' posts. He had wanted to join in the fun for a long time.

The best time to contact players is when they first appear.

He had obtained a secret intelligence from the Dark Web organization two days ago, that a Germination evacuation force was passing through Great Horn Mountain. He could take care of them along the way, so he decided to head to Great Horn Mountain.

The outline of the Great Horn Mountain settlement appeared in the distance. Han Xiao immediately saw countless tents set up outside the settlement, resembling a refugee camp. A sea of players bustled about, very busy.

Han Xiao parked the truck on a flat ground to the side, and immediately attracted the attention of the players.

He stepped out of the truck with a cigarette in his mouth and leaned against the truck bed, puffing out smoke rings. This posture gave the players the illusion that he was a character who could trigger events.

Understanding players was Han Xiao's forte. He had analyzed that now that the open beta had just started, all players were full of enthusiasm and would try to complete any task. They were in a state of "hunger," and because there were too many players in the novice landing point, some players definitely couldn't grab tasks. There were more monks than porridge.

So Han Xiao knew that at this stage, as long as this "high-level character" appeared in front of the players, it would definitely arouse their passion. Although the players were all newbies and didn't have much to offer, he could win with quantity. He happened to have a way to plunder the newbies' wallets, and also test the NPC template function.

The players walking around were, in Han Xiao's eyes, walking wallets.

After posing for a while, finally a dozen players walked over curiously and cast a detection spell.

[Black Phantom - Unknown] (Yellow Name)

[Level: Unknown]

[Attributes: Unknown]

[Danger Level: Extremely Deadly]

"Damn, this is a high-level NPC!"

"It's the first time I've seen one."

"How could a character of this level appear in the novice village? Is he a Boss?"

"Doesn't look like it, seems like we can trigger a quest."

The dozen or so players looked surprised, hesitant to step forward, wondering whether to touch him.

Han Xiao raised an eyebrow. He was now level 40, more than thirty levels above the players. He clearly sensed the players' detection. He cleared his throat and said in a very clichéd way, "You all look like a bunch of good lads. I need some help."

After saying that, Han Xiao released the task he had already set up.

The dozen or so players received the task.

[[Mysterious Man]: You have encountered a mysterious NPC passing by. He seems to have some work for you to do. Try to please him as much as possible, and you may receive unexpected surprises.]

The task required collecting a plant called "Snake Venom Grass." The players found that the reward was much more generous than the novice tasks in Great Horn Mountain, reaching one thousand experience points. They couldn't wait to accept the task.

Snake Venom Grass was a relatively common plant, and it could be collected near Great Horn Mountain. It was also sold in the settlement and used to make poison arrows. At this time, many players couldn't afford guns and were using cold weapons. Han Xiao set up this task mainly for testing, and to make the next actions logical.

"My current task limit is much higher than before, already reaching the basis of a D-level task."

Thinking this way, Han Xiao opened the template, and detailed quota data appeared:

[Maximum Reward Quota: 36940]

[Total Level Lv40: +12000] (First Advancement, Quota +300 per level)

[Rank D: +10000]

[Factions: Germination (Mortal Enemy) +3000, Thirteenth Bureau (Friendly) +2130, Blood Contract Association (Respect) +3950, The Chase Rhodes Family (Friendly) +1300, Farion Group (Friendly) +1200]

[Legendary Status: Black Phantom (Aquamarine Star) +5%, Mysterious Zero (Aquamarine Star) +5%]

Two points of legendary status added 10% in the form of a percentage to the single quota. The addition of legendary status in different regions was different. Each point of planetary legendary status increased the single quota by 5%. The larger the area, the greater the addition, and so on.

The main addition of legendary status was to the daily total quota. One point of legendary status doubled the total quota. The original total quota was five times the maximum single quota, and now it was seven times, nearly 260,000 experience.

Many players who hadn't taken the task surrounded him, curiously looking at Han Xiao, discussing in low voices.

"This is a high-level character? He doesn't look any different from us."

"Black Phantom, sounds so corny."

"I wonder which class he is from."

Oh right, I forgot to say, the most popular class for open beta players is actually the Esper class!

Because, the other four classes all require basic knowledge to change jobs, while the Esper class can spend money in the mall. The rich guys cross the sea with their own magic. Of course, although the abilities are strange and varied, almost no players are lucky enough to awaken high-potential abilities, and abilities need to consume qi. At the current level of players, they can't exert their power at all, the effect is very weak, and it only lasts for a dozen seconds at most, which is equivalent to being soft and fast.

Before long, the players doing the task came back with a pile of Snake Venom Grass, completed the task, and were happy with the soaring experience, and still wanted more.

Seeing that there were enough people watching, Han Xiao's eyes flashed and he said, "I will be staying here for a few days. If you need it, I can provide some weapons."

As he said, he brought up the window for selling items and opened it to all players. Han Xiao only set up a few types of weapons, namely folding combat knives, ordinary pistols and submachine guns, as well as a large amount of ammunition and special ammunition. He did not sell any other machinery, because novices did not have so much money.

However, he also set up a powerful piece of equipment, the "Lightweight Powered Arm," with a price that novices could not afford at all. It was a bait, equivalent to the carrot hanging in front of the donkey, attracting players. Now the Lightweight Powered Arm was of little help to him, mainly due to the incompatibility of the combat mode, and it was not a rare product in itself. Other mechanics would also develop it in the future, so selling it early could earn a sum of money from the players. There was no other branch.

One thing to pay attention to was that he had manufactured folding combat knives and Lightweight Powered Arms in Star Dragon, which seemed to have a risk of exposure, but in fact it was not a big problem. First of all, Star Dragon was not his enemy, and secondly, his whereabouts were erratic, and it didn't matter even if they knew his identity. The most important point was that the information flow efficiency between players and forces was very low.

So selling these machines in a short period of time would not cause any problems. The benefits of the player market were terrifying, and he would not give it up. As for the future...

"When I grow up, I won't need to keep my identity secret, why be a coward."

Putting aside the mental activities of Mechanic Han, all the players here who saw the store items were shocked, and took a breath!

"This is a mysterious merchant!"

"Lightweight Powered Arm, oh my god, this thing is an early artifact!"

"It's just too expensive, it actually costs 20,000 Aquamarine Coins, who can afford it? And the usage requirement is 25 strength, you have to be at least level ten to reach this attribute."

"But guns are very cheap, they're practically dirt cheap, a pistol only costs 1,500!"

The players flocked over, enthusiastic, calling friends, and immediately surrounded Han Xiao.

The appeal of firearms to novice players was like the significance of a computer that would not crash to an author who often lost manuscripts. Basically all players were using cold weapons, and it usually took more than a dozen people to barely kill a weak beast. The firearms weapons in Great Horn Mountain were terribly expensive, and ammunition also cost money, which novices couldn't afford at all.

The cost of Han Xiao manufacturing pistols now was only about 800, and he was pricing them at twice the profit. He was already conscientious enough, and you couldn't find a cheaper pistol than him, and he didn't produce shoddy products. Brother Xiao still had the basic ethics of a mechanic, and he earned conscientious money.

The number of guns was limited, and the players rushed to pool their money to buy them. The players who bought guns were overjoyed and excited, while the players who didn't buy guns were dejected.

Internal beta players also squeezed over. Kill-All-Under-Heaven Guild's president Zhan Cheng Shi Ba Lu bought a pistol from Han Xiao. He found that the quality was countless times better than the earth guns sold in Great Horn Mountain, and immediately regretted it. He knew he shouldn't have bought weapons from Great Horn Mountain.

The goods in the truck were sold out, and Han Xiao earned more than 300,000 at once. Each player's funds were limited, but there were at least 10,000 players in Great Horn Mountain, and small amounts added up. The truck was modeled after the deceased Big Black. After selling the prepared guns, a small lathe in the cargo box could be used to manufacture new guns and ammunition.

The real benefit of selling guns was ammunition. These players who bought guns inevitably had to buy ammunition. This was called bundled sales, a hard requirement. He had learned this from buying instant noodles without seasoning packets from the small store downstairs in his previous life.

The players who bought guns loved them. Someone aimed at a tree in the distance and fired. The recoil made the player's wrist shake, and the bullet didn't know where it flew.

Without shooting skills, the power of the guns could not be exerted. Many players discovered this problem, and their excitement suddenly turned into distress.

This was the second bundled sale Han Xiao had prepared, after-sales service!

Han Xiao grinned inwardly, and set up a skill learning window, but this time he didn't directly release it to the players, but set it up so that they could only learn skills from him with five points of favorability.

The players immediately discovered this function.

"You can actually learn skills from Black Phantom!"

"There are so many features."

"You need five points of favorability to learn skills, how do you increase favorability?"

"I found it, for every 500 Aquamarine Coins spent, Black Phantom's favorability increases by one! Wait, you can also give money!"

"That's too expensive!"

The current players have at most one or two thousand yuan on them, which they saved by doing tasks. Han Xiao knew the depth of their wallets. After all, he had also experienced the novice period. The purpose of this was to make the players feel that learning skills was very difficult.

Humans are such animals, they don't know how to cherish what is given to them, and only think that what they can't get is the best. This is also a small calculation to increase his status in the minds of the players. Only by investing resources in him can they cultivate a sense of identity. The specific principle is probably like ordinary players having a basic goodwill with a character in the game, and they will unconsciously increase the NPC's goodwill... Of course, Mechanic Han's main purpose was to make another profit.

The players work so hard to save some money, am I not human if I don't earn it?!

Constantly creating needs for customers and forcing them to buy products, this is the blood-sucking method of capitalists. Han Xiao touched his chin and sighed, "Alas, if I had gone into business back then, there would have been no Shi Cong."