Chapter 148 Subtle Manipulation

Ten days passed in a flash, and it had been more than a month since the opening of Version 2.0.

The overall situation was good. The number of refugees receiving shelter continued to climb, and the rampaging beast hordes were killed wave after wave. The players integrated into the new version, running around and contributing to the overall progress of the main quest. While helping with disaster relief, a competition was secretly taking place.

In recent days, Nagokin's strategy had been effective. As the saying goes, a persistent suitor wins the maiden. Under the tireless promotion of the Godora publicity team, players joined the Godora camp with a tentative attitude. Han Xiao was not surprised; trying different possibilities was in the nature of the players, especially since the two camps were not in conflict at this time.

The image of Godora in the players' minds was very thin. After all, this was the first time they had personally contacted the camp, unlike Han Xiao, who was already an old friend. However, although Godora was not as good as the Black Star Mercenary Group, its benefits were also good. The magical-side technology products were indeed attractive.

Nagokin was quite satisfied with the progress of the recruitment, and the Black Star side did not seem to interfere.

However, just as he was happy, a video quietly appeared on the player forum, causing a huge uproar.

After ten days, Rou Bao released a new video. He now had a massive fan base, and the video attracted a large number of players as soon as it was released. However, the latest video was not a sequel to the Black Star series, but a side story titled "Aquamarine Star: The Old Era".

"Not the Black Star series, tsk, disappointed."

"Side story? Interesting. I wonder what it's about."

"International custom, light a cigarette before watching."

After complaining, the players opened the video, their hearts full of expectation. Although most fans wanted to beat Rou Bao to death, the quality of Rou Bao's videos had always been very good, focusing on joy and humor, and basically guaranteed an enjoyable time.

The video did not begin with Rou Bao's usual opening remarks, but went straight into the content. It was extraordinary from the beginning. A rain of nuclear bombs fell from the sky, hitting the earth, and mushroom clouds rose up. Everything was silent until after the explosion, when the background music slowly began to play, as if pulling the audience into the picture.

Most people were familiar with this image. It was the recording of the Six Nations bombing the Germinal Organization headquarters. Then the screen switched to some tragic war scenes. Seemingly unclear about the theme, the audience discussed it.

"What is this episode about? I still don't understand."

"It feels a bit messy for the first minute or so."

Just as the audience was wondering, a voice-over suddenly sounded in the war footage. It was Kerton's voice, trembling and weak, slowly confessing his crimes. This voice-over was made by Rou Bao by editing Kerton's interrogation recordings, scattering the order of Kerton's testimony to match the images, while allowing the audience to understand the original meaning of the statements. This kind of editing strengthened the contrast between the images and the voice-over, giving it a stream-of-consciousness feel.

As Kerton spoke, the atmosphere of the video slowly became激荡 (jīdàng) and sad.

Later, war scenes and interrogation scenes were intertwined to enhance the effect, while allowing the audience to more directly understand the theme of the video, which was the truth of the old era of Aquamarine Star. With the cooperation of the images, the theme was expressed in great detail, fully demonstrating the tragic atmosphere. Black Star only appeared at the end of the video. With him as the core, Rou Bao summarized the plot. This time, Rou Bao did not use a humorous format, but used a slightly heavy and emotional atmosphere to make this video, which contrasted with the previous videos, and the effect was also excellent.

Ten days ago, Han Xiao had used some means to let Rou Bao interrogate Kerton and learn the truth about the old era. He was 80% sure that Rou Bao would share this secret with other players. Rou Bao was a video creator, and this story about Aquamarine Star was very suitable for making a video and very eye-catching.

As expected, Rou Bao was very sensitive to news material, discovered the value, and made a video. He thought he was lucky to have learned this secret, but he didn't know that he was being guided by Han Xiao in secret. After a long period of getting along, Han Xiao was already very familiar with how to use Rou Bao as a public opinion weapon. He only needed to provide fragmented materials, and he didn't need to worry about the quality of the videos Rou Bao made. The man was a professional.

The video caused a violent reaction, and the audience was shocked. They did not expect that the side story would be such an explosive secret, and Aquamarine Star suddenly became a sympathetic party.

And Godora did not have too obvious of an image in the players' minds. After the video's influence, it was immediately labeled with "aloof" and "arrogant". The players' goodwill plummeted, and resentment arose.

The vast majority of players were pragmatic and valued interests and rewards. However, this was not the only motivation for their actions. Players had their own preferences, and sometimes the importance of likes and dislikes even exceeded interests. Few people would like aloof people who represented authority.

What's more, after Version 1.0, the vast majority of players had developed feelings for Aquamarine Star and automatically substituted themselves into the Aquamarine Star side, immediately feeling indignant toward Godora, and their perception was extremely bad.

Resisting "authority" had always been an activity that most players liked to see.

The impact of the video slowly fermented. The players were excited and posted continuously in the Aquamarine Star section of the forum. Collective behavior made it easier to stir up emotions. As if overnight, Godora had become an unforgivable guy.

Some players even shouted slogans—Tonight, we are all Aquamarine people!

Han Xiao paid attention to the situation on the forum. The goal was basically achieved. Public opinion was nothing more than raising oneself or attacking the enemy. He did not distort the facts. All he did was expose the "secret". Since Godora citizens had done this kind of thing, whether they were instructed or not, Godora had to bear the blame.

—It could be regarded as seeking a little justice for Aquamarine Star.

Originally, Godora's benefits were not as good as his own mercenary group, and now the identity was not good, the attraction plummeted. If this was a stock price, it was basically equivalent to consecutive limit downs.

Under the chain reaction, Nagokin's recruitment situation took a sharp turn for the worse. Some players who originally intended to join also gave up the idea. Anyway, someone had already tested the waters, and the Godora camp did not have any particularly good benefits, so there was no need to go.

The number of players in the Godora camp dropped sharply, and even many players who had already joined the Godora camp returned to Black Star's embrace.

Nagokin was completely confused. Wasn't everything fine a few days ago? Why couldn't he recruit异人 (yìrén) all of a sudden? What was the problem?

He couldn't figure it out, how would he know that a large number of unfavorable opinions about Godora had appeared in places he couldn't see, completely in the dark.

"With me interfering, Godora probably won't be able to recruit many people."

In the room, Han Xiao browsed the trends in the forum and let out a sigh of relief.

Although he and Nagokin had fought side by side, in essence, he had saved the other party. If he hadn't intervened in Nagokin's mission, Nagokin would have been crippled long ago.

Nagokin ran over to pick the fruits of victory happily, and thought he wouldn't be angry, he was too naive. Since the other party was unreasonable, Han Xiao had no choice but to reason with physics, and slandered Godora severely, his mood was sunny and bright.

After throwing the Godora problem to Rou Bao ten days ago, Han Xiao didn't care about it anymore, but focused on building the organizational structure of the Black Star Mercenary Group. As more and more players were recruited, he put this matter on the agenda, not only to facilitate management, but also to give the players a goal to strive for, and let the players see a system that they could climb up.

This matter was more important, affecting the players' fighting spirit, equivalent to giving them a goal in life.

The day before yesterday, Han Xiao officially set up a level system for the mercenary group. Mercenary players of different levels had different discounts for purchasing camp goods and enjoying camp services, divided into six levels. The first five levels had no fancy names, directly from "One Star" to "Five Stars", intuitive and simple, anyone could understand it.

In fact, he originally wanted to use a cooler title, but after thinking it over and over again, he finally chose an easy-to-understand route, just like the Heavenly Ring Allied Forces. The simpler it was, the more it could highlight the difference between the levels.

And the sixth level was the highest level, named "Black Star Eighteen Riders". This level was not fixed, but in the form of a leaderboard. After reaching the "Five Star" standard, the top eighteen players could get this title, and the benefits were obviously much higher.

Since the seats of the "Black Star Eighteen Riders" were determined by the leaderboard, it was competitive—this was a money-burning machine that Han Xiao had specially prepared for guilds and tycoons.

Players could check their position level in the Black Star Mercenary Group in their personal mercenary files, but players did not have a Star Communicator yet, so they could only check their files through Phillip for the time being.

There were three factors that determined the mercenary level: first, the credibility of the personal mercenary file; second, the current camp relationship; and third, the total contribution value to the Black Star Mercenary Group.

Credit needed to be accumulated by completing commissions, and players needed to continuously do missions to increase personal credit.

The current camp relationship was also easy to understand. For example, when players first joined the Black Star Mercenary Group, they were all one-star level. One of the prerequisites for being promoted to a two-star mercenary was that the camp relationship reached [Friendly], that is, the current contribution was above 1,000 points. And after the promotion was completed, it was not necessary to always maintain the current contribution. Even if the contribution was spent, the level would not decrease.

The total contribution was the highlight. For example, if you had 3,000 contribution points and spent 1,000 points, the total contribution would still be 3,000 points, which was equivalent to all historical accumulated contribution. And from one star to two stars, the total contribution was required to reach 20,000 points.

As soon as the level system went online, players studied the system with curiosity, and soon discovered a loophole that could be exploited, which was the total contribution value.

Because the camp relationship was below Friendly (1,000 points), 50 Enas could be exchanged for 100 contribution points. If the current contribution was between 1,000 points and 3,000 points, it would cost 500 Enas to exchange for 100 contribution points. Thinking about it this way, as long as the current contribution was kept below 1,000 points, the total contribution could be increased at the smallest cost!

With this discovery, many players were overjoyed, feeling that they had found a shortcut.

Han Xiao had expected this. He liked it when players thought they had made a profit.

The principle was very simple. As long as the current contribution reached 1,000 points, if you wanted to save money, you had to spend the contribution in your hand, and the contribution could only be used to buy camp goods. Players had to spend extra Enas to buy things, constantly repeating the cycle, which was equivalent to urging players to spend. Players also thought that accumulating total contribution was a profit.

Moreover, the other two factors that affected the mercenary level were hard requirements, and there was no way to exploit them, so players could not quickly improve their mercenary level through shortcuts.

The "shortcut" of total contribution was actually Han Da技师 (jìshī)'s conspiracy, using the players' psychology to deliberately leave a "loophole" for the players to discover on their own.

There were many new mercenaries in the group. Now only the dozens of high-level players who followed him earliest were close to the two-star standard. The system that Han Xiao set up had high requirements. Judging from the current progress of the players, he estimated that basically no players could reach the highest level in one or two versions. This was a long-term plan.

"The formal planning of the mercenary group has just started, let's take it slow." In the room, Han Xiao leaned on the back of his chair, crossed his legs, and muttered to himself.

As long as enough players were recruited, then the players' strength was equivalent to his own power. He had enough patience to wait for the players to grow.

Di Di——

At this moment, an emergency notification popped up on the communicator.

He opened the virtual screen and glanced at it casually. What caught his eye was the emergency news of the long-silent DarkStar attacking several alienized disaster planets!

Han Xiao's eyes narrowed, his expression solemn, and he sat up straight.

"It's finally started..."