Chapter 169: Countryside Public Carriage
The monster battlefield is only open from 10 am to 10 pm in the game time. Seizing these last few hours of opening time, players tenaciously launch waves of sprints...
At twelve o'clock in real time, when the monster battlefield in the game was open for the day, the Vanilla Pudding (Qin Guan) team finally completed the task for the first time and won the first victory in the monster battlefield.
“Ohhhhhhh——!”
Coming out of the battlefield, all the members of the Vanilla Pudding Group stood at the door of the town hall and cheered, demonstrating to the Lahong Brother Group whose progress was only slightly behind theirs.
Brother Lahong cursed and said "Come again tomorrow", then left in shame with his friends.
"Great! Hahaha!" Qin Guan was so proud that his nose almost rose to the sky. All the anger he had felt in the previous few times because Lahong brother was ahead in progress was swept away.
"We have completed this first-tier mission. The next time we enter, we will have to refresh the battlefield mission. I don't know how abnormal the second-tier mission will be." Miao Bishenghua said with lingering fear.
"It's okay. Let's see how difficult the second-level mission is tomorrow. If it doesn't work, we'll change the team leader." Qin Guan said carelessly.
The tasks randomly distributed in the monster battlefield are recorded according to the team leader's ID. Once Qin Guan's team completes the first-level tasks, they will be issued a second-level task with increased difficulty when they enter again, unless they change the team leader next time they queue for the battlefield.
"That's not worth it. After all, we are the first-win team in Tier 1. If we change the team leader, won't that mean our progress will be reset?" Miaobishenghua shook his head. "Completing Tier 1 missions will give the whole team an additional 500 honors. Tier 2 missions will only be higher... In this monster battlefield, the higher the progress of a fixed team, the greater the benefits."
It takes 200 points of honor to go from a junior civilian to a first-level auxiliary soldier, and 400 points to go from an auxiliary soldier to a soldier; after completing this first-level mission and adding the rewards everyone received when brushing the battlefield back and forth, all the players in their group were promoted to soldiers.
The honor points required to advance from a soldier to a corporal are 800 points - if they can complete the second-level mission, then their entire regiment will be full of corporals!
Exchange supplies with the quartermaster. The higher your rank, the more goodies you get.
Qin Guan thought of something and looked at the four foreign aid girls, En Buzeng, Yang Ying, Tang Jia and Jia Luo, with burning eyes.
Entropy knew exactly what he wanted to say... Her response was also direct: "If there is room for you in the Blood Alliance, count the four of us in."
"Yes, yes, there must be room." Qin Guan smiled and immediately added the four capable girls whom he had been coveting for a long time into the blood alliance.
Tang Jia listened to En Buzeng's words without thinking, and did whatever En Buzeng said; Yang Ying and Jia Luo themselves had no ill feelings towards Qin Guan's Blood Alliance. Not only did they have a good relationship with Miao Bi Sheng Hua, but their Blood Alliance's Sang Ye Luo was also a semi-regular member of their small team when she was not active... Since En Buzeng decided to join the Blood Alliance, they would not have any objection.
After chatting with old acquaintances in the Blood Alliance channel for a while and leading his friends away to participate in their fixed team activities, En Bu Zeng explained to everyone in the team channel: "Monster Battlefield cannot be played by individuals alone. This game mode is clearly prepared for large teams. The higher the difficulty level of the fixed team mission and the higher the reward, the honor points required for each level of military rank will double. If we don't join the Blood Alliance and the fixed team, our military rank will lag behind the large forces."
En Bu Zeng herself has the ability to lead a group, but she is still a student and she must focus on her studies.
"Oh, I was wondering why you suddenly decided to join the blood alliance." Sister Gala nodded.
Yang Ying thought about it and nodded in agreement: "It's too much effort to form a blood alliance by myself, so it's okay to join someone else's blood alliance. Anyway, except for the battlefield period, we still play with our own team."
"I just feel that I don't like Xiangcao very much." Tang Jia said awkwardly, "He is quite utilitarian."
"Utilitarianism is not a problem. Without a leader with a strong sense of purpose, the Blood Alliance would have a hard time maintaining itself." Entropy said with a smile, "Besides, compared to some people in the Friends and Family Group, Vanilla's bottom line is much higher."
Tang Jia couldn't help nodding her head after hearing this... Indeed, in the online gaming environment, small groups of friends and relatives that seem to be "our own people" actually have no less trouble than large blood alliances and guilds with many people and complicated affairs - there are too many 818 incidents in which small groups of friends and relatives quarrel over petty gains, and the whole thing is messed up because of the selfishness of one or a few people.
For example, Sang Yeluo, a semi-regular teammate of their team, was kicked out because he had a conflict with his original friends and relatives over the issue of career choice.
"People who can take care of a larger group of people and lead a larger team can be fair on the surface even if they are utilitarian, because they are more concerned about their image and feathers." En Buzeng concluded, "After all, Xiangcao has developed a group of more than a dozen relatives and friends into a large blood alliance of nearly a hundred people. There must be something about his charisma. Tang Jia, don't underestimate him."
"Okay." Tang Jia nodded obediently.
"Xiaotang is so good." Sister Jialuo stroked Tangjia's head with a smile.
"What are you doing!"
En Buzeng watched them fighting with a smile, and silently wondered the purpose of this monster battlefield appearing at this time.
All online games encourage socializing and team activities. The reason is very simple. A game that is only remarkable for its gameplay is unlikely to last long. If old players continue to abandon the game and there is a lack of new players, even the best game will gradually decline.
Only games that build themselves into social platforms with strong community characteristics can become evergreen.
But the game "Another World"... the style of painting has always been unique, neither pure and lovely, nor slutty, but rather like a lonely lunatic with autism - even the friend list and private chat interface were not released until almost two months after the server was launched. If it were an ordinary online game, it would have been a long time ago.
It’s hard to say that this style of "Another World" has suddenly come to its senses and realized the importance of sociality. Anyway, I don’t believe that entropy will not increase... This thing hasn’t even released a warehouse and backpack system so far!
"Suddenly, players are forced to follow a fixed large-group game route. I always feel like there is some secret in it." En Bu Zeng muttered softly.
"Qingyue, hurry up!" Yang Ying found that En Buzeng had fallen behind, so he called out to him from the front.
"Here we come." Enbuteng quickly withdrew his thoughts and quickly caught up with his friends.
It is November 30th on Earth, and November has also arrived in the other world.
It was a sunny day. After noon, farmers in the countryside around Westham gathered up their dried corn cobs, soybeans and other crops, packed them into sacks, and transported the bulging sacks to the country roads by carrying them on their backs or in wheelbarrows.
Soon, the horse-drawn carriage that came every half hour, circling the country road and returning to town, appeared at the end of the road.
This kind of "town carriage" is a new thing that has only appeared recently... Westham does not have so many mountains, and most areas are relatively flat. Horse-drawn carriages can pass through most areas, but the road conditions are very poor, and the riding experience is not very good.
The town driver hired by the town hall saw the villagers waiting on the roadside and waved from a distance: "This car is full, wait for the next one!"
The villagers who tried to walk to the middle of the road to stop the car had to retreat in disappointment.
"Why are so many people coming into the town?" The villagers complained to each other and looked forward to the end of the road.
In less than half an hour, another carriage from the carriage company appeared.
The previous carriage had attracted many people, so this carriage was relatively spacious. The villagers who had been waiting for a long time happily pulled their own goods onto the carriage, either hanging them on the large iron hooks newly added to the carriage, or piling them on the roof and tying them with sturdy canvas belts - the compartment in the lower part of the carriage used to store goods was already full.
A farmer in his early forties, who looked to be in his fifties or sixties, had hung up several large bags of corn from his own farm. He seemed to be worried that the large iron hooks on the outside of the carriage were not strong enough, and asked the driver in a heavily accented common language: "Are these hooks strong? Will they come loose?"
The driver was probably used to being asked this question, and he turned around lazily and said, "Don't worry, this carriage is specially made by the carriage company. The whole carriage is made of good steel, and the hooks for hanging things are welded to the carriage. Nothing will go wrong."
Upon hearing this, the old farmer knocked lightly on the carriage. Hearing the unique metallic sound, he asked curiously, "Ah, it's actually made of fine steel?"
"That's right. This car is so sturdy. Even the cars of nobles may not be stronger than ours." The driver said proudly, "Hurry up and get in the car. We are about to set off!"
The old farmer quickly climbed onto the car using his hands and feet...
This special carriage with a load limit of five tons (due to tire load and body structure limitations) is certainly not a product of this world, but comes from a machinery factory in Province G.
Yang Qiu specially customized it in the name of a scenic spot horse carriage. The body of the carriage was modified from the cargo box of a tractor, with a roof added and two rows of vertical seats made of artificial leather and wood added to the carriage (limited to six people, but more people can be squeezed in). The tires are the same as those of the Sibu Xiang tractor, and the driving seat is also the cockpit of the Sibu Xiang tractor.
Without installing the engine (without installing the front of the car), the cost of a single vehicle is about half of that of a Sibu Xiang, and Yang Qiu is willing to pay two-thirds of the price of a Sibu Xiang (a brand new agricultural Sibu Xiang costs about 20,000 yuan ex-factory)... So the factory was very happy to add ceiling shelves, body hook shelves, and chassis shelves according to Yang Qiu's requirements, and the materials used were as generous as possible.
This special carriage is so ugly, but the passengers won’t care anyway , so it doesn’t matter…
This kind of carriage is sturdy and durable enough to be pulled by two strong and sturdy gray horses when fully loaded with goods. We should thank the Sokri caravan that once attacked the lakeside village. If it weren't for the "friendly" sponsorship of more than 200 gray horses by this caravan, the Carriage and Horse Company would not have been able to launch the rural public carriage that is convenient for the people so quickly.
After everyone got on the car, the driver sitting in the driving seat (the cockpit was not equipped with a front windshield, otherwise it would look like a tractor) cracked the whip, and the two sturdy and solid one-horned gray horses started moving.
The passengers, who were packed like canned fish in the carriage, skillfully opened the sliding windows and felt the cool breeze of late autumn. Even though they were shaken by the bad road surface, it could not dampen the farmers' happy mood.
In previous years, transporting grain into the town was a hard job. The whole family had to set out before dawn, and everyone was exhausted when they arrived in the town. Now, there are people who can ride in a carriage that only costs one copper coin, and even if the cargo does not exceed 500 kilograms, they only need to pay one copper coin. It's so much easier.
There is no special passenger station in Westham Town, but the destination of farmers entering the town is the purchasing point on the main road in the town, so the final stop of these carriages is also the main road in the town.
Located in the southern section of Zhenzhong Avenue, near the city gate, stores from No. 126 to No. 131 are all purchasing points for farmers.
When the carriage stopped, the old farmer asked his son to get off, and together they unloaded several sacks of corn hanging on the large iron hooks on the outside of the carriage, and the father and son carried them to the purchasing point together.
When the farmers were unloading their goods, the security officers near the purchasing point would come over and stand not far from the carriages, staring at everyone who passed by with a fierce look.
In the past, the militiamen had no responsibility to decide whether a sack of corn or half a bag of soybeans would be stolen from a farmer who came to town to sell grain. But now, if a theft occurs and the thief is not caught, all members of the security team will have their bonuses deducted, and no one can stand that.
The old farmer's target was the agricultural product purchasing point at Store No. 126. The person in charge of this purchasing point was a cheerful young male clerk. The old farmer had spoken to this clerk when he went to the town to pay taxes earlier. He felt that this clerk was a good person and would not deduct the weight of his corn - this kind of thing was very common when Baron Marcus's butler was in charge. One hundred kilograms of corn were weighed on the scale, and at most only eighty kilograms.
"Eighty-four catties of soybeans, six copper coins per catty, a total of five silver coins and four copper coins." The farmer's goods were weighed, and the clerk of store No. 126 took a notebook and quickly calculated the bill for the farmer and his son, "322 catties of corn, because it is not threshed and has kernels, I can only give you 0.7 copper coins per catty, a total of 225 copper coins, two silver coins and 25 copper coins."
"Hey, isn't the price different if the corn is not shelled?" the old farmer asked in surprise.
"Yes." The clerk nodded. "We collect corn to make corn flour. The unthreshed corn needs to be de-threshed, which is an extra process. If you are willing to thresh it yourself and then sell it, it will still be one copper coin per pound."
Then, the clerk pointed to an empty room next to it and said, "There are threshing tools there. You can go there to thresh first and then come to settle the bill."
The old farmer couldn't help but hesitate... They, father and son, were hulling the corn together. It might take them half a day to finish hulling so much corn that had been dried thoroughly. If they stayed in the town overnight, it would cost a lot.
"Forget it, let's just sell it like this." The old farmer had to say with pain.
The clerk understood that the farmers were reluctant to spend money on accommodation in the town, so he settled the payment for the goods for the father and son.
"It's still early now. If you're not in a hurry to go back, why don't you stay here and do some odd jobs?" After calculating the money, the clerk looked at the father and son's typical working-class physiques and enthusiastically recruited them, " The wage for corn threshing is two copper coins per hour. If you go to the new factory area on Zhenzhong Avenue to do odd jobs, it's three copper coins per hour. It's mainly physical work like cleaning and moving machines. We also provide a working meal."
The old farmer's eyes bulged out in shock: "You can make money by threshing corn?!"
In the countryside, when it comes to shelling corn for drying, everyone helps each other for free. The only benefit is that you can take the shelled corn kernels home and use them as firewood.
