Chapter 323 Killing for Fun
In order to ensure the "game characters" of the players in the third test, Yang Qiu almost emptied out several discovered ancient battlefield ruins in the Tarantan Wasteland.
For the bodies of those who died in the War of the Gods to become zombies, it depends on coincidence, and the right time and place are both essential; skeletons are much better, as long as you can find the ruins, you will have enough skeletons to use.
What's even more troublesome is to install miniature cameras in these 30,000 skeletons (the screenshot and video recording functions required by players still have to be solved by physical methods) and install brand anchor points - in the few months when the mage tower was built, Yang Qiu's free time was almost all used to do this work.
Therefore, the game "Alien World" is destined to never have a public beta test... First, the number of sturdy and durable skeletons used by players is limited, and second, the miniature cameras inside the skulls that need to be replaced regularly (due to service life & damage during player gameplay) are enough to cause Yang Qiu a lot of trouble.
Not only new players are excited about the opening of the third test, but old players are also very concerned. After all, after defeating the Cult of the Fiery Sun, the coalition of private soldiers of the Innadri nobles, robbing Lionel's border troops, and robbing Adler's slave traders... the equipment holdings among players have reached saturation.
Back then, Pansy's blank dagger could attract players to bid for it actively, but now it has been sold to a casual player who uses it to cut herbs, and it no longer has the glory of the past...
The high-level NPCs in Exile Town, such as the butcher Manan and the tailor Anthony, do have the "function" of recycling player equipment, but the prices obviously do not meet the players' expectations - let alone the sophisticated equipment with enchantments, players will not even consider abandoning the blank equipment as long as it can still be sold.
For example, Orange Cat Boss is a business player who takes making money as fun. After hearing that the third test was about to start, he had already stockpiled a lot of blank equipment, waiting for the newbies to take over...
With half an hour left before the third test players entered, the orange cat boss temporarily left his knight collar behind and appeared at the Exile Town teleportation point carrying a large backpack.
The goblin players (business players) gathered near the intersection saw the orange cat boss and started to make a noise: "Come on, orange cat, you are already a big boss and you are still trying to steal our business?"
"You are a dignified knight lord, you are making more money from newbies than selling your brand."
"Doing business based on ability, what do you mean by robbing?" The orange cat boss laughed and retorted, "Don't worry, I don't think it's a bad sign!"
This group of goblin players set up a stall in an open space dozens of meters away from the birth point, laughing and joking. White steel knives that had been repaired many times, patched novice suits, "fashion" seized from NPCs, etc. were spread all over the ground.
When Yang Ying came in the morning, she saw the orange cat boss squatting outside the teleportation point to set up a stall. She went over to chat with her for a few words, and then took out the equipment she didn’t need for the time being and asked the orange cat to help her sell... After all, she was a semi-professional gold farmer, so she still had a lot of good stuff on her.
"Sister Ying, aren't you going to start a team today?" Seeing that Yang Ying had entrusted the equipment to him and was not about to leave and was still squatting beside him, the orange cat asked another question.
"Open it when it's getting dark in the game." Yang Ying said, "When new players come in, I'll see if I can recruit some apprentices. The master-apprentice system that was released yesterday is quite interesting."
In the 1.11 version updated online yesterday, the production team opened up the master-apprentice system. Although it is a bit incongruous to have a master-apprentice system in a Western fantasy-style game, Chinese players who are accustomed to the routines of domestic online games do not think that the style is wrong.
This master-apprentice system is actually a system used by Yang Qiu to motivate the enthusiasm of old players and allow the newbies in the third test to integrate into the environment earlier, avoid taking detours, or at least get killed less often by high-level NPCs...After the lessons of the first and second tests, Yang Qiu has come to understand how much this group of players love to commit suicide if they are not guided correctly.
It is not practical to expect old players to sacrifice their own gaming experience to bring in new players. The safest way is to use rewards as incentives: by bringing a new player at level 0 or 1 to the stage of job transfer, a large number of honor points from the Undead camp can be obtained.
The honor points of the undead camp are virtual currencies created by the magic network structure and can only be traded among players. Now that the core of the matrix has been changed from Yang Qiu's body to the magic network, there are many more ways to play with it than before.
In order to increase the recognition of this virtual currency that does not require a physical object, Yang Qiu specially created a projection of himself on the first floor of the Mage Tower and opened a long-term fixed honor store to players.
Players with honor points can exchange them for a large blue bottle for the undead, which is open for the first time and can be used by players of all professions to replenish their energy bars from this honor store (it is actually concentrated dark energy essence, which Yang Qiu rubbed while meditating) - there is only one such bottle in the entire game.
Every player can discover the value of this large blue bottle that can replenish the energy bar regardless of the profession... It is an indispensable item for monster-killing missions at home, travel, and when the team is about to be wiped out, the mage can use a bottle to save the team from the brink of death.
In addition, Yang Qiu also added additional ways to obtain honor points: completing tasks in monster battlefields (to allow players to actively train team battles), participating in large-scale battlefield tasks (to increase players' enthusiasm for participating in large-scale activities), completing world view breakthrough tasks (to ensure players' enthusiasm for regular tasks), and capturing red-named NPCs of certain value (to encourage players to capture instead of kill)... all can be obtained.
Yang Ying is a team leader. He has experienced countless team wipes in the game. He has encountered many situations such as the nurse having no blue to save people and the warrior having no rage to use defensive skills. He is very clear about the value of the big blue bottle and naturally thinks of getting honor points.
"It is indeed necessary to recruit a few apprentices to gain some honor points." The orange cat boss stroked his chin and said, "I don't know if there are any new players who like the goblin gameplay. If there are, I will recruit a few."
Yang Ying just smiled. Players who are not fond of business-based gameplay would find it difficult to play with the orange cat boss even if they knew his abilities.
"Isn't Boss Ou Yan here? He likes to play solo so much, why doesn't he save up some honor points to exchange for a big blue bottle?" Yang Ying asked.
The orange cat boss laughed and said self-deprecatingly: "If it is ten times harder for me to get a disciple than for you, do you believe that it will be ten times harder for Boss Ou to successfully get a disciple?"
This time Yang Ying couldn't hold back her laughter...
I have to say that Ou Yan is indeed a talented person - he acts cute in the forums, but in real life he just can't get along with others.
While they were chatting, more and more veteran players came online or teleported in from other places, set up stalls, or climbed onto the roof and squatted, waiting to watch the "game debut" of the new players in the third test.
These old players, who had at least experienced the grand occasion of the second test, were all very experienced... and they all kept a sufficient distance from the birth point to avoid being overwhelmed by the army of bones.
The goblin players who were setting up stalls dozens of meters away even asked others if they wanted to play a game of betting after a large number of people came in - betting on how many newbies who came in today would be killed offline within an hour.
"This group of newbies must have been hanging out on the forum for quite a while, right? I don't think there are many people as crazy and suicidal as our group." A second-test player said conservatively.
"You're overthinking it, buddy. It's not like you won't die in this game unless you try to commit suicide. At the beginning, none of my brothers and I had any intention of committing suicide. We were just playing the game honestly, and we were still killed by those NPCs in the tailor shop." Another second-test player objected.
The first test player laughed out loud: "Damn, that's not even courting death, is it okay to break into someone's store after dark and force them to buy or sell something?"
"Damn, who could have thought that NPC would close so early!"
"I feel like you all have overlooked one point. It's not a question of whether the newbie is seeking death or not, it's a question of whether the NPCs in Exile Town can be defeated..."
"Don't argue, place your bets. I bet at least five hundred newbies will die within an hour!"
"You really underestimate the efficiency of high-level NPCs in killing people. A novice is so fragile that he will die with just one touch. He can't even run away. I bet a thousand."
"Be more generous! Be more generous in your bet! I'm betting at least three thousand will die!"
"Fuck, then I'll bet five thousand!"
"Be steady, brother. How can we expect five thousand newbies to come in so early in the morning?"
Yang Ying felt at a loss whether to laugh or cry when looking at these veteran players who were betting on the survival rate of the newbies.
"It's time, it's time! Someone's coming!" an old player shouted, pointing in the direction of the birth point.
At exactly eight o'clock on Earth time, the dirt platform at the crossroads in the center of Exile Town was instantly flooded with white light and bare skeletons...
Because the real world cannot allow the skeletons controlled by players to "penetrate the model", Yang Qiu had to limit the login speed of the third test players, allowing only one hundred new players' anchor points to "enter the network" every minute, to avoid the situation where some unlucky people were squeezed to death at the birth point as soon as they came online.
The newbies who emerged from the mud in a daze and saw the real scene of the novice town of the "Alien World" game for the first time, before they had time to express their feelings, the system prompts frantically refreshed the screen and urged them to move out.
But even if Yang Qiu made preparations, there was no way to make these newcomers obedient... The fifth batch of players who were allowed to "join the network" had all logged in, but the first batch of newbies were still crowded around the platform and had not dispersed in time.
"Fuck! It's really a hologram! It's so real!" A newcomer took a few steps on his thin legs and was so excited by the real feeling of control that he lost control and yelled.
"Ahahaha! I'm a happy little skeleton too! Wahahahaha——!" The newbie who had posted countless prayer posts while waiting for the draw waved his arms and laughed wildly towards the sky.
There were also some impatient people who were squeezed to the ground before they had time to get excited and yelled: "I'm on the outside, please move out! The health bar is falling, people are going to be squeezed to death!"
"A good dog doesn't block the road! Get out of the way!"
Most people were willing to listen, and many newbies hurried out.
However, the speed of evacuation was obviously not as fast as the speed of new players logging in. After all, no matter whether the newly logged-in players were sports geniuses or idiots, they all had to go through a process of getting used to controlling the bodies of the undead... Soon, the intersection within a radius of 30 meters was crowded with people. The clusters of skeletons in the middle circle were all squeezed so tightly that they could not move, and new skeletons kept appearing on the earthen platform in the center.
“Ahahahaha! Yahahahaha—!”
The old players squatting on the roof or standing in the distance watching the fun pointed at the miserable newbies and laughed unscrupulously.
The veteran player who bet that only 500 of these newcomers would die within an hour pinched his thigh bone hard and said, "I miscalculated. I forgot to take into account the possibility of people being squeezed to death! Boss, can you not count those who were squeezed to death from the bet?"
"What are you dreaming about!" the goblin player who was the banker cursed unceremoniously.
...Yang Qiu, who was in charge of Exile Town, had to temporarily shut down the "network access" function of the Magic Network and let the newcomers who had not yet logged in wait for a while for the "login delay". Only then did he stabilize the situation after more than a dozen newcomers were squeezed out.
The 3,000 players in the second test caused a lot of trouble to the Exile Town at that time. Although the 29,000 players in the third test did not log in at the same time, only less than 10,000 players rushed into the game as soon as the login was opened, which instantly made the Exile Town lively.
Just as the second-test players had guessed, this group of newbies had already read through the experience posts on the forum before coming in. Except for a few special cases who were excited about such trivial things as seeing the world with their eyes and running with their feet, most of the newbies honestly followed the strategies of the veteran players to complete the newbie tasks.
Then... the street where the zombie NPC that distributed the novice suits was located was completely blocked...
"What the hell is this!"
"Fuck, I thought there would be fewer people in the morning so I could finish the novice missions quickly. Why are you guys so idle? Can you be a real person and go out shopping and date? Why are you competing with us otakus for playing games?"
There is only one zombie NPC who issues the quest for the novice set, and the quest items are limited. If the person in front takes the quest but doesn't quickly complete it and return the quest items, the people behind can only wait. This quest design is quite criticized, but this is the only welfare quest in the entire game where you can get the outer suit by just slacking off for ten minutes... Yang Qiu was too lazy to change it.
But... even if a round of tasks can be completed in ten minutes, with so many players queuing up, it is unknown how long they will have to wait, so it is inevitable that there will be competition among them. Soon, some impatient newbies started to take action.
The veteran players squatting on the roof not only had no intention of going down to help maintain order, but instead pointed at the newbies who were fighting and laughed so hard that they couldn't straighten their backs - the scene of the naked, equipmentless and skillless white-skulled characters PKing with their thin arms and legs was simply too funny; not to mention that many people hadn't even gotten used to controlling their skeleton bodies, and it was common for them to bump into walls or fall apart.
The veteran players who bet that only 500 newbies would hang up were almost crying: "You idiots, do you know how to settle accounts? If you queue up to receive tasks, you can just wait a little longer. If you hang up and get offline, you will waste an hour of game time!"
The angry new players didn't care about the reactions of the old players and continued the kindergarten-level fight...
The zombie NPCs were overwhelmed by the newcomers, and the situation for the high-level NPCs was not much better.
The first guilds to be attacked by the newcomers were the Warrior Guild and the Mage Guild (Exile Town Hall) - these players who had been to the forum knew that warriors and mages were popular as a team.
The current Warrior Guild is no longer led by the good-tempered Rex. It has long been replaced by a former thief who is the leader, assisted by two soldiers from the city defense force and a Sokri mercenary.
As for these four people... no matter what their original personalities were, they wouldn't have much patience left after spending a long time in Exile Town living with a bunch of undead.
The newbies had just witnessed the tragic scene of the zombie NPCs snatching tasks, and were afraid that they would also fall behind in tasks from the high-level NPCs. So they scrambled to squeeze into the Warrior Guild and pounced on the NPC issuing tasks in an attempt to get first... and then tragedy happened.
"How dare you be so rude--!" The warrior mentors who were faced with a large group of undead flew into a rage and drew their swords and knives.
Wherever the blade passes, there are patches of white light.
“What the hell?!” The newbies who just wanted to take the mission were all dumbfounded, “Are you crazy??”
The warrior instructor could understand what people said, and glared at them: "Newly born undead, you need to learn what courtesy is!"
The blade swept across again, and white light suddenly appeared again.
Seeing the newbies rushing to the front row being harvested like wheat by the warrior instructor , the other newbies hurriedly retreated to the back: "This is poisonous! Move away, move away, the NPCs here are mentally ill!"
“You still don’t repent!!” The warrior instructors who were scolded in front of each other one after another had veins on their foreheads and chased after him with their weapons in hand.
Before the newbies who were left behind could even reach the Warrior Guild, they saw several high-level NPCs with Warrior Instructors on their heads chasing the people in front of them out of the guild, with question marks on their faces: "What the hell? What happened?"
A clever guy peeked into the Warrior Guild and found that all the high-level NPCs were hunting down his compatriots. His eyes lit up immediately: "I'll join in! Here's my chance!"
This guy immediately jumped into the guild, followed the screenshots posted by the old players on the forum, and went to the warehouse where the Warrior Guild kept the quest items...
Just as this clever little guy sneaked into the Fighter Guild, the patrolling operator on the street trotted over here with an expressionless face...
"Don't, don't follow him in!" The newcomer was startled when he saw the patrol officer, and quickly grabbed his friend who wanted to follow the leader in to take advantage.
A group of four patrol operators stood in front of the gate of the Warrior Guild. Three of them stopped at the door and stared at the shivering newbie at the door, and one person went in.
Not long after, a not-so-noticeable white light came from the direction of the Warrior Guild warehouse...
The Mage Guild, which Yang Qiu is in charge of, is in a similar situation.
Other professional guilds have several mentor NPCs, but the Mage Guild only has one. Newbies who come here for the reputation of mages know that if they queue up here, they will be even more miserable than zombie NPCs, so they all rush into the town hall one by one...
Yang Qiu will not indulge these fellow Earthlings. Anyone who does not "interact" according to the experience of old players, does not know how to use the "interaction terms" summarized by old players, and does not know how to respect NPCs, will be sent offline one by one.
Anyone who entered the town hall and openly stole things in front of him, Lord Yang, would be killed without mercy - this kind of bad behavior of rummaging through boxes and cabinets in front of the owner must be corrected! Our game cannot encourage this kind of evil trend!
The mentor NPCs had a great time killing, and the operator NPCs were not idle either.
Tattle Joe, who came back specially to relieve stress... uh, took the initiative to apply for a temporary transfer back to assist in maintaining order in Exile Town, had just patrolled alone in Life Lane when he saw several naked undead squatting in front of the vegetable garden of the Chamber of Commerce cafeteria, pointing and talking.
"Can this game include a vegetable-growing mode? Are these grown by the players?" These newbies, who had temporarily given up their quest because there were too many people doing it and were wandering around the town, were curiously discussing the vegetables grown by Master Liu and Lao Geng in their spare time.
"Then can we play the stealing vegetables mode? Didn't they say that the voice of the Undead Chamber of Commerce can be exchanged for food? Can we exchange the reputation of the Chamber of Commerce by pulling out the vegetables?" Another clever kid offered an idea enthusiastically.
Many games have this kind of task routine, where you exchange the farmer's own crops for rewards. These newbies didn't feel anything was wrong at all, and immediately prepared to wreak havoc on the two old men's vegetable fields.
Without saying a word, Tuttle Joe raised his right hand and touched his back from above his shoulder.
This time, he didn't touch the lonely one... He was originally here to help maintain law and order, and was allowed to bring a bow.
Tattle Joe smoothly pulled out the longbow from behind, and with a touch of emotion, he drew the bow at the newbie who climbed over the fence of the vegetable garden.
Four arrows were fired in quick succession, and the four newbies, who had no idea what had attacked them, turned into white light and died tragically.
Satisfied, Tuttle Joe put away his longbow and continued his patrol happily.
After walking for a while... he saw a few newbies hanging around the back door of the blacksmith shop.
These new players had indeed read the experience posts of the old players and knew that they would be hacked to death if they were discovered doing bad things by the NPC, so they were very cautious - one person kept watch, one squatted at the door of the blacksmith shop to observe the position of the blacksmith NPC, and the other sneaked up to the shovel next to the coal pile.
The shovel used by the blacksmith is large and heavy, and is totally unsuitable for use by the undead. If it were an experienced player who is familiar with the power of the undead race, they would never even look at this big thing... Unfortunately, the newbie doesn't know this detail.
When Tuttle saw the three newbies trying to cause trouble, the newbie who was watching actually saw him as well.
After all, the Life Lane is quite spacious, and most of the newcomers online are gathered with the zombie NPCs or the guilds, so there are almost no people on the road.
The new lookout estimated that Tuttle was several dozen meters away from the blacksmith shop. His eyes only stayed on him for a moment before he turned away and continued to stare at the surroundings of the blacksmith shop vigilantly...
From the player's perspective, the newcomer's reaction was not outrageous - after all, according to the experience of regular game players, the patrol NPC's alert range was usually not that far, so there was no need to worry too much if they didn't get close.
For players of regular games, isn't it a common occurrence to sneak past the noses of red-named NPCs?
Tuttle silently raised his hand to draw the bow, smoothly put the arrow on it, and pulled the bowstring.
The new lookout, who was shot dead from a distance of more than 60 meters, stared at Tuttle's direction in confusion before turning into white light...
“Is the NPC alert range in this game so exaggerated?! It’s too outrageous!!”
