Volume 3 Containment Operation Chapter 14 The First Pot of Gold
Because the "Four Continents Elite Challenge" will be held on December 1st, and the method adopted is for players to vote to nominate contestants, the recommendation activities of various continents are in full swing. Although it is currently only in the nomination candidate stage, there are already a hundred schools of thought and everyone has expressed their own opinions, making it the hottest topic of discussion.
Although the specific reward method for winning has not been announced, being qualified to represent the entire continent is already an incomparable honor, proving that one's strength is recognized by most players. If one can perform outstandingly in the challenge, his reputation will spread to other continents and be recognized by all players in "Tianxia". Whether for fame or profit, many players who think they have the strength to be selected are rubbing their hands, promoting themselves in the game in various ways, increasing their popularity, and launching a vigorous campaign to canvass votes. As many players privately spread, it is the public who votes anyway, as long as there are many people who recommend you, it means you have strength. Even if you are truly "the best in the world", if there are no players recommending you, you still cannot be selected. You have to deserve the title!
The most publicity-oriented way is "Sky Media". Creating some news to attract the attention of reporters and accepting interviews to get a chance to show up in the spotlight has become the most direct and effective way of advertising. In a short time, the entire Eastern Continent was in flames of war. Challenging monsters that others dare not provoke, proving one's strength through fighting, being able to do what others cannot, and becoming the first person to dare to take the lead, in order to attract the attention of "Sky Media" reporters and get a chance to be in the limelight; and some difficult and low-paying unpopular tasks of the mercenary guild suddenly became popular and were swept away by players... All of this is for one purpose, to gain public recognition and become a major candidate for the contestant.
Of course, there is one thing that is not clearly stipulated, but it will definitely be a default condition. The selected candidates must be promoted to the fourth-level profession. I am not looking for fame, but I heard that the contestants can get bonuses, which is more attractive to me. I have been playing the game for more than three months, but I am still penniless and cannot support myself. It really makes me anxious. As the first person to change jobs in "Tianxia" and a main member of the champion team of the "Tianxia Hero Conference" team competition for two times, I am also very likely to be selected. It just so happens that my qualifications also meet the requirements, so it is natural that I have to advance to the advanced necromancer.
After resurrection, I appeared in my room in the base. Just as I walked out of the door and prepared to go to the Forest of the Dead to find Old Mason for advancement, Xue Wuxia suddenly contacted me, "A-Dai, where are you now?"
"I just resurrected from the 'Dead Space' and am now in my room at the station."
"That's great. I'll come to the meeting area in the lobby right away. I need to discuss something with you."
I agreed, hung up the call, and walked downstairs. It was strange. I heard from Afeng that everyone was busy leveling up these two days and didn't take on any mercenary missions. How could I be of any use? It didn't sound like a full-staff meeting. I didn't know what it was about.
"Oh, so Brother Long is here too, what a rare guest." There were only two people in the meeting area, one was Xue Wuxia, and the other was Long Xingtianxia. This surprised me quite a bit. According to his schedule, he should be busy completing the task of forming a mercenary group. How come he has time to come to our Tongxin Alliance?
"Hello, A-Dai!" Long Xingtianxia greeted me with a smile.
I found a seat and sat down, looking at the two of them. It seemed that they came to me because of Long Xing Tian Xia. Could it be that they encountered some trouble in the process of completing the task and wanted to ask me to help?
"Do you have any ongoing tasks now?" Xue Wuxia spoke first.
"No, what's wrong? Is there anything?" I shook my head. I was just about to do the promotion task, but it hadn't started yet.
"Oh, we have something we would like to ask Brother A-Dai for help with, so we asked Captain Xue to contact you." Long Xingtianxia said.
" Aren't you guys currently completing the task of forming a mercenary group? Is there anything I can help with?" I was a little surprised. Considering their wealth and power, even if it wouldn't be easy, it shouldn't be that difficult either.
"We have completed the first two tasks and are now preparing to carry out the third task of killing a level 5 monster and obtaining the magic crystal core. I would like to ask for your help."
"With the strength of your team, although level 5 monsters are powerful, killing one should not be a problem." The overall strength of players has improved a lot compared to ours, and there are more pets to help in battle. As long as we send out dozens of experts, we can definitely deal with level 5 monsters.
"You have killed level 5 monsters before, and you know the dangers very well. The Dark Forest is full of dangers. If you want to sneak into the battle site smoothly, you must rely not only on strength, but also on luck. It is inevitable that some people will be lost. Another thing is the staffing. In terms of strength alone, dozens of masters should be able to kill one, but if a level 5 monster is determined to escape in the middle of the battle, it is difficult to set up a tight encirclement to prevent it from escaping with fewer people. Yamato Spirit and his team suffered a great loss at the beginning. The first ambush was not carried out by enough people and the monster escaped. The second time, they hired a large number of people to participate, but it attracted other monsters to join the battle and failed again. It was not until the third time that they succeeded, which took a lot of effort. The same was true for the later Ganges War God. In order to kill the level 5 monster, they all paid a great price. Although our strength has improved to a certain extent now than it was then, it is not an easy task to complete the task easily."
"Easily accomplished? From what Brother Long said, could it be that he wants to create news in an alternative way?" Considering the various hype events that have emerged recently, I suddenly guessed Long Xingtianxia's intention.
"That's right!" Long Xingtian nodded. "Virtual reality is actually very similar to reality. If you want to attract people's attention, you need to promote and hype it up. This 'Four Continents Elite Challenge' is a good opportunity for the winners and their forces to expand their influence. Yamato Spirit, Hua Mantian, Ganges War God, Goryeo Warrior and others have spared no effort to create all kinds of news, frequently appearing in Tian Media to seek public support. The whole world is drunk, and we don't want to pretend to be noble, so we are naturally unwilling to lag behind. No matter what, we must strive to ensure that Chinese players occupy most of the places for the contestants."
"But we have already killed several level five monsters. How can we make news? Are we the only ones planning to do it?" I just said it casually, but I saw Long Xingtianxia nodded, as if he agreed with me. I couldn't help but be surprised, "Are we really the only two?" Challenging a level five monster is no joke, not to mention that you have to successfully sneak into the dark forest first. Doing so is really dangerous and is simply gambling with your life.
"Oh, that's not entirely true. There are four people in my plan, you, me, Xiaobai and Gaoge. Four players successfully killed a level 5 monster. This should be considered sensational news."
I couldn't help but make a bitter face. Although this was indeed a good idea to attract public attention, the risk was too great. I was already famous enough, and it seemed unnecessary to create such a fuss to increase my popularity.
"Of course, this is a task that we need to complete, and we can't trouble you for nothing, so I've prepared three thousand gold coins as a service fee as a token of my appreciation." While speaking, a banknote for three thousand gold coins was placed in front of me. Card-to-card transfer transactions can only be carried out in some specific places. In order to facilitate players to make large purchases at any time, banknotes become a good supplement.
"Well... I'll help you, but please don't ask for any compensation. This is embarrassing." I thought it was voluntary work but I could get so much money. I was immediately tempted, but I couldn't appear too greedy. I still had to be polite for the sake of face.
"You're welcome," Long Xing Tianxia smiled slightly, "This is what we should pay. If we complete the task in the usual way, we will have to pay even more. Now we only hire you, so we still make a profit. This is also the rule of the game. Friendship is friendship, and remuneration is remuneration. If we let you work for free, we won't be able to ask for help again if we encounter problems in the future."
I glanced at Xue Wuxia, "Sister Wuxia, look at this..." After all, I am a member of the Tongxin Alliance. Now that I am about to accept an offer from an outsider, I should seek her opinion out of courtesy.
"Don't ask me. This is your personal matter. Brother Long is our friend. You can make your own decision. The group is not allowed to express opinions. But I personally think..." Xue Wuxia paused, deliberately keeping the secret, "You can both become famous and make money. There is no reason to miss such a good opportunity."
"In fact, this time we have to rely mainly on your undead troops to contain the monsters. It is estimated that there will be a lot of losses in this battle. Besides, you and I have already been famous, and we estimate that the chances of being selected are very high. This additional thing is just icing on the cake. The main thing is to create momentum for Xiaobai and Gaoge and further improve their popularity and increase their chances of being selected. You must accept this reward for both moral and legal reasons." Long Xingtianxia was even more frank about their selfish motives.
This gave me another chance, and I had no intention of refusing, so I readily agreed and accepted the money. Three thousand gold coins, after deducting personal income tax and other expenses, could be exchanged for more than 2,000 euros, equivalent to 20,000 RMB, enough to live for a few months. This was the first pot of gold I made in Tianxia, and it was worth it no matter how dangerous it was.
I arrived at the meeting place with Long Xingtianxia. In addition to Bai Yunjian and Bajiugaoge, there was actually one more person present - Long Piaopiao, the big reporter. She was wearing sportswear and carrying a backpack. It seemed that she was going to set off with us. This was not an outing, so why was she joining us?
"Do you want to go into the Dark Forest with us to kill monsters?" He greeted her first and asked the question with a smile.
"Yeah, what's the matter? Do you have any opinion?" Reporter Long's voice was gentle, but there was murderous intent behind his words.
"Piaopiao will be working with us, preparing to film the entire battle process and report on it. The four hidden professional players will join forces to challenge the level five Warcraft. If everything goes well, it will definitely become a classic." Bai Yunjian made a timely explanation to help me out. After a few days of interacting with each other, he and Afeng established a good relationship, and the two of us also eliminated our prejudices. I felt that except that he was a little slick and loved to joke around, he was actually not a bad person.
"Of course. Without my personal follow-up report, how can I convince people that it was really you four who did it?"
"Don't worry about her. Warcraft will not actively attack reporters. We just need to think about how to fight and just pretend she doesn't exist." Long Xingtianxia stared at her and spoke rather impolitely.
"Hmph, did I ask you to protect me? You're so arrogant. Be careful not to get killed by the monster. It would be funny if it turned into 'overestimating their own abilities, four players dared to challenge the level five monster and were wiped out'." Long Piaopiao retorted. The two of them glared at each other, neither of them giving in, like a pair of enemies fighting each other.
"Okay, okay, stop talking and hurry up to take action." Bajiu Gaoge came out hurriedly to smooth things over and took the lead to walk into the dark forest.
Based on the information we learned and the on-site investigation, the target this time is still the three-headed flame wolf. I have already ambushed it once, so I am familiar with it and know how to deal with it. The chance of success is much greater. After all, it is not for the purpose of being a hero, but for the need of publicity. Not only do we have to win, but we also need to win beautifully. It is better to do what is familiar than to do what is new.
I have been to many places here and am familiar with the environment. Besides, my experience is much better than it was then. Unless Long Piaopiao runs into a monster directly, there will be no danger. The three of Long Xingtianxia are experienced and have conducted in-depth reconnaissance beforehand, so we successfully avoided all kinds of monsters along the way and arrived at the place of the last ambush.
My Undead Legion was only responsible for fighting the front battles and preventing the Three-Headed Flame Wolf from escaping, while Long Xingtianxia played a diversionary role on the side. The main force in the battle was Bai Yunjian and Bajiugaoge. This was also what Long Piaopiao focused on reporting, and this was also the purpose of the publicity. Now that Long Xingtianxia and I have taken the credit, how can we increase their popularity?
I used the "Summoning of the Undead" twice. In order to save time, I naturally needed the three of them to contribute their mental strength, so that they could also experience the power of the artifact firsthand. The strange feeling of "sucking essence and devouring marrow" was so strong that even Long Xingtianxia couldn't help but frown. As for Bai Yunjian, who donated the most, he made a bitter face and put on an exaggerated look.
Since they didn't need to be the main force in the battle, I didn't use Old Zombies and Phosphorus. I only summoned out more than 300 zombies and skeleton archers, and scattered them in ambush all around. As long as they hide their bodies and don't move around, they won't be attacked.
Long Piaopiao is the most relaxed person among us. Unless she is extremely unlucky and encounters a few extremely bloodthirsty monsters that will attack all targets she sees, she doesn't need to worry about her safety at all. As soon as she arrived at the scheduled battle site, she was busy looking for a suitable place to place tools, ready to shoot the wonderful battle scene later. From time to time, I saw her repeatedly changing and adjusting the shooting position because she was not satisfied with it. Her work attitude is meticulous and very serious. Bai Yunjian secretly told me that Karenna from the Western Continent once filmed the battle between a player and a level 3 monster and made a wonderful report. Long Da reporter's action this time is also intended to compete with it, so naturally he has to be more cautious.
