Sword Among Us

Panda Novel

The meeting gained a tense atmosphere.

“Aside from developing more faction members with high-tier martial arts, Happy also wishes for us to summon and organize the people who don’t have a lot of interest in practicing martial arts. He asked us to gather funds so that we can help them switch their jobs to those focusing on life skills, such as merchants, herbalists, tailors, and ironsmits.

“From now on, those jobs focusing on life skills will definitely become more important, and if we want to become a top-tier sect that can stand among those at the top along with having our names ring through the game, we must make preparations.”

“That’s right.” Bai Lang nudged his glasses up and swept his gaze over the group. “I did some research, and the attributes of our gear and weapons can be increased. Each gear can have its attributes increased four times, and each increase is called an echelon. Every single time we do this, there will be a note behind the equipment or weapon that states that the attributes have been increased 20%.

“After we increased those attributes four times, it will mean that the equipment or weapon had its attributes increased by 80% from its original stats. Normal weapons will be upgraded to masterpieces, and a normal masterpieces will be upgraded to top-grade masterpieces.

“Even though most of the ironsmiths at the current stage can only increase one echelon, I believe that this will definitely become a trend in the future. If Beautiful Robes Faction wants to have its weapons and armor receive increases in their attributes, then we must have a certain number of ironsmiths and tailors in the faction.”

Tea Words spoke up then, his voice stern. “You don’t have to worry too much about that. I have a few brothers in class who linger around the mines every single day. Aside from using Green-eyed Rats as training in the mines, they simply dig out the metal to sell and make money. They’ve developed their career quite well.”

Soon, Glutinous Rice also pitched in and said that there were quite a number of girls who were addicted to the game after becoming fond of making clothes. She said that she would choose a ripe time and ask them to join the sect.

“It’ll be more difficult for herbalists, because their resources are uncertain. It’s also more troublesome to lure away Bloodsucking Grass. There’s also Bloodsucking Wood around the higher-grade herbs. It’s very dangerous.”

“It’s not a huge problem. We’ll set a rule in the faction stating that all our members should learn how to pick herbs and have a small hoe on themselves at all times. When we wander around the lands, we should take the herbs when we see them. With all of our abilities, it’ll be very easy for us to handle the Bloodsucking Grass. I’ll clear up a storage house so that we can keep our herbs in there and provide resources for our herbalists to level up.”

“I’m okay with it.”

“Sure!”

The group agreed on the matter since it did not take much time to learn a life skill, and the hoe did not take up much space. It would not be too troublesome to pick up herbs while they went on with their daily level-grinding.

“By the way, faction master, just who is Happy in our university? Have you ever seen him? He sure works hard to remain a mystery,” NotaRascal said in a half-joking matter.

Everyone became attentive once more.

Since Happy was the one who took the initiative to make the suggestion, could it mean that the he and Phoenix Dances had already come into close contact with each other?

When Phoenix Dances heard this, she glared at the Three Lonely Wolves in annoyance. “Why don’t you ask them?”

NotaRascal instantly fell silent, but he went off to criticize them in his head nonstop.

‘Who do you think the Three Lonely Wolves are? They’re completely merciless to men, but they show every possible mercy to women! If I ask, I’ll definitely only hear about morals, justice, ethics, beliefs, and all that rehearsed talk. I can even predict what will happen using my TOES! I won’t do something so stupid.’

“Happy doesn’t want to be bothered for the time being. Stop trying to get to the bottom of this. If he wants us to know, he will naturally let us know.” After saying that, Chen Fan automatically diverted the topic. “Also, he mentioned something about setting up a contribution point system in the faction. From now on, all those who help the faction obtain items during events will obtain contribution points, and the ones with the highest contribution points will obtain priority in choosing items from the faction’s treasury. If any faction member offers up items, those with high contribution points will also have priority in buying them!

“Happy also suggested to open up a high-tier martial art manual supply line, so that from now on, the high-tier martial art manuals he provides could be bought using the silver stored in the faction store. The faction members will have to use their contribution points to exchange for silver required for those manuals.”

Everyone in the group was moved by those words!

“Not bad!”

“How can we get those contribution points?”

“By joining the events organized by the faction. You can also get them using in-game money or by offering equipment and weapons. We’ll give the players contribution points based on the market price when it comes to items. Faction members can get one contribution point for one hundred taels of silver crumbs.”

“This is a good method! If a member doesn’t have enough contribution points, they can use the faction as a pawnshop, haha…”

“Happy thought of this method? I think it’ll actually work.”

“Yup, it’ll be easy for us to stir up motivation among our faction members along with their enthusiasm in attending faction events.”

Phoenix Dances smiled faintly. “I think so too. I said this a long time ago: Happy should have been the faction master. He has a good head on his shoulders.”

“Don’t be so certain. Happy might look ugly, or he’s not someone who can control and lead a group of people in reality— Urk, this is just an off-hand comment. Please don’t tell him I said this,” NotaRascal said without thinking to flatter Phoenix Dances before he suddenly realized that what he said could easily offend Happy, and he quickly changed his tune to save the situation.

“We know who’s going to pay for supper now.” Puffy God patted his loose tummy with an underlying meaning in his words.

Everyone ignored Puffy and Rascal’s dialogue, which sounded like they were engaged in a comedic act, and Bai Lang cleared his throat.

“Yesterday, Happy contributed one million and five hundred taels of silver crumbs to the faction to kickstart the system!” He paused for a moment, and under the group’s shocked gazes, he continued to say, “But he did put some conditions. We are not to use this money as we please. He asked us to buy a high-tier body fortification technique and high-tier lightness skill that might appear in the market. We can keep whatever remains of the money in the faction’s store.”

“Why should we keep it in the store?”

“Happy said that high-tier martial art manuals will increase exponentially in the upcoming days, and we should make the best use of our time and practice our martial arts as well as explore unknown maps. If we need any money, we can use our equipment in exchange for contribution points, and we can use those contribution points in exchange for money while we keep our equipment in the store. We will see who needs it, and once the items in the store accumulate, we can swiftly form the trading circle within the faction.”

“As expected of our big boss.” NotaRascal only registered what was said after a long while.

One million and five hundred thousand taels of silver crumbs was practically equivalent to 100,000 RMB in reality. This money to kickstart the contribution point system might not be as much as what the large organizations put in, but to a group of university students, it was incredibly unusual and valuable.

However, based on Phoenix Dances’ data, no one found it strange.

If Happy could sell twenty or so martial art manuals in the market, it meant that he had already earned more than four million taels of silver crumbs from trading them. He clearly did not have any problems with his source of income. Even if he gave up a portion of his wealth, he could easily get it back through the contribution points he got.

Xu Yao was the only one who did not say a single word among the people around the table. She listened to everything quietly, unable to break free of the shock she felt even after a long time had passed.

As someone who had some degree of understanding toward gaming guilds, she believed that Happy, who was a mysterious player and kept a low profile, did not just have power and intellect, but also a charm that normal players did not have.

If this sort of person truly wanted to make Beautiful Robes Faction develop into a great sect… he might actually succeed!

For a time, complicated emotions swirled in Xu Yao’s eyes. A feeling of urgency rose in her heart, and she realized that she had to immediately find Happy.

He was a person with great charm and abilities! His vision was incredibly far-sighted, and he was a young man who did not want to lay low and live peacefully! What exactly was he doing right then? What was he planning?!