The Boss Behind The Game

After they failed the bid to win the coveted item during the auction, many European server players undoubtedly felt upset about it.

The trend in the game's current stage was showing that there would definitely be a cross-server battle in the near future.

The Land of Cangxu was very near to the Land of Beiqi, so they would definitely have interactions with each other during the later stages as well. As such, the players in the European server faced the huge problem of how they should make up the three-month disparity when they tried to gain the upper hand against the players from the original server.

With this kind of foresight, many European server guilds united together. They started to discuss a strategy for their future counterattack.

When the cross-server auction ended this time, many European server players suddenly noticed a number of professional players turning up in their forum.

Every day, they would publish several strategy posts to guide the growth of new players.

The most important thing was that these strategy posts were not just some general guesses. Instead, they could definitely be used practically to steer themselves in the right direction in the game.

For example:

[Demonstration of setting up traps in the wild. There are eighteen types of traps, suitable to be used in various kinds of environments. This is an essential strategy post to level-up by killing monsters and attacking lone rangers!]

[A practical demonstration of a Knight taming various kinds of living creatures in the wild. A knight who has no mount is soulless! (A Knight who has a mount can obtain a 30% increase of abilities!)]

[The detailed explanation of the Sea of Bones strategy of a Necromancer, how to deal damage and protect yourself simultaneously!]

[Barbarian, a set of techniques that could kill the enemy within a second during the early stage of this burst damage-type character class!]

...

The consecutive appearances of these professional gamers led to the development of the European server in many aspects, upgrading the gameplay to another level.

At this present stage, there were two legendary players in the European server's forum.

One of them was Mad_Knife_Style (Li Xing), the leader of the Zero Guild who was already very famous in the European server. The other was Reinhardt, who had been named the first legendary player. He was initially unknown to the public, but had demonstrated his extremely strong innate skills in Battle Online.

These two players were respected by many European Server players.

Aside from their own powerful abilities, they constantly published strategy posts in the forum, helping a lot of players who encountered problems when raiding lands in the early stages.

Reinhardt, who was currently the strongest player, received an invitation from the Zero Guild after the auction ended.

After giving it much thought, Reinhardt, who never intended to establish a guild in the first place, decided to join this well-established guild instead.

After all, joining the Zero Guild was a very good way to increase the overall strength of the European server.

And in his memory, the Zero Guild would be very strong in later stages of Battle Online. Besides the guild-stabilizing funding support from Jason, the server's first real tycoon, they also had many experienced players with powerful techniques.

The leader Li Xing was especially powerful. Despite the increasing number of players in the later stage, his individual strength would always be within the top ten in the entire region. During the inter-server skills tournament, he would even be placed within the top ten in the Versus Arena that was dominated by the original players.

However, after seeing Li Xing, Reinhardt felt that something was not quite right.

He was planning to mention the importance of the European server's development to Li Xing. However, before he could open his mouth, Li Xing took the initiative to discuss with him on how they could increase the development speed of the European server, asking his opinions on the matter.

This seemed a little incredible to Reinhardt. The present Li Xing was totally different from the leader of the Zero Guild in his memory.

However, Reinhardt only treated it as an insignificant butterfly effect that he had caused, and didn't think much more of it.

...

Land of Cangxu, Hidden Dragon Village.

Hundreds of players wearing black armor assembled, discussing how they should expand their forces and territory.

At this time, the guild leader, Li Xing, gazed at Reinhardt, "Number one legendary player, do you have any ideas? If we don't expand our territory and only depend on the resources around the Hidden Dragon Marsh, we won't have enough resources to use at all!"

Reinhard nodded upon hearing this. He then looked at the burly, bald-headed man with deep blue eyes, "Jason, you still have 450,000 soul coins with you, right? Are you planning to return those soul coins to the other guilds or use them for your own purpose?"

The bald-headed man named Jason was silent for a moment before he spoke.

"I bought these 450,000 soul coins from different guilds based on the ratio promised, so these soul coins completely belong to me now. Aside from spending some of them to establish our guild, I was planning to purchase some high-level equipment and spiritual material resources with what's remaining. This is because I gained some information from the other server that we need many spiritual materials in the later stages of character class growth, especially when the naval battles start!"

Reinhardt's eyes were shining as he listened, "Jason, I have a suggestion... if you dare to give it a try, perhaps we can gain innumerable resources!"

Reinhardt's words instantly aroused the curiosity of all the people present. Everyone looked up at him, waiting for him to explain in detail.

"Tell us about it... if it works, of course I'm willing to spend these soul coins to try. But what's your idea?" asked Jason doubtfully.

"It's quite simple. Use all the 450,000 soul coins to build a guild-level warship!" suggested Reinhardt enthusiastically.

Upon hearing this, the people present went into an uproar. They felt that Reinhardt's idea was too unrealistic. They hadn't even started any land development yet, let alone marine forces.

However, his words caught Li Xing's attention.

"Reinhardt, you mean to build the best warship currently in the game, go to the Void Ocean and plunder the resources from the players of the original server?"

"That's right!"

"A warship made from 450,000 soul coins… no one has a warship at this level yet. As long as this warship is built, when we arrive at the Void Ocean, we wouldn't have to be afraid of any of the warships of the other players at all! We could plunder their resources thoroughly if we encountered them one by one. Did you know that items from the players' personal channel would explode at random when players from different servers kill each other? In that case, we could have a huge development just by depending on the resources taken from the players of the original server!"

"What if we are surrounded?" one of the players could not help asking.

"First and foremost, a warship built using 450,000 soul coins would have a much higher sailing speed compared to those other warships. Besides, we should naturally expect situations like these when plundering resources. However, the harvest is plentiful. Whether it works or not, it all depends on how you think about it," Reinhardt reassured.

Everyone was lost in their own thoughts after listening to Reinhardt's words.

However, they could not deny that plundering resources was in fact a good expansion path indeed, but none of them were certain about whether it was appropriate to spend 450,000 soul coins in one go to build this super-warship.

"I think it could work!" Li Xing gave his opinion. Then, he turned his head to look at Jason.

Jason met the guild leader's gaze and blushed in embarrassment. He raised his hand after giving it some thoughts.

"Does anyone have any other suggestion? If you don't, I'll spend all these soul coins on building the warship!"

None of the people objected, so Jason eventually decided to spend all 450,000 soul coins in exchange for a super-warship!

After this decision was made, hundreds of Zero Guild members headed toward the ocean. They planned to start the development in advance by relying on the warship's power.

...

However, as the European server had only just started, there were not many spiritual materials in the Transaction Center. They were unable to buy enough spiritual materials even if they were willing to offer a high price for it.

Nonetheless, this was not a big problem.

Jason directly opened the Cross-Server Transaction Center. He started to mop up various types of spiritual materials from the original server by paying a premium price of 10% for the procedure fees.

They had to admit that the other server's spiritual material market was huge. Even after spending all their soul coins in there, they could only collect a very small part of it. They did not affect the market even one bit.

Soon after, they bought a guild-level warship in the shop. They started to feed the warship continuously by the sea, planning to build the best warship among all the servers.

After a discussion between Li Xing, Jason, and Reinhardt, they decided to cultivate it toward the direction called a calamity form. The specified increase in the toughness and speed of the warship could be used against the opposing warships.

After half a day, a Level 12 giant warship the size of an aircraft carrier appeared on the Eastern Ocean of the Land of Cangxu.

The data in its Attributes Menu was the highest among all the warships in the present stage.

[ZEero (Level 12 Calamity Form Specter Warship)]: Evolved by consuming a large amount of spiritual materials. 354 yards long, 301 yard waterline, 95.5 yards wide, 13.5 yard draft.

Attributes description: Toughness Level 13, Sailing Speed Level 12 (There are 24 levels altogether in ascending order).

Ability description: Spiritual energy cannons (30 pieces), Armored Impact, Consume and Plunder, Free Sailing, Realm of Storm, Deep Sea Movement, Wrath of the Zero Guild (exclusive).

[Spiritual energy cannons (30 pieces)]: A spiritual weapon used in long-range attacks, refill soul coins as energy before every attack (players have to control and aim, high level of difficulty).

Energy Refill Message: This warship is equipped with spiritual energy cannons, its energy refill can be split into six stages, which are:

Level 1 Spiritual Energy Bullet: 5 soul coins per shot.

Level 2 Spiritual Energy Bullet: 10 soul coins per shot.

Level 3 Spiritual Energy Bullet: 20 soul coins per shot.

Level 4 Spiritual Energy Bullet: 50 soul coins per shot.

Level 5 Spiritual Energy Bullet: 150 soul coins per shot.

Level 6 Spiritual Energy Bullet: 500 soul coins per shot.

[Armored Impact (Level 3)]: Speed increases by 100% in 20 minutes, toughness of the ship increases by two levels, cooldown time is 5 hours.

[Free Sailing (Level 3 Passive)]: In non-battle state, sailing speed increases by 20% (this state disappears when entering a battle).

[Consume and Plunder (Level 1 passive)]: All warships bombarded and sunk by the Zero Guild in naval battle would lose 1% of their total experience points. This loss will be converted to the Zero Guild's Warship by leveling-up their experience points.

[Realm of Storm (Level 1)]: An ocean storm will occur within one nautical mile with the warship that cast the spell at its center. Enemy warships nearer to the center region will suffer greater damage and effects. (This warship remains in a state of territorial exemption after the ability is activated.) Duration is 30 minutes, cooldown time is 24 hours.

[Deep Sea Movement (special)]: This warship will be submerged underwater after activating this ability. Sailing speed reduces by 50%. A protection circle will be formed under this state and the internal members will not be affected. Duration is 3 hours, cooldown time is 48 hours.

[Wrath of the Zero Guild (exclusive)]: The spirit of the Zero Guild's Warship will be summoned into a spiritual battle. Duration is 30 minutes, cooldown time is 24 hours (The higher the level of the warship, the greater the strength of the Zero Guild's spirit!)

...

The appearance of this warship lifted the spirits of all the Zero Guild members.

Especially since they had gained the Deep Sea Movement and the Consume and Plunder abilities from the cultivation this time. To them, these two abilities were quite suitable in helping them carry out their subsequent missions.

One ability enabled this warship to utilize the experience points consumed from the enemy's warship whenever they were bombarded and sunk to develop itself. The other ability enabled them to move under the water and escape from the enemy's encirclement. The combination of these two were the best skills for guerrilla warfare.

Looking at the giant warship in front of him, Li Xing waved his hand.

"Everyone, board the warship and get ready to start plundering!"