The Legendary Mechanic

Twenty days had passed since the start of Sanctuary Three's construction.

The West City Area and North City Area of Graymetal Ruins had been modified into temporary sanctuary areas with the completed basic layout, including walls, power plants, residential areas, electricity network, and all the basic facilities.

Han Xiao's [Sanctuary Three] main storyline mission that had thirteen construction requirements and a three month target now only had three uncompleted.

There were still ten days until one month—he would easily complete it within the period.

In that case, the mission would be completed sixty days in advance. According to the multiplier, the reward would be multiplied six times!

There was no such thing as too much experience for Han Xiao; he would never let such an opportunity slip through his fingers.

What would be completed within a month was only the basic layout. The overall requirement of the main storyline mission [Sanctuary Three] was to build a completed sanctuary three, so there was still a long way to go.

The good thing was, once the progress followed the right path, he did not have to care too much about the construction anymore. However, he had never actually cared anyway.

With Huang Yu's help, it was easy for Han Xiao.

For the sake of more credit, Huang Yu was extremely diligent to showcase his usefulness so that by the time reward were distributed according to the amount of contributions one had made, he would receive a lot of credit.

The assistant whom Bennett had sent was indeed quite capable. At least, Han Xiao had been satisfied with Huang Yu's efficiency till now; he took care of everything very well.

The only bad thing about it was that Huang Yu was a man, not pleasing to the eye at all.

As the saying goes, when there's something to do, the secretary will do it; when there's nothing to do, do the secretary.

Han Xiao had only heard of that saying. Unfortunately, he had never been part of it. He still remembered the owner of the small store below his house. The single old man that kept telling him how many CEOs he knew and how sexy their secretaries were. For the sake of the five percent off that Han Xiao received, he did not expose those lies.

The single old owner had dreamt of the luxurious lifestyle full of women, and in his eyes, even a fart from a beautiful lady had a flower-like fragrance. Every time he talked to Han Xiao about this topic, Han Xiao would always show his contempt and tell the owner that this was not a noble lifestyle one should wish for—it would be better for the owner to refill his stocks and stop buying fake instant noodles. Every time that Han Xiao ate the instant noodles bought from him, there were no seasoning packages, and he had to chew them dry!

Anyway, other than the assistant not being pleasant to the eyes, everything else in the sanctuary was going well.

According to the discussion on the forums, there were currently 60,000 players working in Sanctuary Three; it was livelier than a street market.

There were about 130,000 to 150,000 players in the entire Southern Continent, so almost half had gathered in Sanctuary Three. Its popularity was not hard to imagine.

There were a lot of players but only a little more than 2,000 wanderer residents. With the harsh environment of Karst, there were not many wanderers.

To achieve the 'Players' Main City' plan. there had to be enough number of NPCs to provide functionalities to the city. The [Sanctuary] main storyline missions could only attract the players for so long, and as soon as the sanctuary was completed, the players would all be gone if there was nothing to attract them to stay.

All good things must come to an end.

Han Xiao wanted the players to be attracted to the sanctuary.

Therefore, he had to largely increase the residents of the sanctuary, and with more important people like Emerald Grass to provide unique functions, the sanctuary would provide more uses to the players.

The most direct way to increase the population was to migrate people from other large colonies. Han Xiao thought of Lu Cheng, Alumera, and such right away, he put this all into consideration.

…

Clank!

Metal finger blades and a retractable knife clashed and pushed against each other. The weapon vibrated and made squeaking sounds.

In the small empty square, Frenzied Sword, who had metal claws on his arms, was fighting with Hao Tian, who waved the retractable knife. Bun-hit-dog watched the two pro players spar, but he did not record due to privacy reasons.

Further away, Han Xiao leaned against the recliner chair casually and observed their fight.

Both Frenzied Sword and Hao Tian were pro players, and to hone their skills, they instantly agreed to spar with each other. After sparring once, it was like a fire that could not be put out. They sparred dozens of times a day. The professional league was drawing close, and the pro players had to prepare for it.

Between LV 20 to 40 was the time when PVP was most popular. PVP between players could be seen all around the sanctuary, and it negatively impacted the security measures.

Han Xiao immediately gave an order that sparring was not allowed in the safe areas within the sanctuary, but they could go to the ruins if they wanted to fight each other, and no one would care. If they went there, they might even help to demolish the old buildings.

Only a safe area could be considered as a main city.

The two pro players finally stopped after a long fight, with Frenzied Sword at a slight loss.

It was normal in the early stages for a Mechanical Pugilist to lose to a Pugilist that specialized in close range combat. They would have their own specialties once their level was higher.

In the hundred or so times they sparred, Frenzied Sword did not win even once, but Hao Tian did not look down on Frenzied Sword because of that. Rather, he was shocked.

"You have a lot of potential, very suitable to battle in the pro scene," Hao Tian encouraged. Hao Tian believed in Frenzied Sword. Being able to fight against an extremely experienced god player like himself was a clear indication that Frenzied Sword had a lot of potential. Furthermore, Frenzied Sword was still relatively new to E-Sports.

Although Hao Tian was cold, it was because he focused on honing his gaming skills. He would always be joyful upon meeting players that were highly skilled, and he felt a sense of similarity toward Frenzied Sword.

Frenzied Sword scratched his head. Not only was he not frustrated by losing to God Hao at all, he had actually learned a lot of techniques and felt more controlled during combat. He noticed that he did indeed have a lot of potential in close range combat. Han Xiao had made a very accurate deduction and given him the right advice.

The weapons that Frenzied Sword was using were called Leopard Mechanical Claws. It was a cold weapon blueprint that Han Xiao had received from fusing knowledge.

Leopard Mechanical Claws were similar to the mechanical arms. They had an exoskeleton structure that covered the forearms, and the various finger parts were equipped with claw-like blades. Through the activation of the gears within, the blades would spin rapidly, which could easily cut through metal plates that are one centimeter thick.

Han Xiao had built this equipment especially for Frenzied Sword. Frenzied Sword was the first player to follow him, and they had known each other since the closed beta, being rather reliable the whole time. Han Xiao had made plans for Frenzied Sword's Mechanical Pugilist path—Leopard Mechanical Claws were suitable for Frenzied Sword at the current levels, and they had even stronger power than the light mechanical arms at close range.

Once Frenzied Sword was at a higher level, Han Xiao planned to build Compounded Magnetic Chain Split Blades and Magnetically-Controlled Retractable Armor for Frenzied Sword. Such equipment would make Frenzied Sword stand at the top of the players, and Frenzied Sword would be able to do more things for him once he was stronger.

Hao Tian was a Pugilist. Han Xiao did not have any arrangements for him, letting him go with the flow.

Maple Moon had chosen to become a Mechanic, and she was very interested in building. She even did missions for Emerald Grass and wanted to advance class into a Pharmacist. She also offered to take over the missions to take care of Bear Cub, which saved Hao Tian from hell. In fact, she was walking Bear Cub at that moment.

As for Bun-hit-dog… Han Xiao had very low requirements for him. Reports just had to be able to run fast.

Bun-hit-dog had released another video recently that introduced Sanctuary Three. It had received quite good feedback on the forums, and he deserved part of the credit for contributing to the sanctuary's reputation.

In recent days, the pro players that accepted the hidden storyline missions from Han Xiao had completed their missions one by one. Han Xiao had noticed a few suitable candidates and placed them onto his possible spare tire list. Han Xiao had no plans to expand his spare tire team temporarily—his resources were just right for four players. There would be some trouble if there were more.

Ding dong.

While Han Xiao sat causally under the sun, a message appeared on the laptop on his lap.

Han Xiao moved his fingers and clicked open the message. Instantly, he sat straight up, and his expression became very serious.

It was a very short message, but it signified the beginning of a storm.