The Legendary Mechanic

The players were ecstatic and could not wait to open the faction store interface.

Compared to Version 2.0, the faction store's product categories had increased by hundreds of times, and various equipment, materials, and items were all available. Because the Black Star Army had collaborated with many different financial groups, Han Xiao had managed to negotiate with the leaders of the various financial groups to open their purchase channels to his faction members.

In this manner, as long as an object was not too rare, the faction store would definitely be selling it. This led to a significant increase in the logistics capabilities of the Black Star Army.

Han Xiao had also collected a huge number of blueprint drawings in the past few years and vigorously developed the backend logistics division. With the support of his strong economic strength, he had established countless factories and assembly lines for the logistics department and even trained up a group of professionals. Currently, the capability of the Black Star Army to produce independently was very strong, already having stored tens of thousands of machines and equipment, including rare high-end equipment such as orange and pink equipment.

All the materials and equipment would be supplied to the members of the faction. As long as they had money, they would be able to arm themselves to the teeth.

The standard issued armor of the Black Star Army had also undergone many changes through the past seven years. It had integrated a variety of intermediate-level armor technology, further strengthening it to be better armor. It had been mass produced for the middle to lower ranked members, named 'Black Star Army's Mark 7 Individual Soldier Armor'. It could transform into specialized modes for attack, defense, reconnaissance, and more.

The armor of the majority of players had fallen behind in times. Compared to the current Mark 7 armor, it looked more like a trinket than actual armor.

Looking at the list of items the faction store offered, the desires of the players started to burn. This was especially true for Frenzied Sword, Hao Tian, and the other professional players who did not lack money.

If they participated in the battle, all the good items, including orange equipment, would be on fifty percent off!

This opportunity, once gone, would never come back!

The players had amassed a large sum during Version 2.0, and having come across this sale with great difficulty, where they would finally upgrade their equipment, the idea of diligently saving up was simply thrown out the window.

What was the purpose of saving? To be able to spend it all when the opportune time came!

When one could bear it no longer, there was no need to endure!

Without hesitation, the players on scene immediately applied for the military operation through Phillip.

With the fast processing speed of Phillip, it quickly completed the request of all the players present, sending out the mission that Han Xiao had long prepared to them.

_____________________

[Faction War Mission: Black Star's Counterattack]

Mission Introduction: Section Zero has prepared a large-scale counterattack military operation. As a glorious Black Star Warrior, you have chosen to participate in this campaign.

Mission Requirements: Follow the Black Star Army's fleet, and obey orders to participate in the battle.

Reward: +500 Black Star Army Favorability, activate the follow-up mission of the secret war.

_____________________

The players present only took a glance at the interface notification before turning their attention back to the Faction store. Indeed, everything present was reduced by half.

The players were all overjoyed and could not wait to dance around merrily.

Han Xiao had released this mission in order to guide the players as he had no control over the activation of main storylines. Thus, he used the reward section to let players understand that they would start the following mission of the secret war main storyline. This was to give players peace of mind, allowing them to improve their participation during the battle and reducing the number of slackers.

In the past, Section Zero had also assigned players to participate in the battle. This time, he had taken in so many players, so the labor had to be done by himself.

This large-scale military operation had not been proposed suddenly as Han Xiao knew that the players would return during this time. Two months prior, he had already begun preparations for this large-scale counterattack operation. He had waited until now to bring players with him to join in this secret war together.

While the players had accumulated a lot of experience and money in Version 2.0, Han Xiao's upgrades now required a sky-high price. The experience they had saved up was just not enough, and he had to fatten them up once more, or else the Mission Completion Cards he had saved up would be useless.

As soon as this version opened, Han Xiao could not wait to guide the players over to the war missions. This was to allow them to accumulate as much experience as possible; only by increasing the players' spending power and letting them become rich could he then earn even more. He had always been an advocate for mutual benefits and being well-off comprehensively.

Putting it in another way, the leeks that he had planted were not ripe yet. He still had to give it his all to fertilize them.

Han Xiao also knew well that with every new version, raising their levels to the upper limit would be the players' first choice. As such, their desire to spend would be lowered. Han Xiao needed to stimulate demand and make players willing to take out their wallets for consumption.

The fifty percent discount for the war participants was just one of his measures to stimulate the demand in the players.

The large number of players formed a turbulent human wave as they left the square, going straight toward the logistics department. Meanwhile, every one of them was browsing the store, looking for their favorite equipment or items.

"One set of the standard issued armor, and I'll take the skin for it as well!"

"Jackpot, jackpot! This time, we hit the motherload!"

"Never expected this sort of benefit from the beginning of the version. This is to improve our combat capability, allowing us to protect ourselves in the war mission. The head really loves us!"

The hundred thousand or so players nearly burst the logistics department at the seams when they all rushed in to order equipment.

In addition to the single players wantonly buying, a few of the guilds began to organize their manpower, calling friends to crowdfund their items.

"Such opportunities are rare. Hurry and get more money. We can buy better things with these!"

The Guild of Gods Head Jupiter showed an expression of glee, prepared to utilize the funds of his guild to buy a few sets of mining spaceships and equipment. In the future, Guild of Gods would be able to mine their own resources, receiving a steady stream of profits.

Professional players like Frenzied Sword, however, preferred the high quality equipment and went to find their respective club's guild to raise money, buying orange equipment crazily.

The players present looked as though they had all consumed aphrodisiacs, their desire for consumption skyrocketing to extreme levels. Wave after wave of purchases were made, and on their hands were big and small bags, all containing new equipment. Although their wallets were emptied, everybody had a smile on their face.

Having saved fifty percent of what they were supposed to pay, they were so happy!

At the same time, Han Xiao returned to his office, checking the revenue data of the army.

"In just half an hour, I've earned 2.7 billion Enas," Han Xiao murmured to himself. Even with the current huge assets of the Black Star Army, this sum was no small amount. If averaged out, an individual player had spent close to 20,000 Enas. While all the goods were on a fifty percent sale, his total profit after deducting the costs was still hundreds of millions of Enas.

With the current productivity and warehouse capacity of the Black Star Army, meeting the demands of all the players was simply a piece of cake.

Han Xiao did not play his strategy of raising the price first before slashing it; he indeed placed all his goods at a fifty percent discount this time. However, because he had already mastered the Technology specialization, the profits after discount was still immensely high!

The players were also not stupid and would definitely remember the prices of goods in the previous version. Furthermore, what Han Xiao was lacking now was not money, so he had no need to destroy the goodwill between him and the players for just this paltry sum. It would be better to allow the players to feel some substantial benefits.

His goal was not to obtain this pot of money but rather to stimulate the consumers' desire for consumption, emptying the players' wallets before using this long-term discount activity to make players generate money quickly. Thus, they would work harder to participate in the war. Through this, their experience would fill up and empty out for him, then rinse and repeat… Continuously draining the players wallets would keep their fighting spirit up!

A mature leek would know how to engage in self-fertilization!

"Now that the players have spent all their money, I guess we can start soon…" Han Xiao's eyes narrowed as the corners of his mouth curled up.

In fact, emptying the players' wallet was just the prelude prepared by Han Xiao. The real harvest had just begun!

…

In the Logistics Department, the amount of equipment left in the deposit did not even hit triple digits. As the players put on their new equipment, they felt content at how rewarding the buying spree was. Their desire to spend money was not yet over, however, and they opened the faction store to browse if there was anything else that they could take advantage of.

Looking at the sky-high prices even after discounting for the top-tier equipment, the players were moved, but they could not afford it even with the discount. Thus, they could only look away in resignation. It was at this time that someone found out the faction store stocked a lot more Profession Knowledge compared to the previous Version.

As they closely scrutinized it, the players received a huge shock.

The faction store actually contained the Basic and Advanced Knowledge of the various Psychic, Mechanic, Esper, Psychic, and Magic Professions!

There were even a few Professions that had High-End Knowledge!

Everyone present clearly remembered that in Version 2.0, the Black Star Army did not have a complete copy of all knowledge for the five major professions.

In fact, the Basic and Advanced Knowledge for each Profession could easily be gathered as long as one had money. With the current financial power of the Black Star Army, Han Xiao had gathered all the various lower-tier Profession Knowledge in the past seven years and even bought over a few high-end knowledges.

Having reached this level, the Black Star Army members under Han Xiao were numerous, with people of all different Professions. Buying this many different types of Knowledges was so that he could conveniently groom more warriors.

However, in the eyes of the players, this had extraordinary significance. In order to obtain profession knowledge, players in the various Star Fields had to increase favorability of the various profession mentors as well as the favorability of the faction they were in, and this was troublesome.

However, in the Black Star Army, they were able to master the profession knowledge of the classes, which signified that they did not need to find a mentor, and this would save them a lot of time and energy. This was an advantage that players from the other Star Fields did not have!

The most surprising thing was that, not only did the amount of Profession Knowledge increase, they actually did not require money!

Learning knowledge in the previous versions required money. However, this time, in the faction store, knowledge only required one's Faction Contribution Points as well as experience!

Although the experience cost of learning a Knowledge remained, the required Faction Contribution Points had halved!

"They actually made Knowledge free of charge‽"

"This doesn't make sense. Why is it that Profession Knowledge does not require money now? Won't it be a loss for us since we bought it last version using money?"

"Wait, I've discovered the reason!"

If a problem could not be solved, they could ask Phillip. Some of the players took the initiative to open the subprogram and ask, and they quickly got the answer.

Due to the scale of expansion for the Black Star Army, training camps had been established in various places. In order to train up members of the army on a large scale, the exchange pattern for Knowledge had thus been altered. Members of the army could apply for the Knowledge so long as they had enough contributions instead.

This system not only applied to the players but also to NPCs. This was equivalent to the induction training for the Black Star Army.

The crowd was astonished and realized even more about the great cause of the Black Star Army. This Star Cluster level Organization was indeed miles apart from its past, with high generosity and a proper system in place.

"So, we also receive the same welfare?" Other than a portion of people feeling depressed that they had spent the money in vain, the rest were all overjoyed.

"So, does that mean that we all need not pay whenever we wish to learn Knowledge next time, just use our Contribution Points‽"

"Damn, this is too good!"

"It's indeed a Faction for growth. The treatment is awesome!"

The majority of players were relieved, and they could feel the practical benefits of the development that the Black Star Army had undergone in the past decade.

When comparing faction benefits, the Black Star Army had left the rest in the dust!

How blissful!

"Just now, the three consecutive chain missions awarded us quite a bit of contribution points, enough to buy a few of the Knowledges. My Basic Knowledge is not complete yet."

"Hehe, I'm out of money, but learning Knowledge does not require money!"

"The faction contribution points are even at a fifty percent discount. This benefit is really too good, too profitable!"

With the mentality of 'since I can take advantage, I might as well do it', the group of players immediately used up all the experience points that they had saved to obtain all the various Knowledges.

Following the buying of the Knowledge, the dry experience bank of Han Xiao started to fill up once more.

"Finally…"

Han Xiao let out a deep breath, feeling relieved.

This was what he needed the most!

He had abolished the monetary price for Knowledge to gain a large amount of the players' experience. However, because the system also took into account NPCs, Han Xiao had thus made it into a system of contribution points for Knowledge.

For his normal members, experience was an intangible object, so if there was no requirement in terms of contribution points, it would be equivalent to giving it away, which would result in serious problems. This was his bottom line for maintaining the system of the faction.

In order to allow players to fork out the experience to purchase the Knowledges, Han Xiao had utilized the three guiding missions earlier to send the players a wave of contribution points. Following which, he had then used the ploy of halving prices to incite the players' desires, emptying their purses.

After they had finished spending, the players would definitely want to take advantage of the system with the fifty percent off. At this time, they would then discover that Knowledge did not require money, and with their contribution point prices halved, a portion of the players would use their experience to learn various Knowledges. The reason it was only a portion was because knowledge could be learned at any point in time, but Han Xiao wanted to harvest some player experience in this short amount of time.

After being deprived for a decade, he could bear it no longer!

After considering that it was necessary to maintain the value of the contribution of the camp as a secondary currency and that it could not trigger 'inflation' in the process, Han Xiao did not give out too many contribution points to the players… or else he would have just thrown the players a motherload of contribution points, to the extent that they would reach the [Reverence] relationship, allowing them to learn all the knowledge they wanted. Not only would he empty their purses, he would also empty their experience bars, robbing them of both resources!

It's better to harvest slowly. I'll save some experience for them, allowing them to rise to Grade B. I cannot just pull my leeks out from the roots…

Han Xiao was acutely aware that he could not pull out the seedlings to make it look like they were growing.

Watching his experience counter skyrocket, he licked his lips, a moved expression on his face.

It had been ten years. Finally, he could fill up his experience slot, this bottomless pit!