Chapter 39: Large-Scale Event
"This batch of equipment was well-forged, but there is one problem."
"Ah, could it be that the equipment doesn't meet the territory’s needs?"
Although Yan Ling was quite confident in the equipment she had crafted, upon hearing the Lord say this, she immediately grew nervous. After all, different territories had different equipment needs.
For example, if the enemies or monsters that a territory faced mainly used spell attacks, then producing armor focused on physical damage mitigation would be completely unsuitable.
Hang Yu explained, "There’s nothing wrong with the equipment itself. The issue is that the members of the Calamity Army are too poor. Right now, not to mention the Skeleton Wild Bull Set, even an ordinary Wild Bull Set is likely unaffordable for most of them."
Yan Ling breathed a sigh of relief.
As long as the equipment wasn’t the problem, it was fine.
"Lord, are you suggesting... to suspend forging the Wild Bull equipment and wait until the conditions are right to supply them?"
"No, you just focus on continuing to forge the Wild Bull Sets. Although the players can't afford them for now, I can purchase them directly."
Hang Yu waved his hand broadly: "Each ordinary Wild Bull Set will be purchased at 800 Contribution Points, and each Skeleton Wild Bull Set at 4000 Contribution Points. In the next couple of days, however much you can forge, I'll buy it all."
Yan Ling was momentarily stunned and then overjoyed.
She quickly did a rough calculation.
If she went all out in the next two days, she could produce about six sets of the Skeleton Wild Bull Set, plus around a dozen sets of the ordinary Wild Bull Set. If the Lord bought them all, that would be at least 32,000 Contribution Points!
In other words, just the guaranteed commission from these two days would translate into at least three to four hundred Essence Points.
This amount of Essence meant little to Hang Yu, who even felt that the hard labor of the workers was a bit cheap.
But for a low-level Forger, it was extremely attractive. Yan Ling immediately felt her fatigue vanish, replaced by boundless energy!
"Thank you for your support, Lord!"
Hang Yu, by purchasing in bulk from the Alchemy Workshop, could definitely pay far fewer Contribution Points than if buying retail.
Most of the equipment he bought would first be used to arm his Personal Guard Corps.
As for the players?
Taking out two sets of Skeleton Wild Bull armor and five to eight sets of ordinary Wild Bull armor would be enough to make players swarm like bees, ecstatic and willing to die for it.
Yan Ling immediately went off to work.
She now only hated that she lacked the energy to further expand production.
However, she also noticed that the Alchemy Workshop was already being built across the street.
It seemed that this territory would have an Alchemist within a few days. Once there was a supply of recovery potions, the production capacity of forging equipment would greatly increase.
After Yan Ling left,
Hang Yu began to ponder how to create missions.
He wanted to increase the money supply so that players would have a little more spending power, ideally issuing Wild Bull Sets to strengthen the overall strength of the territory's army. But for this, he needed a mission with sufficient weight.
Exploring the Core Pollution Zone?
Letting players clash with Ma Yuanyi?
But although the territory now had enough strength to resist the threats posed by gatekeeping bosses,
it still required Hang Yu's personal intervention. Otherwise, with only the strength of the Calamity Army as it was now, they might not even catch a glimpse of Ma Yuanyi.
At this moment, Xiao Ba suddenly appeared and reminded him, "Master, your territory core has detected Abyssal aura. There’s an unidentified Abyss force approaching the territory."
Hang Yu was initially stunned.
He said, "My seven-day protection period hasn’t ended yet. Abyss forces shouldn’t be able to approach the main camp. Besides, today isn't the Day of Ultimate Darkness. Even if Ma Yuanyi has already discovered me, he still can’t launch an attack against me."
Every new Lord received a seven-day protection.
During this period, just managing to establish a foothold and clearing local threats was already considered good.
In fact, unless one started as a high-ranking race with a very high initial level, the vast majority of mid-to-low ranking races had extremely difficult early development.
They would usually desperately hide their presence, carefully farm monsters to grow stronger, and avoid being discovered by Abyss forces.
But Hang Yu did not bother with that. Relying on his rapid growth and the undying Calamity Army, there was no need to lie low in a newbie map.
Now, he already possessed enough strength for self-preservation.
He was not afraid of Ma Yuanyi.
He also did not believe Ma Yuanyi could come attacking.
Because Ma Yuanyi, as a Core Pollution Source, was restricted in his movements. Most of the time, he could only operate within the Core Pollution Zone, and only during the Day of Ultimate Darkness could he break free from these restrictions and move freely.
The so-called Day of Ultimate Darkness was a periodic astronomical phenomenon or disaster in the Abyss Plane.
On this day, the pollution from the Core Pollution Zone would spread outward, the resurrection speed of abyssal creatures would accelerate, and it would be the best moment for Abyss forces to counterattack against Lords. In a sense, it could be understood as a monster siege event in the game.
According to statistics, among the Lords who met an unfortunate end, forty to fifty percent died during the Day of Ultimate Darkness.
This day was a true trial of life and death for all Lords.
Today was obviously not the Day of Ultimate Darkness, and with the Will of the Stars’ protection still in place, the main camp would not be threatened.
Thus, only one possibility remained.
Even without Xiao Ba’s reminder, Hang Yu immediately realized where the problem lay—Hexi Village!
Although new Lords were under the protection of the Will of the Stars, this protection only extended to the main camp. It did not include town territories. Hang Yu immediately opened the map to check the details.
The unexplored areas were still covered by the fog of war.
But areas already explored by players had revealed map visibility.
Hang Yu instantly noticed that around ten li from Hexi Village, there were densely packed hundreds of red signals. Xiao Ba had detected these signals through the Lord Core and thus issued the early warning right away.
"Most abyssal creatures are mindless, but now they’re advancing toward Hexi Village in an organized and planned manner. There must be an Abyssal Corruptor orchestrating this behind the scenes," Hang Yu muttered to himself.
Xiao Ba then prompted, "With its current strength, Hexi Village cannot withstand the abyssal forces. Master should immediately rally the troops and prepare for battle."
Even though his territory was under external threat, Hang Yu was not the least bit nervous. On the contrary, he showed a satisfied smile.
"Good, excellent. I was just worrying about how to reasonably distribute Contribution Points and equipment. Now it’s like someone has handed me a pillow just when I needed to sleep."
Letting players explore the Core Pollution Zone directly was still too early.
Although players had immortality, facing absolute crushing defeats without any suspense would strip away all sense of achievement and ruin the gameplay experience.
Now, however, this invasion presented a perfect opportunity. Hexi Village generated continuous income for the territory, and its manpower resources were something the territory urgently lacked. Protecting Hexi Village aligned perfectly with the territory’s core interests.
From the players’ perspective, they had been interacting frequently with the villagers these past couple of days.
Many players had already become good friends with the villagers.
Under such circumstances, if the villagers were massacred by abyssal forces, it would be emotionally unacceptable for the players. They would definitely take the initiative to defend the village. Besides, the process would also bring abundant rewards.
A few minutes later, all players received a notification.
【Ding!】
【Team Mission Triggered!】
【Mission Name: Defend Hexi Village!】
【Mission Content: Hexi Village is under external attack. Please protect Hexi Village from destruction.】
【Mission Objective: Defend Hexi Village for 24 hours or completely repel the invading abyssal monsters.】
【Mission Rewards: 100–1000 Essence Points, 150–1500 Contribution Points, with a certain chance to obtain a Wild Bull Set.】
【Special Reminder: During the mission, free resurrection is allowed, up to three consecutive times. All players participating in the team mission will receive the Essence Contract’s blessing for free during the event.】
Mission complete!
Next, all he had to do was sit back and enjoy the show.
Hang Yu not only had the chance to reasonably distribute resources, this was also an opportunity to crazily harvest players’ efforts.
During the mission, each player could resurrect up to three times.
Although theoretically the Heavenly Dao Cube allowed unlimited player resurrection, if death and resurrection occurred too frequently in a short period, it could still cause some soul and mental damage to the players.
Three to four times was relatively safe.
To ensure the players’ fighting spirit, and to maximize the efficiency of "harvesting,"
Hang Yu had set a limit of three free resurrections for players.
As the mission was announced, all players were stunned.
Midnight Pig Slayer: "Everyone, look! There's an event!"
Street Slayer, after reading the mission details: "Holy crap! Such a good deal!"
Ye Li Meng, Black-Eyed Rui Ge, and the others were also ecstatic. "Three free resurrections and a free Essence Contract? This is too awesome!"
"Brothers!"
"What are we waiting for?"
"The territory is in danger!"
"Let's hurry to Hexi Village!"
"Someone call the guys who are offline!"
"……"
Chenxi, Little Bell, Chimera Wraith, and other players were currently conducting surveys in Hexi Village.
Upon learning that the village was under threat, they became extremely worried.
The local villagers were all very simple and honest people.
The village being under threat was partly the players’ responsibility.
Every villager could provide valuable intelligence and was a treasure trove for understanding the world's storyline and settings!
Even without the mission's summons, even without the lure of generous mission rewards, players still had a reason to fight for Hexi Village—to protect these living, breathing villagers, to defend humanity's own territory from abyssal desecration!