Chapter 484
Chapter 484: Opportunities Must Be Seized by Yourself, You Fool!
After the battle for Plague Town ended, when other guild leaders saw the server-wide announcement that the six dormitory members had been inducted into the Hall of Fame, they vaguely guessed the ownership of this third stronghold.
However, when the development team confirmed through a forum announcement that evening that the third stronghold “Wolf Fort” had been allocated to the Crimson Beast Team, many players still let out cries of anguish.
Currently, Transia only has three player strongholds!
Now that they’ve all been allocated, it means other guilds wanting their own territory can only wait until more strongholds are unlocked as the game’s story progresses further.
But this isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
After all, although the number of players increases every week, there are only about 1,000 people in the game so far, and of these thousand or so people, the Torrent Knights alone make up more than a quarter of the population. Other guilds simply don’t have enough members to support the construction and planning of a complete stronghold.
Even if Governor Murphy gave every guild a stronghold to manage, most strongholds would probably be reclaimed by the administration due to poor management.
That would be too embarrassing then.
Besides, Transia has unique management units like collective farms apart from player strongholds.
As more and more refugees arrive, the second batch of seven collective farms is also being compiled into registers. Administrative professionals who want to experience being officials have plenty of places to develop their skills, and they don’t need to handle high-difficulty units like strongholds right from the start.
The Torrent Knights, who are currently building Torrent Fort, have a dedicated forum thread recording their journey of constructing the stronghold. In it, Typal lists problem after problem in stronghold construction from his perspective. Just looking at that list of problems makes ordinary players feel the hardship and pain, causing them to shy away.
Come to think of it, in a 100% realistic game, the difficulty of building your own city from scratch would definitely not be any easier than leading a group of people to reclaim wilderness in the real world.
This kind of work that has no shortcuts can’t possibly be done well without experience.
However, discussions about strongholds have always been a hot topic on the forum. Many players would imagine how they would plan and decorate their strongholds if they had one. Those flights of fancy often leave newcomers completely bewildered when they first see them.
Those who know understand you’re playing a game, those who don’t might think you’re planning to gather 500 people to rent a big ship and sail to the New World.
In any case, currently in online circles, the biggest tag attached to the “urban legend” of “Reality Realm” besides “realistic” is “hardcore”.
This tag has also effectively prevented casual players from coming to cause trouble. At the very least, normal people would decisively choose to reject it when they see that set of test application questions that has now increased to 199.
Everyone is so busy with work every day!
There’s still so much surplus value to be squeezed hard by the boss, after work those with girlfriends have to pamper their girlfriends, those without girlfriends have to go find girlfriends, those who already have wives still have to worry about tonight’s conjugal duties while clutching their kidneys, who has that much time to do that damn questionnaire?
While people were arguing heatedly on the forum about the ownership of the third stronghold, bonfires were lit on the battlefield outside Plague Town, which had now reached dawn, presenting a scene of bustling activity.
Various equipment found in the ruins of Plague Town was placed in wooden boxes piled beside the bonfires, and all players who participated in the instance raid would go choose weapons and armor that suited them.
This equipment distribution phase was completely free, take whatever you fancy.
There were some clever people who wanted to take several items and no one stopped them, mainly because the “encumbrance system” in this realistic game was really annoying. If you carry just a few more weapons, quick movement in battle becomes problematic, and even with a Spirit Bag to assist, its capacity is very limited.
It’s already cramped storing daily necessities, and no one would throw these weapons they can’t use into it, that’s purely asking for trouble.
As for the leftover weapons and equipment, they wouldn’t be wasted either. They would be collected together and sent to the Kadman People’s Army logistics department to exchange for money to be divided equally among everyone.
This was an old rule.
As for those named weapons and armor with very good attributes, they once again adopted an auction method. By the largest bonfire, the eloquent North Forest Dog’s Paddle was once again chosen as the auctioneer.
Those who hadn’t logged off sat around the fire eating while watching those rich brothers and sisters arguing red-faced over competing for good items.
“This can’t go on!”
At the student party’s bonfire, Niuniu sat cross-legged maintaining his flail while complaining to his three dormitory brothers beside him:
“From server launch until now, there’s never been a reasonable system for distributing spoils of war. It’s always auctions, keeping this up will hurt the brotherhood between us.
New players have a hard time getting good items, but Little Ashina’s tent is full enough of various weapons to hold an exhibition, Old Huo’s side is even more exaggerated, he filled his Treasure Bay VIP room with spoils collected from everywhere pursuing style.
It’s really a case of the thirsty dying of thirst while others drown in excess.”
“Why are you worrying about this?”
Shrimp Catcher tossed swamp berries into his mouth with relish, while savoring this strange sour taste, he said carelessly:
“Little Ashina and Old Huo getting those weapons wasn’t through theft or robbery, they bought them with real money, both buyers and sellers are satisfied, which demon can gossip about it?
We’ve played plenty of online games since we were young, which game developer can come up with a perfect solution for class issues in games?
This is called ‘game ecology’, you understand?
It’s just one aspect of online games that have strong social attributes, you think this isn’t good, but I actually think this is pretty great, at least after the auction everyone can get a share of the payment.
This is much better than the strong taking all while the weak can’t even lick the bones.”
“That’s right, that’s right, ever since Niuniu got his dear wife he likes to overthink!”
Khaki Tony Tai held his masterwork lion spear with two crocodile legs skewered on it, turning them over and over roasting them by the bonfire, while Path of Mud and Oil held the spice container sprinkling seasonings on them.
The two cooperated seamlessly looking just like proper adventurers, especially after Khaki finished speaking, Old Oil also commented with a strange tone:
“Of course Niuniu has to overthink~ He’s just afraid someone in the game will mess things up and make this game shut down and close, then he’ll never see his paper wife again.
Hey, Niuniu, I saw several new players courting your wife today, you better go guard her quick! What if their favorability with Amber surpasses yours, wouldn’t you lose both love and fortune?”
“You two don’t understand shit! If you’ve got the guts then don’t go farm favorability with those female NPCs in the future, hmph.”
Niuniu twisted his mouth, not wanting to continue this topic with these two troublemaking friends.
What pitiful mortals!
At the moment of giving the ring, his favorability with Amber was already locked, you fools, if Niuniu’s niuniu wasn’t under Governor Murphy’s management, maybe they could have gone even further by now.
He now had another matter to think about, which was the issue of future construction and planning of stronghold 003 beneath their feet.
Although Pigeon is the Beast Team’s leader, now that all six dormitory members are dead and have to wait three days to resurrect, Niuniu, this “Executive Vice Leader” with more muscle than brain, has to hold up this responsibility.
He knows his own people’s situation.
Compared to the Torrent Knights with their complete talent pool and the Crimson Hammer and Sickle Team composed of semi-professionals, their Beast Team is completely amateur hour.
A group formed of young people may be passionate and righteous, but when it comes to professional knowledge and experience, they fall far behind systems formed by working adults.
Right now Niuniu is worried about the future management issues of stronghold 003. Although he and Pigeon can bring in help from the school’s management department, the problem is those helpers are also students with knowledge but no practical experience.
If they really let them mess around freely, it would become an “otherworld large-scale social experiment sample”, the swamp environment is already poor, if they mess it up more, this stronghold will probably be reclaimed by the administration after a few months.
That would really be losing big face then.
“I say, you guys really can’t come over? Even just guest starring would be good.”
Niuniu was chatting with the Scholar Four in the Computation Bead who were near Crimson Citadel, he said to Scholar Xiao Zhou who was now the “Phantom Island Village Chief”:
“Just come help our guild set up shop first, after the management department brothers gradually enter the game later, you can go back.”
“Bullshit, you make it sound so easy, should I just abandon my village’s affairs?”
Scholar Xiao Zhou rejected very directly.
He said:
“My village’s conditions are already poor, now I’ve finally found a coal mine with my three dormitory brothers in the mountain area and we’re preparing to dig out mine shafts for development!
This is a major matter related to people’s livelihood, how can we abandon this to go help you?
Of course it’s not saying the stronghold that we brothers fought hard to get isn’t important, mainly Niuniu you have to understand our four brothers’ situation.
We spent a lot of effort to finally get the villagers to trust us and be willing to work with us, at this juncture if we abandon our duties, Phantom Island’s future would be finished.
This is the first village for us students in the game!
We brothers are still counting on using the process of building this mine shaft to water several papers for graduation, please spare us.”
“Then what should we do?”
Niuniu said with a very troubled expression:
“We’re fine at fighting, but if you ask us to manage things we really can’t do it, we’re physical education students damn it! This really isn’t work we should be doing.
Give us some advice.”
“How about ‘joint governance’?”
After thinking for about ten seconds, Scholar Xiao Zhou gave an answer saying:
“Doesn’t the Silver Moon sister team also want a stronghold? You share the management rights of stronghold 003 with them, or simply entrust it to them to manage.
Those sisters are all capable people, they can definitely handle the management and planning, then you just need to sit back and reap the benefits.
Though I really doubt whether this kind of joint governance model can get approval from the administration?”
“Sigh, just hearing it sounds unreliable, just Lady Aqua alone moving her hand could package us all up together to sell, and we’d still have to help count money for them.
How can we poor students outplay them in scheming?
Forget it, I’ll discuss with Pigeon again.”
Niuniu sighed and hung up the communication.
He really couldn’t say the Scholars weren’t being righteous, after all everyone had witnessed the situation of village number 4, they really weren’t enjoying themselves over there.
But to really hand over the territory that their guild worked so hard to obtain to another guild to manage, just saying this out loud was enough to hurt the fragile self-esteem of all the young people including Niuniu.
“Recruit people! Damn it.”
Niuniu got fired up, while snatching the roasted crocodile meat from Khaki and taking a bite, he said to his three companions beside him:
“First post on the campus network! Recruit a batch of knowledgeable brothers and sisters from the management department to come in, as for whether they have experience… sigh, we’ll talk about that later.”
“You still dare to post on the campus network? Are you tired of living?”
Shrimp Catcher criticized:
“The counselors from the finance department have already talked to Ah Yuen and others, afraid they’ll go astray.
Our previous large-scale recruitment at school has already been noticed by the school leaders, I dare say your post would be deleted within ten minutes of going up.
Sigh, not every forum administrator is as magnanimous as Brother Alpha.
This matter has to be done slowly in private.”
“Then go to other schools!”
Niuniu said through gritted teeth:
“Go recruit from specialized management academies, we need management professionals now, we can’t always hand over territories we capture to others to manage in the future right?
That would be too lame!
Learn from the Torrent Knights’ model and slowly build up our logistics and management team, we’re one of the top guilds in the game after all, we can’t always just emphasize combat ability right?”
“Damn, just hearing it gives me a headache, these brain-using matters, better leave them to Ah Yuen and others to handle.”
The three physical education students looked at each other, then very tacitly chose to give up.
This attitude angered Niuniu so much he wanted to kick them a few times, but just as the physical education students were frowning with worry, an “unexpected visitor” suddenly found them.
“What? Chief Hog requests me for a private discussion?”
Niuniu gnawed on the roasted crocodile meat while looking at the gnoll Nash beside him who came running with bows and scrapes bringing several crude gifts.
He was stunned for a moment completely not understanding what this unique NPC Hog wanted to discuss with him, but since they brought three low-grade Command Scepters as visiting gifts, this “sincerity” was immediately sensed by the player.
Therefore Niuniu finished his strange-tasting midnight snack in a few bites, then followed Nash to the swamp near Plague Town.
On a flat terrain, Hog was sitting under a shabby tent pondering something while looking at an animal skin map, several fully armed barbarian soldiers stood guard around while blood hyenas released by hunters patrolled.
This scene made Niuniu sigh that Hog’s display of status was getting grander and grander, he still remembered the pathetic state when Hog was first rescued by the sisters.
Really can’t judge a book by its cover, gnolls can’t be underestimated either.
But Niuniu was still curious what Hog wanted to discuss with him, until he sat down under Hog’s tent as the student party representative, this skinny gnoll chief smiled and said:
“Mighty midnight warrior Sir Niuniu, I want to do business with your warrior guild.”
Hog rotated the map in front and passed it to Niuniu to look at, it wagged its balding tail and said:
“I know that the great Governor Murphy has already given the ruling rights of Plague Town, ah, now called ‘Wolf Fort’, really a good name, anyway, Governor Murphy has already given Wolf Fort’s ruling rights to your warrior guild, I want to congratulate you on your victory.
But what I’m concerned about is, can humans like you really endure the terrible swamp environment and garrison here for long periods?
I’m not doubting your courage and will, no one understands your strength and valor better than me, however different races ultimately have different preferences, swamps have never been a place that humans like.”
“What are you trying to say?”
Niuniu the physical education student though not stupid, really didn’t like Hog’s roundabout way of speaking, he didn’t even look at the map in front, directly asking:
“Why don’t you speak more plainly! Look, we are warriors, Chief Hog, so let’s be more direct.”
“Good! Then I’ll speak directly.”
Hog let out a breath and said in a low voice:
“I want to ‘buy’ the control rights of Wolf Fort from you”
“Impossible!”
Niuniu rejected immediately:
“This is the stronghold that our brothers paid an extremely high price to capture, this is not a commodity that can be bought and sold, this is not up for discussion!”
“No no no, not that kind of buying and selling, warrior.”
Hog shook his head and explained:
“I mean um, trusteeship!
This word might be more appropriate, since you humans can’t reside in the swamp for long periods, while we gnolls are very adapted to the swamp environment, why not entrust Wolf Fort’s administrative rights to my clan.
I will help you repair the town, dig out moats and shape the city walls!
If you need, the Blood Claw Clan’s kobolds will even help you create new mage towers, all of this besides supplying enough food for the kobolds doesn’t require you to pay anything!
When the town is built, you have complete control rights over the town, we only need to obtain the rights for free movement within it and transporting supplies.
I will help you operate this town!
I have my own plans for it, and all commercial revenue generated near the town I will give you 60%!
Look, this isn’t a profitable deal, I’m losing money helping you operate.
Mainly because Governor Murphy has already promised me the other two-thirds of the Foul Swamp territory, but the remaining one-third guards an important passage, without it my territory would be completely separated from Transia.
This is a result that I, who admires royal transformation, absolutely cannot accept!
I really am not coveting your territory, warriors.
I just want to obtain the nominal management rights and ruling rights of Foul Swamp, to achieve my small ambition of becoming ‘Swamp Lord’.
Lease your stronghold to me.
The profit distribution can be negotiated further, I just need this town to achieve my planning for the entire Foul Swamp…”
“Oh, you have complete plans for the swamp?”
Niuniu became interested.
He seriously looked at the animal skin map Hog had passed over earlier, after a few seconds, he scratched his head saying:
“I can’t understand this, explain it to me in words, Hog, what do you plan to turn Foul Swamp into?”
“Hehe.”
Hog let out a crafty laugh, it wagged its tail saying:
“Earlier when meeting with that noble colonel from the Goldflower Kingdom, I had asked him about the journey from the Cato region to the prosperous Shaldor Port, he told me that even taking a steam train would require four days to cross the mountains of the Shaldor Peninsula before entering the cities of halflings and brass dwarves.
Moreover, train prices are expensive, small merchants can’t possibly transport goods through this method, this is also why Smuggler’s Woods used to be the largest smuggling route in the area.
Going through Foul Swamp to reach Shaldor Peninsula is shorter!
And there are dwarven brass fortresses maintaining security along the way, the only problem with this route is the risks encountered when entering Foul Swamp.
The swamp beasts are secondary, once you lose your way you can only die here.
However, if a unified force appears in Foul Swamp, creating a road from Transia straight to the Brass Fortress for merchants coming and going from north and south…
Ah, warrior Niuniu, my plan compared to previous rules, actually hasn’t changed anything at all, I’m just replicating Smuggler’s Woods’ former model across the entire Foul Swamp.
I believe the halflings’ steam trains won’t be the only answer for connecting the continental center with the southern regions.
‘The Swamp Road’!
No, I will call it ‘Blood Claw Road’!
This road will definitely be more welcomed by certain bold merchants, Transia will certainly prosper under Governor Murphy’s leadership, and we servants crawling in the shadow of the great Murphy should also contribute bricks and tiles to this prosperity.”
“Is this really a plan that a gnoll could think up?”
Niuniu exclaimed in shock saying:
“Take off that gnoll skin suit, this isn’t interesting anymore, clever halfling Hog.”
“Ha, what an amusing joke! I could laugh all day.”
Hog laughed heartily, it secretly took out a gnoll-style voodoo snake-shaped dagger from the broken bag behind it, discreetly stuffing this item that was clearly a “good thing” into Niuniu’s hand.
Poor pure physical education student was encountering “bribery” for the first time in his life, feeling quite at a loss for what to do. He originally wanted to righteously reprimand Hog not to do such evil things, but after item identification activated revealing this was a sovereign-grade masterwork voodoo dagger, Niuniu suddenly couldn’t say any words of rejection.
He wasn’t short of weapons, Kenport’s flail and bone shield were both sovereign-grade elite equipment, enough for him to use until silver rank or even gold rank.
Mainly Amber’s conditions were harsh, and his delicate paper wife executing missions alone without a “dedicated weapon” was really too dangerous.
Niuniu’s face reddened.
Cursing himself in his heart for not having firm will, but still put away the dagger that was very suitable for Amber to use.
Hog however was thick-skinned.
The gnoll chief smiled looking at Niuniu who awkwardly accepted the gift, only then continuing to say:
“This certainly isn’t my idea either, last time when I met Professor Chen I asked him where my clan’s future path lies? That respectable scholar only said a few words of guidance, but I also understood that kind of far-sighted great thinking.
The Blood Claw Clan can share the profits of this road with you, warrior!
As long as you’re willing to entrust Wolf Fort to me, we can have a beautiful future together.”