NOVEL WEB Chapter 22
Chapter 22: NPC Template
"What?"
"Did I hear that right?"
Yan Ling's eyes widened instantly.
Contribution Points could be directly exchanged for Essence?
This undoubtedly had an immense appeal to her.
Forgers also needed to level up, and upgrading required consuming Essence!
Whether it was raising her own level or improving her skill levels, it demanded a huge amount of Essence to push breakthroughs, and the cost of nurturing a high-level Forger was even ten times or a hundred times more expensive than raising a high-tier unit.
Moreover, since Forgers and Lords established a contractual employment relationship — unlike kin or citizenry who were absolutely bound and loyal — Lords were unlikely to invest a large amount of resources in training a subordinate whom they had to pay to hire.
The vast majority of production professionals had very limited channels to acquire Essence.
That was: during each successful forging process, a small amount of Essence would overflow from extraordinary materials.
Although the amount was extremely scarce, it could still accumulate over time, allowing them to slowly enhance their abilities.
Only Forgers with sufficiently high ranks and tiers...
They alone qualified to negotiate and obtain an Essence supply from the territory's development.
When Yan Ling signed the contract with Hang Yu, she didn’t even dare to imagine such a thing.
On one hand, she was only a beginner-level Forger, completely unqualified to share in Essence.
On the other hand, this human Lord had just started out — where would he find excess Essence to cultivate a Forger?
One had to understand —
Unlike other resources,
Essence could only be stored within the Lord Core of a territory.
This type of resource couldn’t be transferred, which meant it couldn’t be traded.
Even the Lords with the greatest backgrounds and strongest abilities could only collect Essence little by little, painstakingly and cautiously, while cultivating an army or forging a high-tier soldier was like pouring resources into a bottomless pit.
It was unheard of for any Lord to spend even a little extra Essence on a worker.
Because if a worker’s ability couldn't keep up with the territory’s development, at worst, the Lord could just fire them and hire someone better. Lords were never obligated to cultivate workers.
"Contribution Points can really be exchanged for Essence?"
The Flame Fox girl still couldn't believe such a good thing existed.
"Of course. This is a special and exclusive welfare benefit provided by this territory for employees. As long as the territory still has Essence reserves, you can exchange as many Contribution Points for Essence as you like."
Hang Yu’s tone shifted slightly as he continued, "However, it's not recommended to spend all your Contribution Points just to exchange for Essence. You should put your wisdom to good use — think about how to use Contribution Points to issue tasks, and then drive the Fourth Calamity troops to complete them, thereby creating even more Contribution Points."
After speaking, he immediately ordered Xiao Ba to open the NPC panel for Yan Ling.
The Forging Workshop had currently accumulated a total of one thousand Contribution Points.
According to a 1% commission rate, she currently possessed 10 Contribution Points.
Aside from the Contribution Points section, the NPC panel also had a "Publish Tasks" option.
Yan Ling could use Contribution Points as rewards to issue simple tasks to Players.
Of course, every task would undergo Xiao Ba’s review to ensure that the tasks aligned with the main direction of the territory’s development.
In this way, in order to earn more Contribution Points,
Yan Ling would have to think of ways to boost the Forging Workshop’s sales and efficiency!
For example, consistently producing high-quality equipment for sale to increase turnover and thus earn more commission. But producing high-quality equipment required a large amount of high-quality materials, and to obtain those, she would need to encourage Players to go on adventures or hunt monsters.
"I will definitely manage the Workshop well and absolutely not let down My Lord’s support!"
Yan Ling calculated on her fingers: if she could earn one hundred thousand, or even several hundred thousand to a million Contribution Points from the Players, then the commission she would receive would be an impressive figure. She might even hope to quickly advance to an Intermediate Forger!
"Good luck. I have high hopes for you. I hope you and the territory grow together and bring out the best in each other!"
Hang Yu patted the Flame Fox girl's shoulder.
The Lord seemed to be radiating holy light all over his body.
It made Yan Ling feel like she had been injected with ten tubes of chicken blood at once.
"I never imagined that my first job would land me such a good boss! My luck must be insanely good! If I don’t work hard and repay him, I would truly be a worthless person!"
She immediately stopped resting.
Suddenly, she wasn’t tired anymore!
She hurriedly got to work!
Hang Yu not only planned to harvest the Players like leeks, but he also intended to harvest the NPCs — and for him, this wasn’t difficult at all!
Essence was the most precious resource to other Lords.
After all, as long as there was enough Essence, they could forge a super army at any time.
Unfortunately, Essence was always in short supply.
But for Hang Yu, it was not the case.
First of all —
Players were not afraid of death.
In other territories, every loss of a high-tier unit meant the permanent loss of tens of thousands of Essence points.
Hang Yu, on the other hand, wished that every Player would die eighty to a hundred thousand times — provided that it didn't excessively damage the gaming experience and lead to a massive wave of Players quitting.
In this process, not only would the Fourth Calamity army not suffer casualties,
but it would even trigger a terrifying multiplier effect, causing the territory’s Essence reserves to grow larger and larger.
In other words —
Hang Yu had an abundance of Essence.
What he lacked were Abyssal Magic Crystals and other resources.
Although Yan Ling’s salary wasn’t considered high, she still earned more than a hundred Abyssal Magic Crystals per month—making her a plump and juicy leek.
Hang Yu had already started opening up the function of exchanging Abyssal Magic Crystals for Contribution Points.
Who said you had to earn money only from Players?
Couldn’t you earn from employees too?
What was the ultimate level of exploitation?
It was not only making workers sacrifice their health and lives for you, but also having them willingly return their salaries, even borrow money to pay for working, and still do so with gratitude, singing endless praises to the boss!
According to what Hang Yu knew, top-tier production professionals had various ways to amass wealth, and the scale of Abyssal Magic Crystals and assets in the hands of some Forgers and Alchemists might even rival that of Lords of the same level.
These weren’t just fat leeks—they were oil-spewing treasure mines!
The reason Hang Yu developed the task templates for some NPCs was mainly to improve the circulation efficiency of Contribution Points, thereby creating more Contribution Points and pushing the territory's GDP to new heights.
In the future, as the territory's population increased and the territory expanded,
Hang Yu couldn't possibly issue every task personally to all Players.
Thus, he could rely on NPCs to handle it.
He believed in the wisdom of the Fourth Calamity and the Citizens of the Stars.
As long as they were given proper guidance, the Players and NPCs would definitely find countless creative ways to play with Contribution Points.
No matter how they tossed them around,
for Hang Yu, who held the power to issue currency, Contribution Points were merely a string of numbers.
As long as Players and NPCs reached a consensus, he could easily collect minting taxes from their transactions.
Oh right — Yan Ling wasn’t just a Forger, she also had cooking skills.
That couldn’t go to waste either.
Starting today, the Lord’s three meals a day would be completely handed over to her!
Hang Yu, having nothing better to do, opened the Internet and browsed the forums again.
Unknowingly, half a day slipped by.
Just then, a wave of notification sounds suddenly rang in his ears.
【Player "Street Slayer" has died, Essence +600...】
【Player "Zha Jiang Mian" has died, Essence +400!】
【Player "A Sword Comes from the West" has died, Essence +600!】
【Player "Salted Fish Thrust" has died, Essence +400...】
【Player "Black-Eyed Rui Ge" has died, Essence +600...】
【Player "Ye Li Meng" has died, Essence +600...】
【……】
What the heck was this?
They had wiped again!
More than twenty people had died in this wave!
Hang Yu hadn't done anything at all—just laid there like a salted fish, surfing the Internet and browsing the forums—and the Essence reserves surged like a flood.
He couldn't help but feel...
wasn’t being a Lord a little too comfortable?