NOVEL WEB Chapter 5
Chapter 5: Daily Quests
Although the “death tax” was the primary means of resource recovery,
Hang Yu was not content with just that.
As long as he broadened his thinking a little, he would discover that there were countless ways to squeeze the players.
For example, setting a resurrection cooldown.
The higher the player’s level, the longer the waiting time, but if the player paid the corresponding fee for their level, they could revive instantly without waiting.
Or, future supplies, consumables, equipment, and skills produced by the territory—originally resources provided directly by the lord to enhance the combat ability of subordinate units—could now be made available for players to purchase out of their own pockets.
Commercial transactions between players could also be taxed accordingly.
In short, as long as one's heart was black enough and one's imagination was big enough, not only could players be tormented until they were half dead, but they would also become addicted to it, enjoying it as if it were sweet nectar, even indulging in it, coming up with all sorts of tricks themselves.
Hang Yu firmly believed that, as long as it was planned well,
It would not only avoid discouraging enthusiasm,
But could also stimulate even greater motivation and drive!
Those who enjoyed playing high-difficulty games often had a bit of a masochistic streak.
Hang Yu had only one goal: to make players happily toil away, suffer and sacrifice for the territory, while still singing praises about how fun the game was and how “conscientious” the planning was.
Twelve players had logged into the game.
This did not match the twenty internal test slots that had been issued.
But there was nothing strange about that. It was impossible for everyone to be sitting right in front of their computers at that exact moment, and not everyone could go online at that specific time. Having twelve players log in simultaneously was already quite good.
No need to worry for now.
If a player did not log in for more than twenty-four hours,
Xiao Ba would reclaim the internal test qualification and reassign it.
As for the players who had activated the internal test, their average daily online time was temporarily set to no less than six hours.
Otherwise, their qualification would also be revoked, allowing those precious slots to be given to more active players, thus ensuring that players would exert enough light and heat in the game.
Hang Yu ordered Xiao Ba to issue the relevant instructions and guidance to the players.
The players quickly followed the guidance and arrived at the Lord’s Hall.
“Freaking awesome!”
“The art and design are absolutely blowing my mind!”
“The sky, this vast wilderness, the atmosphere—completely full of mystery and class!”
“What on earth happened in this world? Why did it turn into this hellish scene!”
“Holy crap, I can’t wait to explore this world. I’ve played over a hundred games but have never felt such a strong desire to explore as I do now!”
“Let’s go meet the Lord first!”
Among the twelve players, there were ten males and two females, each of them brimming with happiness and excitement, now standing in front of Hang Yu.
“So this is the Lord NPC?”
“Wow, he’s actually so young and handsome? Looks like even I, known as the triple Wu Yanzu, have to step aside for now!”
“Can we have romances with NPCs in this game?”
“Is there a favorability development system?”
“This game seems to have really high freedom. What do you think would happen if we tried to chop down the Lord? Would he drop some epic gear?”
This was said by a warrior player whose ID was “Street Slayer”, a guy whose character model had a face full of knife scars, looking like a savage and vicious killer who had probably taken at least ten lives.
A female player, a warlock named “Chimera Wraith”, immediately retorted, “Don’t do something that stupid. Whether or not we can even beat him aside, if we lose the only NPC, who’s going to give us quests?”
Black-Eyed Rui Ge chuckled and said, “Forget it. Didn’t you read the game guide? This guy is our faction leader. Without him, the game’s storyline can’t even proceed.”
“……”
The players chattered noisily among themselves.
One of the female players even wanted to go up and touch the Lord.
At that moment, a powerful aura erupted from the Lord NPC, instantly making the players lose their ability to move or even speak.
What the heck was happening?
“Is this the beginning of a cutscene?”
Through the Heavenly Dao Cube, Hang Yu had absolute control over the players.
In order to make these guys behave for a while, he temporarily forbade movement and communication, and began to recite the opening speech he had prepared in advance.
“Hello!”
“I am Hang Yu, Lord from the Land of the Stars!”
“As you can see, the Three Kingdoms era of this dimension has suffered an invasion and pollution from the Abyss. All living beings have been twisted and deformed under the corruption of dark nightmares. Even the historical figures you are familiar with have mostly been demonized into powerful and indescribable monsters!”
“Moreover, tens of thousands of demons from the Land of the Stars are building territories here, attempting to occupy this world and completely alter history—something that, as a human, is absolutely unacceptable!”
“You are the warriors from another world that I have carefully selected.”
“I have granted you these bodies with infinite potential!”
“From now on, your mission is to assist in the construction of the territory, hunt down the pollution from the Abyss, eliminate the demons from the Land of the Stars, and thoroughly purify history!”
“……”
After finishing the speech,
He lifted the restriction.
“Kinda interesting.”
“A broken-down Three Kingdoms?”
“The background setting has a bit of a Soulslike vibe.”
“The bosses we’ll be challenging won’t be the Famous Generals and strategists of the Three Kingdoms, right?”
“What’s the background of the Abyss invasion? What exactly is the Land of the Stars? It sounds like there’s a lot of information!”
Several players stepped forward to interact with the Lord.
Although the Lord did not answer every single question, it was easy to see that he possessed a very high level of intelligence, almost indistinguishable from a real person.
Such a smart NPC.
Was today’s artificial intelligence really this advanced?
With these visuals, rendering, scene interactions, and such an intelligent NPC, the investment in equipment and computing power must have reached astronomical figures beyond the imagination of ordinary companies.
The only thing one could say was that the development team was simply too powerful and too conscientious!
The Lord’s Hall now allowed players to accept quests!
Hang Yu ordered Xiao Ba to issue quests at any time based on the needs of the territory.
At the current stage, the main tasks were exploration and gathering.
Hang Yu needed to quickly understand the situation around the territory, and also urgently needed materials and food for early-stage construction.
The twelve players quickly split into several small teams.
【Daily Quest: Collect ten units of Tier 1 common food, Contribution Points +10.】
【Daily Quest: Collect ten units of Tier 1 common materials, Contribution Points +10.】
The Contribution Points were the currency system within the territory.
According to the death penalty Hang Yu had set, when a player died, they would drop all the Abyssal Magic Crystals they carried.
In such a situation, players had only two choices: either store the magic crystals somewhere safe or find a way to exchange them for Contribution Points.
Abyssal Magic Crystals could be exchanged for Contribution Points.
But Contribution Points could not be exchanged back for Abyssal Magic Crystals.
Abyssal Magic Crystals were a hard currency universally accepted across the multiverse.
Contribution Points, on the other hand, were just a set of numbers generated by Xiao Ba.
Of course, not only would Hang Yu avoid over-issuing Contribution Points, he would carefully control the total amount in circulation.
Most items and value-added services within the territory could only be purchased with Contribution Points, thus ensuring a continuous recycling of issued Contribution Points and deliberately creating the illusion that Contribution Points were even more precious than magic crystals.
Xiao Ba said, “The players have left the territory.”
Hang Yu nodded in satisfaction. “Good. Let’s see how they perform. Hopefully, they die a few times soon.”
The current territory was too weak.
Hang Yu himself was also not strong.
He had to remain cautious enough.
For the sake of safety, it was best not to leave the territory for now.
As for pioneering and adventuring, that was something best left to these immortal players!
He activated the Lord’s Panel.
The Lord could monitor any corner of the territory at any time.
He could also keep track of the status of any citizen or subordinate whenever he wanted.
The panel in front of Hang Yu quickly transformed into a top-down view, at first resembling the perspective of a real-time strategy game.
As he zoomed in, the view gradually became clearer, like a high-definition drone shooting from a close distance.
After receiving their tasks,
The players laughed and chatted as they left one after another.
They would soon encounter wild monsters distributed nearby.
According to what Hang Yu had learned at the Lord Academy, he knew that the initial drop point for a lord was always in an area with the lowest level of pollution, matching the lord’s current strength.
The chances of encountering high-level monsters were very low.
But even the lowest-level monsters
Still carried a certain level of danger.
As players explored the map, any newly discovered regions and wild monsters would be recorded by the Lord Core, allowing it to analyze the area’s pollution level and the monsters’ strength.
Based on the data from the Lord Core, Xiao Ba would generate monster information for the players, enabling them to see a monster’s level, health bar, and even a brief description, all to enhance the gaming experience.
“They're coming!”
Hang Yu noticed that a team of players had discovered wild monsters!