Lin Feng
Stepping of the airship, Lin Feng and his two cousins are back in Oryn. The last of the twelve spirit gathering arrays will be fully upgraded within the next few days. They are rushing back to welcome and play guide for the relatives and friends that will soon be entering
They have already shortlisted all the candidates for the beta player slots obtained. Lin Feng will use his slots to bring in his eldest cousin sister, Bai Xue and her husband, Zhang Liang into the game. By this point in time, he realized deep down his ambition to a lucrative high-end resort empire will remain just a pipe dream without the guidance one someone who knew exactly what they are doing. Off course, he can always fumble around learning how to run a business but the smarter choice is leaving it to the experts. His last two two remaining slots will be given to his university dorm mates, Chen Yu and Zhang Xufei. As for his two cousins, Lin Fu will be bringing in his colleagues into the game while Lin Yi has already gotten all three of his university dorm mates on board.
Things are finally getting exciting for Lin Feng since Sect Leader Maximus last major announcement. Construction and hunting are all fun and good, but battling other cultivators will definitely bring the gaming experience to the next level. With the help of the auxiliary skill Sleep Is Great! Both Lin Fu and Lin Yi has also stepped in the second major realm, Core Formation recently. When it comes to the name of the auxiliary skill, Lin Feng can't help complaining about the inventor's poor naming sense. It was rather awkward whenever he has to say the skill's name out loud.
Based on the latest estimate, the gateway will mostly like be completed in another Earth month time. Details on where the first portal will be opened has already been released by the sect. It will be on a world that can be considered remote and poor even when measured by the lower realm standard. The selected kingdom has fallen into civil war two years back after the whole royal family was mysteriously wiped out. The three dukes in the kingdom, also the only three major realm cultivators in the kingdom are now contending for hegemony. This is good news for the players as the sect has announced that the three dukes will not easily leave their main base of operation. The sect has already classified all three dukes' main base of operation forbidden grounds.
To make sure all players understand the severity of the sect's order, it has been made clear that any player ended up caught or dead while trespassing into the forbidden ground will have their revival penalty increased from the usual three Earth days to an Earth week. In addition, the sect promised benefit of reviving any dead players with their cultivation intact will also be revoked and all campaign points earned forfeited. Despite the heavy handed penalty, there will always be some reckless fools who think the rules don't apply to them. If such a thing does happen, Lin Feng can only hope their foolish action will not end up implicating everyone else.
In any case, the sect will be fully supervising each and every single action throughout the first campaign. Without the supervision, the campaign will very quickly descend into a chaotic free for all as players compete for the low hanging fruits. This will also help to minimize casualties since this will be the first time players are going to confront other cultivators and without a doubt they have absolutely no idea what they are up against. As long as the players stick to the plan, they should be able take out every single settlement they attack without letting anyone escape or send out a distress signal. Things will be less complicated as long as the three duke remains in the dark unbeknown to them, a forth party has entered the fray.
Lin Feng and his cousins have been slowly securing all the needed supplies for the campaign in Ovina but there is one major purchase they can only get in Oryn. Being the most industrially developed town and also housing the largest and most experienced production class population, it is only in Oryn that they will be able to buy a suitable vehicle or two to transport natives back to Eldorin. Carriage towed by magical beasts is the simplest solution but if that's what Lin Feng has in mind, he could easily have created his own given how low-tech it is. He needs a vehicle with a much higher carrying capacity if he plans to maximize his gains participating in the campaign.
In one of the many follow-up announcements, it has been made known that players won't get to keep the natives they brought back from the campaign. As a safeguard against potential slavery or abuse, all natives will be processed and given new identities by the sect before placing them under the supervision of the newly formed Native Employment Agency. With a shortage of manpower across board, production class players will be at a disadvantage unless they also went on a journey over the soon to be completed gateway. This is not the best use of human resources when there are still so many areas in Eldorin that urgently needs development. To prevent production class players with limited combat experience bringing more chaos to an already chaotic battlefield, the sect has come up with a series of complicated calculation for all players who either contributed directly or indirectly towards the campaign in the form of campaign points. Production class players earn points by producing supporting equipment (siege weapons, vehicles, etc.) and supplies while combatants earn points by actively participating in the campaign. This campaign points will ultimately be the deciding factor how many natives each player will be able to hire. More points will translate into the eligibility to hire more manpower. Participating in the campaign and killing enemies gets Lin Feng campaign points but the number of natives brought back will definitely be an easy way to earn more points.
According to Lin Feng's research, spirit energy vehicles are the latest trend in Oryn right now. Due to the initial chaos caused by the emergence of spirit energy battery, the sect has been forced to intervene and one of the end results is a set of regulations introduced to standardize the size, format and quality of portable spirit energy batteries. As a result of the sect's intervention, all new spirit energy vehicles invented by players doesn't suffer from one of the major drawbacks plaguing electric vehicles back on Earth. Instead of waiting for their vehicle to charge up whenever it runs dry, a player just has to swap out the depleted battery with a fresh battery and the vehicle is good to go again. Charging those depleted batteries are also hassle free. Players just need to go to a specialized shop to swap a depleted battery for a freshly charged battery plus charging fees. It is a concept similar to gas cylinders used in a cooking stove. Consumers just need to return the depleted cylinder and pay for a fresh new gas cylinder.
Players has been coming up with all forms of spirit energy vehicles ever since. The concept of hover vehicles has even been explored but such vehicle is a total energy hog making it less than practical in the middle of a warzone. Until the whole technologies behind hover vehicles become more mature, it won't be seeing mainstream use anytime soon. What is commonly seen across Oryn now is spirit energy bikes, being the easiest to produce compared to larger vehicles. However, spirit energy bikes don't have the carrying capacity Lin Feng needs.
With horrible road conditions expected at their future destination, all-terrain spirit energy truck is in high demand and orders are in the backlogged. Lin Feng will have to get creative if he ever hopes to come into possession a suitable vehicle or ideally three before the campaign began. Fortunately or mayhap unfortunately for Lin Feng, it is a known fact that any production class players capable of creating the vehicle he needs can be bribed to work overtime for a cut of any campaign points earned for each natives brought back using the vehicles they make. Any suitable vehicle will definitely cost him an arm and a leg as the shortage in the market makes this once of those race chances those money grubbing production class makes a killing.