Chapter 117: Planning
"The open beta has finally started!"
XB clenched his fists, brimming with confidence.
Before the game even launched, he had already made up his mind: over the next few days, he'd focus on making money, studying alchemy, buying a good gun, and changing class—determined to become one of the top players.
To put it bluntly, that woman Jinse had only beaten him because of her head start in Alchemy. Because of that, he had even decided to learn an additional alchemy-related sub-skill. He was dead set on competing with her for favor till the bitter end!
A cold smirk played on XB's lips.
Heh. Woman, you'll never understand the bond between brothers who've fought side by side.
…
A few hours after the game launched, more and more early-game strategy threads began popping up on the forums.
It was only the first day of the open beta. According to the original progression, most players would spend the early stages grinding away in obscurity.
Only a tiny handful would get lucky and stumble across valuable opportunities.
Sure enough, on the Apocalypse forums, Zhou Ning spotted a few lucky players boasting about encounters that set them apart from the masses.
The most outrageous one was a French player named "Alex." He'd been born into a devout family from the Byron Republic and had a whopping 69 in Natural Force Affinity. Naturally, he was recruited by the Church of the Goddess of Nature on Day One and even managed to change class to Warrior—an absurdly enviable start.
As a chronically unlucky player, Zhou Ning despised these so-called lucky bastards. He much preferred posts like these:
"Broooos, anyone out there who can help me?! I was born tied to a pillar, and these people are sharpening knives, getting ready to castrate me!!!"
"At least you're only losing your junk—I lost love! I was born in the Walrus Kingdom, and I'm surrounded by these white-furred walrus people with tusks like spears. Someone tell me what the hell I'm supposed to do?"
"Furry lovers, rejoice!"
Zhou Ning: …
He quietly scrolled through the forum. Aside from the weirdos above, he noticed that quite a few players had been born in Darkland. Many of them had already begun saving up and trying to figure out how to trigger quests.
Zhou Ning didn't mind these kinds of players. Sure, they didn't offer much value right now, but they were all potential customers—and customers required patient cultivation.
Near Darkland was another sizable starter village: Westlyn Town. The two were separated by a massive weather tide and could only be accessed via steam train. That wasn't a problem for Zhou Ning.
His next step was to start "harvesting" players from both areas—raking in money and experience.
But he wasn't in a rush to hit up Westlyn just yet. Players were still broke during the first two days. Better to wait until they'd done a few newbie quests and scraped together some cash.
Stretching lazily, Zhou Ning closed the forum tab, stood up from his chair, and stepped out of his alchemy shop.
His shop wasn't far from his alchemy lab. As soon as he walked out the door, he was immediately spotted by his second "cabbage" [slang: target to exploit]—Jinse, who had been lingering nearby.
She'd logged out here at the end of the closed beta. The moment she came back online, she'd rushed to Zhou Ning's alchemy lab. Not finding him there, she was a little disappointed—until she ran into him just now. Was this fate?
"Boss, I'm back!" Jinse hurried over with a beaming smile.
"Oh, it's you. Ready to get back to work?" Zhou Ning smiled and greeted her casually, simultaneously issuing her a task.
Once he hit level 20 and gained one point of Legendary Reputation, Zhou Ning noticed his daily task quota had suddenly skyrocketed to 105,000—he had no idea what it was based on.
Right then, a task notification popped up on Jinse's interface:
[Daily Quest: "Back to Work" — Now that you're back in the game, it's time to return to your job. Clean the room thoroughly and try making some beginner healing potions.]
[Reward: 2,500 EXP, 8 Roshens.]
The quest required Jinse to clean the room and produce 30 beginner healing potions—about four hours of work, conveniently matching her shift time. The reward was generous.
Same old recipe, same familiar flavor. Now this was a juicy leg to cling to!
Eyes lighting up, Jinse nodded eagerly. "I'm ready! Let's do it!"
Zhou Ning's lips curved upward. He pointed toward the back of the alchemy shop and said with a chuckle, "There's a small alchemy lab inside. You can try making the beginner potions on your own—plenty of materials."
"Got it!" Jinse bounced into the shop full of energy, completely unashamed about playing the suck-up.
Please. As a pro player, the only way to flex on other players is to grovel shamelessly before the right NPC!
Watching her cheerful figure disappear inside, Zhou Ning remained outside pretending to enjoy the scenery.
With his Observation Haki, he could sense four or five players nearby whispering to each other, hesitating, too timid to make the first move.
One of them had a familiar ID—Qingbai Wild Sake—a future celebrity commentator in Apocalypse. Like XB, Qingbai had once been a pro MOBA player. His solo-queue series was once all the rage, but after switching to Apocalypse, his mechanical skills were exposed as garbage. His mage gameplay was so bad it became a meme. Ironically, he thrived in game commentary.
After waiting quite a while, Zhou Ning—striking a perfect 45-degree pose and gazing heroically into the sky—couldn't help feeling puzzled. What's with the shyness?
Weren't players supposed to immediately flock to big-name NPCs? Why were they hanging around like teapots?
Running out of patience, he casually created and posted a new task.
[Quest: "Material Matters" — With the shop newly opened, Wayne Sturwell urgently needs a batch of alchemical materials. Bring him what he needs, and you'll gain his friendship—and a surprise beyond expectations.]
The task asked them to buy herbs for beginner potions—easily available at a nearby herb shop. Zhou Ning knew from player experience that everyone started with about 10 Roshens—enough for this quest.
Led by Qingbai, the players eagerly accepted the quest. Not long after, they returned with bags full of herbs. After turning them in and seeing the big EXP boost and 8 Roshens reward, they were overjoyed.
Seeing their excited faces, Zhou Ning smiled and said, "I might have something coming up that'll require a few helpers. If you're interested, bring as many friends as you can and come see me in two days."
Holy crap—it's a chain quest!
Qingbai was ecstatic and nodded like crazy. This guy really was the legendary super sugar daddy NPC! Gotta lock this down!
Watching the players walk off happily with their rewards, Zhou Ning couldn't help but grin.
The reason he gave them that task was to raise awareness—let more players know about him and give them two days to earn money and EXP.
Zhou Ning had already done the math on early-stage rewards for newbie quests, and estimated the average gains players could make during the opening days. From there, he tailored a perfect beginner gear set to match their progress—ensuring that anyone who crossed paths with him could successfully change class within two weeks.
Zhou Ning felt like a veritable philanthropist. In all of Apocalypse, there probably wasn't a single other NPC who cared about the players as much as he did.
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