Chapter 1276: 411. Ignite Player_2

When players learned that passing the first round of trial tasks would unlock the NPC Affection System and allow them to get a Magic Egg for free, there were still some who doubted whether the Magic Egg was just a gimmick to milk more money from them.

Many players had been scared off by the game operator’s predatory activities.

When they saw official giveaways, they subconsciously thought it was just another money-making scheme.

The Cucumber Slice Team clearly understood the players’ mindset early on.

He immediately introduced the concept through a voiceover:

“Magic Eggs don’t require Krypton Gold, no need to buy gift packages, you can even skip the game store, and they’ll turn into little pets!”

...

“You know those gray-quality items that drop while we’re grinding monsters? The ones that are only good for selling to NPCs?

“We just need to feed those to the Magic Egg along with some Experience, and it will hatch into a pet!”

“Ladies and Gentlemen! This is a conscientious event that proves you’re the king of grinrders! As long as you’re willing to grind, everyone can have their own pet!”

“If you are a player who likes to grind, like eating ribs, then congratulations! By selling your unwanted gray-quality items to other players, you can make double the money compared to selling them to stores!”

“I know there will be people saying, ‘Oh, Cucumber Slice, each person can only take one Magic Egg and hatch one pet, so there won’t be many people needing gray-quality items.’

“To those doubts, I just want to ask, who told you each person can only take one Magic Egg??”

Cucumber Slice dramatically built suspense, pausing for a few seconds before continuing with the video:

“Our tests showed that there’s no limit to the number of Magic Eggs a person can get! As long as you meet the NPC’s affection requirements, everyone can collect unlimited Magic Eggs!”

“The reason for such a generous setup, is because the new occupation is actually leading an army of magic pets, the ‘Magic Pet Lord’!”

The video then showed the hidden task performed by Golden Dragon in the Sky.

The generous Boss Jin did not hold back, openly sharing the hidden occupation task he had received.

The entire video was overwhelmed with exclamation points and expressions of disbelief. If you didn’t turn off the comments, you couldn’t see a thing in the video.

“Our team speculates that Boss Jin, as the first person to complete the first trial task, can take on the hidden occupation without meeting the affection requirements. Water friends, after raising the NPC’s affection, should also be able to take on this series of tasks!”

“Let’s anticipate the brand new expansion after maintenance is completed!”

“For more information on NPCs, please follow the game’s official website!”

“Lastly, let’s thank Boss Jin for his generosity. Without him, we could not have known so much insider information!”

The comments were endless.

“Thanks to Boss Jin, so generous!”

“Is Boss Jin’s guild recruiting? I specialize in that!”

“Seriously, where is this NPC anyway? Just tell us already! I’m dying to know!”

“Trash game, don’t believe them, it’s all the developers’ tricks, but let me try it out first.”

The comments continued nonstop until the video finally went black.

About an hour after the release of this panoramic video, the game’s official website posted a game update announcement.

Besides the usual bug fixes and patches, all the remaining content was introducing the new expansion.

The Cucumber Slice Team, having seen the update, immediately published their own interpretation of the announcement.

First was the new storyline in the expansion, stating that the notorious Dark Divine Cult was secretly plotting something, which had drawn the attention of the descendants of the Supreme God Clan.

Our mysterious boss-level NPC is one of these descendants.

He stepped into the limelight, appearing in the players’ view to guide them to conquer the Dark Divine Cult and other sinister cosmic forces.

Any player recognized by the NPC could take up the new occupation related to the Magic Series.

Apart from the Magic Pet Lord shown in the video, four other new occupations were announced.

As the Cucumber Slice Team speculated in the video, there indeed was a life occupation focused on creating Magical Items, known as the ‘Magic Craftsman.'”

Since the announcement didn’t specify the skills for each occupation, the Cucumber Slice Team could only give rough estimates based on other games.

This part of the content is full of subjective interpretations, and each player has their own ideas.

In any case, a panoramic video that set the entire network ablaze, along with a game update announcement from Starry Sea Game, became the hot topic among nearly ten million players.

But the problem had arisen.

Where exactly was this NPC?

The video didn’t mention it, the announcement didn’t say, and the members of the Cucumber Slice Team wouldn’t reply to private messages.

Only a few players who had undertaken the Split Bear Star Thief faction’s task on Lisom New Star guessed that the NPC might be on a planet in the Lisom Star System, but they couldn’t be sure which one.

Because there were just too many planets with red-brown soil in the Lisom Star System.

The Cucumber Slice Team didn’t want to share because they had received instructions from Golden Dragon in the Sky to secure more of a head-start advantage for their guild.

As for why the game’s official website didn’t mention it, that was Noland Lee’s fault.

Honestly, Noland Lee was really having a headache now.

He was worrying about how to construct an impressive group of magic buildings.

In his initial plan, he wanted to package the task of building magic buildings and distribute them to players skilled in construction.

After receiving the task, players would draw up plans, conceive construction strategies, and submit them to Noland Lee for review.

Noland Lee would choose the proposals he liked and then issue a large number of tasks, guiding players to build the magic buildings for him.

This approach had two advantages.

First, Noland Lee wouldn’t have to do everything himself, leaving everything to be dealt with by the players.

Second, the players would feel more involved, their sense of belonging would quickly foster, and they could also obtain magical items beneficial for their advancement from the tasks.

Originally, this was a mutually beneficial arrangement for both Noland Lee and the players.

But since the Dark Divine Cult suddenly started contaminating the game’s source code, Noland Lee worried that he might soon be besieged by the Dark Divine Cult, so he had to modify this plan.

Under pressing time and heavy tasks, Noland Lee could only rely on his understanding of architecture and haphazardly use Earth Rock Magic to construct the group of magic buildings.

His experience in construction was essentially zero, and he had redrawn the design several times, not even being able to finalize the location of the buildings.

This directly resulted in his inability to write his exact location in the update announcement…

Seeing that there were less than 15 hours left until maintenance, Noland Lee knew he had to settle on a plan and could no longer hesitate.

“I want a set of buildings that screams ‘magic’ at first glance. They should be able to float in space or land on a planet. If possible, they should also have certain defensive capabilities. For instance, a layer of magic barrier for all-around protection, or magical turrets everywhere, inside and out.”

Noland Lee floated in space, looking at the vast, deep Starry Sea, his brow tightened:

“Considering the future influx of many players coming here to undertake tasks, the larger the scale of these buildings, the better. But how can I alone, in less than 15 hours, create something as massive as a cosmic space station?

“Do I have to resort to stealing?”

Noland Lee thought of the Dark God Descendant’s Space Station under his surveillance and then shook his head. noveldrama

That space station was far too distant from here; it wasn’t possible to steal it right now.

And even if Noland Lee could seize it, it wasn’t necessarily transportable…

Noland Lee brooded in deep thought, deciding to consult the ‘Heart of Magic’ next.

Perhaps there indeed existed a magic for creating groups of magic buildings.

“Search for magic that constructs large groups of magic buildings.”

[Searching…]

[Search complete, result is zero. It is recommended to use ‘House Building Technique’ to construct the buildings you want one by one.]

“Sss… toothache.” Noland Lee’s cheek twitched.

He rephrased his question and asked:

“Then, is there any kind of magic building that can accommodate many people in the same place, where each person can do different things without interfering with each other? Such a magic building should also have strong defensive capabilities.

[Searching…]

[Search complete; results are as follows:…]

“What?! There are results?” Noland Lee hurriedly clicked to view.

When he saw one of the magic buildings, even with his current state of mind, he couldn’t help but forget to breathe.