Chapter 9: Reaping
Before the brutal BOSS battle erupted.
Hang Yu had already received several player death notifications in the Lord’s Hall.
【Player "Zha Jiang Mian" has died. Abyssal Magic Stone Fragnt 14, Abyssal Essence Points 100!】
【Player "Ning Caichen II" has died. Abyssal Magic Stone Fragnt 20, Poisoned Spikes of the Spiked Rabbit 2, Spiked Rabbit at 2, Abyssal Essence Points 100!】
【Player "A Sword Cos from the West" has fallen. Abyssal Magic Stone Fragnt 31, Green Giant Frog Sli 4, Abyssal Essence Points 150!】
【……】
Hang Yu: "Eh? So players have already croaked? That’s faster than I expected!"
Xiao Ba said, "Master, although the magic-corrupted creatures near the territory are only Level 1 or Level 2, they are more than enough to cost the lives of inexperienced and initially weak players!"
Luckily, it was players who died.
Otherwise, the losses would have been too great!
Hang Yu could not help but sigh, "Our human troops may be relatively cheap, but even then, each costs as much as 20 Abyssal Magic Crystals. The small amount of magic crystals I brought would not be able to withstand the attrition during the territory exploration."
But now, it was fine.
No need to tread carefully.
No need to walk on thin ice.
The lives of players cost nothing — just throw them in!
This would not only ensure extrely high exploration efficiency, but also generate generous returns!
The experience points and level drop caused by a player's death were related to their current level and would generally not exceed twenty percent. If there were not enough remaining Abyssal Essence Points, then as much would be dropped as available.
Additionally, all magic stone wealth carried would be lost, and there was a twenty percent chance for items in the backpack to be dropped as well.
What delighted Hang Yu the most was—
Under the strengthening effect of his hidden talent—
Every 1 point of Abyssal Essence exploded from a player’s death would be converted into 5 points for the territory!
Was this even earning?
It was basically a heartless, insane blood-profit!
"For the sake of the territory’s growth, players should die a few more tis," Xiao Ba said coldly and ruthlessly.
Hang Yu chuckled, "Didn't expect you, Xiao Ba, to have the makings of a heartless capitalist!"
"The master’s interests are absolute."
Hang Yu said, "In the early stages, we still have to exercise so restraint and not over-exploit. You have to fatten the pig a bit before slaughtering it. These players are way too poor right now; there’s barely any oil to skim."
Players had a set resurrection cooldown.
At first glance, it seed that this would affect efficiency and profits, but in fact, it was not the case.
First, if deaths and resurrections occurred too frequently in a short period, it might cause damage to the player’s spirit and soul.
Therefore, setting a daily death cap or increasing the interval between deaths was actually a protective chanism for the players — also a way to ensure sustainable "draining of the pond to catch the fish."
Secondly, players could pay a not-too-expensive amount of Contribution Points to instantly revive. To obtain Contribution Points, they had to engage in "brick-moving" labor: collecting materials and resources for the territory or completing tasks.
Only by continuously recycling Contribution Points and keeping players strapped for resources would they work even harder.
In the long run—
Frequent repeated deaths—
Would inevitably consu a large amount of Contribution Points.
They would then have to find ways to complete tasks and earn more Contribution Points.
Thus, the territory’s benefits would not decrease but instead rise sharply.
As long as Hang Yu controlled the rhythm and scale of issuing and reclaiming Contribution Points, not only could he command players to work and gather resources, but he could also easily obtain materials and assign players to various missions through tasks.
Xiao Ba summarized, "Master, the resources currently recovered are: a total of 450 Abyssal Essence Points, 65 Abyssal Magic Stone Fragnts, 4 portions of Green Giant Frog Sli, 2 Poisoned Spikes of the Spiked Rabbit, and 2 portions of Spiked Rabbit at."
The Abyssal Essence Points could be used to strengthen himself—
Or used to cultivate soldiers or for other consumptions.
Of course, it could also be used as mission rewards for players.
When players took on missions for the sake of rewards and repeatedly died in high-difficulty tasks, Hang Yu would harvest a large amount of returns from their deaths.
So of it would be used for personal strengthening or territory construction, and the surplus could be redistributed again through missions...
This was truly a closed-loop cycle — practically a perpetual motion machine!
As for the 110 pieces of Abyssal Magic Stone Fragnts, there was nothing much to say.
It took 100 Abyssal Magic Stone Fragnts to synthesize one Abyssal Magic Stone, and 10 Abyssal Magic Stones could be refined into one Abyssal Magic Crystal.
Even with the players’ 10x drop rate boost, they had only produced this much!
The value of Abyssal Magic Crystals was evident.
Recruiting units was extrely expensive!
In the early stages, if one did not secure investnt or a loan, starting out would be extrely difficult — unless the Lord belonged to a particularly strong race that could manually grind monsters and complete their primitive accumulation.
However, since Hang Yu started as a human, his starting level was too low, and it was inadvisable for him to venture out before his strength grew.
This was also why he had been hiding inside the territory all this ti.
Although this bit of magic stone inco seed insignificant for now, as players grew stronger, hunted increasingly powerful monsters, or as the player population expanded, the inco generated would beco an unimaginable number.
As for the remaining three items, they all belonged to the resource category.
Among them, the Sli and Poisoned Spikes were materials, mainly used to craft equipnt, tools, or consumables.
In addition to that, there was another use — they could be thrown into the Lord Core for conversion, thereby obtaining the basic materials needed to build the territory.
These two materials were of little use.
Hang Yu tossed them into the Lord Core.
【You have converted "Green Giant Frog Sli" ×4, "Poisoned Spikes of the Spiked Rabbit" ×2, and obtained "Tier 1 Common Material Essence" ×6!】
This "Material Essence" was the basic material consud for constructing the territory.
Normally, it could only be obtained through material conversion — Tier 1 materials could be converted into Tier 1 essence, Tier 2 materials into Tier 2 essence, and so on.
This amount of materials—
Was, of course, far from enough!
Hang Yu summoned the Lord Panel.
In the 【Territory Construction】 option, there were sub-options like 【Building Construction】 and 【Building Upgrade】.
Hang Yu opened Building Construction, and saw a list of initial human buildings displayed before him.
————
【Territory Canteen】, construction cost: 100 Abyssal Magic Crystals, 200 units of Tier 1 Material Essence, current buildable amount: 0/2.
【Forging Workshop】, construction cost: 400 Abyssal Magic Crystals, 500 units of Tier 1 Material Essence, current buildable amount: 0/1.
【Alchemy Workshop】, construction cost: 300 Abyssal Magic Crystals, 400 units of Tier 1 Material Essence, current buildable amount: 0/1.
…………
【Trading Hall】, construction cost: 200 Abyssal Magic Crystals, 500 units of Tier 1 Material Essence, current buildable amount: 0/1.
【Abyss Barracks】, construction cost: 500 Abyssal Magic Crystals, 2000 units of Tier 1 Material Essence, current buildable amount: 4/4.
【Stars Teleportation Station】, construction cost: 3000 Abyssal Magic Crystals, 10000 units of Tier 1 Material Essence, current buildable amount: 0/1.
————
There were sixteen types of basic buildings for a human territory, covering all fundantal needs such as food, drink, excretion, production, and skill learning.
As long as the corresponding fees were paid, construction could proceed.
Each building for an Abyss Lord possessed special abilities.
Besides these basic buildings, special building blueprints or blueprints for other race-specific buildings could also be obtained during map exploration or battles against other Lords, enriching the troops and strength of the territory.
Whether it was building new structures—
Or upgrading existing ones—
Both required large amounts of funding and materials.
At present, Hang Yu had enough funds for the ti being, but he severely lacked Material Essence.
This was why he issued collection tasks, urging players to go out and hunt monsters to obtain materials.
At this mont—
Hang Yu noticed—
Players like Black-Eyed Rui Ge, Ye Li ng, and Chira Wraith were performing quite well.
Not only had they successfully hunted a large number of wild monsters, but they had also leveled up to Level 2 and then tead up to challenge a Snake-Tailed Fla Chicken.
Hang Yu imdiately burst into laughter.
The Snake-Tailed Fla Chicken was a Level 3 Elite monster.
Players clearly lacked understanding of the dangers of the Abyss World!
The strength evaluation of Abyssal creatures mainly followed two criteria: Level and Rank.
The Stars divided Abyssal creatures into ten ranks. Even if monsters were of the sa level, due to differences in rank, there would be vast disparities in strength.
There were many naming conventions for these ten ranks.
To make it easier for players to understand, Hang Yu had Xiao Ba redefine the monster ranks, from low to high, as: Common, Elite, Commander, Overlord, Monarch, Emperor, Master, Epic, Legendary, Mythical, and Unknowable.
Although the Snake-Tailed Fla Chicken was just a Level 3 Elite, in terms of strength, it would not lose to a Level 8 or Level 9 Common monster.
Given the players' current strength, they had almost no chance of victory.
As expected!
【Player "Black-Eyed Rui Ge" has died. Abyssal Magic Stone Fragnt 140, Abyssal Essence Points 250, Snake-Tailed Mountain Chicken Feather 6, Snake-Tailed Mountain Chicken at 8!】
【Player "Street Slayer" has died. Abyssal Magic Stone Fragnt 122, Abyssal Essence Points 250, Snake-Tailed Mountain Chicken Feather 9, Snake-Tailed Mountain Chicken at 4!】
【Player "Chira Wraith" has died. Abyssal Magic Stone Fragnt 117, Abyssal Essence Points 250, Snake-Tailed Mountain Chicken Feather 8, Snake-Tailed Mountain Chicken at 5!】
【……】
【Player "Ye Li ng" has died. Abyssal Magic Stone Fragnt 125, Abyssal Essence Points 250, Snake-Tailed Mountain Chicken Feather 7, Snake-Tailed Mountain Chicken at 6!】
"All eight players have been wiped out!" Xiao Ba reported: "Congratulations, Master! You have obtained 2000 points of Abyssal Essence, along with 1123 Abyssal Magic Stone Fragnts, 63 material items, and 41 food items."
Not bad.
It was a bountiful harvest.
The current total inco was 2450 Abyssal Essence Points and 1188 Abyssal Magic Stone Fragnts.
Hang Yu first converted all the materials, and now the territory’s reserves of Material Essence had reached 69 units.
He said with satisfaction, "It’s only been about eight hours since the ga started. At this rate, all the supporting facilities will be built in no ti. With these players who are so eager to get themselves killed, how can the grand cause possibly fail!"
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