The dust stirred up by the troop transport convoy gradually settled, leaving Robert and his ninety-nine "subordinates." He looked at the group of people before him; the ten old ones were fine, having at least experienced one battle, but the ninety new ones were completely out of it. So were curiously stroking the mud walls of the trench, while others tried to strike up conversations with those around them, making the scene a bit chaotic.
Commanding a group of players?
A bead of cold sweat trickled down Robert's forehead. This was arguably the most impossible task in the world. Players were known for their free-spirited, undisciplined nature. Making them obey another player's command was as difficult as teaching an ogryn advanced mathematics.
Just as he was feeling anxious and wondering how to start in a way that would command respect from this group, a light blue virtual screen automatically popped up in front of him.
Main Quest Triggered
Mission Objective: Lead the other 99 players to defend the current position for at least one day (24 hours).
Failure Penalty: None
Mission Progress: 10 / 86400
At the sa ti, a surprised commotion arose in the crowd.
Ruthless Assassin quickly ran up to Robert, his face filled with excitent: "Boss! Boss! My system panel says I've triggered a main quest, it says Defend the position for at least one day under the leadership of the new Company Commander, Dr. Dixy Normous!"
As he finished speaking, other players also chid in, saying they had received the sa mission prompt.
A warmth imdiately surged through Robert's heart, and he felt like bowing to the ga dev on the spot.
Ga dev, you truly are a great person!
If Terrabyte were standing in front of him at that mont, Robert would probably rush forward without hesitation, embrace him, and give him two big kisses.
With the system quest to back him up, and him adding a bit of his own authority, the difficulty of commanding instantly dropped from hell mode to a beginner's tutorial!
The system panel prompt also made Robert realize that now was not the ti for sentintality. He quickly cald himself down and brought up his personal panel, wanting to see what specific updates this second closed beta had compared to the last one.
The UI interface still maintained a minimalist style, without any flashy decorations, allowing Robert to imdiately spot the differences from last ti.
Ga ID: Dr. Dixy Normous
Position: Temporary Company Commander, 13th Company, 102nd Regint, Perditia Astra Militarum
Faction rit: Ordinary (3 / 1000)
Legendary Status: Unknown (0)
Skills: Master Chainsaw Sword (x / x) (Temporary), Basic Shooting (13 / 100), Basic lee (7 / 100)
Body Data: Skull Strength - 10.3 / 10.5 (Current / Max), Thoracic Resistance - 10.1 / 10.5 (Current / Max), Liver Function - 9.6 / 10.5 (Current / Max) ...
Robert didn't ponder on his own; he tentatively used his mind to click on each line of text. Sure enough, the dear ga dev had thoughtfully added detailed annotations to each attribute.
Ga ID: No need to explain, it was his in-ga ID.
Position: Could be understood as authority.
Faction rit: The explanation for this was the most crucial: it was both the "experience points" necessary to advance in rank and the "currency" circulating within the faction. Advancing in rank unlocked the authority to exchange for more and better equipnt and supplies, and exchanging these items required consuming rit. It was worth noting that rit, once accumulated to its cap and a promotion was achieved, would not be consud. There were only two ways to consu rit: exchanging items at the shop on the panel, and rit being reset to zero due to death.
This required players to make reasonable plans, finding a balance between "accumulating rit to increase authority" and "consuming rit to exchange for equipnt to ensure survival." After all, if a person died, no matter how much rit they accumulated, it would all be for naught.
At the end of the annotation, the ga dev also specifically added a small line: Unless your superior is willing to approve a newcor taking over the rit and assets of soone who has died.
Upon seeing this, Robert's heart skipped a beat. Although the ga dev had already expressed support during the first closed beta conversation, having it written directly in the ga's annotations still exceeded his expectations.
Only then did he realize how imnse the authority and binding power of his "Temporary Company Commander" position was over other players! If he wished, whether other players' hard-earned Faction rit could be inherited after their deaths was entirely up to his word!
Now it seed, even without the system quest's help, as long as he wasn't brain-damaged, utilizing this power well could also effectively unite other players around him to jointly defend the position.
As for Legendary Status, the annotation was vague, only stating that it represented a player's reputation within the Empire, with its specific function unknown. Robert didn't pay too much attention to this; for him, a re temporary company commander on a remote planet, this was too distant.
The Skill Bar was also easy to understand. Robert specifically took a closer look at his "Master Chainsaw Sword." The annotation showed that the reason this skill was in an unquantifiable state (x / x) was entirely due to the special effect of the chainsword nad Xeno Exterminator he held, and had nothing to do with his own muscle mory or combat skills.
Finally, the Body Data was even more interesting. The annotation stated that "Max Strength" referred to the character's base value after dying and resurrecting. This value could be permanently increased through a series of thods such as gene modification surgery, high-intensity physical training, and even warp energy erosion, while decreasing it was extrely difficult. "Current Strength" was the character's current physical state, and this value was very easy to decrease; conventional situations like fatigue, injury, hunger, and illness would all lead to its temporary decay.
At this point, Robert's thoughts drifted. He mused that, according to this setting, for warp-infused powerhouses like Primarchs, to increase their strength cap, they probably just needed to shake their bodies, roar "Power, I command you to erge!", and their stats would skyrocket like they'd activated Kaioken… except for Guilliman.
While Robert was studying the panel, a high-pitched voice suddenly rang out from among the new players, carrying a hint of doubt and relief: "Hey? Look, if this main quest fails, why is the penalty 'None'? Is this ga so lenient? I thought failing would deduct rit or even delete my account."
This statent imdiately caught the attention of other new players. They all brought up their mission panels to check and found it was indeed true.
"It's true, there's no failure penalty."
"Then what's there to be afraid of? At worst, we just can't hold it, there's no loss anyway."
"Haha, this ga dev is quite humane."
The discussion atmosphere imdiately beca relaxed, and so players even showed "I see" expressions, seemingly feeling that the pressure of the mission had suddenly decreased.
However, just then, a faint voice rose from the crowd, not loud, but clearly reaching everyone's ears: "I say… is there a possibility that the so-called 'no penalty' is because the system doesn't need to set an additional penalty at all?"
The voice paused, then continued: "The fall of a position usually ans the complete annihilation of our defending forces. All of us will die, and death itself is the greatest penalty — rit reset to zero. At the sa ti, our temporary company commander will also be removed from his post due to mission failure. By then, he naturally won't be able to approve us inheriting anyone's rit. Isn't this the most severe penalty?"
These words were like a bucket of ice water poured over the heads of the players who had just been enthusiastically discussing, and the boisterous atmosphere imdiately froze.
Everyone fell silent. They pondered carefully and found that these words were absolutely spot-on, with impeccable logic. Yes, if everyone was dead, what more penalty was needed? Death in this ga wasn't as simple as respawning after a countdown; it was a real asset wipe.
A few seconds later, a more enthusiastic response erupted from the new player group than before, but this ti, the direction had completely changed.
"Holy crap, Boss's analysis makes sense!"
"Company Commander! Dr. Dixy Normous, Sir! Don't just stand there, hurry up and command us!"
"Right, right, right, we're all noobs, how exactly do we play this ga? Hurry and teach us!"
"Company Commander, please give the order! We promise to obey commands!"
The new players imdiately eagerly expressed their stance, each looking at Robert with eyes full of anticipation and trust, as if he were the only sun that could lead everyone out of the Novice Village.
Robert was also enlightened by those words. He secretly looked approvingly in the direction the voice ca from, silently noting down the ID of the speaking player in his heart — Joker.
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