The players were hesitant, but Han Xiao was not at all worried. There would be someone who eventually decided to start eating the crab first.

Just as he expected, a cute girl with the ID ‘Maple Moon’ finally decided to do it. After she spent enough money in the shop, Han Xiao immediately raised the reputation of this player by five points. After which, he suddenly realized that Maple Moon… was someone familiar.

Maple Moon was shocked as she looked at the list of skills that could be learned.

“I can actually learn the basic knowledge required for class advancement!”

The moment she said those words, players began to chatter, and their level of excitement went through the roof.

Besides tycoons and those who were willing to spend a lot of cash in this game, most of the ordinary players had experienced problems with advancing as they still did not know to obtain the basic knowledge required. This mysterious NPC Black Phantom was willing to sell basic knowledge.

Players who were initially hesitant instantly made up their minds and were determined to raise their reputation with Black Phantom to five points. They were not willing to let such a good opportunity slip by.

_____________

You have taught [Basic Assembly]. You have obtained 1,000 EXP and 200 Aquamarine Dollars.

_____________

Indeed, compared to the beta testing phase, Han Xiao doubled the price of the basic knowledge, yet players were still highly enthusiastic to learn it. Although he would only gain 1,000 EXP every time the knowledge had been learned, the total amount would accumulate quickly with so many players here wanting to get the knowledge.

Originally, for Aquamarine players to advance, the most common way was to join a camp. It was rare for players to obtain the basic knowledge before joining a camp. By joining a camp and performing quests to get connections, players would be able to exchange their reputation points for basic knowledge. Of course, players could choose to purchase with cash, but it was not worth it. Han Xiao’s action had saved many players from this trouble, and at the same time, it quickened their progress.

In a short while, hundreds of players had learned the basic knowledge. This meant that Han Xiao obtained hundreds of thousands of experience points. This number was still quickly climbing.

With his business booming, Han Xiao was like Jiang Taigong 1 ], calmly waiting for fish to fall for the bait.

While entertaining the players, he was casually scrolling through the forum.

All the players from the new planets were sharing this information. Players from Big Horn Village were all enthusiastically advertising Han Xiao on the forum. He was the first high-ranking character in all the new planets that ever appeared in the Novice Villages; therefore, he quickly gained popularity. Many posts about him kept being bumped up in the forum.

“This high-ranking character sells inexpensive firearms and ammunition with excellent quality. Basic knowledge can be learned from him if the reputation is raised to at least 5 points. Other than common skills like Basic Shooting and other basic combat skills, a lot of mechanical knowledge can also be learned. Mechanic players can immediately go for their class advancement by learning the basic knowledge from him.”

“Woah. I haven’t seen such a high-ranked character before.”

“Even class advancement knowledge can be learned! Big Horn Village? I’ll go over right now!”

“Damn, I’m on another planet; I can’t go over at all.”

“Why has such a high-ranked character not been seen anywhere else?”

“Danger Level: Fatal? Any brave souls want to test out his power? If you die, I will pay you. I am not that rich, so I can only give an airplane for compensation.”

Many posts were also accompanied by images. The appearance of Han Xiao, who was in black, achieved a huge on-screen success. Many people were greatly impressed by his outfit, which included a black windbreaker and a pair of black gloves. He appeared both cool and handsome, and as long as his face was not shown, he could definitely be a male model.

Even players from the other beginner planets were discussing his combat strength enthusiastically. The forum had an automatic translation function, so there was no need to worry about language barriers.

Players are really interested in the combat power of this high-ranked character… An idea suddenly ran through Han Xiao’s mind, and he thought that if he could show off his skills, he might be able to attract more people to advance as mechanics.

Even though he was willing to share his basic knowledge, many people were still on the fence. After all, there were quite a few players that were not really interested in the path of a mechanic and were doubtful about their combat strength. Naturally, Pugilist and Esper were more fun to play, and therefore, more appealing to most players.

Indeed, they were right in their suspicion. Mechanics were not as strong in the earlier stages. However, this rule did not apply to Han Xiao. He smirked and decided to mislead the players. He understood the psychology of these players too well and knew that many would simply join whichever class they thought was the most powerful.

To Han Xiao, teaching the basic knowledge was an excellent way of earning profits. There were already hundreds of players who had acquired the mechanic’s basic knowledge. If he was able to trick half of the players from Big Horn Village into becoming mechanics, then he would easily obtain millions of EXP.

The profit in this market would be almost unbelievable!

Han Xiao was exuberant.

Just in time. The troops from the Germinal Organization will be arriving in a few days. This is a good time to carry out the plan.

…

In the Western Capital, Frenzied Sword felt exasperated. In the last few days, he had no appetite for anything. Days without Han Xiao were like a day without sunshine—each passing day was torture.

As Frenzied Sword randomly scrolled through the forum, he came across a bunch of posts by the players from Big Horn Village. The posts were about Han Xiao and the goods that he was selling.

“Lightweight Mechanical Arm‽”

With a look of pleasant surprise, Frenzied Sword stood up suddenly.

He remembered that Han Xiao had previously exhibited this Mechanical Arm. Han Xiao was, too, always wearing a mask. As such, Frenzied Sword hazarded a guess.

Could Black Phantom be Han Xiao?

I have to find him!

…

In order to raise the reputation with Han Xiao to more than five points, many players had moved to the assembly point at Big Horn Village to do the quests and earn money. As such, the number of players surrounding Han Xiao increased significantly.

_____________

Your product [Lightweight Mechanical Arm] has been sold!

_____________

Han Xiao was shocked.

He had previously set the high price of 20,000 for this item, yet someone was able to afford it. He surveyed the surrounding players and found their leader. His ID was ‘Jade Green Sky’. The moment Han Xiao saw this name, he was immediately enlightened. Jade Green Sky was the chairperson of a guild named ‘Sky Territory’, and with the wealth of the guild, he would naturally be able to afford the item.

Jade Green Sky was wearing a set of hand-sewn leather armor, and his equipment was at least a grade better than the open-beta players. That was because he was a close-beta test player. During close-beta testing, he had brought some of the core members with him to explore the other places on the map. Through the mouths of the other open-beta players from his guild, he learned about Black Phantom, and he quickly brought the core members back to the village.

Even though Jade Green Sky had yet to advance in his class, he was preparing to be a Pugilist. He was immediately drawn to the stats of the lightweight mechanical arm. Although he was unable to equip the item as of now, he decided to purchase it first and keep it in his storage, just in case Black Phantom disappeared suddenly and the opportunity was lost.

“There are quite a lot of good items.” Members of the Sky Territory guild muttered praise as they browsed through the list of items.

Unfortunately, in order to raise the reputation to five points, each member of the guild would have to spend 2,500 dollars. Despite being a large guild, the money that Sky Territory had was limited. The purchase of the lightweight mechanical had used up the majority of the guild’s cash.

Out of a blue, Han Xiao spoke. “There will be a troop from the Germinal Organization passing by here in a few days, and I need some people to help me set up the traps in the forest. Are you free to do so?”

With that, he set a quest and released it.

E-Level difficulty. The description was “Set up any kind of trap in the forest, and you will gain 500 EXP.” Additionally, Han Xiao offered three reputation points as part of the reward, just what the Sky Territory guild wanted.

Jade Green Sky responded decisively. “Everyone, accept this task!”

Han Xiao smiled to himself silently. By luring players to complete his quest using reputation points, he could both complete his quest and gain more business. It was killing two birds with one stone.

He could arbitrarily attribute the reputation points with a certain value. This method was like the theory behind paper currency, whereby something was made to appear valuable, but in actual fact, it was worthless. This could be effective in attracting the Sky Territory guild, Destroyer guild… any guild’s players into picking up the quest.

Han Xiao had always felt that the currency system was built on a bubble. With this thought in mind, he would spend any cash he earned.

Unspent money could become a hindrance to one’s motivation to work!

Most of the players went into the forest to set up traps. The traps that they could use were the more elementary ones—they were monster traps. Han Xiao took some time off and visited the forest. The forest was so full of traps that anyone with claustrophobia would have been triggered and covered with goosebumps instantly.

The retreating troops from the Germinal Organization would definitely be horrified when they entered the forest.

The monster traps that the players had set were very much useless and were mainly to attract attention. Han Xiao set up some other traps by himself, and those traps were the ones that would be the deadliest.