Chapter 1 The Psychology of Players

Yongyuan truly understood the psychology of players. How to make a player's resentment last forever? Drop equipment? Reduce levels? These were certainly useful, but they were troublesome and easy to overdo. If a person was hacked down to level 10 and lost all their equipment, their resentment might be eternal, but they might also become disheartened and lose all motivation.

So, the best way was Yongyuan's suggestion: spread rumors and damage their reputation.

People like Baodu Fengshuang had prominent positions in the main city. Being seen as good-for-nothings and being gossiped about behind their backs was probably more painful than losing their equipment. What's even better was that rumors tend to become more exaggerated as they spread. With Yingqi's deliberate planning and guidance, the contempt for Baodu Fengshuang and others could easily extend to their friends and guild. This was what Yongyuan meant by accumulating a more terrifying power.

Gaishi Qiying greatly appreciated Yongyuan's suggestion and immediately ordered Wuye to find someone to handle it.

Killing people and fighting wasn't something a studio could do openly, but spreading rumors and guiding public opinion was their specialty. Manipulating the market and controlling prices were things studios often did, and they couldn't do these things without leveraging public opinion and creating rumors. The studio was skilled at this.

Yingqi was familiar with this kind of scheme, and Yunteng's business of efficient leveling methods was even more advanced than what Gu Fei and the others had done before. At least in terms of collecting money, calculating accounts, and compiling statistics, they had plenty of manpower and were conscientious. Unlike Gu Fei and his team, who only thought about reaping the rewards and avoided the dirty work.

Yunteng had already conducted a detailed investigation of the leveling area that was about to be opened for teaching, and they had their own set of evaluation methods for the saturation level during leveling. In short, they collected the money, placed the orders, notified the time, and the teaching tasks had been assigned. Players who paid had already received emails informing them when to start the class.

Yunteng made rapid progress, but the guilds were dragging their feet. The major guilds in the main cities still hadn't come up with a reliable solution. They contacted Yunteng to find out how many students there would be. Yunteng was also very helpful and told them the exact data. However, these guild leaders knew very well that the data would be inflated. This wasn't because Yunteng would falsify the data, but because players would speculate. After all, efficient leveling methods were easy to share. One person learns, and who knows how many disciples and grand-disciples follow? Just like their large guilds of a thousand people, none of them would pay for the full thousand people. Paying for a hundred people would be good enough. Then they would wait to popularize it within the guild.

And the studio, of course, didn't have to bear any responsibility for this kind of player mindset. They only charged a reasonable number of players based on their examination of the leveling area. If one player brought a large group of people, they couldn't control it, nor did they need to.

The studio didn't have to worry, but the players did! Based on the number revealed by the studio, and considering the situation, magnified several times, the guild leaders of the major guilds had the urge to vomit blood. They seemed to have already foreseen that if they didn't manage these two leveling areas in their respective main cities, they would follow in the footsteps of Baishi City's White Mill. They had to take some measures.

After all, there were many capable people, and the elites of each guild in each main city expressed their opinions. So, some main cities began to divide the leveling areas, some main cities went to the streets to announce to the players, and some main cities had major guilds occupy the leveling areas in advance with heavy troops. The methods varied, but the central idea was the same: to make the efficient leveling method truly efficient.

Baodu Fengshuang, Yideng Diwen, Yinsha Zhi... These people lost levels, but their guild identities had already been established and wouldn't change because of the level. Now they were all top-notch backbones, running around and busy with the efficient leveling method.

Another day passed in this busy state. Baodu Fengshuang's main city finally had a plan that everyone recognized. They divided the two major leveling areas. Regardless of anything else, each major guild would first ensure that they had a leveling area. They simply ignored the other scattered open spaces. They let the other small guilds or wild players fight and make trouble. The major guilds on Baodu Fengshuang's side weren't prepared to be the heroes who upheld justice.

They only confirmed one thing: these major guilds were allies in offense and defense. If someone came to make trouble for them, they would all give the other party a hard time.

This plan was actually adopted by the major guilds in the initial Baishi City. However, unfortunately, Baishi City was then hit by level 40 players from all over the world. No matter how much the major guilds allied in offense and defense, they couldn't resist the excessive number of vagrants. Times were different now. This time, the efficient leveling method hosted by the studio wouldn't have these wanderers appear again, so Baodu Fengshuang and his major guilds believed that they could control the situation.

"Finally done!" Baodu Fengshuang let out a sigh of relief and entered the tavern with a few brothers from the guild. These past few days had been too exciting. Being hired, losing levels, being imprisoned, running around... It was fulfilling, but why wasn't any of this fulfilling content a good thing? After settling down in the tavern, Baodu Fengshuang reviewed his gaming career these past few days and felt a sense of sadness. He ordered a large bucket of wine to drown his sorrows.

The few who came with Baodu Fengshuang were the ones who had flown to Yunduan City with him from the beginning. They had basically experienced everything Baodu Fengshuang had experienced. They were all in the same boat, and they had the same thought as Baodu Fengshuang: they couldn't relieve the depression in their hearts without getting drunk!

"Brothers, come on, cheers!" Baodu Fengshuang raised his glass. He was annoyed! His hatred for Feichang Nitian hadn't disappeared at all, but he definitely couldn't leave these few days. After all, the efficient leveling method hadn't really started yet. What they were doing was just preparation, and they still had to deal with the real situation at that time! How could he leave?

Baodu Fengshuang didn't know if it would be convenient to gather people like last time after these few days when the situation stabilized. Maybe everyone would be addicted to the fun of the efficient leveling method at that time, and he would be even more embarrassed to speak up.

"Damn it, frustrating, cheers!" Baodu Fengshuang quickly raised his second glass after finishing one.

The group wasn't in a good mood, so the wine was drunk in a depressing manner. Everyone mechanically drank, listening to the shouts. If they chatted with each other, they would talk about the annoying thing that was Feichang Nitian, adding sorrow to sorrow. So, while drinking, they all began to look around, hoping to find something interesting to accompany their wine and pass the depressing time.

With this glance, they immediately saw that several tables of players around them were peeking at them. Some people were peeking while whispering to their tablemates.

Baodu Fengshuang was also a celebrity in the main city, and he was used to being pointed at on the road. But today's situation was a bit off. Why were those guys' expressions so unserious when they were talking about them? Was he ridiculous?

"Hey!!" Baodu Fengshuang wasn't usually such an unstable person, but now, fueled by alcohol, he immediately slammed the table and pointed at the guys at the table closest to them: "What are you talking about? Come over and chat with me!!"

"Hehe, Boss Fengshuang, what do you want to talk about?" A player at that table stood up and walked over.

Baodu Fengshuang raised his eyes and saw the badge on the other party's chest: "Oh? People from Luanshi."

Luanshi was also a level six guild in their main city, but they had always been at odds with Baodu Fengshuang's guild. Although they hadn't reached the point of fighting and killing each other upon meeting, they could at least be said to be in a blatant competitive relationship.

"Yeah!" The other party nodded.

"Do you know Mao Qing?" Baodu Fengshuang asked.

"Of course I know him." The other party replied. Mao Qing was one of the core figures in their guild.

"Well, he's an idiot. Look at this name, Mao Qing, what does it mean? Green hat? Damn it, isn't that stupid?" Baodu Fengshuang wasn't usually like this. But recently, things hadn't been going well, and he was depressed. Now, drinking wine and seeing someone pointing and poking at him, and seeing that they were from a rival guild, he immediately guessed that they couldn't be saying anything good about him, so he immediately threw a harsh contempt at them.

"Hehe." The other party sneered, "Boss Fengshuang, how have you been lately? I heard you went to Yunduan City?"

Baodu Fengshuang's face was ugly. He had vaguely guessed that the other party was talking about this matter. But this matter hadn't happened long ago, how did it spread so quickly? Weren't all the guys in this room whispering about this matter? Bad news travels fast! Baodu Fengshuang looked around.

"What are you looking for, Boss Fengshuang? Afraid the people from Yunduan City will chase after you?" The man smiled, then turned back to his brothers: "By the way, what was the name of the expert in Yunduan City?"

"Qianli Yizui." Someone immediately cooperated with him. Like their guild relationship, fighting would cause too much loss, and they couldn't bear it. So, verbally mocking each other had become a favorite sport for them, and they had developed a high degree of cooperation in this regard.

"Oh right, Qianli Yizui." The man nodded. Seeing that Baodu Fengshuang continued to be expressionless, he shouted again: "Qianli Yizui!"

"What do you mean?" Baodu Fengshuang looked up and glared at him.

"I wonder if Boss Fengshuang will crawl under the table when he hears this name." After saying this, the man didn't laugh, but a group of his brothers behind him burst out laughing.

"Damn!!" Baodu Fengshuang was furious. If he didn't get angry now, he would be too unmanly. In fact, these two guilds had said even worse things when they quarreled, but everyone seemed to have agreed to decide the victory on words only, and never actually pk. But today, Baodu Fengshuang was in such a situation, with such a psychological background, plus a brain stimulated by alcohol, and his spine being hit hard. More importantly, in the past, when someone couldn't bear it, there was always someone to persuade and pull them away, but today, the scope of the other party's remarks was really broad, and everyone was in the same situation and mood as Baodu Fengshuang, so they all rushed to take action.

"You son of a bitch, go to hell!!" Everyone shouted and cursed.

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The update is here...