Stars, Players and Immortals

Chapter 7: One set of poems about hometown after another

Both Mars and Terra have long been aware of the special existence of players, but they are currently in the observation phase. The official term for players is "abnormal entity".

Abnormal bodies cannot be truly confined, cannot be stably studied, their bodies can disappear at any time, they are unafraid of death, and even the most basic physiological samples are difficult to obtain.

Zhang Qiming used to be a gamer, so he knows how absurd gamer behavior patterns can be in real life.

They are not afraid of death, nor do they feel much pressure. They are often unaffected by the intimidation of NPCs, and when something happens, they start to panic.

Of course, this doesn't mean they'll act recklessly without restraint; there are still a few things that can somewhat restrain the players.

The first is the ever-present faction reputation. If players indiscriminately attack NPCs or disrupt city order, their reputation will drop rapidly. At best, they will be wanted by the city; at worst, they will be unable to accept quests, shops will refuse to trade with them, or they may even be expelled from the city area.

The second is the explicit prohibition by the system's overlord. For example, running in a fruit is explicitly prohibited. Moreover, the company and the planner added a sentence: "The company owns all rights to interpret the game," which means they can modify it as needed.

In Zhang Nanhai's eyes, these people were never reliable soldiers.

They are more like a group of trouble-making machines in human skin, with no respect for rules, no concept of death, and no basic respect for Mars, Terra, or even the entire human civilization. It's as if everything in front of them is just some kind of huge entertainment.

This is precisely the kind of attitude he detests most.

"I still don't really like them." Zhang Nanhai leaned back on the bench and expressed his opinion on the players. "These anomalies have no sense of boundaries and are not afraid of death. I've seen them rolling on the ground one second and getting up the next second as if nothing happened."

"What's even more troublesome is that their growth rate is incredibly fast. Many ordinary people need to learn for several years or even more than ten years, or even require extremely strong talent, but they can grasp the basics and master the skills in a very short time. It's as if they already have a ready-made path in their minds, and they just need an opportunity to cross it directly."

As he said this, he frowned slightly, clearly unable to pinpoint the source of his unease.

"However, there are limitations to their learning. I can't yet figure out exactly what's limiting them, but it's certainly not qualifications, education, or training in the conventional sense. It's like they're waiting for certain conditions to come together, and once they are, change can happen immediately. But this kind of change is too fast and too dangerous."

After listening, Zhang Qiming didn't rush to refute. He just leaned back on the bench and smiled, his gaze passing over the protective shield and landing on the transport light tracks that swept past outside.

"South China Sea, I know you don't like how they treat everything like a game, and you don't need to like them. You just need to know that they are useful."

"Actually, you don't have to hate them so much." He looked up at the canopy outside, which was slightly whitened by the industrial lights, and his voice gradually softened.

"I used to be just like them, always thinking about filling the world with flowers, or just letting it explode; running, jumping, spreading my arms... The world was a playground back then, and it still is now, but as people grow up, they start to follow the rules."

"And they are the same. It's not that they don't have rules, it's just that their rules are different from ours. In their own playground, there are things they tacitly agree to follow. Once you figure out those boundaries, you'll naturally know how to get along with them."

Zhang Nanhai remained silent for a moment, without immediately responding.

"But I still think they'll cause trouble sooner or later." Zhang Nanhai finally spoke, his tone still wary. "Once there are too many of these things, they won't stay in their cages."

"That's why we need to give them a stage." Zhang Qiming finally turned the topic to business. "Our secret outposts on Mars that we set up a long time ago—the prosthetic clinic, the underground repair shop, and the abandoned storage station—can be opened one by one. Now we need to use the power of the anomalous entities to surround the church's power on Mars."

The secret outposts that Zhang Qiming mentioned were not built on a whim.

After all, when Zhang Gang first transmigrated, that damned countdown to the arrival of players was hanging above his head.

Twenty-two years!

He jumped down before his eyes without fail every day, so he had been preparing for this day for a long time.

The strongholds that Zhang Qiming has established over the years can be broadly divided into two types.

One type is the "underground stronghold" within Martian cities, such as prosthetic clinics, underground repair shops, and abandoned storage stations. These usually appear to be part of a gray industry chain; they can accommodate both players and Martian underground organizations, allowing them to control both people and intelligence.

Another type is the deep-space ship base, also known as a mobile armed base.

This is the true armed base of the Skydrive, outside the regular monitoring range of Mars. It has independent supplies, concealed routes, and enough space to hide SA aircraft and develop armed forces belonging to the Skydrive camp. The Skydrive Type I is now hidden in the deep space ship base.

Now that the players have arrived, it's time to make use of the city's base. He raised his hand and swiped, and a mission interface that only he could see appeared.

[Personal Task Posting System]

[Faction Guidance Quest: The Spark of the Skywards]

[Task Level: E-rank Normal Task]

[Target audience: Players in the Mars region]

[Mission Objective: Proceed to the designated coordinates of the Skydrive Cybernetic Modification Clinic, make contact with other players, and guide them to join the Skydrive peripheral network]

Basic Reward: 100 Experience Points

[Bonus Reward: Additional experience points will be awarded for each player successfully guided to make contact. The first batch of players to complete this will be able to unlock the subsequent Skyward Faction quest chain ahead of time.]

Hey, how about checking out the Skyward Hunter's "Pull Someone and Slash Them" quest?

SkyDrive casts a wide net to recruit aspiring players; the more people you recruit, the more rewards you get, and new users even get double the bonus!

He not only prepared poverty alleviation-style faction missions for the players, but also selflessly prepared a complete process for them to recruit people through pyramid schemes... oh no, to pass on the revolutionary flame.

By attracting a large number of players to join the Skyward faction through E-level missions, the Skyward faction is made the top player faction; then, through faction favor missions and rewards, players are driven to dismantle the church's power and help them complete the Martian transformation; at the same time, the daily quota of 17000 can also be used up, which is simply killing three birds with one stone.

The player is now a crucial element in his strategy for advancing the situation.

In the local dialect, it is said that one must fully leverage the support of the player community.

As the old saying goes, "If you grasp the main thread, everything else will fall into place." Only by grasping the main thread can the details fall into place; the main thread is the key point.

Zhang Qiming, a Liangmian (cold noodles) enthusiast born with the intention of rebellion, and a representative of the sacred Terra, has a long list of local sayings.

He also prepared a general roadmap for the Martian revolution, which can be summarized in four sentences:

— [Using players to create variables, leveraging reformers to gain legitimacy, using armed forces to unify the four major factions of the church, and exploiting crises to seize control of the Martian regime]

Now that things are on track with the players, Zhang Qiming's next task is to make contact with the reformists.