Super Mechanic: God of Superpowers!

Chapter 174 Recruiting Players

In the center of the open square, a man dressed in gray announced to the crowd in a magnetic voice:

"This crisis has swept everyone; no one can escape unscathed."

"I am willing to share the wisdom I have gained during my interstellar journey with everyone without reservation, so that we can work together to overcome our difficulties!"

Hundreds of thousands of players' eyes lit up upon hearing this; they had been waiting for this moment for so long!

After a brief mobilization, Ye Xiuli concluded his speech.

As the shelter residents dispersed with anticipation, the players suddenly swarmed around them.

"Long time no see, warriors from afar. It seems you've made great progress in the past two years."

Ye Xiu nodded seriously, as if he had never met these old acquaintances before.

"You're the one who's truly undergone the most complete transformation!" many players thought to themselves.

After skillfully uttering a few standard NPC lines, Ye Xiu couldn't wait to reveal the skill shop.

After accumulating so much stock, it's finally time to happily harvest these little韭菜 (a metaphor for inexperienced investors) again.

After the initial version update, players are already very familiar with this trading interface.

Seeing this familiar control panel again now evokes a sense of warmth, like a long-awaited reunion.

The main items available this time are basic skills for the psychic type, although these are moves that players can learn on their own after leveling up.

But isn't the opportunity to teach others before they reach a certain level a business opportunity?

As for his most secret and powerful skills, Ye Xiu naturally kept them as backup plans.

In addition to the complete set of basic knowledge, this release also includes a few trivial advanced techniques.

Since the new version has already been released, there's no need to worry about revealing it too early affecting the balance. It's a good opportunity to steal the business from other NPC mentors.

"Cell affinity, gene adjustment—even the advanced courses are more comprehensive than before!"

Players' eyes lit up with excitement as they looked at the new entries in the skill list.

The new version is indeed different. This Starry Returns not only has an upgraded feel, but the benefits have also increased accordingly!

These whales who accumulated a huge amount of experience at the end of the first version are now spending it like water.

Ye Xiu's experience points on the panel skyrocketed like a rocket, and message notifications kept ringing incessantly.

The harvesting efficiency of 200 million to 300 million is many times faster than before!

Staring at the constantly rolling numbers, Ye Xiu couldn't stop smiling, looking just like an old farmer who had been busy all year and was finally looking forward to the autumn harvest.

He had been waiting for this day for a long time—the players' nearly moldy savings were a harvest gift package specially prepared for him.

The shelter has attracted hundreds of thousands of players. Thanks to the foundation laid by Ye Xiu in version 1.0, players with supernatural abilities account for more than 30%, forming a huge consumer market.

Ye Xiu's pricing of skills and knowledge is neither excessively high nor too low.

Compared to the previous price of a few thousand experience points, the starting price is now over ten thousand.

Because of its current monopoly advantage, it has no need to participate in price wars.

With just a hundred or so people learning a few skills, they can easily earn millions of experience points.

With around 200,000 users of supernatural abilities, the profits this time are several times greater than those of version 1.0, and it is estimated that at least several billion experience points can be harvested.

However, for someone like Ye Xiu, who consumes so much experience for leveling up, this amount is just a drop in the bucket, since the cost of leveling up becomes increasingly exorbitant as you progress.

Aside from Han Xiao, he's practically the only one in the entire server who can level up as frantically as him.

When ordinary players reach the same level, they often have to do quests for half a month to accumulate experience before they can level up once, and they are as happy as if it were New Year's Day.

"At this rate, I should be able to reach level 120 today."

Ye Xiu was planning his level progression; he knew he would get stuck at level 120 due to an advancement quest.

He has a task settlement card on hand, and if the task process is too complicated, he plans to skip it directly.

After all, he's currently stationed on Aquamarine Star and can't leave his post.

Reaching level 140 requires an astronomical number of experience points, and this wave of harvesting is probably not enough.

Teaching skills and knowledge is a long-term business. Players will need to "further study" with him to upgrade their skills, which is the real sustainable income.

Ye Xiu understood the principle that it is important to have both quick riches and a steady, long-term approach.

Although he mainly targets the supernatural ability market, he has not forgotten about players of the other two types.

After all, it's best to distribute the benefits evenly; who would turn down experience points?

"Damn! This is pure superpower perk!"

With the arrival of the superpowered mentor, the most excited were naturally the superpowered players, all beaming with joy.

The mechanical engineering students could barely maintain their composure, while the martial arts students were practically green with envy.

Why didn't we choose the superpower system back then? If only an alien big shot were our mentor!

While they were envious, the players from the other two factions were immediately invigorated when they discovered they could access the mercenary faction shop:

"Holy crap! Maybe I can join their mercenary group? That would be amazing, absolutely fantastic!"

"Why are all these items grayed out? Oh, I see, you need to join the group first to have the right to buy them! Look at the top of the shelf!"

Everyone stared intently, their breathing quickening.

In addition to special ability cards, the faction shop also contains advanced knowledge of martial arts and mechanical types!

However, purchasing requires two hurdles: first, join a faction, and then raise your faction's favorability to the [Friendly] level (1000 points).

"Alien boss! Looking to join the group!"

What are the requirements for joining the Youth League?

The players instantly transformed into enthusiastic fans, surrounding Ye Xiu and cheering wildly.

Seeing the tangible benefits, who cares about occupational restrictions? Just get on board!

"Want to join my mercenary group?"

Ye Xiu paused for a few seconds, feigning surprise, then put on a serious face:

"Our group has always only accepted elites, but if you can pass the practical assessment, we might make an exception."

He casually tossed out the trial tasks he had prepared long ago, keeping his achievements and fame hidden.

[Mercenary Selection Trial]

[Mission Description: The alien mercenary group has a distinguished record of exploits across interstellar space; only by passing the Trial of the Strong can one become a member.]

[Mission Objective: Pass the combat test with any mercenary]

[Reward: 1 experience point, Alien Mercenary Group access unlocked, Faction affinity +100]

Players quickly browsed the information, and discussions rose and fell among the crowd.

"So it wasn't the aliens who chose it themselves."

"The format of the test wasn't clearly stated. Is it a one-on-one duel in a ring?"

Ye Xiu snapped his fingers, and four mercenaries immediately carried a semi-transparent giant light screen to the front of the stage.

He tapped the screen, which glowed with a deep blue light, with his finger: "If you want to register, enter your information and Pipi Jia will assign you a session number."

The light screen suddenly lit up, and a slowly rotating holographic projection of a nebula appeared in the center, accompanied by a mechanical, synthesized voice with a crackling electrical sound:

"Alien Smart Butler Pipi Jiaweng—At your service—"

Players in the front row tentatively entered their names and occupations, and their wrists immediately lit up with glowing codes.

A scrolling announcement suddenly popped up at the top of the screen, indicating that the 7th selection would begin in the circular arena, and the examiner was Caroline, known as the "Red Comet".

After a brief period of observation, everyone gradually figured out the rules:

Each assessment involves one elite mercenary testing hundreds of people simultaneously.

As long as you are not knocked out of the arena or enter a near-death state within ten minutes, you are considered to have passed.

The examiners matched for different sessions are completely randomized.

The best part is that it allows for an unlimited number of attempts—after all, everyone has their lucky breaks sometimes, right?

Looking at the enthusiastic players signing up, Ye Xiu leaned back in his command chair and curled the corners of his mouth.

He deliberately designed the selection process as a series of rounds, which would both exhaust the mercenaries' excess energy (preventing them from gambling every day).

It can also give players the thrill of "thousands of troops crossing a single-plank bridge".

In reality, with the player's current combat power, as long as they don't run into those few combat maniacs, they can basically pass the test.

The brilliance of this mechanism lies in the fact that it maintains the scarcity of factions without discouraging newcomers.

If we open the application channel directly, where is the prestige of an elite force?

However, if the difficulty is too high, it will dampen the players' enthusiasm.

Now, the intensity of the examiner's performance is dynamically adjusted by artificial intelligence.

It ensures that every battle is within a controllable range, while also giving players the illusion that "I can definitely win next time."

He initially considered a battle royale mode where players kill each other, but quickly discovered its drawbacks:

If it takes too long, it can easily lead to awkward silences and even conflicts.

Now, having mercenaries act as examiners and control the proceedings can both showcase the organization's strength and allow the losers to blame luck.

After all, no one would admit that they can't beat an NPC.

A long queue had already formed in front of the light screen. Ye Xiu watched the registration data soar in real time and casually sent a new command to Pipi Armor:

"Adjust the pass rate for mercenaries below A-level to 65%, and keep the pass rate for S-level mercenaries around 30%."

The latest novel is first published here!

For the next three months, these battle maniacs finally had something serious to do.

Players do not need to consume any resources to participate in the selection, and even if they fail, they can wait for random matching to challenge again.

This mechanism lowers the barrier to participation and gives everyone the opportunity to try repeatedly.

In the current version of Alienation, the main activity for players is still completing shelter missions.

The highly engaging selection challenges serve as a perfect way to break up the daily routine.

The selection venue was chosen at the Vault Arena, which both Bennett and Huang Yu agreed to.

This venue, which once hosted professional league matches, has now been reopened by Ye Xiu.

Although it is somewhat empty, it is spacious enough to accommodate large-scale events.

Fifteen minutes later.

The arena was flooded with players, and the first qualifying match not only attracted the players waiting in the wings, but also gathered countless onlookers.

Everyone wanted to see firsthand how the selection rules would be applied in actual combat.

Caroline stood in the center of the main arena, leaning on her greatsword with one hand, surrounded by hundreds of players from all sides, as if trapped in a desperate situation.

Discussions rose and fell in the spectator area:

"The rule is to survive for two minutes without falling off the ring or being near death."

"Several hundred people could easily last two minutes, right?"

"Wake up! This is Caroline, who can take on an entire army single-handedly! Didn't you watch the battlefield footage yesterday?"

"I didn't check, I hung it up back in the city a long time ago."

Caroline scanned the crowd, recalling Ye Xiu's instructions to release the water.

If they went all out, these challengers, mostly D-level with a few C-level opponents, wouldn't last more than thirty seconds.

At that moment, the broadcast suddenly came on:

"Three, two, one—Go!"

With a deafening roar, the crowd surged toward the center like a tidal wave.

Most people focused their attacks on the arena with the mindset of raiding, while only a few clever ones stayed close to the edge of the ring.

Faced with the overwhelming attack, Caroline casually swung her ring-shaped blade, instantly clearing half of the arena's ranged firepower.

The front-line melee fighters were sent flying like harvested wheat, their health bars plummeting by 40%.

"This area-of-effect damage was inflicted by a human?!"

"That was close! If I'd been half a meter off, I would have been out!"

The aggressive faction suffered a silent loss, while the sneaky faction secretly rejoiced.

The gap in strength between the players and Caroline is currently too vast.

Ye Xiu deliberately arranged for the first match to be overseen by senior officials, in order to shatter everyone's illusion that "winning can be achieved by sheer numbers."

The outcome was no surprise; even with her strength deliberately concealed, Caroline still swept through the entire field like mowing grass.

The players, having been taught a lesson, were forced to change their strategies, resorting to serpentine maneuvers and navigating perilous situations amidst flashing blades.

When the countdown reached zero, only seven people remained standing in the arena.

Seeing Caroline sheath her sword, the survivors erupted in cheers as if waking from a dream: "We...we really made it?!"

The hundreds of people in the arena were green with envy, watching helplessly as those lucky few guys received the rewards, and they were so angry that they stomped their feet.

This lousy system is so unfair!

Hundreds of people were scrambling to get through, but only seven or eight lucky ones made it through – the odds were ridiculously low.

However, this was all part of Ye Xiu's plan. He first created a hellish difficulty level to make people envious, and then after a while, he had the examiners secretly go easy on the candidates, which naturally increased the pass rate.

"Congratulations on getting your interstellar entry tickets. Once you register with the Mercenary Alliance, you'll be officially part of the organization."

Caroline shook hands with each of the successful candidates—this was a special preferential treatment that Ye Xiu had instructed her to give, making the audience below swallow hard.

These lucky few opened their faction panel with delight, and the items in the shop were finally no longer a grayed-out mess.

Although I don't have a single Inar in my pocket, just looking at those glowing superpower card icons is enough to make me happy.

The best part is that the task completion gives you 100 contribution points, which reminds me of the fact that "the first 100 points of friendliness level can be bought for 50 inars".

I suddenly felt like I'd made a killing, fifty yuan!

The onlookers, with their sharp ears, immediately grasped the key point:

"Following aliens to interstellar space? So this is the new map unlock method for version 2.0!"

"I knew it! Aliens are definitely a new version of Space Ferryman!"

These words instantly ignited the entire audience, and many people immediately wanted to sign up for the next round of selection.

The arena is operating around the clock, with a new match starting every twenty minutes, and seven or eight arenas fighting simultaneously.

At this pace, they can cram in about a thousand people every hour, and at least forty to fifty thousand people every day.

Ye Xiu kept the pass rate around 5%. Anyway, there were hundreds of thousands of players taking turns to enter the shelter, so there was no rush.

The players were also strangely confident that they could become the chosen ones, which was exactly what he wanted.

"Let everyone get used to it for a few days first, and then gradually increase the pass rate after a while."

Ye Xiu looked at the impressive backend data. This move had both whetted the players' appetites and stimulated them to spend money to improve their strength. He was winning like crazy.

The square was bustling from morning till night, and by the time everyone finished, the experience pool had skyrocketed to 1.29 billion.

(End of this chapter)