84: Chapter 84 Legions and Garrisons

Lin Li sat in front of the computer, looking at the number of pre-registrations on the official website backend, which had surpassed the fifty-thousand mark; the corners of his mouth couldn't help but curl upward.

However, he wasn't carried away by this number.

"You have to eat one mouthful at a time. If fifty thousand people flooded in at once, the Shelter's ecosystem would absolutely collapse instantly."

Lin Li patiently filtered through the massive amount of player questionnaire data.

After being busy for a few hours, he finally carefully selected five thousand high-quality laborers with different professional backgrounds, preparing to let them log in in batches over the next few days.

"There is strength in numbers, but a large crowd also easily leads to trouble."

Lin Li leaned back in his chair and pinched the bridge of his nose.

There is an old Chinese saying: In a large forest, there are all kinds of birds.

Especially with creatures as lawless as players, if you gather them together, it won't be long before they come up with some heaven-defying ideas to cause chaos.

Moreover, with so many players, management would definitely be a huge problem.

If you ask them to go to the front line to die fighting monsters or move bricks at a construction site, they are tireless.

But if you force someone to manage them, these naturally rebellious guys will definitely turn the world upside down.

"You can't suppress them; you have to guide them along the trend. You need to appropriately disperse their numbers while increasing their cohesion."

Lin Li tapped his fingers on the desk, then his eyes suddenly lit up: "Isn't this the guild system in traditional online games!"

"Let the players form their own legions! And then let them use points to purchase development rights for wasteland settlements. Give them some trading incentives, and these people will definitely guard their territory like a mother hen protecting her chicks!"

No sooner said than done.

Lin Li immediately opened a document and began to type rapidly on the keyboard, recording his concept for legion settlements.

First, the establishment of a legion must have a liability statement, just like a registered company on Earth; if something goes wrong, someone has to take the blame.

Secondly, divide the several areas cleared around the Shelter into independent settlements.

Allow player legions to stay in the settlements long-term and build infrastructure.

"To make it convenient for them to log in and out, I have to let them transport their resurrection incubation pods there as well. The biomass consumed for resurrection can only be provided by the main base; this is a core authority that keeps them in check."

Lin Li calculated to himself:

"Moreover, the development rights for the settlements aren't free; they must pay a high amount of core points to the Shelter every month as land rent."

As for the settlements to be opened in the early stages, Lin Li looked at the holographic map and quickly circled three locations.

The first is the low-lying sewer area outside the underground ruins of the Gaobo Food Factory.

After the last contact, the big guy underground should still be doing research and won't come up casually.

That place has abundant water resources and moist soil, making it an excellent agricultural planting base.

And right under their feet is an unexplored dungeon, suitable for life-skill players and explorers.

The second is the Mountain Tribe mine.

Not only does it have ready-made semi-mechanized mining facilities, which are suitable for heavy industry.

But it also has a direct path through an underground rift to the Northern Wasteland to farm greenskins, making it a golden location that combines resources and combat.

"The third... count the Nomads camp in the northwest."

Lin Li touched his chin,

"Hmm, no, those natives are too resistant to players. If I stuff this group of lunatics over there, the Nomads would probably move out overnight."

Lin Li's gaze moved upward: "Then include the valley pass in the north."

It had just experienced a great battle, the defensive foundation was well laid, and it was originally a river, so finding groundwater wouldn't be difficult.

Establishing a military stronghold as a player settlement couldn't be more appropriate.

And to the north, there's the vast garbage dump and endless greenskins; they can fight monsters, scavenge for trash, and strike gold.

The only drawback is that the environment is the harshest, facing the risk of being overrun by greenskins at any time.

"High risk naturally comes with high rewards; the rent for this settlement can be discounted appropriately."

Lin Li looked at the freshly baked plan with extreme satisfaction.

Afterwards, he clattered away, editing a long server-wide update announcement, which he pinned directly to the most prominent position on the forum.

[ "warhammer 40,000" v0.30 Epic Major Version Update Announcement! ]

[ 1. New regional map unlocked: Southern Shahe Town (danger zone), Southern Swamp, Western Coastal Desert. Players, please explore with caution. ]

[ 2. Trading function officially launched: Camp residents and players can trade freely using kindle coin. ]

[ 3. Legion/Guild function testing enabled: Recruit your comrades and build the strongest battle group in Warhammer! ]

[ 4. Settlement development and management gameplay launched with a bang: Want to own your own city? Go and seize the limited settlement development rights! ]

[ 5. Fixed a large number of bugs that could cause the physics engine to crash. ]

[ Click here to view more details... ]

[ Planner's message: Dear kindles, good afternoon! At the painful cost of the art board being drawn until it smoked and the programmers' hair getting thinner and thinner, the new version has finally arrived smoothly! This major update, I believe those with a keen eye have already seen the clues. That's right, the server is about to welcome five thousand fresh blood tomorrow! Go and recruit them, and in this desperate Warhammer universe, create your own sparks! ]

As soon as the announcement was released.

The forum, which was already extremely active because of yesterday's great victory, instantly boiled over like a pot of water with hot oil poured into it.

The thread count climbed crazily at a rate of dozens of posts per second.

1st floor [ Mike Barton ]: 666! I was finally selected for the test qualification! I can go to work in the wasteland tomorrow!

5th floor [ Liver Emperor ]: What is industry conscience? How long has the server been open, and they've already released a cross-era major version update?!

18th floor [ "I, Lu Bu, a Loyal Minister of the Han" ]: Legions? Settlement development rights?! Good guy, isn't this telling me to go be a Jiedushi with military and political power in my hands?!

19th floor [ Dong Zhongying ]: What does my son intend to do?

20th floor [ "I, Lu Bu, a Loyal Minister of the Han" ]: A great man living in this world, how can he be willing to live under others for long?!

25th floor [ Miracle Walker ]: Brother Lu Bu above, take it easy, don't forget that the camp's big BOSS is a ruthless person who can beat up warlords, and he can directly pull your network cable in the backend and kick you out of the game!

26th floor [ "I, Lu Bu, a Loyal Minister of the Han" ]: If you do not despise me, sir! I am willing to worship you as my foster father!

The thread quickly veered towards the abstract and hilarious.

And in the game's elite QQ group [ I Also Want to Be Happy ].

The first batch of players were seriously discussing the rules regarding legions and settlements.

[ Praise Ming Shen ]: Everyone, do you understand? Legions have ownership of the settlements! As long as you don't violate the Shelter's basic treaty, you can do whatever you want in the settlement, and there are no square meter restrictions on building houses. It can be said that it is a territory that completely belongs to us players!

[ Praise Ming Shen ]: But the only hard requirement is to pay the points rent on time, and unconditionally respond to official combat missions during wartime.

[ Miracle Walker ]: Paying rent is easy to understand. This is a disguised way of encouraging players to fight monsters, engage in production, and trade at high intensity to earn points to pay rent. And the officials can cut our leeks at any time by regulating the prices of bullets and supplies. The production team's overt scheme is played too well.

[ Miracle Walker ]: However, I noticed that only three settlements are currently open. The resource allocation for each settlement is completely different.

[ Why Panic When I Have Flash ]: Is there even a need to choose? The pass can fight greenskins every day, it's definitely a paradise for farming players. The mine has developed heavy industry, which is conducive to heavy industry. That so-called drainage ditch depression is the most boring, you can't even fight a few monsters, who would go there to suffer?

[ Penny Is My Wife ]: Brother Flash, you are shallow. The depression has good water and soil, that is a holy land for farming players! And there is a large dungeon of an abandoned Food Factory underground, which is extremely suitable for exploration!

[ Praise Ming Shen ]: Stop talking nonsense, the spots are limited, the settlements must be snatched! Brothers, as soon as we log in tomorrow, form a battle group immediately!

The next day.

Before dawn, this group of fanatical wasteland builders had already impatiently logged in one after another.

There were still two hours until the new players logged in, and the old players were all pulling each other together in the Shelter plaza, discussing the matter of forming battle groups.

In the main control room.

Lin Li had just woken up and stretched.

As soon as he opened the computer system, he was almost drowned by the hundreds of legion establishment applications that popped up.

Looking closely at the application list, Lin Li slapped his forehead.

"Damn, I forgot to set a threshold for forming a legion!"

Among these hundreds of applications, there were actually applications sent by newbies who hadn't even figured out how to play the game!

Two combat-power-of-five losers struggling to team up to fight a Squig, and they want to build a legion?

Lin Li immediately used his authority to reject all applications with one click.

And quickly added an ancillary rule in the announcement:

[ To establish a legion, the legion commander must be level 10 or above! And the team must prepay 5000 core points as basic startup capital! ]

Once this realistic capital threshold was set, it instantly filtered out ninety-nine percent of the people who were just joining in the fun.

Shortly after, the applications Lin Li received were reduced to just five lonely ones.

The first one: [ Scourge Legion ].

Led by Praise Ming Shen, Liver Emperor, and other first-batch old laborers.

They have the highest average level, are all Liver Emperors, have strong funds, and are the absolute elite main force in the camp at present.

The second one: [ Galactic Empire Stormtroopers ].

Established by second-batch science and engineering players who like to tinker with vehicles, such as ikun True Fan and Second-hand Old A6.

Although their levels are a bit lacking, they are all wealthy rich guys.

The third one: [ Brotherhood of Steel ].

Established by second-batch warmongers like Flame Fist and Wang Shouyi, focusing on tough guys going head-to-head; Lin Li blindly guessed there would be many people from Chengdu in it.

The fourth one: [ Baby Bus ].

This is a guild established by pure life-skill players, cooks, and tailors, led by Dumpling, Dog Brother, and Penny Is My Wife, aiming to take in pacifist newbies who don't like fighting and killing.

The fifth one: [ Hand of God ].

This is a legion temporarily pieced together by a lone wolf old player with a dozen newbies, with the lowest average level and the poorest.

Lin Li looked at these legion names, some chuunibyou, some abstract, and wanted to laugh.

But as long as they paid the money, whatever name they called themselves was their freedom; Lin Li waved his hand, and all were approved!

As soon as they were approved, Lin Li heard a burst of enthusiastic cheers from the surface plaza.

But immediately after, five [ Settlement Development Right Application Forms ] popped up on Lin Li's system interface at the same time.

This put Lin Li in a difficult position.

Because these five legions, unexpectedly and tacitly, all applied for the eastern mountain mine as their first settlement!

After all, it is closest to the Shelter, rich in minerals, and has ready-made buildings; even a fool knows that it is a piece of blessed land.

"I can't let them fight."

Lin Li touched his chin,

"73! Make me a lottery program. Of course... it has to be the kind where I can manipulate the backend data."

73's red light flashed:

"Creator, your despicable behavior has reached an astonishing artistic height. The program has been generated."

In less than ten seconds, a seemingly absolutely fair lottery turntable was projected onto the pv terminals of the five legion commanders.

Lin Li sent an official message in the backend:

"For the sake of fairness, the five legions will draw lots to decide. May the Emperor bless your luck."

With the rotation of the turntable, Lin Li smoothly carried out the rigged allocation in the backend.

The final result was released:

The mountain mine, that hot commodity, was forcefully stuffed by Lin Li to the [ Scourge Legion ], which had the strongest strength and the best ability to produce heavy weapons.

The depression outside the Food Factory sewer, suitable for farming, was assigned to the [ Galactic Empire Stormtroopers ], who liked to tinker and research.

And the river mouth pass in the northwest, with the harshest environment and facing the greenskin frenzy, was deviously thrown by Lin Li to the [ Brotherhood of Steel ], which had the most warmongers.

As for the remaining two leisure legions, Lin Li sent a comforting message:

"It's a pity that you didn't win an external settlement. Please stay in the Shelter main base and shine for the revival of humanity! Or wait for other settlements to open!"

The settlement allocation was completed.

Everything was ready, it was time to welcome those five thousand brand-new free laborers!

...

Fourth underground level.

The cold white light illuminated the five thousand clone incubation pods arranged densely.

The indicator lights on the edge of the pod doors turned from red to green in unison, emitting a uniform hissing sound of pressure relief.

Lin Li stood on the high steel platform, overlooking the crowd waking up below.

He took a deep breath, turned on the speaker system, and his voice echoed in the empty underground space:

"Kindles. For the revival of humanity..."

After reciting this faction opening remark, which he had read several times and was specifically used to set the tone, Lin Li didn't stay long at all.

He decisively turned around, strode into the exclusive elevator behind him, and let the elevator door close slowly.

Leaving only an unfathomable, full-of-style manager's back.

Below, thousands of new players who had just crawled out of the culture fluid completely exploded.

"Damn! This image quality! Is there really such an awesome game?!"

A new player looked down at the realistic palm prints on his hands and pinched his thigh hard,

"It hurts! The pain simulation is amazing!"

"Look over there! There are also female players! This body proportion, the official face-pinching system is something!"

There were even a few standard foreign exclamations from the crowd:

"Oh my god!! This is unbelievable!!"

Apparently, this promotional video also attracted many overseas hardcore players on YouTube.

Before this group of newbies could carefully explore this sci-fi underground base, the old players who had been waiting for a long time swarmed up like sharks smelling blood.

"Look here, look here! [ Scourge Legion ] is recruiting!"

Liver Emperor held a large loudspeaker in his hand and shouted hoarsely:

"The first legion! Strong funds! Join the legion and get a homemade starter pistol! Training on firearms knowledge is provided free of charge by veterans every day! Brothers who want to go to the front line to cut greenskins, hurry up and sign the contract!"

On the other side, [ Dog Brother Is Here ] also unremittingly banged on an iron basin:

"Life-skill players, look over here! [ Baby Bus ] convoy is ready to set off! Join the legion and get a full set of starter armor and tools! We don't force fighting, big bosses personally lead teams to the wilderness to reclaim land and farm, the guild covers food and housing!"

The newbies were new here, and faced with this enthusiastic recruitment offensive, they almost found their favorite organizations in the first instance.

The vast majority of people chose to join the legions with settlement development rights.