Chapter 4 - Base Expansion And Phase Two

Lin Feng

"Sorry mom, I can't make it for the blind date. I need to work this weekend. You know I can't give you the details. Next weekend? I will be busy with work for these coming few weeks. Yes, I will let you know when I no longer need to work on weekends."

A few more minutes later, Lin Feng ended the call in relief. Parents… they will tell you not to date while in school and focus on your academics. However, they will start asking about you dating life few months after graduation. If you are still single or not in a solid relationship yet, they will began to worry and force you on blind dates. Sometimes, their expectations are just mission impossible.

He has just turned twenty-five this year and is a proud police officer of the People's Police of China. Sure, as a junior officer, work has been pretty mundane with nothing fancy as seen on televisions. Nonetheless, it is still a tiring job patrolling the street, mediating street dispute and any tasks in the name of serving the public. Why should he waste his precious rest day on a blind date? As an avid gamer, he would rather spend it playing games and recently he has been hooked on the game "Immortals Online".

Now that he has successfully fend off her mother again, time to go back into the game.

Lin Feng cultivation pathway was an easy choice for him. With a test result showing a dominant immortal bone, he went with the physical cultivation pathway that is popular in Xianxia novel. His cultivation journey began with Physical Transformation, followed by Organ Melding, Physical Consolidation, Martial Heart, Martial Master, Martial Lord, Martial King and reaching the peak as a Martial Emperor.

However, he has remained indecisive when it comes to choosing a profession due the wide range of options available. This is even after his NPC team mentor has already helped him to shortlist professions that will benefit from the physique of a physical cultivator. Though the game does not impose a limit on the number of profession one can possess, Lin Feng is well aware a jack of all trade is a master of none. Specialization is the road to success.

Mining is straightforward, plain muscle strength. Agriculture will involve hard labour but it will take skill to ensure a good harvest. Blacksmithing would definitely be highly lucrative in the long run. However, blacksmithing is a profession that is resource intensive in almost all RPG games. Lin Feng believe it probably wouldn't be any different in this game as well. Making a living in real life is already tough, why would anyone choose to endure hardship making a living inside a game as well?

Those non-combat oriented jobs carry minimal risk. Maybe he should consider jobs that carry a certain level of danger. Being a hunter supported by second profession as a butcher might be a good option. Physical cultivator needs a larger volume of food intake to build up a good foundation. Being a hunter means he can hunt for his own food and sell the pelt and everything else he doesn't need to the sect. The idea is quite appealing until Lin Feng thought about the penalty of getting killed. It would be quite a bummer if he can't login for three days. Maybe the risk can be mitigated as long as he is not being foolishly reckless?

The game economics ultimately forced Lin Feng from dragging his feet. The beginner package given to all new disciples only has sufficient resources for a week worth of cultivation. After that, all disciples will have to earn sect merits to pay for their living expenses and redeem cultivation resources.

*****

Acting Sect Leader Maximus Radcliffe

One and the half weeks after the launch of , all close beta slots have been taken. Maximus has become increasingly numb to the amazing result of the disciples' spirit root and martial bone test towards the end. Among the one thousand new disciples, there were actually two earth grade and more than three hundred disciples with talent above grade three. It would appear that though Earth is devoid of spirit energy while the immortal laws and karmic ties are suppressed, it has somehow created a unique environment that boosted the cultivation talent of the natives born on this planet.

As a general narrative, the beginner base was new and only had basic facilities. It will be up to the new disciples to upgrade it. The game will enter the next phase of close beta when the base spirit gathering array reach level two and hit a certain milestone in the base development index.

The base development is slightly ahead of schedule on most areas. The majority of new disciples has been especially enthusiastic "playing" the game so far. If not for the fact that their access to Eldorin is limited to twelve Earth hours a day, the base development would have progressed even faster.

On the areas that is lagging, Maximus will probably have to raise the sect merits to get the job done. Mining for spirit stones were especially high on the list given how the job tend to be highly arduous and boring. The spirit gathering array can't be upgraded without sufficient amount of spirit stones.

As he cross checked the base development report with the holographic 3D map of the base and its surrounding areas, he continues to adjust the minute details on the development plan. It would seem like all new disciples are positive that will be the latest rage on Earth the moment it goes public. All hall masters that are directly supervising the disciples have reported that they were asking if there is any way they can get some close beta or even open beta slots. When the spirit gathering array reached level two, it will be able to support up to ten thousand new disciples. Maximus is now considering giving each disciples a few close beta slots to keep their motivation high developing the base. As he delves more into it, the more he thinks it is a good idea. Since the Earthlings are all highly educated, he might as well outsource some part of his job to this group of new disciples. As long as he publish what needs to be done to reach the next phase of and the current milestone, Maximus is confident his lovely new disciples will take the initiatives to redistribute manpower and resources on their own volition to complete what needs to be done.

The close beta slots will be a very big carrot for any disciples. According to the intelligence gathered, it appears some disciples has been going around asking other disciples to sell them their close beta slot for tens of thousands of dollars. The only thing stopping any transaction from happening is all close beta slots are genetically locked to the original user once activated. The transmission artifact has reported cases where substitutes tried to login using the new disciples account. As such, the close beta slots will be very valuable whether the disciples use it personally or selling it to others.

*****

One month later into earth time, the base development has progressed way beyond Maximus initial estimation. Since he revealed that all disciples will be given two close beta slots after the base level is upgraded, the disciples' enthusiasm and efficiency reached all time high. With the addition of one extra close beta slot that can be redeemed with sect merits per player, most disciples has been maximising the time they spend in "Immortal Online". If not for the twelve earth hour restriction, those without Earth life obligation would probably have spent all their time in Eldorin scraping up as much sect merits as they could.

Reviewing the latest base development progress report, Maximus could now cross out the training facilities from the checklist. With that, the only item on the checklist that needs to be completed is the spirit gathering array. The array master supervising the upgrade reported that this will also be completed within the next few days.

Maximus will have to return to the main sect and make another report before the spirit gathering array can be activated. This will be another meeting he is not looking forward to attend.