The Righteous Player(s)

Chapter 27: I’m So Happy

One hour left before the server started, yet Annan had to rush his work to produce a game. If he knew there was such a demand before transmigrating, he would have slammed the keyboard directly on the product manager’s face.

Fortunately, the system was not too cruel.

Whether it was drawing UI or writing out the story, Annan just completed it with a stare. The end result was exactly the same as what he had conceived in his mind.

But, Annan was still stupefied and tired.

It was not easy to make a fantastic and gorgeous UI. He could only copy the UI of a game he was working on before. Then, he utilized his existing system as a prototype template while eliminating the access permissions to a few functions.

For example, the players’ raw system interface would not show Title, Rank, Erosion, Unique Trait, and Profession Overview.

Only health, attributes, level, and Shared Experience were displayed.

“It turns out that the default attribute for Level 1 is indeed five points each.”

Annan exclaimed.

It was not that he intended to give players a knock-off version of the system.

These were functions that players wouldn’t use for the time being. Annan intended to set up a level-based system that would gradually unlock to form a perfect content exploration loop.

Upon raising the level or having the main mission progressed to a particular stage, the players’ system would have functions unlocked for them. This mechanism would motivate the players to continue playing actively until they discovered all the functions available for them.

By that time, it also marked the end of the prologue stage. As long as the game quality was excellent, it would naturally attract the players to continue the game.

Having some functions locked would direct the players’ attention on Annan as well. With that, he would have an easier time managing them. Simultaneously, the system would not be too complicated to the point of confusing the players.

After all, not all players could be like Annan, studying all the personal attributes meticulously at the beginning of the game.

Many players went mad after seeing a complicated system by the moment they just entered the game.

“What’s this? What’s this? What should I do?”

To prevent the players from experiencing the above panic, Annan had to put more effort into the player guiding work.

Annan naturally understood that too many functions and attributes that were temporarily unusable would distract the players. Players would unknowingly be busy with “things that are meaningless at the current stage.”

In particular, this world was undoubtedly the “open-world game.”

First of all, to prevent the tourist-like players from not knowing where to go, Annan erected an invisible barrier around the North Sea Territory.

Likewise, to prevent players from soaring into the sky and going underground, Anna had to impose vertical limitations with the invisible barrier. For the time being, the restrictions would be within 500 meters above the ground.

In addition, there was a need for a system that stops the outside world from finding out about “player,” “games,” and gaming terminologies.

Annan was fortunate to have such a feature.

Otherwise, it was conceivable that these players’ unscrupulous remarks would cause a lot of trouble to Annan.

In the end, Annan wrote the players’ initial identity as Don Juan Geraint’s personal guard. These guards accepted the mission Don Juan instructed. After disembarking, they went to various places to collect information before gathering at the Freezing Water Port.

After descending into the world, the players’ first mission became –Return to Freezing Water Port and report to Don Juan Geraint.

Oh ya, there is this.

Annan pondered for a while and wrote a prompt:

“During face customization, you can only beautify it. The beautification effect cannot exceed 50%.”

Anna was concerned with players particularly fond of face customization would turn into mutants or monsters, which attract aggression from anyone they met.

After all, the players’ initial identities were all Annan’s guards. If they were too ugly, Annan would feel ashamed.

“Eh?”

Annan was caught off guard, “I can tweak the initial attribute panel and level. Their attributes and status can’t be higher than mine. Uhm…”

But, I should not set it to ten levels.

At least, that is not applicable for the majority of players. Otherwise, the game content is too little.

“I see. Since I chose them as my guard, they will acquire Swordsman Profession Level 3 at the game’s start. Then, I should provide the players with a profession panel each. En, I will lower the experience gain for the second profession at 50%, while the experience gain for the third profession should drop to 25%. This will facilitate the profession growth rather than diversification of profession, so as to avoid the situation of too many unranked but profession diversified monsters…”

If I encounter an exceptional talent, I will give him the main mission with advantages dedicated to him alone.

Annan made up his mind.

The number of players in this world occupied his ‘Book of Divine Transporter’ slot. In other words, he could only summon a hundred players at most now.

If an inexperienced person acquires this ability, he would use up all his slots in one go.

But Annan, who was from a game planner background, knew that it would become a problem.

There was a need to draw a level gap among the online game players. This would slow down their speed in adventuring the game. Besides, it also encouraged players of all levels to work harder in upgrading their level and play actively.

To put it bluntly, if all players started from the same starting line, they would not be satisfied because of “fairness.” On the contrary, those inevitable bad players in the game would recognize that they were terrible due to the fair settings. Thus, those players would lose the initial enthusiasm for the game and “admit their fate.” They would turn into softcore players.

Therefore, in a game that was inclined to be entertaining rather than competitive, the introduction of the player ranking system and the balance on various professions were not necessarily helpful.

Annan needed to give them an excuse.

A reason for “why I’m worse than others” was to divert their attention, moving their focus to improving their strength, rather than blaming the outside world and losing motivation.

Why are the old players strong? Because they play early. They have time advantages and have experience gaps. If I play for so much time, I can be so strong too.

Why are new players strong? Because they have a lot of time to farm. They have special events. If I had these events back then, I would be better than them.

—In other words, Annan must provide them with a channel for rapid advancement to stop new players from becoming the “bottom” class.

But, this channel should not allow all new players to be promoted simultaneously. Otherwise, the old players would be dissatisfied.

“So, I’m in charge of creating new events?”

Annan was dumbfounded, “Am I the NPC, GM, artist, admin, data planner, system planner, plot planner, and operation manager?”

Stop, friend. Giving me a break.

Although I don’t know which Almighty God has transmigrated me here, have you put in any effort to make this game?

“Isn’t this asking me to make a game from scratch? Do I still have to play the role of the protagonist? How about hack the game and make me the Boss Monster?”

Annan felt dejected that he still could not escape the fate of working overtime after transmigrating into another world.

Fortunately, after the hard work lasted for an hour, the server should start at one piece, albeit many details not filled up yet.

“That’s it…”

Let’s do the rest slowly after the server starts.

Worse comes to worst, I will launch patch updates or DLC.

Seeing that the time now had reached 23:53, Annan hurriedly opened up the creator’s perspective.

His vision was dragged to the sky in an instant with an unobstructed view on the ground below him. After zooming in and out of the map a few times, Annan became proficient in this ability.

“Let me choose a landing spot first. Huh?”

Annan paused and frowned slightly, “What is this?”

He quickly zoomed in on the map to view the area near Freezing Water Port.

Annan saw a group of masked robbers with weapons lurking far away from the city from the creator’s perspective.

They did not bring lit torches with them, so the guard tower of Freezing Water Port could not see them at all.

“They’re coming again?”

Annan frowned slightly.

There was no doubt that the viscount sent these people.

It was different from the dozens of people last time. This time, he dispatched more than a hundred people.

They dragged some black wooden barrels wrapped in cotton, cumbersome like heavy tires. They roll them little by little from a distance.

Are these Black Fire?

Annan recognized it quickly.

He squinted his eyes.

With so much Black Fire, does that guy want to kill me?

According to Salvatore’s description, although these amounts were far from enough to burn the entire city, it was more than enough to burn Salvatore’s house and church.

However, Annan’s heart was calm, even a little joyful.

Though, he felt that he was supposed to be angry now.

“Then, I should get angry?”

Annan muttered in a low voice, but the corners of his mouth rose slowly.

He squinted his eyes and quickly modified the players’ initial missions. He began to tweak the landing locations.

The location was set to be around those “robbers.” The players would be scattered more than ten meters apart in their descent into the world.

The first wave of players entering the world is only allowed to have the swordsman profession. I’m locking their identities as the guards on the ship. Hmm… let’s have 40 players in total. I’m raising their levels to Level 5. All of them are armed with long swords while wearing leather armor.

I’m setting their initial main mission to…

Unite with your companions, kill all robbers in front of you and destroy the “Black Fire.”

It shall be a limited-time mission.

“I’m kind to you all, right? You get to have a good fight at the start of the game.”

Annan murmured with the corners of his mouth raised maliciously.

I wonder what these robbers will think when they see “The Divine Soldiers Fall from Heaven.”

Damn it, I obviously should be angry…

But I’m overwhelmed with happiness!

Translator notes:

[1] Collection of terminologies: (Just in case)

NPC: Non-playable Character

GM: Game master

DLC: Downloadable Content

[2] I keep mentioning it as the server starts because there’s a lack of words. Basically, it meant the time when players get to descend into the world.

[3] I’m speculating the players “descend” into the world, i.e., drop from the sky to enter the world. Though, it could be figurative speaking in the Chinese language.