Chapter 777 – 4th System Update
Wuqi's plan had made it extremely difficult for the left troops led by Baiqi. This plan was truly vicious. No matter which side won, Mengding was destined to be left as a wasteland.
Baiqi also felt a headache because of that. Since the enemy was making use of all the civilians, Shanhai City was killing the locals. Even if Shanhai City took control of Mengding Prefecture, it would be difficult to raise their sentiments and gain their support because of the deep hatred.
But they had to fight.
Such a vicious plan was not used in Dongchuan because the Yanhuang Alliance had seen it as their territory and was unwilling to take such measures.
In contrast, Mengding Prefecture was surrounded by Shanhai City and could not be used by them, so why not?
The only pitiful ones were the Lords of Mengding Prefecture, who were buried along with them. Only now did the Lords of Yunnan City-State see that Yanhuang Alliance was just a pack of wolves.
Unfortunately, they had boarded the train and could not get off.
...
Even though the advance was difficult, Baiqi was still doing other things.
Whilst attacking Mengding, the black chess piece plan was underway.
The grain and weapons transport squads of the left troops had already occupied a large portion of Mengding. A portion of the resources would disappear sneakily to who knows where.
And this was a part of the plan.
The Battle of Yunnan was slowly proceeding towards its peak. As for how it would end, it would test the chess skills of both sides.
As the 4th year of Gaia drew closer, the attention of the wilderness was temporarily taken away from the Yunnan Battlefield.
The players started to look forward to the impending system update as well as the information piece. High-leveled players also looked forward to the 1st global auction.
Even Ouyang Shuo had to make a trip back to Shanhai City.
Of course, the Battle of Yunnan would not stop because of this. However, Baiqi predicted that this stalemate-like situation would last for 10 days to half a month.
Hence, Ouyang Shuo suppressed his worries and rushed back to Shanhai City to deal with some emergency matters.
...
Gaia 3rd year 12th month, 30th day, a System Notification sounded out around the world.
"World Notification: This is the 3rd anniversary since the start of Earth Online, and the game will be welcoming its 4th system update. Effective immediately, please head online to check the specific contents."
Be it adventure gamemode players or Lord gamemode players, they all paid a lot of attention to the yearly system updates. A slight change would affect their future plans.
In the 3rd system auction, Gaia removed the Super Auction Platform, country channels, guild channel, alliance channel, and player levels.
The goal was to make the game more real.
A year had passed and after suffering from all the pain, the players had started to get used to the new rules.
At the same time, new media, film, mercenary guilds, and other groups appeared to add life to the game.
Who knows what new changes the system update would bring? The moment the notification was out, Ouyang Shuo immediately went onto the forums to take a look.
1: Relationships with imperial cities.
Imperial cities and player territories can officially have four relationships: enemy, neutral, friendly, and close.
The relationship between the two would be decided by the more negative one.
For example, if the Dali Imeprial City said it was neutral to Shanhai City but Shanhai City listed them as an enemy, both sides would be enemies.
Such a setting was to prevent one-sided relationships.
The relationship level would affect the interaction between the imperial cities and player territories. As for the specific effects, the players would need to find out on their own.
One thing could be confirmed that if both sides were enemies, it would be difficult for the Lord to recruit people from the imperial city in question. Even normal trading would be affected.
Before this, when Chengdu announced their animosity toward Shanhai City, it was just Liu Bei making a statement. This system update would allow them to confirm the relationship.
Hence, Ouyang Shuo did not hesitate; he listed Chengdu as an enemy and the rest as friendly.
Now, all that was left was to see what kind of relationship they had with Shanhai City.
Ouyang Shuo saw right through the point of this update. It gave much more room for the imperial cities to act and let them have more influence in the wilderness.
This was Gaia slowly loosening their reigns on the imperial cities.
Each imperial city was not just an imperial city. They had millions of troops and numerous civil servants and generals. Its population was also in the tens of millions.
And all these people were trapped in an imperial city that had one prefecture of land at the most.
Each imperial city was like an atomic bomb. The moment it exploded, it could form an empire and stun the wilderness.
In the special environment of the China Region, the future imperial cities would become the enemies of player territories.
2: Opening up the arena.
Earth Online had some settings that pained adventure gamemode players; specifically, the cruel death penalty and the lack of ways to spar.
In the game, PK between players was with real blades and spears. Even if it was friendly, one could kill the other party if one was not careful.
At the end of the 3rd year of Gaia, as the outer regions of the imperial cities were being cleared out, the playability of adventure gamemode players was reduced, causing resentment to build up.
Now, Gaia had finally answered their requests and opened up the arena. Players had a place to PK now and would not incur any penalties from losing.
Not only that, the arena would also have a point system where players could exchange points for equipment.
To some PK maniacs, this was great news.
Even if one was not a PK maniac, they could still use the arena to raise their skills and battle strength.
3: Opening up guild cities and underground world.
This update was the biggest one this time.
In the Gaia 4th year, the nine imperial cities would establish a Satellite City outside for adventure gamemode players.
At the same time, this Satellite City could be occupied. As long as a guild takes down the Satellite City and defended it successfully for 24 hours, it would belong to them.
Hence, the Satellite City was known as the guild city.
Having a city as a guild base was the dream of every guild.
At the same time, to increase the vibrancy and attractiveness of the guild city, to raise its manageability, Gaia had linked the underground world to the guild city.
Based on Gaia's words, there would be a vast and endless world underground with stronger beasts and bandits, and many more resources and quests.
Just that simple description meant that the underground world was a heaven for adventure gamemode players. In the future few years, the underground world would be the main active location of these players.
With how vast the game map was, how big was the underground world? Even when the game ended, there would probably still be places that adventure gamemode players had not touched.
Of course, the underground world would only be opened to give an advantage to gamemode players and not Lord gamemode players.
The entrance of the underground world was in the satellite cities.
With that, the guild that owned the Satellite City could use it as a base to explore and attract more players to help build the Satellite City.
To the guild, this was simply a whole new milestone.
And this was the secret that Ouyang Shuo had revealed to Lin Jing.
One would know even without thinking that the fight for these nine satellite cities would be extremely cruel. The moment one occupied the city, their position as an overlord would be unshakeable.
The moment this update was out, the blood of all adventure gamemode players boiled.
The elders and guild leaders were all rubbing their hands in excitement; their eyes were red as they wished to go on the battlefield right away.
4: Constructing Imperial City sect dojos.
At the same time as opening up the satellite cities, the nine imperial cities would open up sect dojos that were different from normal dojos. The sect would teach all the basic martial arts of the specific Wulin sect.
When players joined a specific dojo, they would be joining that sect.
To adventure gamemode players, this was a huge revolution. Players noticed that the underworld that everyone was looking forward to was slowly revealing itself.
If the satellite cities were for the large guilds, then the sect dojos were for all the adventure gamemode players. These two updates solved the current issue that adventure gamemode players were facing.
The future of adventure gamemode players instantly became filled with endless imagination.
A bigger, more interesting game world was slowly revealing itself to the players.
...
Gaia did not show any favoritism this time. The sect dojos were not only opened in all nine imperial cities but also the prefecture grade territories. Lord players could choose what sect dojo to open based on their personal preferences.
The sects they could choose included the five clans, 13 factions, and 81 sects in Wulin.
The five clans included Shaolin, Kunlun, Wudang, Emei, and Lotus.
The 13 factions included Xiaoyao Faction, Asian Mountain Faction, Devil Mountain Faction, Hengshan Faction, Shushan Faction, Black Mountain Faction, Secret Faction, Shendu Faction, Emei Faction, Green City Faction, Haiwai Faction, and Kongdong Faction.
The last 81 sects were numerous and included Baji Sect, Taishan Sect, Mantis Sect, Black Tiger Sect, Long Spear Sect, Kaoshan Sect, Eagle Claw Sect, Medicine King Sect, and Five Tiger Sect.
Ouyang Shuo was truly dazzled by the choices that he had.