Chapter 229: The First Time Is Always Hardest
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
A few days ago, the guards that Han Xiao had sent out came into contact with the wanderers in the colonies tens of miles away. They explained the purpose of the sanctuary and invited the wanderers to take residence or work.
Using foods and smiles, some wanderers that did not have a pleasant life agreed to move.
From far away, the hundreds of wanderers could already see the tall wall that was still being built with the words ‘Black Phantom Sanctuary Three’ written on it with red paint. They found the situation unbelievable.
“Didn’t they say that they just arrived in Graymetal Ruins a few days ago? This doesn’t look like the construction has just started...” a middle-aged man said hesitantly. The others were wondering the same thing.
They had originally thought that the sanctuary was just being built, and the conditions would be harsh. In their imaginations, it would not even be as good looking as the tiny lousy houses in their colony. They were all ready to face a hard time, but reality gave them a huge surprise.
“Did they spend all the time building the wall?” Some people were still in doubt.
As they entered the sanctuary following the main road, this doubt was cleared in no time. There was too much for them to take in.
Looking at the tall wall, neat buildings, and paved roads, every one of them could not believe that this was the construction progress of just ten days.
It took days for them to even build a lousy wooden house!
The guards lead the dizzy wanderers to their residence, which was neither a camp nor wooden houses but brand-new bunkers. There were many rooms, and electricity and water were available. There were ingredients in the kitchen, and they could cook themselves.
They were completely overwhelmed by this huge pleasant surprise.
How is this even called a sanctuary? Might as well call it a resort home!
...
“Your Excellency, we have brought back 427 wanderers. There are fifteen colonies tens of miles away with a total of about 3,500 people. Other teams are still in the middle of their discussion, and there’s currently about 300 that rejected us clearly.”
Only a bit more than 400. That’s not much.
The purpose of the sanctuary was to protect humans, with the biggest goal of taking in wanderers. It would be a joke if there was nobody staying in it after its construction was completed.
There were few wanderers in the Karst, and wanderers from further away might not be willing to travel such a distance. In order to have people move over and take residence, Han Xiao felt like it required Bennett’s macro-control, which was able to bulk migrate the wanderers who were willing to stay in a sanctuary from other areas. However, that should be the arrangement after the plan matured; now was only the early stages of the construction.
Han Xiao waved his hands and dismissed Liu Zhao. He then walked back to the workshop and contemplated the situation. One of the requirements of his [Sanctuary Three] main storyline mission was to reach 40,000 residents, excluding players. This was one of the requirements that had the richest reward, and it had very clear benefits to raising the mission’s overall grading.
Walking on the streets and seeing the lively scene of the players, Han Xiao knew that in order to achieve the ‘Player Main City’ plan, there had the be NPCs staying—important characters would be best. These were all mission resources, and only then would the players be attracted to gather there.
The number of residents was a requirement of the sanctuary as well, which interlocked with his plan.
This is a long-term task, Han Xiao thought.
There were players that came to talk with him once in a while, wanting to buy equipment. Han Xiao did not refuse and got rid of the useless equipment in his storage while earning some money at the same time.
...
Back at the workshop, the Extraction Device was still operating, and Han Xiao was in a very good mood. Not wanting to waste the opportunity, he took out the parts and started building Compounded Magnetic Chain Split Blades. He was trying to go for the purple quality, and this time, he felt more proficient than all the times before.
It might succeed this time!
The noise of the Extraction Device echoed in the workshop, but Han Xiao was not affected by any external factors, immersed in building. When the Extraction Device stopped, he also finished at the same time.
_____________________
You have Built Compounded Magnetic Chain Split Blades (Purple).
Class Advancement Requirement: Build 5 Purple Equipment above LV 60.
Progress: 1 / 5
_____________________
Han Xiao exhaled, feeling much more relieved.
The first time was always the hardest, much the same as forgiveness. After the first time, there would always be the second and third, and sooner or later, one would become used to it.
I should be able to advance my class in this month, Han Xiao estimated.
Without looking at the interface, Han Xiao was already very familiar with the attributes of purple equipment. Starting from blue, quality would gradually make a bigger difference in the attributes of an equipment. The basic attributes of a purple equipment would be 20% to 30% higher than a blue equipment. The damage of the purple compounded magnetic chain split blades was a lot higher than the blue ones, and the attribute difference would be even greater if it had even better quality.
After replacing the purple equipment with the blue one that he had equipped, Han Xiao went to take a look at the result of the Extraction Device.
Two tons of crystals became a small pile of rhombus-shaped, light-blue crystals, each crystal being about half a palm in size. The original ore had been filled with cracks and messy lines, but the product after extraction was clear and transparent. Light passed through the crystal unobstructed and refracted within, like there was a mini sun in the crystal.
_____________________
Low-Class Energy Crystal: Contains non-elemental pure energy that can be converted and extracted.
_____________________
Energy crystals were most commonly used in magic civilizations and crystal civilizations. It was also the source of food for some creatures.
Han Xiao nodded. He had yet to think of another way to make use of the energy crystal other than to use it as an energy source. The Mage class had more ways to use the energy crystal.
I shall store it for now. There are Shadow Stalker Viper’s eggs in the warehouses that can be cultivated. Manually feeding them waste materials should create another way to make energy blocks, Han Xiao thought. Cultivating beast eggs required a professional, and Emerald Grass was just right for the task.
...
Stars filled the sky.
On the Stardragon border, a black heavy helicopter landed slowly, its rotors blowing the weeds in all directions.
A few Stardragon special force soldiers lugged a person by their arms down from the chopper with serious expressions on their faces. This person was wearing a metal eye patch and a bandage. She had dry, messy hair that had not been taken care of for a very long time, and her lips were pale and cracked. The bottom half of the face showed it was a female.
“Sir, she’s here.” The special unit soldier saluted the officer who was waiting on the side.
“Confirm her body status, make sure she doesn’t wake up,” Feng Jun said. He was in charge of this exchange. This woman was Emerald Grass, a serial criminal whom they had bailed out of Bell of Death Island overnight.
“Don’t worry,” the doctor said, “I injected a large dose of tranquilizer into her. She’s in a deep sleep now.”
“Confirm it again.”
Feng Jun looked down at his watch. The agreed time of exchange was nearing, so he was nervous. Not only did he have to complete the assigned mission of exchange, but he also had to gain some information of Han Xiao’s current status.
He wondered who would be coming for the exchange and whether that person would give him some face. Although Feng Jun knew Han Xiao, it was because he knew Han Xiao’s personality that he was not very confident.
Seconds and minutes passed. They waited silently. The sound of the wind blowing lightly across the grass and the buzz from insects were the only sounds they could hear. The atmosphere became more tense together with the emotions of the people.
Whoosh—
It was the sound of rotors cutting through the air. Feng Jun regained focus and looked up.
A helicopter approached from the night sky. The indicator lights flashed in the code pattern, and Feng Jun immediately told someone to reply. After exchanging the signals, Feng Jun gave a quick scan but did not find any organization’s symbol on the chopper.
However, although it was unknown, Feng Jun could see that Han Xiao had joined another organization. He felt heavy-hearted.
“Where’s the person?” A man in mask hopped down from the chopper.
Feng Jun waved his hands, and the team behind him brought Emerald Grass forward. The masked man opened a laptop and confirmed it was the right person before carrying Emerald Grass onto the chopper. The helicopter took off immediately after. The entire process took little more than a minute. Feng Jun did not have a chance to communicate—he could only watch the helicopter fly away helplessly.
Feng Jun took out his phone and called Gu Hui to report the process.
“He did join another organization after all, and it’s because this organization hid him that we were not able to find him,” Gu Hui pondered. “What organization could it be?”
...
On the helicopter, the masked man unlocked Emerald Grass’s metal eye patch and bandage.
Suddenly, the supposedly asleep Emerald Grass opened her eyes and stared at the masked man. Neither said a word—they just stared at each other for half a minute. Emerald Grass looked down. She slit open the flesh on her arm, picked out a bloody wiretap device, and casually crushed it to pieces.
She had not been asleep at all. As a Pharmacist, how could she not have trained her drug resistance? Thus, tranquilizers were completely useless on her, but she had concealed that throughout all her years of imprisonment.
“What did they exchange me for?” Emerald Grass asked calmly. It did not feel like she was in danger at all; it was like talking to an old friend even though she did not know the masked man at all.
“Some intelligence.” The masked man looked at Emerald Grass with interest.
“Cheap.” Emerald Grass frowned in dissatisfaction. “Are you interested in my ability to make drugs?”
“Whatever do you mean?” the masked man asked playfully.
“You wouldn’t be interested in any of my other abilities other than this,” Emerald Grass said coldly. “You’re too strong after all.”
A few days ago, when the Bell of Death Island guards injected tranquilizer into her and brought her onto the chopper, Emerald Grass already knew that she had become a bargaining chip, and she finally saw an opportunity to escape.
While she maintained the disguise of being asleep, she had heard the conversation between the escort team and knew a meeting would be carried out. Emerald Grass had planned to use her own abilities to escape after the meeting, regain her freedom, and never be controlled again.
Emerald Grass’s ability was controlling plants within a certain range; therefore, her instincts were very sharp. The feeling the masked man gave off was like a beast hidden under the skin of a man, ready to consume its prey anytime. He felt even more dangerous than when the Stardragon special unit soldiers pointed their guns at her head during the escort. Emerald Grass immediately knew that there was no chance to escape, so she gave up the idea of resisting.
“I was going to escape, but it looks like that would be suicide,” Emerald Grass said honestly.
Han Xiao pulled off his masked and smiled. “You’re very wise.”
Han Xiao had disguised himself for this meet-up and taken a chopper over himself. He knew full well that Emerald Grass was not ordinary, and sending anyone else would have been a risk. Thus, it was best for him to go himself.
As expected, Emerald Grass had hidden something. If he did not go, she would most likely have escaped. Emerald Grass had a very calm temperament; she was not surprised at all when something unexpected happened. She was very obviously suitable for scientific research as she would never be afraid of accidents happening during experiments.
“What do you need me to do?” Emerald Grass asked.
“I will tell you when we are there.” Han Xiao casually took out a device and scanned to see if there was any other wiretap on Emerald Grass’s body, at the same time contemplating about how to have Emerald Grass work and stay in the sanctuary willingly. Although he had Emerald Grass under his control temporarily, he did not think that Emerald Grass would give up on escaping in the future if there was to be a chance, and he could not monitor her at all times.