Chapter 63: High End Hunters Often Appear as "Dear Dads"
On the streets of Shadow Valley, the already bleak atmosphere seemed to grow even colder.
Hodell walked ahead with unhurried steps, his black coat brushing lightly against the ruined ground. Behind him trailed three "refugees" in beginner cloth armor, each one trying and failing to suppress their excitement.
Yen lowered his voice and pointed the livestream camera to one side. "Did you guys notice that? Every time we pass one of those tough looking NPCs, the kind that seem like elite mobs, they all look like they're trembling."
A moment later, the group stopped in front of a workshop that resembled a fortified steel bunker.
After the renovation done by the Polar Merchant Guild, the entire structure had been restored to immaculate condition. In the middle of a wasteland full of rust and decay, it almost looked out of place.
The hydraulic pressure valve released a long hiss.
Then the heavy alloy doors slowly parted.
A workshop filled with industrial beauty and cold magitech precision revealed itself to the players.
"Holy crap..."
"This place... this is a high level stronghold!"
The three players froze at the entrance.
Then excitement burst from them all at once.
Inside, rows of precision lamps cast soft white light from above. Dense magitech conduits spread across the ceiling like glowing veins, forming a dense web of metal and energy. The place smelled faintly of machine oil, ozone, and something far more expensive than anything a beginner player should have access to.
At the center of the workshop, mounted on a support rack, stood a white crow exoskeleton.
Its silver white frame shone under the light, sleek and deadly, every curve whispering of advanced craftsmanship.
"Sparrow," Hodell said.
In the corner, Sparrow had been carefully wiping down a lathe. At the call, he jolted upright as if struck by lightning and hurried over.
"Sir, you're back."
Then he noticed the three people behind Hodell, and confusion mixed with vigilance appeared on his face.
"These are...?"
"Errand runners." Hodell removed his trench coat and casually hung it on a nearby rack. "I have things to deal with. Watch them. If they get bored, give them some work."
"Yes, Sir!"
Sparrow nodded hard and stepped toward the three players.
Hodell gave them a glance, then casually spent a thread of experience to issue the mission [Accompany the Child].
Floating Sleeve Rose Fragrance's eyes lit up. "Ah! This NPC is adorable! World, look, look, it's a little shota assistant! Do you think we can grind favorability with him?"
World Final BOSS was staring at the wrench hanging from Sparrow's waist. "What quality do you think that wrench is? Brothers, I have a feeling this workshop is going to become our secret base."
Yen was even more delighted.
A shota.
An E rank mission called [Accompany the Child].
The protagonist's base.
Two missions running at once.
His stream numbers were about to go insane.
The barrage went wild.
"Host, pinch his cheeks! He's too cute!"
"What the hell, you can stack missions like this?"
"This is robbery! I'm still out here grinding magic rats for 200 experience and getting bullied by villain NPCs!"
Hodell ignored the noise below and stepped onto a raised levitation platform, separating himself from the chaos.
Only then did he open the [Player Forum].
Originally, he had planned to browse the [Liuli Star] section first. Instead, the first thing that greeted him was a giant pinned thread blazing across the front page of the entire forum.
[Shocking! Planet Protagonist Appears on Liuli Star! Starting Mission Rewards 28,000 Experience!]
Poster: Yen [Verified Streamer]
Content: Brothers, I'm done pretending. I'm a technical streamer now, I'm confessing everything! Coordinates: Shadow Valley. NPC name: Hodell. Ridiculously handsome. I won't say more, just look at the screenshots!
MissionScreenshot.jpg
MissionScreenshot.jpg
TrenchCoatBackView.jpg
SparrowDisdainfulLook.png
African King: "Hodell? That name alone is already unique on Liuli Star! OP, hurry up and post the coordinates. I'm on Liuli Star too!"
Meat Bun Hits Dog: "Twenty eight thousand?! Where's the justice in this world?!"
Maple Moon: "666666"
Must Pull Roadside Grass: "Fake. Absolutely fake. No way babysitting gives double mission rewards. Photoshopped."
Inevitable Night: "The guy above is an idiot. He streamed the whole thing live."
Confusion and Darkness: "I did the math. The two quests together are enough to push a main class to level six right after class change. OP, don't move. I'm deleting my account and rerolling for a random spawn on Liuli Star."
The thread had already gone completely berserk.
Replies multiplied by the second. It was firmly nailed to the hottest spot on the forum.
Hodell rubbed his chin, amusement flickering in his eyes.
"So Yen is a major streamer. No wonder the momentum spread so quickly."
To him, this was perfect.
A walking advertisement had delivered itself right to his door.
Use simple quests and outrageously inflated experience rewards to create a sensation. Once the idea took root, more and more players would flock to Liuli Star during public beta. Before long, "Hodell = massive rewards" would be stamped directly into their brains.
The Player Forum was the largest communication hub among players. Most people used it to kill time while waiting to respawn, browsing stalls, or slacking off between missions. At the moment, only the closed beta players had access, which made the atmosphere even more unrestrained.
He continued scrolling.
"Brothers, do not dig through trash cans! I found a glowing bottle, took one sip, and now my entire body is glowing green. Nearby NPCs are literally using me as a street lamp."
"First person jumping footage of the Floating Magic City on Planet Paleyton!"
"I randomly spawned as a tentacle monster. How do I reroll race? Waiting online, urgent."
"I want to trade with the guy above. I also want to be a tentacle monster."
"I shouted 'Mom' at a passing mage and got dragged away for a mental evaluation. Does this count as hidden content?"
"Bad news! NPCs in this game will actually camp your respawn point and kill you again!"
Hodell shook his head and closed the page before he got sucked in any deeper.
This game had more than a dozen beginner planets. Magic civilizations, ancient civilizations, sci fi civilizations, martial arts civilizations, religious civilizations... every world had its own structure, culture, and social system. The racial diversity was absurd, and the freedom of play bordered on madness.
He rose and looked down from the edge of the platform.
Below, Yen and the other two were circling Sparrow like wolves, desperately trying to pry some kind of "third hidden quest" out of him.
That peculiar player obsession with hidden content made Hodell feel a little helpless.
"Sparrow, ignore them."
His calm voice echoed through the workshop.
"You three. Come here."
Meanwhile, in a beginner village somewhere on Liuli Star, players were still running around like headless chickens.
"The reward is too low. It's only three magic crystals!"
"Leveling takes forever. I've been doing quests for half an hour and just barely scraped together enough experience for one level."
"You actually lose HP if you punch yourself. This game is hilarious."
"Are you stupid?"
Star Ocean's freedom was so high that beginner players could basically choose any direction they wanted from the start. Which naturally made the early game both miserable and addictive.
Among the crowd, a female player named Blood Cell Worubiwoga was crouched beside a broken runic stone pillar, painstakingly training her Gathering skill.
The Magic system, just like the Mechanic system, had an absurdly high freedom ceiling. It also had an equally absurd learning curve. At this stage, every closed beta player was feeling their way through the dark.
"Are you one of us too?"
A voice came from behind her.
She turned and saw three players walking over through the crowd. The leader's ID was Inevitable Night. Beside him were Confusion and Darkness and Late Night Slacker.
The expressions on all three faces made it obvious they were about to propose something terrible.
Blood Cell Worubiwoga stood up awkwardly and brushed crystal dust off her hands.
"Uh... yeah. What's up?"
Confusion grinned and lowered his voice. "Have you been following the forum? Out of all the beginner areas on Liuli Star, ours is the closest to Shadow Valley in a straight line."
"Shadow Valley?" Her eyes lit up instantly. "The place where that boss Hodell is?"
"Exactly." Inevitable Night sent over a screenshot from Yen's stream. "I watched the stream. I know the coordinates. The fat merchant in the bazaar is selling maps for twenty magic crystals, which is way too expensive for poor people like us. But I caught a glimpse of the preview. There's an abandoned Runic Track outside our outpost, and some magitech merchant shuttles still use it."
At present, every player's map was still covered in fog.
Everything had to be discovered manually.
That meant only one thing.
Travel cost money.
"Confusion already calculated it," Late Night Slacker said excitedly. "If the four of us split the cost, we can afford a ticket. As long as we reach the station, those shuttles are fast enough that we can definitely make it to Shadow Valley before the closed beta ends and report to Boss Hodell!"
Confusion nodded. "The closed beta only lasts twelve days. Grinding beginner quests is pointless. This game gives insane freedom. If you want an early advantage, the correct move is to open the map. That's the real way to play an open world game. Right now, almost nobody is competing for outer map resources. Everything outside the beginner village is virgin land."
Blood Cell Worubiwoga hesitated. "But... I saw forum posts saying Shadow Valley is crawling with dangerous NPCs. At our level, wouldn't we get vaporized by a random magical shockwave before we even meet him?"
"Wealth lies in danger!" Confusion's eyes gleamed. "Look at Yen. He's already helping the boss babysit! If we waste twelve days mining ore in beginner village, then when public beta starts, we'll still be nobodies. But if we can catch the last bus of the closed beta and just show our faces in front of Boss Hodell, our starting point in public beta will instantly be different!"
His voice grew lower, more tempting.
"So what do you want? Spend twelve days being an anonymous errand runner in beginner village hell, or come with us to meet Hodell, the hidden thigh that makes elite mobs tremble? It would practically be a sin not to cling to him."
Blood Cell looked at the three eager faces in front of her.
Then she pictured the man from the screenshots, black coat, cold eyes, terrifying presence.
She clenched her teeth.
"Fine. Let's do it. Worst case, I die and respawn at the beginner point. Count me in for the map money."
At that very moment, Hodell had no idea that somewhere in a miserable little beginner outpost, four dirt poor players were already plotting a pilgrimage across danger and death just to catch sight of him.
Right now, he was opening his personal shop for Yen and the others.
[Favorability with Hodell has increased by 2. Current relationship: Indifferent.]
"Young people," Hodell said calmly, "I can tell at a glance that the three of you possess extraordinary talent. You are rare magical prodigies, one in a million. Since fate has led you here, I just so happen to have a few treasures hidden away. I only offer them to those who are truly destined."
"It's here! It's finally here! The legendary hidden shop!"
The breathing of the three players immediately turned heavy.
The moment favorability had crossed positive territory, the shop unlocked.
As veteran gamers, they all knew what a privately unlocked shop under these conditions represented.
[Open personal shop for player: Yen?]
"Yes."
A translucent interface appeared before Hodell.
The left side was [Item Shop], which meant he could list items even if they were not physically on his person.
The right side was [Skill Shop], where he could display abilities he had mastered.
"It's here. The cheat is finally here!"
[Please set a price for the goods. Note: Prices may be set in currency, experience, or barter items.]
[You may also set purchase conditions, including but not limited to favorability, level, skills, class...]
Magic Crystals were only the local currency of Liuli Star.
The true universal currency of the galaxy was Enas.
Pricing, however, was his choice.
The shop interface opened in front of the three players.
The instant they looked at it, their eyes nearly stuck to the screen.
Magic Hand Cannon. Low Level Healing Potion. Low Level Recovery Potion.
Yen clicked frantically through the shop with trembling fingers. "This is ridiculous. This is absolutely version cheating."
There were recovery items. Firearms. Melee weapons.
To beginners, every single thing here was priceless.
If they could buy even part of it, they would instantly be ahead of the average player by several levels.
Then they saw the prices.
Their expressions collapsed.
"I don't have any Magic Crystals..." Floating Sleeve Rose Fragrance nearly burst into tears. She had followed Hodell all the way from the start and hadn't earned a single extra coin. Her pockets were emptier than her dignity.
Yen subconsciously touched the bottle of "zero dollar purchase" liquor hidden in his chest, but he had no idea if a big shot like Hodell would accept strange barter offers.
Then all three of them froze at the same time.
Their eyes shifted to the skill shop.
There were no Magic Crystal price tags.
Only one currency.
Experience points.
Basic Combat. Grappling. Special Combat. Acting Skill...
Even the generic skills were already incredibly practical.
Then Floating Sleeve Rose Fragrance suddenly gasped.
"Wait, wait, look at the bottom!"
At the very end of the list, three icons glimmered with pale purple light, like stars shining at the bottom of an abyss.
[Magic System Job Transfer Book]
[Psychic System Job Transfer Book]
And at the center, the one that made all three players' scalps go numb:
[Energy Power Refining Method]
"Holy crap... divine skill!"
The storm that erupted in their hearts was immediate.
Yen's livestream popularity surged past twenty million on the spot. The barrage became so dense that the screen looked painted over.
"Mom asked why I'm watching on my knees. Is this even a normal NPC shop? This is a dad's inheritance!"
"Magic Hand Cannon? Based on those stats, one shot probably erases an entire platoon of beginner village rats!"
"The Qi Power Refining Method is the real monster! Other beginner planets are still figuring out how to swing swords and shoot guns, but these three people just jumped straight into the transcendent track!"
"Report this by real name! Developer, get out here! First he gives a starter quest worth nearly thirty thousand experience, now he's selling training methods in the shop. This is blatant spoon feeding!"
"What is [Acting Skill] even for? Can you use it to emotionally scam NPCs?"
"To the guy above, once you learn [Acting Skill], you too can become a professional leg pendant on Boss Hodell's thigh."
"Players from Planet Aquamarine send their congratulations. We're still using broken pistols to fight wild mobs, and some of ours still throw poop. Meanwhile Boss Hodell is selling training methods. I want to delete my account."
"The boss just called them magical prodigies. Translation: hurry up and hand over your experience so I can teach you how to get stronger. Why is this NPC so cool?!"
Yen swallowed hard and slowly raised his hand. "Boss... wait."
The other two turned to look at him in alarm.
You weren't actually going to back out now, right?
Even Hodell paused for a moment.
Then he watched Yen produce a shimmering golden potion from inside his coat.
At once, he understood.
Why was there no Esper job transfer book in his shop?
Because the Esper system was different from the other five transcendent paths. Its powers were wildly varied and unpredictable. To enter that class, a player first had to awaken through a genetic potion. Only then could they begin learning Esper class skills.
And every player only got one chance.
If they failed the awakening, that account would never again be able to transfer into the Esper path.
The success rate depended entirely on the quality of the potion.
As people often said:
The poor rely on mutation.
The rich rely on technology.
And as long as you eat the Devil Fruit...
Ahem.
In short, it was the ultimate pay to win item.
The game itself had once summarized the philosophy perfectly.
Wasn't gaming supposed to be pay to win?
The lowest tier genetic potion cost 398 Euros.
The highest tier [Supreme Deluxe Perfect Genetic Awakening Fluid] cost 4999 Euros.
Even then, the success rate topped out at only eighteen percent, and there was still no guarantee that the awakened power would be any good.
But for players in 2060, anyone who could already afford a gaming pod was not exactly poor. A large portion of them could grit their teeth and gamble once for a superpower class.
As for a major streamer like Yen, this amount of money barely counted as pain.
Yen turned to the camera and lifted the golden potion high. "Brothers, the moment of miracles has arrived! If I awaken an S rank Esper, then from this day onward, Boss Hodell is my sworn big brother, and I'll walk sideways through the galaxy!"
The barrage erupted again.
"Famous scene incoming! The official money burning ceremony!"
"Streamer, wake up! Eighteen percent success rate! This is literally setting cash on fire!"
"The guy above doesn't get it. This is called investing in dreams. What if he hits?"
Under the jealous gazes of the other two, Yen tilted his head back and drank.
World Final BOSS and Floating Sleeve Rose Fragrance gritted their teeth, opened the mall on the spot, and bought the Advanced Version priced at 1998 Euros with their own money.
Gulp.
The three swallowed together.
The workshop fell silent.
Only the low hum of machinery remained.
Hodell stood with his hands behind his back, calmly watching the three gamblers. Deep down, however, he felt that with their luck, an eighteen percent success rate might as well have been zero.
The livestream captured everything.
Later, this scene would become one of the classic pieces of evidence supporting the so called "protagonist aura" surrounding Hodell.
The current players still did not understand just how intelligent NPCs in this world really were. If this had been someone else, the three of them might have lost their money for nothing.
[Genetic restructuring detected... Progress 1%... 4%... 89%...]
The faces of the three players turned red. Sweat rolled down their temples. Twenty million viewers held their breath.
Then a soft puff sounded.
A wisp of gray smoke rose from the top of Yen's head.
[Awakening failed. Genetic damage detected. All attributes reduced by 5% for 12 hours.]
"Damn it!"
Yen let out a miserable scream.
Inside, though, he was calm. The money meant little to him. The important part was giving the stream a satisfying reaction.
Then two more muffled pops rang out.
World Final BOSS failed.
Floating Sleeve Rose Fragrance failed.
The three collapsed neatly onto the floor like men who had just been swindled out of their family fortune.
The barrage drowned in laughter.
"Hahahaha! Three giant suckers!"
"I even knew they'd fail, but watching it still made me touch the one coin in my own pocket."
"This is the divide between luck and fate. For once, I've found something that genuinely makes me happy."
"Look at Boss Hodell's face! That is the exact expression of a father staring at three idiot sons!"
At that exact moment, Hodell stepped down from the platform.
His boots tapped lightly against the alloy floor as he walked toward them.
Then he gave a long, soft sigh.
"If something is meant to be yours, it will come to you eventually. If it is not, then forcing it will only bring regret."
Yen suddenly looked up.
Meeting those deep, unreadable eyes, he felt an odd sense of steadiness he could not explain.
He absolutely had the money to delete his character and reroll over and over until he awakened some absurd S rank Dragon Tyrant superpower.
But a "planet protagonist" was not something you could reliably search for.
That kind of encounter only happened once.
"Sir..." Yen clenched his teeth. "I'll buy it."
"I'll buy it too!"
"Count me in!"
All three of them chose the Magic system without hesitation.
Hodell remained calm on the surface.
Inside, he was delighted.
The [Energy Power Refining Method] was something players were guaranteed to awaken on their own after their first advancement at level twenty.
Selling a skill they would learn eventually anyway was practically free money.
Was it shady?
Not really.
Any veteran RPG player knew that learning a skill even one level earlier could snowball into a huge lead.
A transcendent skill unlocked ahead of schedule mattered even more.
It meant total suppression over people still crawling through the beginner phase.
"As expected," Hodell thought, inwardly satisfied, "you may have gained something, but I'm definitely the one who didn't lose."
He set the price of [Energy Power Refining Method] at 10,000 experience.
No Magic Crystals required.
Only one condition.
Favorability above zero.
He wasn't lacking money in the first place.
After graciously removing a few names from a death list earlier, the assets in his hands had already swollen to the point where he could be called the richest man in the entire waste district. Once those assets were liquidated, he had effectively become a walking treasury.
[Player Yen has learned [Energy Power Refining Method]. You gain 10,000 experience.]
[Player World Final BOSS has learned [Energy Power Refining Method]. You gain 10,000 experience.]
[Player Floating Sleeve Rose Fragrance has learned [Energy Power Refining Method]. You gain 10,000 experience.]
Watching the experience in his reserve leap upward, Hodell felt sincere emotion stir in his heart.
So this was what it felt like to be Han Xiao.
Just nurture a player like Mad Blade Angry Sword a little. Let him use your quests, your equipment, and your support to crush the people still stuck in the mud. Once his performance grew flashy enough, his club would never be able to sit still. The moment the publicity machine started spinning, players from everywhere would come charging over like sharks scenting blood.
And by then, he could simply sit on a mountain of experience and money while quietly worrying about how to spend it all.
Far away, Han Xiao was currently wearing the exact smile of a veteran farmer admiring a lush, thriving field of leeks.
Naturally, he was fully aware of Mad Blade Angry Sword's little scheme to monopolize him.
But that kind of thing was beneath notice.
"It's only human nature. As a Mechanic, my heart should be as broad as an ammunition depot. Why would I lower myself to argue with a leek that hasn't even been harvested yet?"
Chief Mechanic Han cheerfully continued manufacturing ammunition while browsing the player forum.
Then his eyes landed on the front page.
And for the first time in a long while, this Chief Mechanic Han, who had always prided himself on seeing through everything, froze.
His hands stopped.
His expression stiffened.
Then his eyes widened a little more.
Pinned at the top of the forum was a blazing title.
[Shocking! Planet Protagonist Appears on Liuli Star! Starting Mission Rewards 28,000 Experience!]
Second hottest thread:
[Is Hodell a Hidden Entrance to the Cultivation Version?]
Three slow question marks rose above Han Xiao's head.
His face gradually shifted from calm disbelief into total mental collapse.
"What the hell is Liuli Star? Why have I never heard of it in my previous life?"
"And who the hell is Hodell?"
Chief Mechanic Han, who had originally assumed he was the one setting the trend of the era, stared at this mysterious "colleague" who had suddenly gone explosively viral on the forums and felt his worldview shake.
He rubbed his temples.
Out of habit, he accidentally crushed another batch of bullets in his hand.
"No. Something's wrong with this script. I've definitely been making ammunition for too long. I'm hallucinating."
Han Xiao took a deep breath, silently closed the forum, and stared at the ceiling for three full seconds.
Then he opened it again with the expression of a man refusing to accept reality.
"Let me look one more time. What I just saw had to be fake."