novelODS Chapter 112 Popularity System Launched
Chapter 112 Popularity System Launched
The game has been updated with new content, and everyone who was just discussing it is now excited.
"Holy crap! They really have an affinity system! Little snail, is your mouth blessed or something?!"
"The popularity system is quite interesting."
"Buy land! Build a guild! Finally, I don't have to carry all the junk I've collected on my back every day anymore!"
"That economic penalty you two mentioned? Does that mean that if I go to buy medicine in the future, NPCs will not only raise the price but might also sell me fake medicine? That's outrageous!"
While the three of them were discussing this, someone not far away had already verified the iron-fisted and ruthless nature of this rule through their own experience.
Happy Brand Blade is a staunch power player who doesn't even bother to read mission descriptions, let alone social relationship announcements.
He strode into the blacksmith's shop, carrying the blunted standard longsword.
"Hey! You, foreigner! Hurry up and fix this sword of mine, quick!"
Blade arrogantly slammed the longsword heavily onto Elliott's workbench, sending metal shavings flying everywhere.
A day earlier, Elliott might have just frowned, silently picked up his tools, and gotten to work, accepting that this was his job in the game.
But today is different; GM has given him the right to refuse the trade.
Iron filings flew up and hit Elliott's leather apron. The young foreigner stopped what he was doing, picked up the longsword, and examined it.
The blade was rolled into jagged edges, and the guard was cracked due to excessive force.
Normally, this level of damage would only require polishing and re-quenching to cost a few credits.
The foreigner glanced coldly at the longsword on the worktable, then at the Happy Brand razor blade with its impatient expression.
"Deep sharpening and recalibration of the blade," Elliott said deliberately. "Thirty credits."
"How many?"
Blade's eyes widened, as if he had heard something out of the blue.
"You're fucking robbing me! Da Niu came to repair something even more worn yesterday, and he only charged five percent! Do you think I'm easy to fool?"
"Thirty points. Or take your scrap metal and leave my workshop."
Blade flew into a rage and was about to draw his sword to threaten him when a sharp, burning pain suddenly shot through the emblem on his arm.
He looked down.
Popularity -1
"What the heck? What is this thing?"
Several players nearby, eager to stir up trouble, quickly read the official patch notes to Blade.
After learning about the new popularity ranking mechanism, Blade's expression was clearly not very good.
After grumbling for a while, he left dejectedly.
The well-timed drama provided a vivid lesson for all the players in the camp.
Sometimes, a single harsh word can really hurt someone's reputation.
The price was high, but the temptation was also deadly.
Driven by the unattainable land and guild registration rights, the Fourth Scourge displayed astonishing self-control and a twisted speed of change.
Outside the caravan's quarantine zone.
Moss was leaning on his wooden cane, looking at the several earth dragons lying motionless on the ground, their faces full of worry.
Suddenly, Da Niu, looking rather lazy, walked over with a big smile on his face, carrying a large bundle of freshly cut ancient timber.
"Hey, foreman! Look at how sloppily you've built this shed! What if it leaks when it rains?"
Da Niu put down the timber and, without a word, called to his brothers behind him, "Come on, help your brother drive these load-bearing beams down and reinforce the roof! It's free, consider it a welcome gift from us brothers!"
"Da Niu, this wood of yours is no good; it's all scraps!"
Another civil engineering player, carrying a complete piece of black wood, squeezed through and ripped open the frame that Da Niu had built.
"Hey sir, use mine! This wood of mine has been specially polished at the workshop with three points of special care, making it moisture-proof and rot-resistant! Not only will I build it for you, but I'll also give you a one-year warranty!"
Da Niu immediately got angry: "Don't you know the rules? Are you trying to steal my task? I took this brick first!"
"What are you talking about? The NPCs aren't wearing question marks above their heads; this is called free interaction!"
Moss's head was throbbing from their noise. Just as he was about to back away, he discovered that the mud beneath his feet had been covered with a layer of neat, dry grass by several players.
"Steward, be careful not to slip. This is some mutated moss that we just dried. It's soft to step on."
As they laid out the straw, the group stared intently at the emblems on their arms, as if awaiting some kind of blessing.
The birdsong and fragrant flowers nearby are also quite outrageous.
He held a handful of berries that he had dug up from who-knows-where and carefully handed them to Lao Gen.
"Master Lao Gen, look how hard you've worked teaching this practical lesson, you're all sweaty. Here, have some fruit to quench your thirst. When you're teaching later, please don't hold back, just throw people around however you want, we'll treat it as training our ability to withstand blows."
The players, who used to swear constantly and draw their swords at the drop of a hat, have now all transformed into helpful and exemplary young people.
Some were carrying bricks, others were delivering water, and some were even trying to use rags to clean the scales of the earth dragon.
"Hey bro, be gentle! You've practically rubbed the earth dragon's scales off; you'll lose popularity points!"
A newbie grabbed his companion's hand, "Let me do it. I studied animal husbandry in real life; you have to rub along the grain of the scales!"
This frenzied fawning quickly spread from person to person throughout the camp.
Some players, bored out of their minds, even started conducting intense social tests on the patrolling guards.
They lined up and went one by one to the guards to bow and greet them.
"Good morning, guard. Have you eaten?"
"The weather is nice, would you like me to wipe your knife?"
When they greeted them for the first time, the guards merely gave them a cold look.
When the group asked for the third time, the guard, exasperated, pulled out half a bone blade. The player who had led the greeting immediately felt a faint, cold sting on his arm—a warning that his popularity was about to be deducted. Terrified, he quickly shut up and ran away.
"The conclusion is in, guys!"
The person in the distance pulled out a tattered notebook and frantically wrote down, "Repeated, meaningless dialogue will increase NPCs' annoyance levels, not only failing to increase popularity but potentially deducting points! Don't mess around with it!"
On the other side, the agents, geese, and snails even started helping the guards start a fire and roast meat.
Since I have plenty of money, buying some meat to boost the NPCs' favorability is a piece of cake.
"There's a trick to building up favorability," the little snail muttered as it flipped the grilled meat. "Their earth dragons are starving, let's get them some meat first."
The agent agreed wholeheartedly, cut off a piece of lean and fatty hind leg meat, put it in a clean wooden bowl, and handed it to Moss.
The goose, while turning over the pieces of meat, kept a close eye on the emblem on its arm, trying to sense whether the array was radiating heat that represented an increase in favorability.
"Brother in charge, we'll help with the caravan's logistics and miscellaneous tasks as much as we can in the future."
The agent patted his chest and assured, "As long as you can put in a good word for us with the GM... uh, that is, the lord, that piece of land near the ruins of South Street..."
Moss took two steps back, his hand holding the wooden cane trembling.
He had lived on this treasure island for decades, and had seen ruthless mercenaries, cunning merchants, and fanatical believers.
But he had never seen such a strange person before, who was full of predatory desire one night and became enthusiastic the next morning.
Did these strangers eat some poisonous mushrooms that caused brain damage?
Old Gen also took the berries, completely bewildered, his scarred face filled with wariness.
He always felt there was something wrong with these fruits, or that these people were plotting something even worse.
After all, yesterday, that stranger named Birdsong and Fragrance was still cursing and threatening to call his brothers to kill him when he was kicked away in the ring.
Today, however, he was as respectful as an apprentice who had just entered an underground training camp; the speed of this change of expression was comparable to a magic trick.
At the top of the tower, a hundred meters away from the quarantine zone, Lynn ran up high again to cosplay as a human surveillance camera.
He leaned against the steel handrail, looking down at the absurd yet orderly scene in the camp.
Everything was going according to his plan; the carrot and stick strategy was always the most effective way to deal with these players.
I forgot to talk to Moss about magnanimity, which led to this ridiculous situation.
Now, this tireless workforce has not only learned to follow the rules, but has also amassed great enthusiasm and passion for that elusive guild headquarters.
This means that simply clearing away ordinary rocks and low-level monsters around the ruined city is no longer enough to exhaust their excess energy.
Want land? Want to build a guild? You'll have to put in more effort and do more work.
Buying a house in another world is no easy feat.