The Legendary Mechanic

“I am a beta player in Big Horn Village. A few days ago I changed my vocation to mechanics with Black Phantom. Initially, I thought this is a very strong class, but after switching, I realised that being a mechanic is totally different from what I had expected. The skills are trashy and the equipment are easily damaged, but I could only repair them after I have bought the materials. My gun just died like this! I’m so mad!

“The combat power is rather weak too. One public beta test player who was 4 levels lower than me came up for a challenge. He didn’t even have a main vocation, and his sub-vocation was a mere [Hunter]. We fought for 11 rounds, and yet I didn’t win any of them at all! For a main vocation to lose to a sub-vocation, while being 4 levels higher, this mechanic vocation is just a pile of shit.”

… I was fooled by that video of Black Phantom. Damn I was scammed. Those senior NPCs always have NPC templates as bonuses. Black Spirit is not even a player! His combat power doesn’t even have much of a tingle!

… This mechanic vocation is so weak in its early stages. Maybe it would be as strong as Black Phantom’s eventually, but you will be starting way behind others from the beginning. It takes even longer to reach the same level as the rest! What’s more, the mechanic vocation relies on machineries, and the materials used to make the machinery costs a lot of money. This class is perfect for the local tyrants. If you don’t have money, don’t even try!

This mechanic vocation has no future, seems like I cannot use this account anymore. I can only restart another account and retrain. What a trash vocation!”

Luzman’s response was full of resentment. He had even uploaded videos of him losing in battles. Many people had echoed him in the comments, pushing his post to the top of the responses.

After glancing through other posts, Han Xiao realised that most of the posts had traces of Luzman. That guy copied and pasted the comments so many times. Many others found his resentment to be over the top and they argued with Luzman on the forum too.

Han Xiao narrowed his eyes. This was not totally unexpected. The players would realise sooner or later that the mechanic vocation is not suitable for combat in the early stages. Luzman was the first one and he would not be the last. These grievous people only fell for the trap because they were attracted by his video and had simply chose whichever vocation that was strong. The moment they realise that it wasn’t what they had imagined, they would feel deceived and angry.

There were also players who liked the mechanic vocation who ignored these useless arguments and complaints. Some players were in the game for entertainment while others wanted to be the strongest in the game. Luzman was clearly one of the latter.

These negative comments would definitely affect his business, and since there was only one chance to choose a main vocation, players would become more cautious, especially first-time players.

Han Xiao shook his head. He had wanted to attract more players into the pit of mechanic vocation to expand his market.

“Seems like I have to reaffirm players in the value of the mechanic vocation, I can’t just rely on displaying my strength…”

The programme continued running. Off the script, the male MC said, “we have just received the unreleased promo clip on the next version of the game from Galaxy. Do take a look. ”

The screen began to play another video. Just as what <Galaxy> had announced, this promo video focused on the battle scenes of each vocation.

The heavy armoured knight appeared full of energy. The tip of his gun emitted smoke, and it hit a group of iron-shielded guards. The crash was loud like a thunder, and bodies were flying all over.

A tribe with horns controlled the elements around them. Flames slithered and wrapped around their body like a snake.

A magician stood in his cloak, and a web of light appeared beneath his feet as he chanted. Light rays of magic shone out from his fingers.

The bald-headed sorcerer used his mind to manipulate objects around him. He released an invisible strike his opponents around him, causing them to fall one by one with their noses bleeding.

The clips were all very realistic. It was gorgeous!

This was only a demo of the promotional clip. Nothing was finalised. The clips were recorded by new players from every planet, and there were only a few clips from senior players for the time being. They barely got together the battle scenes of the five main vocations. The battle scene for mechanic vocation was a clip of Black Phantom in action. Han Xiao was the first advance player to demonstrate his combat power.

There were a several clips showing the jaw dropping scene at Big Horn Village, as well as scenes of the interception battle at Tedramira River. Sniper, rifles, turrets, squadrons, and even the vicious Fury Blade was featured in the clip.

The players was all engrossed in the scenes. They were all exhilarating moments.

“I didn’t know I got selected to be in the promotional video!”

Han Xiao was a little surprised. He still remembered last season’s promotional video. The scene for the Mechanic vocation was just the process to produce a machinery, and most players assumed that it was a more of a support role. Hence, only a few players switched to the mechanic vocation.

According to the first version, the proportion of players in the mechanic vocation was only 9.7%! This promotional video alone attracted tons of interest from the players. Mechanic vocation wouldn’t be as bleak as before. He wasn’t afraid to risk players complaining and regretting on the forum in exchange for attracting more players over.

This promotional video also improved his popularity, and this was much more effective than word of mouth. Han Xiao was overjoyed. He expected his fame to shoot up in no time.

The next line-up on the programme was about professional players. The male MC said, “Within 10 days of public beta, tons of famous e-sports clubs have shifted to the game <Galaxy>, and according to statistics, Esper is currently the most popular one. This class is a lucky draw, if you get a high level skill, it is equal to 10 million lottery tickets! The future is unlimited!

It is known that the United States, South Korea, France, Japan and Switzerland all have accounts with A-class potential rating, and the various big clubs have offered prices for these accounts, worth millions of US dollars.”

The screen flashed wildly. Almost a million US dollars to buy a novice account? It was simply a lottery! Good luck would mean making a fortune immediately.

“Flashing News: The American Devil Club, Sandstorm Club, France Tulip Club, and the Korean Four Star Club have already bought the accounts. They will be used by the club’s elite players.

And the God-level players will still be using their own accounts… American elite player ‘King and Queen’ has changed to the magician vocation and was rewarded with a rare skill through a hidden quest. French elite player ‘Lost Angel’ has chosen to start at random and he seems to have obtained a opportunity. South Korea…”

Foreign e-sports players all seemed to be performing very well. China’s e-sports scene wasn’t weak either, but only a few managed to hit the top spots. Champions of many events had long been occupied by players from the United States, France, Japan and South Korea. If you coud win a championship, local players would celebrate as though it was a festival. They would be bringing honour to their country.

“Local players are performing rather well. A player by the name of ‘Feng Yue’ completed the reward pool quest on her own, gaining over hundreds of thousands of experience points, becoming the biggest winner. It is extremely beneficial for her future development. Who knows, maybe the advantages would come snowballing in. This task was related to Black Phantom…

A dark horse by the ID of ‘Fury Blade’ was among the professional players. During a meeting at Jiang Cheng club where Fury Blade was at yesterday, they had released a video. It was the battle scene in the promotional clip with Black Phantom, and I believe everyone had also noticed Fury Blade. He seemed to have triggered Black Phantom’s hidden quest…”

The clip of Fury Blade was sent in by Luminous Moon. In order to raise their profile, the club had used it for publicity, just when the Chinese professional players were feeling down about their lack of outstanding performances. This brought Fury Blade lots of attention.

“… This would be the end of this week’s content, we look forward to seeing you next time! The following are details for the lucky draw. During this episode, how many times was Black Phantom mentioned? Please drop a message to the official account. We will draw 10 people…”

Han Xiao couldn’t stop laughing. He then switched off the screen.

Han Xiao’s name came up the most in the entire show. The audience had the perception that that everything good had some kind of correlation to Black Phantom:

Black Phantom = Opportunity!

Han Xiao didn’t expect that his name to appear on the screen so many times. His plan had some good returns. His popularity rose yet again. And more importantly, after the programme was broadcasted, more players would come aboard to change their vocation, allowing him to earn more experience points.

He did a rough estimate, based on this trend, the number of mechanic players on Aquamarine would likely be two or three levels higher than previously.