People are unpredictable, and Lin Miao can’t possibly know what’s on every player’s mind. Maybe the King of the Great West, who went on a knife-wielding rampage down two streets yesterday, just wants to sit by the lake with a fishing rod today.
At most, he can sketch a grand direction, attempting to guide players toward the intended path, but how they get there and how fast depends on their mood, so Lin Miao has to use other methods to give them a push.
To Gloria, this is not a company; it’s basically a club, and Lin Miao is the club’s owner.
But what can they do? She exchanged a helpless glance with Lucy, realizing they’re already on this pirate ship and can’t get off.
Some players are so excited right now they can’t contain themselves—this means there are no forced tasks they must complete, and all time is free time.
They can do whatever they want.
Even standing on a rooftop under the full moon and playing with glue is fine.
Although in Night City, this is pretty mundane, as many people use fleshlights in public.
Weak Warrior: "I can barely wait to post this news on the forums; those people will probably be crazy with envy, hahaha. I’m going to take a few nice pictures on the street, find a couple of beauties for a photo, and have a cup of tea first."
But some players are quite clear-headed.
The Wildman stopped the Weak Warrior, who was about to rush out the door: "You’re happy too early, buddy. The office hasn’t even been built yet, so where do you plan to go?"
The Weak Warrior’s initially excited face fell. "Can’t I at least go out and take a look? What’s the deal."
Potato: "Look at what? Without building the office, where would the task hall come from? Nobody can run away, okay? The game community requires players to do the building themselves; that’s what freedom means."
Big Head: "We’re a team. How can some people work while others slack off? Get it, little bro?"
No matter what identity you have outside, here everyone is treated equally; there’s no hierarchy among players— they all just have the identity of a player.
Don’t say you’re a cop; even if you’re the King of Heaven, if bricks need carrying, they need to be carried.
The Weak Warrior, whose fantasy was shattered, drooped: "But Red Barrel isn’t here; can we even build anything with just a few of us?"
If the construction workers aren’t here, how can you work? You’d have to slack off and extend the work hours, right?
Big Head: "What’s there to be scared of? It’s just a game. We even built that office, didn’t we? Isn’t it much better looking than the warehouses you built?"
The players also found it strange. They received construction tasks issued by Lin Miao, and when they built the office, there were those blue-lit designs and the ’W’ guiding them.
But when it came to building warehouses, they didn’t have those aids, nor could they easily shift from a patched-up state to an integrated building. Clearly, when building the latter, their construction skills were at LV2, but the results were far inferior to the former.
And this time, that three-story concrete office building has a ring of blue design shadow around it, which means they just need to revise the materials according to the design, transport them to the city, and weld them together.
Once they accept the construction task, a material requirement list is automatically sent to the player’s system for them to prepare.
After hearing the players’ conversation, an idea suddenly struck Lin Miao. He felt it necessary to add a little incentive to these less interesting yet important tasks, to motivate the players.
[After completing specific construction tasks, the IDs of players participating in this task will be etched in a prominent location on the building, ensuring every player can see it first thing, and it will remain there until the game closes.]
[Including the Stone Ridge Mountain town office, which will be updated with the four players’ etched IDs in the next version.]
[Also, specific construction tasks will be settled at the end of the month, and recorded in the honor medal award statistics with special weight.]
After a brief silence, Gloria and Lucy thought the players finally reacted and were about to explode, but what awaited them was
After an explosive cheer, it was followed by a deafening celebration that even the cleaners in the factory turned to look, wondering what madness these company people were up to.
"Do it, do it, we are born construction people! In death, we are the soul of construction! I’m a construction dog, a top-tier person!"
"My whole life has been made right by concrete; what’s wrong with working with gray?"
"I’m begging the planners, can there be more of these tasks in the future? Hehehe, I just want to leave my name on every building."
"Did my 7 points of strength exist just for this day?"
"Come on, come on, this damn thing is going to be a damn climax battle!!!"
For many literati, leaving a mark on history is a dream, but most can’t achieve it and are merely passersby.
For players, especially those passionate about games, to leave their name in a game they love, letting other players see it every day.
It’s like your dream goddess personally confessing her love; it just easily excites people!!!
To Lin Miao, it’s just a trivial method to easily mobilize the players’ maximum enthusiasm.
Eight players drove wildly in two cars, slamming the gas pedal, the tires grating fiercely against the ground, kicking up dust in the wind as they wish they could speed away with F1 acceleration, disappearing from everyone’s sight in the blink of an eye, leaving Gloria and Lucy dumbstruck in the dust.
They needed to seize more contributions before the others could react!
What kind of enthusiasm is this?
This is the kind of work passion that no amount of corporate money can buy!
This is the pursuit of self-realization.