Chapter 1292 - Villain and Background (2/2)

When he was working with the three Universal Civilizations, a positive reputation was beneficial for the army to obtain more partners and create a profit network. Now that the three Universal Civilizations had made a law that prohibited any civilization and consortium from working with the association, reputation no longer played a part. The image of being ‘good’ was useless; instead, being ‘bad’ worked better.

Because of exactly this, Han Xiao did not mind switching the army’s reputation. To him, they were just different paths. As long as it could help him reach his goal, he would use whichever was better.

When the World Tree war broke out, the negative image would be meaningless. No one would care about such trivial matters then.

Of course, even though he decided to take the ‘bad’ path, there was still a limit to things. Therefore, he still had to restrain the players’ actions to a certain extent. Hence, he personally criticized Jupiter and the others to subtly express his attitude. Causing small scale accidental casualties when fighting bosses was fine, but doing it deliberately was not allowed.

With what had happened, if the players crossed the line again in the future and he ‘followed the rules’ to punish them, most players would accept it.

Since he was going to insist that the army was not involved to the outside world and not stop the other players from imitating it, plus the Guild of Gods made the symbolic first kill which received much more attention among the players and acted within the limits, there was no need to give them any punishment today. Of course, he was not going to reward them either. The guild had to pay for the cost of fighting a boss.

Although this somewhat went against the ‘punish all mistakes’ rule, there was no right or wrong to most decisions made in complicated situations, only what was suitable or not. The rules had to be adjusted often.

Another reason for this was that Han Xiao knew very clearly who the teammates worth earning currently were—the players were the foundation of his rapid growth. His level 360 Promotion was extremely crucial and had to be done as soon as possible. Therefore, knowing his priorities, there was no need to hesitate.

As the enemy started it, unless the players retaliated too strongly, Han Xiao was neither going to stop them nor punish them. Otherwise, he would give them a feeling that they could only get beaten and not fight back, which would impact their sense of belonging to the faction severely, making them frustrated and possibly leave the faction.

Back in Version 4.0, the Black Star Army fought with multiple small factions. The small factions chose to restrain them and blame the players, while the Black Star Army protected its members and poached their players. Han Xiao was an expert in harvesting leeks; he was not going to make such a rookie mistake.

After all, players could not be easily restrained by simple management methods. Them challenging Calamity Grades was something that was bound to happen. Han Xiao knew the players’ mindset very well.

Since we can’t fight bosses properly here, we can just leave this faction. No way are we not going to fight bosses.

Han Xiao knew that not everyone had a strong sense of belonging to the faction.

As players grew stronger, their need for the faction would gradually decrease. Strength was what mattered most. With strength, they had the right to negotiate their prices and could be treated well anywhere. Plus, Han Xiao never doubted the players’ interest in creating their own factions. At this stage, the importance of profit had decreased among the factors that attracted the players to remain in the army. Instead, sense of belonging and habits proportionally increased. His long-term investments in the past netted more and more returns.

Therefore, Han Xiao spoke with the Guild of Gods personally to promote his ’emotional attachment’ to the forums.

He already controlled the spaceship artificial intelligence, so the players could only use their interfaces to record. Therefore, this video would only circulate between the players. No one else would be able to see it.

“I understand. We’ll definitely report to the army in the future for operations like this,” Jupiter answered.

“Hmm, good.” Han Xiao nodded. “Work hard and control the black market of this area soon.”

After saying a few more words, Han Xiao ended the communication, and his remote projection disappeared.

The Guild of Gods exchanged looks and were all smiling with relief.

This feeling of being protected is amazing!

“Poseidon, I recorded the conversation. Should I put it on the forums?” Poseidon asked.

“Yes!” Overjoyed, Jupiter waved and said, “This is Black Star’s personal stand, which means we have new information that’s beneficial to everyone. Post it on the guild’s behalf!”