Building a sect from scratch.

Chapter 54 The So-Called Number One Brother
When Han Yi returned to find Zhao Qing, he happened to see Zhao Qing carefully wiping the dust off the two huge bronze hammers with her sleeve. He couldn't help but twitch his lips.

No matter how many times he watched, he couldn't understand why Zhao Qing, a quiet and gentle girl, would choose to practice with such an absurd weapon as the Golden Gourd Double Hammers. Even Coach Ren's repeated attempts to persuade her didn't change her mind. She persevered through the immense strength training, which was truly admirable.

In response, Zhao Qing retorted confidently, "What do you know? The sense of security provided by such a large blunt weapon is something that swords, spears, and halberds simply cannot offer!"

Okay, he doesn't really understand girls.

When Zhao Qing saw Han Yi approaching, she casually asked, "How many contribution points and prestige points have you accumulated?"

"Let me see... Contribution value: 6,300; Prestige value: 52,000."

"I have a little more contribution points than you. Sigh, I wonder how many contribution points and prestige points the community actually needs... By the way, did you accept your daily dungeon quests for today?"

"I accepted it a long time ago. I'll turn in the quest before logging off. I'm too lazy to teleport back and forth."

Since the [Frosty Pool Cave] dungeon was added, the daily sect quests have gained an additional option – successfully clearing the [Frosty Pool Cave] dungeon once will reward you with 200 contribution points.

Although you can only complete it twice a day, and each time you only get 200 points, you can accumulate quite a lot over time.

Adding in the points from listening to one lesson a day, you can easily accumulate 600 contribution points. In addition, occasional random sect quests will also give you some. Over such a long period of time, accumulating more than 6,000 points is not easy, but it's not too outrageous either.

However, most players can't save that many. Just buying low-level Qiankun Bags from the sect contribution value merchant and exchanging them for disciple rooms from sect elders will drain their resources completely—these two are usually considered necessities, not to mention that some players will exchange for more than one Qiankun Bag.

Meanwhile, although contribution points and prestige points cannot be traded, items that can be exchanged for using them in the sect shop can be freely traded.

This has led to the emergence of several players who make money from this. The boss of this group of hard-working players who desperately run dungeons to earn contribution points and prestige points is, besides the wealthy Wang Ergou, a famous hidden tycoon player jokingly known as "the number one leader".

This player is extremely low-key and rarely participates in activities with the main group. Even for hidden quests with tempting rewards, he is never seen participating. Yet, his cultivation level and skill level are inexplicably high. He's even too lazy to chop down trees to level up, instead spending real money to buy trees from others offline—and requesting delivery to the vicinity of the quest location. This way, he only needs to walk a few steps to transport the trees back and forth to complete the quest, leveling up effortlessly.

This player's ID is "Master," and he's always a loner, rarely seen, and doesn't interact with others much in private. However, almost everyone on the server recognizes him because Master frequently collects reputation and contribution points in the world chat. Rumor has it that his inventory is already overflowing with low-level Qiankun bags. As for why they're low-level... it's because the sect shop currently only sells low-level items. If they had mid-level or high-level ones, this guy would probably have already used his money to buy them all.

With such a big brother around, Wang Ergou and the others felt rather uncomfortable. Although he had always been a lone wolf, what if he got lonely and wanted to build a community to play with after the community was opened? That would be a problem... Although Aunt Wang had said that the project team would approve a sum of money for the game, only the person in charge knows the cost of living. As an experienced game streamer, Wang Ergou knew that it was foolish to compete with real RMB players in burning money.

After exiting the instance and re-entering the queue, Han Yi and Zhao Qing chatted while waiting in line: "I wonder how Er Gou and Fu Zi's discussion went."

"I don't think there's a big problem. Although I haven't had any dealings with Master Fu, he seems like a pretty upright person. I've heard that he's been eyeing the top-tier equipment dropped by bosses several times, and even when a mole offered to bid for it on his behalf, he refused. The few times he did let others bid on it were because the items failed to sell and no one could afford them, so they asked him to take them on. He seems like a good person." "Really? That guy is quite principled!"

"That's right! Anyway, let's get into the instance! Same old rules!"

"All right!"

……

While Han Yi and Zhao Qing were frantically grinding through dungeons to accumulate contribution points and prestige points, Wang Ergou was "negotiating" with the Master.

It's mainly Wang Ergou who's making empty promises.

"Brother Fu Zi, here's what I'm thinking. You see, I can tell you you're a loner and probably someone who hates trouble. I have some inside information, and I'm telling you in advance to show my sincerity. After the update, the game will open the community feature, which is similar to guilds or clans. The qualification to establish a community will be exchanged using contribution points and prestige points. I'm not afraid to tell you, I'm just worried that if a top player like you gets excited, he'll start using his 'money power,' and I, a small streamer, definitely won't be able to compete. So how about this, when you establish a community, you can come to us directly. Whether you participate in group activities or not is up to you, but you'll definitely get all the benefits. What do you think?"

The Master remained expressionless and asked, "Aren't contribution points and prestige points non-tradable?"

"Hey, what you're saying doesn't mean you can't use 'money power' just because you can't trade. If you're really determined to make it happen, why don't you just buy out the teams of players with high contribution points and high prestige points!"

"This game shouldn't be saying that you can only establish one community, right?"

"Of course not. I'm not worried about whether others can establish their communities or not. The main thing is that after establishing a community, you can build a city. I've got my eye on the empty space next to the instance. I want to build a city there. There's an NPC village right next to it, and the instance is right outside the door. It's practically a feng shui treasure land!"

Upon hearing this, the Master's expression suddenly showed some interest, and Wang Ergou was shocked: "Master, I've shown you my true colors, you have to leave me a way out! Or if you really want to build your own town for fun, we can discuss building it somewhere else?"

“It’s not that serious, brother,” Master Fu was amused by Wang Ergou. He said, “You’ve seen it yourself, I don’t like to join in the fun. So, what you said is good. When you set up your community, I’ll join in. Just tell me how many contribution points and prestige points you need. Like you said, I can recruit some people. As for the activities… well, I don’t want to do anything special. If I have time, I’ll participate in everything. If I don’t have time, then I can only apologize.”

Wang Ergou immediately beamed: "How could that be! Just the fact that you're in our community is already giving us face! You're the number one on the leaderboard! Your equipment rating and personal level are both the highest on the leaderboard. Even without using your 'money power,' we still have to treat you like royalty!"

No sooner had he finished speaking than a server-wide announcement rang out. At the same time, a pop-up announcement window kept flashing. Wang Ergou clicked on it and saw that it was an announcement that had already been pinned to the top of the forum:
[Official Announcement for Version 1.1.3 of *Ten Continents Chronicles*]: [Thank you very much for your support. We will be updating in two hours (19:00 Beijing time). Please pay attention to your location and status before logging off to avoid unnecessary losses. This update will add 200 closed beta test slots, which will be released through a lottery system. Maintenance will be conducted from 19:00 on the 7th to 19:00 on the 8th. During this period, you will be unable to log in to the game. We apologize for the inconvenience. (The actual update content is subject to change, and *Ten Continents Chronicles* reserves the right of final interpretation.)]

(End of this chapter)