Dark Sand: My Players Are All Actors
Chapter 98 - 94 Plan for the Citadel of the Restorers (Extra - for Monthly Pass)

Chapter 98: Chapter 94 Plan for the Citadel of the Restorers (Extra Chapter for Monthly Pass)

Zhao Haiping continued forward and arrived at the marketplace.

After symbolically haggling with a small peddler, he discovered that this NPC peddler didn’t seem to have a "bargainable" setting and could only sell at fixed prices.

But after a moment’s thought, this was probably for the better, as there was a clear price tag, and all customers, both young and old, were treated fairly.

Had it been necessary to constantly negotiate prices in order not to get cheated, the majority of players likely wouldn’t have had the patience for it.

He also saw that there really were players carrying fish to sell, indicating that there were indeed real-life anglers in the game, or else they couldn’t have adapted to it so quickly.

This meant that the outputs from the players’ lands could be sold at the Order Restorers’ Fortress, and they could obtain different currencies according to the value of their goods.

After a brief interaction with the marketplace NPCs, Zhao Haiping confirmed that the currency used within the Order Restorers’ Fortress was standardized Copper Coins, Silver Coins, and Gold Coins—similar in shape to copper coins, but in different sizes. The Silver Coin was about the size of a piece of silver and worth roughly 100 Copper Coins.

Likewise, the value of Gold Coins was about 100 Silver Coins.

Zhao Haiping, who had a basic knowledge of history, knew that in the Great Sheng Dynasty, in fact, gold and silver coins were quite rare, mostly used only as imperial rewards or occasionally for burial ceremonies, and that the primary currency was copper coins, silver ingots, and treasure notes.

Moreover, throughout history, the monetary system was often unstable, and the purity of these precious metals used as currency varied. Furthermore, during natural disasters and turmoil, prices would skyrocket, causing values to fluctuate frequently.

The practice within the Order Restorers’ Fortress was clearly to better establish the entire monetary value system and to reduce players’ learning curve as much as possible.

Zhao Haiping sold all the wild chickens, rabbits, and the bundle of firewood, receiving in total one Silver Coin and several dozen Copper Coins, which felt rather hefty in his pocket.

Of course, the materials produced in the fiefs were not just for selling; they had other uses. For example, raw materials could be brought to a cook for processing, which was cheaper than purchasing ready-made items. Although the Restorers wouldn’t starve, eating these cooked foods could grant them buff statuses.

Similarly, the herbs grown in the lands could be made into Healing Medicine to treat some of the wounds incurred in battle.

As for the use of money, it had many purposes.

For instance, purchasing and upgrading armor, weapons, and so on, all represented substantial expenses.

At this time, the number of players at the Order Restorers’ Fortress had increased. Some were looking around on the city walls, some had left the city to investigate the surroundings, and others were busy selling the outputs from their lands to the small merchants.

Some players even went outside the city to arrange PK battles.

In short, after the launch of the large-scale multiplayer online instance at the Order Restorers’ Fortress, the players seemed to have opened the doors to a new world, freely exploring this novel environment.

However, more players gathered in the center of the county city.

Zhao Haiping also arrived there and found that the original government office and other buildings had undergone a great transformation, becoming the City Lord’s Hall—much more spacious and open. And once inside, it was like entering an independent instance, where no other players could be seen.

At the center of the hall, Beichen was scrutinizing the sand table in front of him, deep in thought.

When Zhao Haiping approached the sand table, Beichen raised his head, seemingly triggering an automatic dialogue.

"It’s you, thank you for before.

"Let me reintroduce myself. My name is Beichen, and I too am an Order Restorer. It was your valiant fighting that dispelled my doubts and led me to take up my destiny.

"So, starting from today, I hope we can continue to fight side by side, clearing away more historical anomalies of their demons so that they can never covet the real world again!

"Now that we have successfully taken back the first historical slice, I plan to transform it into a frontier bastion to resist the demons’ attacks.

"What you currently see in the Order Restorers’ Fortress is just my preliminary plan.

"The peddlers and laborers within the fortress are all phantoms of historical figures summoned through the power of the Order Restorers. You can think of them as tool people, essential in assisting the Order Restorers in the daily operation and construction of the fortress.

"We as Order Restorers can eradicate demons, draw strength from the historical slices, and then transform this strength into various materials within the fortress to annihilate even more demons."

Zhao Haiping remained silent for a moment, then asked the question he was most concerned about: "So, do we have to move bricks and build the city ourselves?"

Beichen thought for a moment and then said, "It’s necessary, but not entirely."

Zhao Haiping: "Ah?"

Beichen explained: "The Order Restorers’ Fortress is a special space, so it does not have to strictly follow the laws of reality like a typical historical slice.

"Under the construction of the Order Restorers’ power, the Order Restorers’ Fortress operates on a unique mechanism.

"The daily operation and maintenance of the fortress are mainly sustained by the phantoms of natives summoned by the power of the Order Restorers. Including building new structures, repairing the city, transporting materials, etc., all are completed by the phantoms.

"After all, our main task as Order Restorers is to conquer historical slices. The fortress must ensure its normal operation even with the presence of only a few Order Restorers, or even none, for daily maintenance.

"Of course, we do not exclude the possibility that a few Order Restorers, besides conquering instances, might also be interested in city construction. Therefore, within the Order Restorers’ Fortress, Restorers can also take on tasks concerning city construction and development. It’s not just monotonous and simple brick-moving, but more complex and valuable tasks."

"For example, hunting down small groups of nearby demons, participating in the design and construction management of the city, and so on.

"Additionally, historical slices themselves will produce some resources; these resources will materialize as ores or other resources which can be collected and exchanged for rewards.

"Of course, if some Regulators have special hobbies, or if there is an urgent need for labor due to tight deadlines, everyone can also spontaneously and temporarily play the role of labor, commonly known as ’brick-moving,’ to achieve construction goals more quickly."

While explaining, Beichen was pointing out and explaining things on the sand table map in front of Zhao Haiping.

Zhao Haiping let out a sigh of relief, it’s a good thing he didn’t have to move bricks!

This was rather humanized.

If players really had to move every single brick of an entire city, wouldn’t all of the precious gaming time be spent on that? There would be no fun in that.

Working was tiring enough in reality, and to have to perform such monotonous and meaningless repetitive labor in the game would be a bit too much.

According to Beichen’s explanation, players’ work mainly falls into two categories: one is eliminating small groups of roaming demons and exploring mines to produce resources, and the other is planning, constructing, and designing cities, engaging in creative work.

Of course, if one really wanted to move bricks and earn money, no one would stop them.

Or say, at critical moments, like when demons are about to invade and the city wall is not yet repaired, players can indeed swarm to move bricks and quickly complete the city wall, but that certainly wouldn’t be the norm.

Zhao Haiping then asked, "So, how exactly should we go about designing and building the city? With so many people, we surely can’t adopt everyone’s plan, right?

"Or is this something for players who understand architecture to complete?"

Beichen said, "I’ve already posted a notice outside the hall calling for fortress construction proposals. All Regulators are eligible to submit plans, and the plan with the most votes will be selected."

Zhao Haiping asked a few more questions and received satisfactory answers.

Afterward, he left the hall and went outside, where he found a hundred players gathered in the square, jostling shoulder to shoulder to view the notice about the construction of the Regulators’ fortress.

"There’s too much written on this notice! Is there a class representative to summarize it?"

"What should we be doing right now?"

"I just took a walk outside the city and saw places like brick kilns and quarries, as well as various NPCs like farmers, so what should we be doing now? Start moving bricks directly?"

The square was a bit chaotic.

Those gathered here were players who were clearly interested in city building.

As for those players who were not interested, they were most likely already out of the city, searching for demons or exploring places like mines.

But the scene was chaotic, with many players engaged in heated arguments, obviously not having reached a consensus.

Just then, an assassin player stood up high and said loudly, "Everybody quiet down, I study architecture in reality, let me speak first!"

The players in the square temporarily quieted down and all looked his way.

The player continued, "First, let me introduce myself. My name is Li Weiyi, I work in a design institute in reality. I’m not some big shot, but considering no professionals have come forward yet, I’ll just say a few words, as a way to break the ice.

"The notice states that we can decide what the Regulators’ fortress will look like, but the construction process requires resources and can’t be changed willy-nilly. We definitely need to settle on a plan that everyone is mostly satisfied with.

"I see a lot of players are arguing over whether we should build a Western-style castle or an Eastern-style fortress, and while that’s an important issue, it’s not the most pressing matter at the moment.

"Because in ancient times, whether building a castle or a fortress, the primary purpose was practicality. It depended on nearby raw materials, surrounding terrain, and other factors. We have to consider local conditions.

"And everyone is overlooking one point, which is that we can actually change the surrounding terrain to a certain extent through the power of Regulators!

"Although this terrain transformation has a lot of randomness and can only be selected from several options, with the result being uncontrollable, but advantageous terrain is the best city defense!

"If we can generate good terrain and build our defenses on that basis, it would yield twice the results with half the effort, way better than hard-building a city on flat ground right now!"

Li Weiyi’s speech made everyone in the square nod in agreement.

When people had first seen the content of the notice, there was quite a bit of debate.

Some liked Eastern architecture, some preferred Western, there were others who wanted a combination of the two, and many cited famous historical city models...

But as soon as the professional pointed out everyone’s blind spot, perspectives changed.

No matter how impressive a city is, it’s built relying on the surrounding terrain. Here we just have a big flat land, whatever you build won’t be much different.

So, as Regulators, we need to understand how to use the supernatural powers of the Regulators, first try to generate a favorable terrain, and then consider how to build the city!

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