41 Blueprints Galore

(BM) "Wonderful, it seems like we have yet another strong individual in our ranks now. Elder Guan Yu, I'll have to count on you from now on."

(GY) "Haha, don't mention it. I'm rather more curious about another matter."

(BM) "Oh? And what might that be?"

(GY) "It's about the hierarchy that your future faction, what did Han Xin say....Under 1 Banner, what will the hierarchy be like?"

(BM) "I'm afraid that what I'm going to implement later is not going to be exactly conventional as you might be familiar with."

(GY) "You mean, you won't be implementing the 5 class system?"

(BM) "No I will not."

(GY) "Is there a particular reason? The 5 class system is composed of Leader, inner circle, elder, inner disciple, and outer disciple. From what I've noticed, it seems to work fairly well."

(BM) "I can understand why you have these questions, but I assure you that the system I am introducing is a bit more effective than the 5 class system. I will be implementing a 20 class system that will undoubtedly be better for the long term of our faction."

(GY) "20 classes? Why do you need so many?"

(BM) "There's actually one more aspect that I will be changing, and that's the promotion part. I understand that the convention around the Chinese community is to have the elders have a simulation against potential strategists that have talent. I'm going to change it so that every one of our disciples report what they have achieved, through tournaments and other events, will be assessed every decade or so to determine whether or not they deserve to rise a rank or two."

(GY) "Will each class have a different name?"

(BM) "I'm thinking for the sake of simplicity it's better to just have the top 5 classes named exactly like the other factions, and the other 15 will just be named class 6 to class 20."

(GY) "Oh I see. Well now that we have that settled we should talk of other matters. What is your method of training for the upcoming Faction Selection Tournament?"

(BM) "Now that you have decided to become one of us, I suppose that you have the right to know. Here, let's go into the simulation and I'll show you."

The two of them entered the exact simulation that Baron and the others had just spent many months practicing to become better aviation strategists. Guan Yu was surprised to say the least. He had been around on Planet 4 for quite a bit of time, yet he had never heard of anyone even mention this setting. This mode was truly a hidden gem that perhaps they only had the knowledge to. Baron and Guan Yu entered the simulation on the same side so that they would be going against an NPC strategist. Baron decided to show Guan Yu the tricks and knacks of this mode.

(BM) "So I know that you are a pretty good aerial strategist, but I noticed that during our simulation your pilots lacked a bit of finesse. What i've found out is that if you have the time it is in your best interest to train your pilots in aerial maneuvers and drill them with tactics. This gets them comfortable with these situations and they can perform these tasks a bit better when they actually have to use them."

(GY) "Oh that makes sense. Then that probably works for land air troops i'm assuming."

(BM) "Personally I haven't tried it, but yes that should also be the case. The simulations we have are heavily based upon the physics and logic of Earth, well except for the strategists of both sides being about as strong as 50 men."

(GY) "Has no one told you about any official simulation competitions?"

(BM) "What are you talking about?"

(GY) "In any official tournament like the faction selection tournament, and the Death Match Tournament are considered official tournaments and the strategists will be as strong as the regular man. That's why there are much more cases of assassinations in these tournaments than what you have experienced so far."

(BM) "Is that so? Looks like official tournaments have a bit more realism than what I'm used to. We'll talk about this later, for now you should focus on trying to take down as much of the 2,000 strong enemy forces with your less than 100 fighter sir craft. I'll spectate on the side."

Guan Yu was no slouch when he had to strategize for air battles, and now that he knows to train his pilots he was even better. For his first simulation he managed to take down close to 800 enemy air craft before losing all his pilots. Keep in mind that Han Xin, and Yue Fei only managed to take down about 600 on their first individual try. With these kinds of results Baron couldn't help but be astonished as to how much of a genius he had just recruited. They talked a bit more after Guan Yu's simulation.

(BM) "Well done, elder Guan Yu. You have thoroughly shocked me with the results you have produced."

(GY) "You flatter me. I've managed to get about 800 air craft shot down, how many have you guys managed to destroy?"

(BM) "Unfortunately, we have hit a bit of a bottleneck in our training. We have managed to get close to double what you got just now at 1600. However, we can't seem to figure out how to take out the last 400 air crafts. The limiting factor for us seems to be that after there are only 5 or so of our pilots left they have basically given up on fighting seriously. They will still follow orders, but their skills that they show during the later parts of the simulation seems to be sluggish at best."

(GY) "Oh really. How about I have another go at it? If I figure anything out I'll be sure to inform all of you."

(BM) "Alright, you used a bit over 1 month in the simulation just now, which is about 4 days on planet 4. The longest we have ever stayed inside this simulation was about 6 months, which is about 24 days. The reason that the drop off from taking out large numbers of planes in the beginning to only a few at the later stages is because you can only do so much with 5 or 10 planes. So my advice to you is to endure the slowness of the later stages and focus primarily on taking out enemy air crafts."

(GY) "Thanks for the advice." Guan Yu turned to reenter the simulation but he turned around again. "Will you be doing this as well?"

(BM) "No I won't have time for this simulation for quite a few more days, our faction needs to make a bit more money before we become official. I plan on making blueprints for the next few weeks. Which reminds me, here." Baron handed to Guan Yu the blueprint for the radio that he had also given to the others.

(GY) "You have a radio blueprint? No wonder you got the others to follow after you. You are full of surprises. Thanks I'll be sure to use them well."

Guan Yu left to practice the simulations over and over again. Baron went into his room and began madly drawing blueprint after blueprint. No matter how much he produced, he felt it wans't enough. He continued on for close to 3 months, all the while shut up in his room. The others started to get worried for Baron and decided to go pay him a visit. They opened the door to find Baron still at his desk drawing up another blueprint. He didn't even look up when the others came in.

(HX) "Baron, we may not need to eat food or sleep, but you shouldn't stay cooped up here. We are still human even if we are dead."

(BM) "Thanks for your concern, but I'm just about done with my blueprints. Why don't you guys have a look through the blueprints and see if there's anything you guys like. There are many copies of the same thing so could you guys help me tidy it up while you're going through them?"

(GY) "Yea why not, I was getting pretty bored of doing the same simulation for so long I need a change of pace."

(XD) "Same."

(BC) "I'm done for that."

The five of them started sorting through the huge pile of mess that Baron had spent months creating and scanned through them quickly. They found many great toys, but they weren't much use on the battlefield. There were still mostly basic weapons, a few rifles, handguns, sniper rifles, but most of these were more of a strategist's personal weapon not to be mass produced in a simulation. There were quite a few good ones though and among them were blueprints like war chariots, overshoes, and very basic surveillance drones. War chariots were horse driven carts that could fit a few men that could run over infantry, much like a regular car can. Overshoes were shoes that left prints that resembled barefooted locals, this was fairly useful if you were fighting in guerilla warfare sims (simulations). The surveillance drones should be pretty self explanatory but the beauty of this was that virtually no one in the Chinese community knew what drones were or what they looked like. Therefore, this was strictly U1B's (Under 1 Banner) secret weapon.

Truly Baron was ahead of everyone at the moment, but how long would it stay like that?