Chapter 72-3: Black Tide Approaches, Peerless Massacre (1) |
In this first clash between the player calamity and the Black Tide calamity, players proved through their actions that his design was entirely feasible.
As players entered peerless mowing mode, Qi Sheng’s Sacrificial Power earnings rapidly soared.
Even after giving players an extra 10% return, his profits hadn’t shrunk at all, in fact, his earnings per minute had multiplied several times over.
The more fun the players had slaughtering, the more insane his profits became.
While the Black Tide Legion led by the Dinian Evil Spirit could still rampage for a time in weaker regions, after all, life in those regions would eventually exhaust itself when overwhelmed by the Evil Entities, once any being fell, it became nourishment to strengthen the Black Tide.
And as long as Black Tide Evil Entities died, the energy making up their forms would quickly reintegrate into the Black Tide and respawn as new Evil Entities, making them seemingly endless.
But these two terrifying traits of the Black Tide posed no threat at all against the player army.
When players died, Qi Sheng lost nothing, while Evil Entities killed by players had their death energy extracted into evolution points and Sacrificial Power, absorbed into the players’ bodies.
In this cycle of slaughter, players only grew stronger, while the Black Tide was continuously weakened.
The Black Tide continued rampaging. In less than one hour, the number of online players had dropped by half, and the remaining players were reaching exhaustion, either drained of vitality or mental power.
But Qi Sheng didn’t mind at all.
Even if the Black Tide swept across the entire Emperor’s Mound Mountain Range, it couldn’t reach Emperor’s Mound Village, which existed outside the world barrier.
In this war against the Black Tide, with gains and losses constantly shifting, the player army would inevitably achieve ultimate victory.
While Qi Sheng was rejoicing at the skyrocketing profits, the Dinian Evil Spirit on top of Evil Eye Tower had sensed that something was wrong.
“Overseer Eye, why can’t these mysterious creatures be broken down and absorbed into the Black Tide after death? And why can’t the Evil Entities birthed by the Black Tide reintegrate after being slain by these beings?”
After a long silence, the Evil Eye floating above finally spoke.
“I cannot find any information about this race in the shared databases from the other Nodes. I cannot determine the reason. Perhaps you could try capturing one alive. I can attempt to search for answers by reading its memory.”
“Understood.” The Dinian Evil Spirit nodded immediately and began manipulating the Black Tide to take action.
—
Near Ripple Pool.
“Can’t keep going… My legs are shaking. How are you guys holding up?” Zou Feng turned to look at his teammates.
But there were no teammates in sight, only swarms of rampaging Evil Entities.
He opened the squad voice channel, finally understanding why.
The squad interface showed all his teammates were in death cooldown. No wonder he hadn’t heard anyone speaking or answering his calls.
Glancing at his Sacrificial Power balance, he realized he had unknowingly earned over 200 points.
“Nice!”
Faced with Evil Entities closing in from all directions, Zou Feng gripped his Shatter Blade tightly, determined to kill as many as he could before entering death cooldown himself.
In the midst of battle, Zou Feng marveled at the game’s realism.
The muscle fatigue from prolonged fighting, even thirst, all these extremely realistic physical sensations affected his combat ability, far beyond just changes in his HP bar.
Before long, completely exhausted, Zou Feng collapsed onto the ground, panting heavily as the Evil Entities swarmed over him.
“No strength left. Logging out.”
But to Zou Feng’s surprise, the Evil Entities didn’t devour his body. Instead, nearby Evil Entities lifted him up and swiftly carried him deeper into the Black Tide, with others moving aside to clear a path.
“Where are they taking me?” Zou Feng was dumbfounded.
Too exhausted to resist or care, he simply brought up his function panel and attempted to log out.
However, due to the severe jolting, the teleportation array failed to activate inside his player body. Each time the formation started drawing itself, it collapsed, triggering a system message in his mind.
[Challenger Notification: Cannot initiate logout teleportation while in extreme turbulence.]
“Forget it.” Realizing he couldn’t log out, Zou Feng simply lay back on the Evil Entities and started browsing the forum to kill time.
“Holy crap! A ten-meter Black-Scaled Serpent? Monster builds are this crazy?!”
Seeing a popular video post, Zou Feng exclaimed. The footage showed a massive Black-Scaled Serpent crushing Evil Entities as it rampaged through them. Every roll or tail swing wiped out swaths of monsters.
As time passed, Zou Feng occasionally checked his status but remained in turbulent transport.
With some stamina recovered, he chose not to move, deciding to stay passive.
His reason was simple, he suspected he may have triggered a hidden quest. This unknown journey could lead to great rewards.
Plenty of players had proven that Monster World was full of opportunities.
For example, one player had accidentally found a machine and struck it rich, earning 38,000 Sacrificial Power. When Zou Feng read that post back then, his eyes went red with jealousy, wishing that kind of luck could have been his.
Perhaps this accident was his chance.
Bored, he continued browsing the forum, occasionally exclaiming in amazement at other players’ spectacular feats against the Evil Entities.
Who knows how much time passed before the turbulence suddenly stopped.
A force from below lifted him upward at high speed.
Exiting the forum just in time, Zou Feng was flung onto the platform of a high tower, landing hard on the black stone floor with a dull grunt.
Looking up, he was startled by the ferocious figure before him, the Dinian Evil Spirit.
Upon analyzing it, he was shocked to realize it was the same Evil Spirit warrior that had once viciously beaten the God of Wealth.
He had participated in that battle too. If they hadn’t risked their lives to stop it back then, the God of Wealth would’ve been long dead by now.
While he was still confused about his situation, several black tendrils suddenly shot out from the massive eye above the Dinian Evil Spirit, connecting to his head. Two tendrils pierced his temples, sending waves of intense pain.
A powerful dizziness followed, making his head spin and his vision blur.