Chapter 112-2: Player Boom, Rule Node (2) |
Three hours later.
After hunting all the way, Jiao Chen’s Owl-Headed Fiend reached level 3.
But he still chose to continue hunting in primary mode, since the Owl-Headed Fiend form did not suit the sea environment. Switching would weaken his strength instead, and he would have to surface to breathe from time to time.
Over three hours of exploration, he discovered that this sea region contained a large number of powerful lifeforms that could easily kill him.
Unlike the feeling of being an apex predator in Earth’s seas, here he needed to stay on guard at all times, wary of attacks that might strike at any moment.
The process was tense and thrilling, his heart pounding uncontrollably faster.
Along the way he had already been attacked several times by marine life. Fortunately, the hunt levels of the attacking monsters were not high, and he had escaped by luck.
As he continued exploring forward, a Challenger Notification suddenly sounded in Jiao Chen’s mind:
[Challenger Notification: Exploration discovered the Colorful Mist Coast new area ‘Crystal Grotto,’ gained 300 sacrificial power.]
He unhesitatingly spent all 300 points on raising his body tempering level.
As a professional gold-farming player, he knew clearly that to gain long-term income in a game, improvement of one’s own strength was especially important.
Dark Land had only been open for just over two months. As long as he worked hard enough, grinding like mad, he could fully catch up to the growth progress of the first batch of players.
And the sacrificial power given by low hunt-level monsters was far inferior to that of high hunt-level monsters. Strong power would let him easily kill higher-level monsters and earn several times, even dozens of times, the gains of hunting low-level monsters.
He planned to invest all the income from the first two months into improving his strength, then after two months decide whether to start a profit mode or a partial profit mode.
“Big shark incoming.”
With a cheer in his heart, he accelerated toward a black fish that was swimming slowly.
When the black fish spotted him, it suddenly flicked its tail and sped up, bursting forward at a speed Jiao Chen found unbelievable.
Parsing info activated, and the introduction of the black fish appeared in his mind:
[Extreme Speed (Second-Generation Primordial)]
Hunt level: 6
Target introduction: A Primordial Monster that controls the ‘Extreme Speed’ ability trait, able to accelerate action efficiency by burning vitality.
—
Damn.
Seeing the four words Second-Generation Primordial, Jiao Chen’s eyes widened at once.
Before exploring the game world, he had specially gone on the forum to read a few newbie guides.
Those guides all focused on Primordial Monsters.
You could understand Primordial Monsters as extremely rare ‘treasure mobs’ in the game. Killing one could bring gains worth several million Human credit coins.
This was not a monster. It was practically a walking chance to get rich.
Jiao Chen instantly grew greedy. Although this Primordial Monster’s hunt level was 6 and he was most likely no match, as long as there was the slightest chance he did not want to miss it.
He feared that if he missed it, he would later think back and be unable to stop himself from slapping his own face.
This was a treasure mob in the game. Even Human players who had entered two months earlier had only contained a bit over twenty of them.
Screw it, go for broke, charge it.
Gritting his teeth, Jiao Chen lunged after the Extreme Speed Fish that was about to disappear from view.
But he quickly discovered that his swimming speed on Earth, of which he was proud, enough to win third place in Fishing Harbor City’s ‘Surf-Breaking Race’ for two consecutive seasons and capable of chasing dolphins, was nothing before the Extreme Speed Fish. In the blink of an eye the fish vanished at the edge of his sight.
Unwilling, Jiao Chen chose to keep gritting his teeth and persist, hoping the Extreme Speed Fish would stop ahead.
After more than ten minutes of sustained high-speed swimming, Jiao Chen was sore all over, but the Extreme Speed Fish still did not appear in sight.
Damn it.
Choosing not to persist further, Jiao Chen swung a punch hard into the water, his expression vexed.
The chance to get rich had brushed past him. He felt so miserable he wanted to cry.
Just as he was about to turn back, his gaze was drawn by a gorgeous undersea crystal palace deep in the ocean.
The structure of this palace did not look like it had been built by intelligent life. It seemed more like the handiwork of nature, shining with brilliant colors amid the endless waves and the dim sea.
The entire palace was composed of crystal clear crystals. Each piece shed five-colored light, like countless rainbows interwoven, so beautiful it took one’s breath away.
Sunlight pierced the sea surface and reached the seabed. After refraction and scattering through the crystals, the whole palace was shrouded in a soft radiance.
Though it was far away and he could only see the general outline, such a splendid sight still filled Jiao Chen with awe.
The first thought that surfaced in his mind was that there might be hidden rewards inside the palace.
Just like the rewards for discovering regions, you had to approach to trigger them.
Without hesitation, he immediately dove toward the undersea palace.
As he gradually approached, he discovered that the outside of the entire palace was surrounded by a large group of aquatic life, resembling enlarged deep-sea shrimp.
Through parsing feedback, he learned that this was an underwater lifeform called Shadow-Scale Shrimp Guard.
Their body structure was very peculiar. Their body surface was covered in dusky blue scale armor. Through their translucent foreheads one could see a glowing lump of flesh inside that pulsed like a heart. Their heads were somewhat flat. Two huge compound eyes rotated independently. Before them was a pair of massive claws evolved from strong forelimbs. On their backs grew a pair of transparent fins like thin wings. When swimming, the fins gently waved in the seawater, helping them dart rapidly through the deep.
When they swam, the water around their bodies was guided by their unique structure, forming brilliant flowing lights.
Sweeping his gaze around, the Shadow-Scale Shrimp Guards generally had hunt levels above 25.
Realizing that with his own strength he could not possibly enter the crystal palace, Jiao Chen opened the map function, noted down the coordinate numbers, and prepared to turn back.
Just then, a Challenger Notification sounded in his mind and across all channels:
[Challenger Notification (All Channels): Discovered Sea Region Territory Node ‘Crystal Hall.’]
[Crystal Hall (Territory Node)]
Territory Type: Rule class
Territory Trait: Crowd Gathering
Trait introduction: By assembling collective strength, obtain sustained strengthening extra power.
Territory Status: Occupied (Shadow-Scale race)
As the all-channel Challenger Notification popped up, the sea-region map updated automatically. A scarlet small marker appeared over the area where the Crystal Hall was located. Opening the map, one could very intuitively see that there was a Territory Node here.
A new purification mission also popped up at this time.
[Challenger Notification (All Channels): Discovered a Territory Node not occupied by players, triggering a global mission: ‘Purify the Crystal Hall.’]
Purify the Crystal Palace (global mission):
Mission requirements: Occupy the Crystal Palace and contain the Territory Node.
Mission reward 1: Expand the area of Emperor’s Mound Village and gain a domain rule trait blessing.
Mission reward 2: Rewards issued according to contribution ranking, with a maximum gain of body tempering experience +30000.
—
The appearance of the purification mission drew the attention of all players.
This was also the first purification mission in the Colorful Mist Coast region. Players from all regions opened the map to check the exact coordinates of the Territory Node.
This was especially true of the leaders of the major guilds.
In their eyes, the Territory Nodes in the Emperor’s Mound Mountain Range were all hard bones to gnaw. As they grew, the Black Tide grew as well. To take a Territory Node in the Emperor’s Mound Mountain Range required coordination among the major guilds and joint action to have a chance.
Hearing the Challenger Notification now, that a Territory Node had been found at the Colorful Mist Coast, they suddenly had the idea to change targets.
The key point was that this was a rule node.
The three Territory Nodes they had contained in the Emperor’s Mound Mountain Range were all resource-class nodes, which brought players sustained resource-mining gains.
But in Guide’s introduction, rule nodes were the core among Territory Nodes.
With each rule node contained, all players could obtain a permanent buff effect. This was a powerful trait that resource nodes could not grant.
Though they could not understand what the trait introduction of the ‘Crowd Gathering’ rule node meant, they still had a strong interest in purifying the Crystal Palace.
Those with similar interest included the Gill-Fish people and Abyssal Mermen who had just entered the game.
Learning that the global mission could bring generous returns, they headed one after another toward the location of the Territory Node.
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