Chapter 115-2: Hidden Quest, Map Update (2) |
Glancing at the livestream that was still spamming wails, Gu Chen grinned, then switched to the guild chat channel and sent a luck red packet of 888 sacrificial power.
“Stop cursing already. How could I ever leave you out when there are benefits to be had.”
At once, the curses in the guild voice channel turned into blessings. The brothers all behaved very straightforwardly.
Standing up, Gu Chen walked onto the spatial teleportation array and asked.
“Hello, can you hear me? May I apply to start the third round of combat early?”
Finding the Barbarian Thrall silent, he lifted his leg and stomped the teleportation array twice.
In his view, three days of rest time was far too long. Being shut in the room was extremely boring, and he could only pass the time by browsing the forum and voice chatting. Now that he had recovered, he wanted to start the next round early.
The intensity of the subsequent rounds would climb sharply. He felt it would be hard to keep going relying on his own strength.
Might as well face it sooner. He did not need any mental preparation. Just do it.
The Barbarian Thrall’s voice finally sounded.
“You want to start the third round of competition early?”
“Exactly.”
“As you wish.”
After the Barbarian Thrall’s emotionless voice, the floor runes lit up.
After a strong feeling of weightlessness, Gu Chen appeared on the Flame Arena.
He looked up, and the opponent had already arrived early.
It stood close to two meters tall, with a burly frame and muscles like chiseled rock. Its bare upper body was covered in complex runes and totems. On its left arm was a snarling giant beast totem with its head raised in a roar. On its right arm was a six winged bird totem with wings spread. Just standing there, it exuded an imposing aura that commanded respect.
It was now sizing him up from head to toe with dark green eyes, then opened its mouth to reveal a row of pitch-black teeth, lightly biting down with a slightly mocking look.
“Guide, what does this mean? Translate it for me,” Gu Chen was instantly baffled.
[Any provocative behavior you do not understand can be interpreted as calling you a dumbass.]
Gu Chen: …
“Makes sense. Watch me beat him to a pulp.”
As his words fell, the Force Savage Axe floated into the air, and his analysis ability activated. The opponent’s introduction poured into his mind.
[Shagu Gu]:
Hunt Level: 41
Target Introduction: A member of the Sea Fiend race from the Divine Wood Sea Region, possessing extremely rich combat experience on land and at sea.
—
Seeing that the opponent’s Hunt Level had actually reached 41, and that he possessed extremely rich combat experience, the arrogance on Gu Chen’s face instantly vanished.
This was a high-tier match.
Although he had dual inherited soul attribute bonuses, he knew that in the previous two victories he had relied on his high attributes crushing his opponents.
Facing an opponent whose attributes were higher than his and who completely crushed him in combat technique, he had no chance of winning.
Just as Gu Chen expected, at the very start of this battle he was completely suppressed. In one exchange he had several ribs kicked broken, and it ended in a crushing defeat, his soul returning to Emperor’s Mound Village.
A large number of players watching in the livestream saw this and all sent barrages to celebrate, welcoming him home.
At this moment, Qi Sheng, who was at the Primordial Altar, was also watching Gu Chen’s performance in the arena.
After seeing Gu Chen killed, an idea surfaced in his mind.
Why not help players enter the arena to reap the rewards issued by the Ancient God race?
This approach was entirely feasible in conception.
In fact, he had previously considered introducing a feature related to the arena.
The goal was to create a virtual space similar to a MOBA game setting, allowing players to hone combat technique and improve combat awareness through matched confrontations inside it.
But after thinking the idea through in depth, he decided it was not feasible.
After all, Monster World was not a real game. Building a virtual space for a PvP Ladder competition would seriously squeeze the time players spent hunting monsters and delay their growth.
Between improving combat technique and improving strength, it was clearly the latter that mattered more.
Even without technique, players could suppress enemies in attributes through rapid growth.
No matter how strong combat technique was, before absolute power it was not worth a strike.
Taking everything into account and clarifying the pros and cons of creating a virtual arena, he abandoned this design.
But after the Ancient God Arena appeared, his thinking changed.
In his view, this was simply an arena tailor-made for players.
Players could hone their technique inside it, and the Ancient God race would gift the sacrificial power needed for growth. He could get double benefits for free without spending money.
It was simply nature’s bounty.
From now on, he would send players in batches to the arena. If they lost, there was no loss. If they won, they could shear back some wool.
More importantly, in order to achieve multiple wins, the importance of technical improvement would be magnified within the player base.
As for the situation in the Ancient God Arena, he had already roughly understood it through Guide’s analysis.
It was a special venue where a descended power harvested the power of Battle Soul through the slaughter between fighters.
Every warrior who died would be drawn by the power shrouding the arena island into the soul-refining furnace beneath the island and ultimately be made into Martial Soul Beads, which was the reward Gu Chen received for 1 victory.
With each victory, the reward would increase significantly.
If players can achieve five or more wins, each victory will be rewarded by the Ancient God race with a High Martial Soul Bead, and a single bead can promote a player by one body tempering level.
For this, he had Guide run big-data calculations. With the players’ current average strength, they could at most manage one win.
If it were the standouts among players, three wins would be about the limit, and with luck they might reach four.
As for reaching five wins, the probability was extremely low.
By the five win stage, every subsequent opponent would be a warrior with extremely rich combat experience or outstanding individual ability.
When players face them, they have neither a technical advantage nor an attribute advantage.
But in Qi Sheng’s view, this problem was not important.
After all, players’ strength grows very rapidly. In the future they will surely keep climbing to higher arenas, gain more victories, and bring in more sacrificial power income.
Thinking of this, Qi Sheng turned his head to look at Guide floating beside him.
“Guide, since players’ souls cannot be extracted by the soul-refining pool beneath the arena, will that be discovered?”
Facing the question, Guide shook its head.
[This is a range-shrouding Death Soul-Extraction Array. During operation it does not pay attention to the death of individual arena fighters or whether they were soul-extracted, so the probability of discovery is very low.]
“There is another question. Will life-or-death duels fought by players in the arena generate the power of Battle Soul needed by the Ancient God race?”
[Yes. The power of Battle Soul is not drawn from the players themselves, but obtained from the players’ combat behaviors and the state of willpower during battle.]
[To explain using an example from the Earth era before you transmigrated, this can be understood as a kind of virtual mining behavior, namely producing virtual currency through computation. The bodily strength and mental power strength of both sides in battle can be categorized as graphics cards of different qualities. The higher the strength, the better the card’s computing performance, while the act of fighting is what drives the computation. According to the world rule ‘Battle Soul,’ logical problems are posed, and answers are obtained through battle. That answer is the power Battle Soul produces.]
[As for the importance of willpower, it can be understood as the energy that powers the graphics card. If the energy is too little, then no matter how high both sides’ life strength is, the power of Battle Soul cannot be effectively generated. Therefore, the Ancient God Arena requires fighters to maintain high morale and a resolve to die.]
[As for the rewards bestowed by the Ancient God race for victory in battle, besides helping fighters repair bodily damage suffered during combat, they also serve as psychological comfort to prevent fighters from being unable to withstand the pressure and choosing death, which would undoubtedly be a loss to the Ancient God race.]
“So that means players fighting in the arena can also bring benefits to the Ancient God race.”
[They can, but they cannot compare to other fighters. First, in terms of willpower, players do not have a resolve to die. They always have a fallback in their hearts, namely that their souls will return to Emperor’s Mound Village, which makes their fighting will much weaker. Of course, I am not referring to all players. There are certainly some who possess extremely high fighting will.]
[Second, in terms of the collection of soul power, this is originally a cyclical system. Fighters strengthened through Martial Soul Beads also gain increased soul strength, and after death will reenter the soul-refining pool to be made into Martial Soul Beads again. According to my analysis and calculations, the loss rate is 32.7%. But for Martial Soul Beads bestowed upon players, the loss is 100%. In other words, for each expenditure given to players, the Ancient God race can only obtain the power of Battle Soul and cannot recover the expended Martial Soul Beads.]
[In summary, while players shear the wool of the Ancient God race, they also bring benefits to the Ancient God race, but the benefits are not large.]
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