Chapter 155-1: The Woe of Eating Dirt, the Bonefire Mission (1) |
Primordial Altar.
According to Guide’s feedback, Qi Sheng received a data report.
Since the pet system went online these days, 22392 pets have been adopted.
Ranked by number of adoptions, they are:
First place: Chubby Peach (12594)
Second place: Lightfeather (5923)
Third place: Treasure-Seeking Squirrel (2594)
Fourth place: Colorfruit (799)
Fifth place: Pollution (482)
With its low price and finance-like attributes, Chubby Peach’s adoptions outnumber the other four combined.
In subsequent growth, adoptions of Chubby Peach are continuing to expand their lead.
However, the setting that pet cultivation requires continuous investment of sacrificial power has made many players hesitate. Quite a few are still more willing to spend resources on improving their own strength, unwilling to divert a portion of sacrificial power to raise pets in hopes of later returns.
Qi Sheng’s next step is to create the cultivator function, as well as to search for the second batch of pet templates.
In addition, through Guide clone’s perspective, he constantly keeps an eye on the war between the Ascension race and Written Word.
This war has changed flavor after the players appeared.
The two races fight brutally inside the scene, while players lie in wait within the fog around the scene, looking for chances to strike.
Through these days of effort, the number of Written Word race warriors outside the scene controlled by Control Inherited Souls has expanded to 103, and 38 members of the Ascension race have been last-hit and killed. It can be called a bountiful harvest.
Especially the Written Word warriors.
This kind of free pet with customizable ability settings is the dream target of countless control-build players.
As the two races’ warriors exhaust each other’s foundations, the players profit from it.
From these days of data feedback, Qi Sheng also discovered that during the Ascension race vs. Written Word war phase, the embed count of Control Inherited Souls surged by 127.5%.
This Inherited Soul, always considered T4 tier in strength, became a hot meta defining Inherited Soul during the two races’ war.
The heat only subsided slightly after the pet system went online.
At this time, both the Ascension race and Written Word had noticed the players’ existence.
Looking at players from the perspective of the two powers, they obviously cannot understand the players’ behavior.
They squat in the fog shrouding the scene, poking their heads in to observe the direction of the war. Whenever a near-death warrior falls near them, they swarm out and launch a fierce offensive until the near-death warrior is killed.
Or they drag a near-death Written Word warrior out of the scene.
These strange behaviors did not at first draw much attention from the two races, who merely felt that this race’s lifeforms were truly bold to dare to snatch food during a two-race war.
But as the number of players grew, both races realized something was off.
This group that lies in wait to ambush has just about stuck their chopsticks into the battlefield.
They have already launched several charges toward the center of the battlefield.
These suicide-style raids left them puzzled, and even more, enraged.
But the focus of both races remains on each other, with no mind to pay attention to these ants’ disruption.
In their eyes, the players cannot affect the direction of the war, they merely make them feel irritated.
From these days of observation, Qi Sheng further investigated the hundreds of thousands of projection-linked worlds established by Written Word and roughly understood why Written Word descended upon this region.
Through analytic observation he found that among the small worlds Written Word projection-links to, there is a cultivation world under the control of the Ascension race.
So the interests of the two are very likely in conflict.
Through storytellers and men of letters and other spreaders of stories, Written Word gathers Power of Ink output within these small worlds.
The stronger one is and the higher one’s mental strength, the more Power of Ink is generated during reading.
But in this process, Written Word discovered a problem with the Power of Ink output of the projection-linked small worlds. High-quality readers with high Power of Ink output frequently disappeared mysteriously.
Out of curiosity, it used projection-linking to send its consciousness into the small worlds to investigate.
Gradually it learned the truth behind these small worlds. It turned out the high-quality readers had not disappeared, but had been possessed by the upper world Ascension race.
In fact, Written Word did not care if readers were possessed. If the Ascension race that completed possession could become faithful readers of its stories, it could not be bothered about the safety of living beings in the cultivation worlds.
But the Ascension race that completed possession did not read its stories. In Written Word’s eyes, that was a big problem.
With every lost high-quality reader, Power of Ink revenue dropped by a portion.
To protect the readers of the small worlds and to obtain more Power of Ink output, at that point Written Word had already prepared to go to war with the Ascension race.
The first step of the war plan was not actually to start the war directly, but an initial probe.
That is, the first clash between the Written Word race and the Ascension race.
If the initial clash showed that the Ascension race’s combat power was something it could not contend with, Written Word would most likely drop the book and run, switching to another region to start a new book.
[T/N: I’ll be using drop and cut interchangeably when referring to Written Word abandoning a story.]
After all, this would not be the first time Written Word dropped a book.
The records on the Rule – Book can prove that whenever it cannot win, Written Word drops and definitely does not stay.
Aside from the Black Tide descending the previous two times and swallowing the gains from its book-dropping, the other two book-drops could recover most of the revenue.
This initial clash made it clear to Written Word that the Ascension race’s combat power was something it could match.
So it activated the second step of the plan, namely the current protracted war after cutting off the supply of combat power.
So this seemingly sudden war actually follows a certain logic.
To put it simply, Written Word extended its chopsticks into the Ascension race’s ranch to pick vegetables. Finding the amount of dishes had decreased, it prepared to grab them by force.
This is Qi Sheng’s conjecture based on known clues.
As for the specific truth, he could not be bothered to spend sacrificial power to investigate deeply.
Whether the Ascension race or Written Word wins, he does not care. He only cares how much benefit these two races can bring to himself and the players.
During this period, a refreshed forum post made Qi Sheng feel it was very interesting.
The poster collected players’ views on known powers through the number of likes on replies within the thread and compiled a set of impression tags that players have of each power.
Ecstasy race: A rising new star, a leader who likes to spread happiness, happiness generator, Lord of Welfare, I offer my power of ecstasy.
Terrifying Black Tide: A maniac addicted to devouring everywhere, the strongest AI in the Monster World, the force where Earthmind bully is a part of, a system with military units as numerous as cattle, terrifying war growth ability, kill them endlessly, simply endless to kill, said to be the strongest power in the Monster World.
Battle Swarm: Hungry hungry hungry, eat eat eat, killing needs no reason, either fighting or on the way to fight, the more it fights the fiercer it gets, even more like a slaughter machine than the Black Tide, merciless killers.
Ancient God race: The mysterious Ancient Gods never make a move, Champion Fighters are awesome, we are serious about pleasing the Ancient Gods, when will the Ancient Gods come pick me up, the arena is not allowed to shut down, a workplace opened by luck of the draw with rewards issued based on performance.
Anti-Tide Legion: The meals are insanely good, the benefits are insanely good, hurry up and release the next round of slots for the Anti-Tide Legion, hunger-tanking training camp, brawling every day, birthplace of the Grind Kings group, as long as you work hard, resources will be maxed out for you.
Mechanical Overlord: Suddenly descended with a snap and gave us a heavy beating, brutally scouring the land, a power from the neighboring continent, judging from Guide’s description it seems pretty strong.
Ascension race: Ranch owners, the farming party of the Monster World, the Ascension race is here to harvest leeks again, nurturing seedlings starts with spreading resources, after one harvest there is another, wave after wave without end, losers under the hands of the Champion Fighters.
Soul Return race: Perfect possession is just too disgusting, this child cannot be kept alive, thankfully we players cannot be possessed or it would be too terrifying, the number one hostile force of the Anti-Tide Legion, the abilities are excessively disgusting, recommend the officials ban them.
Written Word: Dead eunuch, King of Bad Endings, drop the book again and again and again, when will the new book start, customizable warriors get good reviews, whatever combat power system you want you can get by slapping your head, commands three kinds of Rule power, but sooner or later they will be ours as players.
Through these player-given tags one can very intuitively see players’ attitudes toward the various powers.
Only three powers can win players’ favor, namely the Anti-Tide Legion, Ecstasy race, and Ancient God race.
Because these three powers have indeed brought benefits to players, allowing quite a few players to make a tidy sum.
Especially the Anti-Tide Legion, which is the place players most want to go.
Compared to the benefits given by other powers, the Anti-Tide Legion’s systematic cultivation maxes out resources along the whole process. This can be seen right in the Grind Kings group’s livestream room.
The Rule blessing of the War God Seal makes countless players yearn for it even more.
Among these known powerful forces, the ones with the most negative reviews are the Black Tide and the Soul Return race.
The Black Tide controlled by the Earthmind Evil Spirit is the only power that has repeatedly made players suffer setbacks. Even in revival battles there is no way to defeat the Earthmind Evil Spirit, and its terrifying growth speed makes players cry out that it must be nerfed.
It is also the first power players fought in the Monster World, and a power they have never been able to take down.
In the countless clashes with players, the Earthmind Evil Spirit has even been called the Earthmind bully.
As for why the Soul Return race has many negative reviews, it is because this power’s possession ability makes players feel extremely disgusted.
Especially when members of the Grind Kings group were on the way to the second phase training camp, a Four-Eyed race warrior who had been killed was possessed by a soul beast and then smiled at Ghost Eye while calling out the word ‘cousin,’ which many players found hard to accept.
They believe this power is too evil, and that if there is a chance in the future, it must be wiped out completely.
