Chapter 165-2: Death Revived, Darkborn Trap (2) |
After completing the revival, Qi Sheng no longer paid attention.
At this time, he issued the latest update notice to all players.
[Challenger Notification (All Channels): The game is about to be updated. This update adds: Hunting Experience Zones.]
Update content: Hunting Experience Zones.
Function introduction: After this update ends, when players open the map, they can see hunting bonus circles. All players who hunt within the circle’s range can obtain an additional +10 percent to gains.
This update is precisely to open up the three regions and establish the player legion’s external territories in the Monster World.
At present, the players’ focus is on the Evil Moon domain along the Colorful Mist Coast.
But with the Earthmind bully’s pilfering, the yield of this Evil Moon domain will soon approach exhaustion.
At that time, the areas covered by circles on the map will become the main hunting regions of the player legion.
The Earthmind bully had originally planned to take the Emperor’s Mound Mountain Range region as the starting point for external expansion and development.
But now, with players in front and the Swarm behind, the Earthmind Evil Spirit has completely abandoned normal territorial expansion and switched to horizontal expansion.
From the perspective of strategic security, the Earthmind Evil Spirit’s development concept is undoubtedly a very foolish decision.
Lengthening the front line means a heavier defensive burden.
A greatly extended lateral border line also requires investing more strength in defense.
At the current stage, the Earthmind bully has only one Evil Eye Tower. The laterally stretched border line would need more branch nodes established to ensure the rapid transmission of Black Tide energy and command signals.
Secondly, after lengthening the front line, the distribution of Black Tide energy will also become diffused.
But Qi Sheng can understand why the Earthmind Evil Spirit chose this.
Now the Earthmind Evil Spirit is wedged between the players and the Swarm and cannot establish an effective strategic depth of territory. If it wants to continue developing, it can only stretch to both sides, caught between front and back.
And the links he wants to open among the three starter village regions also require horizontal expansion.
It is foreseeable that as the Earthmind bully expands, the Swarm behind it will also expand horizontally, snapping at the Earthmind Evil Spirit’s pace of development.
The three forces of the starter villages will henceforth form three parallel lines, beginning synchronous horizontal development.
Assuming that during the process of horizontal expansion no party drops out or is destroyed midway, these three horizontally expanding territorial lines will eventually run through the entire Pale Continent region.
But the players’ advantage lies in the fact that they are developing from three regions.
There is no issue of being unable to expand because a single region is constrained by a hostile force.
—
Colorful Mist Coast, to the east of the dense-forest area.
After scrolling through forum discussions about the update contents for quite a while, Lu Xing closed the forum interface, stuffed the almost-finished pastry in his hand into his mouth, chewed, and swallowed.
The hunting gain-increase zones delineated in the update are precisely the areas he is now exploring and expanding into.
“Move out.”
Ever since arriving in the Colorful Mist Coast region, he has been completely free.
It was like suddenly leaping out of a bottomless mire, his body instantly lightened, and the thousand-pound burden dropped away.
The air here is suffused with the taste of freedom, like a long-lost breeze dispelling the heavy haze in his heart.
The root cause is that there are no Coward Butterfly here.
After the Colorful Mist Coast region opened, he never again returned to the Emperor’s Mound Mountain Range region.
That place makes him feel sick.
As the thought flashed by, a little mouse sprinted over from not far away, climbed up his pant leg, and came to rest on his right shoulder.
Ji!
Taking out a crushed piece of biscuit from the spatial pouch to feed the Treasure-Seeking Squirrel, Lu Xing continued exploring eastward.
The spirit plants and monsters encountered along the way were all part of the records of his journey.
During this time he opened the livestream room, and the comment section could be described as a riot of demons.
Ever since the livestream room was connected to the official website of the real Monster World, a large number of guests had flooded in, with bullet comments and posts appearing at a rate of hundreds per second.
guest: Why doesn’t the streamer cultivate the growth-type pet Chubby Peach? Financial products are the truth. I don’t understand how you play games.
guest: I like your stream the most. Following you to appreciate the scenery of the Monster World is especially interesting. When I obtain Monster World qualifications I will definitely tip you sacrificial power.
guest: Idiot human streamer, instead of hunting monsters, why are you running around everywhere? Boring, I’m changing streams.
guest: The streamer is definitely a breath of fresh air on the heat ranking. Aside from the Grind Kings group brawls, I love watching your stream the most. It pairs especially well with meals, really has a vibe.
Aside from going into the little dark room to shut themselves in, normal players would watch streams. At other times they were all exploring and hunting in the Monster World, so most of the bullet comments and posts were sent by guests.
The livestream room becoming lively instead made him feel more accompanied on the journey.
The only problem was that guests asked too many questions. He simply could not answer them one by one.
So he straightforwardly stopped answering.
The happy journey set out once more.
The canopy overhead intertwined into a green sky. Sunlight filtered through the gaps, sprinkling dappled shadows. The air here was filled with the fragrance of earth and the fresh scent of grass and trees, and occasionally there was even a faint aroma of wildflowers drifting about.
Such an environment made Lu Xing especially enjoy himself.
The ground underfoot was soft and moist. With every step you could hear fallen leaves and dead branches gently crack underfoot.
Nearby vines drooped from tree trunks like natural curtains, brushing lightly past his shoulders. From time to time insects chirped and birds called by his ears.
Occasionally, a light breeze passed, the leaves rustling as if nature were whispering.
Coming to a stream, the murmuring of water was clear and pleasant.
He lay by the stream and drank his fill. The surface was crystal clear, and he could see a few small fish swimming in the water, stirring up ripples one circle after another.
He continued forward, passing through a dense thicket of shrubs.
The tall trees gradually grew sparse, replaced by an open woodland clearing.
Sunlight poured down without obstruction. Various wildflowers bloomed ahead, and brightly colored flying insects danced among the blossoms.
Taking a deep breath of the richly fragrant air, a look of intoxication surfaced on Lu Xing’s face.
At this moment, he just wanted to recite a poem.
But limited learning made him give up.
Just then, a dark shadow suddenly swept across the sky, startling Lu Xing into snapping his head up.
Realizing it was a large bird and that its target was not him, Lu Xing immediately let out a breath of relief, then glanced at the livestream comments and said irritably.
“Are you sick? How could a Mystic Butterfly possibly come here.”
Bang!
The sound of bones shattering upon impact instantly drew Lu Xing’s gaze.
Looking up, the bird seemed to have collided with an invisible wall. Its wings twisted in an instant, feathers scattering in all directions.
Blood spurted from its beak and eyes, dyeing the surrounding air red.
Its body stalled in midair, gripped firmly by an invisible force.
That invisible wall, already stained red with blood, writhed in response, slowly opening like some living thing.
The bird’s flesh and feathers were drawn in bit by bit, as if devoured by an unseen vortex, leaving only a faint mist of blood suspended in the air, which was then completely absorbed by that invisible barrier.
A faint smell of blood permeated the air, but soon even that scent vanished without a trace, as if nothing had happened.
“Hiss.”
Seeing such a bizarre scene, Lu Xing drew in a sharp breath.
He tried activating his analysis power to sweep over it, and a flood of information immediately surfaced in his mind.
[Wall of Blood Souls]
Target analysis: A blood sacrifice trap arranged by the descended faction of the Darkborn race. Within sleeps a weakened Darkborn king, the sole survivor who escaped a brutal racial war. It holds the method to open the Darkborn’s resource wealth. At the last moment of its life, it set a trap in this area, attempting to reap lives through the Wall of Blood Souls, devouring blood energy to complete life reconstruction.
(Revival requirement: 22,374/3,902,485)
After reading the analysis, Lu Xing immediately understood what had happened.
This was an invisible trap arranged by a powerful lifeform. By devouring those who mistakenly entered, it obtained blood energy and ultimately completed revival.
