Chapter 207-1: The Time Is Not Yet, The Sword Stays Sheathed (1) |
Abyss of Heaven Territory Node.
As the energy haze dispersed, the shattered tower platform, under the traction of black mist, drew its flying fragments back in and rapidly reassembled into a complete stone slab.
Broken pillars twisted within the black mist as if injected with life, gradually restoring to their original state.
Under the Earthmind Evil Spirit’s control, the black mist moved like a conscious living thing, winding around every damaged spot on the platform. In just moments, the tower platform was restored to its former appearance.
As if it had never been destroyed, with only the scorched elemental scent lingering in the air to prove what had just happened.
Lowering his head to glance at the elemental scorch mark on his chest, the Earthmind Evil Spirit waved his hand and wiped it away.
The campaign ended. He had successfully defeated the player race and claimed victory.
Yet he could not feel happy at all.
The player race had proven with facts that the upper limit of the war potential they displayed was far from reached.
What made him curious was why, before this, that player race commander had never made a move.
“Earthmind, perhaps there is such a possibility. In the previous round of confrontation, you made the player race feel pressure, so they chose to seek help from their higher-ups.”
“We have encountered a similar situation. Back then, the Evil Moon domain in the direction of the Azure Star Sea Region and the Colorful Mist Coast also chose to seek our help because development was under pressure brought by the player race. At that time you took over command by projection and fought in their stead.”
Hearing the Evil Eye’s conjecture, the Earthmind Evil Spirit nodded solemnly.
This conjecture fit the logic.
What could be confirmed was that the number of the player race’s combat units was constantly increasing.
Long ago he had reached a conclusion that the player race had a massive rear support force that was gradually infiltrating Monster World.
Previously, the situation was that he could not deal with the player race.
Viewed from the player race’s perspective, they likewise could do nothing to him.
Thinking back to the previous crushing game, it was entirely reasonable that the distressed player race sought help from other regions or from powerful racial members still in extraterritorial worlds.
“Looks like the next campaigns will be troublesome.”
Recalling the process of crossing paths with the mysterious commander just now, the Earthmind Evil Spirit felt a headache.
He had won this battle, but the victory lay in overall strength, not in strategy.
The player race’s new commander changed throughout based on his battlefield layout. He had the thought, and a few seconds later the other side had already made preparatory moves to respond.
By comparison, the previously captured player race commander’s command rhythm was practically welfare time.
The high-intensity command rhythm brought by the mysterious commander also required him to respond with a high-intensity command rhythm.
After the whole battle, he only felt as if he had gone through a brutal fight at the front, exhausted all over.
This was an experience he had never had before.
“Earthmind, there is actually a very simple way to handle this kind of opponent.”
“What way?” The Earthmind Evil Spirit turned to look at the Evil Eye floating in midair, curiosity on his face.
“Create a large number of damage output-type units and crush the player race with an absolute advantage in combat power, but the price is that one battle would cost ten times, or even more, Black Tide energy.”
Here the Evil Eye suddenly changed the topic.
“But my suggestion is to maintain your fighting style. Confronting the player race requires reasonable resource allocation. This is also a form of tempering for you, so continue trying to operate and counter. I look forward to your growth. Your ceiling is far more than this.”
The Earthmind Evil Spirit nodded.
“Evil Eye, I will allocate you a batch of resources for growth in the near future. Your capabilities also need to improve in sync with me.”
As if thinking of something, the Earthmind Evil Spirit paused, then continued.
“Evil Eye, have you noticed a problem? My growth method is significantly different from other nodes.”
Faced with the question, the Evil Eye blinked.
“I discovered this long ago. Other nodes choose a devour-growth mode. The starting point is a point of light that continuously devours its surroundings to grow rapidly, constantly expanding the coverage area of that light point. Your growth, however, is like a dilemma squeezed from front and back. Within devour-growth, everything is based on operational confrontation.”
“By comparison, other Black Tide nodes may not use war operation strategy even once in several years and can crush nearby racial forces by relying on Black Tide traits. You, however, engage in wits and courage with the player race every day. But this has also significantly improved your war command talent. In terms of personal capability growth, you are clearly advancing faster than the commanding evil spirits of other nodes.”
These words sounded like praise, yet they made the Earthmind Evil Spirit clench his fists uncontrollably.
“Damn it. I am the most miserable.”
“Attention, ‘damn it’ is player race vocabulary. To prevent potential mental contamination, it is recommended to reduce the frequency of use.”
Earthmind: …
Seeing the Earthmind Evil Spirit’s speechless face, the Evil Eye continued explaining gravely.
“According to the data in the node information library, mental contamination does exist. It can subtly influence a target through language influence and habits, causing ideological remolding.”
“On the Pale Continent there is a racial force called the Heartvoice race. They are very good at using mental contamination to fight, ultimately controlling opponents to be used by themselves.”
After listening to the Evil Eye’s deadpan analysis, the Earthmind Evil Spirit asked coldly.
“Finished?”
“Finished.”
“Damn it.” The Earthmind Evil Spirit cursed viciously again.
—
While the Earthmind Evil Spirit was pondering how to respond to the player race’s mysterious commander.
God King was also facing a troubling problem.
This battle under guest No. 1’s command let him hold his head high, sweeping away the repressive mood brought by being tormented repeatedly by the Earthmind Bully.
Guest No. 1’s performance in this battle also made his jaw drop.
Comparing his own command mode with guest No. 1’s was like a snail and a rail train, not at all on the same level.
After the campaign ended, an idea sprouted in his mind, to hand over his command authority to the more capable guest No. 1.
After all, there was no rule that a Guild Leader must be the war commander. He could continue to be the Guild Leader. Ideally he could pull guest No. 1 into his guild, and have him serve as commander thereafter.
As for guest No. 1’s identity, he could roughly guess a bit.
What could be certain was that guest No. 1’s ability absolutely did not belong to humans, nor to any racial lifeform of the Earth Alliance.
Being able to piece together battlefield details from livestream footage alone and also conduct directional bullet-screen command, achieving one mind for sixty thousand people, this level of command capability was simply not something a normal living being could possess.
Only one category could possess such ability, that is the AI cores of various races.
First, the Earth Alliance’s supreme super-AI Starnet could be excluded.
Monster World was created by Starnet, so Starnet could not possibly personally enter the field to oppose a small character within a superpower it created.
The only possibility was a highest super-AI that some race had applied to the Lunar Eclipse race to obtain.
Just like the human race’s highest super-AI.
And it was certainly not a small race. Bottom-tier forces in the Earth Alliance like the Gill-Fish race used D level AI cores, roughly at the level of human city management AI cores, far from achieving this ultra-detailed command.
The inference should be that the management of one of the top ten races used their race’s highest super-AI to participate in a war command once.
He only wanted to say this behavior was too willful.
They actually used their highest super-AI to play a game campaign. This was the true pay-to win player.
He paid with money, but guest No. 1 paid with the highest super-AI’s computing power and information processing capability. By comparison, his pay-to win ability was not even on the same level.
For such a powerful player, God King first thought of trying to cooperate, or recruiting him into the guild.
But when he sent the invitation, the other party said the war consumption was too great, and since the God Temple Guild organized a united warband to confront the Earthmind Bully every day, barring special circumstances he was unwilling to participate again.
This left God King very depressed.
He had finally made the Earthmind Bully eat dirt, felt he had turned the corner and obtained a super golden thigh.
The thigh was not going to play.
But thinking it over, he could understand guest No. 1’s concern.
An AI core’s use consumes a city’s energy. Who knew how much electricity was consumed in this battle. Playing occasionally was fine, but how could he follow along every day to fight the Earthmind Bully with him.
Understanding the reason, God King still could not help sighing in regret.
If guest No. 1 could help, he would absolutely beat the Earthmind Bully into social withdrawal, and might even move this big boulder blocking the starter village.
But since guest No. 1 said so, he did not push it and expressed his thanks.