Chapter 209-1: Climbing the Peak, Switching Between Offense and Defense (1) |
Where the gaze pointed, the Black Tide reached.
In the corner of the scene, pitch-black like surging ink flooded and devoured the last totem pillar remaining amidst the embers of a race.
The traces belonging to this race thus ceased to exist.
The Black Tide continued to rush onward, never pausing or lingering.
The impassioned pursuit of dreams, the advance in desperate straits, the tragic and fierce epic of his rise, all the marks Ling Bone had struggled to leave behind were buried beneath the surging Black Tide.
Just as the Evil Eye had said: ‘Their past struggles, efforts, and even their former prosperity are irrelevant to us. In our eyes there is only the nourishment they can provide when they wither.’
After devouring the Eternal Emptiness race, a flood of information surfaced in the Earthmind Evil Spirit’s mind.
It discovered that the total Black Tide energy yield produced by the entire race was not even as much as that mirror of pseudo-rule that had been dismantled.
It could be seen that the rise of the Eternal Emptiness race was almost completely dependent on the Light Mirror.
The Black Tide continued to push forward.
Just then, the Evil Eye’s voice sounded in the Earthmind Evil Spirit’s mind.
“Earthmind, stop. Continuing forward carries risk.”
The Earthmind Evil Spirit nodded. At once, the Black Tide that had been surging toward the front halted in a region still quite far from the golden ocean domain. It split into multiple streams of power to circle outside the golden ocean domain, scouting and collecting information.
It could be confirmed that this golden ocean domain contained a vast reserve of energy.
If it could be consumed, the Black Tide under its control would rise by 2 to 3 tiers in strength.
But with its current power alone, it could not possibly eat it. It had to rely on the assistance of the player race and the Battle Swarm.
Before that, it needed to gather enough intelligence on the golden ocean domain.
Then it would formulate targeted combat unit types, no longer centering the core combat units on the natural-catastrophe series and the plague series.
When strength is insufficient, use unit types to make up the difference.
In terms of raw combat strength the Black Tide could play from behind, but in the confrontation of unit systems it always occupied an absolute advantage, without exception.
Perception tendrils now entered the golden ocean domain, collecting information related to the behemoth unit types.
Some Black Tide energy also followed the perception tendrils as they infiltrated the golden ocean, condensing into natural-catastrophe-series units that took the initiative to approach the golden behemoths, probing their combat strength.
The first ones the Earthmind Evil Spirit set its sights on were a group of behemoths with body lengths approaching one hundred meters.
Before long, a preliminary compendium entry for this golden behemoth formed in its mind.
[Basic Attributes]
Body length: 89 to 105 meters
Dermal hardness: 9.5 black mass (Black Tide measurement)
Movement speed (combat movement speed, normal movement speed), bite force, attack patterns, capability collection (breath), wound healing and regeneration speed…
Weakness analysis (preliminary): a fragile zone with a diameter of 4.8 meters exists below the neck, lacking hard skin defenses, no elemental resistance detected.
—
With a simple understanding obtained, the Earthmind Evil Spirit directed the Black Tide units to shift toward other golden behemoths.
In this way it would acquire more data on behemoth unit types, preparing for the impending war.
A strategy archive marked ‘Behemoth’ was then generated in the database, storing the information on the combat system inside the golden ocean and available for consultation at any time.
The investigation continued to unfold.
During this process, the Earthmind Evil Spirit began pondering a question.
How should it draw the Battle Swarm and the player race into the war to jointly oppose the golden ocean domain.
“Earthmind, what ideas do you have?” The Evil Eye floating behind asked curiously.
“The Swarm idiot is easy to handle. As long as we initiate war, the brainless bugs will definitely follow up. During that time they can even serve as our cannon fodder, since they only know brainless charges, which is very easy to exploit.”
“As for the player race, we have to think carefully about how to make them join in as well.”
How to solve this problem, the Earthmind Evil Spirit fell into contemplation, with the information provided by the Evil Eye flashing continuously through its mind.
The player strategy archive recorded a large amount of behavioral logic of the player race members, including many event entries.
It could be seen that the player race seemed very interested in Primordial Monsters and Territory Nodes.
This was obviously a weakness that could be exploited.
“Evil Eye, see whether there are any Primordial Monsters inside the golden domain.”
The Evil Eye did not answer. It released its tendrils to dance in the air, and the perception viewpoint continued to delve deeper into the golden ocean.
As for when to launch the war, the Earthmind Evil Spirit was in no hurry.
Faced with a powerful enemy with a vast disparity in strength, launching war rashly before obtaining enough intelligence carried only risk.
It was not like that group of death-defying madmen of the player race. There was no second chance for failure.
—
Primordial Altar.
Qi Sheng hovered above the altar, countless characters and points of light swirling around him.
Information from the Challenger System streaked continuously through his mind.
Through feedback from Guide, learning that the Earthmind Evil Spirit intended to make a move on the ‘Gigantification domain,’ Qi Sheng opened his eyes.
He had paid attention to the Gigantification domain quite early.
Inside the oceanic scene formed of golden liquid, besides Territory Nodes, there existed a rule power not belonging to Monster World: Gigantification.
If it could be taken, it would bring no small assistance to the construction of the player legion.
He consumed sacrificial power to perform a detailed analysis of the Gigantification rule.
The content obtained was that this was a rule that could grant additional power through growth in body size.
In theory, after purifying the Gigantification rule and embedding it into the Challenger System, monster-build players would usher in a considerable increase in combat power.
They would receive an epic-tier version buff.
But obtaining the Gigantification rule would not be easy.
The disparity in combat strength between players and the Gigantification domain was far too great.
Within the Gigantification domain the norm was combat units with hunt level above one hundred.
Even if the player legion launched fearless, unending charges, they could not harm the foundations of the Gigantification domain. The gap was so large it could not be compensated for with numbers.
Even if the Battle Swarm and the Black Tide under the Earthmind Evil Spirit’s control were added, the result of Guide’s deduction was still that they were not a match.
It could be confirmed that, after thoroughly investigating the intelligence, the Earthmind Evil Spirit would inevitably temporarily abandon its plan to devour the Gigantification domain.
The Battle Swarm, the terrifying Black Tide, and the player legion, the three together could easily challenge all kinds of powerful enemies across tiers, but even cross-tier challenges had an upper limit.
The combined forces of the three factions from the starter village still had a considerable combat power gap compared to the Gigantification domain.
Players did not care. If they died, they just switched targets and started over.
The Battle Swarm did not care either. If not in battle, they were on the way to battle. Swarm warriors were consumables, with Swarm bigwigs behind them providing real-time support.
The terrifying Black Tide did not care either. In front of the terrifying Black Tide, the Gigantification domain was only an insignificant strand of power.
But the Earthmind Evil Spirit only had one chance.
If it dared attempt a challenge against the Gigantification domain, the great probability was that it would be flattened in one sweep.
The Earthmind Evil Spirit’s choice to first collect intelligence was a very wise decision.
According to Guide’s analysis, the route of eastward expansion chosen by the Earthmind Evil Spirit would likely break off upon encountering the Gigantification domain.
Next it should head toward the Colorful Mist Coast direction, that is, expand westward and open up new domains.
Without paying it too much attention, Qi Sheng’s consciousness at this moment shifted to the sea region of the Colorful Mist Coast.
—
Colorful Mist Coast, Ascension Sea Region.
This was a sea region shrouded by storms, located to the east from the Azure Star Sea Region, and also the area where the islands of the Ascension race were situated.
At the heart of the ocean, inky black clouds like a gigantic curtain pressed heavily down toward the sea surface, as if to swallow the entire sea region.
Between the clouds, snakes of lightning roamed wantonly, casting the surging wave crests below into the likeness of one flashing cold blade after another.
The waves were like a demon army awakened from the abyss, colliding and fusing with a power that could topple mountains and overturn seas, throwing up white walls of water dozens of meters high.
Vortices formed continuously upon the sea surface, greedily devouring everything around them, shaping one giant funnel after another. The seawater spun madly within, roaring.
Countless figures piloted vehicles, cleaving the waves within the sea region.
Sailing ships, swimming, warships, all sorts of vehicles bore players’ yearning for Written Word warriors, advancing toward the depths of the ocean.
Sea wind swept across the surging crests, shaving a layer off the wave tops, turning it into a mist that fused with the fog.
And the region veiled by fog was precisely the destination of the players’ trip.
Compared to personally raising pets, many players wanted even more the customizable, designable Written Word warriors.
As long as they could capture a Written Word warrior, it meant they could step into the ranks of top-tier players.
This was the shortcut to growth in the eyes of quite a few players.