Chapter 386: Excited Players, You Have Encountered the Mysterious Black-Robed Existence

"Shocking! Is this the top-tier combat power inside Duan Yu?! Truly awe-inspiring!"

"That skill is seriously flashy! By comparison, that Long Ze Dragon King suddenly looks so lame!"

"That's just absurd! I was saying, how did I get blown into the sky that day when I was just doing my quests properly!"

"Agreed, that day I was just about to head to Long Ze to do a chain quest, and before I could even get close, I saw the entire Long Ze blasted into the sky from afar!"

"Do you know how much damage that purple flame erupting right in front of me did to my fragile little heart?"

"What?! You don't know? Then hurry up and report the location!"

"The one upstairs is talented! Exactly. Where's the OP? Come out and share the location quick! Such a powerful boss absolutely has quests with rich rewards!"

"Right! And it's in Yao Huang Da Di too, who knows, we might even get awesome bloodline abilities from the other party!"

……

For a moment, following that video by Ye Minmin, the player forums exploded, countless people were stunned by the powerful mysterious NPC within — a rare occurrence even in the history of the game "Beyond," after all, this truly altered the entire map's appearance within the game, completely deserving to be called a natural disaster!

For players already very familiar with the game "Beyond," they instantly saw the value of this newly emerged NPC; no matter from which angle, with such powerful strength, the other party absolutely represented countless benefits for them as players!

Either it would push the entire game into some special major event activity, or it represented special quests, and whether activity or quest, what came with it were incomparably rich rewards!

There might even exist the most special and mysterious Bloodline Transformation quest!

This was regarded as the most treasured quest by all players within the entire game "Beyond," because the rewards often represented an entire special bloodline, as well as systematic abilities, and even unique cultivation techniques!

And this could be brought into reality!

Once in the Second World, there was a lucky player who, after completing a series of quests, directly became a ghost-race great demon with invincible potential, leaping in one stroke from an ordinary unknown player to a famous top player who reached the pinnacle!

At this moment, countless people gazed at that powerful figure in the video with eager anticipation, and some with special status and position had already begun trying to find the video's publisher.

Of course, there were also excited players rushing over excitedly from other places to the vicinity of the destroyed Long Ze, trying to find that "NPC."

Anyway, although the death penalty was somewhat heavy, the gains from finding that mysterious "NPC" and triggering quests were even greater!

As long as there was profit to be had, players would not give up.

……

At this moment, Baichuan, still unaware of the various impacts brought by his actions, after slaughtering that sow dragon of Long Ze, also checked the brand-new ability model he had just obtained within his body — Ghost Race Great Demon.

And this made him completely stunned:

【Name: Gu Ji / One Leaf Knows Autumn (Ye Minmin)】

【Race: Ghost】

【Ability: Spirit Containment, Stacked Edge LV6 (Characteristic/Incomplete)】

【Skills: Dread, Bone Vein, Three Steps One Kill……】

In an instant, the luxurious yet peculiar ability model was reflected in Baichuan's eyes, and especially the name column, to a certain extent invisibly confirmed Baichuan's previous guess — Player!

Perhaps his guess was true, after all, it was hard to imagine how many beings in the world had names this long and strange.

Baichuan thought for a moment, then clicked open the Ability column to check it first.

Because he didn't quite understand — clearly the other party, that player, possessed an extremely powerful and rare LV6-level ability, although merely Incomplete, yet in terms of strength was so weak; this situation was somewhat beyond reason and left him puzzled.

Not to mention he had also witnessed on the other party's body the second unranked ability!

【Spirit Containment: Seems to be a sub-body of some out-of-control power, formless and shapeless, acting only upon the flesh, can cause the ability host to spontaneously adapt to the spirit wrapped by a certain power……】

【Stacked Edge: Seems to be a sub-body of some out-of-control power, formless and shapeless, acting only upon the flesh, can cause the ability host when attacking to break through the defense of beings below that level, and against those above the level can continuously stack sharpness, with a chance to break through……】

Gazing at these two special abilities above, after thinking for a long time, Baichuan suddenly laughed.

He seemed to already understand how the other party had descended into this world — the answer lay within these two abilities!

One's function was to spontaneously modify the flesh of unknown origin for the descent of the spirit called "Player," allowing them to explore this world as if playing a game; the other could let the player's attacks, no matter how weak, have a chance to deal damage, so as not to be unable to even break defense when weak.

However, seeing this, Baichuan suddenly developed a doubt — between the unranked 【Spirit Containment】 and the 【Spirit Absorption】 he possessed, was there actually any relationship?

It couldn't be helped that Baichuan thought this way — not only were both unranked, they also had similar names.

Most importantly, it seemed from this player's Ability Panel, he had not seen one of the players' most important abilities appear — the Level Upgrade System!

Logically speaking, this should be the most important Core ability of the Fourth Calamity — the players.

Super powerful mob-summoning ability, undying Characteristic, extremely rapid strengthening ability.

These were the players' most important Cores.

Although there were games without leveling, they were often not mainstream, especially this kind of free-exploration world — without means to grow stronger, how would players level up? They couldn't possibly remain so weak forever, being bullied by NPCs, right?

Or perhaps they'd find ways to cultivate like NPCs?

Please no, that would cause players to lose one of their most important advantages.

And as it happened, this kind of strengthening-like ability, he Baichuan happened to possess!

【Spirit Absorption】, drawing upon souls to grow stronger, continuously strengthening without bottleneck until the body could no longer bear it.

But to draw upon souls, in a certain sense, didn't that mean killing? How was this different from the players' kill-to-grow-stronger?

In other words: Soul = Experience?!

As for the body being unable to bear it, did players, who frequently died over the slightest thing, need to care about that?

Not to mention, if there truly was a relationship between the two, then the drawback of this ability presumably should not be impossible to remove.

But if it really were so, then the question came — one of the Fourth Calamity's most Core abilities, which could be said to be the entire upgrade system, why had it appeared on the Shi Long he had replaced?

In his thoughts, Baichuan suddenly raised his head, sensing that the nearby land outside had suddenly become "lively," and couldn't help but frown.

It seemed a group of beings had, for some unknown reason, purposefully rushed over here, to the extent that they unconsciously provoked other beings, and started fighting with those monsters spread across the entire land — various demons, XiaoXieGui and the like……

Wait! A large group?

Suddenly reacting, Baichuan widened his eyes, abruptly thought of something, and couldn't help but cast his gaze once again upon the Ability Panel.

If before this, he might not have known why this situation was occurring.

But now, he seemed to understand.

Based on his experience playing games when he was once human, combined with the huge commotion he had previously caused.

The result was obvious!

He seemed to have been targeted by that group of players! And they were searching for his figure!

That group of players might have taken him for a major boss or an NPC!

So, was it possible for him to do something in the middle of it? For instance, turning things around and using them to achieve his own goals?

For example, finding the Long Nv he needed to find, testing the creatures within Xingkong, or even uncovering information about the world behind them, and even that mysterious game that had caused them to descend…

Thinking of that group of players, Baichuan, who knew the Characteristic of players well, began to ponder a countermeasure.

Although under normal circumstances his stance and that of the players was naturally at odds, Baichuan was even more aware that players were never the true crux of the problem; the real problem was the existence behind the scenes that had caused those players to descend, as well as those Spirit-level creatures beyond Xingkong.

Of course, the reason he dared entertain this idea was mainly because of those most crucial words on the ability's explanation — "out of control" — the power that brought the players here was out of control!

Although it was still unclear why the existence that had brought about the Fourth Calamity had lost control of its power, being out of control meant it could not even look after itself, leaving an opening to exploit!

At the same time, as long as he still had source points, he possessed a margin for error.

Still, with what benefit should he drive them?

Baichuan understood that players were a sort who would never stir without profit; the only reason they were willing to help NPCs was simply because of quest rewards and the like.

Therefore, to drive them, he could only use profit.

Thinking of this, Baichuan looked toward the skills column.

Based on the incomplete skill he had suddenly obtained after swallowing that bone woman, could he investigate the origin of skills from within it, and also create skills to bestow upon them?

The answer was feasible!

Perhaps skills were very powerful to players, but to Baichuan, who had already reached the True Immortal realm, he could see through the essential nature of those skills — they were nothing more than parts of abilities that had been structurally parsed and stripped out, then reproduced by some power into rigid, fixed skills.

The effects they could display were only one facet of what the ability could produce; for instance, the LV4 ability 【False Ambush】 that once came from the Star-Devouring Worm could be separated into "Breath Concealment," "Feigned Death," "Charge," and so on.

In the briefest instant, Baichuan imitated that 【Three Steps One Kill】 skill and gave birth to several skills within himself, such as 【Heavy Strike】 derived from the Strength ability, and 【Swift Step】, a short-distance Burst derived from Agility,

Now everything was ready; it was Time to go make contact with that group of players.

"Lord Dragon? Lord Dragon, what's wrong with you?"

Just then, perhaps because he had been silent and dazed for too long, the little turtle spirit suddenly called out to him from outside.

Hmm, it seemed this drawback needed to be resolved as soon as possible.

Coming back to his senses, Baichuan looked at that turtle spirit and could not help thinking.

If he could not see through the other party, Baichuan would have been more than willing to finish them off right now.

He just did not know which side this being — whose lowest level was at least Spirit-rank — stood on in this Fourth Calamity, nor what identity it bore.

"Little turtle spirit, it seems there's some commotion outside; go check it out for me…"

After silently devising an excuse the other party could not refuse and luring them away, Baichuan only then summoned the Ancient Bell to set up a barrier — the Ancient Bell's power was still trustworthy.

At least the former Zishu had not been able to see through anything.

The next moment, a slightly smaller figure, entirely cloaked in a black robe, slowly stepped out from Baichuan's body — it was a small-scale Baichuan shrouded beneath a black robe, an avatar fashioned from the Light Points of the Star-Devouring Worm on his body.

After all, those he was about to make contact with were players of no ordinary origin; he could not afford to be careless.

While pondering, the small-scale "black-robed" Baichuan vanished without a trace.

……

"Huff… urgh…"

"This game's fine in every way, except it's just too damn realistic — even this eye-watering filth is in it…"

On the hillside, after barely killing a ferocious beast, "Little Knife Big Stock" looked at his body smeared with a mixture of blood, excrement, and urine, and could not help retching and dry heaving under the foul stench.

With no choice, he could only look around to see if there was any water source nearby to wash himself off.

There was no helping it — as a player entering this game world for the first Time, he simply could not, unlike other players, bring the character strength from the previous two game worlds into this newly opened world.

He was a genuine blank-slate start, a true ordinary person with virtually no special power.

Don't be fooled by how popular the game "Transcendence" already was on their Di Xing — so popular it could even be called nationwide transcendence — in truth, the actual number of pioneer players was very small; within it were divided ordinary players and pioneer players.

Among them, ordinary players had no quantity limit, but could only play inside the game community, experiencing the Time differential between "Transcendence" and the real world, as well as cultivating and trying out some of the special manuals obtained from the game world — of course, that too depended on whether pioneer players were willing to contribute them.

With no background, before this he could naturally only practice the most basic saber technique of 【Eight Sabers of the Battlefield】.

Only pioneer players were the ones who truly possessed every privilege; however, the number of slots released each year was not many — they all had to be snatched up. Now that he had finally snatched a precious slot that was practically priceless on the market, he had not expected that, full of high spirits as he entered the game, the very first thing he encountered was the foul stench from cleaning up after a fight with a beast!

While speechlessly complaining, "Little Knife Big Stock," whose real name was Wei Ziqi, could only suppress the urge to vomit and strip off every last piece of clothing on his body, and went looking for the sound of water.

Fortunately his luck was not bad — or rather, he had already drawn near the place once called Long Ze — and before long he spotted a stream.

His eyes lighting up, he approached it with some excitement.

But just as he squatted down, his gaze suddenly sharpened, and he distinctly felt an intensely powerful sense of crisis sweep over him, so much so that every hair on his body stood on end.

Abruptly, a terrifying black shadow actually leapt up from beneath the shallow stream, transforming into a sky-obscuring black mass!

It was a horrifying monster that had opened a gaping bloody maw and was lunging to bite him!

In that instant, he finally saw that what he had taken for a stream no deeper than his ankles was nothing of the sort!

What had appeared to be the streambed was actually a thick layer of waterweed.

And beneath it was a turbid swamp of unfathomable depth!

"I'm done for!"

This was it — he was going to kick the bucket.

Unconsciously, Wei Ziqi stared at that terrifying monster and thought just that — he had never expected his gaming debut to end in such an unlucky fashion!

"Boom!"

Yet the next moment, as he was on the verge of despair and closing his eyes, he distinctly heard a violent explosion, and then a thick stench of blood came washing over him along with chunks of flesh and droplets of water.

Involuntarily he opened his eyes and, as if possessed, looked toward a certain direction — there, a mysterious figure entirely shrouded in a black robe was strolling over from afar with a leisurely, unhurried gait.

At the same moment, a crisp notification sounded in his ear:

Ding, you have encountered a mysterious black-robed existence…

(End of chapter)