Chapter 109: Abstract Player Tactics (Requesting Monthly Passes)

In the north of the Ancient Battlefield lies the Emperor's Tomb Mountain Range.

The city formed by gathered flames bursts with bright light in the night.

Tian Huo Fa warriors flying out of the city enter the battlefield, their spirit runes connecting instantly to transform into fire demons several meters tall, who can command endless flames to sweep forward with a mere gesture.

This is a race faction capable of skillfully wielding fire element energy.

Besides the combat insect race that has already evolved Tian Huo characteristics, whether players or Hei Chao Xie Sui, none can hold out long under the scorching flames sweeping over them.

But this battle has lasted until the fourth day.

The Tian Huo tribe's decline is fully evident.

For the three factions of players, insect swarms, and Hei Chao Xie Sui, engaging the enemy in a war of attrition means victory.

Since the Tian Huo tribe's advantages cannot cross the restriction of "war of attrition," they are destined to have their combat power constantly worn down in the campaign, boosting the combined strength of the three factions.

As the great battle resumes again, Qi Sheng's gaze looks down from the high sky, but his focus is not on the Tian Huo Fa warriors.

Scanning the violently churning Hei Chao, he discovers two new combat units have appeared within the Hei Chao.

The first new Hei Chao Xie Sui resembles a cloud of mist, has no lower body, and its waving thick arms condense lightning with every strike to release area lightning storm attacks; it is neither purely physical nor an illusory phantom, but seems to exist between the two; deep within the gathering mist, a pair of bright red eyes is vaguely visible, and beneath the eyes is a massive mouth formed of pitch-black electric arcs, emitting earth-shattering roars with every attack.

Qi Sheng activates his analysis ability, and a flood of information rushes into his mind.

【Hei Chao · Yun Bao】:

Hunting Rank: 14

Target Introduction: Hei Chao Xie Sui, a Death Calamity series basic unit, possessing the ability to control lightning tribulation area attacks; targets hit suffer Hei Chao energy corrosion, causing nausea, vomiting, infection, and a series of negative effects (specific effects depend on the target's physical constitution; the stronger the constitution, the lower the corrosion damage; if physical strength reaches a certain level, corrosion damage can be completely exempted).

Shifting his gaze to the second new Xie Sui, he activates the analysis information.

【Hei Chao · E Zhan】

Hunting Rank: Level 18

Target Introduction: Hei Chao Xie Sui, a Natural Disaster series basic unit; attacks carry both physical and magical dual damage, and it possesses strong physical and magical defense, capable of rapidly recovering damaged body parts by devouring other Hei Chao Xie Sui.

The Hei Chao Xie Sui referred to as E Zhan in the analysis information has a humanoid form, tall and burly, with muscles as hard as rock under the light of the Evil Moon; every inch of its skin is inscribed with Hei Chao runes that echo the Evil Moon, flickering with a faint red light.

Its head is covered by a thick black horned helmet inlaid with three gem-like energy crystals; beneath the helmet are a pair of eyes as deep as an abyss, exuding coldness and ruthlessness; it wears black armor forged from Hei Chao energy, covered in sharp spikes and twisted runes; it tightly grips a massive black battle axe in its hand, and a pair of black wings grows from its back.

After nearly four days of fierce fighting, two special units have been born within the Hei Chao Xie Sui.

Now there are three series of special units: Plague series, Death Calamity series, and Natural Disaster series.

Especially the Natural Disaster series unit E Zhan, which performs brilliantly on the battlefield, its role is very similar to the tank warrior build constructed by players around the Stone Gargoyle Painful Painful Minghun.

After a brief observation, Qi Sheng turns his gaze toward the Tian Huo tribe.

His gaze zooms in on the Tian Huo Fa Wang.

At this moment, he sits on a throne constructed of flames, his head full of messy red hair; compared to his state upon arrival, his eyes have lost all brilliance and confidence.

It is visible that the continuous attacks from the three factions have thoroughly crushed his confidence.

This is also the one point Qi Sheng finds most incomprehensible.

With such combined strength, how dare they break through space to descend into the Monster World?

Descending is one thing, but making such a huge fuss, starting with a Tian Huo Fa descent.

Making a huge fuss is one thing, but arriving and immediately building a Fire City without investigating the local power structure.

This behavior simply shows they do not take the surrounding factions seriously.

The problem is, if they possessed strength as formidable as the Mechanical Overlord, where even the weakest unit "Iron Soul" has a Hunting Rank of over 80, then it would be understandable.

After all, in the Monster World, fists rule; having strong strength allows one to act with impunity.

Let alone descending near someone else's territory; with sufficient strength, even dropping directly into the sky above someone else's land is no problem.

Therefore, the Tian Huo tribe's behavior seems incomprehensible, simply inviting death.

【Boss, this is the mysterious confidence of small world factions; many races in small worlds rule as kings in their own little plots of land, even being worshipped as gods by the races of the native world; such factions inevitably encounter bottlenecks in their later development, as resources produced by small worlds can no longer satisfy civilizational progress; after hitting these bottlenecks, they generally develop one idea: to break through the world barriers and travel to higher worlds for development, but the long years of ruling small worlds have bred a mysterious confidence in them, believing their strength is sufficient to make a big splash in the vast world.】

【A severe misjudgment of higher worlds often leads to tragedy; the Tian Huo tribe is obviously such a faction.】

【But one thing confuses me: how did this small faction get so lucky to enter the Monster World directly... perhaps if they had gone to other higher-level worlds, they might have gradually grown stronger, breaking through their development bottleneck and ushering in a golden development period; unfortunately, they descended into the Monster World; not to mention Hei Chao or insect swarms which are already Natural Disaster-level factions spanning multiple worlds, even just picking out any small faction from the Monster World could easily crush the Tian Huo tribe.】

【It's like leaving the newbie village and going straight into a Mythic-level map full of bosses; too tragic.】

The Guide's explanation made Qi Sheng laugh in silence.

Since the Guide started flipping through the Earth history database, it has skillfully used Earth quotes when explaining knowledge to him, which is simple and easy to understand.

But regardless of the Tian Huo tribe's purpose for descending, he will not let go of this big fat fish.

These past few days, merely killing Tian Huo Fa warriors has brought him and the players abundant Shou Shou Jili gains.

The average level of participating players has also risen significantly.

Tian Huo warriors are even called the game's current version's number one "wealthy mob" by players.

Drop rates and hunting rewards are far higher than those of insect swarms and Hei Chao, causing players to look at Hei Chao and insect swarms with no longer any expectation from the past, but only disdain.

To explain using a certain forum's words: Only after killing Tian Huo Fa warriors did they realize Hei Chao and insect swarms are simply poor mobs, making no effort to improve, putting all their growth points into strength increases while completely abandoning the drop rates and Shou Shou Jili rewards that players care about most; he~ pfft, two pieces of trash!

Comparing monsters highlights the differences best.

At this moment, Qi Sheng switches to the player perspective.

If the war mode of insect swarms and Hei Chao can be described with words like cruel, crazy, ferocious, and grim.

Then the players' overall offensive is more like an abstract performance show under a scattered sand.

At a corner of the battlefield, a row of Bone Fire magic-type players stand on the back of a black-armored giant snake over ten meters long; during the battle, the black-armored giant snake charges recklessly, while the Bone Fire mages on its back cast spells, with cheers constantly rising:

"Ahahaha, the train strategy is just so awesome; combining this movement speed with our damage output is perfect!"

"Target that Tian Huo warrior holding the fire sword, brothers, focus fire on him."

"Yahoo~ the train is coming, brothers ahead make way fast; if we crash and kill, no compensation; brothers who want to board, DM us directly, 10 points of Shou Shou Jili for 1 hour, guaranteeing you earn back your investment, but only for Fire Mages, because we are the train strategy."

"Ding, welcome aboard the Great Snake train; this train departs from Emperor's Tomb Village Station for Fire City; melee players are prohibited from boarding, smoking is prohibited, only Qi consumption is allowed; please obey train regulations; next stop: Little Black Room."

The western corner of the battlefield.

Eight players sat on the ground, gulping down Spirit Recovery Potions, summoning three Flowing Shadow Clones in sequence, and launching an offensive in the form of self-detonation.

"Hahaha, blew up two. I have the highest kill count this round. Transfer 10 points of Shou Shou Jili to me, all of you."

"Oh my god, that blast only left a low-health target crippled, didn't kill him. This is so unscientific."

"Count yourself lucky. Watch my performance next round; I'm going to blow up ten!"

"What rotten luck. All the Shou Shou Jili I earned killing Tian Huo Warriors these past few days has been won away by you bunch of dogs."

By detonating themselves in sequence and then checking kill information in the squad voice channel, the eight players engaged in a gambling game of strategy.

The gaze turned toward the east.

Five Gargoyle players became the focal point of this area.

They all had the "Taunt" Painful Painful Minghun embedded and used.

Although the strength of this Painful Painful Minghun was high, its effect was limited when fighting against the Black Tide and the Insect Tide.

But when facing Tian Huo Warriors, the effect was outstanding.

"Feel the pain. It's yours, brother holding the flame sword. Please watch the VCR."

As the effect of the Taunt Painful Painful Minghun unfolded, the Tian Huo clan warrior struck by the taunt instantly trembled, and false memories pieced together from memory flooded his mind.

He couldn't help but let out a roar of grief and indignation, turning to run toward the player who had activated the Taunt Painful Painful Minghun.

"Look at me!"

At this moment, another player followed up with a taunt.

Instantly, the aggro shifted; this Tian Huo clan warrior turned again and lunged at the player who had just released the Taunt Painful Painful Minghun.

The taunts were used in sequence, and the aggro constantly shifted.

During this process, the rage in the hearts of the Tian Huo Warriors affected by the taunt kept accumulating; finally, they suddenly opened their mouths and spat out a ball of flame, then crashed to their knees with a boom. After the flames on their bodies dispersed, they began to pant violently, a streak of deep red hanging from the corner of their mouths.

"Damn, the Taunt Painful Painful Minghun has this effect too? Is this emotional damage overflow?"

"Spitting blood, anger attacking the heart, he looks a bit overheated. Fire Mage in the back, pour oil on the fire."

"Choosing us as opponents? Then we can only say you're too young. You dared to challenge a team with five Taunt Painful Minghuns. Today, we'll give you a proper lesson."

The various abstract tactics of the player camp were dazzling to the eye.

Besides the players using these abstract tactics, the combat style in the direction of the main front appeared quite normal.

Qi Sheng's gaze turned toward the direction of the main front:

A row of players, after activating the "Roar" trait, simultaneously let out roars at the incoming Tian Huo Warriors ahead:

"Roar."

The ferocious sound waves instantly sent groups of Tian Huo Warriors into a brief state of dizziness; the players behind immediately seized the opportunity to strike.

The God King responsible for commanding the main front constantly adjusted the battle formations of the player battalions, launching fierce attacks against the Tian Huo clan.

On this front, players of different schools all had clear roles, launching attacks, retreating, and defending, along with a series of other combat actions, through the commander's orders.

But the combat between the player camp and the Tian Huo clan could generally be described as "chaotic."

It could be seen that any tactic could be employed by players on the battlefield; the style was nothing short of a chaotic dance of demons.

The battle has lasted until now; the Tian Huo clan has already lost nearly two-fifths of its combat power. Defeat is merely a matter of time.

According to the statistics of the guidance, the energy contained in the 108 Energy Crystals within the city, after impurities are removed and converted into Shou Shou Jili, can yield approximately 500,000 Shou Shou Jili.

These 108 crystals represent a Shou Shou Jili yield of 54 million.

This was the thing Qi Sheng cared about most. If he could monopolize the 108 Energy Crystals, the next recruitment round could bring him 50,000 new players.

He had recently been considering whether to recruit the Goby Fish Clan or the Abyssal Fish People; after securing this batch of Energy Crystals, he could choose to have both.

But the Black Tide and the Insect Tide obviously would not let him have his way.

The goals of these two forces were the same as his, and neither was pushovers; it was nearly impossible for the player camp to swallow everything alone.

The specific gains would depend on the subsequent development of the war.

The center of Flame City.

Tian Huo Fa Wang gazed at the battlefields in three directions, his eyes bloodshot and his teeth bared.

The peak combat power of this world was far more terrifying than he had imagined.

After days of fierce fighting, the clan's priests had already exhausted their energy and could only temporarily halt the release of the Great Flame Array to rest.

The clan's warriors were also severely exhausted from consecutive battles.

But the support from the three forces seemed endless; they could always launch another assault after every round of the Great Flame Array's covering strike.

Forget about going out to plunder; he could barely hold onto Flame City itself.

This made him seriously doubt the records left by the ancestors.

The ancestors had clearly stated that although the Homeworld they once inhabited was three times larger than the Heavenly Fire World, its important resources were far less abundant than those of the Heavenly Fire World.

After a thousand years of steady development, the Tian Huo clan should now be stronger than before the flight.

The elite development meant the Tian Huo clan had no obvious weaknesses in combat power.

Yet the terrifying strength of the calamity described by the ancestors was obviously not as strong as the current Tian Huo clan, but the performance of the battle proved the ancestors were wrong.

This world had undergone significant changes after they left; the peak combat power of the world was far stronger than the ancestors had anticipated.

The war had reached this point; he knew there was no retreat left.

The Spatial Transfer Array had collapsed, and the Spatial Rifts had already healed; facing the Tian Huo clan was nothing but a fight to the death.

Perhaps... the three forces had also reached the end of their road, merely gritting their teeth and holding on.

But every time a new offensive came, self-comfort suffered a heavy setback, making him doubt Ji De Xiang Fa.

Shifting his gaze to the battlefields in the three directions, Tian Huo Fa Wang suddenly rose to his feet.

Decided to personally join the battlefield to lend a hand in advancing the war.

Soaring high in the sky, the Tian Huo Fa spiritual patterns on his body interconnected, and roaring flames engulfed his figure.

In the blink of an eye, the Tian Huo Fa Wang transformed into a fire demon statue dozens of meters tall.

His primary target was the northern direction, the most formidable of the three forces in his eyes: the Hei Chao Xie Sui faction.

The moment his figure touched the ground, surging flames swept in all directions from his center, instantly melting and dispersing a vast number of Hei Chao Xie Sui, which turned into wisps of black mist and reabsorbed into the Hei Chao.

The Tian Huo Fa Wang's arrival instantly ignited the fighting spirit of the nearby Tian Huo Warriors, who followed him in charging at the Hei Chao.

The appearance of the Tian Huo Fa Wang, a hunter of level 76, instantly turned the tide of battle.

At this moment, atop the Gao Ta of the Tian Yuan Node.

Di Nian Xie Ling stood with arms crossed over his chest, gazing south, controlling the Hei Chao army through the perception perspective provided by the Evil Eye.

When he discovered the Tian Huo Fa Wang had personally joined the fight, his expression did not change in the slightest.

Through the Evil Eye's judgment, the Tian Huo Fa Wang's strength was not far different from his own.

But the Hei Chao's power has never been measurable by the strength of a single target; even with the Tian Huo Fa Wang personally participating, there would be no substantial threat.

Through the Evil Eye's analysis and investigation, the Tian Huo Clan was merely a faction descended from a small world.

He had encountered factions of this small-world level before.

Back then, following the warriors of his clan, he led the Hei Chao to devour two small worlds and had fierce clashes with factions of the small-world level.

The arrogance in his heart before descending into the Monster World was cultivated during battles of the small-world level.

It was only after understanding the terror of the Monster World that this arrogance vanished completely.

Encountering a small-world level faction again, Di Nian Xie Ling felt only joy in his heart, without the slightest fear.

Compared to the Player Clan and the Insect Clan, this was the perfect nourishment for the Hei Chao's growth; the battles of this period had allowed the Tian Huo Clan to raise the Hei Chao's intensity by one level, breeding two special unit types: the Disaster Class and the Death Disaster Class.

These were the normal enemies in his eyes; the Player Clan and the Insect Clan were both damn abnormal.

So after the Tian Huo Fa Wang personally joined the battle, he did not pay much attention to him.

What concerned him more were the figures of the Player Clan wandering along the Hei Chao front lines.

These players were utterly detestable in his eyes; they possessed the ability to transform into shadows, moving across the battlefield at incredible speeds.

Whenever the Hei Chao Xie Sui under his control were about to kill a Tian Huo Warrior, they would suddenly reveal themselves, switching from shadow state to physical form to launch a fierce assault on the Tian Huo Warrior and kill them.

Just that much, however, was of no consequence.

The problem was that the Player Clan's most disgusting ability manifested after killing Tian Huo Warriors.

All Tian Huo Warriors killed by Player Clan members would have their flesh and blood dissipate.

This made him furious.

The dead Tian Huo Warriors were, in his eyes, nourishment for the Hei Chao's growth, to be completely devoured after being covered by the Hei Chao.

But the appearance of the Player Clan disrupted the rhythm of devouring and evolution; all Tian Huo Warriors sneak-killed by Player Clan members could no longer be absorbed by the Hei Chao.

His gaze turned to a corner of the battlefield.

A Tian Huo Warrior was being besieged by several Disaster Class units called "Evil War"; the Tian Huo Warrior, already exhausted, dispersed his Fire Demon form and knelt weakly on the ground, completely losing the ability to resist.

Just then, a black shadow suddenly rushed close, coalescing into a physical form behind the Tian Huo Warrior, and the dagger in his hand fiercely stabbed into the back of the Tian Huo Warrior's neck.

Crack!

The sound of bones shattering rang out; the already weak Tian Huo Warrior died instantly under this blow, his life structure collapsing.

In Di Nian Xie Ling's perception perspective, this Player Clan member snatched up the Dropped Items scattered on the ground, let out a "Hehe" laugh with a lecherous expression, and then decisively switched to shadow form to flee at high speed.

The Hei Chao that surged forward missed, unable to devour even a trace of energy.

Seeing this, Di Nian Xie Ling bared his sharp teeth, the veins on his forehead throbbing uncontrollably:

"Shameless!"

Hearing this, the Evil Eye floating behind Di Nian Xie Ling innocently blinked its eyes but dared not speak to comfort him.

This commander's temper was extremely volatile.

Speaking out rashly would surely invite scolding.

(End of Chapter)