Chapter 179: Death Game, Mine Cave Test

A massive exodus of Bliss Players occurred, bringing the endless Black Tide of Bliss Players to an end.

Just as the players prepared to strike the Life Cocoon, the figure of Evil Speech manifested from the void, its cold gaze sweeping over the ceaseless stream of approaching player figures.

Only to see a Bliss Spirit Mark appear on its forehead.

Using itself as the epicenter, rings of mental ripples, nearly invisible to the naked eye, rapidly expanded outward; the surrounding space resembled a Firefly Lake surface into which a giant stone had been thrown, rippling with layers of distorted waves, while the air was compressed until it emitted a sharp whistle.

Wild winds carried snowflakes, dancing recklessly.

Under the sweep of the mental shockwave, everything trembled, shattered, and vanished before this immense power.

Entire groups of players were decomposed into fine powder by the mental storm, dissipating into the swirling snowflakes and swept toward the distance, only to finally dissolve into black mist.

Facing Evil Speech, whom they could not possibly defeat, the players did not even bother attempting an attack; struggling before such absolute overpowering strength seemed utterly meaningless.

After large numbers of front-row players died, the players in the rear also retreated and withdrew accordingly.

In the regional voice channel, players couldn't help but curse the Bliss Clan for being unable to take a joke, asking how a promised battle of official versus pirated versions had suddenly escalated in intensity.

Last time was the same; originally, they could happily slay the Fallen within the Bliss Palace scenario.

But then the intensity suddenly ramped up.

And the one who arrived was also this lackey of the Lord of Bliss, named Evil Speech.

Bullying the weak with strength is shameful!

Bliss Space, Teleportation Altar.

The gaze of the Lord of Bliss fell upon the consciousness clusters continuously folding back into their homeland world through the spatial tunnel.

These were all Bliss Players who had chosen to log off.

It was only the second round of testing, yet a massive number of players had quit the game entirely, rather than simply logging off in the ordinary sense.

It was not distressed about the expenditure of resources and energy for this round of testing.

Forging a perfect legion system inevitably required investing vast amounts of resources and energy; in its view, this expenditure was highly meaningful and a necessary cost.

It believed that even the Black Black Tide and the Insect Clan, back when constructing their legion systems, had also invested huge sums of resources in meaningless expenditures.

Therefore, performance during the test was the key; the consumption of resources was not important.

The initial performance of the Bliss Players had filled it with great surprise.

Wave after wave of fearless charges truly made it feel the momentum akin to a calamity-level force.

Even though they were weak themselves, their momentum was not inferior to that of the Player Clan in the slightest.

But the problem was that the morale of the Bliss Players was not consistently high; rather, it followed a downward curve.

As the number of Player Clan members increased during the confrontation, the Bliss Players it had crafted broke down.

Facing the truly fearless Player Clan, the Bliss Players lost completely in terms of mentality.

The advancement of the plan faced a dilemma.

The Bliss Players were originally ordinary living beings from the homeland world, so it was understandable that they could not adapt to high-intensity warfare.

However, the main reason for this mental collapse stemmed from the lack of positive feedback within the game.

This included the loss of strength upon death after enhancement, failing to provide continuous growth and optimization feedback.

It could fully understand the feelings of the Bliss Players.

Putting itself in their shoes, if the strength it had gained through cultivation over long years suddenly vanished entirely, it would inevitably generate intense feelings of loss.

And the Bliss Players needed to constantly Iron Face this sense of loss.

Every death was negative feedback.

How to solve this problem? The Lord of Bliss fell into deep thought.

The core of the negative feedback came from death; seemingly, this could be resolved by providing more Bliss Power.

For instance, if a Bliss Player's strength grew to the Xuanming Realm, upon death it could inject Bliss Power equivalent to the Xuanming Realm, achieving what appeared to be lossless positive feedback upon death.

But the problem was that the amount of resources required to do so would grow day by day.

Sooner or later, it would Iron Face the dilemma of insufficient resource inventory.

Amidst surging thoughts, the Lord of Bliss conceived three solutions in its mind that could resolve the issue.

The first solution was to recruit specific players from the homeland world.

During this round of testing, it discovered that there was a batch of players in the homeland world who were extremely enthusiastic about the feeling of challenging high-difficulty powerful enemies, even enjoying the process.

Even though the vast majority of players suffered mental breakdowns, these types of players continued to fight through resurrection.

But how many such players existed in the homeland world was currently unknown; if their numbers were scarce, then this solution would be meaningless.

Building the Bliss Legion was to prepare for world-level battlefields; there must be a sufficient number of combat units.

As for elite cultivation, it had already walked that path long ago; the current Bliss Clan operated on an elite model.

Facts had proven that the path of completely elite cultivation was not feasible.

In the development of a faction, every Bliss Warrior that died represented a huge loss to it.

Secondly.

In the future, whenever a node was occupied, securing continuous resource output required holding the node region; relying on a single powerhouse, or even multiple powerhouses, made it difficult to cover all areas; once a powerhouse went out or was restrained by a powerful enemy, the territory would risk being invaded.

Therefore, the best war structure was similar to the Black Black Tide: using Evil Spirit Warriors as a core to construct a node-based legion.

To contend for dominance with world-level powerful clans in the future, a massive reserve of resources was necessary, making the guarding of nodes crucial.

After pondering this solution from every angle, the Lord of Bliss ultimately chose to abandon it.

The second solution was to enforce conscription upon the homeland world.

Cases of player death occurred during this test; three players died due to spatial backflow while undergoing consciousness transmission.

It was foreseeable that once the living beings of the homeland world discovered this, it would inevitably spark heated discussion.

Leading the living beings of the homeland world to develop resistance toward the game it had created.

Therefore, it had previously considered changing recruitment to forced conscription.

Randomly selecting living beings from the homeland world to become Bliss Players, forcibly requiring these Bliss Players to act in the Monster World according to its will.

This solution was more reliable compared to the first one.

As for what thoughts the living beings of the homeland world might have, it did not care.

Choosing to recruit living beings from the homeland world via a game format was not because exposure was impossible, but because exposure would require handling many potential issues.

But this test changed its mind.

Since the living beings of the homeland world, with a gaming mentality, could not Iron Face high-intensity warfare, could not play the game normally, and would actively give up or even quit the game due to mental imbalance, then recruitment should be changed to forced implementation.

Using the players' lives as a threat.

This test also revealed another problem: an overly convenient death-and-resurrection Cultivation Mode made players disregard their own lives.

Yet every death consumed the energy resources it provided.

If it chose to activate the forced conscription Cultivation Mode, it would set a resurrection quota for all players.

For example, each player would possess twenty resurrection opportunities; they could collect resources and invest them into the Resource Smelter to obtain Bliss Points, and these Bliss Points could be used to purchase attribute enhancements, skill imprints, and additional resurrection slots.

Doing so would prevent potentially promising Bliss Players from vanishing due to multiple deaths.

It would also make Bliss Players value their own lives more.

But the premise for valuing life was that all Bliss Players must execute tasks according to its will; failure to complete tasks would also result in the deduction of resurrection counts.

Changing the nature of recruitment from a mere game to a Death Game could resolve the vast majority of problems.

Bliss Players would be unable to achieve the true fearlessness of death like the Player Clan.

But compared to the Bliss Purple Black Tide and the Bliss Insect Black Tide, they possessed greater development potential; every Bliss Player was an independent individual, capable of independent thought and problem-solving.

Perhaps under the pressure of the death threat, Bliss Players could demonstrate even higher growth potential.

After all, with limited resurrection counts, to survive they must become stronger as much as possible.

After analyzing the feasibility of this solution in detail.

It felt that comparing the two modes of infinite resurrection and resurrection quotas, each had its advantages and disadvantages.

The advantage of infinite resurrection was that the accumulation speed of combat experience would be extremely fast; every death was an opportunity to learn.

Bliss Players could frequently participate in high-intensity combat, which helped them improve their combat skills and combat awareness more quickly.

Secondly, facing a random event might bring opportunity or might bring death.

Bliss Players possessing infinite resurrection ability could explore random events without any burden, but players possessing a resurrection quota would think entirely differently; they would consider potential risks and hesitate over whether to waste a life on exploration.

Finally, there was the psychological advantage.

Bliss Players with infinite resurrection ability had no fear of death psychologically, so they could be more decisive in battle and could adopt some very aggressive combat strategies; this psychological advantage could sometimes allow Bliss Players to perform at an extraordinary level in combat.

In contrast, Bliss Players with limited resurrection counts, in order to better protect themselves, would be more cautious in war and dare not act rashly.

But the resurrection quota was not without advantages.

To survive better, Bliss Players would focus more on team coordination and meticulously plan every action.

It would be easier to construct a comprehensive command and combat system.

Realizing that death would reset resurrection, Bliss Players would also use resources reasonably, spending every unit of resource consumption on improving strength, conducting repeated research before spending to pursue maximum benefit.

From a strategic perspective, Bliss Players with limited death counts would have longer-term strategic planning, would not easily engage in high-risk battles, and would inevitably conduct thorough intelligence gathering before every war.

Comparing the two.

It could be affirmed that players with infinite resurrection conditions would be stronger.

The disadvantage was that resource consumption was excessively huge, and there would still be cases of players quitting the game due to excessive negative feedback.

Players under the resurrection quota setting were slightly weaker in many aspects, but resource consumption would see significant improvement, and compared to infinitely resurrecting players, they possessed greater war cohesion.

The forced conscription accompanying the resurrection quota setting could also completely resolve the problem of Bliss Players quitting the game due to mental imbalance.

In fact, it preferred players under the condition of infinite resurrection.

But since it could not handle issues like the players' mindset, the second plan would be the superior choice.

The first step of this plan required the Bliss Legion to once again rule the Homeland World, becoming the decision-makers towering over the living beings of that world.

Those who comply shall live; those who resist shall die.

As for resistance, in the Iron Face of absolute power, resistance did not exist.

All struggles were futile and would not affect the unfolding of its plans, and it no longer needed to use the game as a cover.

The game name "Monster World: Endless Adventure" would also be changed to "Monster World: Death Game."

The third plan was ideological reformation.

Compared to the first two plans, the ideological reformation plan was, in its eyes, the most perfect scheme.

It intended to use the power of Bliss to construct a mental bewitchment scene covering the entire Homeland World, but this time it did not want the living beings of the Homeland World to produce Bliss Power for it.

It also looked down upon the Bliss Power produced by the weak living beings of the Homeland World.

This was done to subtly transform the Homeland World's living beings' perception of the "game," turning their inner resistance into proactive enthusiasm and taking pride in it.

In his ideal scenario, Bliss Players under an infinite resurrection Cultivation Mode could be born after the reformation was complete.

It would no longer need to worry about Bliss Players quitting the game due to high-intensity warfare.

But this nearly perfect plan had one currently unsolvable problem.

Constructing the Bliss scene to cover the Homeland World would require an expenditure of energy resources that was terrifyingly vast.

This would nearly drain its entire fortune.

Coupled with the energy resource costs brought by players constantly dying and resurrecting, it was simply a bottomless pit for resources.

Although both were Bliss scenes, the scenes inside the Bliss Sub-Halls continuously produced energy resources, whereas the Bliss scene in the Homeland World continuously consumed resources.

From the perspective of steady development, among these three plans, it leaned more toward the compromise of the second plan.

If it chose the plan involving resurrection quotas, it would also modify the settings for the Bliss Players.

The first step was to increase the initial strength of the Bliss Players, ensuring they were at least stronger than some elite members within the player legions.

An initialization strength that was too low would make death occur too frequently.

With the setting of resurrection quotas, it believed the Bliss Players would cherish their lives and would not easily waste the initialized bodies it bestowed upon them.

Additionally, it had considered changing the resurrection location for the Bliss Players.

The endless Player Clan was too frenzied; while very effective for war training, it exerted excessive pressure on the Bliss Players, who possessed independent consciousness.

This made them prone to mental breakdowns, thereby affecting their growth efficiency.

However, the idea of merely changing the resurrection location could not be executed for the time being.

The ecology of the Winter Snowfield region was very suitable for the initial growth of Bliss Players.

It satisfied two major characteristics: an abundance of basic spiritual resources and the presence of a massive scale of weak monsters.

This was also the reason it had chosen the Winter Snowfield region as the testing ground for legion construction.

Until a more suitable environment was found, this idea would be temporarily shelved, and operations would continue in the Winter Snowfield region.

After repeatedly pondering the concepts of the three plans, the Lord of Bliss formally made a decision.

"Evil Speech."

"My Lord." The figure of Evil Speech manifested beside him.

"Gather the subordinates and rule the Homeland World," the Lord of Bliss said in a deep voice.

Evil Speech nodded, and his form dissipated.

Several hours later, the Bliss Army descended upon the Bliss World (Homeland World), initiating the cruel rule plan.

The first step of the invasion was to destroy the existing world hierarchy and establish a theocratic class system ruled and decided by the Bliss Clan.

For the living beings of the Homeland World, the descent of the Bliss Clan was undoubtedly a catastrophe.

But compared to truly destructive invading forces, the Bliss Clan's invasion appeared exceptionally gentle, unwilling to easily harm the living beings of the Homeland World.

During the invasion process, most of the time was spent displaying military might.

Informing the living beings of the Homeland World that the Bliss Clan were higher life forms they could not resist.

Primordial Altar.

Qi Sheng saw all of the Lord of Bliss's concepts clearly.

He had to admit that this fellow, the Lord of Bliss, was indeed as the players said: diligent and eager to learn, letting no possibility of constructing a perfect war legion slip by.

This time, it had actually created Bliss Players.

But ultimately, they were imitations, possessing an unbridgeable gap compared to his player legions.

The feeling he got was that the Lord of Bliss was copying every time, yet never managed to copy the essence.

Regarding the Bliss Purple Black Tide that copied the Black Black Tide, the setting for the Evil Eye had turned into a "charging eye" that continuously provided mental energy recharge, and the method of mental control could only be described as achieving miracles through brute force.

While others used the principle of leverage, the Lord of Bliss relied on brute force to drag things along, which was truly magical in its absurdity.

Regarding the setting for the Bliss Insect Black Tide, it had only learned the rapid reproduction for quickly creating combat units, but its adaptive evolution capability was so weak it did not even reach one ten-thousandth of the Insect Clan's.

Regarding the setting for the Bliss Players, there was no complete player system construction, and various negative feedbacks had completely shattered the Bliss Players' mindsets.

Deep in his heart, he actually favored the model chosen by the Lord of Bliss, just as the Guide had once evaluated:

"Theoretical methods of progress are not limited to innovation; imitation and learning can also bring progress. Starting from replication and imitation, then gradually forging one's own unique path, is undoubtedly a shortcut to growth."

It was just that before perfecting the legion structures copied from others, these initial legion frameworks were too crude.

The more he understood the Lord of Bliss, the more he felt this was a talent with great ambition.

In the future of the Monster World, the intensity of confrontation between races would only grow higher.

In this surging torrent of the era, many forces were like stubborn night watchmen, tightly gripping old-fashioned rule lanterns, stubbornly guarding past growth trajectories, turning a blind eye to innovations that required massive resource investment, and developing solely through the power and resources brought by rules.

Such forces, seeking no innovation and sticking to conventional ways, could easily become trapped in a development cage.

Taking the Combat Insect Clan as an example, forces without any innovative spirit would easily fall into a desperate situation when facing them, as their limited capabilities would soon be perfectly immunized after the collection of pheromones.

But if one had a diversified combat power structure, there would be multiple means of response when facing the Combat Insect Clan... at least one could die a bit slower.

Innovation itself was a growth model that conformed to the development of the times; in Qi Sheng's view, the Lord of Bliss's choice was very smart.

It was just that the strides were too large, and no results had been seen in any direction yet.

But this time, the concept of the Bliss Player Legion caused his evaluation of the Lord of Bliss to upgrade.

Although it was walking a path similar to his own.

This time, however, the Lord of Bliss had walked out a new Cultivation Mode of player cultivation.

The setting of resurrection quotas was indeed very suitable for the Lord of Bliss.

Without the Challenger System built upon the rules of the Four Gods, the Lord of Bliss could never have made the infinite resurrection player legion model work.

Especially without the support of the two rules of All-Thing Extraction and Flesh Reshaping, once the scale of infinite initialization resurrections increased, the daily expenditure would become terrifyingly huge.

But with the setting of resurrection quotas, the situation was completely different.

This was a player recruitment Cultivation Mode he had not yet tried.

The settings were very reasonable and possessed feasibility.

The setting of resurrection quotas could significantly reduce the waste of energy resources, raise the players' initial strength, and also force players to hunt and grow, establishing a underlying logic for becoming stronger.

Seeing the Lord of Bliss request Evil Speech to militarily rule the Homeland World, he knew the Lord of Bliss was likely going to succeed on this path.

Thinking of this, Qi Sheng looked at the Guide hovering beside him:

"Guide, this potential seed, the Lord of Bliss, do you think we should nip it in the bud?"

[Boss, it is completely unnecessary. At the current stage, the Lord of Bliss is an important source of income for novice players, continuously creating Sacrificial Power for us. If such an important resource supplier is eliminated prematurely, it would be killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. I suggest keeping it to continue harvesting.]

Qi Sheng nodded with a smile; this was exactly his current thought as well.

He was very curious about what kind of performance the next batch of Bliss Players to appear would demonstrate.

Under the threat of death, how would these players compare to his own player legions, and what advantages in their settings would they possess?

Without dwelling on this question, Qi Sheng withdrew his gaze from the Lord of Bliss's Homeland World and began reviewing the massive amount of information fed back by the Guide.

In recent days, two more Primordial Monsters had been successfully contained, bringing the total number of Primordials to 43.

The first Primordial was the fourth-generation Primordial: Spirit Eye, contained by the player "Gazing Cat's Abyss" in the Misty Coast region.

This was a general-type Soul Soul possessing both passive and active effects.

After embedding, the passive effect could greatly enhance visual capabilities, freely adjusting viewing distance to see targets far away clearly.

After actively activating the Soul Soul characteristic, the improvement in vision would become incredibly exaggerated.

With merely a level 1 Soul Soul, a player could clearly capture the minute textures of leaf veins a kilometer away; continuing to raise the Soul Soul level, every single vein would unfold before the player's eyes like a map. Even in environments without light, the Spirit Eye would allow players to see objects as clearly as in broad daylight, no longer needing to carry lighting tools.

It could also penetrate obstacles to observe things behind them.

Merely this, the performance of the Spirit Eye was far inferior to the perception range perspective of the Eagle-Headed Demon, and its strength did not even reach the fourth generation.

The most formidable characteristic of the Spirit Eye lay in its ability to grant players insight capabilities surpassing common sense; for instance, when facing complex arrays, the Spirit Eye could instantly analyze the distribution of nodes on the array, including the paths of energy flow and detailed structures within.

Whether the player could understand it was one thing, but the structure and logic of things would be perfectly presented before the player's eyes.

If the Lord of Bliss could obtain this ability, one could foresee that the progress of its all-system troop creation would gain significant improvement.

This was a Soul Soul very suitable for research-oriented players such as Alchemists.

For normal players, given the limited Star Vein Slots, embedding combat-type Soul Souls would be a better choice.

But for players in the Warband Cultivation Mode, pairing with a player possessing the Spirit Eye was very necessary; it could be used to observe enemy situations behind the battlefield that fell outside the perception coverage of the Eagle-Headed Demons.

This was completely different from the situation on Earth.

On Earth, players' inability to see far was influenced by many factors, including the effect of Earth's curvature.

After all, the ground is curved; assuming one stands on the ground looking into the distance without obstructions, the line of sight would extend along the tangent of the Earth's surface. As distance increased, the ground would gradually sink below the line of sight, so the limit of vision was finite.

But the Monster World did not have this problem; its super-large world area could provide a much farther observation distance.

Secondly, the atmosphere contains particulate matter such as dust, water vapor, and smoke.

These particles scatter and absorb light, causing distant objects to become blurred and indistinct.

Even in clear weather, molecules in the atmosphere cause Rayleigh scattering of light, making distant objects appear faded in color and blurry in outline.

As visual distance increases, light travels a longer path through the atmosphere, increasing the probability of scattering and absorption, which prevents normal people from seeing very far.

But the greatest impact comes from terrain and obstruction by barriers.

The Spirit Eye Fate Soul provides the characteristic performance of penetrating obstacles, allowing players to easily bypass eye-deceiving tricks or barriers set by enemies and see the true nature of things.

Although the Spirit Eye Fate Soul possesses extremely high strength, very few players are willing to inlay it, according to forum discussions.

This situation is very similar to that of the Brain Overclocking Fate Soul.

When the Brain Overclocking Fate Soul first appeared, its strength was rejected by many players who felt its characteristic effect was too poor.

Apart from the Arms Dealers and the Alchemist Guild, most other players basically never choose to inlay it.

The specific reasons have already been analyzed in detail by strategy-focused players on the forum.

What is clear is that possessing the Brain Overclocking Fate Soul grants a massive boost to mental intensity.

Control over dodging, blocking, attack rhythm, and other aspects can be significantly improved.

But the problem is that the Brain Overclocking Fate Soul only provides auxiliary effects, offering very limited improvement to combat power.

Players do not have many Star Vein Slots open; comparing an inlaid level 30 Brain Overclocking Fate Soul to other combat-type Fate Souls, the improvement in logical thinking ability during actual combat is far inferior to the direct increase in combat power.

Twenty points of physical quality intensity can exert absolute suppression over ten points of physical quality intensity.

This is the core reason why the Brain Overclocking Fate Soul remains relatively niche.

But in the foreseeable future, as the number of Star Vein Slots increases, the importance of such auxiliary-type Fate Souls in the eyes of players will continuously rise.

Similar situations apply to various passive amplification-type Fate Souls.

These types of Fate Souls become stronger the later the stage of the game.

The second Primordial source was the second-generation Fate Soul, the Whirling Wind Whip, contained by a squad led by the player "Zero Word" in the Spirit Artifact Valley.

This is the first soft weapon in the Monster World; its attack trajectory is curved, allowing it to strike enemies from various unexpected angles and also deal area-of-effect damage.

The primary attribute increased by its characteristic is physical quality intensity.

The characteristic effect is that targets struck will suffer a forced knockback under the influence of rules; the specific knockback effect is influenced by the user's Qi and Blood intensity and the Fate Soul's level, making it suitable for Qi and Blood flow players.

However, the drawbacks are also obvious.

Although the whip Spirit Artifact has a wide and flexible attack range, swinging the whip requires certain preparatory movements; compared to weapons like daggers or blades, the speed of instant execution is much slower, and against enemies close to oneself, the whip's flexibility is greatly diminished.

Secondly, using it requires a certain degree of proficiency.

Finally, there are environmental limitations; in narrow spaces or environments filled with obstacles, the use of the whip will be significantly restricted.

Yet, the appearance of the Whirling Wind Whip has generated extremely high discussion volume on the forum.

This is because the Whirling Wind Whip performed exceptionally well in tests, fitting Qi and Blood flow players perfectly, especially capable of producing miraculous effects when paired with certain Fate Souls.

For example, Taunt combined with the Whirling Wind Whip allows the Taunt characteristic to be released from the whip's tip as an area-of-effect coverage, extending the influence range of the Taunt Fate Soul.

Or alternatively, Roar combined with the Whirling Wind Whip, performing a knockback while releasing a conical Roar impact forward from the whip's tip as the starting point.

This significantly enhances the attack range of the melee physical flow.

In fact, the combination of the Taunt characteristic with other characteristics had already been developed on the forum long ago.

For instance, Ink Flame Fireball can provide Taunt over super long distances.

But the primary attribute of the Taunt Fate Soul does not match that of the Ink Flame Fireball; for a magic-system player to inlay Taunt would undoubtedly be putting the cart before the horse.

Meanwhile, the strongest manifestation of the Whirling Wind Whip is its knockback effect, which can be used to protect fragile players in the rear, creating a more favorable output environment for them.

The Star Vein combination with the highest number of likes on the forum was proposed by the player "Stellar Shine Soldier".

The Star Vein combination is: Scattered Arrow Bow, Whirling Wind Whip, Extreme Speed, Qi Eating, Bind, Mark, and Roar.

This set of Fate Souls is constructed with the Scattered Arrow Bow as the core, with the Whirling Wind Whip used merely as a support.

Its performance in the test scenario is that through rapid firing via Extreme Speed, every shot can forcibly knock back the target and apply Bind.

This Star Vein flow practices both martial and magical cultivation; although its output is not high, its main focus is control.

Through the Scattered Arrow Bow's longer attack range, it provides auxiliary support to players fighting at the front.

The player who proposed this Star Vein combination concept finally expressed regret in their heart, stating that if there were an area-of-effect healing-type Fate Soul, the martial-magical dual-cultivation Scattered Arrow Bow could even provide super long-range area-of-effect healing capabilities.

After carefully reviewing the players' test strategies for the newly contained Fate Souls on the forum, Qi Sheng shifted his gaze to the Colorful Mist Coast region.

Colorful Mist Coast, Star-Broken Earth.

After dispelling the Evil Moon Domain, the players' steps of exploration crossed the Colorful Mist Coast region and began exploring the Star-Broken Earth.

At this moment, within a natural underground mine cave in the Star-Broken Earth.

Yang Tianxuan was debugging a batch of mining robots with members of the Doomsday Technology Guild.

The preliminarily crafted mining robots appeared slightly rough in appearance, standing a bit taller than a person, with an overall square and hard-edged shape; they were crafted primarily from the spiritual metal "Sky Rock Ore," their surfaces not yet finely polished, still retaining cutting and welding marks, with the main body built from a sturdy steel framework to provide necessary support in complex mining environments.

When moving, they advance via tracks below, capable of adapting to walking and turning on different terrains.

On the head of the mining robot, a huge circular drill bit is installed; this is the core tool for mining.

The edges of the drill bit are covered with sharp spiritual alloy teeth connected to an internal power device, emitting a low hum when operating.

Regarding mining functions, the robot can detect ore resources in the surrounding environment using equipped sensors, but this function is extremely useless; at the current stage, detection technology is limited, so basically everything relies on random excavation.

Regarding ore collection, a simple collection bucket is set at the front of the robot; after the ore is crushed by the drill bit, the bucket collects the crushed ore and transports it via a built-in conveyor belt to a storage compartment in the robot's abdomen.

When the storage compartment is full, the mining robot automatically returns to a designated location to unload the collected ore.

However, as preliminarily crafted mining robots, there are also some obvious deficiencies, especially poor energy endurance; a single ordinary Spirit Stone can only sustain operation for three hours, requiring guild members to remain nearby to replace the "battery" at any time.

Yang Tianxuan attaches exceptional importance to this problem.

The direction for the next modification is to improve endurance by building a Spirit Crystal Hub for the mining robot, increasing energy conduction efficiency and reducing energy loss.

Holding a detection terminal, Yang Tianxuan paced around one of the mining robots, stroking the joints of its mechanical arms.

After a long while, he nodded and said:

"Begin."

Following Yang Tianxuan's command, eighteen mining robots moved in synchronization, approaching the cave rock wall, extending their drill bits, and beginning to excavate.

Accompanied by splashing sparks, the drill bits emitted a grinding roar against the rock wall.

Brief observation reveals that the mining efficiency of the mining robots is far inferior to that of players.

After all, with attribute amplification, players mine at extremely fast speeds, especially those players with Clone plus Extreme Speed Fate Souls; there is simply no comparison.

But Yang Tianxuan felt extremely satisfied with the preliminary performance of this batch of mining robots.

Compared to players, mining robots do not know fatigue and can operate twenty-four hours without stopping.

In the future, one only needs to come regularly to collect resources to obtain substantial resource profits.

Compared to mechanical equipment in reality, although the mining robots they crafted in the game are crude in technology, the strength of the materials used far surpasses reality.

Take the latest design plan and compare it to robots in reality.

The version 2.0 mining robots are crafted using "White Tiger Stone," with strength far surpassing any alloy material in reality.

In terms of carrying capacity, version 2.0 mining robots will use Void Origin Stone mined from the Frosty Snow Plains region to craft an internal storage space; this means there is no need for frequent round trips to transport ore, allowing for one-time collection and storage of large quantities of ore, greatly improving mining efficiency.

Regarding ore exploration, they are considering using the expensive "Insight Gold" to enable mining robots to precisely lock onto shallow-layer spiritual ores.

Regarding endurance capability, they are considering implanting a Spirit Absorbing Array inside the mining robots that can automatically provide the absorption of energy from heaven and earth.

As for how to obtain the relevant technologies, it is not difficult.

Whether it is using Void Origin Stone to craft spatial items or arranging a Spirit Absorbing Array, answers can be found in professional books within the Emperor Tomb Village library.

At the current stage, the factory in the Emperor Tomb Village space has completed its first phase of construction; once technical testing is perfected, mining robots can be mass-produced and deployed to various discovered resource regions for resource extraction.

But the premise is that their own player legion has the capability to help them guard these resource regions.

Therefore, subsequently, the Doomsday Technology Guild under his leadership will change its development direction, selling various weapons at the lowest possible prices to accelerate the growth speed of the player legion.

As for acquiring resources needed for research and development, the source will shift from obtaining them internally from players to obtaining them externally.

Only when the player legion becomes stronger can their Doomsday Technology Guild possess more resource mining points.

He even already has a future goal in his heart, which is to seize the rule "Divine Metal" from the Mechanical Sovereign.

According to the description in the Guide, this rule can enlighten metallic substances, transforming them into living metal capable of growth and healing; after solidification, any damage can be repaired and regenerated by devouring metallic substances, returning to the form set at the time of solidification while retaining the functions created at the time of setting.

In Yang Tianxuan's view, the setting of living metal is extremely powerful.

It means that in the future, any equipment crafted, even if destroyed, can be instantly repaired; living metal can also be recycled and reused to assemble other mechanical equipment.

But whether this goal can be achieved within his lifetime remains unknown for now.

The Guide states that the "Mechanical Sovereign" is a powerhouse at the Demi-God Realm; with the comprehensive strength of the player legion at the current stage, they do not even qualify to touch its hem.

But what is clear is that if they can obtain the Divine Metal rule in the future, the technology of their Doomsday Technology Guild for developing weapons and mining equipment will achieve progress beyond imagination.

Watching the robots currently mining ore, a smile floated at the corner of Yang Tianxuan's mouth.

How could this be called a robot? It is simply a money-printing machine.

Every minute and every second, it earns research funding for him.

In fact, the development of the Doomsday Technology Guild has already deviated from the track he initially set.

The original Doomsday Technology Guild was created to conduct testing of dangerous weapons; this was also the core goal of the Doomsday Technology Guild.

But after the Moon Eclipse Clan announced the truth of the Monster World, the competition in the Virtual Realm has begun.

The vast majority of living beings from all races on Earth will spend most of their time immersed in the Virtual World; the importance of the Monster World goes without saying, and virtual assets can completely be converted into real-world assets.

Occupying a leading technological position in the Monster World can also bring huge benefits to the real world.

This is also his latest received order, requiring that the research and development of the Weapon Research Department does not need to target adaptation to reality exclusively; applicability within the game is equally important.

Taking the mining robot as an example, without corresponding materials in reality, it simply cannot be manufactured.

In-depth research into such techniques offered little practical help for the real world.

But the latest policy meant that technological development within the Virtual Realm was just as important as in reality; they could develop any advanced technology impossible to replicate in the real world, not merely test dangerous weapons from reality.

Time passed, and the terminal in his hand displayed that the operating mining robot had entered low-power Cultivation Mode.

Yang Tianxuan immediately ordered the guild members to replace the energy sources, then began a new round of resource extraction.

Afterwards, he tallied the spiritual ores piled in the center of the mine hall, discovering that the resources extracted over three hours were worth 1,965 points of Sacrificial Power when exchanged.

Aside from the influence of luck, this was also related to the relatively low mining efficiency of the mining robots.

Not counting labor costs, and calculating only based on the construction cost of the mining robots, a single unit would need to mine for approximately fourteen days after deducting energy consumption to recoup its cost.

However, this figure held no reference value, as mining output carried a high degree of uncertainty.

If it were a rich vein, this timeframe could be drastically shortened.

If luck was particularly good, a single high-value spiritual ore could recoup the cost in seconds, even yielding a surplus.

For instance, in the Void Stone mining district of the Winter Snow Plains region, if one can mine ores there, the speed of cost recovery would be extremely fast.

The preliminary test results left Yang Tianxuan highly satisfied.

With half of the second mining cycle elapsed, Yang Tianxuan turned to leave, intending to return to the factory in Emperor Tomb Village to inspect the construction progress.

Just then, the ground suddenly shook.

Yang Tianxuan turned to look; fine gravel rained down from above, striking the bodies of the mining robots and emitting a dense "clatter-clatter" sound.

Cracks appeared one after another on the rock Iron Face being mined, and wisps of eerie green light quietly seeped out from the fissures.

The light was not bright, yet it exuded a cold, gloomy aura.

Boom!

The ground shook again; accompanied by "crack-crack" sounds of fracturing, the cracks on the rock Iron Face multiplied, and the eerie green light became exceptionally clear.

It seemed they had dug into something; the entire rock Iron Face shattered rapidly, and the seeping green light grew brighter and brighter.

Seeing this scene, the players of the Doomsday Technology Guild crowded forward one after another.

Danger? Non-existent.

What if it was an opportunity?

Although most members of the Doomsday Technology Guild were researchers, they also frequently browsed the player forums.

They knew the widely circulated mantra regarding opportunities.

When encountering sudden events or unknown situations, one must get right up close to investigate the cause.

As for death, who among them was not a regular visitor to the Little Black Room?

The forum players had a saying that went well:

"Players will eventually perish; resurrection cooldown awaits its time."

"Meeting in the Little Black Room, we laugh and say we'll try again next time."

The feeling of returning to the Little Black Room was, in the eyes of players, just like coming home.

(End of Chapter)