Chapter 179: Death Game, Mine Cave Test

The Bliss players withdrew in vast numbers, and the endless tide of Bliss players came to an end.

Just as the players prepared to strike at the Life Cocoon, the figure of Xie Yu emerged from the void, his cold gaze sweeping over the endless stream of approaching players.

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

Starting from itself, rings of mental ripples, almost invisible to the naked eye, spread out rapidly; the surrounding space, like a lake struck by a giant stone, rippled with layers of distorted waves, and the air was compressed into a sharp howl.

A wild wind, carrying snowflakes, danced wildly.

Swept by the mental shockwave, all things trembled, shattered, and vanished before this immense power.

Waves of players were disintegrated into dust by the mental storm, dissolving into the swirling snowflakes that rolled toward the distance, finally turning into black mist and vanishing.

Facing Xie Yu, whom they could not possibly defeat, the players didn't even bother to attempt an attack; absolute power made their struggles before it seem utterly meaningless.

After the front-line players died in droves, the players in the rear also retreated and withdrew.

In the regional voice channel, players couldn't help but curse the Bliss Clan for being sore losers, saying that the agreement was for the genuine version to fight the pirated version, yet why had the difficulty been cranked up?

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

But suddenly, the difficulty was cranked up.

And it was this lackey of the Lord of Bliss, named Xie Yu, who came.

Bullying the weak is shameful!

Bliss Space, the Transfer Altar.

The Lord of Bliss's gaze turned toward the clusters of consciousness constantly returning to the native world through the space tunnel.

These were the Bliss players who had chosen to log off.

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

It did not grieve over the expenditure of resources and energy in this round of testing.

Building a perfect military system inevitably required a huge investment of resources and energy; in its view, this expense was highly meaningful and a necessary outlay.

It believed that even the Black Tide and the Insect Race, before constructing their military systems back then, had also invested vast amounts of meaningless resources.

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

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

Round after round of fearless charges truly made it feel the momentum of a calamity-level power.

Even though they were weak themselves, their momentum was in no way inferior to that of the Player Race.

But the problem was that the mindset of the Bliss players was not always high; it was a downward curve.

As the members of the Player Race increased during the confrontation, the Bliss players it had created broke down.

Facing the truly fearless Player Race, the Bliss players lost completely in terms of mindset.

The advancement of the plan faced difficulties.

The Bliss players were originally ordinary beings of the native world; it was understandable that they could not adapt to high-intensity warfare.

But the main reason for this mental collapse came from the lack of positive feedback within the game.

This included the fact that after strengthening, strength would be lost upon death, failing to bring 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 cultivated over countless years suddenly vanished completely, it would inevitably produce a strong sense of loss.

And the Bliss players had to constantly 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, it could be solved by providing more Bliss Power.

For example, if a Bliss player's strength grew to the Profound Bright Realm, after death it could inject Bliss Power reaching the Profound Bright Realm, achieving a seemingly lossless positive feedback upon death.

But the problem was that doing so would require a resource consumption that would grow day by day.

Sooner or later, it would face the predicament of insufficient stockpiled resources.

As thoughts surged, the Lord of Bliss conceived three plans in its mind to solve the problem.

The first plan was to recruit specific players from the native world.

During this round of testing, it discovered that there was a group of players in the native world who were very keen on the feeling of challenging high-difficulty strong enemies, even enjoying the process.

Even though the vast majority of players suffered a mental collapse, this type of player continued to fight through resurrection.

But exactly how many such players existed in the native world was currently unknown; if the number was scarce, then this plan would be utterly meaningless.

Building the Bliss Legion was to cope with world-level battlefields; there must be enough combat units.

As for elite cultivation, he had long since walked this path; the current Bliss Clan was the elite cultivation model.

Facts proved that the path of complete elite cultivation was not feasible.

In the development of a power, every death of a Bliss Warrior was a huge loss to him.

Secondly.

In the future, for every node occupied, to obtain continuously produced resources, the node region must be defended; relying on just one strong person, or even multiple strong people, makes it difficult to cover all areas, and once a strong person goes out or is pinned down by a powerful enemy, the territory faces the risk of being invaded.

Therefore, the best war structure is like the Black Tide, using Spirit Warriors as a core to construct a node legion.

To contend for hegemony with world-level powerful races in the future, there must be vast reserve resources to supply; the guarding of nodes is of paramount importance.

After pondering this plan back and forth, the Lord of Bliss ultimately chose to abandon it.

The second plan was to forcibly recruit from the native world.

Cases of player death occurred during this test; three players died when their consciousness transmission encountered a space counter-current.

It could be foreseen that once the beings of the native world discovered this, it would inevitably spark heated discussion.

Causing the beings of the native world to develop resistance to the game it created.

So previously, it had considered changing recruitment to forced recruitment.

Randomly draw beings from the Home World to become Bliss Players, forcing the Bliss Players to act in the Monster World according to its will.

This plan is more reliable than the first plan.

As for what the beings of the Home World think, it does not care.

Choosing to recruit beings from the Home World via a game method is not that it cannot be exposed, but that exposure would require handling many potential problems.

But this test made it change its mind.

Since the beings of the Home World cannot face high-intensity war with a gaming mindset, cannot play the game normally, and will actively give up or even quit the game due to mental imbalance, then change recruitment to forced execution.

Threaten the players with their lives.

This test also made it discover a problem: an overly convenient death-resurrection mode would make players not care about their own lives.

But each death consumes the energy resources it provides.

If it chooses to enable the forced recruitment mode, it will set a resurrection quota for all players.

For example, each player possesses twenty resurrection chances, can obtain Bliss Points by collecting resources and investing them into the Resource Furnace, and Bliss Points can purchase attribute enhancements, Ji Neng Lao Yin, and extra resurrection slots.

Doing this can prevent promising Bliss Players from disappearing due to multiple deaths.

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

But the premise of valuing life is that all Bliss Players must execute missions according to its will; even if they fail to complete missions, resurrection counts will be deducted.

Changing the nature of recruitment from a simple game to a death game can solve the vast majority of problems.

Bliss Players will be unable to achieve true fearlessness of death like the Player Race.

But compared to the Bliss Purple Tide and the Bliss Insect Tide, they possess greater development potential; every Bliss Player is an independent individual with the ability to think independently and handle problems.

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

After all, resurrection counts are limited; to survive, one must become as strong as possible.

After analyzing the feasibility of this plan in detail.

It felt that comparing the infinite resurrection and resurrection quota modes, each has its own pros and cons.

The advantage of infinite resurrection is that the accumulation speed of combat experience will be very fast; every death is an opportunity to learn.

Bliss Players can frequently participate in high-intensity combat, which helps them improve combat skills and combat awareness faster.

Secondly, facing a random event, it may bring opportunity or it may bring death.

Bliss Players possessing infinite resurrection ability can explore without burden when facing random events, but players with a resurrection quota think completely differently; they will consider potential risks and hesitate whether to waste a life to explore.

Finally, there is the psychological advantage.

Bliss Players with infinite resurrection ability have no fear of death psychologically, so they can be more decisive in combat, can adopt some very aggressive combat strategies, and this psychological advantage can sometimes allow Bliss Players to perform at super-normal levels in combat.

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

But the resurrection quota is not without advantages.

To better survive, Bliss Players will focus more on teamwork and carefully plan every action.

They will find it easier to build a complete command and combat system.

Realizing that death resets resurrection, Bliss Players will also use resources reasonably, spending every resource expenditure on improving strength, and will conduct repeated research before spending, pursuing maximum benefit.

From a strategic perspective, Bliss Players with limited death counts will have longer-term strategic planning, will not easily participate in high-risk combat, and will definitely conduct sufficient intelligence gathering before every war.

Comparing the two.

What can be confirmed is that players possessing infinite resurrection conditions will be stronger.

The disadvantage is that resource consumption is excessively huge, and there will also be cases where players quit the game due to excessive negative feedback.

Players under the resurrection quota setting are weaker in many aspects, but resource consumption will see significant improvement, and compared to players with infinite resurrection, they possess greater war cohesion.

The forced recruitment paired with the resurrection quota setting can also completely solve the problem of Bliss Players quitting the game due to mental imbalance.

In fact, it wants players under infinite resurrection conditions even more.

But since it cannot handle issues like player mindset, the second plan will be the superior choice.

The first step of this plan requires the Bliss Legion to re-conquer the Home World and become the decision-makers standing above the beings of the Home World.

Those who submit live; those who resist die.

As for resistance, in the face of absolute power, resistance does not exist.

All struggles are futile, will not affect the unfolding of its plans, and it no longer needs to use a game as a cover.

The game name "Monster World · Endless Adventure" will also be changed to "Monster World · Death Game".

The third plan is ideological reformation.

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

Using Bliss Power to construct a mental bewitchment scene covering the entire Home World, but this time it does not want the beings of the Home World to produce Bliss Power for it.

It also looks down on the Bliss Power produced by the weak beings of the Home World.

Doing this is to subtly reform the beings of the Home World's cognition of "games," turning inner resistance into active initiative, and taking pride in it.

The Bliss Players under the infinite resurrection mode in its ideal vision can be born after the reformation is completed.

It no longer needs to worry about Bliss Players quitting the game due to high-intensity war.

But this nearly perfect plan has one temporarily unsolvable problem.

Constructing the Bliss scene covering the Home World requires consuming a terrifying amount of energy resource expenditure.

This would nearly empty its treasury.

Plus the energy resource expenditure brought by players constantly dying and resurrecting, it is simply a resource bottomless pit.

Both are Bliss scenes, but the scene in the Bliss Branch Hall continuously produces energy resources, while the Bliss scene in the Home World continuously consumes resources.

Considering the angle of steady development, among these three plans, it leans more towards the compromise second plan.

If it chooses the resurrection quota plan, it will also modify the settings for Bliss Players.

The first step was to raise the initial strength of the Bliss Players, at the very least making them stronger than some elite members of the player legion.

Too low an initial strength would make death too frequent.

With the resurrection quota setting in place, it believed the Bliss Players would cherish their lives and not lightly waste the initial bodies it granted them.

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

The endless player swarms were too frenzied, making them very effective for war training.

But Bliss Players with autonomous consciousness faced too much pressure when fighting the player swarms, easily causing mental breakdowns and thereby affecting growth efficiency.

It was just that the idea of changing the resurrection location could not be carried out for now.

The ecology of the Frost Snow Plains region was very suitable for Bliss Players to begin their growth.

It satisfied the two major features of abundant basic spiritual resources and a large-scale population of weak monsters.

This was also the reason it chose the Frost Snow Plains region as the testing ground for legion construction.

Until a more suitable environment was found, this idea was shelved for now, and the Frost Snow Plains region remained the battlefield.

After repeatedly mulling over the three plans, the Lord of Bliss formally made its decision.

"Evil Tongue."

"My Lord." Evil Tongue's figure appeared beside him.

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

Evil Tongue nodded and its figure dispersed.

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

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

For the living beings of the Homeland World, the arrival of the Bliss Race was undoubtedly a catastrophe.

But compared to truly destructive invading forces, the Bliss Race's invasion appeared especially mild, unwilling to lightly harm the living beings of the Homeland World.

During the invasion, more time was spent on displaying military might.

To inform the living beings of the Homeland World that the Bliss Race was a higher lifeform they could not contend against.

……

Meng Yuan Chu Altar.

The Lord of Bliss's concept was fully observed by Qi Sheng.

He had to admit that the Lord of Bliss, as the players said, was indeed diligent and eager to learn, never letting slip any possibility of constructing a perfect war legion.

This time it had actually created Bliss Players.

But ultimately it was a Fang Pin, with an insurmountable gap from his player legion.

The feeling it gave him was that the Lord of Bliss plagiarized every time, but never grasped the essence.

The Bliss Purple Tide plagiarized from the Black Tide in its design—the Evil Eye's setting was changed to a "Charging Eye" that continuously provided spiritual energy recharge, and the method of spiritual control could be called brute force producing miracles.

Others used the lever principle; the Lord of Bliss relied on brute force dragging—truly fantastical.

In the design of the Bliss Swarm, it only learned the rapid reproduction of quickly creating combat units, but the adaptive evolution ability was so weak it didn't even reach one ten-thousandth of the Zerg.

In the design of the Bliss Players, no complete player system was established, and all kinds of negative feedback completely shattered the Bliss Players' mentality.

Deep in his heart, he actually quite approved of the model the Lord of Bliss had chosen, just as the Guide had once given an evaluation:

"Theoretical progress is not only through innovation; imitation and learning can equally bring progress. Starting from copying and imitation, then gradually walking out one's own characteristics—this is undoubtedly a shortcut to growth."

It's just that before perfecting the plagiarized legion framework, the legion frameworks at the starting stage were too crude.

The more he understood the Lord of Bliss, the more he felt this was a very ambitious talent.

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

In this rolling torrent of the times, many forces were like stubborn night watchmen, tightly gripping the lantern of outdated rules, stubbornly guarding the growth trajectory of the past, turning a blind eye to innovation that required massive resource investment, and developing and growing solely on the power and resources brought by rules.

Such forces that did not seek innovation and clung to convention easily became trapped in a development cage.

Take the Combat Zerg as an example—forces without any innovative spirit easily fell into desperate situations when facing the Combat Zerg, their limited abilities quickly being perfectly countered after the Zerg collected their pheromones.

But if it were a diversified combat power framework, facing the Combat Zerg there would be multiple response methods… at least one could die more slowly.

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

It's just that the steps taken were too big, with no results seen in any direction.

But this time, the concept of the Bliss Player legion gave him an upgraded evaluation of the Lord of Bliss.

Although it walked a path similar to his.

But this time the Lord of Bliss had actually walked out a new player cultivation model.

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

Without the Challenger System built by the Four Gods Rules, the Lord of Bliss simply could not make the infinite resurrection player legion model work.

Especially without the blessing of the two rules of Myriad Things Extraction and Flesh and Blood Weight, once the scale of infinite initial resurrections grew, the daily expenditure would become terrifying.

But with the resurrection quota setting, the situation was completely different.

This was a player recruitment model he had never tried.

The design was very reasonable and possessed feasibility.

The resurrection quota setting could significantly reduce the waste of energy resources, raise the players' initial strength, and force players to hunt for growth, providing a foundational logic for becoming stronger.

Seeing the Lord of Bliss order Evil Tongue to militarily rule the Homeland World, he knew the Lord of Bliss was probably going to walk through this path.

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

"Guide, this potential seed called the Lord of Bliss—do you think we should crush it?"

【Boss, completely unnecessary. At the current stage, the Lord of Bliss is an important source of revenue for newbie players, continuously creating Shou Shou Jili for us. If such an important resource supplier is crushed prematurely, it is undoubtedly killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. I suggest keeping it for continuous harvesting.】

Qi Sheng smiled and nodded—this was exactly his current thought.

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

Under the threat of death, players compared with their own player legions, what setting advantages do they possess?

Without thinking deeply about this question, Qi Sheng withdrew his gaze from the homeland world of the Lord of Extreme Bliss and began to sift through the massive amount of information fed back by the guidance.

In these days, two more Meng Yuan Chu monsters were successfully contained, bringing the total number of Meng Yuan Chu to 43.

The first Meng Yuan Chu was the fourth-generation Meng Yuan Chu named Spirit Eye, contained by the player "Gazing at the Abyss of the Cat" in the Colorful Mist Coast region.

This is a general-purpose Painful Painful Minghun with both passive and active effects.

After inlaying, the passive effect is to significantly enhance visual ability, allowing free adjustment of viewing distance to see targets far away.

Once the Painful Painful Minghun characteristic is actively activated, the vision enhancement becomes extremely exaggerated.

Even a level 1 Painful Painful Minghun player can clearly capture the fine textures of leaf veins a thousand meters away; continuing to upgrade the Painful Painful Minghun level, every single vein unfolds like a map before the player's eyes. Even in environments without light, Spirit Eye allows players to see as clearly as in broad daylight, no longer needing to carry lighting tools.

It can also penetrate obstacles to observe things behind them.

That is all; Spirit Eye's performance falls far short of the Eagle-Headed Demon's perception range and field of view, and its strength does not reach the fourth generation.

Spirit Eye's most formidable characteristic lies in its ability to grant players insight beyond common sense; for example, when facing complex arrays, Spirit Eye can instantly analyze the distribution of nodes on the array, including the energy flow paths and detailed structure within.

Whether the player can understand it is one thing, but the structure and logic of things will be perfectly presented before the player's eyes.

If the Lord of Extreme Bliss could obtain this ability, it is foreseeable that the progress of building its entire system of troops would see significant improvement.

This is a Painful Painful Minghun very suitable for alchemists and other research-and-development type players.

For normal players, given the limited Star Pulse Slots, inlaying combat-type Painful Painful Minghun would be a better choice.

But for players in the Battle Group mode, equipping a player with Spirit Eye is very necessary; it can be used to observe the enemy battlefield rear areas that the Eagle-Headed Demon's perception cannot cover.

This is completely different from the situation on Earth.

Players on Earth cannot see far due to the influence of multiple factors, including the influence of Earth's curvature.

After all, the ground is curved; assuming one stands on the ground looking into the distance without any obstructions, the line of sight extends along the tangent of the Earth's surface. As distance increases, the ground gradually sinks below the line of sight, so the limit of vision is finite.

But the Monster World does not have this problem; the huge world area can provide a much longer observation distance.

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

These particulates scatter and absorb light, making distant objects appear blurry and indistinct.

Even in clear weather, molecules in the atmosphere cause Rayleigh scattering of light, making distant objects appear faded in color with blurred outlines.

As viewing distance increases, the path light travels through the atmosphere becomes longer, increasing the probability of being scattered and absorbed, making it impossible for normal people to see very far.

But the biggest influence is still the obstruction by terrain and obstacles.

The characteristic performance of the Spirit Eye Painful Painful Minghun, which provides the ability to penetrate obstacles, allows players to easily bypass the Zhang Yan Fa or obstacles set up by enemies and see the essence of things.

The strength of the Spirit Eye Painful Painful Minghun is very high, but in forum discussions, very few players are willing to inlay it.

This point is very similar to the situation of Brain Overclocking.

When Brain Overclocking first appeared, its strength was disliked by many players, who felt this Painful Painful Minghun characteristic effect was too poor.

Except for the Arms Dealers and the Alchemist Guild, other players basically would not inlay it.

As for the specific reasons, the strategy-focused players had already conducted a detailed analysis on the forum.

What can be confirmed is that after possessing the Brain Overclocking Painful Painful Minghun, thinking strength will receive a significant boost.

Control over dodging, blocking, output rhythm, and other aspects can all see significant improvement.

But the problem is that the Brain Overclocking Painful Painful Minghun brings only auxiliary effects, and the improvement to combat power is very limited.

Players already have only a few Star Pulse Slots opened; comparing inlaying a level 30 Brain Overclocking with other combat-type Painful Painful Minghun, the improvement in thinking logic ability in actual combat is far inferior to the direct improvement in combat power.

20 points of physical constitution strength can exert absolute suppression over 10 points of physical constitution strength.

This is also the core reason why the Brain Overclocking Painful Painful Minghun is relatively obscure.

But in the foreseeable future, as the number of Star Pulse Slots increases, the importance of such auxiliary-type Painful Painful Minghun in the eyes of players will continue to rise.

Similar situations also exist for various passive amplification-type Painful Painful Minghun.

These Painful Painful Minghun all become stronger in strength the later the game stage.

The second Meng Yuan Chu was the second-generation Painful Painful Minghun named Whirlwind Whip, contained by the squad led by the player "Zero Word" in the Artifact Spirit Valley.

This is the first soft weapon in the Monster World; its attack trajectory is curved, allowing attacks on enemies from various unexpected angles, and it can also cause area damage.

The main attribute increased by the characteristic is physical constitution strength.

The characteristic effect is that targets struck will suffer a forced knockback effect under the influence of rules; the specific knockback effect is influenced by one's own blood strength and Painful Painful Minghun level, making it suitable for Blood Flow players.

But the disadvantages are also obvious.

Although the attack range of the Whip Artifact Spirit is wide and flexible, swinging the whip requires certain preparatory movements; compared to weapons like daggers and swords, the speed of instant attacks is much slower, and for enemies close to oneself, the whip's flexibility is greatly reduced.

Secondly, using it requires a certain level of proficiency.

Finally, there are environmental restrictions; in some narrow spaces or environments filled with obstacles, the use of the whip is greatly restricted.

But the appearance of the Whirlwind Whip generated very high discussion on the forum.

Because the Whirlwind Whip performed extremely well in tests, it fits Blood Flow players very well, especially capable of producing miraculous effects when combined with certain Painful Painful Minghun.

For example, Taunt + Whirlwind Whip can use the whip's tip as the release point for the Taunt characteristic to cover an area, extending the influence range of the Taunt Painful Painful Minghun.

Or Roar + Whirlwind Whip, releasing a Roar shockwave in a cone forward from the whip's tip while knocking back.

This significantly enhances the output distance of the melee Wuliliu Sect.

In fact, the Taunt characteristic being combinable with other characteristics had already been developed on the forum.

For example, Ink Flame Fireball can provide ultra-long-range Taunt.

But the main attribute of the Taunt Painful Painful Minghun does not match the Ink Flame Fireball; for magic-type players, inlaying Taunt is undoubtedly putting the cart before the horse.

The Whirlwind Whip's strongest performance is the knockback effect, which can be used to protect fragile players in the rear, creating a better output environment for them.

The Star Pulse combination with the highest forum likes was proposed by the player "Starlight Glorious Soldier".

The Star Pulse combination arrangement is: Scattered Arrow Bow, Whirlwind Whip, Extreme Speed, Breath Eating, Binding, Marking, Roar.

This set of Painful Painful Minghun is constructed with the Scattered Arrow Bow as the core, and the Whirlwind Whip is only used as a supporting match.

The performance effect in the test scenario is that through rapid-fire shooting, every shot forcibly knocks back the target and applies a bind.

This Star Vein style, combining magic and martial arts, has low damage output but focuses entirely on control.

Utilizing the Scatter Arrow Bow's extended range, it provides auxiliary support for players fighting at the front lines.

The player who proposed this Star Vein combination also expressed a regret, stating that if there were an area-of-effect healing Painful Painful Minghun, a magic-and-martial Scatter Arrow Bow could even provide ultra-long-range area healing capabilities.

After carefully reviewing the forum players' test guides for the new containment Painful Painful Minghun, Qi Sheng shifted his gaze to the Colorful Mist Coast region.

……

Colorful Mist Coast, Broken Star Land.

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

At this moment, in an underground natural mine cave within the Broken Star Land.

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

The initially crafted mining robots have a somewhat rough appearance, standing about a person's height, with an overall square and sturdy design. Made primarily from the spiritual metal "Sky Rock Ore," their surfaces remain unpolished, still retaining cutting and welding marks. The main body is constructed from a sturdy steel frame to provide necessary support in complex mining environments.

They move forward via treads underneath, capable of adapting to walking and turning on different terrains.

On the mining robot's head is mounted a massive circular drill bit, 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 rumble during operation.

Regarding mining function, the robots can detect ore resources in the surrounding environment using paired sensors, but this feature is very useless; current detection technology is limited, so mining is basically done randomly.

For ore collection, a simple scoop is set at the front of the robot. Once the drill bit breaks the ore, the scoop collects the fragments and, via an internal conveyor belt, transports the ore to a storage bin in the robot's abdomen.

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

However, as initially crafted mining robots, they have obvious shortcomings, especially poor energy endurance; a single ordinary spirit stone can only sustain three hours of work, requiring guild members to stay nearby to replace the "battery" at any time.

Yang Yang Tianxuan paid special attention to this problem.

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

Holding a detection terminal, Yang Yang Tianxuan paced around one of the mining robots, touching the joints of the mechanical arm.

After a long while, he nodded and said:

"Begin."

Following Yang Yang Tianxuan's command, eighteen mining robots moved in unison, approaching the mine cave rock wall and extending their drill bits to start digging.

Accompanied by flying sparks, the drill bit and rock wall emitted a frictional roar.

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

After all, players with attribute buffs mine very quickly, especially those with clones plus the Rapid Painful Painful Minghun; there is simply no comparison.

But Yang Yang Tianxuan was very satisfied with the initial performance of this batch of mining robots.

Compared to players, mining robots know no fatigue and can operate continuously for 24 hours.

In the future, one only needs to collect resources periodically to gain substantial resource profits.

Compared to mechanical equipment in reality, the mining robots crafted in the game, though technically crude, use materials with strength far surpassing reality.

Comparing the latest design plans with robots in reality.

The 2.0 version of the mining robot is crafted from "White Tiger Stone," with strength far exceeding any alloy material in reality.

In terms of carrying capacity, the 2.0 version mining robot will use Void Stones mined in the Winter Snow Plains region to craft an internal storage space, meaning no frequent round trips are needed to transport ore; it can collect and store large amounts of ore at once, greatly improving mining efficiency.

For ore exploration, they considered using the expensive "Insight Gold" to allow the mining robots to precisely lock onto shallow spiritual ores.

For endurance, they considered implanting a Spirit-Absorbing Array inside the mining robots that can automatically absorb energy from heaven and earth.

As for how to acquire the relevant technology, it is not difficult.

Whether crafting spatial artifacts using Void Stones or setting up Spirit-Absorbing Arrays, answers can be found in the professional books at the Di Zhong Village Library.

At this stage, the factory in Di Zhong Village's 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 extraction.

But the premise is that our player legion has the ability to help them defend the resource regions.

Therefore, the Apocalypse 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, it will shift from obtaining them internally from players to obtaining them externally.

Only if the player legion becomes stronger can the Apocalypse Technology Guild possess more resource extraction points.

He even has a future goal in mind: to seize the rule "Divine Metal" from the Mechanical Overlord.

This rule, according to the guide's description, can enliven metal substances, turning them into living metals capable of growth and healing. Once solidified, any damage can be self-repaired and regenerated by consuming metal substances, returning to the form set at solidification while retaining the functions created at that time.

The setting of living metals appears extremely powerful to Yang Yang Tianxuan.

It means that any equipment crafted in the future, even if destroyed, can be instantly repaired; living metals can also be recycled and reassembled into other mechanical equipment.

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

The guide states that the "Mechanical Overlord" is a Ban Shen Jing powerhouse; with the player legion's current comprehensive strength, they do not even qualify to challenge him.

What is certain is that if the Divine Metal rule can be obtained in the future, the Apocalypse Technology Guild's technology for weapon research and development equipment will achieve unimaginable progress.

Watching the robots mining ore, a smile appeared on the corner of Yang Yang Tianxuan's mouth.

These aren't robots; they are practically money-printing machines.

Every second, they are earning research funds for him.

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

The original Apocalypse Technology Guild was created to conduct dangerous weapon testing; this was also the guild's core goal.

But after the Moon Eclipse Clan revealed the truth of the Monster World, the competition in the virtual world has begun.

The vast majority of Earth's races and beings spend most of their time in the virtual world; the importance of the Monster World is self-evident, as virtual assets can be fully converted into real-world assets.

Holding a technological lead in the Monster World can also bring huge benefits to the real world.

This is also the latest order he received, requiring the weapon research department's development not to be fully aimed at adapting to reality; applicability within the game is equally important.

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

Delving deeper into this kind of technology wouldn't be of much help in reality either.

But the latest policy meant that technological development in the virtual world was just as important as technology in reality; they could develop any advanced tech that couldn't be replicated in the real world, not merely test dangerous weapons from reality.

Time passed, and the terminal in his hand showed that the operating mining robot had entered low-battery mode.

Yang Yang Tianxuan immediately asked the guild members to swap out the power source, then began a new round of resource extraction.

Afterwards, he tallied the spiritual ores piled in the center of the mine cavern and found that the resources mined over three hours, converted into Shou Shou Jili, amounted to 1,965 points.

Besides the influence of luck, it was also related to the relatively low mining efficiency of the robots.

Not counting labor costs and only factoring in the manufacturing cost of a mining robot, after deducting energy consumption, a single mining robot would need roughly 14 days of mining to recoup its cost.

But this figure had no real reference value—mining output carried a high degree of uncertainty.

If it was a rich vein, that timeframe could be shortened considerably.

If luck was especially good, a single high-value spiritual ore could recoup the cost in an instant, even turning a profit.

Take the Void Stone mining area in the Frost Wastes region, for example—if one could mine there, the cost would be recouped very quickly.

The preliminary test results left Yang Yang Tianxuan very satisfied.

The second round of mining was past the halfway mark, and Yang Yang Tianxuan turned to leave, intending to head back to the factory in Imperial Tomb Village to check on the construction progress.

Just then, the ground suddenly trembled.

Yang Yang Tianxuan turned to look; fine grit from overhead rained down, pattering against the mining robots' surfaces in a dense "tatatat" sound.

Cracks appeared one after another on the rock face being mined, and faint threads of ghostly green light seeped quietly from the gaps.

The light wasn't bright, yet it carried a cold, eerie chill.

Boom!

The ground trembled again; accompanied by a "kaka" cracking sound, the cracks on the rock face multiplied, and the ghostly green light became strikingly clear.

As if something had been dug into, the entire rock face rapidly crumbled, and the seeping green light grew brighter and brighter.

Seeing this, the players of the Doomsday Tech guild crowded forward one after another.

Danger? Didn't exist.

What if it was a fortuitous encounter?

Although most members of the Doomsday Tech guild were R&D personnel, they also browsed the player forums frequently.

They knew the widely circulated mantra for fortuitous encounters.

When faced with sudden events and unknown situations, one had to get right up close to find out the cause.

As for death—weren't they all regulars at the little black room?

The forum players had a saying:

Every player must one day depart; resurrection cooldown, wait your turn.

In the little black room, eyes meet with a smile—"We'll try again next time."

The feeling of returning to the little black room, in the players' eyes, was just like coming home.

(End of this chapter)