Chapter 18: Future Crisis

The news that Li Tie had chosen the Meteor Star Vein artifact spirit spread among the player community.

During this period, some players followed in Li Tie's footsteps to the Artifact Spirit Valley, hoping to capture Primordial Artifact Spirits and claim rewards as well.

The number of monsters in the Artifact Spirit Valley was not large, but their levels were extremely high; the deeper one went, the higher the hunting level of the artifact spirits, and the cooler their appearances became.

Several teams attempted multiple times only to return in defeat.

Li Tie was no exception; after capturing five artifact spirits, he chose not to venture deeper into the Artifact Spirit Valley.

Aside from the five artifact spirits at the valley's entrance, the weakest ones inside possessed a hunting level of at least 30; he could not withstand even a single strike from them, making further challenges meaningless.

Yet the emergence of the Artifact Spirit build gave many players a clear direction for their future efforts.

Emperor Tomb Village, Underground

Qi Sheng sat cross-legged upon the Primordial Sacrifice Altar, his mind rapidly processing network data feedback from the Guide.

Just then, the elusive Guide Water Sphere suddenly appeared:

【Boss, I sensed the aura of the Black Black Tide on Earth.】

"Where?"

【In the direction of the North Pole.】

"Go take a look, and notify Uncle Yan."

【Got it, heading there now!】

The Guide Water Sphere vanished into thin air.

Moments later, a cold voice arrived:

"Little Qi, I am here."

A light-screen projection materialized before Qi Sheng, revealing a room decorated in an ancient style; on a round table within burned a ghostly blue flame, beside which sat a man of ethereal demeanor.

He possessed long, raven-black hair and pale, exquisite skin; a perfect bow tie outlined his flawless neck lines, yet his handsome Iron Face bore no expression whatsoever.

Mysterious and noble—this was the thought that had flashed through Qi Sheng's mind when he first met Yan Ming years ago.

The man in the projection before him was none other than Yan Ming, one of Di Zhao's four devoted servants, who wielded the power of space.

The spatial reception portion of the Challenger System (Player Recruitment System) was crafted by him, while the Guide handled the digitization and content analysis aspects.

During the direct confrontation with the terrifying Black Black Tide back then, Yan Ming lost most of the vitality within his body; since then, he had been like a puppet, appearing utterly cold.

Qi Sheng was accustomed to this.

Had it not been for Yan Ming and the other devoted servants fighting desperately to save him back then, he would have long perished within the fearful black mist.

The reason he had the Guide notify Yan Ming this time was that he himself could not perform ultra-long-distance spatial teleportation; he still needed Yan Ming's assistance.

"Uncle Yan, trouble you." Qi Sheng nodded politely.

"Get ready."

As Yan Ming's words fell, his pupils diffused an icy blue glimmer, and a rotating ghostly blue teleportation array manifested beneath Qi Sheng's feet.

An intense sensation of weightlessness struck immediately.

Boom!

Ghostly blue flames enveloped his body, and in the blink of an eye, he vanished from the spot.

When the ghostly blue radiance that obscured his vision dissipated, what met his eyes was a sky filled with flying snow; looking around, he saw an endless expanse of white, where glaciers covered the vast earth, meeting the azure sky in the distance to form a pure and magnificent scroll.

Biting cold winds converged in the air, tearing apart near his ears with a mournful howl.

The environmental temperature plummeted, causing Qi Sheng to shiver involuntarily; at that moment, he decisively switched into his Di Zhao form.

Boom!

Crimson flames spread from his head throughout his entire body, and the chill instantly dispersed.

He then flew into the sky, advancing in the direction indicated by the Guide's perception.

A few minutes later, he spotted a black line suspended high in the sky; upon reaching out to touch it, the black line immediately extended numerous tiny black tentacles attempting to coil around his hand.

However, under the tempering of the Di Zhao flames, the tentacles disintegrated instantly.

This discovery made Qi Sheng realize the severity of the situation.

His former homeland was currently suffering corrosion and invasion by the terrifying Black Black Tide.

Unlike the Monster World, the erosion of Earth by the terrifying Black Black Tide was still in its initial stage and would not yet cause any impact on this world's ecosystem.

But the foreseeable future held that Earth would also be corroded and devoured by the terrifying Black Black Tide.

This led Qi Sheng to recall a speculation he had made earlier.

During the years he had been away, many alien factions had appeared on Earth; their emergence might very well be related to the terrifying Black Black Tide.

A few days ago, he had seen a discussion thread online regarding this.

The content of the discussion questioned why the virtual game "Land of Darkness" limited the issuance of purchase qualifications.

Logically, the virtual servers created by the Eclipse Clan could fully support a massive player population, yet they always distributed a limited quantity to the Human Federation and other alien factions stationed on Earth.

If this were hunger marketing, it would not make sense.

Although the Eclipse Clan used currency to purchase resources from other racial factions, they more often gifted technology and resources to various races.

Someone had conducted statistics showing that the resources the Eclipse Clan provided to outsiders annually far exceeded the consumption of resources purchased from them.

Regarding this issue, the thread starter offered a conjecture.

He believed that the essence of the virtual game created by the Eclipse Clan was not to earn resources from other races through gaming, but rather to train troops through a virtual environment nearly identical to reality, with the aim of coping with some massive crisis that might arrive.

As for issuing game qualifications to other races, that was merely an additional measure, serving as sparring partners.

In the virtual games previously developed by the Eclipse Clan, the Eclipse Clan always formed one camp, while other races united to form a single opposing camp.

Therefore, troop training was the primary objective, which first and foremost had to serve the internal needs of the Eclipse Clan.

There was one point that could corroborate this conjecture.

According to historical records, three hundred years ago when the Eclipse Clan fled as refugees to Earth, they stated that their plane world had been eroded by some mysterious power, causing the world to collapse and shatter.

Under the apocalyptic crisis, the Eclipse Clan ultimately gave up resistance; the few surviving members used spatial technology to flee to Earth before their world collapsed, eventually establishing Eclipse City on the moon.

Other alien factions that arrived on Earth also had similar accounts.

As for this question, Qi Sheng already had the answer in his heart.

The apocalyptic crisis that befell the Eclipse Clan's former homeland world was very likely an invasion by the Black Black Tide; the years of struggling against the Black Black Tide caused the Eclipse civilization to decline from its peak, and other alien factions shared similar experiences.

Now, Earth too showed preliminary signs of invasion by the terrifying Black Black Tide.

This confirmed the speculation in the discussion thread: the Eclipse Clan was training troops to cope with an unknown terror.

There was another point that could support his conclusion.

The area of the Monster World was expanding, and its terrain and environment were constantly changing.

He had originally thought this was some unknown change brought about by Black Black Tide erosion, but upon reflection, it was very likely that the terrifying Black Black Tide had devoured other worlds, merging fragments of those worlds into the Monster World, causing its area to continuously grow.

This was also the reason why the "Map" function in the game contained an exploration fog.

It was not that he did not want to give every player a complete world map, but rather that the terrain of the Monster World changed too drastically; maps from the past could no longer adapt to the current Monster World.

【Boss, this world will gradually deteriorate in the future; you need to accelerate your player recruitment plan.】

The Guide said with a serious expression.

"Proceed steadily; at least at the current stage, there will be no impact."

【Boss, I have a doubt.】

"Ask."

【If this world enters the climax stage of the terrifying Black Black Tide invasion, and evil spirits run rampant everywhere, what will you do?】

"If that day truly comes, perhaps I will grant players the authority to bring the power of the Monster World back to reality; at the very least, I must ensure their safety in the real world... but before that, I will not reveal any information."

【Why?】

"Only players without pressure from reality can feel happiness in the Monster World and enjoy the process of the game, and happiness is precisely the source of their fearlessness and creativity."

(End of Chapter)