Chapter 18: Future Crisis

Li Tie's choice of the Meteor Spirit of the Artifact Spirit became known among the player community.

During this time, some players followed Li Tie's footsteps to the Artifact Spirit Valley, hoping to take in the Meng Yuan Chu spirits and obtain rewards.

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 spirits, and their designs became increasingly cool.

Several teams returned defeated after multiple attempts.

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

Apart from the five spirits at the entrance of the Artifact Spirit Valley, the spirits inside had a minimum hunting level of 30; he couldn't withstand even a single strike, so continuing the challenge was meaningless.

The emergence of the Spirit Stream allowed many players to find a direction for their future efforts.

Beneath Di Zhao Village, underground.

Qi Sheng sat cross-legged atop the Meng Yuan Chu altar, rapidly scanning the network data information fed back by the Guidance.

Just then, the elusive Guidance Water Sphere suddenly appeared:

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

"Where?"

【In the direction of the North Pole.】

"Go check it out, and notify Uncle Yan."

【Got it, heading there now!】

At that moment, the Guidance Water Sphere vanished into nothingness.

Not long after, a cold voice came through:

"Little Qi, I have arrived."

A holographic projection scene manifested before Qi Sheng's eyes; the image showed a room with an antique decoration, where a deep blue flame burned on a round table, and beside it sat a man with an ethereal temperament.

He had long, jet-black hair, and his pale, exquisite collar outlined a perfect neck line, yet his handsome face bore no expression.

Mysterious and noble; this was the thought that first came to Qi Sheng's mind when he met Yan Ming years ago.

The man in the projection before him was none other than one of the Four Servants of Beneath Di Zhao, Yan Ming, who controlled the power of space.

The spatial induction part of the Challenger System (Player Recruitment System) was completed by him, while the Guidance was responsible for the digitization and content analysis parts.

During the direct confrontation with the terrifying Black Tide back then, Yan Ming lost most of the life force within his body, and since then has been like a puppet, appearing utterly cold.

Qi Sheng was used to this.

If not for Yan Ming and the other servants risking their lives to save him back then, he would have already died in the Fearful Black Mist.

This time, he had the Guidance notify Yan Ming because he could not perform ultra-long-distance spatial teleportation and still needed Yan Ming's help.

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

"Be prepared."

As Yan Ming's words fell, his pupils scattered a faint ice-blue light, and a rotating deep blue teleportation array appeared beneath Qi Sheng's feet.

A strong sensation of weightlessness surged over him.

Boom!

Deep blue flames wrapped around his body, and in the blink of an eye, he vanished from the spot.

When the deep blue light blocking his vision dispersed, what met his eyes was snow filling the sky; looking around, there was an endless expanse of white, with glaciers covering the vast land, meeting the distant azure sky to form a pure and magnificent picture.

The biting cold winds converged in the air, tearing out a mournful howl in his ears.

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

Boom!

Crimson flames spread from his head to his entire body, and the chill dissipated.

At this moment, he flew into the sky, advancing in the direction provided by the Guidance's perception.

A few minutes later, he saw a black line suspended high in the sky; reaching out to touch it, the black line instantly extended multiple tiny black tentacles that tried to coil around his palm.

But under the forging of the Beneath Di Zhao flames, the tentacles instantly scattered.

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

His former home was being corroded and invaded by the terrifying Black Tide.

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

But in the foreseeable future, the Earth would also be corroded and swallowed by the terrifying Black Tide.

This made Qi Sheng recall a previous speculation.

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

A few days ago, he saw a discussion post on the internet.

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

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

If it were hunger marketing, it would not be reasonable.

Although the Moon Eclipse Clan would use currency to purchase resources from other racial factions, they more often gifted technology and resources to all races.

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

Regarding this issue, the poster offered a hypothesis.

He believed that the essence of the Moon Eclipse Clan building the virtual game was not to earn resources from other races through the game, but to use the near-realistic virtual environment for military training, with the aim of preparing for some potential massive crisis.

As for issuing game qualifications to other races, it was merely incidental, serving as sparring partners.

In the virtual games the Moon Eclipse Clan usually developed, the Moon Eclipse Clan formed one camp, while other races united to form another camp for confrontation.

Therefore, military training was the main purpose, first and foremost serving the Moon Eclipse Clan internally.

One point could corroborate this hypothesis.

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

Under the crisis of the apocalypse, the Eclipse Clan ultimately gave up resistance; the surviving members fled to Earth through spatial technology before the world collapsed, eventually building Eclipse City on the Moon.

Other alien factions that came to Earth also held similar accounts.

And Qi Sheng already had an answer in his heart regarding this question.

The apocalyptic crisis that struck the Eclipse Clan's former home world was likely the Black Tide invasion; the years of resisting the Black Tide caused Eclipse civilization to decline from its peak, and other alien factions shared similar experiences.

Now, Earth also shows preliminary signs of a terrifying Black Tide invasion.

This confirms the speculation in the discussion thread: the Eclipse Clan is training troops, intending to deal with an unknown terror.

There is another point that corroborates his conclusion.

The area of the Monster World is expanding, and its terrain and environment are constantly changing.

He had originally thought it was some unknown change brought by Black Tide erosion, but now he realizes it is likely that the terrifying Black Tide swallowed other worlds, integrating fragments of those worlds into the Monster World, causing the Monster World's area to continuously grow.

This is also the reason why the "Map" function in the game features exploration fog.

It is not that he does not want to give every player a complete world map, but rather that the Monster World's terrain changes too drastically; maps from the past can no longer match the current Monster World.

【Boss, this world will gradually deteriorate in the future; you must speed up your player recruitment plan.】

The Guide said with a serious expression.

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

【Boss, I have a question.】

"Ask."

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

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

【Why?】

"Players without real-world pressure can feel joy in the Monster World and enjoy the game process, and joy is precisely the source of their fearlessness and creativity."

(End of this chapter)