Chapter 191: Newbie Enters the Pit, Exploring New Scenarios

"Hahaha, I've got the qualification!"

He opened the red envelope, and a brilliant golden light flashed and vanished in an instant.

The red envelope's shell dissolved into specks of starlight, leaving a golden slip of paper in Tu Bai's hand, stamped with the two characters "Qualification."

A game notification simultaneously rang out in his mind:

[Event Notification: Congratulations on obtaining Challenger Qualification. Activate within 24 hours (expired qualifications will disappear).]

Facing the hysterical wails and curses from the surrounding tourists of various races, Tu Bai's Iron Face bloomed with a brilliant smile.

He hadn't held much hope when participating in this event.

After all, the number of tourists participating was enormous, making his chances of winning far too low.

More importantly, he had joined the event late.

The event had launched on New Year's Eve, but at that time, he had been watching players compete in the arena on the Monster World official livestream for several days straight, completely unaware that the officials were distributing qualifications then.

To better immerse himself, he always turned off the comment section and danmu while watching livestreams, experiencing the game through the streamer's first-person perspective.

He had no idea what the tourists in the livestream room had been discussing during that period.

Later, because several streamers he followed hadn't managed to catch the Ancient God bus at the Misty Coast, he decided to log off to order a new batch of nutrient fluid.

But the moment he logged off, he sensed something was wrong.

To his surprise, he discovered that Monster World officials had actually released game qualifications.

Facts proved that one still needed a few good friends in reality; otherwise, no one would remind you when welfare events occurred.

The event had already been running for three days, and he hadn't been able to participate in a single one.

Usually, everyone shouted for qualifications, yet when they were actually distributed, he wasn't there.

This made Tu Bai beat his chest and stomp his feet in regret; even though the odds had always been slim, he still felt like he had missed out on a fortune.

Actually, compared to a fortune, he wanted the Monster World game qualification even more.

With a fortune, he could basically buy anything he wanted in reality anyway.

As for cars and houses—commodities pursued by people of the old era—they were long obsolete in this age.

Vehicles on the road were mostly autonomous cars controlled by city smart brains.

Flaunting the value of a car would only get you labeled an idiot.

In contrast, cars in the old era were a matter of Iron Face; whoever drove a luxury car gained respect everywhere they went.

But now, cars had long lost that flavor; with autonomous driving ubiquitous, vehicles had become like "shared bicycles"—tap an app, and one arrives to pick you up. No need to touch a steering wheel, no driver required, and no worries about parking difficulties or traffic jams.

Everything was handled by the smart brain, which always plotted the optimal route.

All one had to do was sit inside, scroll through a phone, and wait until reaching the destination.

Many cities had even abolished taxi fares, switching to free use of autonomous vehicles.

Cars had truly fulfilled their attribute as transportation tools, possessing no other added value whatsoever.

Houses held slightly more presence than cars, but not by much.

No matter how large or luxurious a house was in reality, nobody cared, since everyone lived their lives in the virtual world; who cared how many properties you owned in reality?

If someone flaunted real-world property, everyone would just find it boring, or even think this person hadn't figured out how to navigate the virtual world.

In an era where members of all races spent most of their time in the virtual world, many flaunted virtual property, but very few boasted about real-world assets within the virtual realm.

The methods of flaunting wealth had changed with the times; the virtual world was now the main stage.

This was also why members of all races invested vast sums of capital into the virtual world every year.

Therefore, when comparing the value of a fortune to a Monster World game qualification, the vast majority leaned toward the game qualification.

Especially those tourist-players who watched livestreams daily.

Every day, they would praise the Star Net in different livestream rooms, attempting to gain game qualifications bestowed by the Star Net through this method.

Whether this was meaningful remained uncertain.

But one thing was certain: the Star Net, which monitored the entire network, could receive all information online.

It might just grant a qualification.

As long as there was even a sliver of possibility, these tourist-players did not want to miss out.

Tu Bai was one such player.

Every day upon entering a livestream room, he would first say "Praise the Star Net," then mute the comments and danmu to begin immersively watching streamers explore Monster World.

His favorite livestream category was the arena; he loved watching thrilling, passionate battles.

This time, upon logging off and discovering the Monster World qualification distribution event had already started three days prior, he felt regret for acting too late but immediately participated.

What he hadn't expected was that during the midnight red envelope grab, he secured a game qualification with just one attempt.

He had originally planned to accumulate event points to draw for a game qualification, yet he had directly received the grand prize.

It was like preparing to run a marathon, only to be handed the champion's medal immediately.

He felt as though he had instantly become the chosen one.

This made him happier than winning a lottery jackpot, and he couldn't help but laugh aloud.

Facing the disdainful gazes around him, Tu Bai smiled, raised the golden slip of paper, and spun around to display it:

"Friends of all races, see you in the livestream room next time."

Before members of other races could start cursing, Tu Bai decisively summoned his system panel and chose to log off.

After the game pod opened, Tu Bai, brimming with excitement, couldn't be bothered to change out of his game suit and went straight to his computer desk.

He awakened the pitch-black screen and entered the Monster World official website.

He saw that a "Download" option had appeared on the website interface.

Facts proved this wasn't an illusion born from endless longing; he had truly obtained the game qualification.

However, he did not rush to click download.

He picked up the mobile phone resting on his computer desk, switched the camera to the front-facing lens, leaned his Iron Face close to the computer screen, raised his left thumb, grinned broadly, and took a selfie with the download prompt on the official page.

Click!

"Upload to Moments!"

His Moments, which hadn't been updated in ten thousand years, finally had material for showing off.

The value of this screenshot far exceeded that of posting a lottery win.

He titled it: Invincible, Lonely.

The caption read: About how I casually opened a red envelope and accidentally became the chosen one.

After hitting publish, Tu Bai put down his phone and turned his gaze back to the Monster World official website.

"Monster World, start!"

Click, he pressed the left mouse button and clicked download.

One hour later.

Tu Bai's figure appeared in a glowing white space, where four large characters flashed before his eyes.

Dungeon World.

Regarding this new spatial node, he had seen challengers mention it while watching livestreams.

But what kind of place the Dungeon World actually was, he did not know.

Nearby were crowds of members from various races; from their attire, it was clear they were all newbies like him who had just obtained qualifications through the event.

He summoned the spatial map and walked straight toward the exit.

Leaving the novice village space, a vast wasteland unfolded before his eyes.

Time here seemed frozen; the sky was gray-blue, and the earth, polished by years of wind and sand, was pitted and uneven. On the gray-brown soil, occasional clumps of withered yellow grass could be seen, and as far as the eye could see, machine wreckage was everywhere.

A large gathering of newbie players clustered near the exit, making the regional chat channel exceptionally lively.

"Looking for teammates, damage dealers only, level up efficiently."

"Any veteran players willing to carry newbies? Please help; I don't want my first death to be too careless."

"Looking for a Stone Statue build for a fixed team; the squad has several young and beautiful ladies, no potion costs shared, profits and resources distributed fairly."

"Fixed team needs one Support build player, preferably with virtual game experience."

Although newbies only possessed one initial Soul Soul, having watched many livestreams and forum guides, many players knew the importance of forming teams when exploring Monster World.

Many fixed teams had already begun searching for the rarest Tank-type players.

Although Tu Bai played a melee style, his initial Soul Soul choice was the Savage Axe, not a Tank build.

Having watched so many livestreams, he thought melee builds looked incredibly cool in the arena.

Caster, Support, and Tank builds all performed poorly in the arena.

Casters were squishy and easily killed instantly.

Supports and Tanks had too low damage output, spending most of their arena time getting beaten up.

Only melee builds performed brightly enough.

After all, the arena was a 1v1 environment; while the version's favored child, the Caster, was strong on the battlefield, they were far inferior in the arena.

Scrolling through the team recruitment list in the regional voice channel, he found a team and sent a join request.

Before long, a team acceptance notification rang in his mind.

Subsequently, a middle-aged man's shout echoed in the team voice chat:

"Brother, hurry over; we've found a monster."

Following the blue teammate marker on the map, Tu Bai rushed toward the nearby location.

Crossing the small hill piled up with machine wreckage, he saw countless players battling various types of robots on the wasteland.

His squad had four members, all uniformly dressed in the black cloth robes exclusive to novices.

The squad leader was a member of the Black Jade Clan, possessing a head so black it shone, while the skin on his body was deathly pale.

The entire squad consisted of two human members and two members of the Black Jade Clan.

Summoning the Savage Axe that flashed with golden light, Tu Bai decisively joined the battle.

His gaze fell upon the robot currently engaging his teammates.

Its figure was round, resembling a large metal dinner plate buckled onto two agile mechanical rollers, its silver-white shell covered in fine textures.

After activating Analysis, relevant information floated into Tu Bai's mind.

[Cleaning Robot Model T1]:

Hunting Rank: 2

Target Introduction: A cleaning robot built by the Guardian Clan, responsible for sweeping, organizing, and collecting mechanical wreckage. Equipped with advanced cleaning programs, it can precisely identify various types of trash and process them by category, excelling especially at removing stubborn stains.

Seeing his teammates fighting so fiercely, he had assumed the target was incredibly powerful.

As it turned out, it was just a Hunting Rank 2 floor-sweeping robot.

Filled with disdain, Tu Bai let out a loud shout, lifted his battle axe, and joined the fight, chopping down at the robot:

"Make way."

Hearing this, the squad leader decisively stepped aside to make space, but before Tu Bai's battle axe could strike the floor-sweeping robot, two metal rods snapped out from beneath the robot's shell, sweeping horizontally and smashing viciously into his ankles.

His legs slid sideways, his head dipped down, and he crashed solidly to the ground, knocking out a front tooth.

Feeling the pain, he simultaneously felt utterly embarrassed.

He had actually been sanctioned by a floor-sweeping robot.

"Brother, are you okay?" The squad leader hauled him up, then stepped forward himself, only to be immediately swept off his feet by the robot's staff and thrown to the ground as well.

This robot seemed weak, but only upon actually fighting it did one realize it was not that simple at all.

Having watched so many players perform coolly in the arena during livestreams, this first actual encounter with a monster revealed that melee combat was truly damn painful.

After taking just one heavy blow, a thought floated into his mind.

Actually... playing a magic class isn't bad either.

But the battle was not over; after the leader fell, Tu Bai immediately stepped up to take his place, only to be swept down once again.

Compared to the two magic players in the rear, one of whom dealt stable damage with a Scattered Arrow Bow, he and the leader were like two unfortunate souls, standing at the front and constantly taking hits.

After being swept down again, soft bristles plowed back and forth across his head, followed by a suction tube fitting over his crown.

Tu Bai felt as if his very soul was being sucked out; when the leader dragged him away, he discovered all the hair on his head had been vacuumed off.

Leaving behind a bald head brushed until it gleamed brightly.

Tu Bai's miserable appearance caused his teammates to burst into laughter.

As for Tu Bai's future vision of "slaughtering in all directions" after entering the Monster World, it was shattered to pieces by the floor-sweeping robot.

Facing this predicament, Tu Bai gritted his teeth in determination, got up, and continued his assault.

The floor-sweeping robot's attack methods were divided into four types.

The first was the horizontal sweep of the two metal rods, which appeared to be the arms the floor-sweeping robot used to move heavy objects.

Next was the powerful suction tube, obviously used for vacuuming dust and absorbing trash.

The third attack method was the high-speed rotating brush; the damage was negligible, but the humiliation was extreme.

The final attack method was spitting a chemical substance, seemingly used for dissolving stubborn stains, and this was also the attack method that dealt the highest damage.

Gradually figuring out the floor-sweeping robot's attack patterns, Tu Bai seized an opportunity, and the battle axe in his hand finally struck the robot successfully.

It left a notch on its silver-white shell, after which he was immediately knocked down by the robot again, the brush washing his Iron Face.

Although the battle process was arduous, Tu Bai could already feel the joy brought by this realistic game.

During the fight, the noisy exchanges among teammates felt like pushing a boss, and the strangeness between him and his new comrades faded rapidly in the process.

After more than ten minutes of effort, the floor-sweeping robot, having lost both arms, finally could not hold on; the lights crisscrossing its surface flashed at high frequency before extinguishing, leaving it motionless.

Instantly, the core inside the robot was decomposed by an invisible force, and a game notification rang in the minds of Tu Bai and his teammates.

The remaining wreckage of the robot was sacrificed to Brother Di Zhao, and the Sacrificial Power obtained was evenly distributed among the squad members.

Compared to monster-type lifeforms.

The floor-sweeping robot gave very few Evolution Points, far less than the Rank 2 monsters at the Colorful Mist Coast, but the Sacrificial Power reward after killing it was much greater.

Sitting on the ground, Tu Bai panted heavily, subconsciously rubbing his bald head, which caused his teammates to laugh loudly again.

"Phew, melee is just too difficult; I'm having second thoughts."

Sitting beside him, drenched in sweat, the squad leader nodded with a smile:

"I realized this problem before entering the game; only players with faith can persist in melee. Melee in this game is a completely different concept from melee in other games. It's not without reason that the proportion of magic classes is high, but I still chose melee because I have faith."

What the squad leader said was exactly what Tu Bai was thinking.

Watching and playing were two entirely different things.

Perfect sensory feedback made the experience of melee combat particularly thrilling.

Facing the floor-sweeping robot's sweeping attack, before it even hit him, he subconsciously bared his teeth, anticipating the pain a step ahead, and his body would also subconsciously try to dodge.

This intense sense of immersion was something other games did not possess.

Furthermore, the muscle soreness during battle, and even muscle strains, were real and existing.

In comparison, the importance of the health bar was not as high as imagined.

This constituted an essential difference from traditional games.

In other games, players relied on the health bar, a visualized status representation, to perceive their own condition.

As the health bar gradually decreased, players would know they were in danger and needed to take measures such as consuming potions or dodging attacks to respond.

During the battle process, players' attention needed to be highly focused on the changes in the health bar's numerical value; that long, thin bar was the sole indicator of the character's life or death.

But in this game, Monster World, the health bar was more like an optional ornament, merely a statistic of the body's comprehensive condition.

Fatigue, pain... various factors would all be indicators affecting combat power, with no difference from reality.

For example, even with a healthy health bar, exerting too much force could cause a muscle strain, resulting in combat power being greatly reduced.

Just as the strategy-guide players on the forum stated, during intense battles, status was the most important core indicator; one didn't even need to look at the health bar, as veteran players could judge whether they were low on health simply by feeling the changes in their body's condition.

Therefore, the health bar was merely a vague statistical record of bodily status, far less direct than real sensory feedback.

This was the most cruel aspect of the game Monster World, yet also its most thrilling setting.

It brought a sense of immersion that other games could not hope to match.

So it was not hard to understand why the ranged damage builds in the game far outnumbered the melee builds.

This phenomenon could be summarized in two words: fear of pain.

From a technical perspective, the skill requirements for melee players also far exceeded those for magic players.

Precise positioning and dodging, control of attack rhythm, observation of the environment, management of distance... in the ever-changing battle, the time given for melee players to react was very short, requiring them to maintain a state of high concentration at all times.

The currently recognized strongest technical build, the "Assassin Build," was the representative of skill-based players.

Most importantly, melee players were the ones who took the blame when the whole team was wiped out.

Getting beaten, taking the blame, wasting money on potions, high pressure... no wonder a saying circulated on the forum: "Melee? Even a dog wouldn't play it."

If you charged up to aggro the monster and died unexpectedly, teammates would say: "Why did you feed?"

If you hesitated for a moment, teammates would say: "Why are you chickening out?"

Being caught between a rock and a hard place was the daily reality for melee players.

"Leader, why do you play the Golem Build?" Panting heavily, Tu Bai looked at the leader and asked curiously.

"I played melee in other games too; after watching many livestreams of Monster World, I feel that melee warriors are the true heroes!"

"They use their flesh and blood to build a defensive line for their teammates, using their lives to interpret the meaning of 'If I do not go to hell, who will?'... Although, taking the blame is common, as long as the performance is excellent, one becomes the brightest presence on the field. This feeling is strongest when watching the God King command; after all, without the sacrifice of melee players, where would the comfort of the backline come from?"

"I like the feeling of serving as the team's core."

After hearing this, Tu Bai gave a thumbs-up:

"Leader, your words have given me the motivation to persist."

"Mm, try to persist; if you feel you truly cannot adapt, you can switch to support or magic. Our squad was just formed, and we lack everything; whatever build you want to switch to, we will support it."

After chatting for a long time, Tu Bai, having recovered his stamina, stood up with his teammates and moved forward to explore.

Along the way, figures of novice players were everywhere; the exploration phase during the initial opening of the scene was full of fun.

Facing robots with low Hunting Ranks, the nearby novice players felt as though they were pushing a boss; amidst constant cries of surprise were mixed cheers of success upon killing the robots, making the atmosphere on site as fervent as a grand carnival party.

This feeling could only be described with one word: satisfying!

(End of Chapter)