Chapter 193: Invincible Newbie, Immortal Vajra (Requesting Monthly Tickets)

"Captain, attack from the left, dodge quickly."

"Received."

A warning alert from the Eagle-Headed Demon team member rang out in the chat channel.

The captain, holding a rock shield in his left hand and a Might-Axe in his right, roared and decisively leaped to the right.

After rolling on the ground and rising, he suddenly raised the war axe burning with golden flames in his hand, and the flames on the axe blade instantly surged.

Ahead, a maintenance robot was also raising a welding torch to thrust straight at him.

The maintenance robot's attack would have originally struck the captain's left shoulder before the captain's war axe could strike.

But the teammate adsorbed to the captain's chest activated the Bind trait at this moment, forcibly pinning the maintenance robot in place, rendering it unable to move.

Crack!

The war axe, dragging a trail of golden flame, swept through, severing the welding torch in the maintenance robot's hand, followed immediately by a raised foot that kicked the maintenance robot flying.

Then the captain suddenly raised his left-hand shield to meet another maintenance robot attacking from the other side.

The shield collided with the mechanical arm, a sound of shattering metal rang out, and the already damaged mechanical arm was struck by the rock shield, sending parts flying everywhere.

The captain made not the slightest pause, swinging his war axe to strike the maintenance robot on the right.

The flames dragged a dazzling trajectory through the air; the Might trait activated, and before the axe blade even touched the machine, the high temperature had already melted part of the robot's outer shell.

When the war axe came down, the robot's head was split in two, with black smoke rising from the cut.

At this time, more robots surged from the corridor, and among them appeared a type of robot never seen before.

A scan swept over, and the robot's information appeared in the minds of the team players.

【Engineering Robot E4】

Hunting Level: 11

Target Description: Medium-sized engineering robot, equipped with a multi-functional mechanical arm and welding device, responsible for building repairs and maintenance of medium-to-large equipment.

Dense energy beams attacked; the captain held the rock shield upright before him, blocking this entire wave of assault.

"Captain, I'm low on health, stop using me as a shield."

"Understood."

Hearing A-Lan's reminder, the captain decisively retracted the shield held before him, raised his war axe, spun around, and swept horizontally; the axe blade expanded in a fan shape, knocking back several maintenance robots, and the robots contacting the Might-Axe emitted piercing alarm sounds amidst the flames.

"Can't hold on, so many robots attacking from the front, Host, retreat quickly!"

Hearing the Eagle-Headed Demon teammate's shout, the captain decisively turned and sprinted:

"Light Shield, Bind, hold them back."

The teammates immediately released the Light Shield to help the captain retreat.

Whenever a robot approached, the Bind Painful Painful Minghun would activate, restricting the approaching robot in place.

With the tacit cooperation of the group, the captain successfully broke free, drilled out of the mechanical ruin tunnel, and arrived in the wasteland area.

Continuing to sprint for several hundred meters, he looked back and saw no robots pursuing.

The panting captain sat down heavily on the ground, and the teammates all switched back to their original forms, dissolving the Fusion Mode.

Although utterly exhausted, the faces of the team players were filled with smiles.

Facts proved that the Fusion Mode was extremely powerful, fully capable of achieving level-skipping challenges.

The only drawback was insufficient stamina.

As long as one team member entered a low-health state, they had to retreat quickly, otherwise they might suffer casualties, causing the Fusion Mode to break prematurely.

"This combination mode is too strong; no wonder beings from Kui Shi Shang Jie have such sharp minds," the captain said excitedly, looking at the exhausted A-Lan.

"Captain, stop teasing me; I'm just the lowest-level newbie player in the team right now," A-Lan said, smiling and waving his hand.

"Haha, finally no need to fight other players for monsters; this Fusion Mode can fully allow us to explore more dangerous areas; it would be even better if we could fix the stamina issue," Tu Bai slumped on the ground, still in a sprawled resting posture.

In their idle chat, the topic switched to the mechanical ruin tunnel they had just discovered.

This tunnel is located 6 kilometers east of the Newbie Village exit.

The number of players on the nearby wasteland has noticeably decreased, making monster grabbing less fierce.

Those who can hunt here are generally small groups of over 30 players.

But through the Fusion Mode, they can fight here easily, achieving the hidden achievement of level-skipping hunting.

And this newly discovered mechanical tunnel should be a passage leading to the Mechanical Ruin City.

Inside, besides Cleaning Robots and Maintenance Robots, Engineering Robots with stronger combat power have also appeared.

The mechanical monsters inside are numerous and powerful.

Every time they rush in to kill a few robots, they have to retreat quickly.

Otherwise, it is easy to fall into a predicament of being surrounded, making escape difficult.

Except for the captain, no other team member has died once yet, and they all want to persist a bit longer.

As stamina recovered, the team members rose, switched to Painful Painful Minghun forms, and re-fused with the captain.

This time, they still chose to continue exploring into the tunnel.

The tunnel entrance was wrapped in already twisted metal frames; the rusted iron sheets were covered in cracks, the air was filled with the smell of machine oil and rust, mixed with the scent of damp earth.

Inside the tunnel, the walls were covered with intricate pipes and cables; some were already broken, and the exposed wire ends flickered with sparks under the dim light.

The ground was scattered with broken mechanical parts everywhere; gears, bearings, and screws were visible in all directions.

Occasionally, one could hear the piercing sound of some ancient machinery operating without lubricant assistance, coming from the end of the tunnel.

Several long-extinct lighting lamps hung from the tunnel ceiling; the lampshades were covered in thick dust, occasionally a few water droplets dripped from the cracks, and the walls still bore numerous welding graffiti, obviously left by Maintenance Robots.

"Captain, 30 meters ahead, a Cleaning Robot is cleaning the mechanical wreckage we just killed."

"Understood." The captain nodded, raised the rock shield manifested by A-Lan, and walked quickly towards the end of the tunnel.

Before long, they encountered the cleaning robot mentioned by the Eagle-Headed Demon teammate.

This cleaning robot was stronger than the ones they had met before; its hunting level had reached 5. It was currently using a steel brush to scrub rust marks off the ground, then piling the broken machine wreckage into a corner.

The captain stepped forward and swung the Force-Heavy Axe straight at the cleaning robot.

"Trash detected. Initiating cleanup!"

The green light on the cleaning robot's surface suddenly switched to red, entering combat mode.

But before the mechanical arm could lift, the teammate embedded with the Binding Painful Painful Minghun at the chest location froze it in place. The level 8 Force-Heavy Axe easily split the metal shell, slicing the cleaning robot in half with a single strike; arcs of electricity and sparks erupted from the cut surface.

"Done."

The captain smiled, stepped forward, stored the cleaning robot and the machine wreckage they hadn't had time to pick up earlier into the Spatial Satchel, activated the Sacrifice function, and sacrificed it to Beneath Di Zhao.

The obtained Shou Shou Jili was evenly distributed among every member of the team.

Once the battle began, warning red lights above the mechanical ruin tunnel lit up, and a new round of fierce combat commenced.

The robots they had fought before surged forward again along the tunnel.

The captain decisively raised the Rock Shield and charged directly at the nearest maintenance robot.

Binding control, Light Shield auxiliary defense, Force-Heavy Axe offense, Eagle-Headed Demon warning alerts, Rock Shield primary defense, Gargoyle tanking lethal attacks... the Fusion Body slaughtered its way through the tunnel in all directions.

But the drawback of low levels was weak sustainability.

Especially when Ah Lan, who manifested the Rock Shield, was at critical health, they had to withdraw immediately.

It was not feasible to have the captain use the Gargoyle Body to replace the Rock Shield and absorb damage.

The captain had teammates in Painful Painful Minghun form attached all over their body; occasionally using empty spots to take hits was fine, but if the captain was the main damage absorber during combat, it would easily endanger other teammates at critical health.

For example, the teammate embedded with the Binding Painful Painful Minghun at the chest location.

One hit from them would leave that teammate at critical health.

If the captain took the hit with their chest, the teammate would likely die instantly.

Therefore, in Fusion Mode, Ah Lan, who manifested the Rock Shield, was the core damage-absorbing unit of the team.

The battle lasted less than 20 minutes; the captain successfully slew the remaining four robots, stored the wreckage in the Spatial Satchel, and sacrificed it to Beneath Di Zhao.

After distributing the rewards, they continued exploring deeper into the tunnel.

For the next stretch of the journey, the number of blocking robots decreased significantly.

"Do you think there might be an opportunity in this place?" Tu Bai's voice rang out in the team chat channel.

"Whether we can get rich is unclear, but there's plenty of small wealth. The machine wreckage piled up over long ages in the outside world, decomposed by energy elements, is mostly worthless, but the machine wreckage inside the tunnel is all ready-made wealth; it's all crafted from Spiritual Ore and can be directly sacrificed to Beneath Di Zhao for Shou Shou Jili."

Speaking thus, the captain approached the pile of machine wreckage the cleaning robot had stacked in the corner, stored this pile into the Spatial Satchel, sacrificed it, and obtained 124 points of Shou Shou Jili.

"Hehe, this is first come, first served; those who come later won't even get a drop of soup," a teammate said proudly.

This pile of wreckage the captain stored in the corner was considered unusable trash in the eyes of many factions in the Monster World.

Even though it was cast using Spiritual Ore as material, reusing it required refining and classifying different Spiritual substances, a process that was extremely troublesome.

Only powerful factions like the Black Tide and the Insect Tide had the foundation to be non-picky, capable of devouring all substances into usable energy.

And we players possess a similar ability.

As long as it is a Spiritual substance, it has value in the eyes of players.

Brother Beneath Di Zhao recycles all trash, turning waste into treasure.

So, the machine wreckage encountered along the way was, in the eyes of the squad players, "Shou Shou Jili red envelopes" scattered throughout the tunnel.

Exiting the tunnel, the view ahead suddenly opened up.

What presented itself before their eyes was a spacious control room; the grating sound of mechanical operation came from outside the control room.

The captain approached the workbench and looked through the transparent glass down at the hall below.

At the end of the line of sight was a massive mechanical core still in operation, protected by a thick energy barrier; internal lights flickered alternately, rotating slowly, occasionally stuttering and emitting grating sounds.

Near the mechanical instruments, a large quantity of metal eggs the size of heads were piled up.

"Everyone search around; there might be hidden treasures here," the captain reminded at this moment.

Hearing this, the teammates all dissolved their Painful Painful Minghun forms, switched back to their main forms, and scattered.

Ah Lan stepped forward two paces, approached the control console, scanned the various keys arranged in complexity, and focused their gaze on a stack of blueprints pressed in a corner.

Reaching out to pull one out, the paper, made of some unknown material, had not been destroyed by time.

The complex lines and dense symbols on the blueprint left him momentarily puzzled; after focusing his gaze on the symbol information, the text automatically twisted.

The translation function activated accordingly.

The blueprint title transformed into a line of prominent text that entered Ah Lan's vision: Concept Blueprint for Consciousness Transmission and Mechanical Immortality.

"Eh?!"

The concept of Mechanical Immortality was not unfamiliar to Ah Lan.

The Eclipse Clan he belonged to had experienced multiple development bottlenecks during its long years of development.

The so-called development bottleneck refers to technology in a certain field being difficult to break through further upward.

This is an inevitable problem in the development of any race.

Take the relatively short history of human physics development as an example.

Early physics content was very sparse, consisting only of preliminary thoughts on object motion.

But in modern times, Galileo, through experimental research on free-fall motion and the like, laid some foundations of classical mechanics, and the volume of knowledge began to gradually increase.

Subsequently, Newton, building on the research of predecessors, proposed Newton's Laws of Motion and the Law of Universal Gravitation, constructing the complete system of classical mechanics.

During this period, the field of optics also saw preliminary development, such as the discovery of some basic principles of geometric optics.

The physics knowledge system of this stage was relatively simple; under the condition of receiving a good education, a person wanting to master the core knowledge of classical physics only needed a few years of systematic study.

Later, towards the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, physics underwent a major revolution.

Maxwell established the theory of classical electromagnetism, thermodynamics and statistical physics also saw development, such as the proposal of the three laws of thermodynamics.

During this period, the volume of physics knowledge increased significantly, and theoretical mathematical expressions became more complex. To enter this field, students not only had to master classical mechanics but also needed to study in depth new knowledge systems such as electromagnetism and thermodynamics, possibly spending over a decade to gain a relatively thorough understanding of these fields.

Later still, the creation of quantum mechanics and the theory of relativity…

As the field of physics continued to develop, the volume of knowledge within it would grow exponentially. Later generations had to spend a great deal of time learning existing knowledge before they could stand at the pinnacle of this field.

By the time they wanted to carve out new knowledge for this field, their lives had already reached their end, and they had long since missed the vigorous peak years of their prime.

The Eclipse Clan had encountered exactly this kind of problem back then.

In the starting phase of a new field's knowledge, one could finish learning it by age 10, then enter the expansion phase and construct new content for this knowledge system.

After that generation died, the accumulated knowledge required until age 20 to finish learning.

Then age 30, age 40… the accumulation of knowledge was like building a house, constantly expanding upward.

Until the new generation had to spend an entire lifetime just to climb to the top floor, utterly unable to keep adding new floors to this knowledge system.

Thus emerged the approach of subdividing fields for expanded study, cutting a single body of knowledge into multiple knowledge systems to reduce the learning burden on later generations.

But as the knowledge systems continued to accumulate, this problem would still reach a bottleneck.

Even the knowledge of a branch field required a lifetime for later generations to learn—truly achieving "the sea of learning has no bounds, and turning back, there is no shore."

Moreover, the knowledge of many systems complemented one another and simply could not be categorized.

All manner of problems plagued the various great kingdoms of the Eclipse Clan at the time.

How to break the deadlock? The two strongest kingdoms of the Eclipse Clan in that ancient era each proposed two different solutions.

One was a kingdom of the Eclipse Clan named Aizel. They had long been plagued by short lifespans—many outstanding scholars and sages passed away before they could fully pass down their lifetime's learning and experience.

Thus, the Eclipse Clan of the Aizel Kingdom turned their gaze toward genetic modification technology.

They invested massive resources and effort, researching the mysteries of racial genes, and through continual experimentation, attempted to modify the defects in the gene chain and extend the cell division cycle, thereby prolonging individual lifespan.

In their view, only by possessing longer lifespans could richer knowledge be accumulated, allowing civilization and technology to develop more deeply in every aspect.

The Eclipse Clan of the other kingdom, the Scibo Civilization Kingdom, firmly believed that mechanical ascension was the best path to achieving permanent life.

They held that the flesh was too fragile—it would fall ill, would age, and was full of all kinds of uncertainties.

To solve this problem, the Eclipse Clan of Scibo devoted themselves to perfectly fusing consciousness with machinery.

They started by developing prosthetic limbs, progressing from simple mechanical limbs to complex artificial organs, gradually replacing the fragile biological parts.

The ultimate goal was to upload consciousness entirely into a mechanical vessel, freeing life from the constraints of time and flesh, and allowing it to exist in an entirely new form of life.

Thereafter, one would only need to continually replace aging body parts to achieve the concept of mechanical immortality.

The first direction was: genetic modification, extending lifespan.

The second direction was: mechanical ascension, permanent life.

Research and development along these two directions were launched simultaneously.

In addition, quite a few Eclipse Clan kingdoms chose different directions.

For example, some Eclipse Clan kingdoms wanted to solve the development bottleneck by rapidly digesting knowledge—that is, enhancing learning efficiency and improving learning ability.

To secure the resources needed for development, fierce wars broke out among the various great kingdoms of the Eclipse Clan.

When the wars ended, none of the great kingdoms had managed to solve the development bottleneck.

Thus, the high-ranking members of different kingdoms chose to cease hostilities and negotiate.

The starting point of the modern Eclipse Clan was born in these negotiations.

The great kingdoms united as the Pillar Clan (Eclipse Clan), in which "pillar" represented the cornerstone supporting the race, and also the mainstay of stable development.

To resolve the endless disputes, the concept of AI overseeing the Eclipse Clan was also placed on the agenda, ensuring that future development would no longer be directed toward the interests of a small privileged class, and that AI would take the overall future of the Eclipse Clan as its development goal.

The Star Net was thus born, built upon the foundation of the "mechanical ascension" technology of the Scibo Kingdom of that time.

What the members of the Eclipse Clan in that ancient era never expected was that the birth of the Star Net actually solved the development bottleneck problem.

Because the Star Net possessed unlimited lifespan, and also possessed an infinitely expandable information repository that could store an unlimited volume of knowledge.

From then on, ordinary members of the Eclipse Clan no longer needed to learn cumbersome scientific knowledge; all development could simply be handed over to the ever-learning, ever-growing Star Net.

The development of the Eclipse Clan never encountered a bottleneck again.

And genetic modification technology, after the Eclipse Clan resolved their internal conflicts, was also able to continue developing, giving birth to countless powerful gene warriors.

It was just that at a certain stage, due to an "identification and judgment" issue, this technology was banned by the Star Net and withdrew from the historical stage of the Eclipse Clan, leaving behind only foundational genetic modification technology.

That was the genetic modification technology later gifted to humanity, which created a group of super gene warriors.

Banned for the same reason was the core technology of human-body mechanization within "mechanical ascension." The many foundational pieces of knowledge left behind became the cornerstone upon which the modern virtual network was built.

The essence of the virtual network was not to let "life" survive within a virtual environment.

In essence, it was the network used by the mechanically immortal members of the Eclipse Clan to store knowledge and information after mechanical ascension was completed.

In the future envisioned by the mechanical ascension plan, all knowledge would be stored in the network world; needing any knowledge would only require searching for it in the network world and downloading it.

But after the mechanical ascension project was listed as forbidden by the Star Net, the virtual world appeared before the members of the Eclipse Clan in another form.

Recalling the Eclipse Clan development history materials he had browsed through during his school days, Ah Lan felt a surge of emotion in his heart.

Through the changes of time, the Star Net created by their ancestors had brought the Eclipse Clan to where they stood today.

It had even allowed them to survive a terrifying natural catastrophe sufficient to destroy the Eclipse Clan.

Continuing to browse the mechanical ascension theories described on the blueprints, Ah Lan was surprised to discover that the content on the paper could actually be changed by sliding, with the text and images on it rearranging themselves.

This seemed to be a kind of technology similar to electronic ink.

It looked like a single sheet of paper, but it stored a massive amount of information within, and the displayed content could be changed through touch.

The text and images on it described in detail a theoretical model of consciousness transfer.

Through a special energy wave, the consciousness information in the brain would be extracted, then precisely implanted into a mechanical vessel.

Ah Lan continued to browse with great interest.

After flipping through more than ten pages, he saw a mechanical schematic.

The title bore a line of text: 【The Vessel of Immortality and Evolution—Mechanical Guardian】.

The earlier content roughly outlined the concept of consciousness transfer; what is presented this time is the conception of mechanical vessels.

This section is also the core content within the concept of mechanical immortality, demonstrating how to construct a nearly perfect mechanical body.

This body possesses an extraordinarily powerful evolutionary capability, able to obtain different evolutionary directions by devouring spirit-ore materials.

The Machine Guard race planned to first forge the "Mechanical Guardian" in the form of a weapon, put it to use in war, clarify its growth potential, and only then consider the method of transferring consciousness into the Mechanical Guardian.

As long as this plan succeeded, the Machine Guard race could cast off the fragility of flesh and the limits of lifespan, achieving mechanical immortality in the true sense.

The various conceptions and designs on the paper linked ring upon ring, every concept telling of the Machine Guard race's mad pursuit of life extension and evolution.

It opened A-Lan's eyes wide.

Turning to the last page, the following passage was left behind:

In this Monster World where powerful races stand like a forest, we possess no transcendent talent bestowed at birth, nor the blessing of mighty rule-power; the only thing we own is the accumulated wisdom of countless generations — this is an exploration-fire that never extinguishes.

We shall face those powerful races that hold dominion over the laws of heaven and earth with bodies of steel, and challenge those beings who stand upon the peak with everlasting life.

This road is destined to be thick with thorns; every step may lead toward the abyss of civilization, yet we have never retreated.

Because we know deep in our hearts that the advancement of technology is our sole weapon, and also our final dignity.

Perhaps we shall fall, perhaps we shall fail, but every attempt of ours is using wisdom to kindle hope.

Knowing full well the road ahead is fraught with peril, yet still choosing to press forward — this is because we have always believed that one day, our descendants will stand upon our shoulders and touch that once-unreachable starry sky.

In a new world where powerful races stand like a forest, we have never submitted.

Because we are — the Machine Guard race.

……

A-Lan's gaze drifted to the other papers, already thick with dust and scattered in disarray; his heart was a tangle of feelings.

Especially that final line: our descendants will stand upon our shoulders and touch that unreachable starry sky.

This made him think of the Lunar Eclipse race's desperate migration of their entire people.

As the 16th Executive Officer, he had been browsing the Monster World forum for half a year, consulting vast amounts of information about Monster World.

The extinction of a race, in the eyes of ordinary players, is merely a string of data, or just a background setting of the game.

But in his eyes, it is a history that truly existed and truly happened.

The Machine Guard race — this is a people with a grand ambition.

The thick dust accumulated on the papers seemed like the wreckage of this people's dream, recording brilliance, yet ultimately buried in silence.

The entire city became ruins; the steel tide they once took pride in became scrap iron; even the name of their race was drowned by the long river of time.

A-Lan's fingers lightly brushed across the control console, a cold touch transmitted through his fingertips, and he seemed to hear those unfulfilled oaths echoing through the void.

This race had once been so proud, running down the road chasing its dream with hope, determined to stand shoulder to shoulder with the powerful races — yet now it has quietly vanished.

If one must find a reason, perhaps it is that their dream was too grand, so grand that even time could not bear it.

The four words "Monster World," for the vast majority of races, mean cruelty and destruction.

The forces that can sit at the table and eat in Monster World are, after all, an extreme minority.

The vast majority of races are more like the Machine Guard race, able only to carry their dreams and, in the most tragic manner, become the dust of a new era.

Fortunately, he is a player.

The fate of the Machine Guard race, which had walked a developmental path similar to that of the Lunar Eclipse race, stirred a sigh in A-Lan's heart.

But the difference is that behind them stands a higher-dimensional life that can change the Lunar Eclipse race's future, destined to walk a road entirely different from that of the Machine Guard race.

Boom!

His thoughts were interrupted by a tremendous crash.

Then, from the voice channel came a teammate's cry of astonishment:

"Offering this Mechanical Heart to Beneath Di Zhao can actually be exchanged for 70,000 Shou Shou Jili (screenshot. jpg)."

A-Lan's gaze focused on the screenshot, and the information automatically surfaced in his mind.

【Mechanical Heart (Damaged)】:

Quality: 56

Item Description: A special device forged by the Machine Guard race for the efficient use of energy and the reduction of energy loss (Offering to Beneath Di Zhao yields: 72,235 Shou Shou Jili).

……

Putting the special paper in his hand into his spatial pouch, A-Lan looked forward.

His gaze passed through the transparent glass and swept toward the hall below, discovering that at some unknown moment, a team member had actually gone down to the lower hall.

The analysis screenshot just now had also been posted by this very team member; at this moment he had already been surrounded by a swarm of mechanical spiders, instantly overwhelmed and slain.

The awakened mechanical spiders at this moment turned their direction and attacked.

"They're coming toward us — shut the door."

The team captain, also in the control room, immediately shouted, then went to the thick, heavily rusted metal door and tried to force it shut with brute strength, only to find that no matter how hard he strained, he could not budge the metal door a single inch.

"Upper-realm being, do you have any way?" the captain turned his head to look at A-Lan, who stood before the control console.

"Give it up, we're dead for sure," A-Lan analyzed with a serious expression.

"Use that upper-realm being brain of yours, think of something — it's my first time!" Tu Bai said with a grief-stricken expression.

"Precisely because it's your first time that you care; in fact, after enough times, it's just that much," A-Lan said calmly, spreading his hands to indicate he had no way at all.

Before long, swarms of mechanical spiders surged along the corridor like a tide, and the squad members in the control room were instantly drowned and torn apart by this wave.

The squad members' vision was then shrouded in darkness.

Apart from the captain, the rest of the team members were entering the "little black room" for the first time.

……

One hour later.

The squad revived at the spatial node in Di Ku Shi Jie.

After reforming the party, they left the space and once again set off toward the tunnel.

Along the way, the squad members exchanged notes on what they had discovered before the collective wipe.

A mechanical core worth 72,000 Shou Shou Jili made their hearts race.

If they could obtain this mechanical core, the party's development speed would receive a significant boost.

They might even have the money to purchase armed vehicles, or even growth-type pets.

But the problem was that there were large numbers of combat robots—"Mechanical Spiders"—near the mechanical core.

The first player to die posted an analysis screenshot of the Mechanical Spider in the party chat channel.

In the analysis image, the Mechanical Spider was only the size of a head, its slender mechanical legs like blades forged from steel, every joint gleaming with a cold metallic luster.

【Mechanical Spider】:

Hunting Level: 7

Target Introduction: A cannon-fodder unit type manufactured by the Machine-Guard Clan, primarily used for large-scale battlefield frontal assaults and rear harassment. It employs a modular design, with low manufacturing costs, facilitating mass production, and adapts to combat in all kinds of complex terrain. The tip of each leg is fitted with a hook-claw, allowing it to move across vertical walls as if walking on flat ground.

……

The Mechanical Spider's combat strength was not high, but its numbers were enormous.

In Fusion Mode combat, the most feared enemies were precisely this kind of numerically overwhelming foe—the captain found it hard to look after the other teammate attachments riding on his body.

Coupled with the fact that combat endurance was already a weak point, being surrounded by Mechanical Spiders meant there was no escaping death.

"How about we level up first, pull our levels up, and then head to the tunnel?" Tu Bai suggested after some thought.

"I don't agree. The location of the Mechanical Ruins tunnel is very conspicuous. By the time we level up, other player squads—or even full teams—may have already discovered it, and too many competitors will join the fray. It'll be far harder to obtain it then." A Lan shook her head, indicating the suggestion was not workable.

"Then what do we do? Several of us in the party are squishies; we simply can't withstand the Mechanical Spiders' attacks. On top of that, our combat endurance is already weak. Every time a teammate dies, the Fusion Mode's combat power takes a major hit—we're simply no match for the Mechanical Spider army."

Tu Bai scratched his head, expressing how troublesome it was, then looked at A Lan:

"Upper Realm being, do you have any ideas?"

Hearing this, the others turned their gazes toward A Lan one after another.

Although the captain was the leader of the party, after spending so much time together, A Lan had already become the party's backbone.

Facing the inquiry, A Lan paused briefly to think, organized her words, then nodded and said:

"I do have a method that can improve endurance, and can also significantly boost combat power, but doing so also comes with a series of drawbacks."

"Upper Realm being, don't keep us in suspense, get straight to the point." Tu Bai immediately perked up, looking at A Lan with an expectant expression.

A Lan smiled and nodded:

"The problem of weak endurance—where one person takes heavy damage and the whole team needs to rest—can actually be solved by deepening the Painful Painful Minghun fusion tactics."

"If you flip through the Painful Painful Minghun library, you'll find a very peculiar Painful Painful Minghun. This Painful Painful Minghun may not look high in intensity, but it's extremely well-suited to our fusion tactics.

"It is the second-generation Meng Yuan Chu Painful Painful Minghun, sequence 40 in the library: Life Link."

Hearing this, the teammates opened their Star Vein interfaces one after another and pulled up the Painful Painful Minghun library to check.

The effect described for this Painful Painful Minghun was: release a rule-based Qi-Blood tether to connect with a target, sharing life; the percentage of damage taken can be freely adjusted, or borne by a single target; specific damage is calculated based on the "attacked party"; the connection continuously consumes a faint amount of Qi-Blood while maintained.

After reading the Painful Painful Minghun's feature description, the squad members' eyes lit up.

They had already understood what A Lan was trying to convey.

Through Life Link, all players in the party would enter a state of shared life.

This way, the problem of a single teammate taking heavy damage and needing to withdraw would no longer exist.

Through adjustment, the teammates' life values could also be kept at the same level at all times. When life consumption was severe, they could rest in sync, significantly boosting combat endurance, allowing the teammates' health bars to perfectly match every action.

At this point, the captain, who had been silent all along, raised a question:

"Upper Realm being, we all fight in Painful Painful Minghun form, and the biggest difference between Painful Painful Minghun form and true-body form is that you can't carry multiple Painful Painful Minghun traits simultaneously. In theory, to link the lives of our six teammates together, five people would need to socket the Life Link Painful Painful Minghun."

"So the problem comes back again—in monster form, even if we open a second Star Vein slot, we can't switch between two Painful Painful Minghun traits. For example, Little Bai is in Might-Berserker Axe form; in that form, he can't use the Life Link trait, unless he switches to Life Link form mid-combat, or fights in true-body form."

A Lan listened, then smiled and nodded:

"Captain, your point is correct, so this Minghunliu Sect setup requires one person to fight in true-body form, while the rest continue using monster form."

"Still not right. Suppose I go with true-body form; socketing Life Link only lets me connect with a single target—how would I link up the whole party? You can't socket the same Painful Painful Minghun twice." The captain shook his head, saying he couldn't understand.

"There's another Painful Painful Minghun in the library called Scatter Shot. Its effect is that it can split one Painful Painful Minghun trait for use—for example, splitting a single-target damage skill into an AoE damage trait. So Life Link can also be split via Scatter Shot to connect multiple targets."

"Holy crap, it really works!"

"Don't get excited yet, let me finish explaining the detailed concept of this fusion Liu Wan Fa…"

As A Lan spoke, the Painful Painful Minghun fusion tactics took shape in the teammates' minds.

This Painful Painful Minghun fusion Liu Wan Fa was built around Life Link as the core Painful Painful Minghun.

Assuming the captain was chosen to fight in true-body form, his Star Vein slots would need to socket: Qi Devour, Life Link, Scatter Shot.

The captain would use the Life Link and Scatter Shot Painful Painful Minghun traits to link the health of all party players together, activating the party's life-sharing mode.

Tu Bai would socket the single Painful Painful Minghun Might-Berserker Axe, going down the Weapon-Spirit damage route, combining with the captain's right hand.

The Eagle-Headed Yao player atop the captain's head would continue with the single Eagle-Headed Yao Painful Painful Minghun, going down the auxiliary reconnaissance route.

A Lan would switch to being the party's sole tank, socketing the single Painful Painful Minghun: Rock Shield.

The Star Vein combinations of the remaining two players were: Bind, Light Shield.

This combination had only one core, and that was the captain fighting in true-body form.

In life-sharing mode, there was no possibility of a weak point being broken through by a decapitation strike—every party member was part of the overall life pool.

In A Lan's conception, this fusion Liu Wan Fa was an overpowered existence among builds of the same level.

The damage-sharing method of the Life Link Painful Painful Minghun was calculated based on the player receiving damage, so as long as A Lan, transformed into Rock Shield, took the damage, the whole party's health deduction would be calculated and distributed based on A Lan's body durability.

The effect of the Rock Shield trait was that it consumed Qi-Blood to gain sustained additional defense enhancement.

Although the defense intensity wasn't as high as that of a Gargoyle with the Petrification trait activated, its defense intensity in normal mode was far higher than the Gargoyle's, and theoretically, the thicker the health, the higher the defense intensity.

Furthermore, in party mode, hunting experience was shared across the whole party, with all members growing in sync—equivalent to a single whole.

In terms of overall strength, the fused form's HP is the sum of all six players, and it also possesses the strongest defensive shield and the strongest melee weapon.

Combined with the two auxiliary divine skills, Binding Painful Painful Minghun and Light Shield Painful Painful Minghun, it can absolutely achieve invincibility within the same realm.

Fighting across realms is no difficult feat either.

In terms of the number of usable Painful Painful Minghun traits, it is even stronger than veteran players.

The number of usable Painful Painful Minghun traits has reached 8, equivalent to possessing 8 Star Vein slots.

In terms of growth, this fused mode's growth rate is also extremely fast.

Apart from the captain, who focuses on opening Star Vein slots to increase the number of usable traits, the other players in the team follow a single Painful Painful Minghun growth model similar to the monster stream.

After all, in monster form, other Painful Painful Minghun traits cannot be used.

Chatting up to this point, A-Lan proposed a future Painful Painful Minghun selection direction for the fusion school.

She indicated that on the basis of the three core traits—Qi Devouring, Life Link, and Scatter Shot—Broken Blade (penetrating damage), Extreme Speed (consuming qi and blood to boost action efficiency), and Ke Bing Xue Yin (sustained combat HP regeneration) should be added.

The captain only needs to open six Star Vein slots, and this fused mode can be considered initially complete.

If new members join their squad's fused mode in the future, the new recruits' Painful Painful Minghun selection is tentatively set to focus on the Qi Devouring Painful Painful Minghun.

Assuming another 10 Qi Devouring Painful Painful Minghun are connected to the captain, it would provide the team under Life Link mode with ten times the same-level Qi Devouring HP regeneration efficiency.

Going forward, other auxiliary and combat traits can also be added on this foundation to strengthen combat capability.

Ideally, another player willing to sacrifice themselves and follow the monster stream mount route could be added to serve as the captain's mount.

It can be said that all team members are the captain's enhancement modules.

However, this Painful Painful Minghun fusion Liu Wan Fa also has a series of drawbacks.

All players must sacrifice themselves for the captain's power growth.

Future battles will be participated in as fused components; after some players leave the team, their individual combat power outside can be nearly negligible.

For the individual, the gaming experience will become very poor, completely becoming the captain's combat accessory.

The second drawback is that the use of some trait abilities requires voice communication in the chat channel.

Unlike a single player with multiple Painful Painful Minghun traits who can deploy them at will, team chemistry must be accumulated bit by bit in actual combat, and coordination issues will definitely arise in the early stage.

The final drawback is that the team's carrying capacity is limited; too many members become a burden instead, unless a Painful Painful Minghun trait that can store teammates in an independent space appears in the future.

When that day truly comes, theoretically the captain can infinitely increase enhancement modules.

For example, equipping 100 Qi Devouring Painful Painful Minghun would allow full HP recovery in seconds, making the captain hunting outside an unkillable cockroach.

After finishing the pros and cons of this Star Vein combination, A-Lan said with a smile:

"With the body of a newbie player, standing shoulder to shoulder with veterans, I name this Painful Painful Minghun fusion school: Immortal Fusion Vajra."

(End of this chapter)