Chapter 291: New War Model

Emperor Tomb Village Library.

Outside the window, the sky gradually brightened; morning light spilled across the glass, carving a line between light and shadow upon the desktop.

The God King's fingertip traced across his self-made map of the Emperor Tomb Mountain Range, where dozens of attack routes had been marked in red pen, only to be crudely crossed out by him again, with a few small characters scrawled hastily at the edge: All dead ends.

Beside the map lay an open copy of the "Evil Spirit Bestiary," displaying on its turned page an apocalyptic-type unit bearing twin wings.

Pressed nearby was a cup of refreshing "Thousand-Spirit Fruit Juice," with undissolved fruit pulp settled at the bottom.

Piled at the corner of the desk were several worn strategy notebooks, one of which had a dog-eared corner, filled inside with dense annotations.

Scattered messily atop the map were sheets of draft paper, covered in tactical deductions, with arrow directions repeatedly revised and numbers crossed out then rewritten.

On a few of these maps were even drawn cartoon depictions of the Earth Nian Bully, one of which showed the Earth Nian Bully in a clown costume.

In the God King's vision zoomed the Evil Spirit Bestiary entries recorded after the conclusion of the Giant Domain Campaign.

In this campaign, a large number of new evil spirit units had appeared once again, requiring his war knowledge base to be updated synchronously.

Only by understanding in detail every evil spirit unit that had appeared could he handle warfare with ease and deduce the underlying intentions behind the Earth Nian Bully generating such units.

The game Monster World was too realistic, so realistic that it required him to constantly absorb new knowledge.

Otherwise, it would be all too easy to fall behind the Earth Nian Bully's growth speed.

After letting out a long sigh, the God King leaned back in his chair, his mind floating through scene after scene of his encounters with the Earth Nian Bully.

His progress of growth clearly could no longer keep pace with the Earth Nian Bully.

He had originally thought that as a player, he was the absolute protagonist of this world, the only one climbing mountains and crossing ridges to overcome one boss after another that was difficult to defeat.

Yet he never expected to encounter the Earth Nian Bully, a growth-type boss, within Monster World.

Before the Earth Nian Bully's speed of growth, his abilities were simply not worth looking at.

However deep the despair that Tourist Number 1 brought to the Earth Nian Bully, that was exactly how deep the despair the Earth Nian Bully brought to him.

Recalling his early days entering Monster World, he had been so high-spirited.

At that time, he believed he could look down upon all living beings with the advantage of a player, and that the Earth Nian Bully was merely a small obstacle on the growth path of the Shentang Society.

The facts were indeed so.

Back then, the Earth Nian Bully did not yet know the Calamity Backlash Tactic, nor various other extremely nauseating tactics.

Its control over evil spirit units was also primarily based on frenzied advancement, generating only level 1 to 3 minor evil spirits, which truly allowed them to happily farm wave after wave of sacrificial power.

In several joint team battles he initiated, they had even seized a Spirit Field Node and a Spirit Ore Resource Node from the hands of the Earth Nian Bully.

The thinking at that time was that with the growth of their own players and his own abilities, the Earth Nian Bully would soon be eliminated.

He would also lead the Shentang Society to expand outward starting from the Emperor Tomb Mountain Range.

But the Earth Nian Bully, having adapted to the environment of Monster World, bared its fangs at this moment, revealing growth potential that was hard to imagine.

At this stage, the Earth Nian Bully was like despair incarnate; every exposure of a new tactic mocked the poverty of his knowledge reserve.

There had been several moments of depression during this period, where he felt he might find it difficult to keep up with the Earth Nian Bully's progress of growth.

But in the end, he chose to pull himself together again.

Because a group of brothers who trusted and followed him were waiting for him.

As a player, he believed he possessed a broader space for growth and could reverse the situation.

For the arrival of this day, he burned the midnight oil updating his knowledge base, deducing tactics repeatedly until dawn.

He extracted recordings of battles he had commanded to watch over and over again.

Especially after the appearance of the "Brain Overclocking" Soul, he saw hope for defeating the Earth Nian Bully.

Under the activated trait, his logical thinking had improved significantly, and various new starting-point tactics continuously surged into his mind.

But what he did not expect was that the Earth Nian Bully's growth speed was even faster.

The feeling it gave him was that he was always falling behind the Earth Nian Bully, struggling to catch up, yet the gap between them was gradually widening.

He suddenly felt somewhat envious of Tourist Number 1's abilities.

Among the player camp, at the current stage, only Tourist Number 1 possessed the strength to sanction the Earth Nian Bully.

Including the leaders of the various societies where he resided, none were a match for the Earth Nian Bully.

Just as the Guidance said, Evil Spirit Warriors were born for war, and the Black Black Tide Legion was the terrifying embodiment within war.

The growth speed of Evil Spirit Warriors in war was like a plague spreading across rotting flesh.

For players at the current stage, wishing to surpass Evil Spirit Warriors in war command capability was as difficult as ascending to heaven.

But the Guidance also said that the future of players held infinite possibilities, and new Souls might bring the ability to reverse the situation.

These words were also the motivation for his choice to continue persisting.

The Earth Nian Bully had the enhancement of the Evil Eye; this advantage, after raising the level of Brain Overclocking, could barely keep pace.

Theoretically, Brain Overclocking combined with the Eagle-Headed Demon could possess the Earth Nian Bully's battlefield super-perception plus war analysis capabilities.

The Earth Nian Bully could store information through the Evil Eye, then extract that information for real-time application; Brain Overclocking also possessed similar capabilities, able to instantly clarify information that had become blurred in memory and provide the optimal decision according to its own logical thinking.

But in other aspects, Brain Overclocking possessed no advantage whatsoever.

The Evil Eye could also acquire information from external channels; it was an internet model, capable of downloading intelligence from other nodes at any time to assist war advancement.

Whereas the intelligence for Brain Overclocking all came from the player's own memory, lacking external assistance.

Secondly, the Evil Eye could also perform detailed marking of the war.

Fluctuations in every section of the battlefront, even the movements of every single unit, would be converted into data streams of different colors, presented within the Earth Nian Bully's mind.

It was like casting an invisible net across the war map.

Relying on the holographic sandbox projected by the Evil Eye, the Earth Nian Bully could observe every corner of the battlefield in detail and deploy arrangements in advance.

It could even incorporate the opponent's actions into preset trajectories, deducing the greatest probabilities.

All of his battlefield deployments had become data streams that could be dismantled in the eyes of the Earth Nian Bully, allowing it to easily find the fragile vital points of the battlefront and launch a fatal strike.

And this was not all.

He had asked the Guidance and learned that the Earth Nian Bully had already established logical thinking profiles for every member of the Shentang Team.

For each war, one only needed to load these "profiles" into the battlefield sandbox created by the Evil Eye to greatly improve the accuracy of predictions.

It could be said that the Earth Nian Bully had completely figured out him and the brothers of the Shentang Team.

Charge routes, the rhythm of tactical coordination, even the subconscious combat habits of society members, had all become information precisely marked on the Bully's "tactical board."

He had once conducted a detailed review of a battle, asking the Guidance to provide assistance.

The Guidance used the perspective of the Earth Nian Bully to teach him a lesson.

At that time, when a gap appeared in the formation of the Shentang Team's damage-soaking flow players, there were originally multiple choices available.

But after he issued the command, a player from Damage-Soaking Team 3 shifted horizontally to the left by a distance of 3.8 centimeters; this was the player's subconscious behavior upon receiving the instruction.

This scene occurred within merely 0.5 seconds.

But this movement of 3.7 centimeters, along with the hesitation of 0.5 seconds, was an incredibly clear behavioral trajectory in the eyes of the Earth Nian Bully, instantly marked as "defensive inertia direction."

Secondly, when players of the "Prayer Healer Team" released healing beams, always after hearing the command, he would subconsciously use his gaze to observe the group of low-health players he had marked.

This tiny habitual action would also be refined by the Evil Eye into: judgment of healing priority order.

The Earth Nian Bully wove these scattered data fragments into a vast behavioral network; the moment the Shentang Team stepped onto the battlefield, the Evil Eye began to operate frantically, simulating hundreds of possible action paths in an extremely short time based on the logical thinking profile of each member.

Once the battle situation was triggered, every behavior in the profiles would become a clear logical chain in the eyes of the Earth Nian Bully.

The Guidance also indicated that sometimes when he was commanding and making decisions, he would habitually frown slightly.

Upon this change in expression, the Evil Eye would immediately retrieve relevant data, automatically filtering out his tactical choices in past similar scenarios following the appearance of this expression.

Then it would analyze his next direction of command.

Therefore, whenever he commanded a joint warband to make what seemed like correct decisions, he was actually stepping into new traps that the Earth Nian Bully had already deduced based on the "profiles."

After hearing the Guidance's review at that time, bitterness filled his heart.

Facing such a terrifying opponent, he could not see even a sliver of hope for turning the tables.

The only thing he could rely on was the gradually increasing number of players and the progressively strengthening power of the players, using the advantages of their own camp to crush the Earth Nian Bully, rather than contending with the Earth Nian Bully through personal command ability.

As for changing the combat habits of himself and the brothers of his warband, he had tried.

But it was very difficult.

The players' combat habits had already formed, having become instinctive reactions.

Just like when facing an arrow suddenly shot at them, the body would always reflexively turn the head to dodge before the brain could make a judgment.

It completely skipped the step of thinking.

Through constant engagements with the Earth Nian Bully, many players had also developed muscle memory for combat.

These habits had long been polished into instincts.

To break such habits, one had to fight against the body's natural reactions, which also required massive amounts of training to reshape habits.

But on a battlefield that changed in the blink of an eye, every mistake could be fatal; the process of attempting this brought about several even more disastrous routs.

More importantly, the combat habits modified with great effort would likely be updated by the Earth Nian Bully in the next war and crafted into new thinking profiles again.

After carefully analyzing the pros and cons, the God King gave up.

This was like using one's own shortcomings to contend against the Earth Nian Bully's strengths.

No matter how much one changed, as long as the war continued, the Earth Nian Bully's update speed would be far faster than the speed at which he and his brothers could change themselves.

He now understood clearly.

One simply could not outsmart or outmaneuver the Earth Nian Bully; one had to use cheats, had to use the power of cheats to create advantages.

The Giant Domain Campaign finally allowed him to vent some of his pent-up frustration.

Seeing the Earth Nian Bully, which had always suppressed and beaten him brutally, overturned by Tourist Number 1's divine move, he felt an incomparable sense of relief in his heart, a pleasant feeling like parting clouds to see the blue sky.

This battle also made him completely abandon the idea of winning through wisdom; the Earth Nian Bully under the five-in-one enhancement was simply inhuman.

Although, the Bully was never human to begin with.

He felt they should counter the Evil Bully Alliance by developing new tactics, rather than creating fleeting advantages through the arduous process of changing habits.

Unless, in the future, there was a Fate Soul bestowed that could regulate habits.

Hu~

After letting out a long sigh, the God King straightened his body and looked at the notebooks scattered messily across the desk.

Just recently, he had conceived an idea to update the war Cultivation Mode.

After all, as the game version updated, his combat strategies also had to keep pace with the changes.

Every time a new Fate Soul came online, he would ponder whether this new Fate Soul could aid in warfare and if it could be integrated into the combat Cultivation Mode of the United Warband.

The most recent update had launched a new feature capable of changing the Black Tide of battle: the Tyrant Path.

In other words, it was an advanced playstyle for the Monster Flow.

The Monster Flow, which had gradually withdrawn from the faction stage, had returned to the players' field of vision.

This also led him to consider how to apply the advanced version of the Monster Flow system on the battlefield.

Before practical testing, he first needed a clear line of thought, rather than letting Monster Flow players act arbitrarily on the battlefield.

The content recorded in the draft notebooks included many Monster Flow combinations he had copied from the forum.

And all of them were the most popular Monster Flow playstyle choices at the current stage.

What could be affirmed was that the vast majority of playstyles within the Monster Flow system were unsuitable for the battlefield.

For example, the [Mirage Path · Ultimate Speed], whose core growth direction focused on increasing speed.

The Divine Hall Society he established possessed an assassin group; they were the multi-edged blades of the battlefield, capable of executing a series of tactical maneuvers such as harassment, decapitation, thrusts, and feints according to his commands.

They generally had Extreme Speed Fate Souls embedded, along with abilities like Spirit Sealing, Shadow Clones, and Blade Prohibition.

In contrast, the Monster Flow relied solely on attributes for combat and possessed only one usable Fate Soul trait.

Coupled with their massive size, pursuing a speed build was meaningless, completely stripping away the distinctive features the Monster Flow ought to have.

This was just like the "Wealth" Fate Soul; although such a Fate Soul existed, the number of players willing to embed it was few and far between.

Browsing the forum revealed that basically no players chose the Mirage Path while simultaneously selecting the Monster Flow.

These players engaging in the Monster Flow sought nothing but strength and physique.

The most popular choices were the Titan and Golem Paths, pursuing an extreme growth route of explosive power and overwhelming physique.

This actually aligned with the needs of the United Warband.

Back when there were not many selectable Fate Souls, he had also formed a Monster Group.

At that time, the greatest characteristic of the Monster Flow was its extremely high attribute values, allowing them to serve as front-line damage-soaking units.

When launching a charge, they could also rely on the movement speed granted by high attributes to provide momentum for the warband's advance, or even serve as mounts to assist in tearing through enemy lines.

But as the number of Fate Souls increased, the limitations of the Monster Flow became apparent.

Players specializing in damage-soaking generally possessed: Star Shift, Blood Reflection, Taunt, Stone Statue, Gang Qi, Accumulation... a vast array of selectable trait abilities that could make warfare more flexible, rather than relying solely on mindless charges.

Whereas for the Monster Flow, its only distinguishing feature was perhaps its massive size.

Just like the Calamity-type units of the Black Black Tide, their huge bodies resembled moving city walls, capable of easily filling gaps in the battle line and blocking the tidal advance of players merely by virtue of their physique.

The design of the Calamity-type's massive size actually fit the requirements of the front line very well.

Alas, apart from attributes, everything else about the Monster Flow was a drawback; as battlefield intensity escalated, its elimination became inevitable.

Even the issues of physique strength and speed were crushed by the Star Vein system.

However, the Monster Flow at the current stage had received an epic-level major buff, using its extremely prominent advantages to cover up the various shortcomings of its early days.

The first thing he valued most was the Monster System combining Qi Eating and the Gluttony Path.

The characteristic of this system was its powerful qi and blood recovery capability, making it extremely durable when fighting against high-endurance military systems like the Black Black Tide.

Its damage-soaking capability was only slightly weaker than that of players in front-line damage-soaking groups, but its powerful recovery ability allowed it to remain on the battlefield for much longer.

But upon careful consideration, there was actually an even better option.

That was to assign players following the Qi Eating + Gluttony Path to the role of "Warband Blood Packs."

In the combat Cultivation Mode he currently employed, there was already a set of tactics that transferred damage sequentially through the "Life Link Trait."

Waves of Life Links surged from the rear ranks, passing forward wave after wave, offsetting the damage borne by the front-most players when they suffered fierce strikes.

The calculation formula for the Life Link Trait was based on the defense of the player receiving the damage.

Therefore, the tactic of rear-rank players assisting in damage soaking via the Life Link Trait performed exceptionally brilliantly on the battlefield.

This gave him an idea.

Could they configure a group of Qi Eating + Gluttony Path players within the warband, keeping them stationed at the rear of the war? The front-line players bearing pressure would only need to transfer one hundred percent of the damage they received to the Monster Flow players via Life Link, which would significantly enhance the battlefield endurance of the damage-soaking group.

Even if the Earth Chant Evil Bully generated a mad Black Tide of assassin-type units, it would still be difficult for them to kill this group of thick-skinned rear-rank blood packs.

Theoretically, this Cultivation Mode was entirely feasible and would be the focus of his upcoming practical testing.

Thinking along this angle, the Monster Flow could also serve as a perfect spiritual power power bank.

Even he could make use of it.

Every time a war commenced, he would bring three players serving as power banks; staying by his side, drinking spiritual restoration potions, they provided him with the continuous spiritual power consumption required to maintain Eagle Head Demon, Brain Overclocking, and his Lord abilities.

When it came to raw numbers, how could the Star Vein Flow compare to the Monster Flow?

Therefore, it was entirely possible to have a player following the Qi Eating + Spirit Venerable Path lie beside him to serve as a power bank, providing continuous spiritual power endurance through the Siphon Trait.

The recovery efficiency would be far superior to multiple players taking turns drinking potions.

Secondly, the Stone Statue Flow combined with Golem Traits could be used similarly to the Black Black Tide's Calamity-type units.

Whenever the battle line was torn apart by Black Black Tide evil spirits, these players would step up; standing there, they became a city wall, easily filling the vacancies in the front line.

Or alternatively, the Binding Fate Soul combined with the Spirit Venerable route.

The control intensity brought by such high numbers far exceeded the "Binding" Fate Souls embedded by mainstream players; placed on the battlefield, they would absolutely be strong control units that "pointed where they struck."

There was also the Sluggish Domain Trait combined with the Golem Path; assassin flow players could thrust into the Black Black Tide legions, using Star Shift to toss the sluggish monsters inside.

This could also achieve a large-area crowd control effect, slowing down the speed of all combat units in a local area.

After two days of research, he discovered that after receiving the version buff, the functionality of the Monster Flow had increased substantially.

Various new playstyles could be applied to the war system alongside the new version of the Monster Flow, conducting a reinforcement upgrade on the existing war system.

Even if they couldn't defeat the Earth Chant Evil Bully, they could still make the other four Evil Spirit Warriors of the Evil Bully Alliance suffer setbacks.

Growing more excited with every thought, the God King immediately decided to launch practical testing for integrating the Monster Flow into the combat system.

Summoning his contact list, he opened the "Peak of Players" chat group:

"Brothers, stop taking vacations! Assemble and clock in at Emperor Tomb Mountain Range. If you don't work, where will you get Sacrificial Power? Without Sacrificial Power, how can you become stronger? Thinking of you all lying around on Colorful Mist Coast taking holidays makes me frustrated that iron cannot be turned into steel. Get moving!"

(End of Chapter)