Chapter 349: Ultimate Trial, Blind Leap Challenge

Just today, the forum's heat was completely dominated by the news that the Grind King Squad was about to graduate.

The player with the strongest influence on the forum is: Nightfall Approaches.

And the livestream section with the highest popularity is the livestream rooms of the Grind King Squad members.

At this moment, the term "Grind King Squad Graduation" shot to the top of the forum's heat rankings like a prairie fire.

Whether it was veteran players, new players who had only recently gained player status, or reserve players who had always watched the livestreams outside as tourists, many of them had witnessed the Grind King Squad's growth in the training camp.

During that time, they would burst into laughter over various funny incidents in the training camp, feel sad when a certain trainee died in a trial, clench their fists when the Grind King Squad and their comrades fell into a desperate situation, and hold their breath along with them in the livestream room... It was like a two-year-long drama they had been following.

But now, the story of the Grind King Squad in the training camp phase is about to come to an end.

This made many players who had followed the updates until now feel very reluctant to let go.

In the forum's discussion area, someone dug up a group photo of the Grind King Squad when they first entered the camp two years ago.

Back then, their faces still carried laziness, their smiles were green and immature, the training camp flag behind them fluttered loudly in the wind, not far away were Gui Tong and the other Four Eyes clan members with disdainful expressions, and even further away was the head instructor of the first training camp, Instructor Kuang Sha, standing in mid-air with arms crossed.

Looking at the latest group photo now, there are many more faces, and everyone's eyes hold a sharpness tempered by experience.

But when they look at each other, that warmth is no different from two years ago.

This story has continued until now, and players and tourists watching the livestreams all know it must inevitably reach its conclusion.

Just as the morning mist of the training camp will always dissipate, and the boss in the adventurer dungeon will eventually be defeated.

Hunger tactics, staying-up-late tactics, graduation trials... those nights spent staying up late together with the Grind King Squad will eventually become starlight in memories.

There are too many stories worth recalling.

Especially the hunger tactics of the first phase, which players still dig up to watch repeatedly as a side dish for their meals.

The livestream rooms of the Grind King Squad members are also where "Keep going" appears most frequently.

This journey was not a smooth, triumphant march.

The audience accompanied the Grind King Squad through the joys and sorrows of the training camp, watching them grow stronger bit by bit.

And the three characters "Grind King Squad" have long become part of many players' daily lives.

Many players, after dying and entering the small black room, would immediately enter the Grind King Squad's livestream room to watch the spectacle and see what funny things had happened there.

Even if nothing happened.

Just watching this group of brothers together, listening to them banter and argue, felt very interesting.

During this period, someone posted a thread on the forum with a very simple title: I want to cry a bit, is the training camp story really ending?

The replies below scrolled by at lightning speed.

Many players expressed their feelings in the thread.

Among them, the top-voted replies were all full of warmth.

"No, they are going to write the next chapter. The training camp story is ending, but their adventure continues. Our companionship hasn't ended either; we've just changed the scene. I think they are more like players who have jumped out of the newbie village. We should send them our blessings."

"What true ending is there? The perseverance learned in the training camp, the trust chosen in desperate situations, the courage picked up after failure have long flowed into the hearts of every witness along with the years in the livestream room. Just as the Demon Instructor said, 'Quenched steel remembers the heat of the furnace.' The time in the training camp, every difficult challenge, every struggle on the brink of despair, was like the tempering of steel by the furnace fire, and this two-year-long companionship has also added a piece of warm memory to our hearts."

"I feel reluctant to let go, but I am willing to offer my blessings. The forum feels like a grand farewell to me now, bidding farewell to those figures who once made me laugh, cry, and complain, as they head to a broader battlefield, and also bidding farewell to the self who once accompanied them in the livestream room as they welcome a new story. Grind King Squad, keep going. Stories will always have an ending, but the things within the story will take root and grow in the hearts of everyone who heard the story like seeds. I wish you a triumphant return."

"Today, I opened the forum, and suddenly my emotions became exceptionally surging, like watching stars I've followed for a long time about to go to a farther place. I am proud of their light, yet I can't help but miss those nights when I could see them just by looking up. Those days when I laughed because of them, cried because of them, and believed that persistence could lead to success because of them have long become my memory medals."

At this moment, the Grind King Squad players in the training camp had not expected it either.

That they, who were about to graduate, would become the top trending topic on the forum, with heat reaching an unprecedented height.

Looking back on the past, they couldn't help but feel emotional.

Initially, with earthy game IDs like 'Brick Mover' or 'Eating Dirt', they only had one thought when they first entered the game: to earn high profits through the game.

Usually, besides hunting, they would squat outside the newbie village eating canned rations, then argue fiercely in the teammate chat box over who would land the final blow.

Who could have thought back then that this bunch of greenhorns who had only opened one Star Vein slot would later become the Grind King Squad, which consistently held the number one spot in livestream popularity.

And their definition of the game also changed during this process.

That summer, they accepted the invitation from the God of Wealth and embarked on a journey to the Reverse Tide Training Camp.

The early stage of this journey was not favored by the outside world.

After all, the start was too miserable.

Every day, they were either beaten up or looked down upon with various disdainful eyes, with words inside and out insulting their weakness and believing they were not worthy of entering the training camp.

Those with connections should be eliminated and leave immediately, not wasting the resources in the training camp.

At that time, there weren't many viewers in the livestream room, and most thought they would likely give up this hidden quest.

Even they themselves felt they probably wouldn't last long.

The reason for persisting was nothing more than four words: Hidden Quest (Substantial Benefits).

Living in the modern era, they had never suffered much hardship since childhood; all kinds of physical labor were done by robots.

They also played the game with an entertainment mindset, feeling that they had somehow ended up living a life worse than death in the game.

Later, even the right to eat was stripped away, and they were beaten black and blue and thrown out of the cafeteria; this incident made them completely furious.

Although they were Brick Mover players, they also had their own persistence.

Seeing Li Zheng chose to confront head-on, raising the fist of resistance against the powerful Gui Tong and others along with a group of good brothers who had followed him for many years.

Since we are fighting, let's first force ourselves into a desperate situation.

Thus, they embarked on a brand new player path, which players now call: Trainee Style Players.

And the relationship between them and Gui Tong and others, from enemies to best friends, was a process that even the Grind King Squad players found incredible.

When they first met, there was only the spark of hatred born from fist collisions between them and the other trainees.

In the mud pit of the training camp, what each reflected in the other's eyes was the other's most wretched appearance, wishing to pin the other down and beat them up.

At that time, they were the chosen ones who believed they had received the favor of the player system, and also players who just wanted to slack off and live day by day to get rewards.

On the other side were the training camp trainees led by Gui Tong, warriors who came with glory, pride, and the desire to become stronger; two completely different survival philosophies destined to be incompatible.

Fate, however, fused them together in the cruelest way.

When the blizzard swallowed the entire squad, when the toxic miasma corroded the last half-pot of Spirit Liquid, when the roar of a ferocious beast was close at hand and their Qi and blood were exhausted... the once sharply defined boundaries, the body heat transmitted by backs forced together, and the image of licking each other's wounds in dire straits... were all erased.

During the first phase of the Snow Mountain Trial, they warmed each other with body heat; the second phase, the Magma Purgatory, taught them to trust each other's blades... They were no longer mere competitors; although they were sharp-tongued with each other, deep down they regarded one another as brothers.

Looking back suddenly, they were startled to realize that the punches landed on their faces and the mockery spat at their lips had, at some unknown time, been tempered into a bond firmer than any contract.

What was written in the training camp was not a beautiful fairy tale, but the camaraderie forged through countless life-and-death trusts.

This group of new-generation warriors, who once despised each other, could now smile and expose their most vulnerable sides to one another, and their history of confrontation had long since become a topic of nostalgic laughter.

This journey of growth was witnessed daily by countless players, who accompanied them every day.

Together, they witnessed their transformation.

At this moment, the players of the Grind Emperor Group were flipping through forum messages in the training camp, moved by the words of countless players.

But they did not forget the preparations ahead.

The Ultimate Trial was about to begin; they needed to inventory their carried supplies according to the instructor's requirements.

This trial had no restrictions; all weapons, equipment, and items could be brought along.

Just as the God of Wealth had once worn the battle armor left by his father to participate in the Ultimate Trial.

Half a day later, the instructor would hold a farewell ceremony for them.

Before that, they had to add some guarantees for survival for their training camp brothers who were about to part ways.

Li Zheng prepared twenty bottles of special recovery potions for Gui Tong and the others, one for each person.

This was a considerable expenditure of Shou Shou Jili; the value of every bottle of special recovery potion was as high as 1,000 points of Shou Shou Jili.

But in the eyes of Li Zheng and the other players of the Grind Emperor Group, it was more important than anything else that their brothers survive.

When they handed the potions to Gui Tong and the others, Gui Tong and the others did not decline; they all took the potions, yet they still teased with their words.

Especially Gui Tong, who stuffed the potions into the tactical pack at his waist, then raised a hand and punched Li Zheng in the chest with great force:

"When Laozi returns alive, I will repay you double for these potions."

Long Gen beside him shook the bottle of special recovery potion in his hand, the bottle body clinking with a crisp sound:

"You're really stingy with your brick-moving, only twenty bottles? Enough for whom? Give me twenty more bottles,"

While complaining with his words, he turned his hand and pressed the potions into the inner compartment of his heart-protecting armor.

Hearing the teasing from these brothers, Li Zheng pulled his lips into a smile:

"All of you must return alive. Consider the potions given as debts you owe me; I will wait for you to return and pay your debts."

"Pah! My dictionary has no word for 'owe.' Whatever enters my space is mine. No potions, but I have a life..." The words of the Bronze Clan trainee were not finished before Eat Dirt, sneaking up from behind, choked his neck:

"Then I'll take your life. Die for me."

The scene fell into their usual roughhousing, but soon suddenly fell silent.

Everyone understood how great the risks of this journey were.

Perhaps some brothers would never return.