Chapter 371: Fellow Villager, Don't Go; This Item Has an Affinity with Me

Two hours later, at the teleportation point on the Colorful Mist Coast connecting to the game space.

All 32 members of the Internet Addiction Clan had arrived.

Even if they were unwilling, under the threat of a one-week internet blackout, no one dared to be absent.

Brother Ming Hou's gaze swept over the clan members before him, and the corner of his mouth twitched.

The appearance of the clan members in the game differed greatly from his expectations.

Although his own attire was different from before, it still continued the style of silver robes; the hem was embroidered with faint silver patterns of fate trajectories, the cuffs were neatly gathered, preserving the unique cold aloofness of the Fate Clan. It was not showy, yet possessed an otherworldly temperament.

But these clan members before him were completely different.

They had been entirely influenced by the forum players, their aesthetics led astray in style.

Ming Man, standing at the very front, topped his head with a seven-colored neon afro dyed using combat modules; every strand of hair crackled with electric sparks. He wore a black leather robe with an image of a Ground-Concept Evil Spirit floating with arms crossed on the back, topped with the two characters "Bully." His overall look was exactly like a street thug from the ancient era of Earth.

Ming Dun standing beside him was even more extreme; his upper body was bare, revealing tanned bronze arms. The muscle lines looked solid, but they were tattooed with various strange patterns and words using combat modules, looking as if a demonic spirit had possessed him.

The clan members in the back rows were also a chaotic mob. Some wore sunglasses with lenses larger than their faces, with the characters "666" looping as bullet-screen effects on the lenses. Others wore clothing from the ancient era of Earth, holding two laser guns produced by the Arms Merchant Guild within their wide robes and sleeves.

What Brother Ming Hou found hardest to endure was the female clan member named Ming Tao. She clearly had a delicate face, yet wore smoky eye makeup, her lips painted a dark purple, wearing a shirt covered in skulls. Her skirt hem was so short it only revealed her thighs, yet she wore a pair of heavy metal boots on her feet. A headband was tied around her forehead, with a line of text printed on it: "If you disagree, come fight!"

It could be seen that cultural invasion was severe.

These young clan members had a high degree of contact with new things. Combined with teaming up with players of other races for hunting after becoming players, they were obviously influenced on a cultural level. Furthermore, having removed the shackles of their inner minds, they were completely liberated.

This group gathered together looked like a fashion show.

Every clan member's attire leaned towards the word "showy," yet their temperament still carried a bit of unshed awkwardness, making them look both roguish and ridiculous.

Brother Ming Hou rubbed the center of his brow and did not speak out to reprimand them.

Having broken away from the Fate Clan, the clan members were completely free; he would not set any restrictions for them either.

Except for what was needed for development, let them play however they wanted.

Taking a deep breath, Brother Ming Hou's gaze swept over the faces of the clan members:

"The task requirements given to you this time are not difficult. Next, you only need to go to the game space and play a few rounds of gambling games with the members of the Youlu Council."

Speaking thus, Brother Ming Hou summoned the function panel.

He broadcast the edited recorded video he had made to the clan members:

"Watch the video first, then remember what I say. The 'me' in the video is a wrong example. You must remember three points. First, in the early stage, we use the Disguise Technique to enter. After the Disguise Technique is cracked, activate different Painful Painful Minghun forms to enter. Second, every time you enter to participate in the gambling game, you can win at most four rounds of gambling, but do not win too easily; you must pretend to win with stumbling difficulty. Third, absolutely do not make mistakes similar to mine. You must lose reasonably, allowing the other side to obtain the Zu Qun Lao Yin naturally and logically."

After listening to Brother Ming Hou's explanation, the clan members shook their heads:

"Clan Master, I am already a player. Why not just use cheats to crush them? Why bother pretending to be a noob?"

Brother Ming Hou glared fiercely at the clan member who spoke:

"Go watch the video I broadcast first, then ask why. What I want is not victory, but defeat."

The clan member closed his mouth resentfully, then everyone clicked open the video Brother Ming Hou had broadcast.

On the video light screen that popped up, scenes flashed by one by one: Brother Ming Hou's mocking face when he arrogantly exposed You Ai's cheating and intentional letting go, and finally his calm acceptance of death. This also made the clan members present understand why Brother Ming Hou wanted them to win with difficulty and absolutely not be overly showy.

When the video ended, the clan member who had asked just now nodded in realization:

"Understood... Clan Master wants us to lower our stance so the Youlu Council thinks they can easily handle us, only then will they feel safe enough to launch the slaughter plan, thereby wearing down the combat power of the Youlu Council."

Seeing that they finally understood the key point, Brother Ming Hou nodded:

"Remember, you must win by luck and lose naturally." He paused, then added:

"Two people enter per batch, with a half-hour interval. Even if you enter very close to each other, you must pretend not to know each other."

The clan members all agreed and began to form pairs.

The 32 clan members were divided into 16 groups.

With Brother Ming Hou's assistance, they released their spiritual power and began to disguise the aura of their life fluctuations.

As for their appearance, Brother Ming Hou originally planned to purchase materials from the Trading Hall to assist the clan members in deep disguise.

But looking at their current bizarre attire, there was absolutely no need for that.

The first group was Ming Man and Ming Dun.

"Let's go teach the Youlu Council a lesson." Ming Man bumped Ming Dun's arm and walked towards the center of the teleportation array first.

Ming Dun grinned, revealing two rows of white teeth:

"Just thinking about it makes me a little excited. A pure cheat-fueled easy match."

When they arrived at the center of the teleportation array, Brother Ming Hou raised his hand to activate the teleportation mode, and the two figures immediately disappeared into the halo.

At this moment, Brother Ming Hou summoned the forum interface and checked the clan members' subsequent movements by watching the live stream.

In the image, the two clan members passed through the teleportation channel and entered the capture channel of the game space.

Not long after, they landed in the game space.

When the gambling began, neither of the two clan members in the first round chose to cheat; they relied solely on luck to roll the dice.

Ten minutes later, the second group of clan members set off.

Before entering the teleportation array, one of the clan members turned around and gave him a thumbs up:

"Clan Master, rest assured. We guarantee to lose in a way they can find no fault with."

Brother Ming Hou stood aside, watching the clan members enter the teleportation array with grins, and activated the teleportation array with a thought in an instant.

During the process, he also purchased energy crystals from the Player Shangcheng to replenish the energy consumption required for teleportation.

As more and more clan members were teleported to the game space, Brother Ming Hou himself did not go again, but watched the clan members' actions through the live stream.

If he discovered inappropriate behavior during the process, he would send bullet-screen messages to remind them.

The clan members' acting skills satisfied him greatly. Sometimes they would shake their heads in frustration due to failure, sometimes sigh because they drew useless cards. The flawed operations and the nervous emotions frequently shown on their faces were exactly the plot development he wanted.

When the first group met defeat in the gambling, Brother Ming Hou decisively summoned the forum and checked the Competitive Party section.

Especially those players who had just been selected to participate.

While Man Nu was speaking, Brother Ming Hou's gaze swept over the alien figures standing together with the players.

He discovered that no members of the Silent Law Council had appeared.

This left him feeling slightly regretful.

But the Ancient God Arena is, after all, a layered space; even with players entering every moment, the probability of encountering a Silent Law Council member remains very low.

Only with more victories do competitors from the same batch have a higher chance of meeting.

He chose to ask the Guide directly for the answer.

The reply he received made Brother Ming Hou clench his fist in excitement.

As he had expected, the members of this batch of the Silent Law Council had been sent separately to the Palace of Bliss and the Ancient God Arena.

As for why this was done, he could roughly guess.

Besides the mental torture battlefield on the side of the Earth-Will Bully, players have two factions that mutually farm integrity; neither side currently holds any conflicting interests, and they mutually leverage each other's rule logic to boost their own camp's combat power.

The first of these two factions is the Ancient God Clan, which dominates the Sea of Death.

The arena they established can be called a "master" training base for the player camp.

Players following this growth path study combat techniques every day; it is the gathering place for the batch of players with the strongest individual combat power.

Since the server opened, it has cultivated many well-known technique-style players.

Secondly, to improve the output efficiency of rule-derived energy, the Ancient God Arena selects a batch of fighters for training at regular intervals.

From these training programs, players learned many deep-use techniques for various abilities.

Secondly, there is the A-Le Training Ground, the strongest newbie training base.

Since the server opened, it has supplied a large number of elites to the major playstyle factions; it is the scenario most suitable for players' early-phase growth and transition.

Its importance is in no way inferior to the Di-Zhu Village battlefield.

Both are training grounds capable of continuously generating massive resource returns for the player camp.

Sending Silent Law Council members to the Palace of Bliss and the Ancient God Arena in the form of welfare gift packs will ultimately return to the players as resources, brought back to their own camp.

With the method of clearly exploiting a bug confirmed feasible, Brother Ming Hou's hanging heart finally settled, and a smile rose at the corner of his lips.

The good show officially begins.

……

Two days later.

Batch after batch of Fate Clan players entered and exited the Game Arena in a noob posture.

Every time they failed and left, they took a batch of Silent Law Council members to their graves with them.

This issue quickly drew the attention of the Silent Law Council's high command.

At this moment, in the Silent Law Council's deliberation hall, the ocean formed by gathered energy was filled with phantoms.

On the crystal ball suspended in the center, thousands of red dots flickered.

Each red dot represented a clansman who had lost contact.

They were members guided by the "Zu Qun Lao Yin" toward unknown regions after the Slaughter Operation was launched.

Only this time, the situation was somewhat unusual.

In the past, Slaughter Squads would also go missing; they never investigated deeply.

The Monster World is fraught with danger; encountering forces that are impossible to resist or running into sudden risks is already normal.

But this time, within a short time, a total of 57 Slaughter Squads had completely lost contact, with 3,363 clansmen in total missing.

By common sense, even if they encountered stubborn resistance, at least a sliver of an energy signal should have been transmitted back as feedback.

Yet now, every squad that deployed seemed to have been erased out of thin air the instant their teleportation ended, leaving not even a single ripple of struggle.

This was by no means a natural loss of contact; it was more like some external force had deliberately cut off all communications, leaving the clansmen as kites with severed lines, unable to transmit even a final distress signal back to the clan.

The Silent Law Council Chair, who was in the lead, looked at a figure ahead at this moment, then flicked his fingertip toward the central crystal ball.

Accompanied by the rapid consumption of rule-derived energy from the game space, the spatial coordinates retaining the clansmen's aura slowly materialized.

"You Youxuan, track based on the residual spatial fluctuations and investigate the specific situation clearly."

"I will depart immediately."

The Youxuan who gave the reply suddenly solidified his surrounding indigo-blue phantom, raised his hand, and extracted the spatial coordinate information from the crystal.

He then transformed into a pale-blue streak of light and surged out of the ocean of energy.

He did not choose conventional spatial teleportation; instead, he directly mobilized the energy within his body to tear open space along the coordinate trajectory marked by the crystal ball.

Along the way, the spatial barriers rippled layer by layer before him; nodes that normally required precise calculation to penetrate were now as if paved in advance by an invisible force.

His figure leaped multiple times within the spatial rifts; after leaving the spatial channel, Youxuan soon collided with a spatial wall, only to discover that no matter how he tore at it, he could not break through.

Just as the Silent Law intended to continue trying.

He suddenly felt a terrifying pressure surge from within the spatial barrier ahead.

Youxuan instinctively looked up, and saw that within the spatial barrier, an indescribable purple figure was slowly manifesting.

His figure had no clear outline; his face constantly shifted like ripples in water; the indigo-purple flames burning on his body caused the surrounding space to wrinkle with every movement.

This figure did not open its eyes, yet it was as if countless eyes pierced through the spatial barrier and fixed directly upon him.

Every gaze carried a crushing pressure heavy enough to pulverize the body.

Merely from that gaze, Youxuan felt the energy within his body as if frozen; the frequency of the energy he released became completely chaotic, and even maintaining the flow of energy became difficult.

At this moment, Youxuan felt the despair of an ant facing the firmament.

He realized that the opponent's level of life had long surpassed the scope he could comprehend.

The spatial wall continued to tremble; the pressure emanating from the purple figure grew heavier and heavier; Youxuan did not even dare to continue thinking about how to respond.

He decisively let out a roar, and instantly the energy within his body ran wild.

Just then, the blurry purple figure also shuddered.

This scene truly terrified Youxuan; he tore the space behind him with all his might and charged back.

The thought of escape overwhelmed everything else.

Compared to investigating the whereabouts of its clansmen, preserving its own life was clearly more important.

The life projection within the spatial barrier was clearly not an existence that their Nether Rhythm Council could afford to provoke.

Even if the Council poured out all its combat strength, it would only become nourishment for the other party.

The vanished signals, the clansmen who had been erased—all now had an answer.

They had most likely already been devoured by the demonic entity of that purple figure.

The pressure behind it did not pursue, but Youxuan did not dare to stop.

Escaping for its life by burning itself, every spatial jump came with a searing, burning pain.

Yet it did not dare look back; only one thought screamed madly in its mind: run, run fast, the farther from here the better.

On the other side.

The projection of the Lord of Bliss watched the figure tear through space and depart, and let out a long breath of relief.

That sudden, terror-stricken howl from earlier had been so abrupt that it had nearly shaken apart the divine power it was using to maintain the projection.

It had thought some force had found the entrance to the branch palace and was attempting to force its way through.

Although the energy fluctuations leaking from the other's energy body were not particularly strong, who could know whether there were stronger trump cards behind it?

No force that could hold its footing in Monster World was easy to deal with.

It had even been calculating in its mind that if things really came to it, it might as well just shut down this Bliss Branch Palace altogether—better that than having the whole thing wiped out in one go.

At least it could recover most of the energy.

As long as Zhudian still stood, losing one branch palace would not cripple it.

But before it could dismantle the branch palace, that figure had suddenly let out a shriek as if it had seen a ghost, then burned its own energy and fled.

It could basically be concluded that the other party had not come to attack the branch palace.

It had been scared off by the power it itself had leaked.

It lowered its head to look at its projected body, then glanced at the small crack on the spatial barrier caused by that burst of energy from earlier, and suddenly felt quite helpless between laughter and tears.

So it had just scared itself—a false alarm.

Thinking that it had preserved a branch palace, the Lord of Bliss's mood instantly became pleasant.

Nothing made it feel more at ease than stable development.

On the other side, after multiple spatial jumps, Youxuan—which had left the Bliss Branch Palace—appeared in an unfamiliar environment within Monster World.

After restraining the frequency of its energy release, the faint blue glow emanating from Youxuan's body immediately dimmed considerably.

Although it had already escaped, the encounter from earlier still left it with lingering fear.

The energy core within its body was still trembling slightly because of that purple pressure from earlier.

Too terrifying.

The moment it recalled it, it could not help but tremble.

It was the first time it had smelled the breath of death so clearly.

It could be affirmed that if that purple figure had wanted to strike at it then, it could never have escaped alive.

And the Nether Rhythm Council behind it could not have provided it any assistance either.

Should it just return to the clan lands?

The moment this thought arose, it was suppressed back down.

Fifty-seven squads, 3,363 clansmen lost contact—such a massive loss; if it could not even ascertain the specific cause, returning would offer no explanation.

From the information drawn from the clan crystal, there was still a second coordinate; perhaps the situation there would be better.

But upon recalling that purple phantom, it instinctively felt the urge to retreat.

Thoughts churning, Youxuan hesitated for a moment, then finally clenched its teeth.

After transmitting the details of the encounter back to the clan lands, it called up the next spatial trajectory, locked onto the second coordinate again, and once more tore through space to depart.

Not long after, Youxuan's figure appeared above a stretch of azure sea.

The salty, fishy sea wind, laden with moist vapor, came rushing at its face.

It looked down; the seawater beneath its feet was clear as a mirror, and one could clearly see the glowing schools of fish swimming in the depths.

Where Youxuan had descended was precisely the sea area where the Ancient God Arena was located.

The once ghost-haunted Death Sea, shrouded year-round in shadow, had now been reborn anew after the recovery of the Mist Abyss Clan.

The descended Youxuan locked its gaze straight ahead, on a massive island in the sea.

Through the invisible barrier, one could see a competition ladder towering into the clouds standing on the island, as well as a floating competition platform.

Based on the spatial information, it could basically be confirmed that the clansmen who had lost contact were within this island.

Youxuan took a deep breath, and was just about to urge its energy forward, when suddenly a heaven-shaking rumble came from the center of the island.

Immediately after, a giant hand burning with the fierce flames of vital energy suddenly rose up from within the island; when its five fingers spread open, they actually blotted out half the sky, and a terrifying pressure descended with a thunderous crash.