Chapter 42: Apocalypse Technology

"Three Purification missions require outputting Painful Painful Minghun; apply to join the squad and depart immediately."

"Is there a powerful squad going on a Purification mission? I've unlocked the Second Star Vein; a Gargoyle plus Taunt combo guarantees the safety of other squad members."

"Purification mission needs people; don't apply if the monster level is below 8; only powerful players wanted."

After the global mission was released, the regional voice channel was flooded with recruitment messages.

Players moved in groups toward the Dark Cave.

By now, a long queue had already formed in front of the Dark Cave.

Although the underground has five layers of space, enough to accommodate a massive player group entering, the entrance can only fit two people walking side by side.

The arrival of a huge number of players caused congestion at the entrance, so they could only enter one by one by queuing.

Players inside the cave constantly explored the lower layers, engaging in fierce battles with Iron-Shell Beetles; occasionally, players died and their souls returned to Emperor's Tomb Village.

This process appeared extremely chaotic.

Meanwhile, players waiting outside to enter could only kill time via the forum or chat channels.

Just then, a forum post attracted a large crowd of players to watch.

【Did I enter the wrong game? These guys' combat methods are way too outrageous; did they turn on technology?】

OP: The Dark Lands are really fun.

Content: (Attached: Recorded video)

In the video footage, a group of players wearing initial black cloth robes were fighting fiercely against swarms of Iron-Shell Beetles on the second underground layer of the Dark Cave.

Unlike nearby other players who switched to monster forms to fight, they reached into their spatial bags, pulled out weapons resembling firearms, loaded them with Spirit Stones for charging, and opened fire on the Iron-Shell Beetles ahead.

Energy bullets fell like rain, dense and heavy; upon hitting the Iron-Shell Beetles, sparks erupted, leaving bullet holes on their hard carapaces as blood splattered.

This combat mode consumes no stamina; replenishing bullets is also very simple—just buy an Energy Crystal in Shangcheng and swap it out; combat power is unaffected by stamina, nor does it consume or require replenishing spiritual energy.

This scene stunned nearby players and left forum viewers watching the video dumbfounded.

Below the post, a huge number of players replied, launching a heated discussion on the video content.

Long Night: Wait, did I enter the wrong game? Where did they get firearms? I checked Shangcheng and there are absolutely no firearms for sale?

Reject Internal Friction: Cheating! I'm reporting cheating! How do they have firearms to use, and ones powered by Energy Stones? This isn't the same game we're playing.

Is This Beaver?: Huh? Isn't this the Spirit Energy Firearms from reality? I studied Spirit Energy Mechanics, so I know this field relatively well; I never expected them to be successfully crafted in the game; my jaw dropped in shock.

Word Ma Ya: Players' imaginations are indeed limitless; since this is a game that perfectly simulates reality, theoretically, real-world technology can be fully applied in the game; these guys are truly crazy, actually doing just that.

The "cheating players" that forum users were discussing heatedly were precisely the members of the Dome Weapon R&D Department who entered the game a while ago.

Restricted by funding issues, they followed Qin Ye's advice and buried themselves in the mine, digging for ore for two days.

After Duan Xing appeared, they followed Duan Xing's movement tracks, shuttling between the Ancient Battlefield and the Blood-Red Plains region, collecting quite a few Evil Crystals, and finally scraped together enough startup capital.

Without equipment to forge advanced weapons, they first bought Engraving Knives in Shangcheng and used Spirit Stones to craft a batch of Spirit Energy Firearms.

Though the craftsmanship of these simple Spirit Energy Firearms was basic, their power was not mediocre; the principle involves engraving a set of energy flow paths inside a Spirit Stone; after pulling the trigger, the path activates, rapidly drawing energy from the Energy Crystal embedded in the gun body, compressing it into an energy bullet as it flows along the path, and finally propelling it out of the barrel under the push of spiritual qi at the path's end.

Immediately after this batch of firearms was completed, the global mission appeared.

Members of the Apocalypse Technology Guild, led by Yang Yang Tianxuan, displayed their self-developed weapons in battle for the first time, creating the shocking scene of firepower coverage.

But during this process, the members of the Apocalypse Technology Guild felt extremely pained inside.

The scene of Spirit Energy Firearms roaring and firing dense bullets looked spectacular, but the consumption was terrifying.

Players using monster forms consume stamina to fight, while they consume Shou Shou Jili; every single bullet is purchased with Shou Shou Jili.

Fortunately, the Iron-Shell Beetles were numerous; one round of sweeping fire also brought considerable Shou Shou Jili revenue.

As for the balance sheet, the members of the Apocalypse Technology Guild didn't even consider it; this was their first actual combat test, intended solely to demonstrate the strength of the Apocalypse Technology Guild to other players.

Having experienced it for several days, they were incredibly satisfied with this game.

To establish a massive technological faction in the game in the future and conduct tests on various dangerous weapons, they would need massive financial support.

Relying solely on them was clearly insufficient; they needed to absorb more players to join.

Even if members joining the guild lacked technical support, providing financial aid could alleviate their resource shortage problems.

Yang Yang Tianxuan, the Director of the Weapon R&D Department, had a very simple idea.

Establish a powerful guild, then use that guild to earn massive amounts of Shou Shou Jili to provide resources for the research and testing of dangerous weapons.

Just as Yang Yang Tianxuan had anticipated.

The Apocalypse Technology Guild's first emergence sparked heated discussion on the forum.

The slaughter continued; the level-up prompts frequently rang in the minds of the Apocalypse Technology Guild members, and smiles inevitably appeared on their faces.

Although they followed the weapon development path, levels were equally important in the eyes of Yang Yang Tianxuan and others.

Before this, they thought the monster level system in the game had no connection whatsoever to the weapon development path they chose; the significance of monster levels was negligible, after all, they had never thought of engaging in hand-to-hand combat with monsters.

But after a guild member entered the Test Tower, their viewpoint changed.

The member who entered the Test Tower brought them an exhilarating message after finishing the test.

Many monster abilities in the Test Tower could provide assistance for their weapon development.

For example: Brain Overclock, Spirit Source.

The Brain Overclock monster trait enhances brain usage efficiency, significantly improving memory and concentration, and strengthening thinking processing capabilities.

The Spirit Source's efficiency is to strengthen spiritual energy recovery speed and weaken mental fatigue feedback.

The utility of these two abilities in the eyes of other players could be described as useless.

Especially Brain Overclock, which was even rated on the forum as one of the ten weakest Meng Yuan Chu abilities; yet in the eyes of Yang Yang Tianxuan and others, these two skills were simply god-tier, a hundred times stronger than those combat-type monster traits.

Including the "Lament" ability of the initial Eagle-Head Demon form they had always ignored; during this test, it was discovered that after leveling up, releasing Perception could even see a microscopic perspective, which also provided some assistance for weapon development.

After learning this news, Yang Yang Tianxuan and others personally entered the Test Tower for actual testing, which also gave rise to the idea of constructing a "Sage" path centered on Brain Overclock.

This school of thought, in its conception, discards all combat Painful Painful Minghun, embedding only functional Painful Painful Minghun.

Therefore, monster levels become extremely important; specific monster traits can bring a massive efficiency boost to their weapon development.

(End of this chapter)