Chapter 56: Even My Brothers Have Struck It Rich

The Primordial Sacrifice Altar.

Qi Sheng's consciousness quickly scrolled through the forum content.

Two days had passed since the campaign to purify the Gloomy Cave concluded, and the hottest topic among players was the expansion of Emperor Tomb Village's area and the incorporation of the Gloomy Cave.

The efficiency of player mining had improved significantly, saving the time previously spent traveling.

This successful containment of a domain node also made players realize a certain issue.

The core gameplay of this game was divided into two parts.

The first part was the growth of one's own strength, allowing for higher attribute bonuses and the hunting of stronger monsters and evil spirits.

The second part was faction growth; that is, the Emperor Zhao faction to which the players belonged. Every time a domain node was purified or a Primordial Monster was contained, all players within the faction would benefit.

After the campaign ended, many internal conflicts among players were thereby resolved.

For instance, the conflict between the Fanzuigong Society and the Shenyigong Society.

Prior to this, players from both sides had clashed multiple times outside Emperor Tomb Village, in the Ancient Battlefield, and within the Gloomy Cave, essentially killing each other on sight.

But in order to seize the Gloomy Cave as quickly as possible, the two major guilds ultimately chose to cooperate against the Black Armored Soldiers under the mediation of other guilds.

After the mission was completed, the conflict between the two sides was resolved.

Furthermore, the conclusion of this campaign gave Qi Sheng the idea of recruiting players once again.

After switching to his Emperor Zhao form, a vast amount of data information floated in his mind.

[Player Count: 10,329]

Number of Contained Primordial Traits: 15

Gargoyle (Petrification), Eagle-Headed Demon (Resentful Chant), Black Armored Snake (Deadly Poison), Bone Fire (Ink Flame), Brute Force, Shatter, Sweep, Soul Separation, Nether Ghost, Taunt, Twilight Shadow (Shadow Transformation), Light Shield, Qi Devouring, Resistance, Bind.

Today's Player Sacrificial Power Output (Commission): 132,552 points

Average Player Monster Level: 11.3

Controlled Domain Nodes:

Emperor Tomb Village (The burial ground of Emperor Zhao's last wisp of origin, possessing territorial rule traits that can reshape life and flesh and blood)

Gloomy Cave (Resource-type domain node, continuously enlightening spiritual ore resources)

Sacrificial Power Pool: 3,239,480

During this Gloomy Cave campaign, the players had contained four Primordial Monsters for him in total.

They were Taunt, Qi Devouring, Resistance, and Bind.

Among them, Taunt was a Generation-Two Primordial, while the remaining three were Generation-One Primordials.

The effect of Resistance was to greatly increase resistance to various elemental damages and reduce incoming damage, making it a very suitable Star Vein matching option in the eyes of Gargoyle players.

The last one, Bind, was discovered by players when they entered the fifth underground layer of the Gloomy Cave; it appeared as a plant, imprisoned in an ice chamber crafted by the Ice Blade Clan members, and was killed by the players' focused fire.

The manifestation of the Primordial Trait was to rapidly construct an energy cage near the target using spiritual power, restricting the target's movement.

However, the discussion Redu regarding the Bind Minghun on the forum was not high.

While this ability could indeed achieve good control effects when used alone, no powerful Star Vein combinations had been developed for it yet.

After conducting simulated experiences in the Test Tower, players felt that the relatively compatible match among existing Minghuns was the Gargoyle, because the Gargoyle was not primarily an output-focused Minghun, and adding a control Minghun allowed one to restrict the target's actions while enduring damage.

But at the current stage, player Star Vein levels were relatively low; compared to Taunt and Resistance, Bind was clearly not a priority option.

In terms of control effect, Taunt completely crushed Bind.

The only difference was that Taunt's control worked by attracting aggro, allowing the controlled target to continue dealing damage, whereas Bind was a small-area restriction, preventing the restricted target from dealing damage to any target before breaking the Bind cage.

As for ranged output-type players, they had the most choices in Minghun types, and Bind was not even in the running for the second, third, or even fourth option.

After reviewing the information, Qi Sheng opened his eyes.

There were still 3.23 million points of Sacrificial Power unused in the pool; he decided to initiate recruitment again.

This time, he planned to consume 2 million points of Sacrificial Power to recruit 2,000 new players into the game.

The remaining 1.3 million points of Sacrificial Power would be saved for distributing rewards and crafting new functions, to be used when needed.

8:00 PM.

Human Federation - Star Net Security Center.

"Little A, did you manage to grab a download qualification?"

Facing the inquiry, the projection robot on the desk spread its hands and shook its head, letting out a very human-like sigh of decadence:

"I used the method you suggested to perform high-frequency connections, but the feedback received was all failures, indicating that quotas have been distributed and download permissions have not been opened."

Hearing the AI brain Little A's explanation, Ding Xiu couldn't help but sigh as well.

His superiors had ordered him to investigate the truth behind the link, but this mission had absolutely no clues to follow up on for tracking and investigation.

The only download link visible on the surface was inaccessible without permission; in his view, this mission was simply impossible to complete.

Every day he would ask Little A several times, and each time he received the same result.

"Continue working."

No longer dwelling on this issue, Ding Xiu prepared to throw himself back into processing reported content.

Just then, Little A suddenly exclaimed:

"Ding Xiu, the access link is giving a different feedback."

"Show me quickly." Hearing this, Ding Xiu immediately perked up.

Little A pointed a finger, and a virtual light screen generated before Ding Xiu, where a pop-up window displayed a line of text:

[Connection Failed... As for why it failed, it's because you cheated.]

Ding Xiu: ...

Clearly, the controller behind this download link had discovered that he was using high-frequency connections to cheat and grab download qualifications.

The AI brain Little A also spread its hands helplessly at this moment:

"Facts prove that download permissions cannot be obtained through high-frequency methods; I suggest you try using a manual Cultivation Mode."

At the same time.

Human Federation, Yelan City.

In a room piled high with miscellaneous items, Tong Xin's eyes were bloodshot, and the computer desk before him was covered with snacks and energy drinks.

He opened the group chat page.

The usually incredibly lively Kindergarten chat group was silent; all members had rarely popped up since that day, and even when they occasionally appeared, it was only regarding some resurrection cooldown, after which they would immediately throw themselves back into the game.

"You guys really deserve to die... how could you leave me alone."

Muttering a sentence, Tong Xin continued to click the mouse frantically, attempting to obtain download permissions.

But the pop-up box always displayed the same content:

[Game downloads have reached the limited count; the publisher has not opened new download permissions, unable to continue downloading.]

"I don't believe it."

Facing the constant failure notifications, Tong Xin continued to bury his head and click wildly.

In order to grab a download qualification, he had quit his job.

Several days ago, Zui Nai had posted a picture in the group that greatly shocked him.

The content of the picture was a transfer receipt; Zui Nai had earned 13,000 Meng Yuan in profit by selling game currency from the Dark Land.

According to Zui Nai, this was his game earnings from three days, and with good luck, one could even earn that much in a single day.

The Dao heart of a worker shattered right then and there.

The most painful thing in life is watching your brothers get rich while you alone remain stuck in place.

Thinking of this, Tong Xin couldn't help but mutter:

"You guys really deserve to die!"

This feeling was simply more unbearable than if he had been killed himself.

So he quit his job and stayed home to begin his life of frantic clicking.

By today, he had already stayed up late for three days and three nights in a row to grab a spot; his dark circles were so thick that they scared him when he looked in the mirror, yet he still had no gains, as the link remained unopenable.

"I'm not resigned, let me grab it ahhhhh!"

The more he thought about it, the more his heart ached, and he accelerated his clicking speed.

The emotional agitation caused his already weak body to finally give out; his vision blurred at this moment, and in a daze of consciousness, Tong Xin collapsed Iron Face-first onto the computer desk, falling into unconsciousness.

Simultaneously, a prompt different from before popped up in the top right corner of the webpage:

[Downloading... Progress 0.01%]

(End of Chapter)