Chapter 7: Beneath Di Zhao

Beneath Di Zhao Village, 300 meters underground.

Qi Sheng stood before the blue crystal containment wall, his gaze sweeping over the three Meng Yuan Chu monster Painful Painful Minghun already contained and imprisoned; a soft tube extended from within the crystal wall into each of their backs, continuously drawing out some scarlet-red energy.

Closing his eyes, scarlet-red flames instantly climbed and clung to his entire body.

His head transformed into Xiong Xiong burning scarlet-red flames, shifting between the real and the illusory, while three small orbs of light appeared around him, rotating about his body.

Switching to the Beneath Di Zhao form, data-driven information providing guidance and feedback floated into Qi Sheng's mind.

【King of Monsters: Beneath Di Zhao】:

Controlling the Source Land:

Beneath Di Zhao Village (Territory Trait: Life Reshaping)

Territory resistance against the Black Tide consumption: 1000 points of Shou Shou Jili per day.

Retainers: Nine Yin, Yan Ming, Guidance, Hyper-Dimensional.

Remaining Shou Shou Jili pool: 130,428.

Containment wall Shou Shou Jili output: 30 points per hour.

Contained Meng Yuan Chu: Gargoyle (Petrification), Black-Armored Snake (Fierce Poison), Eagle-Headed Demon (Resentful Chant).

……

Although he inherited the source of Beneath Di Zhao and became the new Beneath Di Zhao,

his strength at this stage was not strong.

The previous Beneath Di Zhao, over ten thousand years ago, decomposed his power into countless Meng Yuan Chu monsters, scattering them across the Monster World.

As the new Beneath Di Zhao, he only inherited the Self-Source, but lost the countless power characteristics that had been decomposed and sent away.

The original intention of recruiting players was to have them explore the Monster World, which had been ravaged and destroyed by the Black Tide, and contain the Meng Yuan Chu power lost by Beneath Di Zhao—that is, the Meng Yuan Chu monsters.

For every Meng Yuan Chu monster contained, his strength would receive partial reinforcement, and he would also gain one of the power characteristics lost by Beneath Di Zhao.

Furthermore, the Meng Yuan Chu monsters evolved from Beneath Di Zhao's power, once imprisoned in the containment wall, could produce 10 points of Shou Shou Jili per hour.

The Gargoyle, the Black-Armored Snake, and the Eagle-Headed Demon, these three contained Meng Yuan Chu monsters, could produce 30 points of Shou Shou Jili per hour, yielding 720 points of Shou Shou Jili per day.

But the daily expenditure of Shou Shou Jili for Beneath Di Zhao Village to resist the Black Tide was 1,000 points; at this stage, expenditure exceeded income.

The remaining Shou Shou Jili would be consumed very soon; he needed more channels to generate revenue.

This was one of the reasons he chose to impersonate the extremely popular "Dark Lands" to recruit players, hoping to create more Shou Shou Jili output through them.

Another reason for recruiting players was that he needed more territory nodes.

The Monster World was tens of thousands of times larger than Earth, composed of countless territory nodes pieced together; every source node retained the rule characteristics controlled by Beneath Di Zhao.

For example, the rule characteristic of the territory of Beneath Di Zhao Village was "Life Reshaping."

Players were able to resurrect through the characteristic power provided by Beneath Di Zhao Village.

There were many similar territories in the Monster World; he needed players to seize territory nodes already eroded by the terrifying Black Tide, integrate them into Beneath Di Zhao Village, and bring more territory characteristics.

First, contain the Meng Yuan Chu.

Second, reclaim the territory nodes.

These were the two most important reasons he recruited players.

If the plan succeeded, he would become the true Beneath Di Zhao God, obtaining the powerful strength to face the terrifying Black Tide directly.

【Boss, the first batch of players created 32 points of Shou Shou Jili revenue for you in just half a day; not bad.】

Just then, Guidance, hovering beside him, suddenly spoke.

"Still too slow; we must recruit more players."

The 32 points of Shou Shou Jili mentioned by Guidance referred to the Shou Shou Jili obtained after Li Zheng and other players killed a large number of Cursed Soldiers, extracted the energy, and refined it; he would draw thirty percent of that revenue and send it to the Shou Shou Jili pool beneath Beneath Di Zhao Village.

He had carefully considered this setting.

Drawing too much would be detrimental to player growth; drawing too little would fail to offset Beneath Di Zhao Village's daily Shou Shou Jili expenditure.

Thirty percent was just right.

Switching to human form, the scarlet-red flames on his head extinguished, and the three orbs of light surrounding his body also dissipated.

【When do you plan to open new recruitment?】

"Now!"

With a raised hand, a spatial teleportation array appeared beneath Qi Sheng's feet.

After a brief spatial distortion, he returned to his bedroom in the real world.

How to recruit more players; he had already formulated a clear plan.

In the early stage, he would use the ultra-popular reputation of "Dark Lands" to attract new users.

Players wanted virtual reality; what he gave them was a real world.

The target this time remained those who wanted to play "Dark Lands" but were unable to do so due to the Gao Ang game price.

This group generally had played virtual reality games, possessed a certain technical foundation, and could quickly adapt to the game environment and grow rapidly.

Compared to purely pay-to-win players, this group was more suitable for the early exploration and development of the Monster World.

He still had 130,000 points of Shou Shou Jili; crafting each monster body required 1,000 points of Shou Shou Jili energy, allowing him to recruit at most 130 players.

Combined with the consumption required to maintain the operation of Beneath Di Zhao Village's defensive barriers, he could only temporarily distribute qualification slots to the outside world in a limited manner.

……

【Kindergarten Small Class Passionate Chat Group (Online: 38 people)】

Kindergarten Principal (Group Owner): (News Link) Latest news: The Eclipse Clan behind "Dark Lands" has issued another 1 million game purchase slots to our Human Federation!

Small Class - Black Ball: I don't want to hear this news; obviously, I am not among those 1 million slots, and the price is even more discouraging (Sigh. jpg).

Small Class - Iron Hammer: I read this news; reportedly, the high-level officials of the Human Federation hoped to apply for more slots, wanting to use the virtual environment for experiments, but the Eclipse Clan refused.

Small Class - Don't Nap: Alas, who can blame us for failing to develop a virtual reality game with such high fidelity as "Dark Lands."

Class Small-Drunk Milk: I have a proposal. Since everyone wants to play but is restricted by insufficient funds and cannot experience the game content, I suggest we pool our funds to purchase a copy of Dark Lands for me. I will experience the game content on everyone's behalf, carrying your passion and desire to play happily in Dark Lands.

Class Small-Cute Baby replied to Class Small-Drunk Milk: I agree with pooling funds, but why should the one enjoying it be you and not me (Angry table slam. jpg)?

Just as the group members were wailing that the price of Dark Lands was too high, a line of small text popped up at the bottom of the chat group:

【Benefit Officer passed verification and joined the chat group.】

Kindergarten Principal (Group Owner): Who is this? I checked the verification info; it doesn't show who approved the application?

Class Small-No Nap: Blind guess: the newcomer is a Yellow Picture Brother, with a huge stock of color videos and color pictures in hand, so he calls himself a Benefit Officer... I represent the group members in extending a warm welcome to you.

Class Small-Black Ball: @Benefit Officer, why isn't the newcomer speaking? Start your benefit special; I'm ready.

Under the group members' constant @ mentions, Qi Sheng sent his first message after joining the group:

Benefit Officer: I have good things that everyone wants on hand. Wait a moment, I'll send them to everyone.

Class Small-Drunk Milk: We all know you have them, but we hope they are free. This group does not welcome Movie-Selling Brothers, only free Benefit Brothers.

Benefit Officer: Do you want to play Dark Lands?

Kindergarten Principal (Group Owner): Buddy, are you about to tell us next that you can buy authentic qualifications at a discount for us (Laughing out loud. jpg)?

Benefit Officer: Fate is a thing. I'll give everyone a super benefit. I've posted the link to download the cracked version of Dark Lands in the group. If you want to play, you can download it anytime (Link: *****).

Seeing the download link for Dark Lands, the originally lively group instantly fell silent. Then the group owner was the first to break the calm.

Kindergarten Principal (Group Owner): @Benefit Officer, get lost! Sending you a plane ticket. This scam technique is simply 500 years behind the times. Whoever falls for it is an idiot.

【Notice: Group member "Benefit Officer" has been kicked out of the chat group】

Class Small-Cute Baby: This buddy is way too hasty. He's not even as good as the scammer who entered our group a year ago. I still clearly remember that scammer got along with us for three months, occasionally sending red packet benefits. Suddenly one day he claimed to have an internal discount recharge channel for Blood Frenzy. I believed him at the time, but ended up being scammed out of 800.

Kindergarten Principal: Hahaha, I remember the one who got scammed the worst back then was Drunk Milk. He transferred 3000 to buy the discounted recharge.

Class Small-Drunk Milk: Society is treacherous. Just thinking about it makes my heart ache. After that ordeal, my innocence disappeared... The more I think about it, the angrier I get. I'll go into the link right now, collect the content, and report it to the Federal Cyber Police. The internet uses real-name authentication; I hope to drag the scammer out for trial.

(End of this chapter)