Chapter 70: Blackening Me, Are We? (Second Update)

Emperor's Tomb Mountain Range.

Duan Xing gazed from afar at the Player Clan members hunting evil spirits, his confusion deepening with each day of observation.

To investigate this ancient power that claimed to be the Player Clan, he had secretly observed and followed them for a long time, finally arriving at an absurd conclusion.

The Player Clan's ancestral land was likely built within the Outer Realm.

During his observations, he found that the locations where Player Clan members appeared were on the fringes of the Emperor's Tomb Mountain Range.

This area was impenetrable to him; it was highly likely that the Monster World's barrier separated the Outer Realm.

From this, it could be concluded that the Player Clan, who fell into slumber in ancient times, had arrived from the Outer Realm, and might even have returned from other Dimensional Worlds.

He had never been to the Outer Realm, yet he had some understanding of it.

According to the combat instructors at the Against the Tide Academy, the "Immortal Clan," one of the new powers that rose in the last two hundred years, was an Outer Realm faction.

Their homeland had been corroded and destroyed by the Black Tide; the remaining clansmen descended upon the Monster World before the world collapsed, and here they joined forces with multiple races and factions suffering the same fate to build a powerful army to resist the Black Tide.

The situation of the Player Clan was exactly the opposite.

During the most ferocious stage of the Black Tide's eruption, they retreated to the Outer Realm, only to awaken and return recently, attempting to rekindle the fire of Beneath Di Zhao.

However, he did not doubt the players' loyalty.

It could be seen from the Player Clan's constant hunting of evil spirits that their hatred for evil spirits was no less than his own; upon seeing evil spirits, they would inevitably engage in battle, fighting to the death even if their strength was inferior.

There must have been reasons for avoiding battle back then.

Secondly, the Player Clan's logic and way of thinking differed significantly from his own method of problem-solving.

This point also fit the characteristics of ancient powers very well, possessing values completely different from those of life born in this era.

But there was one point that left him puzzled.

The way the Player Clan entered the Monster World was not a mass migration of the entire clan, but rather they descended one by one through the world barrier, then roamed the Emperor's Tomb Mountain Range area to seek out evil spirits and engage in slaughter.

The feeling he got was that the Player Clan was taking turns throwing themselves to their deaths, with absolutely no tactical arrangement.

Compared to other races and factions in the Monster World, the Player Clan could hardly be described as weak; they could only barely fight against unintelligent evil spirits, and even victory was a stretch.

But the Player Clan was not without merit.

Through these days of observation, he discovered that the Player Clan possessed immense growth potential.

The growth speed of several specifically observed Player Clan members was truly unbelievable to him.

From initially needing to combine forces to barely kill a Blood Corpse, to now being able to kill a Blood Corpse alone, they achieved a leap in strength in just one week.

For example, that Player Clan member whom he had bestowed the Sky Talisman combat technique upon had, in an extremely short time, comprehended the usage of the Sky Talisman combat technique and could already easily absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to temper his body.

This terrifying speed of learning and progress was something he had never seen before.

His understanding was that the long slumber had caused the Player Clan members' strength to plummet greatly, and through combat, they could gradually restore the lost power.

Secondly, there was the ability of the Player Clan members.

They could transform into various forms of monsters; different forms could release different ability characteristics, and some abilities even made him see shadows of rule characteristics.

This discovery made Duan Xing even more firm in his thoughts.

If possible, he hoped to incorporate the Player Clan into the Against the Tide Legion, making them one of the many factions within the Against the Tide Legion.

It was said that the Against the Tide Legion's garrison in the Great Northern Region had already incorporated a faction that arrived from the Outer Realm; they fought bravely, possessed extremely formidable strength, and had become one of the strongest Against the Tide branch legions in the Great Northern Region area.

This idea took root in Duan Xing's mind, believing that incorporating the Player Clan would bring assistance to the development of the Against the Tide Legion.

But the unsolvable problem was how he could establish contact with the Trial Supervisor, "Elder You."

Having lost the shuttle, his path back was cut off; his only hope was to wait for the supervisor to come looking for him.

If he himself could hardly return, how could he take the Player Clan members back with him?

He couldn't help but sigh, turning his gaze toward the Player Clan members not far away.

Seeing them rushing toward him, Duan Xing decisively flew into the sky to escape.

The Player Clan members' arrival clearly had ill intentions; they would inevitably gift him some inexplicable things, and then demand various props, items, and even information stones recording combat techniques from him.

To repay the debt of saving his life, he had already given away many props and items he carried with him.

To this day, what things did he still have left to gift to the players?

Unless it was this set of rune armor on his body.

He could be certain that the Player Clan members would dare to shamelessly ask him for it, but there was absolutely no possibility of him giving it away.

The armor was his father's heirloom, connected to his heart; even if he died, he would not take it off.

As long as the debt of saving his life existed, he could not strike at the Player Clan members; avoiding them was the best strategy.

Meng Yuan Chu Altar.

At this moment, Qi Sheng was browsing a popular post on the forum.

The content discussed in this post concerned the first-generation Meng Yuan Chu monster "Mud Demon," which had been contained three hours ago.

The Mud Demon's appearance resembled a clump of clay polymer; it was an unexpected find by a team of novice players exploring near the Spirit Artifact Valley, and its ability characteristic name was "Dissolve."

It could spit out mucus to cause continuous strong acid corrosion damage to contacted targets.

The appearance of a new Painful Painful Minghun should have been a cause for universal joy.

However, the Mud Demon's appearance was too ugly; forum players despised it in various ways, even calling it the most disgusting Meng Yuan Chu monster, with the vast majority of players believing that the Mud Demon's monster form and ability characteristics would never be purchased and embedded by any player.

Yet on that very day, a player developed a hunting mode suitable for the "Dissolve" Painful Painful Minghun.

The player who pioneered this hunting mode enthusiastically published his concept and combat video on the forum, dubbing it the Trap Flow tactic.

The strength of this tactic lay in its ability to complete level-skipping hunts in a very easy manner.

In the attached demonstration video footage.

A five-person player team dug a tunnel two meters deep and over ten meters long in the Ancient Battlefield area, then sequentially placed ground spikes, torches, and other common props purchased from Shangcheng inside the tunnel, turning the passage into a trap corridor where any forward movement would cause damage.

The end of the corridor was a pool of solution spat out by the player after transforming into the Mud Demon.

The hunting process was simple: one member of the squad used their body as bait to lure several blood corpses into the passage.

Players standing at the end of the passage would become the targets of the blood corpses at this moment.

Then came the layout of Plants vs. Zombies.

Each step the blood corpses took inflicted damage; meanwhile, the four players standing at the very rear continuously threw fireballs in bone-fire form, intensifying the damage inflicted on the blood corpses.

Eventually, the blood corpses fell into the pit dug ahead of the players' standing area, drowned in the dissolving pool, and met their end.

This tactic received many upvotes from forum players, giving the Painful Painful Minghun, once heavily criticized, a practical use; it was also the first hunting strategy since server launch to achieve victory without direct combat, sparking interest among many players in trap-based gameplay.

And this was precisely what Qi Sheng wanted to see.

Players' imaginative creativity was gradually emerging in the Monster World.

Every option of Painful Painful Minghun could find practical applications through imaginative combinations.

……

Tianfeng City, slum district.

Exiting the game, his vision returned from the virtual desktop to reality.

Intense weakness made Li Zheng struggle to adapt, even sparking a desire to log back into *Dark Land*.

The gap between game and reality became especially pronounced after level increases.

In the game, his primary human form perfectly inherited the attributes of the Level 24 Black Scale Snake and Level 11 Power Axe Barbarian, with combined stats fifteen times those of his initial primary form—so much so that in reality, he could be called a superhuman.

The attribute enhancements brought more than just numerical changes on the stat sheet.

His senses also underwent transformation during level increases, making the entire world feel sharper in perception.

For example, vision: after each level-up, it became more acute; distant scenes once blurred were now crystal clear, even minute dust particles in the light became distinctly visible, and the world's color layers grew richer.

Hearing became three-dimensional and nuanced: the rustle of wind through leaves, the low roars of distant monsters, even the faint sound of falling leaves landing on the ground all reached his ears clearly.

Touch: in the game, he could detect finer tactile differences by running his hands over surfaces.

Smell and taste were the same: scents and stenches in the air could be precisely captured, and flavors of food entering his mouth became distinctly layered.

More importantly, this sensory sharpening was not merely a physical upgrade—it accompanied a spiritual awakening, with the individual's perception and comprehension strengthening in tandem.

It felt to him as if his body had merged with nature, achieving the heavenly-human unity found only in movies and novels, offering delightful feedback impossible in reality.

This was why returning to reality after logging out created such a profound sense of loss.

His former body had felt like carrying a heavy chain, but he had long grown accustomed to it; in the game, his body shed that heavy chain, fully liberating its senses, making movement and thought sharper.

But after exiting the game, that heavy chain returned.

His vision grew dim, perception dulled, all feedback became terrible, leaving him deeply uncomfortable.

The game pod lid opened, and Li Zheng rose.

He entered the bathroom to wash off the nutrient fluid, then returned to his desk and began reviewing recent bank transfers.

After comparing them one by one and confirming all Shou Shou Jili sales had been paid, his stomach growling, he immediately ordered a luxury takeout meal, deciding to treat himself well.

Before *Dark Land*'s release, online users predicted the game would spark a new wealth myth, creating countless new-era billionaires.

Just like past waves—internet boom, AI revolution, digital transformation, the advent of virtual worlds—*Dark Land*'s launch would produce a wave of new-era pioneers.

That prediction had already become reality within the game.

*Dark Land*'s early performance had triggered a trend of wealth redistribution: gold-spending players were willing to pay high prices to buy the labor of grind players, enabling these laborers to convert their in-game "labor output" into real-world income, with no taxes or deductions.

More importantly, *Dark Land* had changed Li Zheng's quality of life.

He had already decided to make his living from *Dark Land* for the rest of his life.

Perhaps, with his first-mover advantage, he could build something significant within the game.

When the takeout arrived, Li Zheng ate while browsing the largest human federation star-net forum: Human Ascension.

After finding the *Dark Land* section, nearly every post in the list was a recruitment ad; few players discussed game content.

Li Zheng found this unsurprising.

Every game developed by the Eclipse Clan had an integrated forum—including *Dark Land*—and its forum features were fully functional; there was no need to rely on external forums for game discussions.

While scrolling, a post title caught his eye.

【*Dark Land*: The Biggest Scam in History—Though Priced at 128,888, It Falls Far Short of the Groundbreaking Concept Advertised.】

Poster: Birth Certificate (IP: Yelan City)

Curious, Li Zheng clicked the title with his mouse.

The content made Li Zheng's eyes widen.

The poster first addressed the issue of simulation fidelity.

He claimed the Eclipse Clan's advertised "100% realism" was impossible—maximum achievable was 90%; upon close inspection, the game environment's feedback and model texture still revealed many flaws.

Second, the poster mentioned star-net feedback latency.

He stated that occasional loading delays and stutters occurred in-game—for example, when a player suddenly teleported to a new area, the screen displayed a mosaic scene, and only after several seconds did the model gradually load in.

There were also issues with physical simulation: players could fly into the sky by exploiting bugs, and repeatedly logging out and back in caused characters to become stuck in map terrain.

Other problems included interaction feedback frequency, data processing speed, and more.

Finally, the poster concluded that while this game outperformed *Crimson Land*, released five years ago, it still fell far short of being groundbreaking—merely rated as "excellent," yet vastly different from its advertising.

The poster urged the Eclipse Clan to optimize the game quickly, stating it still held enormous potential and should not be ruined by optimization issues.

After reading the post, Li Zheng had only one thought.

The poster was clearly provoked and was speaking nonsense.

His criticisms of the game were absurd—all outright lies and smear campaigns against *Dark Land*.

He had played the game for nearly a month since launch—he knew better than anyone how good or bad it was.

He had encountered none of the problems the poster mentioned; *Dark Land* had reached a perfect state indistinguishable from reality, with no flaws in any detail.

This had been repeatedly discussed in the in-game forum, with all players agreeing the game had surpassed modern technology, effectively creating an entirely new world.

Opening the poster's profile, he found their avatar was a purchase verification receipt, proving the posting player had indeed bought and experienced the game content.

But this discovery only made Li Zheng angrier, convinced the other was spreading baseless rumors.

Trying to smear us, huh?

He immediately took a screenshot of the post and sent it to the Ganyi Group.

The Ganyi Group players, who had been discussing tomorrow's group dinner, saw Li Zheng's screenshot and erupted in curses, vowing to go to the Rise of Humanity Forum to defend the Dark Lands and roast the player spreading lies and slandering "Dark Lands."

(End of Chapter)