Chapter 86: Guide Upgrade System (First Update)

The Primordial Altar.

After observing for these past few days, Qi Sheng discovered that the livestream room opened by Li Zheng, a hardcore player from the Liver Emperor group, had become a permanent fixture at the top of the livestream popularity rankings.

Many players would enter Li Zheng's livestream room to watch the drama during their resurrection cooldown periods.

During daily meal times and the scheduled group brawls, bullet comments flew everywhere, making the livestream room exceptionally lively.

The brave performance of Li Zheng and other hardcore players, along with their crazy hunger-enduring tactics, earned them a nickname on the forum: the Hungry Wolf Pack.

Their performance stood in stark contrast to Lu Xing, who shrank back and admitted cowardice.

There were even enthusiastic onlookers who created a batch of meme images for them.

For example: "Stop Eating" (kicking over a dining table), "Hunger Training Begins" (the back view of the Liver Emperor group entering the cafeteria), "Macho Elbow Strike," "I Rule the Cafeteria," "Staying Up Late to Secretly Eat" (Liver Emperor group players closing the door and gobbling food), "Snap, the Food is Gone" (a Four-Eyed Clan novice looking at an overturned food tray with despair), and so on.

These screenshots from the livestreams, paired with text, had already become permanent popular meme images on the forum, on par with the Explorer series and the God of Wealth series.

The difference was that memes featuring Li Zheng and others were generally used when posting positive content.

Meanwhile, the God of Wealth "Red Temperature" series and the Explorer series were generally used when evaluating negative content.

What left Qi Sheng slightly regretful was that he still could not learn the specific situation of the Counter-Black Tide Legion through Li Zheng and the others, nor who Counter-Black Tide was, or where they were now.

The Phase One Training Camp was merely one location within the vast territory of the Counter-Black Tide Legion, making it impossible to track Counter-Black Tide's specific position.

However, Qi Sheng was not anxious about this problem.

During the days since Li Zheng and the others entered the training camp, the growth speed of the player legions had also improved significantly.

In the interim, the terrifying Black Black Tide rampaged again, so he issued another round of game qualifications to the outside world.

The total number of players had now reached 17,523; sacrificial power revenue rose with the Black Tide during this period, and everything was developing in the intended direction.

Among these, the greatest harvest was undoubtedly the successful containment of three new Primordial monsters.

These three Primordials were hunted and contained by players in the "Buried Bone Wilderness" north of the Fissure Furnace; they were respectively:

[Sluggishness (Generation 3 Primordial)]:

Primordial Trait Introduction: Domain-type trait; upon release, it generates a domain centered on itself. Targets entering the domain are dragged by the domain's power, and their action efficiency is restricted (continuously consumes mental energy during release; coverage range can be freely adjusted, but the larger the coverage range, the higher the continuous mental energy consumption).

The monster possessing this trait was a black stone three meters tall, its surface carved with various complex spirit runes; its hunting level was 34. In combat, it moved sluggishly, and the domain ability it released also inflicted a "Slow Motion" effect on players who approached.

It was taken down by "Divine King," the guild master of the Divine Hall Society, leading his guild members through a protracted battle lasting two hours; during this time, to sustain combat consumption, they spent nearly 1,500 points of sacrificial power purchasing potions in the mall.

[Running Thunder (Generation 2 Primordial)]:

Primordial Trait Introduction (Active): Continuously consumes mental energy to transform into a lightning sphere, dealing electric shock damage to contacted targets, accompanied by a physical paralysis effect (the specific paralysis effect is influenced by the target's physical strength; the higher the physical strength, the lower the impact).

The monster possessing this trait was a spherical lightning bolt surrounded by electric arcs; its hunting level was 23.

The containment location was an area west of the Buried Bone Wilderness, covered entirely in beast bones.

The hunting process was extremely intense; the Running Thunder Primordial beast was a nemesis to melee fighters, as any close contact resulted in electric shock and paralysis. Ultimately, it was barely contained by a team of solo players using a ranged attrition strategy.

The players on the team also received generous rewards.

[Roar (Generation 1 Primordial)]:

Primordial Trait Introduction (Active): Releases a spreading sonic attack outward in a cone shape centered on itself, dealing continuous mental shock damage to hit targets; after the damage exceeds the target's endurance threshold, the target falls into negative states such as mental disorder and dizziness.

The Primordial monster possessing this trait looked extremely like a brown bear from the real world, with red and blue interwoven fur; its body size was abnormally huge, reaching five meters in length, and when it stood up, it exuded an oppressive presence, like an iron tower blocking the way. Its hunting level was 39.

Besides possessing formidable physical qualities and terrifying healing abilities, the most frightening aspect was that the roar emitted by Roar would spread forward in a cone shape; players affected by the roar would fall into a confused state of feeling heavy-headed and light-footed with blurred consciousness, completely losing combat effectiveness for a short period.

The process of containing Roar was exceptionally difficult.

The initial 18-person team that discovered this Primordial monster was entirely killed shortly after engaging Roar; subsequently, large numbers of players who heard the news launched wave after wave of attacks by stacking lives in a relay manner, only then killing and containing the exhausted Roar.

The successful containment of these three new soul souls also added a large number of new combinations to the construction of the Star Vein Sect.

Especially the "Sluggishness" soul soul, which was hailed by players as the strongest soul soul of the version, bar none.

The single test effect of the Sluggishness soul soul seemed suitable for melee-type players, as it could delay the target's action efficiency and improve one's own melee attack efficiency.

However, in subsequent tests, players discovered that domain-type soul souls were even more powerful when used in their main body form combined with other magic-system soul souls.

For example: Sluggishness + Bone Fire + Food Qi + Restraint.

In the main body form, after combining and releasing the four abilities, it could generate an ink-flame domain covering outward from oneself as the center, dealing continuous area-of-effect damage to targets within the domain, and all targets within the coverage range would be affected by both the Sluggishness and Restraint trait effects.

Or Running Thunder + Sluggishness + Food Qi + Restraint, creating a domain surrounded by electric arcs centered on oneself, with astonishing lethality.

But the only drawback of this combination was that mental energy consumption was too fierce; with a coverage radius of 20 meters, a level 15 Food Qi soul soul could not last even one minute in tests, running out of mana in a short time.

Aside from the issue of excessive consumption, the performance of the Sluggishness soul in tests was perfect.

It caused the originally bottom-tier Restraint soul soul to rise accordingly.

Originally able to control only a single target, Restraint, when paired with the Sluggishness domain, changed its effect to large-scale area control, achieving a qualitative leap in strength.

However, at the current stage, the vast majority of players only used it during testing.

The selling price of 4,000 points of sacrificial power for the Sluggishness soul soul, along with the issue of short endurance, remained problems players could not bypass.

At least before magic-system soul souls could provide higher mental strength and faster mental recovery speeds, the Sluggishness soul soul could not be popularized; only a small number of lone players without teams were willing to purchase and embed it.

The three newly contained soul souls also made containing the Strange Butterfly a hot topic.

The reason was related to the newly contained soul soul "Running Thunder."

The effect of Running Thunder's trait was to transform into a lightning sphere, dealing electric shock damage to contacted targets, with lethality stronger than the ink-flame trait of Bone Fire.

But after using the trait ability, the player's action efficiency became sluggish, and they could only contact targets by rolling.

This shortcoming of insufficient mobility made the player community's interest in the Running Thunder soul soul not high.

Until the player "Nightfall" provided a new line of thought on the forum.

That was the preliminary Star Vein combination concept of Wind Riding (Strange Butterfly) + Ink Flame (Bone Fire) + Food Qi, which completely ignited player enthusiasm for the Running Thunder soul soul.

The performance of this combination in the demonstration video amazed all players.

Nightfall, transformed into a lightning sphere, flew suspended in the air at extreme speed under the blessing of the Wind Riding soul soul, then released the Ink Flame trait, instantly transforming into a "Lightning Fireball"; upon contacting simulated monsters in the test scene, electric arcs swirled around the monsters' bodies, followed by raging ink-colored flames, causing test monsters to fall in groups wherever he passed.

Nightfall named this Star Vein combination "High-Speed Electric Fireball."

Ultra-high movement speed, plus the dual-element strike of lightning and fire, plus the continuous mental energy endurance of Food Qi.

Its strength had already surpassed all Star Vein combinations players were currently using.

Many players followed the trend to test it, and every player who experienced this combination praised it repeatedly.

This Star Vein combination completely solved the problem of poor mobility for magic-system soul souls.

The Strange Butterfly, silent for a long time, once again became a target in the eyes of many players.

But this problem had still not been resolved.

Unlike other Primordial monsters contained by players, the Strange Butterfly was extremely cautious and cunning; at the slightest sign of trouble, it would spread its wings and fly high, making it impossible to capture through group beatings or trap methods.

What drove players eager for the Wind Riding soul soul to madness was that Lu Xing, who bore the hopes of the entire village, was completely unwilling to participate in the battle.

He put on an air of vowing not to leave the mountain until his divine skill was achieved, spending every day mixing with lone player teams to hunt evil spirits and monsters, completely ignoring various persuasions from forum players.

During this period, some players thought of finding a player with a personality as weak as Lu Xing to replace him in containing the Strange Butterfly.

But the problem was that players willing to fight would never be cowards in their bones, and the Strange Butterfly was completely unwilling to engage with such players.

Perhaps this was precisely the reason the Strange Butterfly chose Lu Xing.

Players temporarily could not find an effective method to contain the Wind Riding soul soul.

Besides revenue aspects, these days of observation also led Qi Sheng to discover a series of potential problems within the game settings.

Among them, the most urgent problem to solve was the coverage range of the Guide Avatar's abilities.

In the eyes of players, the function of the Guide Avatar was to provide target analysis information and to offer consultation services answering various functional settings.

But in Qi Sheng's eyes, besides the two functions mentioned above, the Guide Avatar also had three hidden settings: Spatial Teleportation, All-Things Extraction, and Purification.

Regarding Spatial Teleportation, when players contained Primordial monsters or conducted remote transactions, it was the Guide Avatar responsible for completing the task.

Regarding All-Things Extraction and Energy Purification, when players killed monsters or evil spirits (destroying the stable life structure of a target), the All-Things Extraction function was released by the Guide Avatar to extract the flesh, blood, and energy after the death of monsters and evil spirits; after purification and transformation, it was injected into the player's body, and 30% was extracted and teleported back to Emperor Tomb Village.

Although the intelligent processing system of the Guide Avatar was controlled by the Guide Entity, it was more like a branch node of the Challenger System, integrating various functions.

This included Qi Sheng observing player situations; besides the player's own perspective, the Guide Avatar's perspective was also frequently used.

It could be said that the Guide Avatar was a key link connecting the Challenger System to the players.

But now, the Guide Avatar had encountered a problem of mismatched strength with the players.

These Guide Avatars, created together with player bodies, had a coverage range of about 150 meters in radius for extracting killed monsters and evil spirits, and the analysis range was also 150 meters.

At the current stage, the strength of players walking the magic-system output Star Vein combination path was improving rapidly, and the target range of their output strikes was becoming wider and wider.

Especially the Eagle-Head Demon + Bone Fire perception ranged strike style.

The highest-level players of this style could already precisely strike targets 200 meters away through their perception field of view.

This led to an awkward problem.

The target had already been killed by the player, but the All-Things Extraction ability could not cover the killed target; the kill notification would only appear, and feedback obtained, after the player entered the range.

This problem obviously needed to be resolved as soon as possible.

As player levels continued to rise, the strike distance and range of released abilities would also gradually increase.

The "Meteor Fire Rain" ultra-large-scale coverage strike described in the forum could completely be realized.

If the Guide's strength could not keep up, it would seriously affect the players' growth efficiency.

As for how to solve this problem, Qi Sheng had already thought of a method.

The Guide Avatar was composed of extended tentacles of the Challenger System; the use of rule abilities incurred no sacrificial power consumption, but extending the tentacles further required consuming sacrificial power for enhancement.

At the current stage, the creation cost of each Guide Avatar was 300 points of sacrificial power (coverage range radius of 150 meters); this cost was already included when creating the Monster Body for players (1,000).

According to Guide tests, every 50-meter increase in coverage range required consuming 100 points of sacrificial power cost.

In other words, spending money could solve the strength problem of the Guide Avatar.

But for this portion of expenditure, Qi Sheng decided to shift the burden to the players.

Although perfecting the system was his duty as the mastermind behind the scenes, the matter of spending sacrificial power was obviously more suitable to be left to the players.

After repeated testing of new settings with the Guide, Qi Sheng decided to officially release the "Guide Upgrade System."

That afternoon.

An update notification rang out in the minds of all players.

Simultaneously, the Player Forum updated with an officially certified post detailing the patch notes.

[Challenger Notice (Update Alert): The game is about to undergo version 1.5 update. This update will add a new feature called "Guidance Enhancement" to the function panel. Specific details are as follows]:

Poster: Guidance (Officially Certified)

Guidance Enhancement System Introduction: Consuming Sacrificial Power can increase Guidance intensity, unlocking more functions.

Guidance Lv1 (Initial):

Function Introduction:

1. Analyze target information and provide detailed feedback.

2. After players kill evil spirits, monsters, or other lifeforms, assist players in extracting the hunted target's flesh and blood and energy, converting them into Soul Evolution Points and Sacrificial Power rewards. Coverage radius is 150 meters. Each level upgrade costs 100 points of Sacrificial Power, and each upgrade increases the coverage radius by 50 meters.

Guidance Lv10 Extra Function: Customizable Guidance appearance.

Detailed Introduction: After upgrading Guidance to level 10, the customizable appearance modification function unlocks. Players can adjust the Guidance's facial features through a custom interface, adding hairstyles, ornaments, and other details to create a unique Guidance display image (players can choose to display it publicly or set it to be visible only to themselves).

(Note: This update is an online update; players do not need to go offline and wait.)

After the patch notes were released, they sparked heated discussion among players on the forum.

The number of replies to the official update post quickly surpassed 1,000.

Evil Butcher: Damn, so the Guidance has a hidden setting regarding coverage range. No wonder it couldn't provide analysis information for distant targets and required getting close to succeed... I checked my Sacrificial Power balance; it hurts my heart.

Berserk Chick: Hahaha, let you guys show off all day about how the Magic System Sect is the child of this version. Are you happy now that there's an extra cost? We melee fighters don't care; a 150-meter coverage radius is completely sufficient. At least until we can fly through the sky and dive into the earth, splitting a mountain peak with a single slash, it will definitely be enough. (Brick-Moving Arrogant Iron Face.jpg)

Night is Coming: I discovered this hidden setting three days ago. I'm playing a Magic System build; after my Ink Flame Fireball precisely guides and kills a target beyond a certain distance, I still have to run over to get the hunting success notification and rewards. I thought this was a core setting that wouldn't change, but unexpectedly, they've released the Guidance upgrade system now. There's yet another place to spend Sacrificial Power. (Eating Dirt and Flipping the Table.jpg)

Round Little Hamster: Wow, the game finally has a customization feature. I love this setting so much. Let me think about what kind of Guidance appearance to customize. I'll definitely have to give up the water sphere form. A little demon form? A little angel form? Suddenly, so many ideas are popping into my head. Delighted.

The Dark Land is Really Fun: Seeing the Guidance upgrade system go live, I suddenly thought of a question. When exactly will the dog devs launch skin and outfit change functions? I'd even pay real cash for it. Design a few sets of cool clothing styles for us. Wearing only the system's default black cloth robe is annoying; this ragged robe simply cannot complement my handsome Iron Face.

Lightning Five-Whip Combo: I'm also looking forward to the fashion function. I'm not sure if the dog devs can see our comments, but wearing only a set of black cloth robes is too shabby. As a Grand Mage controlling the clone's Thunder Art, a black cloth robe lacks style. I strongly demand a set of black mage robes with inlaid magical patterns as a fashion item.

Game Brick-Moving Party: I think the black cloth robe is fine. Whether the fashion function launches or not doesn't matter to me; anyway, I won't buy it. (Smirk.jpg)

Is This Reasonable? replying to Game Brick-Moving Party: Oh, a busy person still has time to come to the forum and read posts? Checking the time, you'll be joining a group brawl again soon. (Group Brawl Countdown.jpg)

In response to this update content, players actively participated in the discussion within the official post.

Besides the Guidance upgrade function, many players specifically mentioned the fashion function, stating that the clothing in the game was too monotonous, with no options other than the system's default black cloth robe.

They hoped the officials would launch some aesthetically pleasing fashion items for players to choose and use; many players even expressed willingness to spend extra money on fashion.

However, in Qi Sheng's eyes, the fashion function held no practical significance; having it or not would not affect the players' strength.

As for the real cash top-ups mentioned by players, they were utterly useless.

Fiat currency was essentially just a string of numbers, limited to use within the Renzulian Alliance. Outside the Human Federation, other races did not recognize it, let alone in the Monster World.

In comparison, Sacrificial Power, which could be converted into all things, was the truly practical currency.

But while it might be meaningless, Qi Sheng felt he indeed needed to consider the issue of player demands.

Satisfying player demands was, in essence, also enhancing their gaming experience.

This would also provide some assistance to the development of the player legions.

He planned to bind the fashion function with the upcoming "Armed Vehicle" function, designing multiple sets of equipable and upgradeable gear for players, with each Armed Vehicle carrying an additional fashion display effect.

However, before Gao Wei completed the production of the Armed Vehicle function, he would not consider launching the so-called fashion function for the time being.

It could serve as an auxiliary function, but it would absolutely not be the focus.

(End of Chapter)