Chapter 14: Future Crisis

The Artifact Spirit school Star Pulse chosen by Li Tie spread among the player community.

During this time, some players followed in Li Tie's footsteps to Artifact Spirit Valley, also wanting to contain Origin Artifact Spirits to obtain rewards.

But one thing was certain: he still had plenty of time to perfect the Challenger Plan.

Several teams returned in defeat after multiple attempts.

Li Tie was no exception; after containing five Artifact Spirits, he did not choose to go deeper into Artifact Spirit Valley.

Except for the five Artifact Spirits at the entrance of Artifact Spirit Valley, the ones inside had a minimum hunting level of 30. He couldn't even withstand a single strike, so continuing to challenge them was meaningless.

However, the emergence of the Artifact Spirit school gave many players a direction for their future efforts.

……

Di Zong Village, Underground

Qi Sheng sat cross-legged on the Origin Altar, network data information fed back by the guide flashing rapidly through his mind.

Just then, the elusive guide water ball suddenly appeared:

【Boss, I sensed the aura of the Black Tide on Earth.】

"Where?"

【In the direction of the North Pole.】

"Go take a look. Notify Uncle Yan."

【Got it, going now!】

The guide water ball vanished into thin air.

Not long after, a cold voice came:

"Little Qi, I'm here."

A light curtain projection scene appeared before Qi Sheng's eyes. In the image was a room decorated in an ancient style, with a deep blue flame burning on a round table, and a man with an ethereal temperament sitting next to it.

He had long, raven-black hair, and his pale skin and exquisite cravat outlined a perfect neck line, but there was no expression on his handsome face.

Mysterious and noble—this was the thought that had surfaced in Qi Sheng's mind the first time he saw Yan Ming years ago.

The man in the projected image was none other than one of the four great servants of Di Zhao, Yan Ming, who controlled the power of space.

The space-bridging part of the Challenger System (Player Recruitment System) was created by him, while the guide was responsible for datafication and content analysis.

During the direct confrontation with the terrifying Black Tide years ago, Yan Ming lost most of the vitality in his body, and since then he had been like a puppet, appearing incomparably cold.

Qi Sheng was accustomed to this.

If it hadn't been for Yan Ming and the other servants saving him at the cost of their lives back then, he would have already died in the terrifying Black Fog.

The reason he had the guide notify Yan Ming this time was because he could not perform ultra-long-distance space teleportation and needed Yan Ming's help.

"Uncle Yan, sorry for the trouble." Qi Sheng nodded politely.

"Get ready."

As soon as Yan Ming finished speaking, his pupils emitted a faint icy blue light, and a rotating deep blue teleportation array appeared beneath Qi Sheng's feet.

A strong sense of weightlessness followed.

Boom!

The deep blue flame enveloped his body, and in the blink of an eye, he disappeared from where he was.

When the deep blue radiance that blocked his vision dissipated, what met his eyes was snow flying all over the sky. Looking around, it was a boundless expanse of white, with glaciers covering the vast land, connecting with the azure sky in the distance, forming a pure and magnificent scroll.

The biting cold wind converged in the air, tearing out a shrill whistling sound in his ears.

The ambient temperature plummeted, making Qi Sheng shiver involuntarily. At this moment, he decisively switched to his Di Zhao form.

Boom!

Scarlet flames spread from his head to his whole body, and the chill dissipated.

At this moment, he flew into the sky, moving in the direction provided by the guide's perception.

A few minutes later, he saw a black line hanging high in the sky. He reached out to touch it, and immediately, the black line extended multiple tiny black tentacles, trying to wrap around his palm.

But under the calcination of the Di Zhao fire, the tentacles instantly collapsed.

This discovery made Qi Sheng realize the severity of the problem.

His former home was suffering from the corrosion and invasion of the terrifying Black Tide.

Unlike the Monster World, the corrosion of the terrifying Black Tide on Earth was still in its initial stage and would not cause any impact on the ecology of this world.

But in the foreseeable future, Earth would also be corroded and swallowed by the terrifying Black Tide.

This reminded Qi Sheng of a previous guess.

In the years he had been away, many alien forces had appeared on Earth, and their appearance might be related to the terrifying Black Tide.

A few days ago, he saw such a discussion post on the internet.

The content of the discussion was why the virtual game *Dark Land* had to limit the purchase qualifications.

Logically speaking, the virtual server built by the Moon Eclipse Clan could fully accommodate a huge player group, but they always limited the number of releases to the Human Federation and other alien forces stationed on Earth.

If it were hunger marketing, it wouldn't make sense.

Although the Moon Eclipse Clan would use currency to buy resources from other racial forces, they mostly gifted technology and resources to various races.

Some people had done statistics, and the resources the Moon Eclipse Clan provided to outsiders every year were far greater than the consumption of buying resources from outsiders.

Regarding this issue, the poster gave a conjecture.

He believed that the essence of the Moon Eclipse Clan building the virtual game was not to earn resources from other races through the game, but to train troops through a near-realistic virtual environment, with the goal of dealing with some kind of huge crisis that might come.

As for issuing game qualifications to other races, it was just incidental, serving as sparring partners.

In the virtual games previously developed by the Moon Eclipse Clan, the Moon Eclipse Clan was always one faction, and other races united as one faction to confront them.

Therefore, training troops was the main purpose, serving the internal needs of the Moon Eclipse Clan first.

One point could corroborate this conjecture.

According to historical records, when the Moon Eclipse Clan fled to Earth three hundred years ago, they stated that the plane world they were in was corroded by some mysterious power, leading to the collapse and shattering of the world.

Under the doomsday crisis, the Moon Eclipse Clan finally gave up resistance, and the remaining clansmen fled to Earth through space technology before the world collapsed, finally building Moon Eclipse City on the moon.

Other alien forces that came to Earth had similar claims.

And Qi Sheng already had the answer to this question in his heart.

The doomsday crisis that the Moon Eclipse Clan's former home world suffered was likely the Black Tide invasion. The years of fighting against the Black Tide led the Moon Eclipse civilization from its peak to decline, and other alien forces had similar experiences.

Now Earth also had initial signs of the terrifying Black Tide invasion.

This confirmed the conjecture in the discussion post: the Moon Eclipse Clan was training troops, wanting to deal with unknown terrors.

There was another point that could corroborate his conclusion.

The area of the Monster World was expanding, and the landscape environment was constantly changing.

He originally thought it was some unknown change brought about by the Black Tide corrosion, but now thinking about it, it was likely that the terrifying Black Tide swallowed other worlds and integrated their fragments into the Monster World, causing the area of the Monster World to grow constantly.

This was also the reason why there was "exploration fog" in the "map" of the game functions.

It wasn't that he didn't want to give every player a complete world map, but that the landscape changes in the Monster World were too great, and the old map could no longer adapt to the current Monster World.

【Boss, this world will gradually deteriorate in the future. Your player recruitment plan needs to speed up.】

The guide said with a serious expression.

"Advance steadily. At least at the current stage, there won't be any impact."

【Boss, I have a doubt.】

"Ask."

【If this world enters the climax stage of the terrifying Black Tide invasion, and evil spirits run rampant at that time, what will you do?】

"When that day really comes, perhaps I will give players the permission to bring the power of the Monster World back to reality, at the very least to ensure their safety in the real world... But before that, I will not reveal any information."

【Why?】

"Players without real-world pressure can feel happiness in the Monster World and enjoy the game process, and happiness is the root of their fearlessness and creativity."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 19 =====