Chapter 63: Revisiting Old Places, Black Tide Surging (First Update)

Sky Wind City, South District.

Walking on the city streets, the homeland in Qi Sheng's eyes is incredibly strange.

Looking up, there are skyscrapers towering into the clouds on both sides of the street, and the smart glass covering the surface is playing advertisements for wearable technology equipment.

The road surface under his feet is no longer the asphalt and stone roads in his memory, but has been changed to more advanced self-luminous materials, which can automatically adjust brightness according to pedestrian flow. The billboards standing on the side of the road are playing weather forecasts and news flashes.

This city is very much like the future world he imagined when he was young, full of vitality, but it just lacks the familiar taste.

Arriving at the end of the street, Qi Sheng stopped and looked at the high-rise building across the road.

Memories came like a tide.

"Are you a tourist visiting? Do you need any help?"

Seeing Qi Sheng standing there staring at the high-rise building, a teenager wearing "Obligation" work clothes and controlling a cleaning robot to sweep the road surface walked over curiously to greet him.

Facing the inquiry, Qi Sheng was silent for a short while and then smiled and nodded:

"Yes, here for tourism, no help needed, thank you."

The teenager's greeting made Qi Sheng feel emotional in his heart.

This city no longer has friends or relatives he knows, and the traces belonging to him have long been erased with the change of the era, leaving only tombstones that no one takes care of.

At this time, the Guidance's voice with a teasing tone sounded in his mind:

[Tsk tsk, the saddest thing in life is not that children meet and don't recognize each other, laughing and asking where the guest comes from; nor is it the rusty lock on the door that hasn't been opened for a long time, the gray brick path covered with dry moss, and the nameless withered grass invading the whole garden. It is discovering that the traces of one's own era have long been erased, revisiting old places but not seeing old memories, and at this moment, the sadness enters the throat, suddenly remembering that the parents were there in those years, and also burned the stove and pot... Eh, the superpower dream I longed for in childhood has been realized, but I found that I also bear a heavy mission, embarking on a difficult road of rise... Suddenly realizing it was a dream in youth, no one in the old place to tell the feelings.]

"When did you become so cultured?"

[Recently, I browsed the Star Network database and recorded a lot of human history data. Seeing your sudden loneliness, I felt it.]

"Are you done?" Qi Sheng said unhappily.

[Done, Boss, you continue to be nostalgic, I will definitely not disturb you.]

Without responding to the Guidance, Qi Sheng traveled through the old places according to the route in his memory, but in this process, he could no longer find familiar things.

Revisiting old places is like carving a boat to find a sword.

The part of the era memory belonging to him has long been covered by the new era, and he is no longer young.

At the moment of turning and leaving, Qi Sheng officially said goodbye to his former self.

The memories of his hometown come to an end here.

For the future road, only move forward.

……

Returning to the Source Altar, Qi Sheng began to browse the information flow produced by players today.

During this period, a post on the forum whose popularity was constantly rising made him laugh and cry.

The poster recorded the changes in Lu Xing's mental journey before and after meeting the Strange Butterfly.

The content started with the ambitious words Lu Xing left on the forum when he first entered the game, stating that he wanted to write a complete illustrated guide for all players and travel to witness the unknown scenery of the Monster World.

The post also attached a screenshot, which was a record information published by Lu Xing, which said:

As an exploration party player, what I want to tell everyone is that the game is not just about fighting monsters and leveling up, but also about poetry and distance.

When you are involution for leveling up, the red dragon above the Ancient Battlefield is tearing the clouds; when you are buried in mining for sacrificial power, bright flowers are blooming on the Scarlet Plains; when you are troubled by Star Pulse combinations, the Star Sky Bat Fish in the Guidance's description leaps out of the star sea. It is said that the night sky of the Great North Border is colorful and has unimaginable beauty... those beautiful sceneries that only exist in the Guidance's description will be a stop on my future journey.

At the end of this passage, it was accompanied by a gif picture made by the poster recording the screen in Lu Xing's live broadcast room.

In the picture, Lu Xing was beaten by the Strange Butterfly until his nose was bruised and his face was swollen, pointing at the Strange Butterfly with trembling fingers and roaring in grief and indignation:

"You wait for me."

Other expression packs below are also accompanied by text descriptions, such as:

Crazy being beaten, curling up to reduce the force-bearing area, this is stable (holding a gun and laughing wildly), watch me blow you up (arrogant face before detonating spirit energy bomb), let's talk (begging for mercy), this is unscientific (horror after explosion failure), a gentleman's revenge is not too late for ten years (crazy leveling)...

Lu Xing's story of challenging the Strange Butterfly has become a funny serial drama in the eyes of forum players.

Everyone is looking forward to the sequel, but even more looking forward to the plot ending early, so that everyone has a Wind-Riding Soul that can be embedded.

After reading the content of the post, Qi Sheng was attracted by another newly refreshed post.

[Regarding a serious problem in Star Pulse combination, I hope the Moon Eclipse Clan official can improve it as soon as possible after seeing it.]

Poster: Night is Coming

Content: Recently, I played many new Star Pulse combination schools in the test tower, and then thought of a very serious problem. This problem will cause our sacrificial power expenditure to grow explosively in the later stage.

Why is there no soul decomposition function in the game?

Assuming I have better ideas and want to reconstruct the Star Pulse combination, I have to peel off the previously embedded soul.

But the early investment of the peeled soul cannot be returned, which leads to a very high trial and error cost.

For example, I upgraded the Black Armored Snake Soul to level 30, and later I don't want the Black Armored Snake Soul anymore. After peeling it off, although the Star Pulse slot has a new position and can embed a new soul, my early investment is just gone?

If the dog official sees it, I hope this aspect can be improved.

……

In Qi Sheng's view, this idea is entirely feasible.

In the initial setting, the soul peeled off by the player does not disappear directly, but is refined into pure sacrificial power and re-enters the sacrificial power pool.

This part of the gain was not distributed to players, but was exclusively occupied by him.

But the players' suggestions made him feel that doing so would indeed increase the burden on players to improve their strength.

How to solve this problem? After reading the post, Qi Sheng already had an idea.

He intends to extract a 5% handling fee from the evolution points produced after the peeled soul is decomposed and enter the sacrificial power pool, and the remaining 95% will be returned to the players, to be freely distributed and used by the players.

The setting of decomposition and return can significantly reduce the energy and investment of players in re-cultivating souls.

The launch of the soul decomposition mode can also stimulate players' creativity, allowing them to bravely try various Star Pulse school combinations without worrying about re-cultivation.

But before the decomposition function is launched, he needs to contact Super Dimension in advance to implant the new function settings of soul decomposition, refining, and resource return into the Challenger System.

With the idea, Qi Sheng immediately contacted Super Dimension, who was located underground, through the Guidance and put forward the idea.

Super Dimension, who was building the armed vehicle function, heard his description and immediately stated that this part of the content was very simple, and could complete the decomposition and return function one step ahead, and then continue the production of the armed vehicle function.

The conversation ended, Qi Sheng hung up the connection, and his vision switched to the Earth Vein Cliff area where the Guidance latest feedback prompted.

……

Earth Vein Cliff.

The energy derived from the domain node, as well as the energy particles wandering between heaven and earth, were continuously extracted by the towering Evil Eye Tower.

The black mist covering the tower body surged violently, and evil spirit life was continuously generated in the black mist, and then merged into the black mist again.

On the high tower platform, the strength of the Earth-Mind Evil Spirit gradually improved with the surging of the black tide energy.

"Evil Eye, have you ever refined divinity?"

Facing the inquiry, the Evil Eye floating in the high sky looked at the Earth-Mind Evil Spirit:

"Don't worry, the domain node under your feet contains rule power. With my ability, I simply cannot separate the rule origin. I can only extract a part of the energy derived from the rules. Even if this part of the derived energy with rules is injected into your body, it takes time to digest."

Hearing these words, although he felt impatient, the Earth-Mind Evil Spirit still nodded in agreement.

Knowing the strength of the Monster World, he had already restrained the arrogance in his heart and decided to develop well in this world.

He continued at this time:

"Inject this part of the extracted power into me first."

The Evil Eye did not make a sound this time, and several pitch-black tentacles extended from its eyes and pierced directly into the back of the Earth-Mind Evil Spirit.

Immediately, a complex mark appeared on the forehead of the Earth-Mind Evil Spirit, shimmering with faint light, and surging energy was injected into its body.

Its body strength was also strengthened under the washing of energy.

What the Earth-Mind Evil Spirit and the Evil Eye didn't know was that their behavior was completely exposed under the surveillance of the Guidance.

At this time, on the Source Altar, Qi Sheng, who saw this scene through the Guidance feedback, was curious in his heart, looked up at the Guidance and asked:

"Guidance, is the Evil Eye extracting the rule power of the domain node?"

The Guidance heard this and immediately shook its head:

[Except for you who inherited Emperor Zhao's solid origin and can use the rule power contained in the domain node at will, other creatures cannot do this, including our four major servants.]

[Taking the Gloomy Cave as an explanation, the characteristic of this domain node is to breed spirit minerals. The Evil Eye's behavior is equivalent to cutting off the output of spirit minerals, converting the output energy into black tide energy, and using black tide energy to breed a large number of evil spirit life. And this process, due to reversing the operation law of the Monster World, has serious losses in the process of converting energy, and can probably only obtain about 10% of the derived energy.]

After listening to the Guidance's explanation, Qi Sheng immediately understood the principle.

Taking the Gloomy Cave as an example, this domain node operates according to the laws of the Monster World, and the energy produced will be bred into spirit mineral stones.

Cutting off the way of energy output has a certain loss, and then converting this part of the output energy into other energy substances, the loss will be more serious.

The Evil Eye can only change the way of energy output to the extreme, and simply cannot extract the node domain rule characteristics that breed energy.

"What is the energy injected into the Earth-Mind Evil Spirit's body?" Qi Sheng continued to ask.

[The rule core of the domain node will give birth to some rule fragments in the process of deriving energy]

[Among them, rule-derived energy refers to the fact that in the process of breeding energy, some energy will imprint rule characteristics. This part of energy will soon dissipate and disappear, but the Evil Eye intercepted this part of energy and branded it into the Earth-Mind Evil Spirit's body, making it obtain strengthening... This process is like plagiarism. Theoretically, as long as there is sufficient time, the Evil Eye can produce imitated rule characteristics, allowing the Earth-Mind Evil Spirit to master abilities similar to rules, but fake is fake after all, and the rule effect is far from comparable to the real domain node rules.]

[And this is exactly the most terrifying thing about Black Tide Warriors. Every intelligent evil spirit has powerful growth potential and can obtain strength growth by occupying domain nodes to extract energy or by devouring life.]

After understanding the principle, Qi Sheng continued to pursue:

"Can I cut off the process of the Gloomy Cave deriving spirit mineral stones, refine the energy produced and introduce it into the sacrificial power pool, like the accommodated source monsters, and continuously produce sacrificial power energy for me."

[Of course you can, but I don't recommend doing so.]

[The process of the Gloomy Cave producing spirit mineral stones, in addition to the blessing of rule core derived energy, also has heaven and earth energy injection at the moment of generation, just like completing a game task and receiving the world's reward. And the behavior of cutting off the derivation of spirit mineral stones is no different from the Evil Eye. The only difference is the amount of energy loss... The Evil Eye cannot truly control the node domain, so the extracted energy has a loss of more than 50%, while you can completely control the domain node, and the conversion loss can be greatly reduced. I estimate the loss is about 25%.]

[Through the player's mining method to produce sacrificial power, it is an extra injection of heaven and earth energy on the basis of no loss, obtaining an energy bonus of more than 50%. In summary, the sacrificial power produced after cutting off is only 0.75, while the sacrificial power produced by mining is 1.5, and the difference is doubled.]

After listening to the explanation, Qi Sheng nodded to show understanding.

Just as the Guidance said, the Gloomy Cave is already a resource production place integrated into Emperor Tomb Village. Increasing the total revenue through mining is obviously a better choice.

His gaze swept toward the light curtain floating in front of him at this time.

In the picture, under the high tower, evil spirit life is still being generated rapidly in the surging black mist.

He knows that the time node for the black tide to erupt in the Emperor Tomb Mountain Range region is approaching. When the Earth-Mind Evil Spirit has enough huge evil spirit life, it will launch an offensive against all domain nodes in the Emperor Tomb Mountain Range region, trying to completely occupy the entire Emperor Tomb Mountain Range region.

If this is really done, the Evil Eye will have multiple domain nodes that can extract energy.

The Earth-Mind Evil Spirit and the evil spirit life it leads will also obtain stronger energy injection, and their strength will be greatly improved.

This will also be the first time the player legion has truly fought against the black tide.

Before this, the evil spirit life encountered by players such as Cursed Soldiers, Blood Corpses, and even Black Armored Soldiers encountered in the Gloomy Cave were just unintelligent evil spirits derived under the illumination of the evil moon.

They are completely two concepts from Black Tide Warriors like the Earth-Mind Evil Spirit.

But Qi Sheng didn't have many thoughts about this upcoming war. The Earth-Mind Evil Spirit is just the most ordinary warrior in the terrifying black tide.

The upcoming black tide campaign is just a training exercise on the growth path of the player legion in his eyes.

Let players experience what kind of scene it is for high-intensity evil spirits to run rampant, and think about how to solve it when facing the dilemma of evil spirits running rampant.

Players may be abused in this process, but they can also gain growth by killing evil spirits.

The characteristic of endless evil spirits is very strong when conquering other worlds, but the Challenger System conceived by Qi Sheng is precisely built to deal with this characteristic.

The endlessness of evil spirits comes from rapid breeding after extracting heaven and earth energy, but there is a loss after all.

And the players created by the Challenger System are endless in a state of no loss. Even if they die, they can reshape their flesh and blood and return to the battlefield, and there is no weakening in strength.

Under the blessing of the Challenger System and the rule characteristics of Emperor Tomb Village's "flesh and blood reshaping," the large-scale player legion is a more terrifying disaster than evil spirits.