Chapter 173: A Super High-level Map
City of Light Chasing, Obsidian Martial Arts Hall.
In the hall master lounge, Lin Qi, who had just finished extracting a round of players, had not yet had time to carefully experience the effects of Lightning Palm second level thunderclap entry-level at 22%, strength increased by 5 times, and internal force increased by 20%, when a system notification suddenly sounded in his ears.
“What is going on with these three?”
Lin Qi stared in astonishment at the system prompt, momentarily a bit dazed.
System: congratulations to players Lu Fanchen, Lin Xinyao, and Li Tianxing for triggering the special hidden task “Molten Crystal.” Collect ten thousand units of molten crystal to receive beginner meditation room construction permission. （In the beginner meditation room, mental activity and calming effects can be enhanced）
“The ability of this beginner meditation room is so strong!” Lin Qi looked at the effect of the beginner meditation room and felt this was simply a breakthrough divine weapon.
The increase in mental activity was equivalent to adding inspiration. Although he did not know how much the beginner meditation room could improve it, it would definitely be quite useful for creating martial skills or cultivating to break through personal bottlenecks.
This was especially true for those with low comprehension; it could definitely raise their upper limit by quite a bit.
Thinking of this, Lin Qi immediately issued a task to the three via their smart watches, asking them to collect ten thousand units of molten crystal, with the reward being five thousand contribution points and three hundred thousand points for each person upon completion.
Meanwhile, deep underground in the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, Lu Fanchen and the other two, who had resurrected and once again arrived before the metal gate, were still discussing how they had just died when they received the task sent by Lin Qi.
“The molten crystal collection task, the reward is so high!” Lin Xinyao looked at the task details and could not help clicking her tongue. “Five thousand contribution points at once. The reward for this hidden task is a hundred times that of daily tasks.”
“With such a high reward, it seems the level beyond that door is anything but ordinary.” Lu Fanchen looked at the metal gate, his eyes shining.
For a mere resource collection task to grant five thousand contribution points, far higher than the large team hidden plot tasks they had completed before, clearly meant the map level behind the door was much higher than their current map level.
For them, this was absolutely a windfall.
“Should we go try again now?” Li Tianxing at the side also looked at the gate, his breathing growing a little rapid.
A task worth five thousand contribution points was a lot for players at this stage, especially since the weapons and equipment they captured and sold to the hall only yielded points and no contribution points, making contribution points harder to earn.
The only relatively fast way was killing monsters. One gold-devouring unicorn rat rewarded five hundred contribution points, but the number of gold-devouring unicorn rats in the maze tunnels was decreasing, clearly not a place where they could farm contribution points long-term. And even if they could, no one knew how long it would take to grind out fifty thousand contribution points.
However, a high-level map that had not yet been pioneered had immeasurable value for expert players like them. After all, the higher the map level, the higher the grade of treasures it would contain, and the higher the value of all kinds of items. This was basically common sense in the game.
“No rush. We still don’t know how we died before.” Lu Fanchen shook his head slightly. “If we don’t even know the cause, we’re just throwing our lives away. Did either of you notice anything before you died?”
“It was too dark inside the door. The moment it opened, I couldn’t see anything at all, and then, just like I said before, I was kicked out of the game directly.” Lin Xinyao shook her head, feeling helpless.
“Same for me.” Li Tianxing nodded and said thoughtfully, “but at the moment I died, I felt the pressure on my body suddenly increase a lot. I had a sense of being unable to move, like something terrifying had locked onto me.”
“I felt pretty much the same.” Lu Fanchen looked at the metal gate. Even though they had already opened it before, after resurrecting, the gate had closed again, which was eerie. He then said, “seems we can only test it again. This time, Tianxing and I will open the door, and Xinyao, you go watch from farther away near the tunnel entrance and see how we die.”
“Okay.” Lin Xinyao headed straight toward the tunnel entrance.
Once Lin Xinyao was in position, Lu Fanchen and Li Tianxing began slowly pushing the door. As the metal gate was pushed open bit by bit and a narrow crack appeared, Lin Xinyao in the distance saw Lu Fanchen and Li Tianxing suddenly go blank, as if their souls had left them, and collapse limply to the ground, motionless.
“What is going on?” Lin Xinyao stared at the two who had suddenly fallen, utterly confused.
The two had clearly not suffered any attack, yet had inexplicably died just like that.
Before Lin Xinyao could remain stunned for long, a sky-covering oppressive force swept over her, making her feel the world spinning. She fell to the ground, her breathing growing more and more difficult, and finally, unable to breathe, she died completely.
“Xinyao, why did you die too?” Lu Fanchen looked at Lin Xinyao, who had also logged off and was waking up in her virtual pod, feeling very puzzled.
Before they pushed open the gate, Lin Xinyao had been more than two hundred meters away from them and even in hiding. Even if a monster had instantly killed them, it should not have noticed Lin Xinyao.
“I already know how you died.” Lin Xinyao, her face slightly pale, said, “whether it was you two or me, we should all have been killed by mental oppression. You were very close, so the mental oppression you felt was extremely strong. I was farther away, but still could not withstand it and ended up suffocating to death.”
“Killed by mental oppression? What level is this map exactly?” Lu Fanchen was stunned.
Previously, even in the Emerald Sky city proper, which had quite a high level, when facing the three lord-level monsters, the three of them had only felt their bodies grow a bit heavy and their spirits under great pressure.
Of course, the main reason was that the three lord-grade giant serpents had been far away and had not targeted them. But now they were directly scared to death just by approaching the map. It was simply unimaginable how terrifying this map’s level must be.
“This mental oppression, I feel that if my spirit increases a bit more, I should be able to resist it.” Lin Xinyao explained, “when you two opened the door, you were suddenly subjected to that level of mental oppression, so you died on the spot. The fact that I did not die immediately shows that this mental oppression weakens with distance. In other words, about two hundred meters is roughly the limit we can currently endure. If we can further improve our spirit, we should be able to enter this super high-level map.”
“Seems that while this game is an open sandbox, it uses mental oppression to limit player activity. Looks like we’ll have to focus on improving our spirit in the future.” Li Tianxing was quite speechless about this. He had thought they had discovered a huge treasure and exploited a loophole in the game, but the game manufacturer was one step ahead, using a disguised level suppression to prevent them from taking advantage.
“It’s not bad, actually. At least we now have a chance to enter this super high-level map. The weakening over two hundred meters shouldn’t be too great. As long as we keep improving the Stellar Explosion Meditation Technique, we should be able to get in.” Lu Fanchen said with a smile.
Although the game manufacturer had set up safeguards against players exploring high-level maps, it had not completely forbidden it, which was very good news.
After resurrecting, the three of them no longer focused on cultivation improvement, but devoted themselves entirely to the Stellar Explosion Meditation Technique, madly increasing their proficiency in it.
Entry-level 20%… 23%… 26%… 30%…
Almost every time their Stellar Explosion Meditation Technique improved, the three would go and try again. What was more, the more they tried, the faster they found themselves progressing in the Stellar Explosion Meditation Technique. It was simply a holy land for cultivating it.
After a night of frantic improvement, the three, already very talented, had also gathered some learning experience from other veteran players, and their Stellar Explosion Meditation Technique all exceeded 35%. They tried opening the door again.
“Good!”
“We did it!”
Looking at the open gate, the three of them felt an unprecedented sense of mental oppression. Their breathing was incomparably difficult, but this time they did not die, and they even saw what lay beyond the gate.
