Chapter 174: Rubbing Against The Forbidden Red Line Again And Again
“Finally… finally… we can see it!”
The three of them, Lu Fanchen and his companions, looked at the gradually clearer interior of the great gate within their field of vision, and for a moment they could not help feeling excited.
They had spent an entire night without eating or sleeping, and at last the ultra high-level map was beckoning to them.
Inside the gate was a passage less than a hundred meters long. It was clearly man-made, not only layered with steps, but with both sides forged from some unknown metal.
At the end of the passage, there was a faint light. They could see that beyond lay a vast space, filled with jagged rocks, and it gave off an indescribable scorching qi and blood.
As the three of them reached the end of the passage, the entire underground space came fully into view.
The whole space was the size of more than ten stadiums. In the center stood a tall human man three meters in height, holding a greatsword, eyes closed, standing there quietly like a statue.
On the opposite side of this space, there was a twenty-meter-high metal gate, just like the metal gate they had entered through. However, this metal gate was clearly locked, with horizontal and vertical metal bars blocking it. If those metal bars were not destroyed, it was obviously impossible to open the gate.
“What does this map mean? Do we have to defeat that man before we are allowed to move on?” Lin Xinyao swept her gaze across the entire space, and her eyes could not help lingering on the statue-like man in the center.
“It should be like that.” Lu Fanchen glanced at the statue-like man, then looked down at the ground around them and said, “But our task is to collect Molten Crystals. Those pale red crystals on the ground should be Molten Crystals. Let’s ignore that statue for now. We’ll collect the Molten Crystals first and then investigate the statue.”
Lin Xinyao and Li Tianxing both nodded, agreeing with Lu Fanchen’s suggestion.
This map’s level was extremely high and really was not a place they should be at in their current stage. Rather than courting death by investigating the statue man, it was better to complete the task first. There might be some follow-up hints.
Then the three stepped into the space and began digging up the pale red crystals on the ground.
However, the instant Lu Fanchen and the other two stepped into this space, the giant man who had been standing motionless like a statue suddenly moved. He drew the black greatsword from his back in one motion, instantly stirring up a gust of wind.
“Three examinees detected. Three examinees assessed as advanced apprentices. Adjusting self to quasi-martial artist. Splitting into three units for phase one test.”
As the man holding the black greatsword spoke in a mechanical voice, his three-meter-tall body and the black greatsword suddenly turned like liquid metal and split into three. Each one was much smaller than before, just over two meters tall.
“Examinees? Quasi-martial artist phase one test?” Lu Fanchen looked at the man who had split into three and immediately laughed. “Looks like our luck is good. This ultra high-level map is actually a trial map.”
“Perfect. One for each of us. Let’s see who clears it first.” Lin Xinyao also smiled.
Li Tianxing nodded as well.
For existences like them, revered as saints, a personal trial like this made such a map practically a free gift, especially as it was one-on-one. The opponent was only at quasi-martial artist level. Even if the space imposed heavy spiritual pressure, defeating him would be far too easy.
With that, the three of them took the initiative and moved separately to face a mechanical greatsword man.
Lu Fanchen used a B2-grade spear and opened with a martial artist-level martial skill, Spark, smashing down.
Lin Xinyao used a B2-grade battle saber and directly unleashed her famed technique, Sea-Splitting Slash, fused with Lightning Palm. Her speed was so fast that the blade light lashed out like a bolt of lightning, easily breaking the sound barrier.
Li Tianxing wielded two B2-grade battle axes and performed his famed technique, Eighteenfold Cleave, fused with Crushing Stone Fist. His whole body spun, using inertia so that each axe strike was stronger than the last. Eighteen consecutive swings that no one of the same level could block.
But the three mechanical greatsword men, facing their attacks, merely shifted their footwork and bodies slightly, evading all three attacks within a hair’s breadth.
“What kind of movement is this? How can he so easily dodge even my supersonic slash?”
Lin Xinyao was shocked as she watched the greatsword man sidestep her blow and then immediately follow up with a palm strike.
However, as a Blade Saint, her saber was like an extension of her arm. With a twist, the blade intercepted that palm. She was knocked back several steps but was not injured.
Lu Fanchen and Li Tianxing were in the same situation. Right after using their martial skills, their attacks were dodged by the mechanical greatsword men, who countered with a strike. The two relied on their extremely fast reactions to block the blows without taking damage. But like Lin Xinyao, they were astonished as they looked at the mechanical greatsword men.
“Is this microscopic control?”
Lu Fanchen stared at the mechanical man who had casually neutralized their offensive. His heart was deeply shaken.
He had long known that in High Martial Arts Descend there was an introduction to body control, divided into three levels: basic, proficient, and microscopic. The game’s early battle plot had already showcased this.
But actually experiencing it in person felt completely different.
The three of them were among the top tier experts in Pilgrimage. Their body control could be called consummate. They could precisely control every bit of power to 1 kilograms, and even when striking more than ten times in a second, they could hit exactly where they intended.
Yet compared with the mechanical man before them, their body control was clearly more than one grade inferior.
The mechanical man evaded their attacks by mere fractions, brushing past them. Even Lin Xinyao’s extreme-speed attacks became meaningless under his millimeter-level evasion, instead exposing large openings.
If not for the mechanical man’s slightly slower reaction speed compared to theirs, the three of them would certainly have been hit and injured.
“The three examinees’ body control assessed as proficient. No test value. Initiating annihilation mode.”
With a cold mechanical voice, the three mechanical men raised their greatswords and slashed fiercely at Lu Fanchen and the others.
The three almost instinctively raised their weapons to block.
Just as their weapons were about to collide, the greatswords in the mechanical men’s hands abruptly halted less than one centimeter from their weapons, then instantly changed trajectory from vertical chop to horizontal slash. Even with their lightning-fast reactions, the three could not keep up with this last-instant change. They were all sliced in half and collapsed in this space.
Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, Underground Confinement Room.
As Lu Fanchen and the other two resurrected once more, they remained speechless for a long time, still immersed in the moment of their previous death.
“They were just advanced apprentices and quasi-martial artists. Is the difference in combat power really that big?” Thinking of that utterly irresistible sword, Lin Xinyao felt that all the quasi-martial artist-level elite monsters she had killed before were basically fake.
“Looks like in this game, reaching microscopic level or not makes it two completely different games.” Lu Fanchen could not help but smile bitterly. “If we cannot reach microscopic level, we probably will not even be able to touch the enemy. Fortunately, the opponents we met before had not reached microscopic level, or we would not even be able to beat monsters of the same level.”
“Are we still going to do the task? As soon as we enter that space, we get attacked. We have no chance to dig those crystals, let alone escape.” Li Tianxing said.
“Go. Of course we are going.” An unprecedented excitement flashed in Lu Fanchen’s eyes. “This ultra high-level trial map will be of great use to us later. With this ultra high-level trial map, we can adapt to high-level map monsters earlier than other players.”
“Fanchen, you mean the future high-level map monsters might all reach microscopic level?” Lin Xinyao was stunned.
She had now seen the power of microscopic control. It was simply inhuman.
Even if the mechanical man only matched their physical attributes, they would probably not be a match at all.
If future high-level map enemies were all at this level, they might not even be able to beat enemies of the same level.
“I only suspect that future high-level maps will be like this,” Lu Fanchen explained. “I investigated this game manufacturer. They always plan ten steps ahead. Since they set up a trial map beneath the novice area, it is likely meant as groundwork and testing for the enemies in future high-level maps.”
“If that is the case, and we start fighting high-level map enemies now, won’t we be far ahead of others?” Li Tianxing’s eyes lit up.
In a virtual game, higher-level monsters normally have more attack patterns and are harder to deal with, just like the microscopic-level mechanical man they were facing now.
But if they could familiarize themselves with the fighting style of such high-level monsters, then when they enter high-level maps with others later, their pioneering advantage would be tremendous.
“Then let’s go over there.” After hearing this, Lin Xinyao reacted and felt eager to try.
She imagined everyone entering high-level maps, where even existences like Luo Wu Shang, revered as saints, would be wiped out, while they could slaughter freely in high-level maps. Just thinking about it felt exhilarating.
“Not now. We are too weak. We are not even on the same level as that mechanical man. Fighting it now would just get us killed in an instant.” Lu Fanchen shook his head.
“But if we raise our level, the monster will also scale up. We will never be able to fight that monster properly.” Lin Xinyao said.
“No. I do not mean raising our level, but raising our combat proficiency.” Lu Fanchen said with a smile. “Did the game not just update the power struggle gameplay? The Four Major Powers have a lot of elites. I guess this update is to let us players use the Four Major Powers to practice and improve our combat skills.”
“After all, the people in the Four Major Powers far outnumber us players, and normally it is hard for us to even find fights. Now we can fight as much as we like. You could say the game manufacturer has given us the Four Major Powers to practice body control. And that mechanical monster is an excellent learning and testing machine to help us reach the Microscopic Realm as soon as possible.”
“This game really hides everything deep. It is all in the details. If we had not focused on exploring the Maze Tunnel and instead gone to Crimson Moon Mountain like other players to earn points and build houses, we would have missed it all.” Li Tianxing sighed.
“All right, let’s get ready and call the other members. We are heading to the territories of the Four Major Powers right now. We cannot let others steal our practice targets.” Lu Fanchen said.
The other two nodded and started moving.
City of Light Chasing, North Ring Street.
As the main street closest to the city proper, both sides of the North Ring Street were packed with shops and rows of steel buildings. People flowed endlessly, and many mid-to-high-level leaders of various gangs had bought property here.
This made the originally two-to-three-square-kilometer North Ring Street gather over one million people. It was divided into upper, middle, and lower three layers. Just to maintain the daily public order and stability of North Ring Street, the North Ao Family had deployed over eight thousand people, including several martial artists permanently stationed there.
On this flourishing North Ring Street, a group of humans wearing silver-gray clothing quickly drew a lot of attention among the crowd, especially from members of various gangs from the suburbs living here, who stared dumbfounded at this group.
“Aren’t those people from the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall?”
“Why would they come here? Do they not know this is the North Ao Family’s territory?”
“Probably because that lord of the human race made a statement to the Four Major Powers yesterday, so they dare to swagger over like this.”
People on the street looked at these members of the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall carrying A6-grade arrows. They whispered among themselves, surprised by how bold they were. To appear openly in the territory of the Four Major Powers in broad daylight, as if they did not know the meaning of death.
Everyone knew the Four Major Powers were currently burning with anger. Yesterday, they had originally sent people to help the Iron Heart Gang deal with traitors, but the Iron Heart Gang was annihilated by the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall instead, and many elites died. This was a slap in the face for the Four Major Powers.
If not for that great figure of the human race who had graduated from the Genius Training Camp speaking out, everyone suspected the Four Major Powers would have gone to the Abandoned Area today to destroy the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall.
Now, rather than hiding to avoid the wrath of the Four Major Powers, the people of the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall came out to stroll the street, as if they did not take the Four Major Powers seriously at all.
“Look, people from the North Ao Family are here.”
“They even have a martial artist as leader. Looks like the North Ao Family is really furious at the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall.”
“Do you think they will fight?”
“With a martial artist from the North Ao side, they are definitely here to deal with these people from the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall. But those people are strange. They see the North Ao people coming and still do not run.”
As a fully armed fifty-man guard squad of the North Ao Family appeared on the street, members of various gangs present were shocked to see that the dozen disciples of the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall were still standing there, chatting about something, as if they did not care at all about the North Ao Family members walking by.
“So this is the North Street near the city proper? It is really prosperous.” Lin Xinyao looked up at the towering steel buildings and the bridges connecting them. Everywhere she looked, it was full of people. It felt like she had come to a sci-fi city, and all she could do was marvel.
“Stop staring. We are here for serious business. There will be plenty of chances to look around later.” Lu Fanchen glanced at the still-gawking Lin Xinyao and instructed the others, “Let’s split up and act separately. Do not forget our goal this time is to improve our combat skills and, by the way, destroy the North Ao Family’s shops to earn contribution. If there is no problem, move out.”
With that, Lu Fanchen and the others, more than ten in total, scattered like a swarm of locusts, each charging toward shops bearing the North Ao Family badge.
As they rushed into these shops, Lu Fanchen and the others began smashing and looting, leaving the gang members on the street who had been watching the show completely stunned.
“Are these people from the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall insane?”
“Those are shops of the North Ao Family!”
“Crazy. They are crazy. They are going for a fight to the death with the North Ao Family.”
The various gang members watched the unrestrained actions of the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall members, their hearts trembling. Previously, the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall provoking the North Ao Family could still be seen as a simple gang conflict, but now the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall was practically uprooting the North Ao Family’s foundation…
