Chapter 221: The Cultivation Tower And Town Gameplay
“So many added at once, no wonder it needs sixteen hours of upgrading.”
Lin Qi looked at the system display of the maximum number of players under management and somewhat understood why the system needed sixteen hours to upgrade.
He could not possibly arrange four thousand players all at once.
But with so many players suddenly added, he would no longer be short of manpower for his grand mining plan.
By then, not only Death Valley but even the medium-sized Mithril Ore Vein in the Thorn Forest could be quickly mined out in a short time, without worrying about being exposed due to a long mining period.
Moreover, with these four thousand players, Chiyue Town’s defensive power would undergo a qualitative change, especially if these players could become martial artists. Then Chiyue Town’s defenses could rival those of large major towns in the wilderness, and ordinary monster hordes would no longer be a threat.
Afterward, Lin Qi shifted his gaze to the administrator permissions section.
Compared with primary administrator authority, secondary administrator authority, aside from the three major functions, added an intermediate training room to the primary training room; the rest remained unchanged.
The renovation cost for an intermediate training room was fifty thousand units of energy and ten energy crystals. It required renovating at least a five-hundred-square-meter independent room. Inside the room there was an intermediate combat puppet. The intermediate combat puppet could be set up to the strength of a peak martial artist, with combat level up to high microscopic level. It could master up to four advanced martial artist-level martial skills, and its hourly energy consumption was 500 units.
“High microscopic level?” Lin Qi looked at the system’s textual description, feeling very surprised.
In the high martial arts world he knew, people’s control over their bodies was divided into three levels: basic, proficient, and microscopic. The microscopic level had no further subdivisions, and those who could reach it were extremely rare, far rarer than martial artists.
However, at the microscopic level, after becoming a martial artist, the improvement in combat power was reflected more in martial skill learning.
Of course, that learning could only go as far as seventh-stage martial skills. Eighth-stage martial skills were no longer something that could be learned just by controlling the body.
But unexpectedly, the system actually subdivided the microscopic realm into initial stage, middle stage, and high stage.
This made Lin Qi very curious about what exact level high microscopic represented and how much it could improve a martial artist’s combat power.
Curious as he was, the fifty thousand units of energy needed for the intermediate training room was a small matter; the renovation cost of ten energy crystals was truly expensive and made him reluctant.
Then Lin Qi shifted his gaze to the new function added under secondary administrator authority.
Construction permission for the beginner cultivation tower. After construction, it could greatly increase the energy density within a five-kilometer radius. The beginner cultivation tower had three floors, with each higher floor denser in energy. The first floor had one hundred rooms, the second floor had ten rooms, and the third floor had one room. （The required condition was that the entire tower must be built entirely from energy ore and consume one thousand energy crystals as the core. After activation, the daily consumption would be three energy crystals.）
“This cultivation tower is indeed a divine weapon for establishing a headquarters, but the cost is too outrageous. This is basically draining an entire small energy vein, and it might still not be enough to build it.” Lin Qi looked at the description of the beginner cultivation tower. Although he longed for it greatly, the construction cost was truly staggering.
According to the system’s requirements, the consumed energy ore was still a small matter. A small energy vein would definitely be enough. But even if he emptied a small energy vein, he still might not get one thousand energy crystals.
He would probably need an extremely long time to earn those one thousand energy crystals.
Yet he had to admit that the cultivation tower was truly powerful. Greatly increasing the energy density within a five-kilometer radius would absolutely raise Chiyue Town to a new level. After all, the denser the energy, the greater the benefits for cultivation, especially after becoming a martial artist, when it became essential.
And this beginner cultivation tower, even if he did not want to build it, he still had to.
Currently, he had second-tier administrator permissions. To upgrade to level 3 administrator permissions, he had to have one special grade martial arts hall, one advanced martial arts hall, and one beginner cultivation tower, while also meeting the conditions of having one million martial arts hall disciples and twenty players in the bone forging realm. Otherwise, he could forget about improving his administrator permissions.
“These four thousand players really are not given for nothing.” Looking at the conditions for upgrading to level 3 administrator permissions, Lin Qi could not help but smile wryly.
For him alone to earn that much to upgrade to level 3 administrator permissions was clearly unrealistic. The only method was to shift the burden to the players.
“If we want to quickly earn so many resources, it seems we have to give these players more motivation.” Lin Qi thought for a moment, his gaze unconsciously drifting to the player costume management and the Chiyue Town construction planning map on the table, when a sudden idea flashed.
Currently, thanks to the improvement of administrator permissions, players’ costume levels could be upgraded to level 2 basic costume and level 2 special costume.
Compared with level one basic costumes, level 2 basic costumes had an additional resurrection point choice function, allowing players to bind one more resurrection point. Upon resurrection after death, they could choose to revive at either of the two resurrection points. The cost to upgrade each player was three hundred units of energy.
Level 2 special costumes, compared with level one special costumes, had improved attributes, upgrading from a weak effect to a slight effect. The cost to upgrade each player was one thousand units of energy.
Any player could see how good the effects of these two martial arts hall outfits were. One allowed rapid travel between two locations after death; the other enhanced attributes. It was likely that no player could resist such temptation.
Under such circumstances, he could completely set these two sets of outfits as town reputation rewards, and he would not have to worry about players being unwilling to contribute to Chiyue Town.
With that thought, Lin Qi quickly returned to his room and began drafting new gameplay.
Just as players had been forcibly logged off for nearly half an hour and the entire official forum had exploded, the announcement of the game’s version 4 and the new gameplay instantly sent the already-discussing players into a frenzy.
System announcement: High Martial Arts Descend version 4 “Crimson Moon Glory” will officially open after the update is completed. This update is an offline update and will take sixteen hours.
The main updates in version 4 are as follows.
First, the maximum number of online players is increased to one thousand, and after that it will increase by one hundred per day.
Second, after version 4 “Crimson Moon Glory” opens, Chiyue Town will launch a reputation system. Completing reputation tasks in Chiyue Town will increase reputation with Chiyue Town. Currently, Chiyue Town’s reputation levels are Friendly, Respect, and Reverence. Players who reach Respect can spend five hundred thousand points in the martial arts hall to upgrade to inner disciple outfits. Players who reach Reverence and obtain core disciple status can spend one million points to upgrade their core disciple outfit once.
Third, the one-hundred-kilometer free exploration area around Chiyue Town will be opened. All players can freely explore it. Players with level one wilderness exploration permission or core disciple status can freely explore the wilderness area.
Fourth, some bugs have been fixed, and the gameplay experience has been improved.
Although version 4 did not add a lot of content, it still made all players on the forum so excited their eyes turned red.
“Hallucination! This must be a hallucination. Is the game manufacturer actually being this generous this time? Not only did they immediately add five hundred slots, but they will also add one hundred people every day. Are they rewriting the underlying code?”
“Damn! I have not even entered the game and the game has already started a town reputation system?”
“The rewards for the town reputation are insane! Upgraded inner disciple outfits can actually choose resurrection points. Running between the martial arts hall and Crimson Moon Mountain in the future will be unbelievably enjoyable.”
“But the happiest ones are the new players. Now free exploration gameplay has fully opened. From now on you can run anywhere within one hundred kilometers around Crimson Moon Mountain. With the game’s 100% virtual degree and such a huge area to explore freely, you could probably spend half a year just exploring.”
“This time there are five hundred spots. If I can dig my way into the top five hundred, I will have a huge chance of getting a slot. This time I am definitely going to dig into the top five hundred.”
“Now, trying to get into the top five hundred is insanely difficult. People who have reserved this game already exceed one and a half million. Almost every day there are over two hundred thousand people practicing digging at the same time. Some people are even crazily exercising in real life to compete for the top one hundred because this game perfectly reproduces one’s physical fitness. Anyone who can get into the top one thousand now is already extraordinary.”
“Damn! I heard this game was popular and only just came to play. And even the digging is this competitive?”
…
As discussions about version 4 grew, the veteran players on the forum felt increasing pressure.
Whether tasks inside the game or monsters in the wilderness, there had never been quite enough in the first place. Now the game was going to toss in five hundred people at once, and then add one hundred every day. Let alone tasks, even wilderness monsters might become scarce. Only players whose strength had reached martial artist level stayed relatively calm.
It was quick to advance from an ordinary person to a quasi-martial artist, but not easy to advance from a quasi-martial artist to a martial artist. In contrast, although the game was opening free exploration in the wilderness, players below martial artist level would find it hard to survive outside. Only by becoming martial artists could they truly explore freely.
So players who had become martial artists were all excited, eagerly waiting for the system upgrade to finish so they could be the first to go see the wilderness of Crimson Moon Mountain.
Yi Ye Fu Yun: “O(∩_∩)O not bad! The bug has not been fixed in this update. We still have a chance to exploit it.”
Fang Zhen: “But now it is sixteen hours of rest all at once. How am I supposed to get through these sixteen hours? I feel like I am not used to real life anymore /(ㄒoㄒ)/~~”
Li Ranxing: “Come to the club with me for mecha special training. The national mecha competition is about to start. We can use this time to practice.”
Fang Zhen: “The national mecha competition is about to start? （⊙ｏ⊙）”
Chen Ya: “Are you not going to prepare? From what I have heard, all the major teams have many new experts this year. You have been playing High Martial Arts Descend all day. Do not get eliminated in the preliminaries.”
Fang Zhen: “Wait for me, I will go wash up now.”
While Fang Zhen and the others were talking about the national mecha competition, Yi Ye Fu Yun, lying in his virtual game pod and wanting to mock them, was suddenly pulled up by Ye Qinglu.
“Sis, why are you dragging me? I am still waiting to log on. If the system finishes updating early, I can be the first to get ahead of them.” Yi Ye Fu Yun looked at the serious expression on Ye Qinglu’s face, full of confusion.
“This update takes sixteen hours. Even if it finishes early, one or two hours is already good.” Ye Qinglu rolled her eyes at Yi Ye Fu Yun and said softly, “Since we have so much time, come meet some people from our group with me.”
“Now I can meet them in the game?” Yi Ye Fu Yun could not help getting excited.
Azure Travelers!
They were a legend in the virtual game world. Although Ye Qinglu was the vice leader, he had only seen Azure Travelers members in game videos and had never seen any of them in person.
“Not in the game.” Ye Qinglu shook her head.
“Not in the game, then in real life?” Yi Ye Fu Yun was stunned.
Azure Travelers were a legend, each member shrouded in mystery. Rumor had it that even the leader did not know the real identity of every member. As an outsider who had not yet joined Azure Travelers, it was hard for him to imagine that he could see these people in reality.
“He is a bit special. He was also the one who brought me into Azure Travelers in real life at the beginning, so I know his identity,” Ye Qinglu said. “Now that Immortal Road Eternal is about to launch, he, as one of the earliest members of our group, can almost guarantee your entry if he recommends you. He happens to be in our city today, and I plan to introduce you to him.”
“One of the earliest members?” Yi Ye Fu Yun’s imagination ran wild as he wondered which member it could be.
“Stop guessing. Come with me now.” With that, Ye Qinglu turned and left, not giving Yi Ye Fu Yun a chance to think more.
In Yunhai City, under the scorching noonday sun, Ye Qinglu, dressed in a light blue short dress, and Yi Ye Fu Yun, dressed in a silver-gray long-sleeve T-shirt and jeans, arrived at an underground fighting arena in the suburbs.
The underground fighting arena was extremely lively, people crammed together around a central cage-enclosed arena, cheering and shouting for the two people fighting inside, as if they themselves were in the ring.
“Sis, why are you coming to a place like this?” Yi Ye Fu Yun looked at Ye Qinglu in surprise, not expecting her to bring him somewhere like this.
An underground black boxing ring!
This was a paradise for fight fanatics. In an era where virtual games were flourishing, there were many types of virtual fighting games, and now some even boasted a virtual degree of over 80%.
These virtual games could already reproduce fighting very well. But there were still some lunatics who were not satisfied with virtual games and felt they were not real enough. So underground black boxing rings were born, where they chased bone-crunching blows and the most realistic combat. Some people were even willing to spend huge sums to watch, allowing underground black boxing rings to slowly develop to the point where almost every city had one, even if they were not recognized by major official fighting events.
Ordinary people would not come here, and those who did were all battle maniacs.
Ye Qinglu did not explain, walking through as if she were a regular. The others in the venue, upon seeing her, not only did not try to harass her but even made way for her. She led Yi Ye Fu Yun all the way to a private room on the second floor.
The moment Yi Ye Fu Yun stepped into the room, he was shocked by the atmosphere inside.
He saw a burly man in a black suit, about thirty-four or thirty-five years old, sitting in the VIP seat. Standing behind him were six men, each over two meters tall, also dressed in suits and wearing sunglasses. The aura they exuded was like soldiers who had experienced years of slaughter on the battlefield, sending chills down the spine.
“Xiao Ye, you are here.” The burly man looked at Ye Qinglu as she came in, glanced at Yi Ye Fu Yun, and smiled. “So this is the young man you want to recommend?”
“Yes. He is my younger brother. He is very strong. I believe he is qualified to join us, so I want to recommend him.” Ye Qinglu nodded.
The burly man smiled at Yi Ye Fu Yun. “Not bad, little brother. But getting my recommendation is not that easy. Xiao Ye should know my rules.”
“What rules?” Yi Ye Fu Yun asked.
Ye Qinglu had not mentioned any of this to him.
The burly man pointed at the six bodyguard-like men beside him and said with a faint smile, “Pick one of them.”
“Pick one to fight?” Yi Ye Fu Yun glanced at the six bodyguards and let out a small sigh of relief, feeling that this was acceptable. No wonder his sister had not explained.
The six men, although all radiating a murderous air, seemed to him to be about on par with the coach he had hired. If it was just a one-on-one fight, he did not think it would be hard to defeat one of them.
“No.” The burly man shook his head. “You pick one who will not fight. The remaining five will take you on together.”
