Chapter 237: Real Veteran Players Play With Style
“What is going on?”
“Can mining in this game really kill someone? Hasn’t this guy already reached advanced apprentice?”
“This brother is really unlucky. I said long ago that the cave is not suitable for practicing the coilgun; it is more suitable for practicing the crushing stone fist. If the coilgun hits the plants, it will be bad. He did not listen, and now he is getting his retribution.”
“He can practice a coilgun until he foams at the mouth. He really counts as the first person in the game.”
“But why do I feel a bit flustered just standing here?”
“It feels like the game is about to reach winter. The weather has turned cooler recently, so it is normal that it is cold in the cave. Practice more fists and you will warm up.”
At this time, the players who had rushed over because of the commotion all curiously looked at the advanced apprentice lying in the rock wall space, and could not help but discuss in low voices.
Fang Zhen and the others, who had also arrived upon hearing the noise, looked at the scene in front of them with astonished faces.
Compared to the newcomers whose five senses were not sharp and most of whom were not even apprentices, Fang Zhen and the others, who had already become martial artists, could clearly feel the terrifying aura coming from the space within the rock wall, as if something that should never have been opened had been opened.
“Did this brother trigger a random event?” Twilight of the Gods looked at the player dead in the rock wall space, and then at Lin Qi who was standing not far outside the rock wall, and could not help feeling a bit excited.
He had originally been assigned by Vice President Luo Wu Shang to guard the cave and protect other players mining, and felt it was a bit boring. He had not expected to encounter a random event in the game. This was much better than doing the novice protection task in Death Valley.
Everyone knew that random events in the game were hidden tasks, and the rewards were much higher than ordinary tasks.
It was just like Dark Judgment and his group. They did a newcomer mining task and managed to discover a hidden task, directly uncovering a hidden dungeon, and even obtained a miniature energy vein for free. It was ridiculously good.
If you asked who was the richest among the players who had entered the game so far, that was definitely Dark Judgment. He alone monopolized one fifth of the profit in a single wave, while their entire team only got one fifth.
Dark Judgment, relying on the points and contribution he had gained, as well as the large amount of type 1 and type 2 energy potions in the dungeon, had directly become a martial artist in one go these past days. It was insanely good.
By comparison, he himself had only just reached the intermediate martial artist level, still far from advanced martial artist. The reason he could not become an advanced martial artist was that he had too few type 2 energy potions in hand, and the martial arts hall had limited stock for redeeming.
“Master of the pavilion, is there anything I can help you with?” Fang Zhen stepped forward faster, came to stand in front of Lin Qi, and asked with great respect.
“Damn, Old Zhen, you are too fast!” Twilight of the Gods looked at Fang Zhen, who had rushed to curry favor without a word, full of disdain in his heart. But his feet already blurred with speed, and in almost the blink of an eye he appeared beside Fang Zhen, also respectfully saying, “Master of the pavilion, I am more familiar with this cave than my own home. If anything needs to be done, I will definitely be more efficient.”
The other players, seeing this, suddenly understood and wanted to imitate the two and fight for the task.
However, whether they were newcomer players or veteran players who had already become apprentices, when they tried to approach within twenty meters of Lin Qi, a strong sense of unease and a mental shock directly caused the few fastest players to collapse to the ground unconscious. Only then did the rest stop and no longer dare to get closer.
“Damn, this random event even restricts levels!”
“As expected, veteran players have the advantage in this game. Looks like we are out.”
“If I had known, I would not have come mining. I would have focused on cultivation instead. I do not believe that even if I grind twenty-four hours a day, I cannot catch up with them.”
“Brother, do you not go to work?”
“Work? Work what? After I got access to this game, I immediately fired my boss. Although the price of martial arts hall points in this game has dropped a lot, they still stay at one point for one credit point. Just by selling some of the game points, I earn much more than working. You could say that mining in the game is much better than going to work.”
The newcomers saw that only martial artist-level players could walk up to Lin Qi’s side and scattered, then began their day of mining.
As the newcomer players and those below martial artist left, Fang Zhen, Twilight of the Gods, and the others who remained all had eyes shining.
A random event for martial artist level only.
They were going to strike it rich.
“Do you want to help?” Lin Qi looked at Fang Zhen and the others who had taken the initiative, then glanced at the arm inside the rock wall, nodded, and said, “All right. In that case, go in first and see what is inside, then come back and report to me.”
He had originally wanted to go personally to see the space inside the rock wall, but now that there were players willing to help, that was even better.
That dried arm gave him too strong a sense of danger. Although he did not think a dead thing could threaten him, since players were willing to take the risk, he certainly would not be polite.
When Fang Zhen and the others heard this, they were overjoyed, knowing they had accepted this hidden task. Then they headed toward the space in the rock wall to investigate.
As Fang Zhen and the others got closer to the space inside the rock wall, they each felt more and more fear, and their heads began to ache, but they did not care at all and still resolutely walked into the rock wall space.
“Is it fine?”
Lin Qi watched Fang Zhen and the others enter the rock wall space without anything happening to them, and realized that he had been overthinking it.
The mental fluctuations and qi and blood leaking from the crack in the container holding that arm were frightening, but not very strong. They were only enough to kill people below martial artist level, and possibly even below that, as apprentices who practiced the stellar explosion meditation technique and mental secret techniques might still not be able to handle it.
Inside the rock wall space, Fang Zhen and the others completely saw the whole area clearly. The entire space inside the rock wall was only about the size of three to four basketball courts, with many items placed around, looking like a large warehouse.
The most eye-catching thing was that arm placed inside. Although that arm somewhat resembled a human arm, a single arm filled a transparent container more than three meters high, meaning that one arm alone was nearly three meters long, like the arm of a giant.
“My god, this is a lord-level monster remains!” Twilight of the Gods stared at the gigantic claw covered with plastic, completely stunned.
A lord monster.
This was exactly what they had always wanted. A lord monster’s whole body was treasure. Unfortunately, until now, they had not managed to kill a single lord in the wilderness; yet here in the warehouse, there was a pile of lord-level monster remains.
“I feel like this should be a biochemical test site.” Fang Zhen looked at the various instruments and monster flesh in one corner of the space and said, “It looks like this White Feather Gang plays pretty dirty, like they are using monsters for experiments. I just saw a few corpses of winged tribe members; their bodies had mutated. Very likely they tried to fuse monster genes, but the fusion failed.”
“Those should be background lore for the game.” Twilight of the Gods was completely unconcerned. “Fusing monster genes, how could that compare to us modifying our own cell structures? The White Feather Gang’s technology is really a bit backward. No wonder they are just a wilderness gang.”
Now that they cultivated the body strengthening secret technique, the toughness of their bodies already surpassed monsters of the same level. Rather than wasting time fusing monster genes to strengthen the body, it was better to cultivate the body strengthening secret technique more and raise their levels.
While the two were talking, a miserable scream suddenly echoed through the entire space, making them both tense up and look toward the source of the sound.
They saw that Saiwai Qiangke, for some unknown reason, had died within about ten meters of that arm.
“He just died like that?”
Fang Zhen and Twilight of the Gods looked at the intermediate martial artist Saiwai Qiangke, who had suddenly dropped dead, and were stunned.
They had thought it was just an easy scouting task, but Saiwai Qiangke had died without a sound.
“An intermediate martial artist cannot even get within ten meters?” Lin Qi, standing outside the rock wall, was also shocked by this scene.
It was only a dead object, yet merely the mental fluctuations leaking from a tiny crack were enough to take the life of an intermediate martial artist, and not just any intermediate martial artist.
Saiwai Qiangke was a player who had entered this world early. He had long since cultivated both the stellar explosion meditation technique and mental secret techniques to a proficient level. In terms of pure mental strength, he was likely stronger than those bone forging realm beginner level experts.
In other words, a dead object’s trace of mental fluctuation was enough to kill a bone forging realm beginner level expert.
He could hardly imagine how strong the owner of that arm had been.
Lin Qi even suspected that experts on the level of a city lord would be like ants before such an existence.
After that, Fang Zhen, Twilight of the Gods, and the others no longer dared to approach the arm. They only searched carefully around the area, while Lin Qi patiently waited outside the rock wall for the players’ findings, without any thought of stepping into the rock wall space.
Saiwai Qiangke’s death had already made Lin Qi understand that the things in this world that could kill him were far more numerous than he had imagined. It was better to let the players take the risks.
Only after Fang Zhen and the others had investigated for nearly two hours, and Saiwai Qiangke had resurrected and run back, was the investigation finally completed.
Just as Fang Zhen and the others were about to report all their detailed findings to Lin Qi, the resurrected Saiwai Qiangke suddenly acted like he had gone insane. Without a word, he sprinted toward that arm. Before Fang Zhen and Twilight of the Gods could react, Saiwai Qiangke let out another miserable scream and collapsed once more about ten meters from the arm.
“Old Zhen, what is he doing? Did he forget to take his meds lately?” Twilight of the Gods stared at the newly dead Saiwai Qiangke in confusion and looked at Fang Zhen.
Spending one 648-unit fee on a resurrection was no big deal, but at their level, dying once consumed a lot of time to resurrect. Advanced martial artists even needed an hour to revive.
With that money and time, just cultivating the stellar explosion meditation technique would be much better than dying for nothing.
“This… I do not know either.” Fang Zhen was also shocked by Saiwai Qiangke’s suicidal behavior.
Saiwai Qiangke normally cherished his life, avoiding death when possible. Even if he had to die, he would try to squeeze out every last bit of value first.
He had not expected Saiwai Qiangke to be into this kind of thing, enjoying the mental stimulation from that arm. It was a hobby Fang Zhen had never imagined.
“Are we still waiting for him to report?” Twilight of the Gods asked.
“I will log off and ask. Wait a bit,” Fang Zhen sighed. As the team leader, he could not just abandon his teammate.
With that, Fang Zhen found a spot, lay down, and went to sleep.
After Twilight of the Gods had waited a few minutes, Fang Zhen got up again.
“Well? What is going on?” Twilight of the Gods looked at Fang Zhen and asked.
“This… give me a moment.” Fang Zhen hesitated, then looked toward the arm in the rock wall space, took a step forward, and rushed over.
Ah!
Another sharp scream echoed through the cave.
“Is this illness contagious?”
Twilight of the Gods stared, dumbfounded.
Even Lin Qi in the distance was full of surprise. He had no idea what these players were trying to do. It was just a matter of giving a report; did they really need to go die first?
After waiting for a while, Twilight of the Gods gritted his teeth, found a corner, lay down, and went offline to contact them.
“Old Zhen, what are you doing?” Twilight of the Gods asked angrily inside the game pod. “We were about to report our findings, and you two go and die like that. Is that fun? Do you even want to complete the task?”
“This is a bit hard to explain.” Fang Zhen said, “I just contacted Saiwai Qiangke. He said that after he died and resurrected, his spirit suddenly improved a lot, and even his cultivation of mental secret techniques became faster. So he wanted to confirm whether it was because of the mental stimulation from that arm. I did not really believe it either, so I tried it myself.”
“By the way, do not turn in the task yet. If we turn it in, we might no longer be allowed to approach that arm.”
“Dying under mental stimulation can improve spirit and speed up mental secret technique cultivation?” Twilight of the Gods felt Fang Zhen was joking. How could there be such a good thing? He thought for a moment and said, “Fine, I will wait for you. Hurry up.”
“Relax, we will come back right after we resurrect,” Fang Zhen nodded.
Then Twilight of the Gods logged on again, stood up, glanced at the arm in the rock wall, and, without a word, charged forward. Another scream echoed through the cave.
After nearly two hours, Fang Zhen and the other two returned to the cave again, having sprinted all the way.
As soon as they rushed into the cave, the three exchanged a glance and, without any hesitation, charged toward the arm in the rock wall space once more, moving even faster than before and even using their martial skill footwork, as if afraid to be slower than the others.
However, the moment they came within ten meters of the arm, they dropped to the ground. Their deaths were astonishingly crisp and neat.
The newcomers mining around them were dumbfounded by the sight.
They had seen people eager to fight over monsters, but never people scrambling to die.
Lin Qi watched the three who had once again rushed to their deaths and understood that they must have discovered some secret about that arm. He walked up to the rock wall and fully spread his suppressed mental domain.
“Fighting against the spirit of this arm can increase the strength of one’s spirit?” Lin Qi looked in surprise at the arm not far away. He had never expected this arm to have such an effect.
Within his mental domain, even though he was still a bit far from the arm and the mental impact he felt was not strong, it did have a tempering effect on his spirit. Even if the effect was minuscule, it was real.
And his spirit had already undergone a qualitative change; if even he could benefit, the tempering effect on ordinary martial artists’ spirits could be imagined.
A person’s spiritual strength was not something that could be increased just because they wanted it to. Normally, it could only be tempered and improved through a meditation technique, and the progress was extremely slow, but the help it gave a martial artist was huge. So even bone forging realm experts would still practice meditation techniques every day, no matter how slow the improvement.
For example, his spirit had undergone a qualitative change and even formed a mental domain. This caused all his cultivation and improvements to become much faster than before. His control over his body had reached the microscopic realm overnight, and the middle microscopic stage mentioned by the system was not far away. This was the result brought by the increase in spiritual strength.
If this arm could be properly utilized, then for a faction it would be a divine weapon that tens of thousands or even millions of energy crystals could not buy.
“This is… an inheritance metal plate?”
Within a ten-meter radius, Lin Qi suddenly noticed a silver-black metal plate inside a storage box in one corner of the space. It looked very similar to the silver-white metal plate he had previously obtained from the White Feather Gang vice gang leader, only the color was different.
