Chapter 283: Forbidden Zones Are Meant To Be Farmed
Wushan Prison, lower level.
Inside the decayed complex built entirely from mysterious metal, a team of several dozen Extreme Advanced Level Bone Forging Realm Martial Artists cautiously explored each room. Every movement was impossibly light, while more than a dozen others guarded outside the buildings, fully focused on watching the surroundings.
“Brother Fan, our luck is really good this time. Quite a few of the teams that entered the lower level before us actually died, which just happened to let us enter. If we can find some cultivation methods or martial skills left behind by prisoners here, our strength might be enough to break into the top ten in the Four Regions Youth Competition next time.” A young man of the Winged Tribe with two pairs of pristine white wings looked at the complex ahead, full of delight.
“Yes. I heard the prisoners locked up in the lower level are all extraordinary. Although they are imprisoned, their lives are much better than in the upper and middle levels. Not only do they live in big houses, there are also living and entertainment areas. They are simply restricted to this place. These prisoners must have left plenty of good things here in their lives.” Fansen also stared at the buildings, his eyes shining.
With the strength of their team, they originally had no qualification to enter the lower level, but by chance they discovered at the entrance that the lower level passage, which had been closed, had somehow opened.
This gave them an opportunity, and while other teams in the middle level had not yet noticed, they rushed in at the first moment.
The middle and lower levels of Wushan Prison were completely different.
If the upper and middle levels still resembled a standard prison, then the lower level was practically a small city, dedicated to the daily lives of the prisoners confined there, only forbidding them from leaving that small city.
The prisoners enjoyed such drastically different treatment, which showed their identities were anything but ordinary. Compared to the prisoners in the upper and middle levels, the chances of finding good things here were far higher.
“But we still need to be careful. According to the information I obtained, ahead is the core area of the lower level, where many prisoners usually move around. Once they find us, we will only be able to flee back to the middle level.” The Winged Youth Lan Yu cautiously looked toward the cylindrical complex in the distance that was nearly a thousand meters tall. His eyes held both dread and deep longing.
In the entire lower level, the place of greatest value was this massive cylindrical complex ahead. Besides providing energy to charge the Guard Robots, it was also where prisoners of the prison had previously cultivated.
Even though those prisoners had already transferred their spirit and will into the Guard Robots, more than eighty percent of the prisoners in the lower level still stayed there long-term.
Just thinking about a place where prisoners cultivated was enough to know it must contain many cultivation methods and martial skills. Unfortunately, there were too many prisoners gathered there. Even if the two thousand people from all the Major Powers entered the lower level together, they could not contend with it in the slightest.
Of course, there had been a few lucky ones who had gone in and come out alive, obtaining cultivation methods above the Blood Condensation Realm, or inheritances surpassing Supernatural Martial Skills, soaring to become peerless geniuses of an era that no other talent could rival.
But such things could only be imagined.
Every time people entered that place, not necessarily even one in a thousand came out alive. If they could obtain some traces or records of the cultivation methods and martial skills the prisoners had studied in life from the outer areas, that would already be quite good.
Especially the battle records from their lifetimes. For many prisoners locked in the prison, their only entertainment was fighting each other, and some recorded those battles for reference and learning.
As long as they could get those records, they might directly learn from them and greatly improve their own strength.
Fansen nodded and carefully stayed on guard all around.
Exploring the lower level was completely different from the upper and middle levels. Because of the prisoners, for a team whose strength was insufficient like theirs, to explore more safely they had to avoid every prisoner. So before the prisoners discovered them, they had to discover the prisoners first and evade early.
While Fansen, Lan Yu, and the others were carefully sensing their surroundings, bursts of explosions suddenly came from the distance, clearly the sounds of a battle.
“What terrifying battle fluctuations. Which top tier team is fighting prisoners, to keep pushing the fight all the way here without giving up?” Lan Yu looked toward the growing noise in the distance, unable to help sighing.
In the lower level of the prison, many top tier teams had their eyes on the prisoners. Compared to taking risks at the prison’s cultivation grounds, directly capturing prisoners for inheritances had higher odds and was much safer.
Once a prisoner was captured, even if with their current technology they still could not probe the prisoner’s memory, they could still obtain one hundred percent of the important information stored in the Guard Robot.
At this time, Fansen also looked curiously toward where the battle fluctuations came from.
In less than a few seconds, he saw a group of humans in silver-gray clothing besieging a Guard Robot wielding two greatswords.
Within a radius of two hundred meters around this Guard Robot with two greatswords, the area was covered by extremely dense energy. With just one sword strike, any grey-clothed person within two hundred meters was cleaved in half on the spot. The sword qi was so fast they could not react at all.
But these grey-clothed people were also quite terrifying. In particular, there was an enormous human over eight meters tall who was fighting within the energy domain and could actually confront the Guard Robot head-on, in no way inferior in strength or reaction speed.
There were also two grey-clothed people with terrifying life force who were wildly firing bolts of lightning from more than two hundred meters away. Each bolt was so fast that even Extreme Advanced Level Bone Forging Realm Martial Artists would struggle to deal with it. More than ten at once made even super geniuses like them feel their scalps go numb.
With the two of them firing dozens of arrows in succession, neither Fansen nor Lan Yu felt they could last more than a few waves before being forced to flee, or else they would certainly die.
The arrows they unleashed could not injure the Guard Robot, but forced it to use its twin swords to block and disrupted its original actions, leaving it few chances to use martial skills, let alone use them to escape.
“Who are these people? They are amazing. To tangle head-on with such a powerful prisoner. Even the top tier teams ranked in the top ten are probably just like this at best.” Lan Yu watched the grey-clothed people constantly slowing the Guard Robot’s steps, full of amazement.
One look was enough to see that the Guard Robot’s strength was definitely not that of a weak prisoner. It was likely a prisoner above the Blood Condensation Realm.
Being able to fight such a prisoner head-on meant having a chance to capture it, especially as more grey-clothed people arrived behind, making their chances quite high.
So far, no faction among the Major Powers of the Four Regions had yet managed to capture a prisoner. For this group of grey-clothed people to have such a chance was simply unimaginable.
“Obsidian Martial Arts Hall? How could it be them!” Fansen stared at the familiar clothing, his dark green eyes almost bulging in disbelief.
“Obsidian Martial Arts Hall?” Lan Yu, hearing the name, seemed to recall something and said in shock, “Are they the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall that previously annihilated Earth Star Pharmaceuticals?”
He remembered he was the one who had reminded Fansen not to continue cooperating with Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, since the fury of Earth Star Pharmaceuticals was not something ordinary super geniuses like them could bear.
But he had not expected Obsidian Martial Arts Hall to be this strong, able to hold down a prisoner of such impressive strength. Their power far surpassed that of his own team.
“Yes, it is them.” Fansen nodded, his gaze on the players now full of complicated emotion.
Originally, he had a chance to enter the lower level together with Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, but considering the wrath of Earth Star Pharmaceuticals, he had no choice but to give up.
After all, no matter how strong Obsidian Martial Arts Hall was, how strong could they be? In the end they would still be dealt with by Earth Star Pharmaceuticals.
However, seeing the strength Obsidian Martial Arts Hall was now displaying, he could not help feeling regret.
If he could have joined forces with Obsidian Martial Arts Hall and captured a prisoner to take back, then never mind offending Earth Star Pharmaceuticals, he would be willing to confront Earth Star Pharmaceuticals head-on in the future.
“Brother Fan, don’t feel too bad.” Lan Yu saw Fansen’s complicated expression and consoled him. “Although it is a pity that we did not cooperate with Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, it is also unlikely they can capture that prisoner. The fight has already reached this place, and that prisoner entering the core area is almost certain. Once it goes in, the people of Obsidian Martial Arts Hall will have no chance. There are too many prisoners in that cultivation ground. Though they might have conflicts among themselves normally, when facing outsiders like us, they are absolutely united.”
“You are right.” Fansen looked at the prisoner getting closer and closer to the core area, and his mood improved greatly.
Even if Obsidian Martial Arts Hall kept dragging it out and eventually exhausted the prisoner’s energy, the cultivation grounds of the prison were less than two kilometers away. The prisoner reaching them was almost guaranteed.
Once it entered the cultivation grounds, not to mention Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, even if all two thousand people in the lower level came over, they would be helpless against the prisoner inside.
As Fansen and Lan Yu were talking, the prisoner quickly approached the range of the cultivation grounds. The players chasing it, however, showed no hesitation at all. They all continued to surround and attack, with no intention of leaving.
“That is the cultivation ground of that group of prisoners. They still are not leaving. Have they all gone mad?” Fansen stared blankly at the players still entangling the prisoner.
The cultivation grounds in the lower level were absolute forbidden territory in the entire lower level. Even if all the top tier teams from the Four Great Domain Cities joined forces, they absolutely would not dare set foot there, not even linger nearby. Yet these people of Obsidian Martial Arts Hall did not hesitate at all and directly surrounded and attacked the prisoner right beside it, as if they did not know what death meant.
Beside the cultivation grounds, as the Guard Robot crashed down like a cannonball, the players followed close behind and unleashed a frantic barrage of ranged attacks.
“You damned lunatics! Do not think you have won. This is already the cultivation grounds. Even if I run out of energy, do not think you can leave here alive!”
The Guard Robot looked at these grey-clothed people clinging to him like leeches and at his dwindling energy, feeling speechless.
All along the way, he had already killed several hundred grey-clothed people. For an external faction, that was an enormous loss, enough that they should have given up on capturing him long ago.
Yet these grey-clothed people were like madmen, refusing to let him go. No matter how many died, they insisted on capturing him.
He could not understand what grievance he had with these grey-clothed people to make them chase him so relentlessly.
When more than ten lightning-like arrows from afar struck the Guard Robot, exhausting the last of his energy, he finally fell to the ground with great reluctance, no longer able to move.
“It is finally over. This boss was really troublesome.” Fang Zhen looked at the Guard Robot whose energy was depleted and let out a breath of relief.
They had spent several hours on this fight, dying five or six times. At last, they had taken down this story boss. Next, they could freely explore the entire dungeon.
“It is a pity this is a story boss and does not give much reward. So who is going to carry this boss back later?” Twilight of the Gods looked at the immobilized Guard Robot with some regret.
“But this boss is really stingy. Besides dropping two greatswords, there is nothing else. This is the stingiest boss I have ever seen.” Yi Ye Fu Yun walked up to the Guard Robot, extremely speechless.
Previously, the bosses they fought all dropped quite decent loot, but this boss’s drops were pitiful.
Although the two greatswords were good and not inferior to Tier 2 Weapons, they had more than one hundred people siege it for so many hours. Even for a story boss, this loot was far too unreasonable.
Just as Yi Ye Fu Yun spoke, several Guard Robots walked out from the cultivation grounds nearby, scanning the surroundings as if searching for the source of the disturbance.
“Damn, there are five Guard Robots over there!” Yi Ye Fu Yun stared at the five Guard Robots emerging from the cultivation grounds, his eyes lighting up. “Could the real reward of this story boss be bringing us to the Guard Robots’ nest?”
A moment ago, he had been troubled over how to distribute this boss’s rewards. Since everyone had participated in the kill, the two dropped weapons would be hard to split. But now, with five Guard Robots suddenly appearing here, they could even save the time of hunting for monsters.
“I knew there had to be a reason this boss was so hard to deal with, making us fight all the way without exhausting its energy, only to die as soon as it got here,” Fang Zhen said, suddenly enlightened. “Turns out it was to lead us to the nest we need to clear.”
“But how are we supposed to fight these five Guard Robots?” Twilight of the Gods said with a headache. “These Guard Robots should be made of the same material. If they are as strong as the previous boss, even if we all attack together, we will not stand a chance.”
“That is easy,” Fang Zhen said with a smile. “To clear a dungeon with multiple bosses, we just need to kite them. I watched carefully during the last fight. The Guard Robot’s speed is average, only about the speed of sound, and it cannot fly. We just have to kite them from the air. Let four people pull four of them away and focus our damage on the remaining one.”
“That is indeed one way, but how do we distribute these bosses?” Yi Ye Fu Yun nodded, agreeing that kiting the Guard Robots was the best strategy. “We have so many people, including many free players. The bosses drop little loot, but we need many people to clear them, so there will not be enough to go around.”
“That is also easy,” Luo Wu Shang said, stepping forward. “Team bidding. Whether for drops or the bodies to be handed in, we can bid with points or items. Highest bid wins. Then everyone splits those points or items evenly at the end. How about that?”
“That is good. I agree. This way everyone profits,” Fang Zhen said with a nod.
For their teams, the most important thing was the bodies of the Guard Robots, which could be given to the Martial Arts Hall in exchange for merit and rewards. If they took them directly, the free players who fought alongside them would be displeased, and other teams would not be happy either.
By contrast, if they bid based on their financial strength, that would undoubtedly be the best.
Soon, the players present held a quick discussion and ultimately agreed on team bidding.
“Since distribution is settled, let us begin.” Seeing that everyone had decided, Fang Zhen started assigning tasks for dealing with the Guard Robots.
In no time, assignments for the five Guard Robots were set. Li Tianxing and four other players adept at aerial movement would be the first to attract the five Guard Robots.
As soon as the five Guard Robots from the cultivation grounds saw Li Tianxing and the others, they immediately gave chase. Once the five split up, the five Guard Robots also separated, each pursuing one player.
“All five have been split. Make your move!” Fang Zhen ordered when he saw the five Guard Robots had been pulled far apart.
This scene left Fansen, Lan Yu, and the others exploring the distant buildings completely stunned.
