Chapter 68: Night Raid
Night falls in the basement of the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall.
Groups of new players appear in the confined room, and these new players, faced with a world that is almost real, behave just like the previous batch of newcomers, filled with curiosity about everything.
One after another is either stroking the iron fence, or hopping on the ground, and some are even rubbing themselves against the wall.
“Awesome! This game is insanely awesome!”
“Before, when this game claimed 100% virtual degree, I did not really believe it. I did not expect it to be true. Now I cannot even tell reality from illusion. This game is definitely going to blow up!”
“With graphics this clear, I could praise it for a year.”
“When will this game enter public beta? I will top up like crazy, just give me a few of the most top tier martial skills.”
“Brother, do you know what the price of martial arts hall points is on the forum now? One point already sells for one hundred yuan. Those martial artist-level martial skills cost at least three thousand points, that is three hundred thousand. Are you sure you can top up like crazy?”
After getting used to the place for a while, the newcomers also began chatting with each other. Compared with the previous batch, they were clearly more familiar with High Martial Arts Descend.
This scene left the veteran players waiting outside utterly amazed. They did not expect this batch of newcomers to be so much more accepting than they had been back then. Not only did they quickly adapt to High Martial Arts Descend, they were all already discussing how to play it.
“Brothers! Did you see that? I, Xiao Yuan, have entered!” Among the newcomers, a youthful, pretty, adorable girl not yet twenty kept talking up toward the empty air above, just like a lunatic. “From today on, Xiao Yuan will teach everyone how to play High Martial Arts Descend from zero. I will upload the teaching videos I record every day to my private channel. You do not need to worry about missing any complete tutorial content. Please follow and like more!”
“Old Zhen! That Xiao Yuan seems to be in the same line of work as you.” Twilight of the Gods looked at the woman called Xiao Yuan and could not help laughing. “Now your live stream popularity is going to be stolen.”
“Steal my popularity?” Fang Zhen glanced at Xiao Yuan and could not help shaking his head with a wry smile. “You are overestimating me. Although I have gained quite a bit of popularity from High Martial Arts Descend and have even rushed into the top ten game live streamers, that Xiao Yuan is a great god of the game strategy group. She does not stream often, but whenever she does, she is a top five game streamer.”
“Strategy group great god?” Twilight of the Gods said in surprise. “Is she really that strong?”
As more and more virtual games appeared on Blue Star, in addition to supporting a large number of professional game players, many people also began making detailed game strategy guides. These people came to be called the strategy group.
To be called a great god in the strategy group, one must have either completed ultra-rare achievements in some super difficult games, or taken first place in various dungeon speedruns, or produced ultra high-difficulty dungeon strategy guides that even fools can clear with.
It was hard to imagine that someone about his age could actually be a great god of the strategy group.
“I have seen her strategies,” Saiwai Qiangke said from the side. “Not long ago she was doing an assessment test strategy for High Martial Arts Descend. In yesterday’s demonstration video, she already managed to last fourteen seconds. That video has gone completely viral. Its views have already exceeded six million.”
“Fourteen seconds? Then is she about to catch up to the assessment record on the forum?” Twilight of the Gods was completely stunned.
Now that the platform has opened the official forum for High Martial Arts Descend, every day a crowd of people show off how long they last in the test assessment. It is rumored that some saintly beings on pilgrimage are also posting their results.
The best confirmed result on the forum so far is 15.7 seconds. People suspect this person might be a veteran monster on a pilgrimage who achieved that after taking drugs.
And a time of 14 seconds is already no worse than those saint-level beings.
Just as Fang Zhen and the others were talking about Xiao Yuan, that strategy group great god, Yi Ye Fu Yun’s expression suddenly changed, then turned into wild joy.
“Sis, you’re here!”
Yi Ye Fu Yun walked up to a woman as ethereal as a fairy. This woman was Ye Qinglu.
“Immortal Road Eternal still has some time before the public beta, and I had nothing better to do anyway.” Ye Qinglu did not even look at Yi Ye Fu Yun. She simply loosened up her hands and feet, giving an indifferent review. “This game is indeed quite something. In terms of realism, it surpasses Immortal Road Eternal a bit. I just don’t know how it performs in actual combat.”
“Sis, don’t worry. The actual combat in this game is impeccable,” Yi Ye Fu Yun assured her with great confidence.
Originally, he had been worried that even if Ye Qinglu wanted to play, the reservation count had already broken through one hundred and fifty thousand. Selecting forty people out of one hundred and fifty thousand was really too low a chance. He never expected Ye Qinglu to enter the game that very evening. It was simply too much of a surprise.
While the crowd was noisily chattering, Lin Qi also walked down, causing everyone present to turn their heads to look.
The newcomers entering High Martial Arts Descend now have more or less read the NPC introductions on the official forum. Among them, Hall Master Lin Qi is the most important: an NPC with player management rights who is even tied to the development of the game’s main storyline, so no one can afford to ignore him.
If you make this NPC unhappy and get directly expelled from the martial arts hall, you will be driven to despair.
The thirty veteran players present were all curiously looking at Lin Qi, wondering what trial he had prepared for the newcomers this time.
“Newcomers! Welcome to Obsidian Martial Arts Hall. I am your hall master, Lord Lin Qi. According to the rules, if you want to become honorable martial arts hall disciples, you must prove yourselves.”
“There is a registration book on the table. Write down your name and age, then go over there and choose a beloved small shovel. Go out, turn right, and go upstairs to the training ground. Over there, I have already prepared for you…”
Just as Lin Qi was speaking, a loud explosion suddenly came from upstairs, as if something had been blasted apart.
“What is going on?”
“From that sound, why do I feel like the big wooden door upstairs just shattered?”
“No way. That big wooden door is more than four meters tall and over twenty centimeters thick. I heard it is made from the hard ironwood here, with hardness comparable to steel and a weight of four to five tons. To blast it apart, you would need to fire a rocket launcher at it.”
“Could this be Master of the Pavilion’s trial for the newcomers?”
The veteran players felt this blasted-apart sound was very familiar. Especially since the martial arts hall closes its main gate at night, and now there was an explosion upstairs and the sound of something heavy hitting the ground. Other than the martial arts hall’s main gate, they could not think of anything else.
“Is someone attacking?” After hearing the shout, Lin Qi looked at everyone and said, “Everyone, go to the warehouse over there and get weapons and equipment. Equip yourselves quickly, then follow me upstairs!”
Although Lin Qi did not know who was attacking in the middle of the night, Obsidian Martial Arts Hall was no longer as easy to deal with as before. In particular, his Leopard Shadow Steps had already reached First Level Perfection, giving him a 5% speed improvement buff. He had also reached entry-level in the Prairie Fire Spear Technique. With the buff at this stage, his strength had broken through to 600 kilograms, and he was already an advanced apprentice.
In less than a minute, Lin Qi put on A6-level armor, took Lante’s A6-level spear in hand, and led the fully equipped players to gather at the training ground.
“White Feather Gang!”
Lin Qi looked at the more than twenty members on the training ground wearing White Feather Gang clothing, Winged Tribe people with a pair of wings on their backs. They were also fully armed, wearing A4-level armor and holding A6-level weapons. Every one of them was at apprentice-level or higher.
At their head stood a Winged Tribe giant man about two meters forty-five tall, holding a Mountain Splitting Great Axe of unknown grade, its weight alone likely exceeding two hundred kilograms. He was covered head to toe in A6-level armor, and his terrifying aura far surpassed Flo of the Green Sparrow Gang.
The two shattered doors on the ground both bore an axe mark. It was obvious they had been split open by the Winged Tribe giant man before them.
“Vice Gang Leader Gana! It’s definitely them.” The one-armed winged youth pointed at Lin Qi and the others, wearing a cold smile as he said with great certainty, “They are the ones who took our White Feather Gang’s medium transport vehicle!”
