Chapter 357 - 353: Nation War Instance and Belial

Chapter 357: Chapter 353: Nation War Instance and Belial

In a villa within the Interstellar Federation, a young man sat up in his soft bed.

Wang Linna scratched his hair, thinking wearily, ’I guess I’ll continue cultivating the Ghost Killing Blood Body Skill today.’

Ever since it was confirmed that players could bring the powers they gained in "Two Realms Hegemony" into the real world, the entire Interstellar Federation had been in an uproar.

Countless Federation citizens wanted to enter the game, but unfortunately, there weren’t enough slots to go around.

Over the past few months, only 50 million players had been able to delve deep into it.

In their quest for greater power, almost 90% of these 50 million players dedicated most of their day to the game.

As the number of players grew, so did their understanding of the game, and all sorts of specialized leveling methods were developed.

Examples included the PKing playstyle, the monster-grinding playstyle, the Dual Cultivation playstyle, the pain playstyle, the blood blade playstyle, the faith playstyle... and many more.

Wang Linna had chosen a method published by a professional player, known as the pain playstyle.

The Ghost Killing Blood Body Skill he was cultivating was a Cultivation Technique where the more grievous one’s injuries, the faster one’s cultivation speed.

By chopping off one’s own limbs, then gouging out the eyes, pulling out the tongue, and piercing the eardrums to sever all five senses, one could gain almost 30 experience points per hour of cultivation.

Since players could block out pain and their health regenerated extremely quickly, this cultivation method was chosen by many.

After all, a player’s real body was completely unharmed when they logged out, so what was a little suffering for their in-game character?

With so many different playstyles flourishing and advancing simultaneously, the players’ levels were increasing at a visibly rapid pace.

Thanks to the ridiculously fast leveling methods of the early game—like something out of a "one-slash-levels-you-up" ad—it only took a mere 50,000 or so experience points to go from the Profound Gate First Layer to the Ninth Layer.

Now, more than three months after the game’s launch, thanks to the players’ diligent grinding, nearly 20 million of them had reached the Ninth Layer and successfully undergone their First Turn.

This increased the number of Heaven-Ascending Road Martial Artists across all the nations of the Martial World by tens, if not hundreds, of times. It was a classic case of inflation.

But these players knew very well that the real game only began after the Heaven-Ascending Road.

Unlike other online games, the power gap between each Turn in this one was as vast as the difference between heaven and earth.

In terms of pure physical strength, a Second Turn player could easily go on a rampage against First Turn players, slaughtering an army of 100,000 of them in a single day without breaking a sweat.

’What a shitty game with broken power scaling,’ Wang Linna grumbled to himself. He then followed his daily routine and logged into his usual player-run forum.

But as soon as he logged in, the content immediately grabbed his attention. On the site he hadn’t visited for just one day, there were now hundreds of thousands of new game-related posts.

"What the hell, did the world explode or something? So many posts," Wang Linna exclaimed in surprise. He clicked on a thread and quickly understood what had happened.

The long-silent "Two Realms Hegemony" had released a new announcement: the launch of a National War instance.

Players would be automatically assigned to a faction based on their starting capital city, divided into the Allied Nations and the One-Heart Nation.

Players from the Great Derivation would join the One-Heart Nation to collectively fight against the siege of the other nations.

During the National War, players could also gain large amounts of experience by killing players from the opposing faction.

’So we’re moving into PVP mode,’ Wang Linna muttered to himself.

With this announcement, players were bound to start killing each other indiscriminately. It was even possible to lose months of hard-earned experience from meditation and get knocked all the way back to level zero.

...

Atop the palace, Fang Can stood with his arms crossed, gazing at the cluster of coffins and tombstones before him. He spoke to the Lord of Jank beside him:

"What use do you have for my Qiankun Great Shift?"

"That Fourth Turn from Lihen Heaven you captured is a dud. The inheritance converted from his Light of the Mind is far from meeting expectations. Your Qiankun Great Shift will serve as a nice replacement," the Lord of Jank explained.

Fang Can nodded lightly, taking off a white bracelet from his wrist and tossing it over. "The details are all recorded in here. Have you figured out what you’re going to do with those 500,000 First Turn player bodies?"

"Of course. Injecting memories one by one is too much trouble. A mass-production pipeline for memory infusion is much better. I already have someone in mind for it." The corners of the Lord of Jank’s mouth couldn’t help but curl up as he thought of a brilliant plan.

"I’ll be awaiting your world-shocking wisdom, then," Fang Can said with a placid nod.

"As for those three Fourth Turn bodies I gave you, you’d best use villainous souls. The lingering attachments of righteous heroes are too strong; the Soul Calming Skill has trouble controlling their thoughts."

"Don’t worry, I get it. We’re going with an all-villain cast, right?" The Lord of Jank’s lips curled into a smile. "I’ve already sent them out."

"Sent them out?" Fang Can was slightly taken aback. "Where to?"

"Those Fourth Turns all have their own wills. They couldn’t sit still, so I figured I might as well have them go out and bring me back enough materials."

"As you wish." Fang Can nodded lightly after hearing his explanation. He wouldn’t interfere in these matters.

As various thoughts flooded his mind, a flash of irritation crossed Fang Can’s eyes. The rage he had suppressed through slaughter not long ago surged up once more.

"You keep working hard here. I’m going to go catch a Fourth Turn to blow off some steam." After dropping this line, Fang Can took a step and his body vanished completely from the spot.

「Meanwhile, in the Blazing Nation.」

BOOM—BOOM—BOOM—

A colossal, 55-meter-tall figure walked toward the lineage of the Giant Mountain Super Power Dominator, each step causing the ground to tremble and the mountains to shake.

The surface of its body looked as if it were clad in a black-and-red suit. A purple crystal was embedded in its chest, its streamlined head was topped with orange-yellow eyes, and its arms ended in claws.

In the distance, countless Disciples from the Giant Mountain Super Power Dominator lineage hovered in mid-air, their gazes fixed gravely on the giant before them.

"Your Excellency, which senior from our Super Dominator lineage might you be?" a Third Turn elder asked. "For what reason have you come here in this transformed state?"

"This is my true form," the creature said in an exceedingly magnetic voice.

"The name ’Blazing Nation’... I don’t like it. It reminds me of some unpleasant history."

"Therefore... all of you must die!"

"Let you bastards know the name of your master! You may call me—Belial!!!"

As he spoke, Belial crossed his claws. A scarlet light rapidly converged in his hands, and then a crimson beam shot forth from his palms.

Destiny Beam!!!

The moment they saw that surging, blood-red light, the faces of all the elders changed. In an instant, they transformed into countless giants to collectively resist the beam of light, which reeked of death.