Chapter 2: New Century (Epilogue)
Chapter: Chapter 626: New Module
Chapter 626: New Module
“Things are getting a bit tricky…”
Looking at the swarming spider monsters, even as a player, Hezi felt his scalp tingle.
“Can we call Winter City for support? We can’t possibly defeat this many spider monsters. They’d be very happy to come, wouldn’t they?”
“No rush,” Hezi said calmly. “These spider monsters are all converted civilians, and the highest level is only ten. We can handle them. That difficult guy just now was a special case.”
“Boom, boom, boom!”
The ground shook violently, as if countless wild bulls were stampeding. Scattered stones were kicked up, hitting the players’ armor with a crisp clang.
Soon, the first spider monster entered the players’ attack range.
A fireball, whistling sharply, flew towards it. The spider monster had basic intelligence and knew the fireball was dangerous. It tried to dodge, but there were simply too many spider monsters around. They were packed together, and many even tripped over their own companions halfway through, falling face-first and being trampled to death.
“Bang—!”
The fireball exploded on the spider monster, and its body was torn to shreds amidst its wails.
[Experience Points +15]
The mage player frowned.
Even for a level ten monster, this experience was too low.
While the players were fighting outside the gates of Tantinger City, Xi Wei was not indulging in idle activities with his maids. He sat in his office chair, his gaze fixed on the scene before him, holding the soft Silly Dragon plush toy, Connie. He had Connie’s ferret in his mouth, occasionally taking a gentle suck.
“These spider monsters are the contamination of the Old Ones. It looks like Bryant is in dire straits…” Xi Wei took another sip from the little ferret, his tone tinged with regret.
“Bryant? Have you found him?”
Connie tilted her head to look at the screen. Besides the players and the dense spider monsters, Bryant’s figure was nowhere to be seen.
“Bryant isn’t here, but he must have passed through Tantinger City, and he even delivered a mutated gift package to the humans of Tantinger City…”
Connie couldn’t see the information on these spider monsters, but only Xi Wei could see it clearly.
[Name: Atrakh’s Retainer]
[Strength: Unknown]
[Skills: Corrupt, Mutate, Pounce]
[Reputation: 0 (These terrifying monsters are Atrakh’s retainers. Atrakh used the retainers of Tsathoggua to contaminate Bryant. They seem to be brewing some sort of conspiracy.)]
Undoubtedly, Atrakh and Tsathoggua were among the Old Ones. Tsathoggua was related to the incident in Kairid Empire’s Sol City. However, according to the intelligence from the scouts there, the contamination in the Kairid Empire had largely been quelled, and those bizarre half-human, half-toad creatures were mostly eliminated. But it couldn’t be confirmed if there were any hidden followers in the dark, as the Kairid Empire had the most extensive underground tunnel system on the entire North Continent.
The contamination in Kairid had just erupted, and now the Andor Empire was under attack. The Andor Empire likely wouldn’t be able to handle it as quickly as Kairid.
Currently, the combined forces of the Orcs and the humans of the Andor Empire were locked in a fierce battle.
The Naga Empress had attempted to assassinate the King of Andor multiple times without success. This cunning emperor cultivated new decoys every day; the twenty-odd individuals the Naga Empress had killed were all fakes.
Furthermore, the attitude of the King of Andor made her even more certain.
The Sea God’s Trident was stolen by someone from the Andor Empire.
And the King of Andor was hiding that person.
“So, Bryant is beyond saving? The Andor Empire has so many powerful individuals; any Champion Knight could easily cut him down.”
Connie mourned the foolish Blue Dragon for a second.
Previously, she thought Bryant, although a bit slow, was at least within the realm of having a brain. Now… tsk tsk…
She sighed a little, then pulled the ferret on her left out and put the ferret on her right into Xi Wei’s mouth. The one on the left had already recovered and had few lesions, while the one on the right had accumulated quite a bit.
These lesions accumulated constantly, twenty-four hours a day. Connie felt quite helpless about it.
Xi Wei didn’t respond to Connie’s words.
Things were not as simple as Connie imagined.
The contamination of the Old Ones disregarded levels. Champion Knights might be more lucid than Sky Knights?
In layman’s terms, Champion Knights and Mages had higher Sanity Values. The longer they stayed near the contamination, the lower their Sanity Values would become. If their Sanity Value dropped to zero, they’d go mad. If their Sanity Value became negative, congratulations, they’d be directly converted into an Old One’s retainer.
“Can System Players resist the contamination?”
Xi Wei already had an answer in his heart. Wasn’t Ye Hao contaminated by the residual Old One energy on the Sea God’s Trident back then?
[Players will also be contaminated by the Old Ones.]
As expected, the system gave such a conclusion.
[However, because players are in a state of will descent and have two world barriers for protection, they have good resistance to Old One contamination on the soul level. But on the physical level, they are no different from ordinary people. They will gradually mutate while their will remains clear. To prevent players from fully mutating, this system sets the limit of mutation as a reduction in HP. The moment a player is about to mutate, their HP will be depleted.]
“Good.”
Xi Wei nodded secretly. As expected, the system had made preparations in advance.
“But I think you can predefine a new concept. I’ll call it San Value. When a player’s San Value drops to 0, their body begins to mutate and lose HP, allowing them to have a clearer understanding of their physical condition.”
The system was silent for a moment.
It seemed to be analyzing the feasibility of Xi Wei’s suggestion. After a while, a new system function went online and was notified in every player’s personal log.
[Game Update: To welcome the brand-new expansion pack – Erosion of the Old Ones, we have updated some new modules to help players understand their character status.]
[Module 1: San Value System – All players start with a San Value of 100. When approaching Old One contamination, San Value will be gradually deducted. When San Value reaches zero, the body will mutate, and mutation will deduct HP by a percentage. The mutation process is irreversible!]
[Module 2: Mental Shield – Mage-class professions’ Mental Shields have a pollution-weakening effect. To reflect this more intuitively, owner San Value shield indicators have been added.]
[This update is online. We wish you a happy gaming experience.]
Hezi and the other players fighting outside Tantinger City naturally received the system notification.
They were happily killing spider monsters.
Then they discovered a new purple energy bar below their HP bar, and this new energy bar was almost empty!
“Holy crap! Retreat!”
Hezi didn’t waste any time and immediately led everyone back.
They hadn’t managed to release their Resurrection Crystals yet, they couldn’t afford to be wiped out here.
