Reconnaissance Report
I don't know how much time passed; perhaps just a few minutes, perhaps longer.
[Xiao Kou Chang Kai], who had been studying his unique [Ten Thousand Worlds] panel from a distance while secretly watching the ongoing Legendary -rank infighting on the other side of the island, seemed to sense something extremely unusual.
He whirled around, his gaze sharp as lightning, shooting towards the core area of the [Starry Sky Forbidden Land]—the direction of Su Luo Laboratory.
What he saw was a sight that shouldn't have appeared in this place.
The sky over that area seemed to have been torn apart by an invisible, enormous force!
The Chaos energy surged like an inky torrent, and countless clouds were crushed into dust by an invisible force, revealing the Void beneath which flowed gilded Dao patterns.
At the same time, vast swaths of magnificent yet ominous, indescribably colorful phantom flames flowed Burn within...
Overall, it looks pretty awesome.
But the problem is, there are no clouds in the [ Under the Under the Starry Sky] world, so what is this?
"Following this update to the core framework of 'Ten Thousand Worlds,' the system has added nine new 'Advanced World' entrances. Based on preliminary Attribute detection and tendency analysis, two of them are primarily adapted to the Mana Side energy system, while two are more geared towards the Martial Dao -based physical and willpower development system..."
The cold, standard presentation echoed in the closed conference room.
"... According to the information, when the World Progress reaches 100%, the Final Showdown will begin. In order to postpone the Final Showdown and increase our chances of victory, we must go and conquer these worlds!"
"Each time a high-level world is successfully conquered, the growth rate of 'World Progress' will be permanently reduced, and the progress bar itself will regress by 10% to 30%! If all goes well, through continuous conquest, we can even postpone the so-called 'Final Showdown' indefinitely until we are fully prepared!"
Nanmen Shi sat in the back corner, his back slightly hunched, looking somewhat listless. Several days of high-intensity, high-pressure adaptive training and information indoctrination had left him physically and mentally exhausted.
"... And the world we are about to conquer is a higher world—[ Under the Under the Starry Sky]!"
The room, which had been somewhat noisy, became quiet.
Each of the nine new worlds has a brief "World Introduction" in the system Plane, some of which are filled with a domineering Martial Dao atmosphere:
[To bow to all the heroes of the world, to defeat all the heroes of the world]
Some have ambiguous meanings:
[Become one with me...]
But the most amazing thing about the world introduction of [ Under the Under the Starry Sky] is:
[Thank you for following the Starry Sky, meow~]
"What detailed information? The reconnaissance report?"
A calm male voice broke the silence from the front row. It belonged to a well-known Legendary player with a high reputation online.
"The first reconnaissance team returned six hours ago, at a great cost... The situation is not optimistic."
The person on stage switched to a holographic projection.
The first thing that catches the eye is a stunning scene captured from a drone's perspective: in the boundless Void, a magnificent river of light composed of countless dazzling starlight flows and swirls.
In this dreamlike sea of starlight, enormous floating islands are scattered like pearls, with condensed starlight forming faint bridges between them, creating a mysterious overall layout.
Following this is a composite macroscopic view that roughly marks the distribution of all the observed floating islands. There are approximately 120 islands of varying sizes, and their distribution pattern roughly resembles a "stars surrounding the moon".
The outer islands are smaller and more scattered, while the closer to the central area, the more impressive the size of the islands.
The massive floating island at the very center, with its marked area, caused even many players familiar with the grand scale of "Ten Thousand Worlds" to gasp in astonishment.
[Core floating island: "Starry Sky Forbidden Land", estimated surface area: approximately 108 million square kilometers.]
This area is almost half the total land area of all the major inhabited planets in the Yuncang Star System!
In terms of the physical scale of the main regions within the world, [ Under the Under the Starry Sky] is considered average among known advanced worlds, and may even be on the smaller side.
Before the update, there were indeed large, advanced worlds in "Ten Thousand Worlds," but those worlds were irrelevant to this mission that concerned "World Progress" and the survival of civilization.
"Next is the preliminary analysis of environmental parameters." The person on stage switched again.
A dense list of data cascaded down the screen like a waterfall:
Environmental basic Mana concentration (extremely high, and exhibiting abnormal activity), energy ratio distribution of each element, local gravity parameters (unknown), environmental medium composition analysis (non-standard atmosphere, a thin, special energy fluid)...
These technical data were like Heavenly Book to Nanmen Shi. His gaze quickly swept over them, finally settling on the bottom of the list, on the line of numbers highlighted in bold red:
High-energy life reaction detected (Legendary Rank): 119.
The person on stage spoke very quickly, rapidly getting to this line of numbers.
"This is crucial intelligence we obtained at a heavy price! These newly added advanced worlds seem to have World Master, although they don't have the authority to manage players entering and leaving the worlds... but they most likely knew when our reconnaissance units entered."
"This information was gathered by the reconnaissance team in the short time it took for the enemy to react. 80% of the first reconnaissance team was wiped out, but the remaining members managed to escape in time and bring the information back..."
"According to feedback from special detection equipment, there are at least 119 life forms that have reached the Legendary rank within the [ Under the Under the Starry Sky] world! This does not include other life forms at a lower energy level."
The atmosphere in the conference room instantly plummeted to freezing point, so oppressive it was almost suffocating. The slight agitation that had arisen earlier regarding the word "expedition" was completely extinguished by a bucket of ice water.
One hundred and nineteen Legendary -level powerhouses?
Their "Yuncang 21st Expeditionary Army" consisted of no more than fifty Legendary -rank players who responded to the call and were willing to obey basic commands.
Among them, the truly military-trained, disciplined "official Legendary" only make up a portion due to the limited population size and the difficulty of training them.
The rest are all strong individuals who have risen from humble beginnings. While their individual strength may be considerable, their reliability, discipline, and cooperation are highly questionable, especially in large-scale coordinated operations, particularly on the brutal battlefields of such cross-world expeditions.
After all, since the update of "Ten Thousand Worlds" and the implementation of the mandatory login law, a series of decisions made by the Yuncang United Government have been filled with high pressure and coercion, which has long aroused dissatisfaction and resistance among the people, especially high-end players.
The reason they were included in the expeditionary force was more out of a shared fear of the mysterious [Ten Thousand Worlds] and the official promise of survival resources, rather than genuine hatred of the enemy.
"Um... doesn't the Expeditionary Force have many 'armies'? I saw the 87th Army active in the public area yesterday... There are only nine new worlds in total, we can't... send eight or nine armies to each world? That would overwhelm them, wouldn't it?" Nanmen Shi asked the person next to him quietly.