An Insanely Difficult Instance?
Ye Xu's face was ashen. After a dizzying spin, he crashed back onto the sofa in his luxurious shelter.
"Fuck, what the hell is with that instance? Why was it so hard?"
"If even I couldn't beat it, could anyone else?"
"Was it dynamic difficulty?"
Ye Xu picked up a cup of tea and sat on the sofa, still shaken.
Two days earlier, he had set out to brave an instance, armed with a full set of excellent equipment and items.
He had picked a teleportation voucher at random from the System Store, choosing one that looked good to him.
[Targeted Instance Teleportation Voucher (Temporary) -- Song of the Siren]
[Value: 30,000 SC]
[Upon use, teleports the user to the entrance of the instance [Song of the Siren] (duration of stay: 50 hours)]
As the teleportation light faded, he entered the instance called "Song of the Siren." At first, everything went smoothly. Level 3 and Level 4 monsters, even elites, were cut down like vegetables before his terrifying attributes and equipment.
Everything had been fine up to that point. Whether ordinary or elite, Ye Xu had easily dealt with those Level 3 and Level 4 monsters thanks to his high attributes and equipment.
Then he reached the final stage, where a Level 5 elite monster and three Level 4 elite monsters were crouched in the room.
"Is a person supposed to be able to beat this?!"
No sooner had Ye Xu said that than the boss began chanting an ethereal, eerie song, and Ye Xu was immediately immobilized.
After the life-saving necklace he wore activated, Ye Xu discovered that he had even taken off his pants.
Without a moment's hesitation, he turned and ran, spending the rest of his allotted time elsewhere. Fortunately, the boss hadn't chased him out.
"If they came to attack my shelter, I could definitely slaughter them all with ease... but if I had to attack them..."
Ye Xu thought of Song Shige's incomparably violent slashes and the flames that burned everything to ash in Su Luo's Livestream Room, and couldn't help gritting his teeth.
"Damn it! Why don't I have a Talent that boosts my combat power?!"
Ye Xu opened his attribute panel and hesitated.
[Ye Xu: alive] [Age: 18] [Level: 5 (100%)] [Strength: 11.4] [Spirit: 12.5] [Constitution: 11.6] ------ [Mana: 24] [Free attribute points: 3] [Survival Coins: 3,034,846] [Talent: omitted] [Skills: (collapsed, 43 total)]
With special supplies that boosted his attributes and green skills leveled up using Experience Stones, Ye Xu had already raised his attributes to a terrifying level. Even so, he had still met with defeat in the instance.
"Could it be because I didn't allocate any points over the last few levels?"
His expression shifted. Once an attribute exceeded 12 points, the gains from leveling up green skills became negligible.
If he put his three free attribute points into Spirit now, he could definitely thrash a Level 5 elite monster.
But... was it really worth it? A resource like a master key should be saved for more critical bottlenecks later on.
As his frustration mounted, inspiration suddenly struck Ye Xu, and he understood what the system's design intended.
The Level 5 class change had never been designed for ordinary people in the first place.
The correct way to change classes should be to save free attribute points while advancing through the early levels and rely on oneself to level up.
Then, after gradually accumulating them and reaching the level cap, one could use green skills to raise one's attributes to 11 or higher, use the free attribute points to raise them further, and clear the instance in one go to obtain a [Class Change Certificate].
Perhaps only a handful of people could achieve that.
Anyone who made it that far would be a genius and a ruthless individual.
But Ye Xu wanted more. He didn't want to waste any more free attribute points.
"Wait until my Talent randomly gives me a key item... or until a beginner's guide to a blue skill appears on the forum... but for now, maybe I can learn a few more green class skills to strengthen my attacks..."
All the blue Skill Books that had appeared so far showed that his class didn't meet the requirements. In other words, no one had a blue skill.
Fewer than half of the green Skill Books showed that his class didn't meet the requirements. Those class skills were all extraordinarily powerful.
White Skill Books, on the other hand, had no class requirements.
The more Ye Xu thought about it, the more frustrated he became. He opened the panel and clicked on a beauty in the regional channel.
Su Luo was still lurking. He opened a "historian's post" that documented in detail the thrilling market war between the Mutual Aid Association and Ye Xu's faction over the past few days, which had ended in a rout for Ye Xu's side.
Even so, Ye Xu and his people had still made off with a huge number of Survival Coins and a portion of the scarce resources in the process.
Su Luo silently ate his melon as he browsed all sorts of posts.
He had to admit, witnessing an economic war in this other world felt rather surreal.
The appearance of Survival Coins and the system's new mechanisms, and their development over the past few days, had reshaped the grassroots ecosystem of the survivors.
First came the emergence of numerous small organizations.
A series of small organizations had appeared, including the [Ingenuity Group], [Power-Leveling Experts Group], and [Elite Cleanup Team].
Even if a Level 3 elite monster blocked your door, all you had to do was pay enough Survival Coins to hire an expert to clear it out.
Forging, applying buffs, leveling... services and industries kept evolving.
Then there were information trading, intelligence analysis, customized personal attribute analyses and point-allocation advice... they had just about everything.
Zone 76 was truly bursting with life, with everything flourishing.
Su Luo opened his private messages. Most asked for help getting started with class skills, some sought cooperation, and a small handful even wanted to name him as the beneficiary of their inheritance.
"What the hell..." Su Luo felt like laughing.
After spending some time on the forum, Su Luo gathered his thoughts and got down to business.
First, he had to allocate points to Constitution and Strength.
From the rankings payouts over the past four days, he had obtained eight Intermediate Skill Experience Stones and 52 Basic Skill Experience Stones in total. As time passed, the daily rewards had grown increasingly generous.
Including the Basic Skill Experience Stone he had left over from before, that came to 13,300 experience in total.
He picked a green skill at random.
[Five Consecutive Lightning Whips (green)]
Maybe I shouldn't be so casual about it...
[Diamond Sutra (green)]
After spending a little time getting started, Su Luo began allocating points while chugging Stamina Potions.
[Diamond Sutra (green), Level 16 (1,300/1,600)]
[Constitution: 9.8 (↑2.3)]
[Strength: 7.7 (↑1.6)]
With his attributes strengthened, Su Luo happily used a [Food Voucher of Choice] to exchange for a table full of delicious food and dug in.
After eating and drinking his fill, he returned once more to the entrance of his loyal Dungeon.
Beyond the battered stone doors, the Armed Skeletons in rusty armor still stared silently out at the world, blue soul flames flickering in their eye sockets.
"We meet again."
Su Luo greeted them. The next moment, the Mana around him erupted like an awakening volcano!
In his mental world, the clear lake and the humanoid nebula suspended high above churned at an unprecedented speed as vast amounts of mental power and Mana were frantically drawn out and converted.
In just three seconds, a blazing-white Fireball Formation with an immensely complex structure and highly concentrated energy silently formed in front of him, radiating heart-pounding energy fluctuations.
Then came a second, a third...
A minute later, nine terrifying Fireball Formations floated quietly around Su Luo.
With a slight movement of his will, Su Luo flicked a finger.
The nine formations glided silently into the Dungeon.
Boom, boom, boom—!!!
The entire Dungeon entrance suddenly bulged upward, then caved in.
A searing blast of air mixed with a dazzling pillar of flame erupted from the entrance and shot straight into the sky.
A powerful shock wave carrying dust and debris spread outward in a ring, even making Su Luo's black apprentice robe snap and flutter in the distance.
The violent explosions and flames blew apart not only the first-floor hall, but also quite a few rooms below it.
Bathed in scorching wind and flying sparks, Su Luo silently watched the Dungeon, now an entrance to purgatory, as though he had merely done something insignificant.
Su Luo's experience began to soar.