How Are We Supposed to Level Up

"Emerald Park Station, passengers alighting please…"

As the subway came to a stop, Qian Peng, with only 0/200 stamina left, slowly walked into the crowded carriage.

He had been fighting in the sewers all night. If it weren't for the viewers in the chat reminding him, he would have almost died in the foul water of the sewers due to his stamina bar being depleted, making him unable to run.

Just like his character in the game, Qian Peng himself was nearing his limit.

After all, the brain acceleration effect of the full-holographic helmet was no easy feat.

It was equivalent to forcing the user to maintain a high level of focus for extended periods, making their brain run at full speed. This consumed a significant amount of the user's energy, and some people even used it for weight loss.

Given Qian Peng's energy at his age, the last time he played a full-holographic game with such intensity was three years ago.

Therefore, he planned to return to his warehouse, use up the Faith he had accumulated from grinding all night, and then log off to get some much-needed sleep.

"The game's official website has been updated!"

"Streamer, check the official website quickly, they're releasing new test qualifications!"

"Peng Peng, you've worked hard all night, take a good rest later."

The chat messages also became sparse. After all, it was past 7 AM in real-time. Most people were asleep or on their commute and didn't have time to watch the stream. Only a group of college students had stayed up with him all night.

Urged by the chat, Qian Peng opened the official website for the Expedition.

The website's layout was the same as before, but half of the right side was covered by the words "Retro Server Forum" in large characters.

Judging by the unappealing UI, the art team for the Expedition was probably hired through connections.

He opened the forum and browsed through "Free Talk" for a while, only to see countless posts that were both uninformative and unreplied.

So, he opened the update announcement. After reading it, he glanced at his character card and found that his [Faith] column hadn't changed. He then complained to his viewers:

"It feels like the new operations team is a makeshift crew, not on the same level as the old veterans from the previous version."

"Even if it's a hot update, you should at least specify the update time!"

The subway still had 40 minutes before reaching the station. He thought about it and decided to force himself to stay alert and write a guide in the "Bug Report" section.

[Rants and Opening Guide: Utilizing Boss Mechanics to Farm Experience. (Not recommended for beginners)]

[Amulet Owl: Hello everyone, this is Amulet Owl, who is about to burn out after grinding all night but still has to take the subway home.]

[Amulet Owl: Today, I'll discuss some issues with Glorious Expedition and share an early-game leveling method.]

[Amulet Owl: Those who have researched it should know that the starting point in this game is Iron Wall City. In the old version, Iron Wall City was a level 30 monster grinding area, and it's the same in the new version. Brother Dao has already confirmed this outside the city.]

[Amulet Owl: Speaking of which, I can't help but complain. Apart from the fact that players don't need to poop or eat, you can feel the development team's almost obsessive pursuit of realism everywhere in this game.]

[Amulet Owl: Let's talk about the biggest problem first: the ridiculously large map. It's so exaggerated that it would take you several hours to take the subway around the city once. You're either on your way or on your way to your way. If they don't introduce a teleportation function later, it will be very discouraging.]

[Amulet Owl: It can be said that the development team has completely abandoned the player's game experience for the sake of realism.]

[Amulet Owl: They've even built in learning AI for the regular monsters. You can clearly feel the enemies adapting to your combat style, and each enemy's learning progress is different. This is a point worth praising.]

[Amulet Owl: Don't worry if you're not good at combat. The monster stats in this game are the same as the old version. You can check the encyclopedia for Despair Expedition and use intelligence to achieve victory.]

[Amulet Owl: Speaking of stats, the development team has hidden all the stats. You might feel a surge of warmth after killing a monster, but you won't know how much experience you've actually gained. It's a strange persistence.]

[Amulet Owl: Oh, and one more thing. Someone in the group tested it, and doing quests doesn't give experience, and your rewards might even be withheld. It seems that besides killing, killing, killing, this game doesn't encourage you to do anything else.]

[Amulet Owl: And under these circumstances, the development team throws a bunch of level 1 players into a level 30 large map.]

[Amulet Owl: I don't know how the development team plans for us to level up.]

[Amulet Owl: As for why players spawn in Iron Wall City, I guess it's because the Thirteen City Alliance hasn't been destroyed yet. In the old version, there weren't any zombies for players to kill near the "Forgotten Caves" where players spawned. Iron Wall City is already the closest place to monsters.]

[Amulet Owl: Fortunately, because Iron Wall City hasn't been destroyed, the millions of residents in the city haven't been transformed into level 30 vengeful spirits. They are all neutral units below level 10.]

[Amulet Owl: We can kill civilians to gain experience, but doing so will result in a ban. No one has dared to do this yet.]

[Amulet Owl: However, as far as I know, one player found a loophole and became a bounty hunter. But there are only a few people in the city who meet the criteria of being killable, beatable, and having fixed locations. This player has already killed them all. By the way, he also killed Flander, the Twisted Seed, who will be a Level 73 Boss in the future, which is a bit of a waste.]

[Amulet Owl: That player said he might go after gangs or drug dealers next, but I don't know if that will get him banned. I personally don't have high hopes for this brother, as these organizations have plenty of Transcendents, and it would be easy to kill him.]

[Amulet Owl: Next, let's talk about the strategy. The method I'm sharing today utilizes the Level 52 Boss "Perpetual Motion Device IV: Howler" located in the sewers in the city center.]

[Amulet Owl: Most people have probably farmed this blob of flesh. It's one of the gatekeeping bosses for the Underground Maniac Factory. It's a super tanky boss that can infinitely split into various clones with human faces. Its characteristic is that the fewer its health, the higher the level of the split monsters. ]

[Amulet Owl: When its health drops to 10%, it will split into 50 clones with the same attributes as itself. Therefore, you must find a way to quickly kill it around 20% health. It's a standard DPS check.]

[Amulet Owl: But when it's at full health, it only splits level 1-5 monsters. Killing these clones also gives experience.]

[Amulet Owl: I exploited this characteristic and played with the big tumor all night, accumulating 1.6 Faith, which translates to over 8000 experience.]

[Amulet Owl: I roughly estimated that the experience in Glorious Expedition is double that of the old version. You don't have to grind for weeks to level up anymore, like before. It's unclear if it's a double experience bonus at the start of the server.]

His mind feeling groggy, Qian Peng spent nearly forty minutes writing this rant and guide, mostly writing whatever came to mind. During that time, there wasn't a single reply.

He was puzzled for a long time before remembering that only those who had obtained game qualifications could reply in the "Suggestions for Improvement" sub-section.

"Wall Station, passengers alighting please…"

As the subway arrived at the station, Qian Peng had to stop typing. He glanced at his still unrecovered stamina bar, sighed, and could only slowly make his way back to his spawn point.

When he finally reached his warehouse, ready to quickly upgrade and log off.

He found a red-haired girl from the Beast-Ear Race at the entrance of the warehouse.

Because she was good-looking, Qian Peng subconsciously scanned over, and El Yunis's panel appeared in his vision.

[Name: El Yunis]

[Race: Beast-Ear Race]

[Class: ???]

[Level: ???]

[Rank: ???]

[Traits: ???]

[Attributes: ???]

[Skills: ???]

[Affection: 0]