It was now January 29, Alliance Year 1104. Exactly one week had passed since Li Li summoned the third batch of players.
The players had initially been divided into two groups. One went to Crystal Seal Village, while the other remained active within Iron Wall City.
Different choices naturally brought different gameplay experiences.
Li Li rolled his office chair over to the window. After taking in the forest scenery outside the city, he closed his eyes and shifted his perspective into the eyes of the players beyond the city walls, wanting to see how their progress was going.
Boundless Swamp.
Three spears of light shot into the sky, accurately striking the wildly swaying sunflower's core. They instantly took away 80% of its health, causing the enormous monster to crash to the ground.
A Minotaur standing a full two meters tall seized the opportunity and charged forward, severing the sunflower's stalk with a heavy axe blow and emptying its last sliver of health.
The elite squad led by Humorous Old Man was clearing the swamp's monsters with extreme efficiency.
Their levels were still around Lv. 30.
Yet they were clearly facing the same monsters as before. Back then, they had nearly lost a teammate because of the Minotaur's mistake, but now they had instantly killed this Silver Rank monster in just ten seconds.
After investing in their skill points, their light spears, which had originally only received a "300%" damage bonus, had now reached "2400%."
Combined with their fully enchanted equipment, the base damage had increased dramatically.
With the Second Playthrough Alliance still around, the players had lost the low-level grinding zones, but they had genuinely experienced the conveniences brought by industrialization in terms of equipment, items, logistics, and more.
When the game first launched in the First Playthrough, if they wanted a full set of enchanted equipment, they could only try to get it as drops from Elite Monsters.
Or, later on, they could buy it from blacksmith players, though the exact effects were still a matter of luck.
Now, however, they only needed to bounce between a few merchant guilds and sell a few materials to trade for a set of equipment with decent attributes.
They had relied on this gear to grind efficiently in Boundless Swamp for three days. Before logging off last night, they had even returned to their outpost to resupply once.
This time, they had not come merely to deal with these small fry.
The three major wilderness Bosses of Boundless Swamp that they had investigated earlier were their targets for today.
After picking up the sunflower seeds dropped by the sunflower, Pure Love War God returned to the group and gave one final confirmation to the three big shots in the party whose spears always critted.
"The nearby mobs have all been cleared. Can we start the Boss now?"
"Stick to the plan. Everyone, drink your Anti-Numbing Potion first." Amulet Owl pulled out a bottle from his backpack and drank it. "Oh, and remember to keep an eye on the Boss's health. Don't let someone steal it at the last second."
Hearing that, Level 8 Great Gale could not help complaining, "You two would do better to turn off your streams. Anyone with eyes knows our battle plan."
As an Elemental Lifeform, he was completely unafraid of the paralysis effect on the Boss's spikes.
The price was that Elemental Lifeforms could not use magic potions. They could only use consumables such as scrolls and concealed weapons.
"Come on, everyone. Let's try not to make any more rookie mistakes." Humorous Old Man encouraged them before starting the Boss fight. "Let's clear this place out today."
Seeing the four players progressing steadily, Li Li withdrew his gaze and looked toward another monster outpost along the road.
Ancient Vine Spirit Temple.
A root network formed by dozens of treants entangled the Serpent Sirens around the temple's perimeter.
When their vitality had been drained until only a final sliver of health remained, the treants' vines tossed them out.
The players waiting nearby immediately raised their shotguns. Bang! Bang! Bang! They emptied their magazines, then picked up the Serpent Sirens' drops, yawning boredly as they waited for the next mouth-fed batch of experience.
This was the grinding spot occupied by the guild Golden Wind.
Other players who wanted to come here had to consider how they could break through the root wall built by the treant NPCs.
New players who joined Golden Wind, however, could come and go freely, forming parties to grind Experience Points here.
Golden Wind, the guild leader, was not grinding monsters here. He had already reached Silver Rank and was currently wandering around Iron Wall City, chatting and laughing with the NPCs.
Under the "real world" style of gameplay, Golden Wind knew that grinding monsters alone would never be enough.
Especially for a launch-day player like him.
The Experience Points earned by those launch-day players who had honestly kept grinding until now did not even add up to the gains Lost a Leg had received from killing a single World Boss.
Amulet Owl's embers had also been made clear to be non-negotiable.
So Golden Wind was negotiating with the major factions in the city on behalf of the players.
He was trying to unite the major factions under the pretext of saving the Alliance from destruction half a year later, consolidate their strength, divide up the immense value created by the players, and seek an opportunity for a quest that would let Li Li extract embers for him.
Withdrawing his gaze again, Li Li turned his attention to the progress at the other monster outposts.
A completely player-only outpost like Boundless Swamp seemed to be the only one.
The other players had either joined one faction or another and had them send Gold Rank powerhouses to assist in clearing monsters.
Or they offered monster-drop materials as payment to hire independent mercenaries, letting them kill the monsters while the players claimed the experience.
But how should he put it...
At the same rank, the natives' strength could be said to be far inferior to that of the players.
On one hand, the natives only had one life, and they needed time to recuperate after being injured. Their fighting styles were therefore more cautious, making them no match for players who could revive endlessly.
On the other hand, if people in this world wanted to raise their "skill levels," they could only rely on practice and sudden insights.
Players, however, could simply spend Experience Points to max them out directly.
For the same Magic Missile, a player's damage might be two or three times that of a native.
Not to mention that these natives, who had never held back in their lives, now had to restrain their attacks and consider how to control their strength so they would deliberately leave only a sliver of health.
As a result, even with Gold Rank powerhouses leading them in killing monsters, these players still could not match the efficiency of Amulet Owl's elite Silver Rank squad.
Li Li withdrew his vision from the players outside the city and silently made some calculations.
At the current rate, it would take three more days at most to clear the road from Iron Wall City to the New Outpost.
Then he could have the academy lay Magic Conductor Cables along the road and construct a Teleportation Gate between the city and the outpost.
With the current level of magic, building a Teleportation Gate linking two locations required Magic Conductor Cables to be laid between the gates.
And the magic contained within the Magic Conductor Cables would naturally attract monsters from the surrounding area.
Li Li planned to post an announcement on the forum after the Teleportation Gate was completed, informing the players that they had to clear all the monsters along the route before they could unlock a certain map's teleportation function.
Once the Teleportation Gate was established, he could expand the outpost and develop it from its current state into a prosperous little town.
Li Li planned to have some nonbelievers stationed there permanently. He wanted to see how many nonbelievers were needed at minimum to activate the effects of Imperial Truth and create a "miniature version" of the God Banning Barrier.
After confirming the progress outside the city, Li Li kicked forcefully against the wall and rolled his office chair over to the window on the other side of the room.
He looked out at the steel metropolis and once again projected his vision into the eyes of the players inside the city.
Before you continue