Mario is the Benchmark of Novice Guidance, What Shit Pit is Demon World Village!

The "cold-faced but warm-hearted" Qing Pi once said that the player community unanimously agreed that even the first level of Demon World Village should be rated D, not E. This is enough to prove how infamous the original Demon World Village is among players.

Of course, its most infamous aspect is being a "newbie killer." As long as a player's strength can break through a certain threshold, the probability of dying in Demon World Village will be greatly reduced.

Look at the Super Mario Bros. levels 1-1/2/3/4, which are also popular dungeons for novice trials. Especially 1-1, it practically holds players' hands, teaching them how to kill enemies, how to get mushroom coins, and how to obtain power-up items, completely eliminating the need for veteran player guides.

And level 1-4 even thoughtfully placed a fixed mechanism behind the final BOSS, "Fake Bowser," in the deepest part of the castle, which can trigger a terrain kill against the BOSS. As long as one is clever and brave enough, they can pass safely without a direct fight and rescue the Princess inside... Oh no, it's Toad #1.

Frankly, Nintendo's scene and gameplay guidance here is truly god-tier, a textbook example for the game industry. Even players with zero foundation can understand the gameplay at the fastest speed. The same scenario, if moved to the Chosen Space, could achieve the same guidance effect, not even requiring novice guides.

Few enemies, no traps, abundant treasures, high fault tolerance. Even if a player's talent is utter garbage, as long as they can systematically obtain treasures like "Super Mushroom" and "Fire Flower"—

What Shy Guys, what Koopa Troopas... Facing players throwing fireballs, it's you Koopa Kingdom grunts who should be running!

With the Mario Bros. stages as a comparison, Demon World Village, essentially created by the producers to annoy players, deserves to be demonized if so many players didn't die there.

On a side note, the other two dungeon blueprints with reputations comparable to Demon World Village are Mega Man and Battletoads. However, the fangs of the latter two are hidden for a few more levels; they lure players in before killing them. Demon World Village, on the other hand, is like, "I don't care about you, I'm going to kill you right from the start!"

Whether Cheng Tian has five thousand coins is currently unconfirmed, but a set of Knight Armor that can withstand any single attack has been openly displayed for all to see.

This means Cheng Tian not only crawled out of the cesspool that is Demon World Village but was also a major contributor to the raid mission, otherwise, the key to defeating the BOSS and opening the gate to the armor wouldn't have fallen into his hands.

However, if they knew that the Red Demon Cheng Tian faced was an elite template, and the giant monster was a champion template, and he defeated them all solo... they might not be able to react at all.

Because that wouldn't be a novice trial at all, but a novice slaughterhouse!

"Hey! Are you doing this on purpose? A set of Knight Armor priced at five 9s, are you trying to reach the heavens?!"

Upon seeing Cheng Tian price the armor at 99999, Old Fan immediately started complaining.

The surrounding players, who had gathered due to the gossip and overheard the commotion, mostly nodded in agreement, but very few immediately turned to leave.

This was clearly Cheng Tian's inflated price, waiting for buyers to haggle. It's a tactic used by those who don't have a clear understanding of market prices, transferring the pressure of setting the price to the buyer.

If there were fewer people, there might be a chance to snag a bargain, but now that there are so many, the nature of the situation changes.

Squinting at the surging crowd before him and the rapidly increasing number of stall messages, Cheng Tian felt a bit surprised.

Although many of them might just be there for the show, it also indicated that the target audience for the Knight Armor... seems to be quite large?

Yes, indeed, there were quite a few people interested in the Knight Armor, some even contacting others on the spot, and the scene was showing signs of getting out of control.

The reason was that Cheng Tian seemed to have underestimated the Knight Armor's rule-based damage resistance ability, which came at the cost of occupying six equipment slots and having only 1 durability.

Blocking a Star Destroyer Cannon was indeed a bit exaggerated, but blocking a fatal blow from a powerful BOSS in a high-difficulty dungeon, it was definitely qualified.

Although ordinary players only have six fixed inventory slots, just like the extra skills Cheng Tian obtained, there are ways to expand the number of inventory slots in the Chosen Space.

Therefore, theoretically, after blocking an attack with the Knight Armor, one could immediately switch to backup equipment and continue to maintain their Tank position, making it a strategically valuable item.

And don't underestimate it; although it's the lowest-level magic equipment that can theoretically be obtained in batches, there are almost no substitutes for it in the Chosen Space.

For example, in the Super Mario series dungeons, which are most popular among players, the "Invincible Star," which can grant a near-invincible state, cannot be brought out of the dungeon most of the time. As for the "Super Mushroom," which can make one bigger and stronger, although it seems to absorb damage at the cost of shrinking, the damage taken before shrinking is something the player has to endure.

For ordinary players, the Knight Armor, which shatters after taking one hit, is not very useful, and might even be worse than a set of plain leather armor.

However, in specific communities like high-level BOSS strategy groups, the three sets of armor from Demon World Village are in short supply and have no price (not a typo).

This leads to the Demon World Village bounty missions that occasionally appear in the Player Quest Hall being snatched up by those who are staking them out, effectively monopolizing the armor as loot.

The crowd here is not composed of players who desperately need Knight Armor, but rather those who intend to act as resellers, buying from Cheng Tian and then reselling it at a higher price to those who need it.

"Crystal Wingman! I'll trade you a set of armor!"

At some point, Old Fan, who had come closer, tried to subtly negotiate with Cheng Tian, as Cheng Tian had previously shown considerable interest in the Crystal Wingman.

Cheng Tian glanced at him, twisted his waist, and with a forceful push from his lower body, let out a fart, which served as his answer.

It was clear that Cheng Tian already knew the value of the Knight Armor. At this moment, their roles had changed; he, Cheng Tian, was the seller in the market, and Old Fan was the one who had to bleed.

"Crystal Wingman! Plus, you can pick any two things from my stall!" Old Fan clenched his fist.

"Four items," Cheng Tian held up four fingers.

"...Three! No more than that!" Old Fan's gums were almost bleeding.

"Deal~"

Thus, Cheng Tian only traded one set of Knight Armor from Demon World Village for the "NES Classic Four" set.

The price tag exceeded 25,000 coins, and its actual value was more than half of the marked price.

Seeing Cheng Tian directly take the four most valuable items on the stall, Old Fan couldn't help but want to shoot Cheng Tian a couple of times to see if he could self-repair like his helmet and mask!

From a purely price perspective, Old Fan suffered a significant loss, but this item was a bargaining chip for specific circles. With this chip, a lone wolf like him could gain access to information that wasn't widely circulated.

This includes, but is not limited to, channels for obtaining special equipment and items, conditions for triggering titles, sources of skill stone drops, detailed dungeon information, and so on.

Sometimes, expensive doesn't mean good; what's suitable for you is the best.

Old Fan put the Knight Armor into his Personal Space with a mix of pain and pleasure, still contemplating whether he could now obtain the drop conditions for "Max Payne"'s "Bullet Time" skill. However, when he turned his head, he saw another set of Knight Armor priced at 99999 appear on Cheng Tian's stall