Mario Is the Benchmark for Novice Guidance. What Shit Pit Did Demon World Village Crawl Out Of?

Green Skin, cold on the outside but warm at heart, had once said that the Player Community unanimously believed that even Demon World Village's very first stage should be D-rank rather than E-rank. That alone proved just how notorious Demon World Village's blueprint was among the player community.

Of course, its most notorious trait was actually being a "newbie killer." As long as a player's strength surpassed a certain threshold, their chances of dying in Demon World Village would drop dramatically.

Take the 1-1/2/3/4 stages of Super Mario Bros., another popular Novice Trial dungeon, especially 1-1. It practically held players' hands and taught them how to kill enemies, earn Mushroom Gold, and obtain power-up items. There was no need for Veteran Player guides at all.

And 1-4 even thoughtfully placed a fixed mechanism behind the final boss of the castle, "Fake Bowser," which could trigger a terrain kill against the boss. As long as you were clever and brave enough, you could clear it safely without fighting head-on and rescue the Princess inside... no, Toad No. 1.

Honestly, Nintendo's gameplay guidance in this scene was god-tier, enough to serve as a textbook model for the gaming industry. Even players with zero foundation could grasp the mechanics at the fastest speed, and when the same scene was moved into Chosen Space, it could achieve the same guidance effect without even needing Novice Guidance.

Few enemies, no traps, plenty of treasure, and high fault tolerance. Even if a player's talent was complete garbage, as long as they steadily obtained treasures like the "Super Mushroom" and "Fire Flower"—

What Shy Guys, what Koopa Troopas... when facing players throwing fireballs, you Koopa Kingdom grunt units should be the ones running!

And with the Mario Bros. setting as a comparison, Demon World Village was basically made by developers specifically to screw players over. If it wasn't Monsterized, it would be disrespecting all the players who had died there.

By the way, the other two Dungeon Blueprints with reputations comparable to Demon World Village were Mega Man and Battletoads. The latter two just hid their fangs a few stages deeper, luring players in before killing them. Demon World Village, meanwhile, was more like, "I don't care about any of that—I'm killing you the moment you start!"

Whether Cheng Tian really had five thousand coins had yet to be confirmed, but a set of Knight Armor capable of blocking any single attack was displayed right in front of everyone.

That meant Cheng Tian had not only crawled out of that Shit Pit called Demon World Village, but was also a major contributor to the Raid Dungeon quest. Otherwise, the key that came with the armor for killing the boss would never have fallen into his hands.

But if they found out that the Red Demon Cheng Tian faced had an Elite Template, the giant monster had a Champion Template, and he had killed them all solo... they probably would not have been able to react at all.

Because that was not a Novice Trial at all. It was a slaughterhouse for newcomers!

"Hey! You little bastard, did you do this on purpose? You priced a set of Knight Armor at five nines? Are you trying to fly to the moon?!"

The moment Old Fan saw Cheng Tian list the armor at 99,999, he immediately started complaining.

Most of the players who had gathered around after overhearing the juicy gossip kept nodding in agreement, but very few of them turned around and left.

Because Cheng Tian was obviously setting an inflated price and waiting for buyers to haggle. It was the sort of practice used by someone with no clear understanding of market prices, shifting the pressure of pricing onto the buyer.

If there were fewer people, there might still be a chance to snag a bargain. But now that there were more people, the nature of the situation had changed.

Squinting at the heads moving before him and the rapidly skyrocketing number of stall messages, Cheng Tian was somewhat surprised.

Most of them might just be here for the spectacle, but it also showed that Knight Armor's target audience... seemed pretty large?

That was right. Quite a few people had their eyes on Knight Armor, and some were even contacting others on the spot. The situation was faintly showing signs of getting out of hand.

The reason was that Cheng Tian seemed to have underestimated the rule-based Damage Resistance granted by Knight Armor, at the cost of occupying six Equipment Slots and having only one point of durability.

Blocking a Star Destroyer Cannon would be a bit absurd, but it was absolutely qualified to block a powerful boss's one-hit kill from some high-difficulty dungeon.

Although ordinary players only had six fixed item slots, just as Cheng Tian had obtained Extra Skills, there were naturally ways in the space to expand one's number of item slots.

So theoretically, after using Knight Armor to block one hit, a player could immediately switch to backup equipment and continue holding their position as the tank. It was an item with tremendous strategic value.

And while this was theoretically the lowest-tier Magic Equipment that could be obtained in bulk, it had almost no replacement in the space.

Take the Super Mario series dungeons, the most popular among players. There, the "Invincibility Star," which could grant Pseudo-invincible status, usually could not be brought out of the dungeon. As for the "Super Mushroom," which could make a person larger and stronger, it seemed capable of absorbing damage at the cost of shrinking—but players still had to take the damage from the hit that made them shrink in full.

For ordinary players, Knight Armor, which shattered after a single hit, was not very useful. It was even worse than an ordinary set of Whiteboard leather armor.

But in certain communities, such as high-end boss raid groups, all three sets of armor from Demon World Village were in short supply and impossible to buy at any price—yes, that was written correctly.

This was also why the occasional Demon World Village Bounty Mission that appeared in the Player Quest Hall was always snatched up the instant it went live by people waiting for it. The armor obtained as loot was practically monopolized.

The people here were not players with an urgent need for Knight Armor. They were planning to act as middlemen, buying it from Cheng Tian and reselling it at a markup to those who needed it.

"Crystal Wingman! I'll trade it for one set of armor!"

At some point, Old Fan had squeezed over and tried to whisper to Cheng Tian. After all, Cheng Tian had shown considerable interest in Crystal Wingman earlier.

Cheng Mou glanced at him, twisted his old waist, and forcefully let out a fart with his lower body as his answer.

Clearly, Cheng Mou now knew the value of Knight Armor. At this moment, their positions had changed. Cheng Tian was the one in a seller's market now, and Old Fan was the one who needed to bleed.

"Crystal Wingman! Plus any two items from my stall!" Old Fan clenched his fists.

"Four." Cheng Tian held up four fingers.

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

"Deal~"

And so, Cheng Tian traded just one set of Knight Armor from Demon World Village for the four-piece set of the "NES Classic Four."

Its listed price exceeded twenty-five thousand coins, while its actual value was more than half again as high.

Seeing Cheng Tian directly take the four most valuable items from his stall, Old Fan could not stop himself from wanting to shoot Cheng Tian twice and see whether he could regenerate like that masked man!

In terms of price alone, Old Fan had taken a massive loss. But this item was a bargaining chip for dealing with specific circles. With it, a lone wolf like him would have a chance to access information that rarely circulated outside those circles.

This included, but was not limited to, ways of obtaining Special Equipment items, title trigger conditions, Skill Stone drop sources, detailed dungeon information, and more.

Sometimes expensive did not mean good. What suited you was best.

Old Fan painfully yet happily put the Knight Armor into his Personal Space. He was still thinking that this time, he should be able to obtain the drop conditions for Max Payne's "Bullet Time" skill. But when he turned around, he saw another set of Knight Armor listed for 99,999 appear on Cheng Tian's little stall...