Trial by Combat

Brother Yang was like an old nanny, but I had to admit that, aside from being a bit of a daughter lover, he was actually a pretty decent guy. He had diligently told me a great deal of information.

Resources and information were things I definitely needed.

Although my pockets were completely empty at the moment, I could still prepare in advance.

"As for moving to a Safe City, that's completely unnecessary."

Moving to a Safe City would only mean living under someone else's roof. It might have seemed safe to Brother Yang, but in his opinion, in a place where powerful people were everywhere, a weakling could never truly be safe.

The Eternal Continent was a place where the strong preyed on the weak.

By comparison, staying in his own territory, within the range he controlled himself, was much more reassuring.

Still, that was hard to say.

If there were monsters near his territory that were too powerful to resist, and he was doomed to fail the Novice Trial, then... he would have to make a strategic retreat.

"Brother Yang also mentioned that Xuan Kingdom offers some resource support to newcomers who are determined to pass the Novice Trial? Well, now you have my attention."

Mu Yuan loved getting things for free!

But it wasn't time yet.

With only a single Skeleton Soldier—the Undead Bone General—the potential he had displayed was clearly insufficient. He was indeed still far too weak.

Besides, he didn't know what the Player Association was like. Apparently, it was established in the City Center, so he could go take a look when he had time.

After taking another look at the situation in the game and feeding Deathbone a few mouthfuls of chicken soup, Mu Yuan used the invitation code Yang Kong had given him.

Countless pixel blocks burst out from the screen, eventually outlining a forum interface.

Not bad.

"叮咚! Verification successful."

"叮咚! Player identity detected. Automatically transferring to the newcomer section."

"叮咚! Since you have not yet registered your identity, you will be unable to post on the forum, purchase information, or perform other operations. Your trial access will remain valid for only 72 hours. Please complete your identity registration at your local Association as soon as possible."

Mu Yuan: "..."

He had just wondered what would happen if a player ignored the officials and refused to register. So that was where the bait was.

After experiencing how convenient the forum's information was, who could give it up?

A player who didn't browse the forums wasn't a proper player.

He currently had only trial access, and the only section he could enter was the Newbie Zone. The players there were unexpectedly active, and messages kept scrolling nonstop in the public chat channel.

"Logically speaking, there shouldn't be that many people who qualify for the game. Even if this forum has gathered all the newcomers in Xuan Kingdom, how many newcomers can there be in a year? Yet this place is as lively as if every newcomer is browsing the forum."

"Oh, playing the Transcendent Game and browsing the official forum don't seem to conflict? Then never mind."

Just like now, he occasionally switched over to the game for a glance, and when he saw that nothing serious was happening, he switched back to the forum. It had no impact at all.

He didn't need to worry about his computer slowing down, either.

The Transcendent Game didn't use the computer's CPU at all. It only needed a medium, a vessel, and as for the Tai Xuan Forum... well, it seemingly didn't use any memory either. This forum was quite mysterious.

Fortunately, it was mysterious. Otherwise, his antique laptop might not have been able to handle it.

Mu Yuan first looked at the High-Quality Posts. Compared with the public forum, the information provided here was undoubtedly more complete and detailed.

Everything he could think of—and everything he couldn't—was there.

"Best cultivation methods and battle strategies for Skeleton Troop Types."

"How to conquer a Wild Goblin Camp."

"Speculations about the Eternal Continent and corruption."

"Eighteen details worth noting in the Novice Trial."

Mu Yuan slowly turned his attention to the fourth post and lightly clicked the mouse.

"叮--"

"Your balance is insufficient. Please recharge. Redirecting to the recharge interface."

"叮! You have not registered your identity. You cannot recharge. Please register your identity as soon as possible."

Mu Yuan: "..." He flipped the table! (╯‵□′)╯︵┻━┻!

But Mu Yuan still didn't want to register. Don't misunderstand—he simply didn't want to leave the house.

Besides, it was already six in the evening, and the civil servants had probably gotten off work.

"Before I obtained the game, I thought the real world was very safe. But now that I've glimpsed the tip of the iceberg beneath reality... no matter what, it's better to be cautious. I should avoid going out at night whenever possible."

"After all, with so many players, it's inevitable that some people will try to take dangerous risks. There are definitely Wanted Players out there, and monsters occasionally fall onto Blue Star through gaps between worlds. These monsters from the Eternal Continent are often especially interested in players."

Monsters didn't have particularly keen noses, but if there were dozens of people in front of one and one of them was a player, those mindless monsters would certainly pounce on the player first.

Players naturally had faces that drew aggro from monsters.

The odds were very low, but he still had to guard against it.

"I still need to strengthen my troops as soon as possible. Once my territory has enough power, I'll place several Skeleton Soldiers under the Lord's Mark, so I can summon them in critical moments."

Since even the High-Quality Posts weren't free, Mu Yuan could only look at other posts instead, hoping to dig out some valuable clues from the ramblings of the many Sand Sculpture players.

Especially clues related to the Novice Trial.

There were more clues than he had expected. Eight out of ten newcomers were discussing the trial, while the other two were asking questions.

Mu Yuan noticed that there were many pure newcomers like him. It seemed they had all emerged in a concentrated wave during this period.

Someone asked the same question he had been wondering about.

"Don't you know? The Transcendent Game has a concentrated period for selecting newcomers. It's roughly once every six months. Some regions are a few days earlier, while others are a few days later."

"So the timing of the Novice Trial isn't exactly the same in every region. The trial usually appears about a month after you obtain game access. During the Novice Trial, the world will briefly enter the Red Mist Frenzy Moon. Monsters will become extraordinarily frenzied and constantly attack your territories. This is the most dangerous calamity for new lords."

"Of course, the enormous gains are proportional to the danger. After passing the Novice Trial, players will receive the Heaven and Earth Gift, including large amounts of Soul Sand, troop upgrades, a random batch of recruited troops, and more. Players who perform exceptionally well can even receive special buildings, special blueprints, and even Troop Buildings."

"However, the quota for special rewards is limited. If you want to obtain one, merely surviving the trial won't be enough. You'll also have to kill a large number of enemies... To put it simply, you have to perform better than the other newcomers in your region to earn the favor of the great will of the Eternal World."

This player was called "A Hand of Intelligence—No Middleman Profits." He didn't seem to be a newcomer, but rather an old hand who had infiltrated the newbie section.

His purpose was obvious.

Mu Yuan rubbed his chin. "So the Novice Trial has rankings too? While most players don't dare face the trial and can only make a strategic retreat, there are already newcomers preparing to compete for rankings."

The difference between people was truly enormous!

But were the other newcomers really that impressive? Wasn't it said that newcomers could randomly obtain, at most, Common Two-Star or Common Three-Star Troops?

Not a Rich Second Generation said, "It's true that newcomers can initially recruit only up to Three-Star Troops, but a troop's star rating doesn't represent everything. A player's command ability, micro-control skills, Commanding Ability over their troops, innate talents, luck, and so on are equally important."

"Take me, for example. Although I only randomly obtained a Common One-Star porcupine, I've killed more than ten Three-Star monsters in the three days since entering the game."

Hiss—

Many players below exclaimed in shock and asked this expert for his strategy.

Not a Rich Second Generation said, "It's very simple. We just need to purchase large quantities of Remnant Souls in the real world that can recruit Three-Star Troops. Then, through the connection between reality and the Eternal Continent, we manifest them into the game world in reverse. Wouldn't surrounding and killing monsters of the same rank be easy?"

"It's a pity that we newcomers still can't manifest Battle Souls capable of recruiting Rare Troops in reverse. Having our families transport Battle Souls through the Eternal Continent is also troublesome, since we're worried that interfering in the game world might affect our trial scores. Forget it, forget it. We'll leave things as they are for now."

The contract status has been updated. Please follow and vote for the new book, QAQ~~~