When Zheng Shan agreed to work with them, he should have known they would have few qualms about killing him to cover their tracks.
"Who's there?" Little Cat Fishing suddenly called out.
Gao Linzhi naturally didn't come out.
After a while, Little Cat Fishing smiled. "Looks like there's no one here."
Then he walked into the house.
As for Gao Linzhi, he quietly returned to the Fourth Elder's residence.
He took a deep breath.
This really was a cruel, complicated game that felt all too real.
He had only been here a few days, yet he had already witnessed such scheming and slaughter.
Now he needed to search for monster-spawn points and try to max out as many Basic Skills as possible.
He went to the second courtyard and found the Fourth Elder.
At that moment, the other man was training Lin Qing, who was still learning the three Basic Skills.
Basic Fists and Feet, Basic Parrying, and Basic Lightness Skill.
Lin Qing had made some progress since yesterday, but not much.
Gao Linzhi watched for a while. Then the Fourth Elder stopped and told Lin Qing to keep practicing on her own.
"Is something the matter?"
"Elder, what places nearby are suitable for us to level up?" He didn't mention what had happened with Zheng Shan.
The Fourth Elder probably didn't know about it. If someone wanted to kill him, they wouldn't need to go to such lengths.
The Fourth Elder thought for a moment. "Foxy Slope, Myriad Snake Cave, and Green Flood Dragon Beach. Those are all suitable places for newcomers to level up."
"But don't go alone. Go out with the Patrol Team captains."
"They have plenty of experience and know all sorts of taboos. For instance, when players fight for the first time, they should take on the boss beast before the lesser demons. If they can't beat the boss beast, they shouldn't farm too many small monsters."
"Understood. Are there any other places?" Gao Linzhi asked.
"There aren't many Demonic Creature Lairs around East Wolf Village that are suitable for newcomers." The Fourth Elder frowned slightly. "There are plenty more around West Wolf Village."
"But they're mostly Corporate Players over there, unlike here, where we still have Rogue Players."
"West Wolf Village?" Gao Linzhi immediately took an interest.
"Mm. They've basically cleared out all the Rogue Players," the Fourth Elder said with a sigh. "They've coordinated everything and distributed resources efficiently over the past few months. They're developing much faster than we are."
"Whether it's the land or the village itself, their territory is already more than twice the size of ours."
Gao Linzhi frowned slightly as he thought, That makes sense.
Corporate Players weren't "afraid of dying." They could throw lives at a BOSS to clear it. Just how many resources could one BOSS's drops provide?
They could also concentrate their resources and quickly level up a group of people. Rogue Players couldn't compete with organized Corporate Players.
It was the same as in the real world.
Unless it was a super-magic world, in low-magic and magicless worlds, organized groups would always crush the unorganized.
After hearing this, Gao Linzhi asked, "Were the Stone Walls around our village built in the past few months?"
"Of course not. You players have descended several times, at different points. The players who came before built these."
"Each time, you stayed for about a hundred years. You should be the seventh batch." The Fourth Elder revealed something rather astonishing.
Gao Linzhi nodded.
That explained it.
So players had descended upon Skyfall Continent before.
No wonder the offline world was managed by companies rather than nations.
This was clearly the influence of Skyfall Continent: a small number of powerful figures kept one another in check, so they founded companies to manage the world.
Companies had one major advantage over nations: they were more flexible.
If they offended an uncontrollable powerful figure, the management could simply bankrupt the company and run.
Or they could use shareholding to stay hidden behind the scenes, managing things through cross-ownership.
But nations didn't have that kind of convenience. Rulers were too closely bound to their countries. When a country collapsed, its rulers were often dragged down with it.
Offending a powerful figure could mean the destruction of an entire nation.
Gao Linzhi turned to leave.
Just then, the Fourth Elder stopped him again and looked him in the eye.
"How far have you trained your lightness skill?"
"Level 28." Gao Linzhi didn't hide it.
"Hiss..." Lin Qing beside them drew in a sharp breath. Her eyes held three parts envy, three parts jealousy, and four parts urgency.
"Good. Very good." The Fourth Elder stroked his beard with satisfaction. "In that case, I'll teach you Disguise Art."
Gao Linzhi was delighted and quickly nodded.
The Fourth Elder told Lin Qing to practice on her own, then took Gao Linzhi alone to a stone room by the wall in the rear courtyard.
Lin Qing's eyes betrayed an envy she could barely suppress.
Although her talent was formidable, it only came into play much later. The early stages were far too frustrating.
Inside the stone room in the rear courtyard.
The Fourth Elder took out several bottles and jars.
"These are used to change your skin tone."
"It's best to apply them over your whole body."
"This one changes the distance between your eyebrows..."
"Disguise Art also needs to be combined with Bone Shrinking Skill and Dehydration Skill... You have to change your height and even your weight for it to truly work."
"An ordinary person would need at least five years of hard work to learn it. After that, you'd have to keep training constantly. Otherwise, your skills would deteriorate, and you'd lose them."
The Fourth Elder rambled on.
[Ding! Congratulations, player, on successfully learning the art of disguise (0/100).]
Gao Linzhi was very pleased.
"You've learned it?" The Fourth Elder could tell from his expression and was astonished once again.
"Mm. Let me try."
Gao Linzhi began using the skill.
In the Fourth Elder's eyes, Gao Linzhi was methodically using the various bottles and jars.
But in Gao Linzhi's vision, a character-customization screen had appeared...
This was what Disguise Art should look like for a player.
Gao Linzhi casually changed a few appearance settings, and his whole appearance transformed at once.
The Fourth Elder's eyes nearly popped out of his head.
"I thought you only had extraordinary comprehension. I never imagined your aptitude for martial arts was just as strong." He sighed repeatedly.
"Unfortunately, we can't understand the constitution of you Descenders. I can't guide you any further."
Then he took out a sheet of paper and quickly wrote a few lines on it.
Next, he called over a thin, tall servant from the courtyard. The man looked to be in his forties and had an honest face.
The Fourth Elder said to the tall, thin servant, "Qing Yi, take him and deliver this note to Captain Zheng Dong. Tell him he doesn't need to handle the Patrol Team's affairs anymore."
The servant quickly bowed respectfully to Gao Linzhi. "Sir, please come with me."
Before long.
At Zheng Dong's residence.
The two children were playing again, riding wooden horses.
Children who didn't have to go to school or take exams had it easy.
Just then, the tall, thin servant called Zheng Dong out.
"Steward Zheng, is something the matter?" Zheng Dong came out and saw Gao Linzhi as well.
"The Fourth Master asked me to deliver this to you." The tall, thin servant handed Zheng Dong the note.
Zheng Dong opened it and looked surprised at first, then nodded.
"All right. I accept the Fourth Elder's arrangement. Do I need to go back to the team and make any arrangements?"
Before you continue