A Different Team, and the Gap Between Ordinary Players and Cheaters

"You guys are being a bit too pragmatic. You're blinded by mere lighting and special effects? Look at me, I always run naked, not a single leaf touching me!" one player joked.

"You penniless wretch, get out of here!"

"Now that our Langya Guild has entered the fray, the Misty Rain Jiangnan Fashion collection will surely belong to us!"

"Who in the world doesn't know that our sect is full of archers? This garment should rightfully belong to our sect!"

"We can't win this battle... we might as well look at mounts. It would be worthwhile to bid on a spirit beast that can traverse both land and water."

"Let the fashion wars be left to the big shots."

Seeing their own president also joining the competition, "Fireworks in the Rain" felt a heavy weight on their shoulders.

What used to be a battle between a few skilled female players has now escalated into a massive, all-out war.

After secretly assessing the situation, she realized she probably had no chance of succeeding.

"President Dragon Map has never cared about fashion, why is he competing with us?" someone complained.

"Dragon Diagram Frenzy" originally had little interest in the gorgeous fashions that women loved, finding them rather boring.

All you need is one outfit that increases luck; just wear it when fighting monsters.

However, the "snow-covered" scene of the new fashion is truly novel.

When he tried it on at the auction, he felt that it exuded an aura of otherworldly detachment.

In addition, since he was originally a heavy swordsman, after putting it on, he looked like White Robe, mad Swordsman who had come through the snow.

There was a strange sense of resonance between us.

So, after a change of heart, he finally stepped into the auction house.

"As the leader of this gathering, what's wrong with me preparing a few extra outfits?"

"Furthermore, the King of Ice and Snow is clearly designed for Berserkers. You'll understand once I put it on."

In the end, "Misty Rain Jiangnan" was taken away by a wealthy player from another region for 12,200 gold, while "King of Ice and Snow" went to Dragon Diagram Frenzy for 12,700 gold.

It jumped to over ten thousand in an instant.

It should be noted that ordinary fashion items generally only fluctuate around 1,500 gold coins.

This price is already extremely high.

It increased tenfold.

This is the result of the wealthy participating in the competition.

It can drive the price of an item far beyond its intrinsic value.

The mount was acquired for only 1,500 gold coins.

This is the result of a lack of competition; the difference is enormous.

Zhang Mingzhen did a quick calculation and was quite pleased to have recovered 26,000 gold.

He temporarily left the game and then buried a Rare Tier spirit pet seed in the soil.

Zheng Yingjie, who had previously Chongxing with him, kept a close eye on his movements. Upon seeing him return to the mortal world, he immediately sent a message:

"Great God, the top-grade pet food you requested is ready. I'll deliver it right away."

"Good."

He wanted to see the effects of this premium food.

Taking the bag of fodder that faintly glowed from Zheng Yingjie's hand, Zhang Mingzhen fed it directly to the Wildsea Candle Dragon coiled beside him.

The game immediately displayed a notification: "Experience absorption and bloodline awakening are accelerating. One bag of food can sustain you for ten days."

It seems I need to work harder to level up and gain experience.

"If you need anything, just call me anytime."

Seeing that Chongxing intended to re- God's Domain, Zheng Yingjie dared not say anything more and quietly withdrew.

Zhang Mingzhen once again stepped into the God's Domain Game.

This time, he chose a wasteland overrun with level 55 stone golems.

He plans to level up his summoned creatures to level 55 first.

Then head towards the Wolf Barbarians territory—a place teeming with monsters, making it an excellent place to accumulate experience.

After summoning the Flower Spirit to Protection the Wildsea Candle Dragon and starting to gain experience, he set off to handle his daily cultivation tasks.

Since breaking through level 60, the opponents in the Training Tower are no longer various demon leaders, but have become mirror images of themselves.

These illusions almost perfectly replicated his entire combat power and skill level, only about 20% inferior to his original form. The only thing they couldn't replicate was his innate supernatural abilities.

This is clearly the advantage of using cheats.

This means that each level of challenge is tantamount to fighting a life-or-death battle with another version of yourself, allowing no room for complacency.

However, high-risk trials are also accompanied by high rewards.

Once you reach level 60, the daily experience rewards increase dramatically based on your level, and you'll also receive a significant number of Achievement Points.

Over time, this resource will accumulate to be enough to tempt any cultivator.

It's likely that once players learn about the benefits of reaching level 60, their enthusiasm for leveling up will only increase.

Even though they are already working incredibly hard right now.

Players in the District 3 now have to clear out monsters in the wilderness, complete battlefield missions, and challenge dungeons every day.

Many wealthy players choose to hire power levelers to help them clear wilderness areas and complete dungeons, thus saving time and effort.

As a result, various gold farming organizations and individual players have been making a fortune recently.

Gold Coin became Hard Currency, even harder than gold itself.

Because resources can be materialized from the game world into the real world.

They naturally didn't know that for the Skyfall Game System, it was simply a matter of mobilizing real-world energy and matter to materialize it.

It's important to know that there is actually an enormous amount of energy in the universe.

The Earth utilizes less than one ten-thousandth of the solar energy it receives.

Most of the solar energy is wasted.

The Skyfall Game System, being a product of a higher dimension, can easily generate various real-world substances by simply mobilizing solar energy.

The truly difficult tasks are those that require harnessing the World Source energy—invading other worlds and providing a higher level of power...

As a well-known power leveling organization in the District 3, "Excavator Guild" has been working non-stop recently.

Of course, they are happy to do this work – clearing the jungle has a low barrier to entry, and all you need is enough patience.

Leading your employer to conquer dungeons requires top-tier skills and combat prowess.

Only a handful of regular teams in the entire guild dared to take on this task.

Now, almost all players in the District 3 have surpassed the level 30 threshold and can no longer enter the most basic Divine Ruins Dungeon.

After breaking through level 30, everyone fell into an awkward bottleneck period: they could no longer enter low-level God's Domain dungeons, and due to insufficient strength, they dared not challenge the high-level dungeons of the Monster Altar.

As a result, most people simply gave up their weekly dungeon runs.

Through the transmission of skills, battlefield training, and arduous cultivation in the wilderness, the members of the "War Guild" generally reached level 40.

They can finally try out the beginner-level dungeon of the Monster Altar.

Skilled players typically form their Fixed Team to take on weekly challenges.

To join such a team, you need exceptional skill and the recognition of your teammates.

As for players who lack confidence in their own skills and cannot find suitable teammates, they either continue to hone their skills to improve their level or spend money to hire a boosting team to help them complete the game—"Utterly Empty" is a typical example of this type of employer.

Previously, he had followed "Chongxing," a Cheater, as they ventured through the Monster Altar.

However, since his opponent broke through to a higher level, he stopped leading the team, and his dungeon journey has been stagnant for a long time.

Now, he has joined the "War Guild".

This is, after all, a combat-oriented guild, and each member has a special skill, making them almost like professional players.

It's rare to find someone with such a rudimentary skill level.

If you infiltrate another team, you'll only drag your teammates down, and guild players also need dungeon gear to improve themselves.

He was too embarrassed to spend his own money, so he asked his fellow members for help, since most of them were not short of money.

In the end, he had no choice but to seek out a professional game boosting team.

He had worked with these teams when he was still at a lower level in his early years.

While it wasn't as easy as Chongxing's, allowing him to effortlessly complete the entire Hell difficulty level, he could still manage to pass the Easy and Hard modes of the Divine Ruins as long as he could perform the basic operations.

Therefore, the two sides have maintained contact.

After several days without setting foot in a Warcraft dungeon, and seeing that he had already reached level 40, he decided to go and run dungeons again.

Players in the guild have already invited each other to form teams. First-time challengers usually invite a powerful and experienced player who is familiar with the dungeon to guide them.

If the teammates are strong enough, they have a chance to defeat the first guardian.

The "Excavator Guild" team he contacted was said to have helped their employer clear the first guardian level.

He paid a hefty sum to hire the man, hoping to use him to defeat the leader.

In this way, I can say that I have personally experienced the dungeon challenge - although I did not actually participate in the battle, I did witness the majesty of all the guardians of the Monster Altar, so the experience points were quite substantial.

"Utterly Empty now." The team they've hired is the main force of the Excavator Guild, led personally by the guild leader Tractor.

After all, the number of high-level combatants in the entire guild capable of clearing the first guardian is very small.

As a major customer, Utterly Empty naturally deserves their elite forces to fight – that's a price of 500 Gold Coin all-inclusive, worthy of the guild leader's personal all-out effort.

Utterly Empty can't help but lament that since leaving that Cheater who led the team through dungeons, the dungeon experience has plummeted.

In the past, paying a thousand Gold Coin was enough to easily pass Hell difficulty.

These days, just clearing the boss in easy mode costs 500 Gold Coin, and you have to constantly monitor your health and heal your teammates.

The only consolation might be the equipment rewards that can be obtained from the dungeon.

"Is everyone in your guild here? Time to get ready to leave."

"But let me make this clear beforehand: my treatment methods are not as good as those of traditional Priest."

Before starting a team fight, he needs to make things clear so that his teammates don't have overly high expectations.

"Everyone's here, we can start the team anytime."

"Last time we fought the first boss, the Priest who booked the whole raid only had to stand there and heal."

"The older generation doesn't have high requirements for healers; they mainly focus on whether the damage output is high enough."

"We'll take care of this part, boss, don't worry. Let's get in the team, we're off now."

After Utterly Empty joined the team, he glanced at the team list: archer "Tractor", mage "In the Dark", Shield Guard "King Jiji", and a mage named "Princess Lulu".

The lineup is all ranged – everyone knows now that the Altar of Monster Altar is extremely unfriendly to melee classes, making it difficult for many melee players to even find a group.

The forum was already filled with complaints, and some people even signed a petition demanding the opening of the job change function.

But that Princess Lulu... turns out to be a female player.

It's not that he's prejudiced against female players; it's just that in the current competitive environment of the God's Domain Game, male players do indeed have an overall advantage in strength.

Female players with sharp skills and expertise in actual combat are already rare, and those who can join the top-tier teams are even fewer.

He couldn't help but doubt the female monk's skill level, so he privately inquired with Tractor.

Tractor's questioning of the "Utterly Empty" boss was not unexpected - everyone was already familiar with those famous female experts in the Server Three.

But he couldn't very well say directly that this was the real-life girlfriend of the Shield Guard, who was also his apprentice in the game.

If it weren't for the fact that "King Jiji" is currently the strongest pillar in the guild, he would never have agreed to bring such a female player into the team.

This is the boss spending money.

How can the boss be happy if unprofessionals try to sneak in?

This isn't some random daily task in a team.

Princess Lulu wasn't in their team that defeated the first boss; instead, it was another melee fighter called "Sharp Blade," who was Su Feng.

Su Feng had good operational awareness and skills, but unfortunately he left the guild later, and things didn't go very well between them.

Tractor you're too embarrassed to invite them again, they might already be a stable member of a new guild.

Upon learning of the manpower shortage, King Jiji recommended his girlfriend.

To be honest, Tractor was reluctant—although the girl's level was high enough, her combat skills and techniques were very rusty, and she had no experience in running dungeons together.

While it's good to recommend talented individuals regardless of personal relationships, it shouldn't drag down the whole team or disappoint the boss's expectations.

But the Shield Guard was adamant: he couldn't join the group without "Princess Lulu" by his side.

The Tractor had no choice but to give in.

These inside details, of course, cannot be revealed to the boss.

To reassure Utterly Empty, he could only bite the bullet and assure her, "She's also Gigi's protégé, her damage output and mechanics are no problem."

"Besides, ranged classes generally won't fall easily as long as they don't move around recklessly."

"Just perform at your normal level, that's enough. Don't worry, we're a professional team."

These words barely calmed Utterly Empty down.

He relaxed too soon.

The team had barely entered the dungeon, and hadn't even reached the first boss's room, when Princess Lulu suddenly collapsed...

She attracted too many small monsters, and after being surrounded and attacked, the healer couldn't even raise her health, and she died at the hands of the front-line minions.

Who would believe that if I told them?

A level 40 player was instantly killed by the easy mode monsters!

Princess Lulu preemptively struck. "Gigi, why can't you hold the monster?"

"Look how many monsters are attacking me!"

She wanted to complain to the Priest as well, but since he was the tour operator, she swallowed her words and instead vented her anger on her boyfriend.

"Honey, I'm sorry, I didn't hold on tight enough."

"Stand back a bit, don't stand too close to the front."

"The other two damage dealers have enough output. You can hold off for now and go all out when we fight the first boss."

King Jiji was already used to his girlfriend's temper, so he apologized without any burden.

The Tractor and "In the Dark" exchanged a helpless glance.

Well, they deserve to put in more effort.

Why should the whole team spoil their own partner?

However, the dungeon has only just begun, and it's not time to unleash our power yet.

Though the place was "Utterly Empty," a vague unease began to rise in my heart.

I thought spending money on a group would easily clear out this week's dungeon attempts, but it seems things won't be that smooth...

After stumbling and struggling through the mobs along the way, the group finally arrived at the first boss's room.

After a brief discussion about positioning, the battle was about to begin.

This wasn't Utterly Empty's first time facing this leader—although he'd always been defeated before, he was already familiar with the hellish skill mechanics, and this one would only be more troublesome than the one before him.

But when the fight actually started, he realized he was almost exhausted.

Not only did they have to keep a close eye on the Shield Guard's health bar and keep casting spells, but the female mage's health was also dropping like a floodgate had been opened.

The difference between this and being led by a player with Cheater is enormous!