Worries Above, Concealment Below

After reporting the abnormal data from 77th District to the Legion Guild Command, Commander "Lu Zheng" immediately attempted to contact Sunshine.

Several days have passed since the last communication, and there has been no response from the other party.

This commotion, which has shaken all the regions, undoubtedly signifies that some kind of dramatic change is taking place.

"Sunshine, has anything unusual happened in your region?"

"Your experience point growth curve is unusually steep; the command center has been alerted."

After the call connected, Lu Zheng noticed that the person on the other end of the screen seemed to be slightly different from usual.

Perhaps it should be said that her temperament is more composed, but her facial expression is slightly rigid and lacks a bit of liveliness.

Nothing special happened; I was just more focused on the battle than usual.

"Commander, is there a problem with my personal ability to improve?"

"Surely my level won't stagnate just because I'm being strategically relocated."

Lu Zheng frowned, and immediately said with displeasure:

What attitude?

"Watch your tone of voice."

"I understand your emotions, but no action can come at the expense of our overall interests—that's an inviolable bottom line, and you should understand that."

"Hmph, does your 'we' include me?" Sunshine said dismissively, then added,

"Of course, our goal has always been to ensure that Dragon Han emerges victorious in this competition."

"I will naturally lead more of my compatriots to become the masters of this world. Please wait and see."

As soon as the words were spoken, the video call was unilaterally cut off by the other party.

A vague unease rose in Lu Zheng's heart.

The person opposite him gave him a sense of unfamiliar distance, and there was no trace of the familiarity he once felt in their words and actions.

Of course, in Gao Linzhi's view, this guy's so-called familiarity was nothing more than groveling and fawning.

But since Sunshine has already moved on to the other side, he naturally doesn't need to do this anymore, and thus seems unfamiliar.

Lu Zheng decided to send a reconnaissance team to the Xuancheng base; only on-site verification could dispel any doubts.

"Sunshine, has headquarters noticed something? Given Commander Lu's style, he probably won't let go easily."

The manager standing to the side, who had "Exhausted Youth" to his work, looked worried.

Based on my past understanding of Lu Zheng, this matter will definitely not be resolved so easily.

"It's alright."

"Hmph, no matter how they investigate, they can't possibly reach the Holy God One's domain."

The Sunshine had long been completely convinced of the power of that being.

The Holy God not only granted all his followers a triple experience boost, but also infused him with power, causing his level to skyrocket in a very short time, even propelling him into the cross-server rankings.

However, such a high-profile approach naturally attracted the attention of players from other regions.

The Evil God originally hoped that they would develop in seclusion for the time being, as exposing themselves to the public too early was not the best strategy.

Even the Evil God has his own compelling reasons.

It never anticipated that this human would be able to lead such a large group to submit to its command.

It can only be said that its oppression of humanity is a gross underestimation.

It thought that working 8 hours a day and only getting two days off a week was hard enough.

Unexpectedly, humans ended up working 16 hours a day, without a break every week...

Applying experience boosts to a large number of players requires a considerable amount of divine power, which could very likely cause it to fall into slumber again.

But after weighing the options, it ultimately accepted the loyalty of these humans.

After all, the energy invested will eventually be returned many times over.

In order to enhance the strength of its retinue as quickly as possible, it even used its remaining reserves to forcibly upgrade the level of Sunshine, which depleted its power and forced it to enter a long slumber to replenish itself.

Before falling into a deep sleep, it issued its final command:

"All its companions must be raised to a sufficiently high level as soon as possible. Once that happens, it will fully awaken and regain its complete mobility."

At the same time, Sunshine also became a messenger of the gods, gaining the qualification to temporarily mobilize some divine power, and when necessary, it could even actively pray for the arrival of special abilities.

As followers of Evil God, they are able to share a portion of the original body's energy, thereby increasing their combat power and accelerating their growth.

However, this symbiotic bond naturally carries a huge hidden danger—if the followers perish on a large scale, the Evil God itself will also suffer a severe blow.

The two are actually interdependent.

This is the flaw in the God-believers model.

Death God is difficult, but killing a believer is much easier.

Moreover, it is difficult for God to look after all believers because they are not in one place.

Therefore, the most important thing at this stage is to conceal our talents and allow our family members to grow as quickly as possible.

Once this force grows strong and complete, the Evil God will be able to draw more nourishment from them.

Now that the authorities have become suspicious, we must be even more cautious in our actions and absolutely not expose the slightest trace of the existence of the Evil God!

The minds of all those who submitted had already been subtly infiltrated by the Evil God.

Even if in the future one needs to wield a blade against one's own kind, no one will defy the divine decree.

They still appear to be human, but in reality, they have become puppets of the Yaksha Race.

Humans are creatures that are easily domesticated.

This is much simpler than with birds.

The Yaksha Clan rose to become a higher being by constantly absorbing and using puppets in battle, but unfortunately, a past event nearly wiped them out.

The sudden rise of Sunshine on the ranking list has once again drawn the attention of many players to the bottom-ranked participants from the regions that were dispatched to Xuancheng.

A temporary setback may just be the prelude to Last Stand Counterattack.

Some astute observers have noticed the anomaly among players in these regions—their experience points have skyrocketed over a period of time, quickly surpassing those of most other regions.

Their overall ranking has not fallen behind the leading regions; on the contrary, it has maintained a strong upward trend.

The investigation team dispatched from the Beijing headquarters to Xuancheng finally arrived on this day.

Sunshine had made thorough preparations and arranged staff to receive them the moment they received the notification.

He was quite confident in his side's covert operations and did not believe that any flaws would be revealed.

The investigation team was led by an old acquaintance of his from the Twelfth District, known as "Weary Wind".

The two had a decent relationship in the past.

Although the previous matching incident made their relationship slightly delicate, Sunshine felt that it was all in the past and wouldn't affect their current relationship.

"Sunshine! Long time no see!" Weary Wind rushed forward and gave him a big hug as soon as they met. "I heard you've been on a roll lately, climbing straight to the top of the cross-server rankings. That's impressive!"

Weary Wind felt a pang of pity and sympathy for his colleagues who had been practically "exiled" to Xuancheng, and thus his attitude was exceptionally warm.

He's too naive; he's not suited for this kind of sordid investigation and crackdown.

In contrast, the Sunshine's reaction was much more subdued.

"It's alright. Actually, it doesn't really matter where you are. As long as you're willing to give it your all in the game and have a bit of luck, there's always a chance to turn things around."

"A person can only rely on themselves."

"See, I'm all better now, aren't I?"

"You're right!" Weary Wind nodded with a smile. "The higher-ups have been concerned about your situation. Every time we talk, you only give brief updates. They were really worried, so they sent me over to check on you."

"Don't hesitate to ask if you encounter any difficulties; headquarters will provide support."

Are they worried about us, or wary of us?

Hmph, they say they care about our safety, but they're probably just afraid we'll become disloyal.

What a cunning old fox!

Sunshine and the others remained outwardly calm, but their minds were perfectly clear.

They knew that in this Qin system, strength was the foundation of everything.

Without strength, you are nothing, and no one will respect you as a person.

Simply put, there's no safety net; you have to rely on yourself.

If you have no money, die of illness or starvation, it's your own fault for not working hard, not getting married, and not having children; it has nothing to do with anyone else.

The headquarters is now paying attention to them again simply because they have once again demonstrated their usefulness.

However, what they didn't know was that they had long since stopped expecting assistance from headquarters.

They have switched allegiance to a wise ruler and have gained far stronger support than the official government—the favor of the Holy God.

"By the way, how did you guys manage to reach this level?"

The group entered the headquarters of the Xuancheng Safe Zone. As soon as they sat down, Weary Wind cut to the chase, asking the most crucial question, "We were all shocked when we saw your name on the list."

"Did you encounter some kind of extraordinary event?"

"It really was a stroke of luck. Look at Chongxing, he can cheat his Chongxing through, leading the pack all the way. Many big shots have spent billions or even tens of billions buying equipment, maps, quests, and power leveling services, but they still can't surpass him."

"Our extraordinary encounters were a little less impressive than his."

Hearing this, Weary Wind believed it much more.

Yes, this game has never lacked cheaters.

They didn't even figure out who the biggest cheater was.

It's not that I lack the ability, it's that I'm unable to figure it out.

Because this game wasn't run by the higher-ups, but by an alien.

They couldn't act rashly and ruin the alien's gaming experience.

As for Sunshine and his companions' extraordinary adventure, they could only investigate, but could not act rashly.

Sunshine was unaware of this at the time; he simply forced a calm reply, "I encountered a special NPC in the wild a while ago and received a hidden quest from him."

"The reward for the mission is a temporary Teleportation Array in the real world. Once completed, you can use it to enter a special space."

"The flow of time inside is different from the outside world, and there's an extra bonus to gaining experience."

"However, that Teleportation Array only existed for three days before disappearing, and it seems to have only appeared within the Xuancheng area."

"We weren't clear on the specific conditions that triggered that, so we didn't rush to report it."

This explanation should account for why only players in Xuancheng experienced such rapid level increases, while other regions did not see similar phenomena.

Where did you meet that NPC? What's his name?

"In the Chaotic Swamp."

"That place wasn't very high-level. We rescued an old man named Dixi from the swamp."

"He appears randomly. I've only seen him once in the 77th District, and I haven't heard of him in any other region."

"This information may not be useful to you."

After pondering for a moment, Weary Wind also felt that this was like a regional adventure that occasionally occurred in the game "God's Domain".

These randomly triggered tasks usually offer extremely generous rewards.

However, the "reward" given to Sunshine and his friends this time was far too amazing, almost like taking a helicopter ride—it was more than just a simple increase of three or four levels.

"Okay, I will report the situation to the commander-in-chief."

"If you make any new discoveries, be sure to report them immediately."

"Now that your levels have caught up with the top tier, you need to seize the time to improve your combat strength."

"Of course," Sunshine replied with a smile. "We've been focusing all our energy on leveling up lately, so there's no need to worry about that."

The Holy God Spirit's order was for them to upgrade with all their might, so naturally they had to spare no effort.

After a brief exchange with Sunshine, Weary Wind casually struck up a conversation with a few other people.

Everyone's account was consistent and flawless.

He did not linger and soon returned to Capital —in reality, he could not stay away for too long.

After reporting what he had seen and heard to Lu Zheng, the other party did not explicitly state whether he believed it or not, but only ordered headquarters to strengthen monitoring of the 77th District and related areas.

It seems he still harbors many doubts, but for now, he can only put them aside.

And what if this is the cheat code that Mr. [Name] gave to these bottom-ranked teams?

This is normal.

Isn't the underdog-to-hero trope a favorite among a lot of people?

It's been the same old routine for years, and now they still start with mixed spiritual roots or even no spiritual roots at all.

The purpose is to slap people in the face in various ways.

To ensure their combat capabilities are enhanced in preparation for potential future competitions, players are clearly focusing their efforts on strengthening their own abilities.

Driven by the server-wide leaderboard, player levels are changing rapidly, and the rankings are being updated almost every second.

To quickly gain experience and acquire high-level equipment, many players form fixed teams to rapidly clear various dungeons and bid high prices for their desired equipment at the auction house.

As your level increases, previously insurmountable dungeons now seem attainable.

On this day, the top-tier combat teams from the District 3 once again challenged the "Wolf Barbarian Escape" dungeon, all for the sake of obtaining that class-specific skill manual.

This week, Zhang Mingzhen finally succeeded in acquiring the Priest's exclusive skill "Thousand Mechanisms Meteor," a support skill that also removes control effects.

Skill effect. "Locks onto a single target, drains 10% of their Mana and converts it into self-healing."

"At the same time, grant five random players from the same faction a three-second Super Armor state, with a 100-second cooldown."

Originally, Priests only had one skill to remove control effects. Now, with "Thousand Mechanisms Meteor," not only is their mana sustain guaranteed and they can accumulate more energy, but they also gain a Powerful skill to Protection their companions—granting teammates a brief period of Super Armor.

Although it lasts only three seconds, it can often save a teammate's life in a critical moment.

After all, control skills can decide a life or death in a split second.

Upon learning that their class possessed such skills, many Priests actively participated in forming teams and eagerly challenged the "Wolf Barbarian Escape" dungeon.

This "Super Armor" ability is of great significance to Priests, significantly enhancing their chances of survival under the fierce attacks of damage-dealing classes.

This is precisely the main reason why so many Priests have recently been actively seeking out dungeons.

Because escape dungeons require extremely high Healing Ability, teams usually have two Priests.

Once Skill Book drops, its ownership will be determined according to a pre-agreed method.