First Taste of the Illusory Realm

"I want to build a guild too, and be its leader myself."

Wanhuatong scratched his head and smiled, voicing his ambition.

"I've played a lot of games over the years and founded several guilds. But no matter how carefully I managed them, I was never a match for those big spenders."

"Sometimes, I'd painstakingly build up a guild, only for some big spender to single-handedly tear it apart in the end."

"Now that I've finally encountered a groundbreaking game like Human Race Rising, the important thing is that it doesn't require grinding or spending money—it all depends on your own efforts."

"So I want to give it another shot and see whether I can run a guild well without any big spenders around."

Wanhuatong said, clenching his fists.

This game was practically the game of his dreams.

It had one hundred percent realism, as if he had descended into a real world.

Most importantly, there was no pay-to-win system!

The game's official website had also promised that no pay-to-win system would ever be introduced, whether during closed beta or open beta.

As one of the first five people to enter the game, with all sorts of early advantages in hand, he naturally wanted to fight with everything he had and carve out a world of his own in the game.

That was why he had turned down Da Qing's invitation.

"Sounds good."

Da Qing smiled.

His thoughts were similar to Wanhuatong's, except in other games, he himself was the big spender Wanhuatong had been talking about.

"Then once we've both created guilds, let's form an alliance and develop together!"

Da Qing said with a smile, extending his hand to Wanhuatong.

If they could not be brothers, they could still be friends.

"Haha, no problem!"

Wanhuatong also reached out and clasped Da Qing's hand.

The theme of this game was the rise of the human race. From beginning to end, players would most likely only be able to choose the Starry Tribe faction.

Even if the guild system opened up later on, guilds would probably focus mainly on cooperation, with relatively little conflict.

At the very least, it would not be like those nation-war games, where guild after guild fought until they became mortal enemies.

After waiting for a while, Liubai Dianmo and Full Han Chinese Banquet hurried over.

"Sorry to keep you waiting. I was just short on experience for a skill, so I did a gathering quest before coming over."

Liubai Dianmo said apologetically, carrying a homemade longbow on his back.

He had originally been ready to start researching recurve bows, but with the equipment system now available, his homemade bows and arrows would probably no longer be needed.

"I just finished learning my skills too," Full Han Chinese Banquet said.

As the tribe's only chef, he leveled up quickly as well and had already reached Level 4.

Full Han Chinese Banquet was Constitution Class, while Liubai Dianmo was Agility Class.

After that, they recruited two more veteran players who had learned skills, and the ten of them entered the illusory realm together.

Of the two new players, one was named "Mango Sticky Rice," a female player with a cute baby face, from the Intelligence Class.

The other was called "Jing Gege," from the Strength Class.

Among the thirty veteran players, Jing Gege was something of a celebrity.

He was famous not because he was particularly powerful, but because whether hunting or fighting Jackalmen, he always went bare-handed and stubbornly refused to use weapons.

In his words, he wanted to defeat his opponents using his family-inherited Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms.

No one knew whether he actually knew the Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms, but whenever he unleashed his palm techniques, they swept up a fierce gale, looking rather convincing.

The ten of them arrived before the blue orb. As the team leader, Da Qing reached out and touched it, selected the "Jackalmen Tribe" illusory realm, and entered.

A ray of light extended from the blue orb and wrapped around all ten of them. In the next instant, they vanished from where they stood.

The next second, everyone appeared in an empty wilderness.

The surroundings looked very familiar, seemingly somewhat similar to the wilderness they had crossed when they went to subjugate the Jackalmen Tribe.

When they looked into the distance, they indeed saw that familiar Sky-Piercing Giant Tree.

At the spot where they had appeared stood two three-meter-tall stone steles.

The stele on the left read "First Clear Record," while the one on the right read "Speed Clear Record."

Yet both steles were completely blank, with no player names inscribed upon them.

"I didn't expect that not only could we see the first-clear and speed-clear records on the illusory realm selection screen, but there are also two steles inside the realm! Come on, everyone—we have to carve our names on them!"

Looking at the steles before him, Da Qing was brimming with fighting spirit.

At the request of our many readers, we now offer an ad-free function for VIP Members.

Click to view

"This illusion was generated based on the Jackalmen Tribe we wiped out. The Jackalmen Tribe in the illusion should be beneath that Sky-Piercing Giant Tree as well."

Ranger pointed at the distant Sky-Piercing Giant Tree and spoke.

"Tell me, what would happen if we didn't go there and headed in another direction?"

Shooting A Bit Like Kobe suddenly asked on a whim.

"You can try it after clearing the illusion. You'll probably run into something like an invisible wall."

Ranger said with a smile.

The group headed toward the Sky-Piercing Giant Tree, but they did not encounter a single monster along the way.

"Do you think all the monsters in this illusion might be gathered together?"

Su Ziye said.

Based on their usual gaming experience, they should have run into a wave of monsters every few steps in an illusion.

Yet they were almost beneath the Sky-Piercing Giant Tree, with the Jackalmen Tribe already in sight, and they still had not encountered any monsters.

That was highly unreasonable.

"If that's the case, it'll be troublesome."

Ranger said.

Picking off waves of monsters one by one was naturally easier than fighting them all gathered together.

Before long, the group had arrived several hundred meters from the Jackalmen Tribe.

It differed somewhat from the Jackalmen Tribe they had wiped out. There was an independent outpost on each side of this Jackalmen Tribe, one to the left and one to the right.

Jackalmen moved about inside the outposts.

"Da Qing, how should we fight this?"

Ranger asked.

"Going by the game designers' way of thinking, they probably want us to clear the monsters in the two outposts first before attacking the Jackalmen Tribe."

Da Qing said.

"Then should we try the outpost on the left first?"

Ranger suggested.

"Alright." Da Qing nodded. "Everyone, be careful. There might be Elite Monsters or mini-bosses in the outpost!"

After discussing it, the group headed together toward the outpost on the left.

The so-called outpost was actually just a few simple tents, with a group of Jackalmen pacing around them.

Ranger counted them. There were a full twenty Jackalmen!

That meant each person would have to deal with two on average!

"Ranger, see if you can lure a few over first. We'll pick them off one by one."

When they were sixty or seventy meters from the outpost, Da Qing said.

"Alright, I'll give it a try!"

Ranger left the group and walked forward alone.

With Swift Step protecting him, he was not afraid of being caught by the Jackalmen.

Step by step, he approached the outpost on the left.

Whether it was an issue with the illusion's settings or simply that the monsters within it were slow to react, the Jackalmen in the outpost did not respond until he was ten meters away.

"Humans!"

"Rip them to shreds!"

To Ranger's surprise, there was no language barrier in the illusion. The Jackalmen were actually speaking the language of Blue Star, which he could understand!

All twenty Jackalmen in the outpost raised their Wolf Tooth Clubs and charged over.

Ranger turned and ran.

The Jackalmen chased after him for around thirty meters, then abruptly stopped and returned to the outpost.

Ranger ran all the way back to Da Qing and the others.

"Looks like the Jackalmen's aggro range is about thirty meters around the outpost. Any farther, and they can't be lured out. And their aggro is linked together—they all swarm over at once, so luring them doesn't mean much anyway."

Ranger said.

Luring monsters was meant to let them be picked off one by one.

If luring them meant drawing an entire mob, they might as well rush in and fight directly.

"Let's charge in!"

Da Qing made the decision.

At the request of our many readers, we now offer an ad-free VIP Member feature.

Click to view