The Di Zhao

Chapter 7: Di Zhao

300 meters underground in Emperor's Tomb Village.

Qi Sheng stood before the blue crystal containment wall, his gaze sweeping over the three Primal Monster soul-lights already contained and imprisoned. Tubes extended from within the crystal wall, connecting to their backs and continuously siphoning a scarlet energy.

He closed his eyes, and scarlet flames instantly enveloped him.

His head transformed into blazing scarlet flames, flickering between reality and illusion. Three small orbs of light began to orbit his body.

Switching to the Di Zhao form, data-driven information from the Guider appeared in Qi Sheng's mind.

[Monster King: Di Zhao]

Domain of Origin:

Emperor's Tomb Village (Territory Trait: Life Reshaping)

Territory's resistance to Black Tide consumption: 1000 Sacrificial Power/day

Vassals: Nine Yin, Yan Ming, Guider, Hyperdimension.

Sacrificial Power Pool remaining: 130428.

Containment Wall's Sacrificial Power output: 30/hour.

Contained Primordials: Stone Gargoyle (Petrification), Black Armor Snake (Deadly Poison), Eagle Head Demon (Wailing Grudge)

Although he had inherited the origin of Di Zhao and become the new Di Zhao, his current strength was not significant.

The previous Di Zhao had, over ten thousand years ago, decomposed his power into countless Primal Monsters scattered across the monster world.

As the new Di Zhao, he had only inherited his core origin, losing the countless power traits that had been dispersed.

The initial intention of recruiting players was to have them explore the monster world, ravaged and destroyed by the Black Tide, and to contain Di Zhao's lost primordial power, which was the Primal Monsters.

With each Primal Monster contained, his strength would be partially reinforced, and he would regain one of Di Zhao's lost power traits.

Furthermore, the Primal Monsters evolved from Di Zhao's power could produce 10 Sacrificial Power per hour once contained within the wall.

The Stone Gargoyle, Black Armor Snake, and Eagle Head Demon, these three already contained Primal Monsters, could produce 30 Sacrificial Power per hour, totaling 720 Sacrificial Power per day.

However, Emperor's Tomb Village's daily expenditure to resist the Black Tide was 1000 Sacrificial Power, meaning current expenses exceeded income.

The remaining Sacrificial Power would soon be depleted, and he needed more revenue streams.

This was one of the reasons he chose to impersonate the highly popular Dark Land to recruit players, hoping they would generate more Sacrificial Power output.

Another reason for recruiting players was his need for more domain nodes.

The monster world was tens of thousands of times larger than Earth, composed of countless assembled domain nodes. Each origin node retained a rule trait controlled by Di Zhao.

For example, the rule trait of the Emperor's Tomb Village territory was "Life Reshaping."

The players' ability to revive was accomplished through the power of this trait provided by Emperor's Tomb Village.

There were many similar territories in the monster world. He needed players to occupy domain nodes already eroded by the terrifying Black Tide and integrate them into Emperor's Tomb Village, bringing more territory traits.

First, to contain primordial powers.

Second, to reclaim domain nodes.

These were the two most crucial reasons for recruiting players.

If the plan succeeded, he would become the true Di Zhao god, possessing the immense power to confront the terrifying Black Tide.

[Boss, the first batch of players only took half a day to generate 32 Sacrificial Power for you. Not bad.]

Just then, the Guider, hovering beside him, suddenly spoke.

"Still too slow. I need to recruit more players."

The 32 Sacrificial Power mentioned by the Guider referred to the energy refined from the large number of Cursed Soldiers killed by players like Li Zheng, with 30% of the profit sent to the Sacrificial Power pool beneath Emperor's Tomb Village.

He had carefully considered this setup.

Taking too much would hinder player growth, while taking too little wouldn't offset Emperor's Tomb Village's daily Sacrificial Power expenditure.

Thirty percent was just right.

He switched back to his human form, the scarlet flames on his head extinguished, and the three orbs circling his body dissipated.

[When are you planning to start the new recruitment?]

"Now!"

With a raise of his hand, a spatial teleportation array appeared beneath Qi Sheng's feet.

After a brief spatial distortion, he returned to his bedroom in the real world.

He had already formulated a clear plan on how to recruit more players.

Initially, he would leverage the immense popularity of Dark Land to attract new recruits.

Players wanted virtual reality; he would give them a real world.

The target group remains those who want to play Dark Land, but are unable to due to the high game price.

This demographic has generally played virtual reality games and possesses a certain technical foundation, allowing them to quickly adapt to the game environment and grow.

Compared to pure pay-to-win players, this group is more suitable for the early-stage development and exploration of Monster World.

He still has 130,000 Sacrificial Power, and each monster body requires 1,000 points of Sacrificial Power energy to create, allowing for the recruitment of up to 130 players.

Including the consumption to maintain the operation of the Emperor's Tomb Village defense wall, recruitment slots can only be released externally in a limited capacity for now.

[Kindergarten Class 1 Chat Group (Online: 38 people)]

Kindergarten Principal (Group Owner): (News Link) Latest news, Moon Eclipse Clan behind Dark Land has once again issued 1 million game purchase slots to our Human Federation!

Class 1 - Black Ball: I don't want to hear this news. Clearly, I'm not among the 1 million slots, and the price is too prohibitive (sigh.jpg).

Class 1 - Iron Hammer: I saw this news. It's said that the high-level officials of the Human Federation hoped to apply for more slots, wanting to use the virtual environment for experiments, but were rejected by Moon Eclipse Clan.

Class 1 - No Nap: Sigh, who can blame us when we can't develop a high-fidelity virtual reality game like Dark Land?

Class 1 - Drunken Milk: I have a proposal. Since everyone wants to play but is limited by insufficient funds to experience the game, I suggest we pool our money to buy one copy of Dark Land and give it to me. I will experience the game content on behalf of everyone, carrying your enthusiasm and desires as I play happily in Dark Land.

Class 1 - Cute Baby replies to Class 1 - Drunken Milk: I agree to pooling money, but why should the one enjoying it be you and not me (angry table slam.jpg)

Just as the group members were lamenting the exorbitant price of Dark Land, a line of small text popped up at the bottom of the chat group:

[Welfare Officer verified and joined the chat group.]

Kindergarten Principal (Group Owner): Who is this? I checked the verification information, but it doesn't show who passed the application?

Class 1 - No Nap: I'm guessing the newcomer is a porn dealer, with a large inventory of adult videos and images. So they're calling themselves Welfare Officer... On behalf of the group members, I extend a warm welcome to you.

Class 1 - Black Ball: @Welfare Officer, why isn't the newcomer talking? Start your welfare session, I'm ready.

As the group members continued to @ him, Qi Sheng sent his first message after joining the group:

Welfare Officer: I have the good stuff you guys want. I'll send it to everyone in a moment.

Class 1 - Drunken Milk: We know you have it, but we hope it's free. This group doesn't welcome movie sellers, only free welfare providers.

Welfare Officer: Do you guys want to play Dark Land?

Kindergarten Principal (Group Owner): Buddy, are you going to tell us next that you can get us genuine game access at a discount (bursts out laughing.jpg)

Welfare Officer: It's fate. I'll give everyone a super welfare gift. I've posted a link in the group to download a cracked version of Dark Land. You can download it anytime if you want to play (Link: *****).

Seeing the download link for Dark Land, the previously lively group instantly fell silent, and then the group owner broke the silence first.

Kindergarten Principal (Group Owner): @Welfare Officer, get lost! Here's your ticket out. This scam is 500 years behind the times. Anyone who falls for it is an idiot.

[Notification: Group member "Welfare Officer" has been kicked from the chat group.]

Class 1 - Cute Baby: This guy was too impatient. He's not as good as the scammer who joined our group a year ago. I still clearly remember that scammer who interacted with us for three months, occasionally sending red packets as welfare. Then one day, he claimed to have an internal discount recharge channel for Crimson Raging. I believed him at the time and was scammed out of 800.

Kindergarten Principal: Hahaha, I remember Drunken Milk was scammed the worst, transferring 3,000 for discounted recharges.

Class 1 - Drunken Milk: Society is treacherous. Thinking about it makes my heart ache. After that incident, my innocence disappeared... The more I think about it, the angrier I get. I'm going to go into the link now, collect the content, and report it to the Federal Cyber Police. The internet is all real-name verified, so hopefully, the scammer can be found and brought to justice.

(End of this chapter)