Di Zhao

Emperor's Tomb Village, 300 meters underground.

Qi Sheng stood before the blue Crystal Wall Containment Wall, his gaze sweeping over the three contained Primal Monster Souls. Each had a tube extending from inside the Crystal Wall connected to its back, continuously drawing out some kind of scarlet energy.

He closed his eyes, and scarlet flames instantly climbed over his body.

His head transformed into blazing scarlet flames, flickering between reality and illusion. Three small orbs of light also appeared, revolving around him.

After switching to the Di Zhao Form, digitized information from Guidance appeared in Qi Sheng's mind.

[Monster King: Di Zhao]:

Controlling the Origin Source Land:

Emperor's Tomb Village (territory trait: Life Reshaping)

Sacrificial Power consumed to resist the Black Tide: 1,000 points/day

Servants: Nine Yin, Yan Ming, Guidance, Hyperdimension.

Remaining Sacrificial Power Pool: 130,428.

Sacrificial Power produced by the Containment Wall: 30 points/hour.

Contained Primal Monsters: Stone Gargoyle (Petrification), Black Armor Snake (Venom), Eagle Head Demon (Wailing)

Although he had inherited Di Zhao's Origin Source and become the new Di Zhao,

his strength was still rather weak at present.

Over ten thousand years ago, the previous Di Zhao had broken down his power into countless Primal Monsters and scattered them throughout the Monster World.

As the new Di Zhao, he had inherited only the Origin Source of self-preservation, while losing the countless power traits that had been separated out.

His original intention in recruiting players was to have them explore the Monster World after it had been swept through and ravaged by the Black Tide, contain Di Zhao's lost Origin Source power—in other words, the Primal Monsters.

Every time he contained a Primal Monster, his strength would be partially enhanced, and he would gain one of Di Zhao's lost power traits.

In addition, after the Primal Monsters evolved from Di Zhao's power were imprisoned inside the Containment Wall, they could produce ten points of Sacrificial Power every hour.

The three Primal Monsters already contained—the Stone Gargoyle, Black Armor Snake, and Eagle Head Demon—could produce thirty points of Sacrificial Power per hour, or 720 points per day.

However, Emperor's Tomb Village spent 1,000 points of Sacrificial Power every day resisting the Black Tide. For now, its expenses exceeded its income.

The remaining Sacrificial Power would soon be depleted. He needed more sources of income.

That was one of the reasons he had chosen to impersonate the hugely popular Dark Land to recruit players: he hoped they would create more Sacrificial Power.

The other reason he recruited players was that he needed more Domain Nodes.

The Monster World was tens of thousands of times larger than Earth. The world was pieced together from countless Domain Nodes, and every Origin Source Node retained rule traits controlled by Di Zhao.

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

The fact that players could revive was accomplished through the power of this trait provided by Emperor's Tomb Village.

There were many other territories like this in the Monster World. He needed the players to occupy the Domain Nodes already eroded by the Terror Black Tide and merge them into Emperor's Tomb Village, bringing more territory traits.

First, contain the Primal Monsters.

Second, reclaim the Domain Nodes.

Those were the two most important reasons he recruited players.

If the plan succeeded, he would become the true Di Zhao God and gain the powerful strength to face the Terror Black Tide directly.

[Boss, the first batch of players created 32 points of Sacrificial Power for you in just half a day. Not bad.]

Just then, Guidance, floating beside him, suddenly spoke.

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

The 32 points of Sacrificial Power Guidance mentioned referred to the energy produced after players such as Li Zheng killed large numbers of Cursed Soldiers and had it refined. He would extract thirty percent of the proceeds and send them to the Sacrificial Power Pool beneath Emperor's Tomb Village.

He had carefully considered this arrangement.

Extracting too much would hinder the players' growth, while extracting too little would not offset Emperor's Tomb Village's daily expenses.

Thirty percent was just right.

He switched back to human form. The scarlet flames atop his head went out, and the three orbs of light around his body vanished as well.

[When are you planning to open new recruitment?]

"Now!"

With a lift of his hand, a Space Teleportation Array appeared beneath Qi Sheng's feet.

After a brief distortion of space, he returned to the bedroom in the real world.

He had already devised a clear plan for recruiting more players.

In the early stages, he would use Dark Land's immense popularity to attract newcomers.

The players wanted virtual reality, and what he offered was a real world.

This time, his target was still the group that wanted to play Dark Land but could not because of the game's exorbitant price.

People in this group had generally played virtual reality games before and possessed a certain technical foundation, allowing them to adapt to the game environment and grow quickly.

Compared with pure pay-to-win players, this group was more suitable for developing the Monster World in its early stages.

He still had 130,000 points of Sacrificial Power. Creating each monster body required 1,000 points of Sacrificial Power, so he could recruit at most another 130 players.

Including the cost of maintaining Emperor's Tomb Village's Defense Barrier, he could only release a limited number of spots for now.

[Kindergarten Small Class Passionate Chat Group (Online: 38)]

Kindergarten Principal (Group Owner): (News link) Latest news: The Moon Eclipse Clan behind Dark Land has issued another one million game purchase slots to the Human Federation!

Small Class—Black Ball: I don't want to hear this. I'm obviously not among those million, and the price alone is enough to scare me off (sigh.jpg).

Small Class—Iron Hammer: I read this news. Apparently, the Human Federation's higher-ups hoped to apply for more slots and use the virtual environment for experiments, but the Moon Eclipse Clan rejected them.

Small Class—No Naps: Hey, that's what they get for being unable to develop a high-fidelity virtual reality game like Dark Land.

Small Class—Drunk Milk: I have a proposal. Since everyone wants to play but can't experience the game because we're short on funds, I suggest we pool our money to buy a copy of Dark Land and give it to me. I'll experience the game on everyone's behalf, carrying your passion and longing while happily playing Dark Land.

Small Class—Cute Kid replies to Small Class—Drunk Milk: I agree to pooling our money, but why should you be the one enjoying it instead of me? (angrily slams table.jpg)

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

[Welfare Officer passed verification and joined the chat group.]

Kindergarten Principal (Group Owner): Who's this? I checked the verification information, but it doesn't say who approved the application.

Small Class—No Naps: My wild guess is that the newcomer is a dirty-picture guy with a huge stockpile of spicy videos and pictures, which is why he calls himself Welfare Officer... On behalf of the group members, I warmly welcome you.

Small Class—Black Ball: @Welfare Officer, why isn't the newcomer saying anything? Start your welfare show. I'm ready.

Under the group members' constant @mentions, Qi Sheng sent his first message after joining the group:

Welfare Officer: I have the good stuff everyone wants. Give me a moment, and I'll send it to you all.

Small Class—Drunk Milk: We all know you have it, but we hope it's free. This group doesn't welcome people who sell videos; it only welcomes people who offer free benefits.

Welfare Officer: Do you want to play Dark Land?

Kindergarten Principal (Group Owner): Bro, are you about to tell us that you can buy official licenses for us at a discount? (laughing-until-spitting.jpg)

Welfare Officer: It's fate that brought us together, so I'll give everyone a super benefit. I've posted a link where you can download a cracked version of Dark Land. Download it whenever you want to play. (Link: *****).

When they saw the Dark Land download link, the lively group instantly fell silent. Then the group owner was the first to break the silence.

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

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

Small Class—Cute Kid: This guy was way too impatient, nowhere near as good as the scammer who joined our group a year ago. I still clearly remember how that scammer spent three months getting along with us, occasionally even sending red-packet freebies. Then one day, he said he had an internal discount channel for recharging Crimson Raging. I believed him, and ended up getting scammed out of 800.

Kindergarten Principal: Hahaha, I remember Drunk Milk got scammed the worst. He transferred 3,000 to buy discounted credits.

Small Class—Drunk Milk: Society is treacherous. It still hurts whenever I think about it. That experience took away my innocence... The more I think about it, the angrier I get. I'll enter the link now, collect the contents, and report it to the Federation's cyber police. Everyone online uses real-name verification, so hopefully they can catch the scammer and bring him to justice.

(This chapter ends)