She Burst into Tears

Gallagher and the others left.

Until it was confirmed that those people had gone far away.

Shen Nian, who had been standing by as a background figure, finally took action.

She walked to Lu Xiu's side, looked up at the Xeno'jiiva that exuded a suffocating sense of oppression even when it was standing quietly, and then couldn't help but turn to look at Lu Xiu and laugh, "Lu Xiu, you're so good at using momentum."

I just saw Gallagher's face turn pale—they probably never imagined that a dragon would be standing next to you.

But how do you know that the Architect of Prison Rock haven't made this kind of noise before when setting up dungeons?

Aren't you afraid they'll see through your bluff?

"Intuition."

Lu Xiu retorted, while giving Shen Nian a slight glare. "And what do you mean by bluffing? We were clearly conducting an experiment, and they insisted on coming to talk to me."

"Haha----Got it! But I must say, Lu Xiu, you were really cool just now!"

Shen Nian stepped forward and hugged Lu Xiu tightly.

Two exceptionally beautiful young women, each with a distinct temperament, embraced intimately. Their bodies were supple, and a delicate fragrance wafted through the air; the sight was simply delightful.

"Don't hug or cuddle."

but.

One of the parties involved seemed to disagree.

Seeing this, Jian Li also cast a murderous glare at Shen Nian.

Shen Nian didn't care at all and looked directly at Jian Li's ear.

Shen Nian discovered that Lu Xiu had helped Jian Li flowers in her hair not long ago, and she had just been complaining that it was unfair.

Shen Nian glanced at the flower by her ear.

The chilling killing intent emanating from Jian Li suddenly lessened.

What's the principle behind this?

Stand up straight!

Seeing this, Lu Xiu was both amused and exasperated. She gently pushed away Shen Nian, who was still clinging to her, and said, "Alright, stop fooling around. Let's do the experiment first."

Shen Nian gracefully took two steps back, seemingly unharmed, but a hint of disappointment flickered in her beautiful eyes. Lu Xiu didn't notice. She turned to look at the giant dragon in front of her, which was spewing out eerie blue dust with every breath, then looked at Jian Li and asked, "Are you sure this Xeno'jiiva only had a basic collision and no damage?"

"Right."

Jian Li nodded.

Although this Xeno'jiiva exudes an overwhelming aura simply by standing there, there is no truly destructive energy flowing within its massive body; at present, it appears to be nothing more than a huge, empty shell with no real substance.

"It seems that the role of Construction Space still cannot be replaced."

Lu Xiu gently shook her head, then said, "Let's try again. Even if it doesn't hurt, it'll be good to see its movements."

"Good."

Jian Li nodded in agreement and drew her weapon.

The Xeno'jiiva let out a clear roar, flapped its wings, and charged straight at Jian Li with overwhelming force!

Although it is just an empty shell, the sheer size of the object creates a powerful sense of visual oppression and physical impact.

The man and the dragon clashed in the open space.

On the brink of war.

Lu Xiu stood quietly, not staring at the test results.

She took Alicia's Crystal out of her backpack again.

"Apostle ----"

Lu Xiu gently stroked the crystal surface with her slender fingers and murmured a soft murmur.

Over the next two days.

The negotiations between Nine Provinces and Prison Rock proceeded exceptionally smoothly, almost without any major setbacks.

After Gallagher, Helag, and the others returned...

The prime minister, who had initially wanted to fight for his interests at the negotiating table, completely gave up the struggle.

They couldn't win in the arena, they couldn't compete in terms of experience, and they couldn't even fathom the limits of their opponent's Architect.

Most importantly, Nine Provinces really can forcibly Plunder!

Then what's the point of discussing it?

--

Prison Rock directly chose to compromise completely, accepting almost all the harsh resource compensation demands put forward by the Coordination Bureau, just to redeem control of Obsidian City as soon as possible.

----Then stay away from Nine Provinces, that filthy place.

While negotiations were proceeding intensively...

Lu Xiu seemed to have disappeared from the world, staying in the isolated primeval forest on Changfeng Road.

She does the same thing every day: constantly using the anomalies in the placement area to generate all sorts of monsters on the open ground.

Various types of flying dragons, bird dragons, fanged beasts, crustaceans, Ancient Dragon, and some subspecies.

Then.

Let Jian Li or Shen Nian go up and fight.

At the beginning.

The two thought Lu Xiu was simply testing the waters in preparation for the next instance.

But as the fighting went on...

Jian Li and Shen Nian gradually realized that something was wrong.

Because the focus of Lu Xiu's test was not how the monsters attacked them, but rather—how they killed the monsters.

The two of them instantly realized what was happening.

Lu Xiu —this is an attempt to exploit loopholes in the system's mechanisms.

After realizing this.

Both Jian Li and Shen Nian became exceptionally serious, cooperating with Lu Xiu in conducting one tedious experiment after another.

Time flies.

Finally, the truce came to its last day.

The negotiations were drawing to a close.

The hundred-page contract, which had drained half of Prison Rock's resources, was finally finalized and immediately appeared on the desks of the higher-ups.

Lu Xiu saw the contract immediately.

[Bite!]

[A consensus has been reached between the two parties' agents.]

Please finalize and sign this contract.

In the forest.

Lu Xiu glanced at the pop-up window in front of her, then briefly looked at the compensation list provided by the Coordination Bureau, and smiled slightly.

Yan Fushou also sent a message at this time.

Lu Xiu immediately said she had no objections and then signed her name.

The next second.

A system announcement sounded.

[Announcement: The preview for the new expansion, "Iron and Blood," has officially ended.]

[The arena is closing; results are being tallied.]

[Settlement complete.]

[Congratulations on Nine Provinces's resounding victory!]

[According to the final negotiation agreement signed by the agent, all players in Nine Provinces will receive the following compensation.]

[1. All players in Prison Rock will contribute 50% of their total Survival Points, which Survival Points be directly and equally distributed among all players in Nine Provinces.]

[2. The system will randomly select one skill from the skill pool of all players in Prison Rock. All players in Nine Provinces will unconditionally receive one A-rated skill from the defeated player!]

[3.----]

The third condition has not yet been determined.

See the first two compensation conditions.

Throughout the entire Nine Provinces, whether it was soldiers on the front lines or players in the rear, after a brief moment of deathly silence, cheers erupted instantly!

Half of the Survival Points for Prison Rock players! Distributed evenly! This means that almost everyone can get half of a Prison Rock players' Survival Points for free, and also get an A-level skill for free!

For low- to mid-level players, this is like a windfall, an unprecedented and massive boost!

Players who had previously worried that Lu Xiu would profit from the situation were now relieved.

The Coordination Bureau and Lu Xiu have truly maximized the benefits and made them accessible to everyone!

As for the guild leaders, they were all completely taken aback.

no.

Lu Xiu has veto power, and this is what she does?

The system's notification process was not yet finished.

[Next, we'll announce the individual honors and data settlement for this new expansion preview event!]

[Top of the Battle Merit Ranking: Lu Xiu!]

[Lu Xiu is the Architect has used dungeons as the most frequent arena scenario!]

This player achieved a dominant performance in this preview and will receive a unique reward!

[In addition, the remaining top 100 players on the battle merit leaderboard will receive equipment, skills, exclusive Title, or a large amount of Survival Points based on their final ranking!]

The top five Architect on the Architect leaderboard will also receive special rewards.

[This concludes the preview of Iron and Blood.]

[Reassessment of Regional and World Ratings Begins -]

[Nine Provinces Region Overall Rating: II!!!]

[World Overall Rating:!!!]

[Reason for assessment: In the preview of the new data released simultaneously, except for Nine Provinces, all other regions in this world failed to achieve victory, and almost all regions were forcibly Plunder, resulting in a significant loss of resources.]

[Only Nine Provinces was the victor.]

[Extremely low win rate.]

[The world's overall rating has fallen from V to...]

[----]

The subsequent system announcement was released.

The players in Nine Provinces who were still celebrating instantly calmed down.

forum.

"Holy crap?! Wait a minute! Level 7?!"

"The world rating has dropped to level seven?!"

"No, System, explain yourself clearly. What do you mean by 'complete annihilation except for Nine Provinces '? Does that mean the Franca region, which seemed very strong in the last special event, also lost?! No way!"

"Of course we lost—we were the only ones in the whole world to win the ring; everyone else was slaughtered like pigs."

"That's it—"

The Nine Provinces players, who had just been enjoying their newfound happiness, suddenly found that A-rank skills and Survival Points no longer seemed so appealing.

Are you happy to have won?

Of course I'm happy.

However, Nine Provinces's current Regional Rating is Level I, which stands out like a crane among chickens in the bleak global environment where the world has fallen to Level VII!

Isn't this a classic case of sticking your neck out?!

Furthermore, since there is a world ranking system, there will definitely be world battles in the future.

What will we do then?

"Oh no, we've become the village's only hope—"

"Just how weak are the other regions?! How could they lose to them?!"

"Weak my foot! It's because the otherworldly region is too powerful! If it weren't for Lu Xiu, we'd probably be forcibly Plunder by now! Think about how much Lu Xiu's dungeon helped when the fighting started. What would have happened without Lu Xiu?"

"Stop talking—without Lu Xiu, we feel like we're just roadside hustles."

"Yes! That's right, if it weren't for those dungeons built by Lu Xiu, we would have been wiped out just like the other areas!"

"Thanks, Lu Xiu —but what do we do now? This world ranking looks like it's on the sidelines! Will there be any world battles in the future? How will we compete then?"

"I don't know—the only thing I'm grateful for right now is that Nine Provinces still has Lu Xiu."

At the same time.

Franca area.

Under a gloomy, gray sky.

The atmosphere inside the palace of the Franca royal family was oppressive.

The Franca officials, who had just suffered a crushing defeat and been forced to sign a humiliating treaty, sat lifelessly around the round table.

And then, the system announcement that resounded throughout the world came to an end.

The mature woman with fluffy Fox Ears immediately stood up.

She stared at the announcement in mid-air, her beautiful eyes widening in shock, her mouth agape for a long time.

"Nine Provinces —won?"

A high-ranking official from Franca standing nearby also looked on incredulously. "Facing that monstrous region—they actually won!! How is that possible?!"

They knew all too well just how terrifying the enemies in this preview of the new expansion were.

Many of Franca's elites, once they activated their beast form, were almost always pinned to the ground and unilaterally slaughtered in the arena, utterly powerless to fight back!

How did Nine Provinces, a land primarily populated by ordinary humans, manage to win against such an enemy?

"Wow!"

Just then...

The dog-eared girl, who had previously been so withdrawn after being beaten, burst into tears. "They actually won! Waaaaah----"

"We were beaten so badly! How did they win?!"

"Tell us! Players of Nine Provinces! Please, please offer a course and teach us how to win!!"

"Let Border Barrier disappear quickly!!"

"Multiplayer dungeons, please release them soon!!"

"Please, save us, save our child! I don't want to lose again!!!"

"System!!! Hurry!!! Release the new version!!! I want to meet the players of Nine Provinces!!!"