Opening a LAN World

"So... how exactly do you cultivate? You might just break the continent's record for becoming a Titled Douluo the fastest." She tilted her head, looking Li Chen up and down. "Even if that Golden Apple thing gave you innate full soul power after the fact, you still shouldn't be cultivating this fast."

"Well... how should I put it?" For a moment, he had no idea how to answer. After all, he had gained his levels by cheating.

Hardly any of his levels had come from his own cultivation. They had come from either Bottles o' Enchanting or immortal herbs. Besides, there was no such thing as an unstable cultivation foundation in this Douluo world. Just like in a game, gaining levels meant gaining stats.

After a moment's thought, Li Chen took out a Bottle o' Enchanting. Just as he was about to demonstrate, a problem suddenly occurred to him: apart from him, Wine Fox, and those summoned creatures, no one else could see Experience Orbs.

They also couldn't use chests, barrels, Crafting Tables, and the like. When they opened a chest, for instance, they couldn't see or sense its twenty-seven inventory slots. They could only pile miscellaneous things inside it like an ordinary wooden chest.

To let other people use a Bottle o' Enchanting, he couldn't simply smash it on the ground. They had to drink it like a potion, which was much less efficient.

This eighth Soul Ring could serve as a command that let other people join "Minecraft" too.

"What's wrong? Is it something you can't tell me?" Dugu Yan asked when Li Chen remained silent.

"No." Li Chen came back to his senses and handed her the Bottle o' Enchanting. "It's thanks to this. You're at your current level cap, so you won't feel anything yet. Drink it after you absorb your Soul Ring, and you'll understand."

Dugu Yan accepted the Bottle o' Enchanting. It was just an ordinary glass bottle. She turned it over several times, unable to make heads or tails of it, and was about to ask more.

Dugu Bo returned. Two Soul Beasts on their last breaths were tossed down a short distance in front of them. "Hurry up and finish them off, or they'll die."

Li Chen stepped forward without even summoning his Martial Soul. A mass of black soul power gathered in his hand. He merely reached out and pressed it against the Soul Beast before him, and almost instantly, it became a shriveled corpse.

He sat cross-legged and began absorbing the Soul Ring. The black Soul Ring floated above his head and slowly descended. Everything went normally at first.

But at the final step, a crack suddenly appeared in the black Soul Ring. The cracks kept spreading, covering the entire ring almost instantly.

With a crack, the Soul Ring shattered completely. Its energy was divided among the other Soul Rings, and then a brand-new, pitch-black Soul Ring condensed in its place.

Inside his Sea of Consciousness, Li Chen stood before the Command Block. By now, he no longer needed to go through the step of placing it down.

He opened the Command Block interface, but after entering "/", he began racking his brain for commands that could achieve the effect he wanted.

None of the commands he commonly used and could piece together would do the job. He wondered whether the Book of Knowledge had one recorded.

Since he was in his Sea of Consciousness, a mere thought brought the Book of Knowledge before him, and it rapidly searched according to his wishes.

Soon, a command appeared before his eyes.

`/publish`

It opened the world to LAN multiplayer. In the game, the full syntax also required setting whether cheats were allowed and the default game mode.

As usual, Li Chen first chose to allow cheats and enable creative mode. Unfortunately, the Command Block returned an error: those last two parameters couldn't be set in reality.

Helpless, Li Chen could only accept that result and select confirm.

[Warning! This command will trigger unknown risks. Confirm?]

Looking at the prompt from the Command Block, Li Chen hesitated instead of confirming right away. This was the first time he had ever seen it issue a warning.

Risks from opening a LAN world? Li Chen began thinking seriously. First, he approached it from the perspective of playing Minecraft normally and worked through the possibilities.

Opening a LAN world meant letting other people join the session. As long as they were on the same Wi-Fi network, they could join without authorization.

If he ran into griefers, they might tear down his home, steal things, build malicious structures, use high-frequency redstone circuits, spam chat, and so on.

High-frequency redstone circuits and chat spam were nothing to worry about. This was reality, where redstone needed energy, and no matter how high its frequency was, it couldn't make the world lag.

As for chat spam, there would have to be a chat box first.

Destroying his home and stealing things could be a little troublesome. If he caught someone destroying his home, he could simply kill them. After all, although they would be "players," they couldn't respawn.

Theft, on the other hand, was a different matter. Chests and similar containers had no locks whatsoever. Anyone who became a "player" could open them at will. He had quite a lot of things, and he might not even notice if a few went missing.

Although those were risks within the game, if even the Command Block had issued a warning, things probably weren't that simple.

The Command Block was only a Martial Soul, too. It wouldn't tell him exactly what the risks were. As for the system, it was essentially a mod loader, responsible only for loading mods for him.

After some consideration, he still chose to confirm the command. Risks? Go take that up with my creative mode and the Wither Storm.

Li Chen opened his eyes. Only after he confirmed the command did purple patterns appear on his eighth Soul Ring.

"How did it go, Little Monster? What Soul Skill did you get?"

"It's hard to explain. You'll understand once you experience it." With that, he immediately unleashed his eighth Soul Skill. While the other two were still puzzled, he added, "Don't resist."

The next second, a translucent interface suddenly appeared before Dugu Bo and Dugu Yan, and each received the standard thirty-six inventory slots.

"My Eighth Soul Ring lets you share the basic abilities my Martial Soul was born with. I'm not sure yet whether it's permanent.

"But you've both gained thirty-six inventory slots. They can hold thirty-six types of items. If the items are completely identical, they can also stack, up to sixty-four in a stack.

"You use them pretty much the same way as a storage Soul Tool.

"Besides that, killing Soul Beasts, fishing, and mining will all give you something called Experience Orbs. Absorb them, and you can increase your level."

As Li Chen finished speaking, Dugu Bo and Dugu Yan both froze.

Dugu Yan looked at the translucent slots before her and tried reaching out to touch one. A medicinal herb she had casually picked vanished into thin air and appeared in a slot. With another thought, the herb reappeared in her hand.

"How amazing. Your Martial Soul can even work as a storage ring."

"Little Yanzi, have you used the Bottle o' Enchanting I gave you?"

Dugu Yan blinked at his question. "Not yet. You told me to use it after absorbing my Soul Ring. I got caught up in everything and forgot."

"Should I drink it now?"

Li Chen waved a hand. "No need to drink it. Just smash it on the ground."

"Smash it?" Dugu Yan's eyes widened.

Li Chen smiled. "Trust me. That's how you're supposed to use it."

Dugu Yan trusted him and smashed it against the ground. With a sharp crack, several green orbs burst out, then rolled toward her.

"Those are Experience Orbs. What you just had was called a Bottle o' Enchanting. Smash it, and it turns into Experience Orbs. Without my Martial Soul, you'd have to drink it instead. Apparently, it tastes terribly bitter."