"A new Survival Road game has begun. This time, the civilization entering the game is a new one called the Fivefold Race. Their base stats are generally much higher than those of Humanity."
"But in return, we get more Survival Points for every Fivefold Race player we eliminate."
Chu Ge asked, "How many players does the Fivefold Race have? And how many players has Great Xia eliminated so far?"
"The Fivefold Race has a total of 13.6 billion players entering this time. During the first three days, the main targets for elimination are players under ten and over eighty. Their numbers are estimated to be around two billion."
"So far, Great Xia has eliminated around thirty thousand players. That number will rise a little later, but not by much. After all, this is only the first day."
As soon as Chu Ge asked, someone compiled the figures for him.
Chu Ge nodded. That was already a substantial number.
Blue Star Civilization alone had seven halls. If each hall eliminated thirty thousand players, that would add up to two hundred thousand.
And Blue Star Civilization was far from the only civilization in the Gray Mist World. Chu Ge alone knew of over a thousand civilizations. If each one eliminated a few hundred thousand players, the total would be enormous.
"Next comes the seven-day beginner period. That's when players develop, and also when they're at their weakest. There isn't much we can do, but we should eliminate as many as we can."
Chu Ge added, "Also, have everyone turn the drop rates for good items down to the minimum. I don't think I need to explain that."
Everyone nodded. They already knew that without him having to say it.
Every civilization in the Gray Mist World would voluntarily turn the drop rates for good items down to the minimum to slow the growth of new civilizations.
Of course, adjusting the drop rates was all they could do. If some ridiculously lucky player still managed to get a good item, there was nothing they could do about it.
[Gray Fog Announcement: A player from the Fivefold Race civilization has successfully passed the Initial Trial.] x3
Just then, three consecutive announcements rang out across the entire Gray Mist World. Everyone in every civilization wore a look of disbelief.
"What's going on? Is the Fivefold Race civilization that strong? Someone actually managed to pass the Initial Trial?"
"The Fivefold Race civilization's starting stats aren't low, but the Initial Trial teams are almost always led by one tier-two and four tier-one fighters. How did anyone get through that?"
"Since records began, this is only the fifth civilization with a player who passed the Initial Trial, right? Have we underestimated the Fivefold Race?"
"..."
The news shocked every civilization in the Gray Mist World, and they all began reassessing how dangerous the Fivefold Race was.
Inside the Great Xia Civilization Hall, Chu Ge and the others were just as surprised. None of them had expected a player to pass the Initial Trial.
Those players who had passed the Initial Trial in the past had become leading powers in the Gray Mist World, even if they had failed to lead their civilizations to the end of the road.
One player who had passed the Initial Trial had even led his civilization all the way to the end.
"It looks like we underestimated the Fivefold Race," someone in the hall said gravely.
The others nodded. Whether this player had succeeded through luck or genuine strength, they had to take the Fivefold Race more seriously.
But Chu Ge remained frozen in place. While everyone else could only hear the Gray Fog Announcement, as the founder of the Great Xia Civilization Hall, he could see additional information.
[Subordinates of your hall failed to stop a player during the Initial Trial and were killed by the player.]
Chu Ge had never imagined that the player who passed the Initial Trial had done so by killing their people from Great Xia. The interface even showed the five people who had been killed.
When he saw one of them, Chu Ge's brows knitted tightly. It was his father-in-law, Zhou Chang.
Although Zhou Chang had forced him and his lover apart back then, so many years had passed, and now they were in the Gray Mist World. He had long since stopped caring about those old grievances.
It was only because Zhou Chang was too concerned about saving face that he kept avoiding him.
Earlier, he had heard that Zhou Chang, having nothing to do, had spent some Survival Points to participate in the Initial Trial. He had never expected him to be killed by a player.
Zhou Chang was a Tier Four entity. Even if he stood still, a player shouldn't have been able to hurt him. How could a player possibly have killed him?
"Reassess the Fivefold Race's potential and threat level first. I have something to take care of."
With that, Chu Ge vanished. The others thought nothing of it and began their discussion.
Inside a room, Chu Ge swept his hand through the air, and five figures slowly appeared. They were Zhou Chang, A Long, and the others.
"Dad, what exactly happened?" Chu Ge asked Zhou Chang with a frown.
A Long and the other three stood cautiously to one side, not daring to say much. After all, this was Great Xia's only War God.
Compared with the four of them, Zhou Chang was much more relaxed. He smiled and said, "Looks like you already know. That's right, it was my idea. We let him kill us."
Chu Ge's frown deepened, but he said nothing. He knew Zhou Chang wasn't someone who acted recklessly. There had to be a reason.
"You might not believe this, but do you know who the player we encountered was?"
Zhou Chang's expression grew serious as he continued, "A human!"
A human?
Chu Ge froze, unable to process it for a moment.
"That's right, a human. That player's name is Su Ye. He isn't one of the Fivefold Race. He's one of us, Humanity."
Zhou Chang said, "I don't know why. Maybe he was left out when we entered the game back then, and when the Fivefold Race joined this time, he got pulled in too and became a player."
Chu Ge fell silent.
His first instinct was disbelief, but seeing Zhou Chang's serious expression, he knew it was almost certainly true.
"What's going on? Did the Road Survival Game bug out?" Chu Ge asked with a frown.
"How would I know? Anyway, the reason we let ourselves get killed was that this Su Ye is one of our people from Great Xia."
"Oh, right. He's also a freshman at Fenghai University, so he's a junior of yours. Weren't you the student council president there? Do you know him?" Zhou Chang asked.
"I might have heard of him if he were a sophomore, but I wouldn't know a freshman. After all, we'd only been about two weeks into the semester when we entered the Road Survival Game."
Chu Ge continued, "But that's easy enough to check. I'll have someone look into it in a bit, and we'll find out whether he exists."
"I've told you what happened. The reason I helped him was that, as a member of Humanity, this kid has entered the Fivefold Race's Road Survival Game. If he reaches the end of the road, will that count as Humanity completing the game, or the Fivefold Race?"
"If it counts as Humanity completing the game, I don't need to tell you what that would mean. We'd be free of this Gray Mist World."
"If it counts as the Fivefold Race completing the game, we still won't come away empty-handed. We can have him see what's really at the end of the road. That would give us information for the next time we enter the Road Survival Game."
Zhou Chang gave a helpless smile. "After all, our chances of succeeding on our third run through the Road Survival Game are far too low. With more information, we can prepare ahead of time."
Before you continue