This Damn Game Was Finally Getting a Second Beta!

As the players joined forces to defeat the Cave Stalker, a notification sounded before them.

[Server-wide first kill announcement: A player team has successfully slain a First-Tier Peak Elite Monster (Cave Stalker)!]

[Participants: Passing Pure-Love Warrior, Ji Luo, Kindergarten Boss, Even Monkeys Have Dignity, I'm Not Jiahao.]

[Higher-level kill achieved. Experience gained greatly increased!]

[Rewards issued: EXP +100, Ash Coins +20.]

"We won!!"

Watching the enormous creature dissolve into a puddle, the five collapsed onto the ground in exhaustion, gulping down air. Yet their faces were filled with uncontrollable joy.

There had been no shortcuts or special treatment. They had done it entirely through teamwork.

This was the purest, most intense thrill of hardcore progression!

Meanwhile, inside the Church, Lin En had been watching the live action from a god's-eye view. He nearly leaped off his Divine Throne in excitement.

Provided he had legs, that was.

"Holy shit, those five players actually wore down a First-Tier peak monster!"

Lin En glanced at the ledger in the system's backend.

The system had extracted a full 500 Faith Points from the kill of the First-Tier Peak Elite Monster!

As usual, the greedy system skimmed off 450 points and converted the remaining 50 into experience for the players.

Combined with all the small fry they had farmed during the day, Lin En's Faith Points balance had shot straight up to [786 points]!

Rich overnight!

This earned money faster than any investment product!

"Yes! Hell yes! This is the magic of capital!" Lin En laughed so hard inside his statue that he sounded like a squealing pig.

Outside the abandoned village, the players had caught their breath and were excitedly putting their time-honored skills to work.

Looting bodies.

Ma Lou charged over first and frantically rummaged through the pool of dark green slime.

"This is our first Elite Monster! There have to be extra drops besides the system's fixed payout!"

Sure enough, he found two pieces of hard, faintly glowing carapace, along with the corpse the monster had been gnawing on.

The corpse wore a tattered cleric's robe, with a silver badge depicting a weeping goddess hanging from its chest.

"Boys, we've got something!"

Jiahao walked over to the corpse, produced a little wooden stick from somewhere, and pried open its tightly clenched right hand.

The mangled hand had been clutching a rolled parchment letter, half of it stained red with blood.

Jiahao picked up the letter and flicked off the dust. A golden quest notification immediately popped up in his field of vision.

[Regional Main Quest triggered: Fog Town's Plea for Aid!]

[Letter contents: "The evil cultists have breached the outer defenses. Fog Town's patron deity, the Weeping Madonna, is on the verge of shattering. We were ambushed by aberrations on the edge of the Black Forest. We hope this letter reaches someone within another righteous god's barrier... Save Fog Town..."]

[Quest objective: Investigate the situation in Fog Town and help its residents drive out the evil cultists.]

[Quest hint: Players are advised to level up and wait for more companions to join before exploring.]

"A major regional main quest? Fog Town needs help?"

At the sight of the bloodstained parchment in Jiahao's hand, the five players who had just fought a life-or-death battle instantly straightened their backs.

Passing Pure-Love Warrior leaned closer for a good look and read the final quest hint aloud:

"Players are advised to level up and wait for more companions to join before exploring..."

He slapped his thigh. "Boys! That's the key detail!"

"Wait for more companions to join! What does that tell us?"

"It tells us this damn game is finally getting a second beta!"

Ji Luo's tactical instincts kicked in instantly, his eyes gleaming. "There's no way the five of us can handle a regional siege battle like this."

"Fog Town must be a whole new map, right? Even its patron deity is about to shatter, and the outskirts are crawling with goddamn cultists and horrors. This is obviously a massive multiplayer raid!"

"Holy shit, a second beta? Doesn't that make us the most senior veterans on the entire server?"

Ma Lou rubbed his hands excitedly, his eyes darting as an idea struck him. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's pack up this giant bug's remains and haul them back to the starter village!"

"This big shell looks tough as hell. If we bring it back, the system blacksmith can definitely make us some armor. When the newbies log in, we'll already be geared up like big shots. We can really show off!"

"Makes sense. Let's move it!"

They got straight to work. This bunch of Fourth Calamity players had never heard of exhaustion.

The five found some sturdy vines and managed to lash together the Cave Stalker's two heavy back plates.

Then, like barge haulers, they chanted in rhythm and huffed and puffed as they dragged the monster's shell plates, each larger than they were, back along their original route toward the Church.

Half an hour later, the five-man squad dumped the two enormous plates, still dripping green slime, onto the open ground outside the Church with a crash.

Sivir, the nun praying before Lin En's statue, was utterly dumbfounded.

She stared blankly at the remains, which radiated a terrifying pressure, her head buzzing.

If she wasn't mistaken... this was the Cave Stalker that had occupied the abandoned village and once slaughtered an entire squad of elite knights in one go!

It had been the undisputed overlord of the outer reaches of this wilderness!

And now?

When these five faithful summoned by her divine lord had headed out that morning, they had been bare-chested and armed with nothing but battered sticks and stones.

Yet by evening, they had returned chatting and laughing, dragging the overlord's shell behind them as casually as if they had brought home a pheasant from a hunt?

She looked at the five players, covered in black mud and monster blood, yet still heatedly debating whether this piece of shell would look cooler as a breastplate or be more useful as a frying pan.

Sivir's legs went weak, and she dropped to her knees with a thud.

"Praise the great Lord of Ashes..."

The young nun pressed her hands together, tears spilling from her eyes. "The emissaries you sent are walking war machines! With them here, light will one day return to this wasteland!"

[Ding! A devout believer has been profoundly awed. Faith Points +5.]

Up on the altar, Lin En happily pocketed this extra little tip.

As he watched the five overexcited players below, he was already running the numbers at lightning speed.

Through the system's introduction and fragments of his body's original owner's memories, he had also learned the basics about Fog Town.

Fog Town was a small town on the edge of the Black Forest.

Under the Weeping Madonna's protection, it had once held firm against infiltration by the cult. But now its patron deity was damaged, and the whole town was in peril.

"The Fog Town quest has been triggered. The players are about to encounter the Weeping Madonna's dying divine core."

"As long as I devour that divine core, I'll gain the Weeping Madonna's power!"

"The players should be able to unlock a new combat system then, too!"

But that also brought a problem.

Fog Town was more than ten kilometers away, with vast stretches of wilderness and packs of monsters in between. On top of that, who knew how many cultists surrounded the town?

Take Fog Town with these five cavemen?

That would be nothing but delivering takeout to the monsters-with free shipping, no less.