Early the next morning, before the sky had fully brightened.
Hardcore gaming groups across Blue Star were already buzzing.
Countless spectators who had stayed up until their eyes were bloodshot stared intently at the progress bar labeled "Reforge the Ashen Portal" on the official Awakening of the Old Gods website.
Its current progress was: [0.1%].
"Holy shit, do these five First Closed Beta legends have iron livers? The progress bar's already moving at six thirty in the morning!"
"My benefactor! Pure-Love Warrior is my true benefactor! They're risking their damn lives to build us a future!"
"Guys, spam 'protect them' in chat! As long as they grind out those Second Beta Test slots, I'll serve them tea and water and be their lackey every day once I get in!"
Meanwhile, in another world, outside the dilapidated Church on the edge of the Black Forest.
The five "benefactors" whom the online spectators had put on a pedestal were sporting enormous dark circles under their eyes, clutching assorted battered tools as they frantically dug up the clearing beside the Church.
"Come on, come on! Warrior, dig your side deeper! Bossy Guy, go sharpen those black logs we cut yesterday and stick them in the bottom!"
[Ji Luo] hacked away at the dirt with his Stone Axe while directing the work.
Late last night, seeing tens of thousands of people on the forums calling them "benefactors" had inflated the five First Closed Beta players' egos like never before.
For that exclusive, never-to-return First Closed Beta title, and for the chance to show off big-time in front of the fifty newbies who would join later, all five had risen from the dead and logged in at six that morning.
The moment they logged in, they launched straight into an insane "death pit trap" construction project under Ji Luo's direction.
"Ji Luo, are we really digging this whole thing by hand?"
[Passing Pure-Love Warrior] clawed out a large clump of black mud with both hands, panting from exhaustion.
"Aren't we mighty mages now? Why are we still doing construction work?"
"You don't know shit!"
Beside him, Jiahao was trying to reinforce the edges of the pit with Ashen Shaping. He pushed up the nonexistent glasses on his nose, looking unfathomably wise.
"Other people our age fight monsters with brute force and individual heroism."
"But that's too inefficient! Yesterday, all five of us had to use every trump card we had just to barely beat one Elite Monster. Can that sort of individual combat model meet the server-wide progress KPIs?"
Jiahao pointed at the pit before them, three meters long, three meters wide, and two meters deep, his voice carrying the cold ruthlessness of a Wall Street capitalist:
"So we need to change our approach!"
"We need to build a fully automated 'monster dispatch-by-force assembly line'!"
"Turn monster fighting into large-scale, industrialized, low-cost harvesting! That is the underlying logic of primitive capital accumulation!"
"Speak human!" [Passing Pure-Love Warrior] rolled his eyes.
"In human terms: dig a pit, pull the monsters, wipe them out in one go!"
Ma Lou eagerly chimed in from beside them. "I'll be the bait in a bit and kite whole packs of mobs over from outside."
"They'll fall into the pit and get half-killed by the stakes, then you guys can stab them with spears and smash them with rocks from above! Damage-free money farming, that's the idea!"
"Brilliant!"
[Passing Pure-Love Warrior] slapped his thigh. "Isn't that just a tower defense game? Let's do it!"
The five cyber workhorses instantly unleashed a terrifying level of drive rivaling a farming commune's tractor.
In less than an hour, a crude but deadly "trap array" took shape along the edge of the Church's sanctuary barrier.
Sharpened wooden stakes lined the bottom of the pit, with a thin layer of dried grass and loose dirt covering the top.
"All set! Ma Lou, you're up!" [Ji Luo] tightened his grip on his spear, his gaze sharp.
"Just watch me!"
Ma Lou chuckled, loosened his scrawny wrists and ankles, and plunged into the gray outskirts of the Black Forest like a wild dog unleashed.
Five minutes later.
A cracked voice suddenly rang out from the dead trees at the edge of the Black Forest, screaming at the top of its lungs:
"You little shits! Come chase your grandpa! A bunch of brainless trash, who do you think you're looking down on?"
With that outrageously cocky taunt, Ma Lou came scrambling and tumbling out of the woods.
Behind him followed a full seven or eight [Zero Tier Corrupted Villagers], their eyes scarlet and their claws flailing!
Among them was even a slightly larger [First-Tier Mutant Hound], its body covered in fleshy tumors!
The hound was incredibly fast. Its bloody maw gaped wide, revealing rows of fangs as saliva flew everywhere, and it nearly bit Ma Lou's ass several times.
"Holy shit! Ma Lou, did you stir up a damn monster hornet's nest? Why'd you bring a dog back too?"
[Passing Pure-Love Warrior] jumped in alarm and hurriedly raised his Stone-Shard Spiked Club.
"Quit talking! This dog's too fast! It's about to catch me-save your king!"
Ma Lou howled as he approached the edge of the trap.
"Watch this!"
Standing across the pit, Jiahao slammed his hands together.
"Ashen Shaping!"
Half a meter behind Ma Lou, a mass of black ash instantly condensed into a deviously placed, ankle-high ashen tripwire.
The First-Tier Mutant Hound, which was running fastest, never noticed what lay underfoot. Its front legs caught directly on the tripwire.
With an agonized howl, the massive hound performed an exceptionally graceful Thomas flair in midair.
It sailed over Ma Lou's head and slammed into the camouflaged trap ahead!
The sharp wooden stakes beneath instantly pierced its belly, sending black blood spraying.
"Beautiful!"
Ma Lou braked hard and threw himself sideways, executing a perfect ground-hugging roll to evade the monsters lunging behind him.
The Corrupted Villagers, whose intelligence was practically negative, thought of nothing but their hunger for living flesh. Like dumplings dropped into a pot, they all tumbled noisily into the pit.
"Shut the gates! Beat the dog!" [Ji Luo] roared.
The four standing around the trap instantly became merciless butchers.
"Eighty! Eighty! Eighty!"
Bossy Guy hoisted the large gray bricks they had prepared and unleashed a merciless barrage of physical damage on the heads of the monsters still struggling in the pit.
His aim was steadier than a pile driver on a construction site.
"Ashen Missile!"
[Passing Pure-Love Warrior] and [Ji Luo] targeted the densest cluster of monsters and raised their hands, launching two smoky black fireballs.
Boom! Boom!
Sparks scattered as fiery ash exploded at the bottom of the pit.
The monsters' skin split and flesh tore under the flames. Blinded and thrown into complete confusion, they bit and clawed at one another inside the pit.
"Stab them! Stab the hell out of them!"
Having caught his breath, Ma Lou grabbed his specially made barbed Stone Spear and furiously stabbed at the monsters scrambling below.
Every thrust drew a piercing scream from a monster.
In less than three short minutes.
All movement at the bottom of the pit ceased.
Seven Corrupted Villagers and one First-Tier hound had all dissolved into pitch-black pus and weathered ash.
Ding! Ding! Ding!
A rapid string of crisp system notifications flooded the five players' minds.
[Killed a Zero Tier Corrupted Villager. Experience +10, Ash Coins +2.] [Killed a Zero Tier Corrupted Villager...] [Killed a First-Tier Mutant Hound. Experience +50, Ash Coins +10.]
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