Healthy competition

The Blood Plains.

Broken Star sat in a twisted, withered tree, gazing at the groups of players fighting in the distance, utterly baffled.

Through his contact with them over the past few days, he had discovered that these mysterious creatures possessed a special ability to switch into monster forms for battle.

Though their bodies were frail, their abilities were far from weak.

But he had never been able to understand the logic behind these mysterious creatures' behavior.

His observations revealed that the mysterious creatures often gathered together and scoured the wilderness for evil spirits and monsters to gang up on. They were extremely belligerent.

Yet they did not do this to seize territory or resources. They did not even hunt monsters for food. They seemed to want nothing more than a fight before leaving with smiles on their faces.

Today, he had discovered an even stranger phenomenon.

These mysterious creatures had actually broken out into infighting.

To Broken Star, infighting within a race was not a problem. Even within his own Against the Tide Legion, the various factions had ideological differences.

The problem was that these mysterious creatures had been lining up in an orderly fashion outside a cave just a moment earlier, chatting and laughing.

Then, for some unknown reason, they had suddenly come to blows, using extremely brutal methods with the sole aim of killing members of their own race.

Their habit of erupting into fights to the death at the slightest disagreement left Broken Star's head full of questions.

The same went for the time they had risked their lives to save him. Before that, he had killed thousands of mysterious creatures, one after another. By all rights, they should have regarded him as an unforgivable enemy.

Yet when he was about to be killed, these mysterious creatures had risked everything to rescue him, sacrificing the lives of many of their own in the process.

Broken Star could not make sense of the logic behind this series of actions.

"I don't get it."

Murmuring those words, Broken Star lowered his head to look at the Rune Mark in his hand, his expression immediately turning dejected.

Getting here went just fine. Now I can't get back.

Without the Shuttlecraft to help transmit a signal, he could no longer find his way back. He did not even know where he was.

At the thought, Broken Star ground his teeth in anger.

The Shuttlecraft was protected by damage-resistant Rune Armor. In theory, whenever it suffered external damage, the Rune Battle Armor he wore would receive a signal, allowing him to rush over immediately.

The Shuttlecraft also had a tracking function. Even if it was stolen, he could quickly pinpoint its location.

Yet, bizarrely, the Shuttlecraft had vanished into thin air without being damaged or moved.

He could think of no possibility other than these mysterious creatures being responsible.

That was also why he had been observing their movements lately, trying to find out where the missing Shuttlecraft had gone.

"Drunken Feast Group members, assemble at Emperor Tomb Village! Twist the heads off those Divine Wing Guild bastards! They have to pay for bullying our people!"

"Boss, we've contacted the Bricklaying Group. They're on their way. They'll join us for the charge."

"We've contacted the Kindergarten Squad too. They're waiting in the Blood Plains for us to meet up with them."

The battle over Soul Crystals had continued until now, and both major guilds were genuinely furious. Each was gathering manpower for another fight.

Even Li Tie, who always operated alone, had been recalled to join the battle.

After assembling at Emperor Tomb Village, the force led by the Drunken Feast Group marched toward the Blood Plains en masse, and another round of chaotic fighting began.

Besides the forces on both sides, there were also plenty of spectators amid the melee.

They had no connection to either of the warring guilds and had come purely to watch the show.

Meanwhile, they also discussed the strength of the two guilds on the Forum.

The hottest topic was Li Tie of the Drunken Feast Group, known in-game as "Blacksmith," who ranked first in Body Tempering Level.

At this stage, quite a few players had opened their second star meridian, but Li Tie was the only player at Body Tempering Level 5. Even in human form, he could inherit all the attributes of five monster life souls.

His combat strength stood out in this melee.

The battle axe formed by fusing five artifact spirit life souls was immensely powerful, sweeping all before it in the melee. Not a single Divine Wing Guild player could withstand one exchange with him.

The spectators launched into a heated discussion.

Long Night: This guy is seriously strong. He's definitely in the top three out of all the players, maybe even number one. The artifact spirit path's ultimate damage output is downright brutal. I'm trembling just watching him. He really is dropping these kids with one swing each. He's on an absolute killing spree.

Darklands Is So Fun: That damage output is ridiculous. All I can say is he got lucky and entered the game before us. The few primordial monsters near Emperor Tomb Village early on were all weak, and he killed five of them alone. He seriously hit the jackpot.

Rise of Humanity: Stop running your mouths. Even if you ran into a primordial monster, you wouldn't have the strength to hunt it. I've seen this guy in other games. He's the Drunken Feast Group's top-tier enforcer, an absolute beast. Supposedly, he took part in the real-world war to suppress the Alien Races back then.

I Won the Lottery: He might be strong in real life and in-game, but he's still not quite up to Forum standards. Everyone on the Forum has level 20 star meridians and level 20 Body Tempering. The thirteen life souls currently available aren't even enough to fill their slots. (smirk.jpg)

Alongside the discussion, the players all became interested in the artifact spirit path school Li Tie had pioneered.

Of all the combinations of currently available life souls, this was the melee star meridian school with the most brutal damage output.

When the battle axe in Li Tie's hands struck a target, it carried effects such as armor penetration, damage amplification, and mental impact, giving it astonishing killing power.

Under Li Tie's charge, the Divine Wing Guild suffered a one-sided rout.

The battle lasted over an hour before drawing to a close with a crushing defeat for the Divine Wing Guild.

But that did not mean the hatred had vanished. Every spectator understood that these two guilds had now become sworn enemies.

Whenever players from the two sides met out in the field in the future, a fight was inevitable.

Just as the spectators had guessed, Divine Wing Guild members began logging back in one after another an hour later. But instead of immediately taking revenge, they chose to flood the Regional Voice Channel with offers to buy sacrificial power.

Their intent was obvious: they wanted to increase their combat strength before fighting the Drunken Feast Guild again.

This sent the purchase price of sacrificial power soaring once more.

The Divine Wing Guild's leader offered a purchase rate of 200:1 for sacrificial power and stated that players willing to sell large quantities could receive an even higher price.

The gold-farming players were ecstatic. This meant that killing the same single monster now yielded greater real-world earnings.

The spectators all voiced their support for the conflict between the two major guilds.

Naturally, Qi Sheng, who had been observing in secret, knew about the clash between the two major guilds.

He had no intention of stopping it.

Before transmigrating and inheriting the Emperor Zhao Self-Fixated Origin, he had loved all kinds of games and had been a dedicated gamer himself.

When he first created the Challenger System, he had already given thought to competition between players.

In MMORPGs, many factors stimulated players' desire to grow stronger. Conflict and competition between players were among the major ones.

To pressure players into spending, many games even deliberately introduced contested resources to provoke conflicts between players.

Some game companies would even recruit "shills" specifically to stir up trouble in-game or join different guilds and incite fierce confrontations between their players, increasing both sides' desire to spend money to grow stronger.

Viewed from the perspective of growing stronger, the motivation generated by competition far outweighed the lost gains caused by internal strife.

As pressure from external forces such as the Dark Tide Legion emerged later on, players in the same camp would inevitably choose to cooperate against it.