Days passed, one after another.
The Crawlers had quieted down considerably after the Oathbreaker inexplicably fell silent and Lin Yuan killed off a large group of their powerful Apostles.
The Players, the Federation, and Lin Yuan all finally enjoyed a relatively peaceful stretch of days.
Of course, although things were relatively peaceful, Lin Yuan did not have a moment to spare.
After the Ancient Beasts returned, Lin Yuan's prestige reached its peak.
But a fleeting peak in prestige was not enough. Winning people's genuine trust and recognition took time.
So Lin Yuan continued rushing from place to place.
Fortunately, he had stockpiled enough Authority Cores beforehand. No matter how busy he was, the Conversion Line aboard the Lin Yuan kept running day and night, producing A-rank Transcendent Cores for him to refine.
Lin Yuan's strength steadily increased with each passing day.
The Players and the entire Human Federation were also growing rapidly stronger.
Especially the Players.
To be honest, the Players from Lin Yuan's batch had it rough.
After the game's second stage ended, Lin Yuan's strength had left every other Player far behind.
So far behind that they could not even see his dust.
The result was that Lin Yuan raced through the Main Storyline alone, dragging the game's difficulty ever higher.
Meanwhile, the Players fell behind one after another.
Right now, for instance, not a single Player other than Lin Yuan had reached the level of an Authority Holder.
In the game's Fourth Stage, clearing a History Secret Realm without the strength of an Authority Holder was almost impossible.
Yet the Third Stage, which normally allowed Players to develop rapidly at S-rank, was already over.
The old leveling maps were gone, and the new ones were beyond them.
This left large numbers of Players stuck.
In terms of