Valhalla, the square beneath the Shattered Castle.
"Ding ding ding!"
"Bang bang!"
A series of clanging sounds echoed through the crowded square, with fragments of broken metal or broken plant branches flying out of the crowd every now and then.
At this very moment, the first large-scale PVP event since the start of the " World of Disorder " test is taking place here.
Although this PvP event was still organized by the players themselves, its overall scale far exceeded any event in the previous six months.
The reason is simple--
A quest that players obtained through their own exploration has been posted online. This quest is clearly highly strategic and playable, and it also promises a substantial reward in the foreseeable future.
The only problem is that this task only requires one hundred people.
In contrast, Valhalla, the Second Holy See and the starting village for Soul Returner, has a daily active player count of... 80,000.
Not only that, after this quest was made public, a large number of skilled players who were away from home returned to Valhalla, the starting village where they were born and raised, as if they were returning home in glory after achieving success.
But everyone knew that these big shots weren't back to show off, but to compete for one of the hundred spots.
With the players' unanimous approval, an arena was quickly erected in the plaza.
The materials used in this arena are quite exquisite, with the vast majority coming from the Dragonborn warehouses under the Dragonborn Village. If you look closely, you can even find door panels and window frames that players scavenged and brought back from the territories occupied by the Stained Ones.
The half-dragons didn't miss this opportunity either. They were currently weaving among the Soul Returner, selling juice, popcorn, and homemade wine, trying to make a fortune from this rare chance.
Not to mention the NPCs taking advantage of the players' unofficial matches to make a fortune, the Soul Returner didn't care about those few copper coins; they just focused all their attention on the arena.
Among the Soul Returner were both novices and veterans. The novices wanted to observe the fight to determine which path to take for development, while the veterans carefully watched the battle on stage, pondering whether they could also go up and exchange a few blows with their opponents.
At that moment, a blood-soaked half-dragon broke free from a cage of barbed thorns and charged savagely at the enemy before him with all its might.
The classic early-game professional half-dragon injected another syringe into his muscle, and then, with a brutal exchange of injury, swept his opponent, who was skilled at using barbed thorns, off the stage.
"Good!!!!!"
"Well played!"
"Damn, the power of the dragon!"
The cheers and shouts of approval from the players echoed throughout the square, though some discordant voices were also mixed in:
Is applying the medication on the spot the right approach?
"Is this considered a foul?"
However, such dissenting voices were quickly refuted:
"Are you crazy? This is a mercenary selection competition; we'll be going to the battlefield later!"
"Exactly, exactly. When you get ambushed and killed by two against one on the battlefield, will your last words be, 'You guys have no sportsmanship'?"
"Well, since everyone says so, I'll have to find out where I can buy lime... I've heard of a kind of ninjutsu..."
"Save your breath, bro. Do you really think this is the real world? If the World of Disorder had lime, our Concrete Pouring Club wouldn't still be building wooden houses."
"Oh, so that's why you've been building wooden houses. I thought it was because your skills weren't good enough."
"Incompetent technology? Everyone in our 'Concrete Pouring Club' is a novice... As for smart construction professionals? We discovered long ago that in this World of Disorder, the best we can produce is shoddy, old-fashioned cement, and the formula was provided by the locals. We still haven't figured it out."
"Wait, let's put aside cement for now. What else can replace lime?"
"Dude, isn't your thinking narrow-minded? If you just want to dazzle the eyes, why bother with lime?"
So what you mean is...?
"Go find [ Not Bad Tasting ], he recently found a Aberration plant that can replace chili peppers. Go get some, dry it, grind it into powder, and the effect might be even better."
"Brother, you're a genius! I need to go find that cook because I'm hungry, not because of any chili powder."
"Foolish luck!"
Ed, who was now omnipresent, captured every interaction and action of the players, reminding him of his promise to [ Xiexie Huigu ].
Because [ Practice More If You're Bad ] only needed forty people, and it was a stealthy operation of "entering the village quietly and not firing a shot," he only verbally agreed to the other party and did not grant [ Xiexie Huigu ] special mission editing rights.
On the other hand, [ Clear Soup Master ], relying on his own authorization, set up his martial arts recruitment booth in just one hour.
So, how should [Xiexie Huigu] recruit the people it wants?
Ed turned his attention to [Xiexie Huigu] and quickly found the answer to the problem.
The traditional recruitment method involves asking each friend on your friend list one by one.
Watching [Xiexie Huigu] repeatedly send the same question to different friends using copy and paste, Ed felt utterly exhausted.
Is this the difference between regular troops and infiltrators?
With that thought in mind, Ed turned his gaze to the dozens of players far away in the Great Labyrinth City.
Those Soul Returner who accepted the escort mission to the Great Labyrinth City a few weeks ago have now split into several factions due to their different operating styles.
Some players who primarily use mechanical methods and want to make the Great Labyrinth City their new base have already begun to get used to life there.
Other players who treat the Great Labyrinth City trip purely as a vacation are enjoying it with the mindset of "spending this money and then going back to their hometown to work."
As for the "Die -King of Fall Resistance, I Guess" and its crew, which had made great contributions in the Grand Foundry Master election, they had already made plans to return home.
After all, both [ Traditional Eccentric Wheel ] and [ Vanilla Ice Cream Scoop ] are for players who mainly focus on Plant Compatibility, and they don't have much to do if they leave the Second Holy See for a long time.
only...
Ed compared the mass recruitment list sent by [Xiexie Huigu] and guessed that the King of Fall Resistance, I Guess would soon see a large number of skilled players hitching a ride back.
I wish them all the best.
With that thought in mind, Ed stopped peeking at the screen; he now had another thing to do—connect with another world.
In the real world, the world where Ed once "studied abroad" for a period of time, the frequency of unusual events has recently increased significantly.
As far as Ed knew, no High Tier Authority had died recently.
Therefore, this should be considered the normal rate of erosion by the Demonic Tide.
However, the professionals in the other world were clearly not fully prepared for the increased rate of the Demonic Tide's encroachment.
Ed was also pondering a question at that moment—
Since the Demonic Tide can continuously deepen its influence on another world, could I, who has traveled between the two worlds and even possesses an ability called " Otherworldly Half," also project some of my power through the barrier between the two worlds?