A glossy black, wet nose rubbed against the two players' completely paralyzed bodies. Still in possession of their senses, all they could do was watch like the helpless husbands in movies as their bodies were about to be conquered by beasts.
At the sight, [Zhongde], Zhou Jue, had already begun screaming silently in his mind:
So this is what [R18] means! Watching yourself get eaten bit by bit really isn't suitable for minors, even if it's just a game.
Just as the two were about to lose their dignity, several blue-green vines covered in barbs suddenly burst out of the ground.
There were ten of these vines, which possessed a few animal traits, surrounding the two deer-type aberrants and enclosing them like a cage.
Before the paralytic toxin reached its peak effect, [Zhongde] used all his strength to look into the distance. The sapling encircling half of Ed's head was particularly lush and upright now, while Ed had plunged his hands into the ground, all ten fingers buried in the soil.
The next moment, the player [Zhongde] was forcibly logged out. As for [Do Some Farm Work], whose constitution was even worse than his, he had long since become unresponsive and lay beside the bushes like a corpse.
Faced with the sudden attack, the two deer-type aberrants were frightened at first, but they soon adopted fighting stances.
What was there to fear about a prison made of vines for plant-eating aberrants like them?
As the cage tightened, the two predators, unwilling to die here, revealed the two rows of jackal-sharp teeth hidden beneath their harmless exteriors.
The battle between the two sides began at once.
Faced with the two aberrants' fierce assault on a single point in the cage, Ed, who was controlling the Deadwood Vines, remained completely unruffled. Instead, he made the vines his ten fingers had become move up and down as they twisted and tightened.
As the vines tightened little by little, the light inside the cage gradually dimmed. The constantly moving, spike-covered vines around them formed a plant version of an iron maiden, slowly executing the prey within.
In the end, the two deer failed to escape the terrifying plant man's clutches, becoming two corpses riddled with holes but otherwise intact on the surface.
Ed turned the Deadwood Vines back into fingers and walked toward his prey and the two unconscious players.
"I'm starting to question your judgment..."
As Ed continued forward, Little Green's snark arrived right on cue.
"They're newbies too. It's fine. After all, even the two of us nearly wiped before. Since we're asking 'players' to help, accepting their early-game frailty is part of a guide's job."
Ed's expression was mild, and he paid no mind at all to the two players' mistake.
As someone who had been terrible at game controls in his previous life, he knew very well how difficult it was to tackle a game's unexplored content.
In all fairness, World of Disorder's gameplay was nowhere near the level of major games that had been running for years. The four players were so hooked entirely because of the novelty-the novelty of total immersion and exploring a new world.
To retain the players, he had to provide appropriate guidance while continually optimizing the "Little Green panel," and accept the chaos the players might bring.
Arriving at the now-silent battlefield, Ed reached both hands toward the two dead deer-type aberrants.
He had come up with all these names himself. After all, calling these creatures, which had changed beyond recognition, by their original names back home felt distinctly uncomfortable.
But Ed was not very good at naming things. After giving them a designation in the bestiary based on their specific traits, he could only add "aberrant" after the name of a similar creature to indicate that they were monsters.
To be honest, though, Ed seriously doubted whether any normal creatures remained in this world at all. Perhaps everything had already become an aberrant. Even those people capable of communication might not be humans from before the mana tide erupted, but "humanoid aberrants."
[Gene collected: Paralysis Flower]
Little Green provided the notification right on cue, but Ed did not withdraw his hands.
His hands remained pressed against the two aberrants, while the two deer riddled with holes shriveled little by little.
Ed could feel life force pouring into his body, or, to use a term more in keeping with the game's setting-"experience points."
Before this, Ed and Little Green had dealt with several "Vine Sheep" and "sika deer." Unfortunately, that still-warm flesh had all been integrated and shaped using plants, ultimately becoming the current four players rather than invisible experience points. That was why, two days into the closed beta, Ed, their guide, was still only level 2.
But that ended here.
With a faint tremor in his soul, Ed saw the level on his panel change from 2 to 3.
Although countless beings throughout the barony were still stronger than him, Ed firmly believed this was only temporary. With the players' help, and with him having already hinted at how to obtain closed beta access, countless players desperate to squeeze into the server would help him level up even if he did not want to.
At this thought, Ed hurriedly closed his eyes to sense his soul, wanting to know exactly how many players' souls the Webway could accommodate at its current strength.
Little Green could certainly quantify some attributes, but not everything.
Ed believed that the quantification in Little Green's abilities was essentially the result of the [Verdant Crown], an animated experimental specimen, forcibly observing its surroundings through its own special standing.
Combined with the flesh he had sacrificed, the results were ultimately displayed in a form he could understand and accept.
For things that were difficult to measure with numbers, or whose own standing was close to that of the [Verdant Crown], Little Green could not see them very clearly.
After sensing it carefully for a while, Ed had his answer. His current soul capacity had grown from four to eight.
Considering that his current level was 3, then... was it possible that the Soul Webway's capacity grew exponentially?
If that really was the case... then he only needed to reach level 33 to bring everyone from the other world into the game.
That was a little too terrifying...
Although he also hoped to have more players under him, eight billion really was too many. His soul might burst from being stretched beyond its limits.
Besides, the world needed to function normally too. Not everyone had the time, energy, or interest to play games.
Ed abandoned those unrealistic fantasies and turned his gaze toward the two soundly sleeping players.
With the help of Little Green's offshoots, Ed saw how long the paralytic toxin would remain in effect-
One hour and twelve minutes.
That was far too long. It might make his players quit!
At this thought, Ed issued Little Green an instruction in his mind:
"Use the genetic sample to reverse-engineer the Paralysis Flower's toxin. We need to get the players back sooner!"