I was so careless! How could I not have thought of that?
Having been outmaneuvered by a beast, Chen Qing felt a mix of emotions.
"You mean... that giant python outside?" Shen Qi stared at Chen Qing in astonishment. He had considered many possibilities, but he never imagined that the giant python outside would be the cause of all this in the city.
"Was that what I felt just now, the thing that could devour me at any moment, also it?"
"Oh, that's not it." Chen Qing shook his head. "It's just that it's what made this thing appear."
"My lord, could you tell me roughly what it is?" Shen Qi said with a wry smile, "I always feel that if something happens, I need to know how I died."
Chen Qing fell silent for a moment upon hearing this. This was a bit difficult to explain, especially since the name couldn't be mentioned.
"You've been with me for so long, you should know that those ancient forces have actually been setting up their schemes for a long time, including the third young master of the Duke of Wei's family. He started planning twenty years ago, but why are they so low-key? Why don't they dare to use any Transcendent power?"
"Huh?" Shen Qi looked at Chen Qing, hesitated for a moment, and said, "Isn't it unusable?"
In his view, those ancient forces hiding in the shadows were probably keeping a low profile because they hadn't yet regained their power, right? For example, wasn't the Dragon Mother in the capital always hiding behind the emperor from the beginning?
"It's usable," Chen Qing said with a smile. "Didn't some people use the divine fire and various divine statues and abilities from the Dragon Palace Dragon Palace before?"
Upon hearing this, Shen Qi suddenly realized, "Yes, it's said that the Eldest Princess died from some kind of Transcendent power belonging to Prince King of Qin, a power from Outer Heaven Demon Statue. If mortals can use Transcendent powers, how come those originally Transcendent forces didn't have any way to use those powers?"
"Because it can't be used too often," Chen Qing sighed. "There's a rule in this world: certain forces can't appear too frequently if their time isn't right. Otherwise, the world will automatically change, and something will appear to eliminate these anomalies."
"Isn't it time yet?" Shen Qi hesitated for a moment before saying, "Does that mean this city has too much Transcendent power too early, thus attracting some kind of monster?"
"You can interpret it that way too," Chen Qing said with a smile.
According to the understanding of the ancients, this is already the closest to the truth.
As for the real truth, those here probably wouldn't understand it if I told them.
The truth is, when a bug occurs, the system will automatically fix it!
After getting a general understanding of the situation, Chen Qing knew what that thing was; it was a program they had used to temporarily fix bugs.
The game "Demon World" is a fully automated game, so the number of players a single server can accommodate is actually quite limited. Too many players would negatively impact the overall experience. Therefore, to continuously attract new players, the only option is to keep opening new servers. It's a high-quality game where each server only has tens of thousands of players.
You can control the number of players in a region, but you can't control the feelings of veteran players when they play in a new region. After all, many people didn't have a good time in the old region and want to start over. Game companies can't just stifle that feeling, can they?
Veteran players know the storyline and the levels, which is equivalent to knowing certain things about the future. Because the game is highly intelligent, a rigid approach that prevents players from unlocking future version power in advance seems too inflexible and doesn't allow veteran players to experience their advantage.
So, they set up a program at the time.
It is a world where, if too many late-version powers that do not belong to this stage appear, then some kind of demon will emerge to restore balance and target those who use late-version powers without authorization.
When the second version was first released, the monster responsible for this role was called the Spirit Ghost!
In a place where Transcendent powers appear excessively and are used frequently, such Spirit Ghost will appear. They will mark those who have used Transcendent powers and devour them one by one until they can no longer detect the existence of individuals with Transcendent powers, at which point they will leave.
"What about that giant python outside?" Shen Qi frowned. "Why is it alright?"
According to Chen Qing, this monster only targets those with Transcendent power. Isn't that giant python outside a prime example of Transcendent?
"This thing only targets humans," Chen Qing said with a wry smile.
This thing can't be used against demons, since this world is a game designed to challenge players with the difficulty of demons. If this thing could target demons, players could exploit bugs and use it to kill a lot of demons, which is definitely not acceptable.
But he wasn't sure if this thing was actually targeting demons. After all, the program was originally designed to target players, and incidentally, humans, because it was designed to prevent players from using human power to inherit Transcendent abilities and assist them. So, it simply targeted humans as well.
But actually, the target is the players. So here's the problem: if the players are turned into demons, like A Li, they might also be targeted.
This made Chen Qing very worried about the safety of A Li and the others. A Li's talent was extremely important. If she were eaten by the Spirit Ghost, who knew when they would be able to find her again?
"Targeting only the human race?" Shen Qi clenched his fist and couldn't help but ask, "From the very beginning, has this world been targeting our human race in every way? Why is that?"
Chen Qing looked away and didn't reply.
Nonsense, if it weren't for you guys, how would he make a living?
After a long while, Shen Qi finally calmed down and continued, "The master said that the giant python outside deceived you, meaning that all of this was its scheme?"
"It should be," Chen Qing sighed.
That giant python shouldn't be a player; no player would choose the venomous python route—it has a low skill ceiling and is easily targeted. So how did it know about this program?
To create this program, it's not enough to just have a lot of people with Transcendent powers; they also need to use it frequently and in large numbers to attract Spirit Ghost to crawl over from the Yin-Yang Road.
The major guilds should know about this thing, so in theory they should be quite restrained and shouldn't attract Spirit Ghost. So there's only one possibility: they're trapped in this place and have no choice but to use their Transcendent powers!
The only thing capable of doing all this is that big, black-bodied creature outside.
It is the Poison Mother, and this ability to create large-scale blockades, preventing people from leaving, is its forte; all it takes is to surround the city with poison.
Members of the major guilds definitely have Transcendent items to protect their lives, and they might not be at a disadvantage even if they faced the Poison Mother head-on. But things will be different once they enter this city.
If the enemy can use poison to besiege the city, do you dare to use Transcendent powers to break through?
If you use it, you will be eaten by the Spirit Ghost; if you don't use it, you won't be able to get out!
"Then why not just not use it?" After Chen Qing briefly explained the situation, Shen Qi thought for a moment and quickly said, "That monster probably only identifies itself using human power, right? If a person never uses their Transcendent power, wouldn't they never be targeted?"
"Yes," Chen Qing nodded. "If there are any traces of you using it, it will mark you, keep tracking you, and test you in various ways. Once you can't resist using it, it will devour you. If you weren't marked or suspected in the first place, then the chances of survival are actually quite high."
"If that's the case, why are there so many bones in the secret chamber?" Shen Qi frowned. "Haven't they figured out the reason yet?"
"They most likely discovered it, otherwise they wouldn't have hidden it." Chen Qing shook his head with a wry smile, "But unfortunately, they have no choice but to use it."
"Why?"
"Because of that giant python outside." Chen Qing looked at the distant city wall, at the creature that encircled the entire mountain range and was still resting with its eyes closed, and said quietly, " The Poison Mother is skilled in the art of poison; she can easily evolve a toxin specifically targeting high-energy objects. Look at your arm."
Shen Qi was taken aback and quickly pulled up his sleeve, only to be stunned. He didn't know when, but his arm was covered with black spots!
"This is a dead end!" Chen Qing gritted his teeth and said, "This poison isn't difficult to deal with; with Transcendent power, it can be forced out."
Shen Qi immediately understood why Chen Qing had said it was a dead end; they couldn't get out, and they were poisoned. The poison could only be cured with Transcendent power, but if they used it Transcendent, they would be devoured.
If this isn't a dead end, then what is?