Chapter 76
◎ Next Stage ◎
I don’t know if it’s good news or bad news. There were no other races on the level 5 island, which seemed to be different from the history Yu Chi had learned from the elves.
But inside were some creatures of a very terrifying level. She had only walked around the periphery and was scared away by a level 60 contaminated creature.
This is too exaggerated, Yu Chi thought. I’m only level 30-something. Is it okay for me to be exposed to a level 5 island so early?
In the end, Yu Chi only explored the level four island for a while, but it was also very dangerous, no safer than the previous Giant Island.
Of course, the resources were also very rich.
Yu Chi had a general understanding of the situation of these five islands, and then she handed over the matter entirely to Zuo He.
(Zuo He: ?)
There were only three days left before the natural disaster. Yu Chi went to the resource points she had previously obtained and explored them.
The undersea herb forest, the deep-sea crystal vein, and the undersea spirit spring were all common things. After confirming that they were as she had imagined, Yu Chi didn’t care much.
But she was very curious about the sea elf habitat and the undersea food forest.
Yu Chi transformed into a mermaid and jumped directly into the bottom of the sea. She swung her fishtail and quickly arrived at the sea elf habitat shown on the map. It was different from what she had imagined. There was only a tall stone tablet here. After Yu Chi got close, a prompt immediately popped up on the screen.
【Do you want to summon a sea elf?】
Summoning a sea elf required 1 million evolution crystals, and it would only work for the master for a month before it would go back.
Yu Chi raised an eyebrow and directly chose “Confirm.”
With the consumption of 1 million evolution crystals, a soft blue light appeared on the stone tablet. The water flow formed a vortex around it, and a small figure gradually appeared.
It was a palm-sized sea elf, translucent, with a faint blue light. Two fins as thin as a cicada’s wings flapped gently on its back. It blinked its round eyes, looked at Yu Chi curiously, and then swam around her, making a crisp, bell-like sound: “Master, please give your orders!”
Yu Chi was a little surprised. She hadn’t expected the summoned sea elf to be so… cute? She asked tentatively, “What can you do?”
The sea elf tilted its head and waved its small hand. The surrounding water flow instantly condensed into a barrier, then dispersed, turning into tiny water blades that shot out, leaving a few deep marks on the seabed rocks.
“I’m a combat-type sea elf. I can control the water flow to fight!” It puffed out its chest proudly.
Yu Chi’s eyes lit up. This was much more useful than she had expected. “What types are there?”
The sea elf counted on its fingers. “Defense elves, collection elves, combat elves, healing elves…”
Yu Chi’s eyes grew brighter and brighter. Although it required 1 million Purification Crystals, it was obviously worth it to be able to summon such a partner.
Fortunately, she has money, Yu Chi thought to herself, and without hesitation, she consumed the crystals again and summoned 9 more in one go. She also found that the summoner could choose the type. Thinking about the current situation, she chose the collection type for all of them.
Nine rays of light flashed, and nine sea elves of different shapes appeared in front of her. Each one was very cute. Yu Chi couldn’t help but smile.
She immediately assigned tasks to these sea elves. After all, there was only one month. Of course, she had to squeeze them dry… ahem, she meant, let them work hard for her.
The work efficiency of these sea elves was much higher than that of the robots. She had the collection-type elves go and collect various resources. They even had their own space. With a wave of their small hands, a piece of resource would disappear into their space.
As for those idle robots, they were arranged by her to go to the sea farm to farm.
After arranging the sea elves, Yu Chi swung her fishtail and swam towards the deeper food forest. Before she got close, she smelled an alluring fragrance.
The scene before her made her mouth fall open—
Sausages and hams were hanging on the huge seaweed trees, swaying gently with the water flow;
Clusters of golden fried chicken grew in the coral reefs, their skin looking crispy and delicious;
The most exaggerated was the “ramen waterfall” in the distance. Noodles of uniform thickness poured down from a high place and fell into a huge bowl-shaped reef. There were also a few pieces of seaweed and fish cakes floating in the bowl!
“This, this is too…” Yu Chi stood outside, dumbfounded. To make sure she hadn’t seen it wrong, she immediately swam in. The next second, her whole person was sitting in a cloud. The surrounding area was no longer seawater, but fresh air.
There was a sweet fragrance on the cloud. She tore off a little and stuffed it into her mouth… fuck, this thing is really cotton candy.
She controlled the cotton candy to fly in front of the ramen waterfall and couldn’t help but take out a bowl and pick up two strands. Mmm. The noodles were chewy, and the soup was delicious. It should be pork bone flavor…
This is really a food forest. The name didn’t have any fraudulent behavior at all. For a moment, Yu Chi didn’t know how to describe her mood.
She thought that Li Feng’s milk tea shop was nothing. She had everything she wanted here. What pearl milk tea, pudding milk tea, she just had to take a cup and get it from the milk tea waterfall over there.
Living here will definitely make you degenerate, absolutely!
Yu Chi flew around the entire undersea forest seriously and did not find any strange creatures. She breathed a sigh of relief, got a cup of cola, and flew to the fried chicken on the other side. A mouthful of cola, a mouthful of fried chicken, her whole body was filled with a sense of happiness.
After eating and drinking her fill, she lay on the remaining cotton candy. The scene here was not only dreamlike, but also strange. The cotton candy did not have any sticky feeling at all, and it was extremely comfortable to lie on.
Although this food forest did not have any attack or defense functions, it was a huge welfare. When Yu Chi was about to return to the sea surface, she took out a large basket and packed a lot of snacks.
The snacks here refreshed once a month and were not suitable for large-scale sales, but they were completely enough to satisfy her.
Yu Chi: “Praise the great sea god!”
For the next three days, Yu Chi was worried that the central island would not be open, so she cleared all her resources. On the last day, she traded with the three major alliances and obediently waited for the second round of natural disaster to arrive.
As soon as it was midnight, a mechanical sound immediately rang in everyone’s ears, but the content was very different from what they had imagined.
【The second stage, “Elimination,” has ended. The current number of surviving players is less than 30%. The final stage, “Civilization Revival,” is about to begin.
“Welcome to the real world!”]
What does that mean…?
Everyone listened to the mechanical voice in their ears uneasily. Yu Chi swallowed and subconsciously gripped the table in front of her.
The channel was also in a mess.
【Less than 30%, so we’re entering the final stage. What was the original stage supposed to be?】
【Does the final stage mean that there will be no more updates in the future? Why do I have a bad feeling?】
【I also have a bad feeling. Perhaps this world has never shown us its true face, and its true face is obviously much more terrifying.】
…
No matter how panicked people were, the system’s broadcast would not stop. It continued to speak in an emotionless voice.
【Civilization Coexistence】
Elves, dwarves, giants, dragons… all the major ancient races have officially returned to the world. The battle for civilization resources is about to begin. Factions will be automatically selected based on identity and civilization friendliness.
【Disaster Era】
This is a world that is about to be destroyed. Natural disasters will occur anytime, anywhere. Please strive to survive.
【Territorial Sea Trade】
You can trade with other players and various civilizations. Please remember that reputation can not only bring benefits, but also destruction.
【Warning: Due to the early opening of the final stage of the world, players below level 60 are advised not to go out to sea and to try to preserve the number of people in their faction.
Warning: Due to the early opening of the world…】
The content of this update seemed to be very little, but the meaning it expressed was very shocking, especially the last few rows of warnings, which were so shocking that they were eye-catching.
In other words, the original final stage should have been opened after most of the players’ strength had reached level 60. But now, for some reason, the final stage had been opened in advance, and the strength of the players in the human faction was seriously insufficient.
Yu Chi had been to the Elf Island and the Giant Island. Putting the latter aside for now, with her strength, she was just a cub when she went to the Elf Island. One could imagine how terrifying the strength of those legendary species was.
She felt cold sweat all over her body. An unknown fear seemed to be about to completely drown her, until the system’s voice sounded again.
【Player has been detected to have obtained the friendship of the elven race and is automatically assigned to the elven faction.】
【Player’s human identity has been detected and is automatically assigned to the human faction.】
【Player’s half-phoenix identity has been detected. Please withdraw or completely join the phoenix faction before the faction war begins.】
【Player’s half-mermaid identity has been detected. Please withdraw or completely join the mermaid faction before the faction war begins.】
Yu Chi hadn’t been dazed for long when a series of messages rang. She looked at the four factions in front of her with a dazed and helpless expression.
What are these things?
【Human Faction: Central Island】
【Elven Faction: Sunset Island】
Suddenly, two more rows of words appeared before her eyes, accompanied by a warning: 【The faction war has not yet begun. Please protect your camp. Otherwise, you will directly lose the qualification to participate in the faction war.】
No one knew what would happen if they lost the qualification to participate in the faction war, but it was clear that anyone with a brain would feel that it was not good after seeing this sentence.
However, before she could think of anything, almost in the next second, Yu Chi saw a terrifying message in the channel.
【There’s no punishment for killing on the central island anymore!】
In other words, the inner island and the outer island were no longer distinguished. No, or to put it another way, the system was no longer restraining them and had given them absolute freedom.
Yu Chi’s heart skipped a beat. She instantly thought of the DazedFish brand shops and the Deep Sea Shop. Fortunately, she had cleared all the resources inside. Otherwise, after the central island was no longer protected by the rules, it was simply unimaginable what the consequences would be.
If other races had an advantage because of their bloodline, then the only advantage of humans was the power that the system had brought them.
Perhaps the rule of going to the central island once a week was no longer restricted. Items could still be used normally. For example, a territorial sea order could still open a territorial sea, and a declaration of war order could still start a territorial sea war. But those invisible rules that had originally restrained them had disappeared without a trace.
Originally, originally they should have been in a cycle of progression. What had caused all of this to suddenly accelerate?
Yu Chi propped her hand on the table. Too much information had poured in at once, making her head ache a little.
Currently, the number of surviving players is less than 30%… survival rate… Yu Chi took a deep breath. A bunch of messages had appeared just now, making her subconsciously ignore this point. But if it was related to the survival rate…
Under normal circumstances, after the natural disaster ended, and after a two-month break on the island, it was absolutely impossible for more than a billion people to die. However, that was what had happened.
Because of the bloody battle that night.
The scavengers.
Yu Chi almost immediately realized this variable. She remembered that it was the scavengers who had violated the rules at the very beginning, which was why this cruel selection method had been carried out.
And after they were selected, they had immediately retaliated against all the players. This retaliation had also led to a sharp drop in the number of surviving players.
A scavenger could directly challenge a player regardless of any rules, but if a player defeated a scavenger, they could get a three-day truce.
But if they did not defeat the scavenger, and just simply repelled them, then it was still possible to face other scavenger players in the next second.
This method caused a very large loss to the players. After all, even if they could cooperate to repel a scavenger, they, who were covered in wounds, had no way to fight the next scavenger… not to mention those mutants.
And there were still many players in this world who had not joined a territorial sea. These players were simply chickens waiting to be slaughtered, with no ability to resist in front of the scavengers.
In short, under the combination of various factors, their number had directly plummeted to below 30%. Perhaps the system had found that if the cycle of progression continued, the number of people in the human faction would be too small, and they would have no ability to resist in front of other factions, so it had chosen to open the faction mode in advance.
Of course, it was more likely that the system’s original rule was 30%. When the number of people in the human faction was less than 30%, no matter what, the final stage would be opened immediately.
Yu Chi was more inclined to the latter. Just like how the system had created the role of a scavenger at the very beginning, it was to ensure that the number of humans was less than 60%.
Perhaps each stage had its own standard. When the number of people in a certain stage plummeted, it would directly lead to the final stage.
Although the current situation was indeed very bad, Yu Chi suddenly felt a sense of pleasure. How should she put it? During this period of time, everyone had been trying their best to resist the scavengers, and even the atmosphere in the channel and on the forum had become very bad.
But now that the number of people had dropped sharply, did it only affect the players? Those scavengers probably hadn’t been happy for a few days before they had to taste the so-called fear.
The scavenger ranked 27th was only level 50, but the system had suggested that only those above level 60 could wander outside in the final stage. Hmm, the scavengers hated ordinary players so much. If they couldn’t stand it and ran out of their territorial sea, they couldn’t blame others…
Yu Chi admitted that she had malicious intentions towards the scavengers, but this was also normal. Now, which player didn’t hate the scavengers? She firmly believed that Mu Gui was not dead, so she felt even more that it was better for him not to be a scavenger.
That kind of dirty fighting style was not suitable for Mu Gui at all!
After venting a little in her heart, Yu Chi slowly exhaled and walked to the edge of the deck, staring at the dark sea.
After the update rules appeared today, it inexplicably gave people the feeling of having pulled the acceleration key.
All of this had happened too quickly. She was not even prepared at all. She had originally thought that her strength was completely enough to cope with the next natural disaster, and she didn’t even need to feel a sense of urgency. But now…
The first rule, civilization coexistence, was easy to understand. This world did not belong to them, the humans from another world, but to the species that had lived here since ancient times.
But for some reason, the seawater was polluted, and the civilizations were also confined to an island. The sea god had also placed restrictions on them because of this, but now these restrictions had been lifted.
Yu Chi thought of the elves on Sunset Island, and then of the dwarf she had met on the central island last time. She hadn’t been to the central island many times, but since the dwarf race could come out, maybe other races had also come out.
Those races might have known in advance that the opportunity for them to be released had come, so they had specially gone to the central island to gather information.
She just didn’t know if other non-faction players could still go to other faction lands now that factions had appeared. Although the central island belonged to the human faction, not only was there no tacit understanding, but it was also very chaotic. It was too easy to sneak in.
Yu Chi didn’t know what it meant for a faction land to be destroyed, but no matter what, a shell like the central island couldn’t give people any sense of security at all.
Thinking of this, Yu Chi felt a wave of anxiety in her heart. A territorial sea had various defensive measures, but the central island did not. But the central island was still their human faction’s faction land. This was a very bad thing.
She opened the forum and was surprised to find that both the Federation and Yanhuang were already calling on players to go to the central island to protect it.
However, there were no regulations yet, so it seemed chaotic. Yu Chi felt that it would be best for the seven major alliances in the world to each be in charge for one day. Of course, it was not just unrelated to ordinary players, but as the person in charge of jurisdiction and convening. Otherwise, letting the players act so chaotically would be of no help in protecting the central island.
Although the [Dazed Alliance] was now ranked 27th, and was currently the highest-ranked alliance among all the territorial seas, some things were not calculated this way.
The reason they could be ranked 27th was because they had directly occupied the position of the previous 27th scavenger. But whether it was in terms of combat power, territorial sea area, or number of people, the [Dazed Alliance] was clearly not enough.
Yu Chi felt that this was quite good. Otherwise, her first mate would be dead tired.
The second rule was about natural disasters. Compared to the revival of civilization, the addition seemed less important. Yu Chi rarely saw the players in the channel discussing this point.
But in fact, “anytime, anywhere” was already very terrifying. It also meant that in the future, natural disasters would no longer appear once every three months and last for a month as per the system’s previous rules.
Instead, it would fully present to them the state of this world. This was a world that was about to be destroyed, so all kinds of large and small disasters could happen in every corner of the world.
Compared to the rules controlled by the system, this kind of unstable feeling was obviously not reassuring.
However, there was no other way now. Whether it was Yu Chi or other players, they could only choose to wait.
The last one was the territorial sea trade. This trade was more for other civilizations. After all, players could directly go to the central island to trade.
What would other civilizations be interested in from humans?
Yu Chi couldn’t help but ponder. Humans had only been developing in this world for three months. Compared to those races with a deep heritage, they were really poor.
Her heart was really anxious. Yu Chi began to bite her nails uncontrollably. She had developed this habit after Sunset Island. She had been trying to control it in normal times, but in this situation, only biting her nails could relieve her anxiety.
The resources in her territorial sea were extremely rich, but she didn’t think there was anything that could make other races look at her with new eyes. Their development time was really too short.
But this opportunity had to be seized. Yu Chi realized one thing. Although she didn’t know if being unable to participate in the faction war meant that the entire faction would disappear, it was obviously better to join as many factions as possible.
Especially those powerful and ancient factions, such as the elven race she had joined. This was clearly not a race that would be easily defeated in a faction war.
Even if it wasn’t for the sake of the faction, it was never wrong to try to get on good terms with other factions. But what did her territorial sea have to offer?
Yu Chi sighed and opened the chat channel.
【Holy crap, I just saw a dragon fly over my head as soon as I left my territorial sea. It’s a fucking dragon, a real dragon!】
【Person above, you actually dare to leave your territorial sea? You’re tired of living, aren’t you?】
【What color is this dragon? An eastern dragon or a western dragon?】
【It’s an eastern dragon, pitch black, and fucking huge!】
【Holy crap, I saw it too. I just stepped half a foot out of my territorial sea, and I saw it. Fuck, I was scared to death. But it didn’t attack me? Is it because I’m an easterner? Hehe.】
…
The channel was all discussing a suddenly appearing black dragon, and there was even a trend of it not stopping. Yu Chi scrolled for a while and found that they had already started arguing.
For example, who was stronger, an eastern dragon or a western dragon? And eastern dragons and western dragons looked different. Would they belong to the same faction? And so on. There were even some very arrogant eastern players who suggested that there might not even be western dragons in this world.
It’s obvious that our eastern dragons are more powerful, Yu Chi thought, and then the next second, she slapped her forehead in annoyance. This channel is so stupid. I just watched for a while and I’ve already joined in.
However, the anxiety in her heart had lessened a little. There was no point in being anxious now. At present, the human faction did not dare to show its head at all. They were either hiding in their territorial seas or going to the central island to participate in the defense war. The world outside the territorial sea was a world of top players!
However, although she couldn’t go outside her territorial sea, Yu Chi planned to go to Sunset Island. Compared to other races, the elves had indeed been staying at home for a thousand years.
If the human faction needed protection on the central island, she would definitely go to help. But from a selfish point of view, she wanted to enter the world from the elven race’s side.
This also meant that she could come into contact with more other races.