The Monster is Coming

Chapter 489 New Pay-to-Win System (Seeking monthly votes~)

Amidst the heated discussions among onlookers on the forum, the battle at the village entrance came to an end.

In the sky, the final clash of demigods begins.

On the Sword of Civilization in Tu Hu's hand, all the restrained golden light of the rules instantly erupted, transforming into a golden pillar of light that reached the heavens and the earth. He gripped the sword with both hands, raised it high above his head, and the story of the Rongling Clan around the sword was reenacted from the beginning, finally condensing into a sword aura of pure perfection, which cleaved down towards the airspace where Wan Ji and Ji Lie were located.

This sword strike seemed intent on erasing the heavens and everything within them.

Faced with this attack, the images in Wanji's left and right eyes completely merged, and a doomsday scroll unfolded behind him, depicting the birth and death of civilizations.

It raised its hands, and a black and red vortex, imbued with the power of rules and composed of countless fragmented phantoms of civilizations, rapidly took shape.

Instead of dodging, it pushed the civilization-devouring vortex head-on into the incoming golden beam of light.

The Extreme Hunter then let out a sharp screech that pierced the battlefield, and all the eerie veins on its body burst into bright light.

The face, covered with compound eyes, clearly reflected the light of the tiger-slaying sword and the swirling vortex of Wanji.

In the next instant, its form completely disappeared, "compressing" its existence into an extremely condensed purplish-black thin line. This thin line ignored the obstacles of space and, with the speed of spatial leap, simultaneously pierced through the side of the golden light pillar and the core of the black and red vortex.

Wherever it passed, it left only a void crack where space had been cut off.

Boom!

The deafening crash of the collision instantly silenced all other sounds on the battlefield.

Three destructive forces, representing demigods, exploded at their convergence point in the sky.

A sphere of destructive light, its diameter ever-expanding and a mixture of golden lightning, black and red flames, and purple cracks, was born out of thin air and then suddenly expanded.

The sky has been torn open with a huge "wound".

The celestial phenomena changed abruptly, with violent energy turbulence pouring down like a celestial river flowing backward.

The power unleashed by this attack was so great that Tu Hu didn't even have time to raise his sword to "block" before being instantly killed.

Almost in no particular order.

Wanji's body, constructed from rules, was torn apart by the expanding destructive energy after losing the direct restraint of the Tiger-Slaying Sword Light. The civilized image in his left eye suddenly went out, and the flames of termination in his right eye burst forth. His entire body, like a weathered sand sculpture, crumbled inch by inch in the wash of black and red flames, returning to annihilation.

Only the mark representing the rules is impervious to all laws, transforming into a stream of light and re-integrating into the surging black tide.

The same fate befell Extreme Hunter.

Its body transformed into a thread, piercing through the core of two destructive forces; it was a dangerous strike from the start.

When the three forces erupted completely, even its domineering physical body, refined to the extreme, could not withstand them and was the first to be washed away by the energy torrent.

In an instant, it was completely swallowed up by an endless tide of destruction.

The three demigods, symbolizing the pinnacle of the three forces' combat power, ultimately perished together in this clash that transcended all limits.

The sky then emitted a crisp sound.

Centered on the point of engagement, another circular shockwave swept out indiscriminately in all directions.

The "wound" in the sky was drastically widened, revealing the distorted and dangerous void behind it.

The earth below felt as if it had been scraped by an invisible giant plow the instant the shockwave passed.

The entire Phantom Swamp region seemed to have been brutally scraped away by an invisible blade of divine punishment, leaving a thick layer behind.

The raging energy turbulence, like a burst dam, poured down along the shockwave, turning everything in its path into a boiling, dead zone.

Below, the three warring parties who had activated their combined power all stopped fighting and desperately released their energy to resist the aftershocks that had been weakened by space multiple times.

This process lasted for more than ten seconds.

As the aftershocks subsided, the battlefield erupted into chaos once more.

The battle formation controlled by the player roared, and the giant shield generated in the golden-armored phantom's hand plunged deep into the earth, drawing on the power of the earth's veins to form a barrier.

The phoenix's divine form burned itself, spewing out a sea of ​​inky fire that consumed everything.

The ferocious sword mountain Dharma image transformed into a torrent of billions of sword lights, sweeping forward.

The Zerg flesh tyrants roared, tearing at and fusing with each other. Under the frenzied transmission of the creep, the combined power was further upgraded, forming several mountain-sized flesh mountain tyrants with acid flowing from their bodies, which crashed head-on into the Dharma Image and the Black Tide Evil.

The Abyss Overlord of the Black Tide faction raised his weapon, which was bound by the power of pain, while the Black Tide beneath his feet surged wildly, transforming into countless arms made of multiple energies, reaching out from the earth towards the Dharma Aspect and the Zerg Tyrant.

Each arm was engulfed in a dark red flame that eroded the soul.

Thud! Thud! Boom!
The giant shield clashed with the acidic fist, the torrent of sword light rubbed wildly against the biomass carapace, and the dark giant hand grasped the sea of ​​elemental fire along with the phoenix avatar into its palm.

The Zerg's Roshan Tyrant is suffering a brutal attack from two sides.

The thick biomass shells dented and cracked under the continuous heavy blows, and were scorched by the black tide's corrosive flames, leaving sizzling marks. But they felt no pain, and just wildly waved their tentacles, shoving everything they grabbed into their huge mouths full of sharp teeth on their bodies, and brutally devouring it.

The wounds on his body healed slowly under the nutrients delivered by the fungal carpet, and his body even swelled up a little more.

The Black Tide's Abyss Overlord also descended into madness.

The Earthly Tyrant abandoned micro-management and commanded the warlord avatar like a raging storm, pounding the battle formation and tearing at the flesh and blood of the Mountain of Flesh Tyrant.

Dark red flames of pain erupted on the body's surface.

Ignite the energy of the Dharma Form and the flesh and blood of the Zerg together.

The shockwaves from the energy collision exploded outwards in concentric circles, shearing down, melting, and crystallizing the ground layer by layer.

Broken limbs, flying carapace fragments, burning dark matter... sprayed outwards like a torrential rain!
Each collision caused the earth to vibrate violently like a drumhead, completely expelling the air and creating a raging field filled with all kinds of energy.

Roars, tearing sounds, explosions, the sound of energy annihilation... all the sounds blended into a violent symphony of destruction at the village entrance.

This time, all three sides abandoned tactics.

It unfolds in terms of resources and power, a clash of titans without any frills.

Every punch lands hard, elements clash, and every second a massive amount of resources evaporate and are then drawn back by their respective recycling systems.

And then it keeps replenishing itself.

All three parties are now truly engaged in fierce competition.

The rage in the hearts of the God-King and the Earth-Beast turned into a frenzied attack, and the Zerg were always happy to accompany this mindless slaughter.

The battlefield transformed into a vortex of refining, with three out-of-control "giant beasts" tearing each other apart.

A collision of this magnitude, even in a small world, would be enough to cause the world to collapse into nothingness and dust.

But all players are convinced that this will be a regular preview of future village-level battles.

The intensity at the village entrance has no upper limit; it will only continue to push the "involutionary" arms race between them to new heights over time.

……

The Primordial Altar.

Qi Sheng withdrew his gaze from the chaotic and noisy direction of the Emperor's Tomb Mountain Range.

In the three-way battle, only the Zerg, who followed their primal instincts, remained calm.

The Earth Spirit, the God King, and even members of other allied battle groups were all breached.

Both the God King and the Earthly Tyrant believed that the numerical inflation of the other two sides was extremely unreasonable and was simply a deliberate attempt to target them.

Among them, the one whose mentality collapsed the most was undoubtedly the local bully.

When it saw the Zerg give birth to the demigod-level unit "Extreme Hunter", it suddenly felt that its planning over the past six months had been like that of a clown.

The fact is that the combat power of the three parties has once again been brought back to a "stable" balance.

The idea that a local bully could one-sidedly crush his opponents and rewrite the future of warfare is nothing but a foolish fantasy.

All of this even led it to question its own doubts: Is hard work really useful?
Qi Sheng could completely understand this mentality.

The bully's feelings, besides anger, were mostly a sense of powerlessness.

I felt as if I were trapped in an endless nightmare.

No matter how hard it tries, how much it squeezes out of its potential, or how many alliances it forms, and how much it pays to finally climb to a certain height, it looks up and finds that the players and the Zerg are already there.

It certainly sees effort as useful.

It would have been useless to get to where it is today; it would have ended long ago in a three-way battle.

In the same desperate situation, apart from the Earthly Bully, everyone in the Evil Spirit Alliance was destined to die.

Effort is helpful, but it can't change anything.

In the eyes of the Earthly Bully, becoming stronger requires logical support, involves paying a price, and necessitates a clear growth process.

However, in its eyes, the behavior of the other two parties, especially the beast-like insectoid race, completely trampled on this logic of growth.

This is not a race to the top, but a competition of capabilities to shape the future of warfare.

Just like participating in a marathon, the path of the Earth Bully's efforts is clearly visible. From the frantic training before the start of the race to the reasonable allocation of physical strength during the race, there is a record of sweating for every distance.

However, just before reaching the finish line, it was discovered that the player and the Zerg had started directly from the finish line and crossed the finish line together.

Cheating? They're not even going to pretend anymore! But this cruel world only cares about the ending.

Nothing in the process matters; even if you fly or teleport during the competition, you won't be punished for using any cheats.

Winning is the only truth.

Therefore, this gap cannot be bridged simply by "trying a little harder".

When it discovers that the survival rules it believes in and practices are completely inapplicable to the other two parties.

This was far more despairing for it than a single defeat in war.

The road ahead is once again shrouded in mist.

It is foreseeable that after this battle, the leader of the evil spirit alliance will need a long period of mental reconstruction to repair the deep psychological trauma caused by the collapse of his worldview, and then become stronger.

Forum users say that the Earth Bully is the most emotional evil spirit.

It is irritable, short-tempered, and prone to swearing.

But looking back at the years it spent entangled in battles with players and the Zerg, one can see...

He hasn't gone insane after experiencing so many "unreasonable" blows and shocks to his worldview.

The mere fact that he is "emotional" is already proof of his extremely strong mental fortitude.

After this war ends, Qi Sheng is certain that the intensity of the fighting in the Emperor's Tomb Mountains will soon return to normal levels.

This has been proven in the long and protracted battles of the past.

Back then, all three parties possessed the "power of the masses" capable of temporarily altering the local situation.

For example, players can gather the power of battle formations, the Zerg can unleash a sky-covering spore tsunami, or generate super units, and the Earth Demon can also manipulate black tide energy particles at any time to aggregate into stronger units.

But after several high-intensity collisions, all three parties realized that...

This kind of attrition warfare is meaningless and cannot achieve any decisive results.

Instead, it dragged the war into a more protracted quagmire.

The fact that all three sides have significantly increased their defense and attack power is equivalent to none of them having increased.

Thus, a tacit understanding quietly formed during their daily brawls: without resorting to the combined power of the masses.

The war was constrained by the protracted consumption of inter-service confrontation, tactical confrontation, and resource optimization.

While demigod-level combat power is strong, it exists in all three factions, and its positioning will become similar to that of the Unova system.

Now, the local bully holds the Wanji, which is forged from the rules.

The God King can invite Tu Hu to assist in the battle.

On the Zerg side, the mainframe obtained the Extreme Hunter, a demigod-level unit, from the Supreme Mainframe.

If everyone opens, it's as if no one opens.

The demigod-level combat power will primarily serve as a deterrent in the future, and will not become a special combat unit routinely deployed in the meat grinders of war.

It's like the nuclear weapons of Earth's earliest days.

You can build it, and so can I.

When everyone possesses destructive power sufficient to overturn the chessboard, the intensity of war returns to the level before the advent of nuclear weapons.

The upcoming war will still feature the endless hordes of Zerg troops, the players' various harassment and assault tactics, and the overwhelming tactical pressure of the Earth-based bully, the Black Tide... The clashes will still be fierce, but the intensity will be tacitly controlled within a relatively comfortable range for everyone.

At that time, Tu Hu will return to the Rongling Clan, Wan Ji will be sealed in the Evil Spirit Palace, and the Zerg's Ji Lie will be reintegrated into the main brain.

The next appearance of a demigod-level combatant will definitely not be during a three-way brawl.

It will inevitably happen when the next cross-border war arrives, and we unite against a common enemy.

At that time, all three forces will show their most ferocious side, releasing their trump cards without reservation in order to acquire as many resources as possible.

The Beiyuan Clan is a good example to refer to.

The way the three forces fought each other at the village entrance was completely different from how they fought against the Beiyuan Clan.

Normally, they are mortal enemies who would fight each other to the death, scheming against each other and afraid that if they exerted even a little effort, their opponent would gain an advantage.

In particular, the natural disaster tactics developed by the Earthly Bully.

They only play a defensive counter-attacking style, and will never generate offensive units unless absolutely necessary.

When encountering powerful external enemies like the Monument Abyss, Scourge units are mainly placed on the flanks of the legions that will come into contact with the player and the Zerg.

The main force consists entirely of Doomsday, Plague, and Frenzy units. They disregard losses and only aim to advance at full speed and devour as many enemy units as possible.

As for consumption, in the eyes of the Earthly Tyrant, foreign wars only have benefits, and losses are negligible.

Even when the external enemy displays considerable strength, the three forces can instantly unite as one and demonstrate astonishing collaborative combat capabilities.

The Earthly Bully, who is intimately familiar with the abilities of the other two factions, can even command them through symbols.

Although everyone harbored their own ulterior motives during the war, they inevitably resorted to underhanded tactics when vying for spoils.

But when it comes to destroying a common target, their "cooperation" is remarkably efficient.

The monumental civilization of the Beiyuan Clan was reduced to ruins by the three parties working together, under the tacit understanding that "internal strife is internal strife and business is business." Its foundation was completely divided up, becoming nourishment for the growth of each of the three forces.

Therefore, the next appearance of a demigod will definitely not be in a civil war.

It must be when an external enemy attempts to invade the Emperor's Tomb Mountains, or when the Earthly Tyrant issues another cross-world expedition team invitation.

At that time, the three trump cards—Tiger Slaughter, Silence, and Extreme Hunting—will no longer be shackles that restrain each other, but will simultaneously point towards the world outside the village, revealing the terrifying side of the three calamities of the Emperor's Tomb Mountains.

A brief analysis of the situation in the Imperial Tomb Mountains was conducted.

Qi Sheng turned his gaze to the statistical data that the guide had provided.

Qi Sheng could read all the data in one thought: the average player level, the number of currently active online players, the average daily total sacrificial power output, the real-time sacrificial power tax revenue, the usage of potions/scrolls in the Enlightenment Mall, the revenue curve of functional facilities, the output of contained nodes, the average daily death frequency, the output of the top 100 players on that day, and so on.

The figures in this daily report provide a detailed picture of how players' spending habits and growth trajectories change.

Secondly, the forum information reflects changes in player needs.

These two areas became important references for his subsequent updates.

The feedback data received today made Qi Sheng feel that it was time to launch a long-prepared update.

This refers to the Four Gods' Families system, which was planned very early on.

Players can consume sacrificial power to obtain additional rule power from the Four Gods, and there is also a chance to draw consumables that seal the power of the Four Gods: Four Gods cards.

Having clarified his thoughts, Qi Sheng's consciousness stirred slightly.

Instantly, the Emperor's Origin within his body was activated, and with a wave of his hand, billions of streams of light burst forth from his body, instantly forming a dazzling galaxy that revolved around him.

Each stream of light, from a microscopic perspective, is composed of countless runes and logical chains, which also form the framework of the Challenger System.

Within the stream of light, the light spheres emitting varying patterns of fluctuation are all projections of "Primordial Monsters," which are also the core source of power for the Challenger System: Life Souls.

The nebula clusters, which appear to be constantly changing like mist, correspond to the nodes of various fields that have been "contained" and are one of the energy production channels in the Challenger System.

Under Qi Sheng's conscious control, a brand new framework is being rapidly woven and constructed in the magnificent starry river as billions of streams of light intertwine and recombine.

The Four Gods' Families system is loading.

The galaxy, representing the origin of the system, churned violently as the weaving process progressed.

Hundreds of millions of rays of light are like strings of a musical instrument being plucked by an invisible hand, resonating, intertwining, and reconstructing at specific frequencies.

A massive flow of data and the power of rules surge within it, giving birth to a brand-new modular framework.

As the framework gradually became clearer, the phantom images of the four laws began to slowly emerge from the depths of the galaxy.

The first figure, seemingly composed of shattered crystal, was surrounded by countless folded mirrored spaces; it was none other than Yan Ming, who held the power over space.

The second figure, which had become a regular form, was like the purest light. Its light seemed to be able to cleanse all filth and chaos. It was none other than Jiuyin, who held the power of purification.

The third figure, like a chaotic vortex that constantly spins, devours all things, and releases its essence, exudes a powerful will related to refinement and transformation. It is the superdimensional one that holds the power to extract all things.

The last figure, seemingly woven from countless flowing data, possesses insight into the origin of all things and is the guide who wields the power of omniscience and analysis.

These four illusory figures, like four pillars, were integrated into the emerging framework, becoming the cornerstone of the new system.

hum!
The rhythm of rules spreads throughout the system.

The Four Gods' Families system has been officially loaded.

After the test run, Qi Sheng sent a brief update notification to all online players through the Challenger System:

[Update Notice: The new version "The Gaze of the Four Gods" is coming soon. Players can prove their worth to the Four Gods through prayer, and may receive a sliver of their favor, gaining access to their blessings.]

It's time to let players reach new heights in their pursuit of power through in-game purchases.

　Asking for a monthly ticket~
　　
　
(End of this chapter)