I have to get lucky right away.

Chapter 237 The Mystery of the Talisman
Although the city defense event was not over yet, no players cared about the dilapidated fortress that had already collapsed halfway and was basically doomed to fail. At this moment, whether they were professional players who had been playing hard since morning or casual players who came to the game to farm in the cyber world after finishing overtime work, they all flocked to the north of the map.

"Just talking about the north, isn't that too big?"

"It's an open-world map! It's only in situations like this that I miss the invisible walls."

"I'm not afraid he's on the map, I'm afraid he's in the mountains! The northernmost part of this map is a cliff, and then there are mountains with no interactive features. Some mountaineering enthusiasts tried to climb it before, but they either suffocated or froze to death halfway up. If this village is in the mountains, you might not be able to find it even if you search for a long time!"

While chattering in the world chat, the players launched a thorough search, all in an effort to find the "Hidden Village" mentioned by the NPC.

However, the research fanatic who used to be very enthusiastic about these things was walking very slowly at this moment, looking preoccupied.

"What are you thinking about? Another new project?" Guan'er and the research maniac were old friends. Guan'er told his four brothers to go find one first, while he went up to the research maniac and asked casually, as if joking.

"It's nothing, we just found that the talismans the NPC pulled out this time are a bit different from the ones we got before."

The research fanatic spoke, then directly opened his game screenshots and sent them to the private chat channel—

"Besides the three horizontal lines of the talisman, these three talismans, which were originally two short lines, have become a zigzag line. The remaining four have even been transformed into characters: [Transform], [Fix], [Transform], [Select]. This should be the four elements the NPC mentioned earlier, but..."

(The symbols of the Five Elements are actually quite similar to those of the Eight Trigrams.)

"It's quite different!" Unlike the research fanatic who overthinks everything, Guan'er is an action-oriented person. He immediately opened the game forum, bypassed the browser, and started image search. A few seconds later, he said:

"What we saw before was the Eight Trigrams. This one should be a pattern of the Five Elements. The three horizontal lines represent metal, and the rest represent fire, earth, and water. Apart from the changing yin lines, it's actually quite similar to the Eight Trigrams. But we don't know about the other four. Maybe they're something from magic?"

"You know how to check AI, of course I did too!" The research fanatic rolled his eyes at the jar, then said:

"I'm wondering why this NPC in the story would deliberately make us collect talismans to restore the boss to its peak condition, and then reseal it."

"Isn't it just to introduce the new system? If the boss doesn't put on a spectacular show, how will the players know he's awesome?" Guan'er said matter-of-factly, but the research maniac shook his head:
"The problem isn't with the performance. The story's logic is sound. If it were me sealing the big boss, I wouldn't use the failed sealing methods of predecessors. Besides, according to the NPC, if we could extract the final wooden talisman, we could completely defeat the boss. Of course, this is definitely intentionally designed by the game itself. The real problem is actually these two sets of talismans."

"If it's just to introduce the system, there's no need to first create the Eight Trigrams and Yin-Yang, and then the Five Elements. A complete set from beginning to end would be more in line with the game's logic. Now, revising the talismans, not to mention the plot setting, just the programming alone would require writing two sets. Moreover, players have only just begun to grasp the basics of the Eight Trigrams talisman system, and suddenly another set is being introduced. Furthermore, judging from this, the Eight Trigrams talismans might even become unavailable. No matter how you look at it, this doesn't seem to be in the best interest of the game company."

After hearing what the research fanatic said, Guan'er finally understood his idea. Looking at the talisman in the screenshot, she suddenly felt that she needed to use her brain.

He shook his head vigorously and spread his hands, saying:
"Why think so much? Let's find the secluded village first, and see the effects of the new talisman, then we'll know."

...While the players were focused on discussing this, Feng Xue was actually staying in the Hidden Village, anthropomorphizing the puppets one by one.

This village was built by Mary at his request. He provided the character designs for each villager, and Mary used his abilities to create lifelike dolls. However, Feng Xue naturally couldn't entrust such an important thing to the Demon King, whom she had only known for a few days. At this moment, she was using Little Bell and Mo Ying to reinstall the system on these dolls.

It sounds a bit like science fiction, but it's actually not much different from the Substitute Technique or Paper Doll Technique. Once the character is set up, Mo Ying separates a wisp of ghost energy to perform ghost possession, and then Xiao Lingdang takes over the ghost energy to remotely control it. With the computing power provided by the host from the previous civilization, even without the replenishment of willpower, Xiao Lingdang can accurately control the villagers of less than a hundred people in an AI way.

As for what to do if players come looking for it before the project is finished...

It's like being trapped in a maze!
The system refresh process went exceptionally smoothly. Because it had been given the divine authority of "God of Destruction" through the seeds of faith, Ghidorah possessed pure destructive power. As long as the amount was sufficient, it could precisely destroy whatever it wanted to destroy. With a surge of lightning, the doll was restored to factory settings. Only then did he have time to take out his phone and retrieve the footage captured by the drone earlier.

During the siege, the city gates become the best place to farm monsters. At this time, online players are either participating in the siege to level up and earn battle merits, or farming equipment in dungeons. This results in very few players on the world map, and these demon kings seize this opportunity to begin their operation.

However, as she reviewed the surveillance footage, Feng Xue's expression turned somewhat unpleasant.

He was certain that these demon lords hadn't noticed his drone, but apart from the two demon lord retainers, Ashes and Powder, none of the remaining seven could actually be filmed!

The mermaid songstress Melo went to the East Sea, dove in, and then disappeared without a trace.

The mechanical puppet Mary entered the western mine, took a few forks in the road, and then disappeared.

Shadow Fiend Nevin Muen melted on the spot, and no one even knew where he was.

The dark elf Evelyn disappeared into a forest, risking her plane to crash, and followed her in, only to find lush, green trees.

Wolf the werewolf and Dobio the Demon King sneaked into the basement of the Demon King's castle, and the drone couldn't keep up at all.

Only Bige's whereabouts are relatively transparent; this young lady has become everyone's waifu, going to the royal capital to attend a tea party...

"But no matter what, at least we can confirm that these demon lords all have their own plans. Everyone's smart enough, that's for the best. As long as they don't bother me, I won't... well, at most I'll just investigate occasionally!"

Feng Xue muttered to herself, but didn't let her guard down. She still had Xiao Lingdang keep an eye on her colleagues, while she herself began decorating her new home—

"It's about time to let one more player in..."

(End of this chapter)