Full health is the kill threshold, no matter if you're a god or a demon!

"So I'm quite frustrated about suddenly coming here, not being able to witness Taiwan's return to China," Liu Nian sighed.

Wu Zhan suddenly slowed down as he walked, seemingly chatting with someone.

A moment later, Wu Zhan said to Liu Nian, "Wang Mian has already sent people to investigate the rift in Dog King Cave. It's not the ratman's lair on the other side, but a level 10 monster area called 'Gear Valley'! The main monsters there are a type of engineering gnome! Wang Mian is very interested in that place; it's said that those gnomes use gear-driven clockwork weapons and gunpowder guns!"

"A dwarf?" Liu Nian's eyes flickered slightly. "You haven't had any contact with him before?"

"No, it's been under lockdown all along. Apparently, Wang Mian's men saw ratmen fighting them. They saw one ratman kill an elite dwarf, dropping a lot of blueprints, so they ambushed and killed that ratman. Surprisingly, the ratman dropped a [Basic City Wall Reinforcement Design Blueprint] and a special building blueprint for the [Explosives Workshop]!"

"So the blueprints I gave you weren't for the ratmen, but for the dwarves?" Liu Nian was startled. "Then that leveling area is extremely important!"

"That's right! So Wang Mian means I should go and take a look myself. He said that the other side is a neutral faction, and the Engineering Dwarfs are an NPC faction in the game. If possible, we might be able to form an alliance with them or recruit them!"

After a pause, Wu Zhan said, "I think Wang Mian is absolutely right! To be honest, I've had the idea of ​​building a new city for a long time. The location of this small blue city is really bad; it's surrounded by enemies on all sides and has no natural defenses. If it weren't for the circumstances, I wouldn't have rushed to build the city. So, for some time now, I've been sending people to find a new location to build the city!"

"I have two alternative locations for now, but neither quite meets my expectations," Wu Zhan said after a moment's thought. "Before reaching level 10, I need to check out the other side! If it's a neutral zone, then this could very well be an excellent opportunity!"

"But what if there are ratmen forces on the other side?"

"It doesn't really matter!" Wu Zhan said. "Compared to the pig-headed men, the ratmen pose little threat because they are a purely chaotic species, too disorganized, and riddled with factions. The ratman warlords are constantly fighting each other, causing severe internal strife. If it weren't for the sheer number of players of this race, I would have actually wanted to take action against them from the start and directly seize their capital city!"

"You can even seize their main city?" Liu Nian exclaimed in surprise.

"Of course!" Wu Zhan's expression turned serious. "Do you know why I insisted on building a city back then, even though I knew the timing and location were bad? It's because if a force doesn't have a main city for a long time, it will completely become a 'wild monster'! A wild monster in the literal sense, like the malicious dogs you killed before, and the blind beasts you're killing now!"

Wu Zhan said with a grim expression, "Once we become monsters, all of us will be stripped of our rationality, memories, and thoughts, and will forever become NPCs controlled by this cyber hell, which is equivalent to us really dying."

With Wu Zhan's explanation, Liu Nian finally learned some of the "rules" of Cyber ​​Hell.

Rule 1: If a faction does not have its own main city for more than 30 days, it will be judged as "lost power" and become a wild monster.

Rule 2: A faction can establish any number of cities, but can only have one capital city. Only when the capital city is destroyed can other cities have the opportunity to become the new capital city.

Rule 3: All areas bordering the main city will automatically become the sphere of influence of that race. Monster areas within this sphere will be redistributed as leveling zones for levels 1-50. For every level increase of the main city, the sphere of influence and the monster level cap will increase. Meanwhile, players of this race will not be affected by Rule 4.

Rule 4: Players cannot enter the influence range map of other races that are 10 levels below their own level, but they can enter the influence range map of other races that are 10 levels above their own level.

Rule 5: If a player's level is higher than that of other players, NPCs, or monsters, the experience points and drop rates gained from killing them will be penalized. The greater the level difference, the higher the penalty. This penalty will be maximized after the player's level exceeds 10: the player will be unable to obtain any loot through killing, including but not limited to experience points, items, quest credits, etc.

Rule Six: If a player's level is lower than that of other players, NPCs, or monsters, the experience points and drop rates gained from killing them will be rewarded. The greater the level difference, the higher the reward. This reward will be fixed after the player's level exceeds 10 and cannot be increased further.

Rule Seven: There are ten levels of main city. After each faction enters the game and builds a city, it will be assigned to a nearby area along with other factions of the same main city level. If a faction acquires three main cities of the same level through war, merger, alliance, purchase, transfer, or any other means, the main city will be upgraded by one level.

Rule 8: Players need to complete a breakthrough quest every 100 levels to enter a new stage; otherwise, they will not be able to gain any more experience points, and upgrade items will be ineffective.

Rule Nine: ...

Upon hearing this news, Liu Nian was at a loss for words.

"Therefore, I suspect that the so-called 'native' forces and 'monsters' in this world were actually once members of a certain force, but they became minions of hell because they lost the cities that protected them!"

In the cyber hell, besides the forces of the myriad races that have been drawn in, there are also native forces. Apart from wild monsters, they are usually divided into five major factions: Eternal Day, No Light, Empire, Wilderness, and Sea.

Compared to all the races and races in the heavens, these five major powers are truly behemoths, and the world timeline is basically driven by these five major powers.

Because Liu Nian has never had any contact with any NPC factions, he knows nothing about them.

In fact, Liu Nian was also wondering why he had never seen any players accept the quest.

That's because Azure Town is neither an NPC city nor the system's main city. It doesn't have any quest NPCs; it only has system-deployed NPC merchants. The quest NPCs have higher authority than the merchants and combat NPCs.

In short, Azure Town has not yet recruited any high-level NPCs, so there are naturally no quests to accept.

This is obviously a huge disadvantage for players, which is why Wu Zhan has always wanted to break through the blockade and establish new real cities in other regions. Only in this way can the Blue Star forces gradually grow stronger and get on the right track.

Otherwise, the highest level map around Azure Town, which has always been a level 1 main city, is only level 50. After being blocked by the Pigmen and other forces, the highest level that humans on Blue Star can theoretically reach is level 60.

However, he didn't tell anyone about this idea because the time wasn't right.

But after seeing Liu Nian, he felt they were almost there!

"Brother, we need to hurry. We can't keep this from Wang Mian for long; the Azure Council will find out sooner or later!" Wu Zhan patted Liu Nian on the shoulder. "What I mean is, after we get the Mythic equipment, the two of us will go through the rift to the other side! We'll stay there for a while! I'll take care of the gnomes, and you just focus on increasing your combat power! I'll also get the Newcomer Guild ready. Once I've collected all the network blueprints you gave me, we'll strip the Newcomer Guild's influence from Azure Town and establish our own city in a new location!"

Wu Zhan continued, "I can see that you're not very interested in city building, management, or power struggles. Actually, I'm the same way. I prefer the simple things like fighting monsters, farming for treasure, exploring, leveling up, and becoming stronger! But there's nothing I can do. Since I've lost the ability to become a strong person, let me retreat to the background..."

Are you willing to accept this?

"What can you do if you're not willing to accept it?" Wu Zhan said. "I used to have great talent too, but now... as you can see, before you grow stronger, my advice is to stay in my guild for a while and see what happens."

Liu Nian nodded. After all, he had only just entered the game on his first day and didn't know much about it. Moreover, Wu Zhan had not only saved him but also shown him enough goodwill, so he was willing to give Wu Zhan face. In any case, Wu Zhan had been here for almost a year and was among the earliest people.

This is a win-win situation for both sides. Wu Zhan has experience, and Liu Nian has talent. Their cooperation will definitely produce a result greater than the sum of its parts.

But it's a bit strange. According to the normal timeline, Wu Zhan was born twenty years earlier than Liu Nian, but after entering this place, the time difference between them is only one year. This is indeed a strange thing, and Wu Zhan doesn't understand why.

"Alright, enough chit-chat." Wu Zhan's joking expression vanished, and his gaze turned to the deeper, more secluded areas of the Dark Sound Cave. "Next, I'll show you around; the target is... Mythic equipment!"

The two passed through the area where the blind monsters were active and arrived at the end of the cave in front of a seemingly ordinary rock wall.

Wu Zhan reached out and tapped a few seemingly random protrusions in a specific order.

hum-

The rock wall emitted a low tremor, which then rippled outwards like water, revealing a downward-facing metal pipe behind it.

The air was filled with the mixed smell of engine oil and arcane energy.

"This is... a hidden map?" Liu Nian asked in surprise.