How Level Zero Devil Destroys Player Experience

Yili Qingqiu thought for a moment, opened the map and took a look, his delicate eyebrows slightly wrinkled, "Wait, Kanya Forest..."

"What's wrong, Sister Qingqiu?" Seeing Yili Qingqiu's expression, Beibei asked curiously.

"I've heard about this from others. It was originally just an ordinary forest, but it seemed to become a little strange after the beast tide came. I don't know exactly what happened, but it's better to be careful."

"It's better to be careful anyway."

After Lan Hai reminded everyone of the content he accidentally learned from the forum, many voices were heard in the Storm Channel.

"Don't be so nervous. We have passed so many difficult missions."

"That is, it's just a forest, don't think too much about it."

Black King Caesar also laughed, "Lan Hai, it's not a bad thing to be careful, but being so nervous is not like a man. No matter what weirdness he has, we Storm will accept it all."

"Ok."

Lan Hai sighed and thought that maybe he was indeed too nervous.

Most of the players didn't care at all about the army's formation. After all, it was like watching a horror movie in a group. There wouldn't be much sense of security with so many people around, not to mention that it was just an unknown forest.

But they soon tasted the bitter fruit.

In the dim forest hidden by the tree canopy, a battle took place between a standard team of the Eternal Spire.

Several soldiers strode forward and knocked away the dozen or so forest wolves that suddenly appeared, and cooperated with their teammates behind them to attack these sudden monsters. Various noises could also be heard nearby, which were the sounds of other teams fighting.

Although under Guinness's order, the expeditionary force would kill the beasts that were in the way at the beginning, causing the beast tide's attack to be mainly concentrated elsewhere.

But later, with the tacit consent of the Holy Night Moon Fox, the beasts began to avoid the expeditionary force's attacks, and even cooperated in attacking human towns, like an invisible ally. As a result, many beasts can now be seen around the expeditionary force.

However, this forest has not yet been invaded by the demon expeditionary force, so it is natural that the beast herd can maintain a considerable size.

And there is a key reason that was deliberately arranged by someone.

"Huh, this is really tough. No wonder those people on the forum are discussing whether Antia can be defended."

After getting rid of the forest wolf in front of them and the other monsters were also dealt with by other teams and there was no need to worry about them, a soldier in the team couldn't help but sigh.

"You said it was a mess, it's not that we can't hold back the beast tide, the key is the pressure brought by the demon expeditionary force's joint attack."

The companion next to him rolled his eyes.

Perhaps it is every boy's nature to talk about these political war topics. Soon, several members of the team joined the discussion while continuing to move forward.

The warrior who was refuted first seemed to be "besieged" by the crowd, and hurriedly wanted to find his friends to rescue him.

"Interpretation, do you think so too?"

However, after calling several times, there was no response from the channel.

Now not only the soldier, but everyone else in the team also realized that something was wrong.

Even though the opponent's avatar in the team list still showed that he was alive, they immediately searched according to the location mark on the map, and finally found his body next to a big tree.

"Interpretation, what happened? What killed you?"

The captain of the team couldn't help but frown and asked, and the others also cast puzzled looks at him.

There are teams all around, so there's no chance of any elite monsters appearing. Even if there are, they can't be killed silently, not to mention that he is a thief with plenty of means to preserve his life.

The thief named Interpretation was also confused after being pulled up by the priest. "I don't know either. I just killed three green bats and planned to take a rest next to this tree and observe the movement ahead."

"But I don't know what happened afterwards. When I came to my senses, I found that I had died inexplicably."

His explanation also fits with the situation where the team did not receive a response when calling out.

However, the description of the parties involved still did not resolve all the doubts in everyone's mind.

"I don't know what happened afterwards?"

The team leader muttered.

Although some monsters have similar abilities, these types of monsters are very rare and may not appear in this forest. Moreover, most of them are control and auxiliary types. How can they kill a thief with decent equipment in a short period of time?

Could there be something unusual around that big tree?

Then, with such doubts, the captain turned his head and looked to the side.

But I suddenly saw a big tree that looked no different from an ordinary tree, and a hideous face flashed by on the tree.

If it was an illusion, it would be fine, but a priest in the team who was standing next to a big tree looked a little strange, with a stiff and dull expression, as if he was controlled by someone.

"Attack that tree!"

The captain's face changed and he immediately shouted in the channel. At the same time, he rushed forward and chopped the thick tree with the sword in his hand.

The health bar that appeared on the latter immediately confirmed his guess.

Shadow Tree Spirit: Level 70, HP: 9500/10000

After the captain's reminder, the people in the team finally reacted and supported their attacks.

The Shadow Dryad, whose health was already weaker than that of monsters of the same level, fell under the fierce firepower of this team of players in less than ten seconds.

As the last bit of blood was drained, a hideous black shadow on the tree let out a shrill wail and disappeared into the air.

Leaving behind trees that were full of gullies and charred by magical bombardments.

Chapter 184: Surrounded by the Beast Tide

Is it a parasitic monster?

Seeing this, the team leader frowned.

As the Shadow Dryad was dealt with, the priest also returned to normal. Her description was very similar to the interpretation, and she didn't know what happened in the middle.

And on the ground around her, everyone found fallen roots.

Apparently, the tree spirit relied on these roots to control the players around the possessed tree.

Similar situations also occurred in every corner of the forest. Even though these shadow tree spirits could only control one person at a time, if the situation was unclear, there would always be hundreds of people among the more than 9,000 players who would suffer.

Even big guilds like Storm were inevitably attacked, losing dozens of people each.

"That's why I say it's always right to be careful."

Lan Hai couldn't help but shake his head when he saw those unlucky players in the channel complaining.

But he was interrupted before he could finish.

Black King Caesar patted the other person on the back of his head, signaling him not to say such inappropriate things again. Although the fact was right, it invisibly made the atmosphere in the team become a little awkward.

At the same time, he also gave instructions to all members of the union, asking them to shrink their formation. Even the thieves responsible for exploring the way should not stray too far away from the team and should always pay attention to their surroundings.

There is no other countermeasure, we can only be cautious.

Because the attack method of this shadow tree spirit is really hard to defend against, it can disguise itself as an ordinary tree and will only appear for a moment when it controls the player.

If the Shadow Dryad is not defeated within two minutes, it will completely engulf the controlled player.

They also tried to use group magic to clear a path, but found that the Shadow Dryad would not lose any health if it was attacked without controlling the player.

It is even possible to move the tree it possesses after engulfing the player, making fishing for it useless.

The army won't have too many accidents because they have been trained for many years, but the players are not all guild elites like Storm, Eternal Spire, Ares, etc., who can cooperate well with each other.

Therefore, when advancing deeper into the forest, many players still suffered casualties.

What all the players didn’t know was that after some of them were resurrected, a black figure resembling the resurrected player suddenly appeared in a corner of the forest. After crawling up from the ground, it slowly approached the target player’s position.

It was like a hidden disaster, approaching quietly in the dark.

It immediately showed its ferocious fangs and tore everyone into pieces.

Just like now.

"Miss An, I have some bad news."

After receiving the message from the scout, Darent walked over quickly with a heavy face.

"What's the matter, Mr. Military Officer?"

Although I laughed in my heart, I still pretended to be puzzled on the surface.

The other party was in no mood to waste words, "We seem to be surrounded by a tide of beasts."

Rumbling--

As if in response to Darent, just as his voice fell, there was a sudden violent vibration in the forest, roaring like thunder.

The next moment, dense black shadows like a tide appeared in the surrounding forest.

Without exception, they are all high-level monsters.

Some were monsters that the players had encountered in the forest before, some were monsters that they had not encountered before, some were ordinary monsters, and some were elites. These groups of monsters seemed to have been specially sensed and all were summoned together.

Front, back, left, and right, four directions.

The army and players were surrounded in the middle without anyone noticing.

It was obvious that the one who summoned these beasts was the dozens of huge leaders and chieftains that appeared faintly in the forest.

Bloodthirsty Ceratopsian [Boss]: Level 75, HP: 450000/45000

Green Lizard King [Leader]: Level 75, HP: 700000/700000

Thunderhorn【Boss】: Level 77, HP: 720000/720000

"Are we surrounded?"

"!?"

"So many monsters..."

Seeing such a shocking and huge scene, many players couldn't help but be dumbfounded.

The team that was originally close to the outside of the army and the players hurriedly moved towards the middle, fearing that they would be attacked by the gradually approaching group of monsters. Otherwise, even if other players wanted to rescue them, they would be unable to do so.

"No wonder." Yili Qingqiu frowned as she looked at the monsters gathering in groups in the distance, "I always felt that the number of monsters we encountered on the road before was a little less."

It was hard to imagine that these monsters would take advantage of the opportunity when they were gathering their formation and surround them silently. If there were no beings with a certain degree of intelligence among them, that would be unlikely.

"Wait, if a fight breaks out here, will it be bad?"

Qingyu suddenly thought of something.

"Yeah, but there's no other way. We try to occupy an open high point, and the back row always pays attention to the surrounding movements."

Yili Qingqiu sighed and made arrangements aloud.

Everyone knew what Qingyu wanted to say. The Shadow Tree Spirits were already a difficult problem to deal with, and now facing such a large-scale herd of beasts, they would definitely be in for a tough fight.

By that time, the battle is so intense that it will be difficult to notice that someone in the team is controlled by the Shadow Dryad until they are killed.

But as Yili Qingqiu said, this was something that could not be prevented in advance, and Aurora and the people of Paradise Lost could only do as arranged.

Or perhaps this arrangement is the correct answer. In a complex terrain like a forest, in order to deal with groups of monsters attacking from the trees and bushes, it is natural to let one's own mages and shooters occupy positions with superior vision so as to better output.

This can be seen from the fact that although the specific orders taken by other guilds are different, they are all similar.

All this naturally happened after the army issued the first order.

"Protect Your Highness."

Although the knights and clergy of the monastery knew the identity of the person they followed, they were not aware of the truth of the matter at the moment. Driven by the mission, they immediately mobilized and formed a formation with me as the center in an instant.

And I also made arrangements for Darent.

"Notify the army to defend on the spot, and let the adventurers provide cover to form a defensive circle."

It can be seen that the army of Rock Corner has not slacked off in training due to years of peace. They are not much inferior to the special soldiers sent to me by Riddenburg. In a short while, they immediately deployed their battle formation.

If the army is defeated by monsters, then the mission will obviously end in failure.

Thousands of players, including guild members, consciously followed the army's arrangements, each filling in the gaps and forming a quasi-circular defense circle.

The front row is on the outside, the shooter and the mage are on the inside, the priest is protected in the center, and the thief is on the outermost side.

Although it was only a few minutes, the surrounding monsters never attacked, but just gradually approached.

As the players and the army were shrinking their formation, they were also closing the encirclement, and more shadows seemed to be emerging from the distance of the forest.

"Attack immediately. Don't let them keep attracting monsters."

As my orders were given.