How Level Zero Devil Destroys Player Experience

“That is indeed something to celebrate.”

I casually forked a piece of pudding into my mouth and smiled.

This result can be said to be extremely good. As far as I know, even though Starry Sky Mythology and Rose Heart each had more than 160,000 people qualifying for the knockout round, the number of their participants was around 200,000, with an elimination rate of nearly one-fifth.

This is true for all these famous large guilds, not to mention the secondary and small guilds.

The difficulty of the preliminary qualifying round can be seen from this.

The reason why Alice has such a high promotion rate is due to the elite route that has been promoted all along.

Chapter 100: Top 8 and Qualifying Rounds

"And it's not just the promotion rate. There are 169 people in the guild who have ranked in the top 100 in each profession's speed."

Sister Qiu Ru added, looking over with a pair of bright eyes with a smile in them.

"You're not bad as the little guild leader. You got the eleventh place."

This situation is even more terrifying than the promotion rate. There are seven professional rankings, which means that on average, about 25 people in the guild are in the top on each ranking.

Although the speed ranking cannot fully reflect the player's skills, it is definitely enough to have a gimmick effect. Before the official live broadcast of the game was launched, the names on this list attracted considerable attention from the player groups of various empires.

Even though I guessed that quite a few people would receive this honor, I still underestimated the strength of the top players in the guild.

"It's much worse than Sister Qiu Ru's seventh place."

I stuck out my tongue. After spending enough time with Sister Qiu Ru, I naturally knew that she also had a bit of a childish mentality. This expression was nothing more than seeking praise.

As expected, Sister Qiu Ru nodded with satisfaction. "It was just a coincidence that the opponent spawned right in front of me. But the best ones are the other people in the guild. Guess who got the first place in the thief ranking?"

I was a little surprised, but I quickly realized, "Yuwen or Sister Ye Yuan? Or are they the ones who are in love?"

"Hey, hey, what do you mean by "or", and, does An An have so little confidence in me?"

A petite figure appeared beside me and hugged my arm. Then Yiwen's cute face appeared with a slightly dissatisfied expression, "18 seconds for the buzzer beater. An An is too lame. It takes 31 seconds to beat a PC."

"19 seconds, a little behind sister Yiwen. Sorry, teacher, I failed to live up to your expectations."

Nightwish also walked over with a look of self-blame on his face.

"Yes, yes, you are the most powerful."

I reached out and flicked Yiwen's forehead, then looked at Yeyuan and smiled, "It's okay, Sister Ye Yuan is already great. After all, this guy's equipment is much better than yours, and he also has the blessing effect of the holy relic."

"Humph, why don't you mention that An An also has the effect of the holy object? Besides, his initial attack didn't trigger the weak point damage, otherwise he could have been a second faster."

Ivan made a face.

"It's great to be young. Sister, I can only fight for fourth place for fun."

The sound attracted attention from other places. Posa had been lying on Sister Qiu Ru's chair without her noticing, and she teased with interest.

"Sister Po Suo and Brother Ying Ce are really good. I thought I was very quick, but I didn't expect that I only ranked fifth."

Qing Mingyue just sighed helplessly, which immediately made Xishu unhappy.

"Tsk, be content. If you weren't lucky enough to find the AI's location as soon as you landed, would I be two places behind you?"

"That's my position too, what does it have to do with you?"

Ci Tong, who ranked second only to Qing Mingyue, said lightly, with a hint of unwillingness hidden in his eyes.

"Don't say that..."

Xishu was so embarrassed that he felt ashamed, causing Shiguangqian, Jiatang Kafe and others around him to burst into laughter.

It was only then that I reacted to the conversation between these people.

"Wait, how many of you are in the top ten of the thieves ranking?"

"The top eight spots are all occupied by our people." Sister Qiu Ru chuckled and broke the shocking news, "How about it? Doesn't it sound glorious?"

Yiwen, Yeyuan, Euchuangchanmian, Posa, Qingmingyue, Citong, Xishu, and Mise, an elite member of the thieves group whom I am not very familiar with, occupied the top eight positions in the thieves speed ranking.

Ninth place was Yuanye Eleven from Rose Heart, and even though Nichao was a well-known thief in his previous life, several others like Chu Ci and Sky Deadly Silence only ranked tenth or outside the top ten.

Not only that, there are another 29 members of Alice who are in the top 100 thieves, all of whom are ranked at the top. The total number of 38 people far exceeds the number of people in other rankings, and it is worthy of the name "Den of Thieves".

So after the initial surprise, all that was left in my heart was sigh.

Sure enough, this guild that he had cultivated personally never disappoints.

The elite celebration in Cardia was very lively.

In addition to the Cartier Hotel, according to Sister Qiu Ru, Alice also booked more than ten other hotels to celebrate the promotion of ordinary members. Even if some of them were hotels affiliated with the Golden Business Alliance, the expenditure was more than 500,000 gold coins.

Although the entire era and all the major empires are now shrouded in a celebratory atmosphere, it is estimated that even the Guild Alliance is reluctant to entertain all the members who have entered the knockout stage in this regard, and will only hold special banquets for receptions in the subsequent Top 1,000 and Top 100 competitions.

However, Alice was able to do it, and she actually fulfilled the promise in the guild declaration that no brother would be treated unfairly.

Many members who originally joined Alice just to test the waters, were moved to see that even such an inconspicuous person like themselves could make the guild celebrate their promotion, and they felt a stronger sense of identification and belonging to Alice in their hearts.

Even I and other people in the guild might not have thought of these things, but they actually happened without our knowledge, forming Alice's unique guild culture.

In any case, the preliminary qualifying rounds are over, and the joy and sorrow of some are now a thing of the past.

The rules for the next game have been revealed on the forum.

After the qualifying round, all players who advance will receive a qualification certificate. With this certificate, they can take a special airship from the corresponding city airport to the Sky Continent for the second round of primary qualifying rounds.

The Sky Continent is a special map within the Era with a very large area. Almost all large-scale events in the past life took place on this map.

On the day of the primary elimination round, the airship will randomly and evenly drop the participating players into a map called the Ancient Forest in the Sky Continent, and set up an outer barrier to divide the Ancient Forest into five equal areas. Players cannot leave the map by normal means and will only encounter players from the same country within the corresponding barrier.

Each player will receive a nameplate, which cannot be discarded. Once a player is killed, he will be considered eliminated, and the final killer will obtain all the nameplates on the opponent.

Finally, the points and rankings are calculated based on the number of nameplates, and 100,000 players are selected to enter the next round of intermediate competition. Although it is unclear how many people were eliminated in the qualifying round, it can be guessed that the elimination rate in the primary qualifying round is at least hundreds to one, which is definitely more cruel than the first round of qualifying.

After all, under the natural law of the survival of the fittest, everything depends on personal strength.

Moreover, the method of obtaining nameplates also adds many uncertain factors. A top player may be ambushed by an ordinary player and lose his qualification after collecting many nameplates. Therefore, it is extremely challenging for the player's specific combat level.

Of course, players can also find a place to hide after obtaining enough nameplates and wait until the time is up, but you have no idea whether the pass in your hand can guarantee stable qualification, and there are many ferocious monsters in the forest. A little carelessness may lead to waste of all previous efforts.

Chapter 101 Airship

As time went on, officials released more specific rules.

It is noted that during the competition, contestants cannot form teams, all communication channels are closed, maps are not displayed, accounts bound to the game are temporarily unable to browse the forums, etc. There are basically no loopholes for players to exploit.

Even if a guild plans to concentrate its efforts on training a few qualified players, with more than 1 million people squeezed into such a huge map, even if a large guild has more than 2 people shortlisted, the probability of meeting each other is only % to %.

Instead of wasting time on such things, it would be better to think about how to improve your skills and snatch the nameplate from others.

The entire primary qualifying round lasts for three days, and each player has nine hours of protection time every day. During this time, players can perform necessary offline operations such as resting and eating.

As it is the summer vacation, most of the participating players will not have other distractions.

Of course, office workers need to prepare their leave requests in advance.

However, due to the popularity of Jiyuan around the world, and even the cooperative relations with governments of many countries, it has a very high reputation. If the company's employees can get a good ranking in the qualifying round, it can also indirectly enhance the company's reputation, even if this may just be due to luck.

Therefore, the vast majority of company executives will agree to related leave requests. There are even cases where bosses encourage employees by promising shortlisted rewards and granting them paid leave.

Such examples are not surprising.

After all, outside of the competition, the official platform has set up a special section where you can check out any player's third-person perspective battle videos during the qualifying round. The traffic from this alone is at least tens of billions.

With the end of the qualifying round, the official also announced the number of people who advanced to the finals.

Nearly 120 million people signed up for the competition in the entire era, and in the end only 1 million players got the qualification certificate to go to the Sky Continent. If we put it in the various empires, there are about million people. Compared with the qualifying places in each empire, the elimination rate is as high as :. It is conceivable how cruel the competition will be during the qualifying round.

But no matter what, with the end of the break period at the end of the qualifying round, the qualifying round finally arrived.

Lance area, seven in the morning, Storm Bay.

Due to the huge number of participants, it is impossible to transport all the participating players together. Therefore, the official website stipulates that each player can only reach the corresponding city through the boarding point written on the qualification certificate, and even the corresponding airship to go to the Sky Continent.

There were too many cities listed as boarding points, and among the people I knew, including Ivan and the other kids, the locations and airship numbers on each person's credentials were different. Although many people in the guild channel were looking for friends who would take the same airship number to form a team, I didn't think it was necessary, so I went to the city called Storm Bay alone.

On the way to the airport, I couldn't help but look around with some curiosity. If it weren't for this competition, I really wouldn't have known that there was such a city by the bay in the Reims area.

After submitting the credentials and successfully entering the airport, I saw that this transportation hub, which was usually used to pick up the city's natives to fly to other empires and kingdoms, was now full of dozens of giant airships. They were very different from the Jazz airships I had seen at the Capital Royal Flying Field before. There were no extra external accessories, only the huge size that gave people a shocking look.

It is reported that each airship can accommodate 4,000 players. Even Orwin, who is famous for his mechanical technology, cannot achieve such a huge function. It is obvious that the official has made specific modifications, otherwise it would be impossible to transport tens of millions of players to the Sky Continent at the same time.

There were already long queues of players at the several entrances.

After handing her credentials to the airport receptionist for inspection, she successfully entered her airship, causing the players behind her to widen their eyes. They originally thought that she was just a little girl who came to see her brother and sister off, but they didn't expect that she was also a contestant in the qualifying round, which really surprised them.

But I was also surprised.

Because after finding his seat, he discovered that the person sitting next to him was actually from his own guild, and a familiar figure, the wind mage girl, Xing Shuhua, who had once traveled with him to the Mage Tower of Loblanche.

The other person was also stunned for a moment when he saw me, but he quickly reacted and greeted me with a smile.

"What a coincidence, President."

"Just call me Xiaotong, Sister Xing."

I blinked and sat down next to him by the window.

"No, this is necessary respect." Xing Shuhua put her hands together in a begging gesture, and said jokingly with a hint of playfulness in her quietness, "So if we meet during the competition, please be merciful, President."

"With that chance, I think Sister Xing might as well pray for a chance encounter with Brother Beijiu."

I joked with a smirk, successfully making the girl who was in love blush.

It was naturally great to have familiar companions traveling with us, and time passed unknowingly while we were chatting. It was not until the airship took off fully loaded that we realized that more than half an hour had passed.

The Storm Bay was getting smaller and smaller below, and suddenly the view outside the window of the airship turned into an endless blue sky. The wings of several other airships taking off at the same time could be seen nearby, and there were faint black dots floating in the distance.

As the airship took off, the players inside heard the announcement coming from the cabin.

"All airships will arrive above the Ancient Forest of the Sky Continent at 8:50 on time. The qualifying round will officially begin at 9:. Each participating player will be equipped with a special prop pack for the qualifying round under their seat. After arriving at the destination, they will be randomly dropped into the forest to compete with each other. I wish you all a pleasant journey and good luck!"

Only then did I notice that there was a square package hidden in the space under the seat. I reached out to pick it up and put it on my knees to take a look at it.

A special prop pack for the Qualifiers.

Type: Special item.

Items included: landing buffer device × 1, teleportation crystal for withdrawal × 1, lighting stick × 1, health recovery potion for qualifying round × 30.

Note: This item, including all items contained within, cannot be transferred or discarded, and will be automatically collected by the system after the qualifying round.

There is no need to explain the teleportation crystal in detail. Once used, it will be regarded as withdrawing from the competition and leaving the Sky Continent. The landing cushioning device is in the shape of a small metal ball, and the lighting device is similar to a launch slot.

According to the instructions for use reminded by Sister Xinghuashu, both can be installed in the additional special equipment column without occupying the original grid. The former will form a disposable buffer after use to avoid landing damage, and the latter can launch flares at night to provide basic and effective lighting.

This is to ensure fairness for melee professions, otherwise they will not be able to learn lighting and their vision will be greatly limited at night. Although there are pros and cons, the disadvantage is that lighting will definitely attract the attention of other players and become a conspicuous target at night, but it is the official's obligation to ensure that all players play on a fair basis.

Chapter 102 Ancient Forest

The fact that all players can only use a fixed number of special recovery potions for the game is also based on this point. Otherwise, it would not be fair to priest players whose abilities in many aspects are inferior to those of other professions during the qualifying round.

After putting on a few props, he took the time to check that nothing was missing. Time passed quickly while he chatted with Sister Xingshuhua.

After more than an hour, the airship finally flew over the long distance.

Through the multiple screens in the cabin, an island hidden in the clouds, with endless views, appeared in the sight of all players. This land called Sky Continent, which had not yet been set foot by players, finally welcomed the first batch of adventurers.

When I looked out of the porthole, I also found many airships coming from other cities. From a distance, those scattered black dots looked like a swarm of bees rising and falling in the clouds like clusters of flowers. Only a few of them could be vaguely seen in their general outlines.

In the next few days, I don’t know how much blood will be shed on this continent.

Just when I was feeling overwhelmed, the voice of the announcement was heard again in the cabin.

"Attention all participating players, the airship will arrive over the Ancient Forest in 5 minutes and will begin to be deployed in 10 minutes. Please be ready!"

The voice was still sweet, but different from before. This report made many people start to get nervous. Although they knew that this was just a game and being killed meant elimination, some people's faces still showed a mixture of excitement and fear.

It’s just like the tense atmosphere before students open their college entrance exams.

Even the apricot tree next to them couldn't help but cross their legs, put their hands on their knees and took a few deep breaths.

"Are you nervous, Sister Xing?"

"Yeah, a little bit." Xing Shuhua stretched out her finger and scratched her cheek a little embarrassedly, smiling shyly, "If I'm eliminated, I won't be able to stand on the same stage with him and be closer to him...ah...no no...that's not what I meant..."

By the time he realized what was going on, Xinghuashu's face turned red and he tried to deny it.