Chapter 436: Dolorum 444 Zone

Chapter 436 -435: Dolorum 444 Zone

Seraphina Sinclair had the troublesome task of feeding the slime to the Sunflower, a difficult process done through her tattered clothes. As she worked, she cursed herself internally. ‘I’m supposed to be the hope of humanity, a being capable of ascending to godhood, and here I am, working as a janitor in a mobile cabin.’

But when she saw how spirited the Sunflower looked after absorbing the slime, she felt the work was more than worth it.

After the first day, the Sunflower had absorbed five waves of slime. Its leaves were noticeably greener, and the edges of its petals had even taken on a faint golden sheen.

These were the changes to its appearance. In terms of stats, its Growth Rate was nearly maxed out.

‘Just a few more times tomorrow, and I’ll be able to give the Sunflower a nice, satisfying upgrade!’

Once the Sunflower was upgraded, the promotion for the mobile cabin would unlock as well.

Then it would really be a case of:

“My house is getting bigger, my troubles getting smaller, life is getting better and better~”

The song had been playing on a loop in Seraphina Sinclair’s head all day. As night began to fall, she stretched and decided to head to the bathroom to wash up.

She was humming a little tune and had just grabbed a towel when a panel materialized before her.

[Good evening, survivors!]

[Congratulations, survivors, on officially making it through the second stage. On Monday, you will formally enter the third stage!]

[After dawn tomorrow, the following adjustments will be made:]

[Zone Merge Mechanism Activated: Upon entering the new stage, all survivors who chose the same path will be assigned to the same macro-region! You will then be allocated into Zones by population, with the number of survivors per Zone remaining at ten thousand.]

[Speed of the Dead Increased: Starting tomorrow, the Dead will move at a Speed of 300 sunshine-distance per day! Keep moving forward and fight to survive!]

[New Region: All Zones will officially enter a new region! E-level monsters will become increasingly rare here; instead, you will encounter more D-level and C-level monsters. Survivors, please ensure your own safety! At the same time, D-level and C-level resources will also become more common!]

[Fire Seed Rules Now Live: Killing monsters will grant Fire Seed Value. Killing other survivors will allow you to plunder 50% of their Fire Seed Value. At the end of the third stage, a global ranking of Fire Seed Value will be compiled for all of humanity! The top 1,000 survivors will receive special rewards, while the bottom 1,000 survivors will be permanently erased.]

[Survivors, you have proven that you can stay alive.]

[Now, prove that you deserve to live.]

[Good luck.]

Seraphina Sinclair: “?”

‘They’re dropping a bombshell like this so late at night?’

‘Zone merges? Fine.’

‘The Dead moving faster? Fine.’

‘A new region? Also fine.’

‘But what the hell is this Fire Seed rule that just popped out of nowhere?’

Seraphina Sinclair studied the message carefully before finally concluding, “Looks like they’ve added a rewards system.”

She muttered to herself, and Luna Jacobs, who was busy working nearby, furrowed her brow upon hearing it. When she realized what Seraphina had said, she nearly choked.

Seraphina’s behavior that afternoon—deliberately luring monsters—had already been shocking enough. But this latest comment made Luna feel like she had never really known Seraphina at all.

‘Then again,’

‘it’s not like they were ever close.’

When Luna Jacobs recalled the confident assertions she had made back in the arena, her face flushed with embarrassment.

At the thought, she quickly lowered her head and focused on her work again.

Seraphina didn’t notice Luna’s subtle reaction and silently opened the Zone channel.

The other topics were the same old news. Naturally, the most heated discussion was about the brand-new Fire Seed rule:

“HOLY SHIT, HOLY SHIT, HOLY SHIT! What did I just read? Kill other survivors to steal 50% of their Fire Seed Value???”

“I knew it! I said that delaying the announcement from yesterday to today meant they were gonna drop a bombshell. Well, here it is!”

“The system wants us to kill each other…”

“Can any of the pros break down these Fire Seed rules? I’m a newbie and don’t really get it.”

“Simply put: you get points for killing monsters, and you get points for killing people. High score gets a reward, low score gets you killed. Got it?”

“Got it, but I don’t want to kill people…”

“You don’t want to kill? Then just wait to be killed.”

“Don’t say that. Maybe we can just farm enough points by killing monsters?”

“Kill monsters? How many points do you get for one monster? You kill one person and you instantly get half their score. Is there even a choice?”

“The question is, who can you even kill? Of the people who’ve survived this long, how many are easy targets?”

“Good point. Instead of thinking about killing others, we should be thinking about how not to get killed.”

“Anyway, this rule is definitely not a good thing for ordinary people like us.”

“Sigh, life just gets harder and harder. Sometimes I really envy the people who didn’t even make it past the tutorial. They didn’t suffer at all; they died right at the beginning. But us? We’ve struggled this long, suffered this much, and we’re still going to end up dead.”

The sentiment expressed in that last message was apparently so bleak that the Zone channel fell silent for a while, with no one else saying a word.

Seraphina Sinclair sighed and silently closed the Zone channel.

She lay on the floor, staring blankly at the ceiling for a moment.

It wasn’t that she couldn’t understand what was being said in the Zone channel. But understanding them was one thing; she couldn’t help them.

‘In this world, the only one who can save you is yourself.’

Monday morning felt no different than any other for Seraphina Sinclair, except that the Zone channel was bustling with activity again.

Everyone assigned to the same Zone as Seraphina now were people who had also chosen the Dolorum path.

For Seraphina, this new method of dividing up the Zones was certainly a vast improvement over the old one.

After all, before, she had to work hard in the general chat just to find a potential customer.

But now, things were great. Everyone in her entire Zone had chosen the same path.

Seraphina opened her panel and saw the name of her current Zone: Dolorum Zone 444.

“These numbers aren’t exactly auspicious.”

she muttered, but quickly pushed the unpleasant thought aside.

After casually dispatching a path-specific monster, Seraphina bent down and picked up the Immunity Crystal it had dropped. Just as she was about to use it, a new panel appeared.

[Friendly Reminder:

For the duration of a path, its unique monsters will only appear once. The effect of the Immunity Crystal has been increased to four days. Please use your Immunity Crystal at the appropriate time!

Current path duration: 2 weeks.]

‘Four days? Two weeks?’

Seraphina shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts.

‘So, the path I chose is going to last a full two weeks? And the monster that drops the Immunity Crystal only shows up once.’

‘Two weeks is fourteen days, but one Immunity Crystal only works for four.’

‘So what am I supposed to do for the other ten days? Just tough it out?’

Seraphina wasn’t the only one with these questions. The brand-new Zone channel was soon abuzz with discussion about this very issue.

Seraphina stared at the Zone channel for a while but didn’t see a single familiar ID. What’s more, some of the comments clearly didn’t fit with Drakonia’s culture.