Chapter 296 - 61: We Are Players

With Duan Fei’s town serving as a model, the integration of players and towns began in earnest. Regions all over started adopting the advanced model he and his group established, aiming to unleash productivity, promote joint development, and achieve shared prosperity.

The initial cycle was complete. Duan Fei and the others were finally free from the preliminary work and could resume exploring the instance.

It seemed like a delay, but they had actually gained quite a lot.

The event instance recorded every player’s contributions. Their noble act of advocating for common prosperity right from the start would undoubtedly score them a lot of points.

Moreover, some players were productive even without entering the instance, which was an excellent use of the player base’s power.

Finally, when everyone entered the instance together, difficult sections could be steamrolled with sheer numbers, making progress much easier.

The waystation on the instance’s third floor had been built into a large supply station. The Shark King cowered in a corner, watching the players come and go, his heart full of pent-up frustration.

He was different from the rabbit leader on the second floor. Seeing the overwhelming number of people, the rabbit leader had simply given up and thrown in the towel. It posted the route to the third floor at its entrance and then washed its hands of the whole affair.

Its domain was just a passageway. Once players passed through to the third floor, they could ignore it. But the Shark King was not so lucky.

His home had been completely taken over by the players. Every so often, a Slime would come over and bump into him a few times, then stare with its dazed, innocent eyes and ask, "Are you mad?"

If he ignored them, they would just keep bumping him.

If he beat them to death, they would return shortly after and resume bumping him.

As for their reasons, they were partly checking for a hidden questline and partly trying to commit suicide to go back and farm some Reincarnation Points.

The lower floors didn’t give many Reincarnation Points, but this method was fast.

And so, the Shark King was about to become the first boss to be literally annoyed to death by players.

Arriving on the third floor, Duan Fei saw that someone had already written information on how to pass the level on the walls.

"Go straight, keep jumping through mirrors, and you’ll reach the fourth floor."

"The fourth floor is a giant castle—and it’s absolutely, positively, unbelievably HUGE! It also reconfigures itself at regular intervals. So, we’re breaking through the walls to find the passage to the next floor."

"According to our Reconnaissance, the passage is probably in the mirror world, but the mirror world is too dangerous, so we can only operate on the outside for now."

"However, the mirror world has some overlap with the outside world. If we destroy the walls on the outside, the walls in the mirror world are destroyed too, so we know we’ve made the right choice."

"You’re welcome to join us in destroying the walls. All for one, and one for all!"

That last line was a recently popular slogan, a development Duan Fei hadn’t anticipated.

For some reason, the players’ collectivist spirit had been fully awakened. Every day, they frantically ran instances together, fought together, and shone brilliantly in their collective work.

You could say that wherever there were players, this slogan could be heard, and you would see their figures working tirelessly.

After stepping through the mirror opposite him, Duan Fei discovered the castle had completely changed.

He was in a massive, flat space. Looking into the distance, he could even see the floor and ceiling converge into a single black line on the horizon.

A guide for clearing the floor was written on the ground. It pointed in one direction and said: "Walk straight ahead. Whenever you see a mirror, go through it and keep walking. It won’t be long before you see the entrance to the next level."

Looking at the scene before him, Eight Desolates couldn’t help but exclaim, "The awesome power of the players! If it were just us searching, we wouldn’t have found this in three or four months."

"Yeah."

"But it’s also thanks to you, Duan Fei. Who would’ve thought that demolishing the place was actually the correct solution?"

"It’s not too late to kneel and kowtow three times."

"Get lost."

Having chosen their direction, the four Slimes set off again, soon finding a mirror and slipping through.

The once-sinister mirror world had also been transformed.

Some players had discovered that this gloomy atmosphere was caused partly by some kind of creature hidden in the mirrors and partly by the environment within the mirror world itself.

The mirror creatures would secretly exert psychological pressure, and the surrounding environment would amplify this feeling with its gloomy atmosphere and somber layout. This caused players to accumulate continuous mental pressure until they suddenly dropped dead.

Therefore, the solution was simply to make the surroundings less terrifying.

Large amounts of bioluminescent material were extracted from fish in the sea. This material was mixed with various colors to create glowing paints, which were then used to cover the entire mirror world.

Now, the place had been transformed into something like the Milky Way. Walking through the mirrors felt like running through a galaxy—lonesome, yet beautiful.

Marveling once again at the players’ creativity, they finally reached the fifth floor.

From this floor onward, the combat grew more frequent.

This floor was like a level of Hell that the Demon King had ripped out and forcibly inserted here.

Dark clouds hung over a white world, where white skeleton Monsters were piled up like mountains. The skeletons roamed randomly, relentlessly attacking any player they saw.

Compared to the previous floors, these skeletons were mostly useless. After all, besides being used as fertilizer, there wasn’t much else you could do with bone fragments.

Moreover, these skeletons were extremely formidable. Players with insufficient Attributes couldn’t withstand a single swing and would be sent packing on the spot.

However, they were facing players who were roughly equal in number but far more cunning and devious.

The once-terrifying Skeleton Valley had already been cleared out because the players discovered that the skeletons only spawned from graves.

Therefore, by simply clearing out the graveyard terrain, they could limit the skeletons’ spawn area.

Then, they narrowed the spawn area even further, forcing the skeletons to fall from a great height the moment they spawned, shattering on the ground below.

The skeletons’ bones were immediately incinerated, but their weapons could be salvaged.

These weapons were generated along with the skeletons and included shields, Secret Silver Long Sabers, Black Iron Daggers, and other metals.

Players would take these items out of the instance and throw them into smithies to be smelted. Players with forging-type classes used these materials to grind their Skills, and they could even bring benefits back to the real world after they left.

Looking at everything before him, Duan Fei couldn’t help but say, "I knew players were ridiculous, but I never expected them to be *this* ridiculous."

"I can’t believe it either. The terrifying fifth floor has been turned into a mob-farming base. Is there no limit to the players’ creative shenanigans?"

The four players killed five skeletons trapped in a pit, an act which activated the next passage. They jumped straight into the passage and instantly arrived on the sixth floor.

The starting area of the sixth floor was yet another supply point.

This supply point had been completely conquered by the players. The massive Skeleton King could only lie on the ground and play dead, letting players pass in and out of his body as they pleased.

’We’re so sorry, Skeleton King.’

’But what can you do? We’re the players.’