Chapter 304 - 69: Former Scenery, Former Companions

After dealing with the problems here, Duan Fei immediately boarded the carriage prepared by the secret agent, Kate, and set off for the other entrances.

Thanks to the players’ major infrastructure projects during this period, simple roads now connected the various Dungeon entrances.

The road-building Demons were a type of enormous snail. As they moved across the ground, they would secrete a special mucus that compacted the soil, forming a solid foundation.

Next came a creature resembling a Holy Beetle, which was obsessed with creating flat surfaces to build traps.

Finally, there were imps who could cast Magic; they loved making the ground perfectly smooth and level.

By combining these three, a high-quality, low-cost road could be built.

Thus, as Duan Fei traveled, he would often see a group of players fleeing up ahead with a horde of Demons in hot pursuit. He even spotted his old acquaintance, Bystander A, using a taunt to pull aggro. This bunch of Slimes had made the whole vibe of the world incredibly strange.

Every time he arrived at a new place, Duan Fei would quickly use his Summoning to reform all the local Lords and guards.

This Magic would awaken a person’s deepest sense of guilt, causing them to repent sincerely.

Of course, some people were simply born without guilt; for them, oppressing the innocent was as natural as breathing.

However, the players would soon rally the populace to string those people up as a public sacrifice, taking the opportunity to install a better Lord in their place.

After five days of non-stop travel, Duan Fei had covered the entire vicinity. He finally managed to make a portion of the Kingdom’s Lords repent, allowing the players in those areas to resume their normal activities.

Some places were too difficult to reach, with the journey taking too much time. So, the players in those areas simply relocated, moving directly to the "Summoned" territories to begin clearing the dungeons there.

Unfortunately, the royal court was on the far side of the realm. Otherwise, Duan Fei had been planning to find the King and use Summoning on him, just to see what the man was thinking.

Once he felt he had done enough, Duan Fei ended his journey, quickly returned to his home base, and received an important piece of news.

While he had been away, the players had already reached the tenth floor.

Led by Eight Desolates and the others, Duan Fei followed an existing guide to the ninth floor. After setting his own record there, he finally laid eyes on the tenth floor.

The tenth floor was where the real Hell began.

There was lava everywhere, evil everywhere. As far as the eye could see, there was nothing but nests of twisted flesh and blood.

Hordes of Little Demons spawned from these nests. The moment they were born, they began attacking one another, devouring the corpses of their own kind to evolve and grow stronger.

Who knows how long this floor had existed, but countless Demons of all shapes and sizes had evolved here, turning it into a place of pandemonium.

Unfortunately for them, they ran into the players.

Not long after arriving, the third-ranked player, Changshan Zhao Zilong, successfully soloed the Demons. Armed with just a kitchen cleaver, he hacked his way from the entrance to the exit, and then hacked his way back again.

Afterward, when Little Drilling Wind interviewed him and asked if he did it to emulate the heroes of old, the shy young man replied helplessly, "I have a terrible sense of direction. I got lost."

Eight Desolates’ team quickly closed the gap. After all, while his subordinates were excellent at gathering intelligence, he was their only top-tier player.

However, with the help of the Spiritual Elixirs Duan Fei had left behind, he, Cuihua, Jinghong, and Darts Guest worked together. The four of them still managed to carve a bloody path straight to the exit of the tenth floor.

Moreover, with the guide now published, it was only a matter of time before most players understood the floor’s main points, making it even easier to clear.

Knowing that Eight Desolates had already fought his way here, Duan Fei asked in confusion, "Then why haven’t you all gone to the eleventh floor?"

"We’re waiting for you," Eight Desolates said. "You’ve done some incredible things lately. Everyone on the forums is saying that you, Duan Someone, are a saint who’s been reincarnated nine times, going around and bringing salvation to tyrants. They’ve even written epic ballads about you. So we waited here for you. Going to the eleventh floor together will be more ceremonial."

Jinghong nodded, activated her Profession’s special effect, and began to sing earnestly: "Oh, Duan Someone, do not fear, come up on the stage and hear, hear! First there was Saint Jesus, who took on all sins in his youth. Now there’s you, who travels far to bring peace to the land, one Summoning to scare the guts right out of evil men, oh, right out of evil men!"

"What the hell is that!" Duan Fei couldn’t help but yell. "This East-meets-West fusion is just too weird! The melody is actually pretty good, but the lyrics are completely bonkers!"

"Bonkers?" Jinghong looked a little hurt. "I thought I wrote them pretty well."

"...Suddenly, I think it sounds great."

The nearby players frowned as they watched the two of them. You could smell the sickeningly sweet stench of romance from a mile away.

’Why haven’t those two gotten hitched already?’

Now that Duan Fei had arrived, the assault on the eleventh floor could begin.

Besides Duan Fei, another guest had also been invited.

It was Miss Witch.

When she heard that the Slimes had passed the tenth floor relying on her notes, Miss Witch’s first reaction was disbelief.

But when she arrived on the tenth floor and personally witnessed the players constructing crude fortifications and connecting the entrance to the exit, she finally believed it.

Walking on the scorched, sallow earth of the tenth floor, she discovered that everything had changed.

The once-dangerous tenth floor was completely different now.

She still remembered the scene when she and her companions first set foot on the tenth floor.

The sky was burning, volcanoes spewed lava, and mountain-sized nests churned out Little Demons. Like a flood, these Little Demons would begin to devour everything in sight the moment they were born, evolving into even more dangerous Demons.

The air always stank of sulfur, the water was perpetually boiling and reeked of decay, and terrifying mimics lay in wait at every step. One had to be on the highest alert just to move forward.

But even then, they had only made it halfway before being forced to stop. The closer they got to the exit, the stronger the Demons became. The terror was something they simply couldn’t handle. In the end, they could only entrust their mission to others, letting them inherit their will and press onward.

After that, she gave up her dream of exploration, even giving up on being an Adventurer.

Yet even after leaving, she would jolt awake every night, haunted by what she had seen on the tenth floor. The memories had become a Nightmare, robbing her of sleep night after night.

But returning here now, the Witch suddenly found everything to be so simple.

The nests were already under control. Biologists were deducing their production principles based on the surrounding environment. Newborn Little Demons were processed into fertilizer before they even had a Reaction, then shipped to the outside world to improve the soil.

Mystics were studying the Demons’ evolutionary power. Massive Demons were trapped in glass containers, being sliced up for research, with a group of biologists standing by to offer suggestions.

This group in white lab coats... they looked more demonic than the Demons themselves.

’But for some reason, this is incredibly satisfying.’

Taking a deep breath, the Witch felt her previous Nightmare fading away. Her heart was calm. She felt she could finally get a good night’s sleep, even without her Sleep Elixir.

Watching the players tirelessly researching everything around them, the Witch felt that this group of Slimes might actually be able to defeat the Demon King.

’Looks like it’s time to call on some old friends.’