“This mechanism feels like it’s raising gu, pitting the strong against the strong…” Yueye watched the system update, the corner of her mouth twitching. She had a feeling that beasts had become a secondary threat to every team. The real threat was humanity itself.
Just moments ago, Yueye had finally decided to exchange her points for an electronic map. At the very least, she needed to keep up with the system…
A pale-blue electronic map lit up before Yueye, like a holographic projection in a sci-fi movie.
“Welcome to the Tactical Map System. This map will randomly refresh the locations of regional bosses once a month. After a boss is killed, every team will receive corresponding rewards. Since many powerful beings are stationed along the edge of the forest, we recommend that each team kill the regional bosses to earn reward points, then move toward the forest’s outskirts. Please confirm this update.” As soon as she opened the tactical map, its introduction sounded beside her ear.
Yueye could see herself as a tiny green arrow on the map. A small-looking circle around it was highlighted, like the minimap in a game. It seemed to mark the area the tactical map could detect…
“…This circle is huge.” Yueye noticed the map’s scale. The circle took up only a small part of the full tactical map, but when she zoomed in, she couldn’t help exclaiming in surprise.
The highlighted circle expanded until it filled the entire tactical map screen. Yueye could now clearly see that her current location was called Spider Jungle. Around the jungle, circles of different colors and sizes drifted aimlessly…
Her gaze focused on the nearest green dot. The map was surprisingly user-friendly: information about the dot immediately popped up.
“Hell Demon Spider. Level 1 monster. Reward points: 100. Kill reward: one pistol. Description: This creature was once wiped out by a powerful being, but later succeeded in killing an event participant. All participants are advised to be careful…” Yueye looked at the information, the corner of her mouth twitching. Wasn’t this the spider she’d just killed hundreds of? And that description made it pretty obvious… Yueye’s face darkened.
She looked toward the edge of the highlighted circle. A large, bright red circle sat there, perfectly still—a sign of extreme danger.
“Earth Bear. Level 5 monster. Reward points: 12,000. Kill rewards: one Earth Bear claw, 10 free attribute points, and one earth-element magic sword. Description: An Earth Bear spirit that wields the element of earth and possesses terrifying strength. Teams are advised never to approach enemies of this level.” The system’s description glowed red, an unmistakable warning of danger. Whatever this was, it had to be incredibly powerful.
“A monster of that level would probably wipe out any team,” White Radiance commented from the side.
“Green, blue, yellow, red—four danger levels. The red one probably has no upper limit…” White Radiance studied the tactical map, looking like a curious little kid as they analyzed it.
“What’s the highest level a monster can reach? White Radiance, do you know much about this world?” Yueye asked curiously. Even Level 5 monsters were marked red.
“If I remember right, there should be quite a few Level 9 beings in these woods. Maybe even stronger ones. After all, this is the largest forest in the world…” White Radiance thought for a moment, lightly tapping their lips with their right thumb as if pondering something.
“Master… have you noticed something?” White Radiance looked at the tactical map, a hint of puzzlement on their small face.
“Huh?”
“These aren’t all the beasts. The system has only randomly selected some of them, like elite monsters…” White Radiance and Yueye exchanged a look.
“So these marked beasts aren’t necessarily the strongest in the region? There could even be Level 9 monsters hiding in the shadows…?” A trace of fear appeared in Yueye’s eyes.
In a golden hall, the sound of a man and a woman arguing drifted out…
“Didn’t I tell you not to target that member of the Dragon Clan?!” The young man glared at the beautiful woman as if she’d done something terribly wrong.
“…I just wanted to see what would happen if a member of the Dragon Clan were attacked by the very companions she trusted.” A playful glint appeared in the beautiful woman’s eyes.
“And I wanted to see whether our system could control these visitors from another world and make them help us fight The Void…” The beautiful woman ignored the young man, as if she’d planned all of this from the very beginning.
“What you’re doing serves no purpose. You’re only making this competition more complicated…” The young man sounded helpless.
“A little more complicated is fine. We don’t know whether The Void is just as complicated. Besides, we have nothing to lose by doing this. And it may not be a bad thing for her, either… She should know how her people fell to humanity…” The beautiful woman turned away, no longer paying the young man any attention. She knew this was for the good of the world—and for the Dragon Clan, who owed her something.
“All right. You’re right. We should make this competition more complicated so we can face the crisis that’s coming.” The young man nodded, giving in.
Su Lin and the others had stopped in the woods, also affected by the system’s recent update. They were discussing what to do next.
“Su Lin, what do you make of this system?” Zhu Yue said to Su Lin beside her.
“Let’s leave it alone for now. We can’t handle any of this yet.” Su Lin looked at the circles of different sizes and colors on the map, feeling even less sure of himself.
“Shouldn’t we go look for Yueye first?” Liu Huiying still wouldn’t let go of the subject of Yueye. The reason the group had rejoined Su Lin was that he’d caught up with them and promised to take them to find Yueye.
“We should get out of Spider Jungle first. Yueye should’ve left already, too…” Su Lin couldn’t shake the feeling that something about this area made him uneasy.
“All right…” Liu Huiying understood that she couldn’t let her feelings get in the way right now, so she obediently went along with the plan.
“The system’s mechanics have changed a lot. We’re short on reward points, so I think we should consider taking on that spider…” Su Lin tentatively asked the ten people still around him.
“Are you crazy?” Zhao Zhihua looked completely bewildered, as if Su Lin’s suggestion were unbelievable.
“Honestly, we don’t have much left. We urgently need more reward points. We’ve already fought those spiders, so we know their habits. And the system says there’s only one of them. Why shouldn’t we give it a try?” Su Lin’s thoughts raced, and a clear plan began to take shape in his mind.
