Inside the Heavenly Dao World.
Chu Tian had arrived at the third level of the General's Tomb.
The violent bombardment from above had faded into insignificance.
"Ding... Alert: The virtual pod you are in is under external attack!"
Chu Tian was startled and quickly opened the 360-degree, all-angle cameras in his game interface.
He happened to see figures running outside.
"Holy crap... what's going on?"
As soon as he spoke, he saw a figure charge towards his virtual pod again.
Its eyes were filled with excitement and madness.
It let out a sound, "Ya, heh heh heh..."
Then, it prostrated itself on Chu Tian's virtual pod and began to pry at the cabin door with great force!
The next second, this figure was sent flying by a high-voltage current from the virtual pod.
"What is Xiao Hei doing?"
Before he could finish speaking, Xiao Hei charged back again!
"Just a little bit more, just a little bit more, just a little bit more..." The guy was acting possessed, muttering to himself.
He was knocked flying again and again.
Chu Tian received repeated alert notifications.
He brought up the external communication function, preparing to ask them what they were doing.
But then he remembered that they were not connected to the Heavenly Dao.
His mobile signal couldn't connect.
He finally gave up.
The incessant alerts were making him agitated.
Xiao Hei was like a persistent cockroach.
Again and again, and again.
It annoyed Chu Tian so much that he finally found the alarm muting button!
His ears finally quieted down...
The third level of the General's Tomb was a spawn point for Corpse Guard Warriors and Javelin Corpse Guards.
With ranged monsters, it was no longer suitable for grinding levels.
Besides, he wasn't here to level up; he was just seeking refuge.
He found a corner against the wall, a spot where no monsters spawned, and stopped.
He opened his inventory to check his items.
He needed to find a way to resolve this trouble.
Dao Tian's intention was that if he didn't deal with that guy,
He might be trapped here.
This time, his physical body hadn't come along.
Although Chu Tian's virtual pod was worth over thirty million and had a life support system,
Without replenishment, it couldn't last too long.
Furthermore, the nutrient injection port for the virtual pod was inside the pod itself.
Even if someone was outside, they couldn't help him replenish it.
This was to prevent outsiders from poisoning his nutrient fluid or worse,
Which was why the nutrient injection point was designed to be inside the pod.
He opened his inventory and scanned all the items.
His gaze swept over them, and then locked onto one item.
[General's Token (Fragment)]
Description: 100 fragments can be combined to form a General's Token.
Holders of the General's Token can enter the General's Palace without hindrance.
Introduction: Monsters killed for the first time have a higher drop rate. The entire General's Palace yields a total of 100 fragments. Once the quantity is reached, no more will drop.
Seeing this item, Chu Tian looked at the quantity displayed in the lower right corner.
It showed (29).
This meant he had 29 General's Token fragments.
He still needed 71 more to forge the General's Token.
Legend had it that the General's Palace was on the last floor of this map.
Even in his previous life, no one had ever entered it.
In fact, no one even knew how many floors the General's Tomb had.
Because by the eighth floor, the monster levels were already level 147.
The monster density on each floor of the General's Tomb increased with each level.
When they reached the ninth floor, the entrance was blocked by an endless stream of ranged monsters, specifically the Javelin Corpse Guards that had already appeared on this third level.
Javelin Corpse Guards had extremely long attack ranges, and they were all clustered at the entrance.
Moreover, the Javelin Corpse Guards on the ninth floor were as high as level 157.
Anyone who entered would not be able to withstand their focused fire even once.
Even the most elite Shield Warriors from his previous life,
Upon entering, would be shot full of holes the moment they passed through the portal.
The only profession that could forcibly enter was the [Divine Shield Knight].
This was the title awarded to a Paladin after their level 60 job change.
They possessed the Holy Shield skill.
It was an invincible shield that could immune all damage.
It lasted for 8 seconds!
Someone once tried to have the [Divine Shield Knights] enter first to draw aggro.
Then allow the rest of the team to follow.
However, an unexpected situation arose: the Javelin Corpse Guards on the ninth floor had a more advanced AI.
After the [Divine Shield Knight] entered and activated their Holy Shield,
They were not attacked at all; even if someone attacked them, they couldn't draw aggro.
Instead, those who entered later immediately had to face their aggression.
Someone then thought of forming a Holy Shield Knight Brigade and activating their Holy Shields simultaneously to enter and clear the mobs.
Unfortunately, the Holy Shield's invincibility only lasted for 8 seconds.
After each entry, there was only 8 seconds of attack time.
The [Divine Shield Knight] was also a melee profession; even if they were ordered to charge and focus fire, surrounding a group of monsters, at most only 6 of them could attack it.
It was impossible to activate simultaneously and kill a monster in seconds.
In the end, this plan... also fell through!
Thinking of this, Chu Tian's attention immediately turned to the General's Token.
In his previous life, because many people entered here,
The General's Token fragments were scattered among various players.
Someone had spent a high price to acquire them, wanting to collect all one hundred.
However, in the end, three pieces were still missing, and they were not fully collected.
In fact, Chu Tian's idea was that the holders of those three pieces,
Were likely waiting for an opportunity to make their move at the last moment.
To gain the greatest profit!
In this life, only he was in the entire General's Tomb.
Chu Tian smiled...
As long as fragments dropped, wouldn't they be his?
Since this place was called the General's Tomb... and this General's Token led directly to the General's Palace.
Was there a super monster there...
No...
Wouldn't those who entered the General's Tomb with the General's Token be like lambs to the slaughter?
It seemed the General's Token must have some other meaning.
Otherwise, Dao Tian wouldn't have designed such a thing with the super cosmic brain he got from the first world, just to let people die.
Moreover, the design of this Heavenly Dao World wasn't entirely controlled by the cosmic brain.
A portion of it was constructed based on the real world.
In Dao Tian's words, that place wasn't a world, nor was it a planet.
It was a peculiar place.
...
Since he had a direction, he had to work hard.
He said he wasn't here to level up, but it seemed...
Killing monsters was inevitable!
He closed his inventory and slowly retreated.
The third level of the General's Tomb had monsters at level 87.
He was currently level 62, and the level gap was too large, making killing difficult.
Moreover, there were Javelin Corpse Guards here.
It was extremely difficult to find a spot for kiting monsters.
So Chu Tian chose to return to the second level to clear the monsters.
Last time, he had killed hundreds of monsters and dropped 29 General's Token fragments.
This drop rate wasn't low.
The description on the General's Token fragment stated that monsters killed for the first time had a higher drop rate.
It might be because Chu Tian was killing monsters with a level advantage, which inherently had a higher drop rate.
Coupled with the fact that those Corpse Guard Warriors were killed for the first time,
That's why he managed to get so many fragments.
Each floor of the General's Palace was vast; perhaps if he cleared all the Corpse Guard Warriors on this second level,
He would have enough fragments!
He decided to do it.
He returned to the second level of the General's Tomb.
The roaring sound from above was still ongoing.
That guy probably wasn't tired, Chu Tian thought to himself.
However, speaking of which, this General's Tomb was truly sturdy.
Even with so many support pillars broken,
That incredibly powerful dead crow still hadn't brought the General's Tomb down!
He first familiarized himself with the terrain on the second level.
He identified several broken stone pillars as kiting spots.
The monsters were extremely dense around these pillars.
So Chu Tian began his monster-luring technique, once again becoming this corpse herder.
No, he was a leopard being herded by corpses.
His weapon had also been switched to the beginner village artifact.
He was now level 62, and his true damage had reached 124.
Although it was still a drizzle against monsters with millions of health,
It couldn't withstand the high frequency of his various DoT and AoE skills.
His monster-slaying speed was still acceptable, as he was luring hundreds of Corpse Guard Warriors at once.
Calculated this way, each instance of damage trigger,
With hundreds of Corpse Guard Warriors losing health simultaneously,
Resulted in over 10,000 damage each time!
Although... the monsters died a little slowly.
But... when they died, they fell in swarms.
...
Chu Tian was grinding monsters in the General's Tomb day and night!
In the real world, however, chaos ensued.
In the blink of an eye, three days had passed.
The Heavenly Dao World, which had been open for half a year,
Had been in server maintenance for these three days.
Everyone, accustomed to entering the Heavenly Dao World at night for the past six months,
Was suddenly experiencing discomfort due to the continuous three-day server maintenance.
Countless people posted inquiries on the Heavenly Dao World official website, but as usual, their messages disappeared into the void.
It was as if the Heavenly Dao Company had no operating staff at all.
Since the game's launch,
Chu Tian had never seen any official announcements from Heavenly Dao!
It was a complete "play it or don't play" attitude.
In the past, during the intense competition of older games,
Players would have likely revolted, and other than die-hard fans, other players would have already quit.
However, the Heavenly Dao World was different; it was the only real virtual game in the world.
It was truly a "play it or don't play" situation; if you didn't play, you couldn't play.
Before the Heavenly Dao World was launched, it had monopolized all global online game giants.
All older games had ceased operation.
If you didn't play the Heavenly Dao World now, there was nothing else for you to play unless it was a single-player mini-game like Minesweeper.
...
In Chu Tian's room in the Ma family's pocket dimension.
Luo Luo had practically stayed here all along.
Having known Chu Tian for so long, too many strange things had happened to him.
Many of these events were unexplainable.
If it were in the past, Luo Luo would never have believed that there were other spaces in this world, or even the underworld that Chu Tian spoke of.
As a realist, Luo Luo's worldview collapsed.
Previously, if someone said there were ghosts,
She would only think of them as spirit users.
After all, she came from a martial arts family.
But she had never imagined there were so-called universes 1 through 9.
This was Kai Xing, not even counting this universe, but a place outside these nine universes.
In the blink of an eye, seven days had passed.
The Heavenly Dao World had still not reopened.
Chu Tian's virtual pod's nutrient fluid had been depleted two days ago.
For the past two days, Luo Luo had hardly left Chu Tian's room.
This included Yin Yiran.
It seemed that besides Chu Tian, Yin Yiran was most attached to Luo Luo.
She would only listen to Little Dragon Girl when she was very, very hungry.
The other women also frequently stayed here.
And Chu Tian could see them all from the cameras!
At this moment, Chu Tian's face was grim!
Gazing at her haggard face, his heart was restless today.
The roaring sound from above was deafening.
Chu Tian knew that the first level of the General's Tomb had collapsed.
Just two days ago, when the system had just alerted him that his nutrient fluid was depleted,
A massive roaring sound came from above, like the collapse of a building.
He glanced at his inventory; General's Token fragments were at 98.
He still needed two more...
And, on the second day he entered,
Gao Kai and Jing Kaiyu came to his room looking for Luo Luo.
Chu Tian overheard a conversation.
Zhao Lei was missing!
Ma Deju had confirmed one thing.
That was that the entrance to the Ma family's pocket dimension had been opened from the inside once.
He suspected it was Zhao Lei's doing!
After they entered the pocket dimension, for the convenience of their travels,
Ma Deju had given each of them a temporary entry and exit token.
Those who carried this token could open the pocket dimension.
Entry and exit required carrying it on them; each token only allowed the carrier to enter and exit.
Moreover, it was bound by vital blood.
This meant that no one else who obtained this token could use it to enter or exit the Ma family's pocket dimension!
Listening to the roaring sound from above, coupled with Zhao Lei's predicament, Chu Tian became increasingly anxious.
Seeing Luo Luo's haggard face made his heart ache even more.
"Still need two more... it seems there are no more monsters killed for the first time on the second level! I'll have to find a way on the third level!"
Rumble... rumble...
Giant rocks fell from the sky.
Two loud bangs echoed from the dome above!
A beam of purple light suddenly pierced through the dome, shining into the General's Tomb!
A hole the size of a truck appeared!
Chu Tian's heart skipped a beat.