24 Chapter 23: Whales Racing Against Time [3/3, Please Collect and Follow~]_1
Translator: 549690339
Mu Yuan is a diligent, hard-working, morally-upstanding youth in the modern era. However, to gather information, he has to join the extreme chaos here and blend into the quirky players of the forum.
Yes, it’s all for the sake of gathering information.
“My activity range in the gaming world is still very limited, and the things I’ve come into contact with are sparse. I have to broaden my horizons through the forum and to take a peek at the current progress of other greenhands.”
Mu Yuan glanced at his Evolution Points and evolved the tenth Skeleton Soldier ‘Bone Ten’.
Currently, his dilapidated village had one Skeleton Warrior, nine Skeleton Soldiers, five Little Skeletons, one Falcon, and one Big Slime.
They have more than enough to stand guard for the night.
Mu Yuan hadn’t planned to let Dead Bone venture out to hunt by himself. He had earned a lot of Soul Sand today, which should be used to give Dead Bone more cultivation time to advance to level 5 and 6 more quickly.
He heard that some top whales would deliberately leave several three-star troops at home to cultivate day and night without doing anything else. Other soldiers would go out exploring and fighting monsters while the player themselves acquired resources for levelling up from reality. Everything was done to create a few first-team level troops.
Compared to that, his own Dead Bone was of a rare level, but without auxiliary materials and the need to go hunting to earn money, his level up progress was probably slower than the main force of the top whales.
He was indeed too weak.
Let’s take a look at the other competitors.
“Grass, grass, grass, grass, out of my ten initial soldiers, only four remain. Where’s the official rescue team? If they don’t come, I will be screwed tonight!”
“We’re on the way, we got tangled with a bipedal flying dragon on the road and it took a while to shake it off. Our rescue team is not having it easy either, remember to give us a five-star review, darling.”
“Damn this game is unreasonable! Who other than whales can withstand the monsters’ repeated attacks? It’s just impossible to withstand!”
“It’s not just about withstanding, I’m staring at the computer all day and I don’t dare to sleep because I’m afraid of missing something. I feel worn out!”
“Indeed, the last time I wasn’t paying attention, my damn troops rushed up and got themselves killed… These initial troops are both noobs and stupid. Probably only whales are able to defend their territory securely.”
“Indeed, the advantage of whales is too significant, far beyond Ou Huang. Even though I got three three-star elf archers at the beginning, it’s still difficult for me. I have only just obtained three random Remnant Souls and recruited two one-star soldiers and a two-star soldier. Too hard.”
“Ou Huang, eat my spear!”
Looking at himself, after working hard all day, Mu Yuan had only managed to gain a dozen Remnantsouls. Truly, it was too difficult.
That was his reply under the posts.
But these posts didn’t have much nutritional value, and Mu Yuan only browsed for an hour before moving on with great willpower to find more valuable posts.
「Hua Shan Sword Fight, Current Prominent Newbies Review (Continuously updating, don’t rush…)」
The post was from a greasy veteran player called ‘First-hand Information Dealer, No Price Gap from Middleman’ who often loitered in the newbie area.
He listed some newbies who were already well-known, most of whom were whales, but there were differences among the whales too.
Krypton Gold and getting an array of three-star soldiers at the beginning was only the start. The extent to which they could develop subsequently also depended on the abilities of the whales themselves…and on whether they kept receiving a steady flow of Krypton Gold support.
「Newbie ‘Luo Baiwan’, two and a half day into the game, reason for review: This afternoon, with the sacrifice of 19 three-star soldiers, he captured a Projection Point of the Remnant Soul and recruited a rare one-star soldier ‘Ironclad Scorpion’. My evaluation is: “Decisive in action, promising future.”」
Mu Yuan was clear about the Projection Point of the Remnant Soul.
Some of the stronger Remnantsouls, like the rare level Remnantsouls, would often not be dropped by monsters, but instead were nurtured by nature like treasures and existed in the corners of the world.
At the same time, these powerful soul bodies would reveal external phenomena, such as forming the halo projection of the corresponding troop type.
The arrival of even more top-tier souls of generals was said to be like the birth of a treasure, with magnificent light soaring into the sky.
…Above was mostly hearsay bragged and blown out of proportions by the old folks in the forum.
But many times, rare level Remnantsouls could indeed be detected from far away. At the same time, not weak monsters would gather around these Remnantsouls that had produced halo projections.
But,
“Is it worth it to sacrifice as many as 19 three-star troops just to recruit a single rare soldier?”
“A single rare soldier can’t possibly defeat that many three-star soldiers. This seems like a decrease in combat power, losses exceeding gains.”
Even Emperor Dead Bone can’t possibly confront nineteen ‘Bone Two, Bone Three’ head-on, let alone a regular rare rank soldier.
He scrolled down.
Indeed, curious bystanders didn’t need his prompt to ask similar questions.
“How many three-star soldiers can a rare soldier take on? Even if a rare soldier possesses skills, how many can he execute? He might shrink after a single move.”
An experienced player underneath commented, “A rare soldier won’t shrink after a single move, however, most rare soldiers can’t execute anything during the early stages. For an apprentice level to execute skills accurately is not that easy.”
“Rare soldiers also need constant practice to master the skills imprinted into their soul, which might take about ten to fifteen days. Of course, as the soldier rank improves and they grow stronger, this time can shorten, but at the very least, they need to practice for five to seven days.”
This explanation left the other players, especially the new ones, even more puzzled.
If a rare soldier can’t use their skills, isn’t that the same as a larger sized three-star soldier? Maybe just barely enough to manage a one-on-two fight.
Mu Yuan also found it perplexing.
Rare soldiers require practice to execute skills, which is as expected… but rare soldiers need to train THAT long just to learn to use their skills properly? That’s a bit too much, right?
He deemed it unfit to bring Emperor Dead Bone up for comparison. His not-so-smart ‘Bone Two’, a mere three-star soldier, managed to master the ‘Cleave’ skill in less than two days of training. During their recent siege of the Goblin Camp, ‘Bone Two’ managed to execute ‘Cleave’ three times consecutively in a short timeframe.
Could it be that ‘Bone Two’ is not stupid, but in fact, somewhat smart?
But ‘Cleave’ always leaves a ‘big hole.’ It’s tough for Mu Yuan to associate ‘Bone Two’ with the term ‘smart.’
This experienced player’s statement somehow made the rare soldiers seem even more lame. The cost of sacrificing numerous three-star soldiers didn’t seem to be worth it after all?
“But that’s not how the calculations should work.”
“First of all, ‘Luo Baiwan’ is an elite whale, backed by a veteran lord. He’s not lacking in three-star soldiers. However, it’s not easy to recruit a rare soldier who will obey him wholeheartedly.”
“Secondly, it’s clear that Luo Baiwan wants to rank on the leaderboard during the Lord Trial to receive gifts bestowed by heaven. What he will gain far outweighs the small cost he incurred, he’s racing against time.”
An experienced player mentioned, “The gap between rare soldiers and ordinary soldiers is massive; it only shows up gradually as the level rises. Especially when the soldiers transition into the professional level and start utilising power, the difference between a skill-possessing rare soldier and a completely blank three-star soldier is enormous.”
“New players only have one month of preparation time for the Lord Trial. Luo Baiwan can indeed wait until his three-star soldiers level up and then go to capture the Projection Point of the Remnant Soul. The losses he would incur would be significantly reduced then, even potentially taking it down without any losses. But….”
“By then, half a month of the newbie preparation period would have already passed. Even if he recruits a rare soldier then and starts training, how far can he level up when the trial comes?”
“They are racing against time, hoping to escalate their trump card to the professional level before the trial arrives, ensuring their success in the battle.”
“Hence, the elite player gave the appraisal ‘decisive actions, promising future.’ You new players should learn a lesson.”
Learn what, how to spend krypton gold?
In all fairness, are we greenhands not decisive? No, we just don’t have enough money!
Countless greenhands left their bitter tears in the forum.
Mu Yuan’s evaluation was, “Better to evolve.”
He will soon be able to evolve all Little Skeletons into Skeleton Soldiers. Afterwards, he might evolve one or two into Skeleton Warriors, or continue training his trump card, allowing the Dead Bone to advance to the next stage.
“Xuan Country is indeed a place where heroes and dragons reside. As a mature soldier, ‘Bone,’ you must support the territory.”