Chapter 77. The Stingiest S-Rank Secret Realm...
As soon as they stepped out of the secret realm, they were greeted by a barren, yellow land and the constant roars of monsters echoing in their ears, though the sounds were not loud and seemed to come from a distance.
The group of ten walked forward for over a kilometer, then crossed the fence and looked down.
Below the cliff were countless monsters, each the size and number of an army of ants.
Through the clouds, one could vaguely see some fist-sized explosions and fingernail-sized skill-launching lights below.
Every so often, you could see a small patch of land marked out by some unknown professional teams as a base for fighting monsters and gaining experience.
Lin Xiaoxiao held Red Tail in her arms, peeked down a few times, then silently looked away, appearing uninterested.
The other members of the team were very interested in this secret place, and they all leaned on the railing and peered down.
After all, they had always longed for this secret realm, also known as the "Experience Creation Ground," but they hadn't reached the required level before and therefore didn't have the means to enter.
If it weren't for Xiao Weizhi's mission requiring the killing of two million level 100 monsters, they probably wouldn't have been able to enter for another year or so.
Xiao Weizhi put his arm around Lin Xiaoxiao's shoulder, turned his head and asked in a low voice, "Don't you like it here?"
Lin Xiaoxiao leaned against Xiao Weizhi's chest, idly stroking the red-tailed dog in her arms, and replied to him in a listless tone, "It's alright."
This lousy secret realm offers nothing but experience points; there's not even a blade of grass, let alone any resources. The monster cores, pelts, and flesh you get from monster drops have to be handed over to the secret realm management office.
They're just paid laborers, what's so likable about them?
"Boss, let's go down and find a base too," Wang Hao said excitedly.
Jiang Tao braced his hands on the railing, with most of his body leaning out, his neck stretched out, and his head sticking down. He was about to fall when Liu Huihui reached out and pulled him back by the back of his neck and collar.
Chen Feng turned on the communicator and projected the 5D stereoscopic semi-transparent map model that he had downloaded at the registration desk into the air.
The map shows the terrain of this secret realm and the approximate area of the monsters.
However, the level of the area where the monster is located is not indicated on it.
Chen Feng crossed his arms over his chest, looked at the map in front of him, and frowned, forming a faint "川" shape: "Which direction should we go now?"
Li Junxuan pointed to a recessed valley on the map and suggested, "I think this place is quite good. It's good for both offense and defense, and there's a natural defensive position behind it."
Liu Huihui pointed to another spot on the map, a cliff with a small platform three meters high: "This place is nice."
Wang Hao also joined in the fun, pointing to the large stone steps on the other side that looked like stairs, grinning and showing his teeth: "Here, here, I'll set up the turrets here and Xiaoxiao here, one on each side, and the boss will stand in the middle, we can sweep everything away."
Jiang Tao pointed...
Lin Xiaoxiao watched her friends excitedly choosing a place, a slight smile playing on her lips, her beautiful big eyes curving into cute little crescents.
These people are well-chosen; their positions are all within the following level ranges: 40, 60, 50, and 70.
There is no monster in any direction that has reached level 100.
Xiao Weizhi was originally focused on finding a base in that location when he caught a glimpse of Lin Xiaoxiao's amused smile and quickly realized that Wang Hao and his group had chosen a bad place.
He reached up and pushed up his glasses, asking gently, "Xiaoxiao, which place do you think is better?"
Lin Xiaoxiao glanced at Xiao Weizhi with a smile, patted the red-tailed dog in her arms, and casually stuffed it into his arms. Pointing to a location on the map that was difficult to defend from three sides, she suggested, "How about that place?"
The location she pointed to only had a mountain wall about 3 meters high behind it; the rest of the area was completely empty, making it look like an indefensible stronghold.
Xiao Weizhi, holding Hongwei, carefully examined the spot she pointed to and nodded: "Okay, here it is."
The group, who had been arguing, immediately stopped arguing heatedly and returned to their usual friendly teamwork mode when Lin Xiaoxiao chose a spot and Xiao Weizhi agreed.
After walking along the sky ladder for more than an hour, we successfully arrived at the location where we would take the suspended elevator down.
Beside the suspended elevator were a dozen or so professionals dressed in uniform tan work clothes; they were the staff who operated and managed the suspended elevator and looked after the barrier.
The barrier was set up more than 400 meters above the ground, and was colorless and formless.
Only occasionally, from a certain angle, one could vaguely see a barrier that resembled a semi-transparent membrane, enveloping all the monsters below and preventing them from breaking out of the secret realm.
The staff handed over several wristbands and gently reminded, "If you encounter any monsters that you can't handle after you go down, you can press this distress signal ring, and staff will come down to help within five minutes."
"But the first time is free; each subsequent request for help will require a support fee of 600,000 gold coins."
"You can choose to set up your own campsite outside, or you can come back here to check in. The hotel is..."
The entire Dragon Fang team looked in the direction the staff pointed and discovered that there was actually a hotel in this secret realm that looked quite nice.
The hotel is built against the cliff face and has about eight floors.
The exterior decoration is made by polishing large rock slabs into thin pieces and inlaying them, with various dragon-themed relief patterns, like the kind of hotel that is deliberately built in scenic areas, which looks very unique.
The members of Longya were eager to try staying at this hotel for a night.
Lin Xiaoxiao watched with amusement as her friends became restless, anticipating their utterly devastated reactions upon learning the truth about the hotel.
After all the precautions were explained by the staff, the entire Dragon Tooth team slowly descended on the floating ladder.
When the suspended elevator reached the bottom, the staff member controlling it gave a sincere and natural smile: "Wishing you all good luck in your endeavors and many upgrades."
Xiao Weizhi remained silent, so Chen Feng could only take over, nodding in response: "Thank you for your congratulations."
Then the group followed the direction of the bottom of the cliff and headed towards the place they had chosen earlier.
Upon arriving near the destination, Li Junxuan, with a shield raised, roared angrily, and scattered scales appeared on his arms.
He bravely withstood hundreds of swarming monsters and pushed forward about thirteen meters, creating a safe space for his teammates behind him to position themselves and deal damage.
Xiao Weizhi's eyes, hidden behind his glasses, flashed with a fierce light. He raised the short staff he had bought in the city of Yorbonde. It was half a person tall, shaped like a torch, and the metal on the staff emitted a faint glow even without sunlight. He then drew three and a half circles in mid-air.
The magic stone at the top of the staff glowed faintly, and a fiery red magic circle with a diameter of twelve meters appeared out of thin air dozens of meters above the ground. Fireballs the size of basketballs fell vertically downwards like rain.
The moment they came into contact with the monster, blinding red lights rose up, forming a continuous explosion zone.
[Congratulations to the Dragon Fang Squad for defeating the level 101 Lulu Beast, gaining 3424 experience points...]
[Congratulations to the Dragon Fang Squad for defeating the level 102 Earth Beast, gaining 412 experience points...]
...
With experience gained one after another, the team panel was quickly flooded with messages, sometimes more than a dozen per second.
A huge plume of smoke enveloped the monsters and the Dragon Fang Squad members.
"Cough cough cough—" One after another, coughs rang out in the team, choked by thick smoke and dust.
Lin Xiaoxiao coughed lightly and fanned her nose with her hand, trying to clear away the smoke and dust swirling around her nose.
Xiao Weizhi took out a mask from his spatial storage, skillfully put it on her face, and then reached out to adjust the straps behind her ears, carefully ensuring the mask fit her face perfectly.
His tone was friendly and natural: "Wouldn't this be better?"
Lin Xiaoxiao brushed the stray hairs from her cheeks and tucked them behind her ears, nodding, "Feeling better."
Once the dust settled, the Dragon Fang Squad had all taken their positions in the 1, 3, 4, and 2 formation, each member holding a weapon and focused intently on attacking the monster in front of them.
Lin Xiaoxiao took out the turret, set it up at the 3 o'clock position, sat on a high chair, and kept her thumb pressed on the fire button. Countless gold coins were fired in all directions, forming a continuous explosion zone.
Because she currently has the highest level in the team, she ranks second in damage output, closely following Xiao Weizhi.
Redtail followed Jiang Tao out and played happily among the dense horde of monsters.
On the fortress, they huddled together in the small basket Lin Xiaoxiao had prepared, intently munching on the nuts in their hands.
Behind the team were several wireless, energy-powered industrial fans that blew back the thick smoke and dust that were blowing in from all directions, adding a touch of coolness to the team members in the scorching environment.
One hour, two hours... five hours.
With Cheng Cheng's mana regeneration ability and the mana regeneration equipment he carried, Xiao Weizhi transformed into a human turret, standing still and unleashing a barrage of attacks.
During this time, his teammates took turns resting once or twice, but his feet seemed to be rooted to the ground, and he continued to work without moving.
The colorful magic circles in the sky were stacked one on top of another, layer upon layer, displaying lightning, fireballs, and wind blades...
Except for the team's location, the entire area was enveloped by dense skills, leaving no gaps in sight.
The monsters fell in waves, and then new monsters would rush up, stepping on the bodies of those who had fallen.
Wang Haolan's energy level dropped to 20%. He threw his weapon aside, pulled over a folding chair, and plopped down next to Lin Xiaoxiao, Cheng Cheng, and Huang Yuwei. He casually pulled a wet wipe from the tissue box on the table to wipe the dust off his face.
He sighed, staring in Xiao Weizhi's direction: "Is the boss on steroids? He hasn't stopped for hours."
Lin Xiaoxiao filled Wang Hao's water glass with juice, tossed in a few ice cubes, and handed it to him, saying, "Here, have some water and take a break."
Cheng Cheng put down his water glass, held the Holy Scripture, cast a mana regeneration spell on Xiao Weizhi, then took a potion from the side and gulped it down: "I don't know if I've been given a boost, but I do know that I'm going to run out of mana again."
Huang Yuwei put the potion bottle aside, cast a few damage auras on Xiao Weizhi, and nodded in agreement with Cheng Cheng's words: "Lan is indeed a bit behind."
Wang Hao took a sip of juice and complained in frustration, "This secret realm really doesn't give you anything except experience points. They're so stingy."
Lin Xiaoxiao crossed her arms and nodded in agreement; those people were just incredibly stingy.
Although these monsters are unable to develop sentience, they are purely ordinary monsters.
But surely those people wouldn't have plundered all the gold coins and resources from these monsters so thoroughly?
In the eyes of the secret realm administrators, the monsters were divided into three categories:
The first type is: those that reach a certain level, develop intelligence, and then produce faith power...; these are the kinds of monsters that are worth cultivating in their eyes.
The second category is: those with good talent who do not yet possess intelligence but have the potential to break through and become sentient beings; they will also pay attention to these individuals and are willing to provide them with resources for development.
The third type is: those who have no intelligence or talent. After reaching a certain level, they will remain at that level until death without extraordinary luck and will never develop intelligence. In their eyes, these are worthless beasts, and sometimes they even need to spend time dealing with them.
Therefore, a long time ago, a secret realm manager proposed that professionals from outside the realm help clean up these abandoned beasts.
Unexpectedly, most of the managers agreed, and they all thought the suggestion was excellent.
They also set up many S-rank monster dungeons that only drop experience and no resources, and periodically sent these 'useless' monsters to the dungeons via teleportation.
You don't even need to fight a boss. You can get it just by finding the core of the secret realm. What kind of good secret realm could it be?
If it weren't for the fear of not finding professionals willing to deal with these beasts, that group would probably have even looted the experience points. [Source: Divine Capital Secret Realm Management Bureau, Internal Management Documents]
Knowing the inside story, Lin Xiaoxiao curled her lips into a cold smile, silently picked up her water glass, and took a sip of the water.
After a long day of fighting, it wasn't until rest time that all members of the Dragon Fang team took the floating elevator back up.
At the hotel reception desk, Li Junxuan braced himself on the table, almost jumping onto it, his voice filled with disbelief: "What? Say that again?"
The staff member sitting at the front desk, with a gentle smile, repeated softly: "The accommodation price is uniform: 100,000 gold coins per night."
Li Junxuan immediately grabbed Wang Hao and Jiang Tao, and pushed Chen Yijin to walk out: "Too expensive, let's not stay here, let's go outside and set up a tent."
Wang Hao tried to turn around several times, but Li Junxuan pulled him by his clothes and led him outside.
Xiao Weizhi looked at the group that had started making a fuss again, pinched the bridge of his nose, and said helplessly, "Come back, it's my treat."
Upon hearing this, Li Junxuan immediately turned around and bowed to Xiao Weizhi, saying, "Thank you, boss!"
Xiao Weizhi used his gold coin card to open five rooms, which were assigned as follows: him and Lin Xiaoxiao; Chen Feng and Cheng Cheng; Liu Huihui and Huang Yuwei; Wang Hao and Li Junxuan; Jiang Tao and Chen Yijin.
The next accommodation opened the eyes of the Dragon Fang crew.
I've never seen a hotel that costs 100,000 gold coins (10,000 gold coins each) be this clean. Apart from a rock-hard wooden bed, there's nothing else in the room.
The bathroom had no water taps, let alone a shower, except for a toilet.
If you want to wash up, you need to queue up at the public bathroom on the second floor and take a shower in a small cubicle that is only one square meter in size and has no curtain. Each person has 20 minutes to wash up.
The next day, the Dragon Tooth team finally understood why those professional teams preferred to pitch tents in the hotel's rest area rather than step inside.
As time passed day by day, after more than ten days, the Dragon Tooth Squad members went from initial excitement and curiosity to numbness.
Everyone was filled with a strong sense of determination, eager to finish the fight and leave this haunted secret realm as soon as possible.
During this period, Lin Xiaoxiao received an order from a client to customize 1,000 (Gold-level) BOSS treasure chests.
She was very puzzled by this and asked the other person directly, "Why not have a treasure chest made by a treasure chest craftsman?"
[Treasure Chest Craftsman: A professional craftsman specializing in creating various treasure chests to be placed inside a BOSS. Only specially crafted treasure chests can be safely placed inside a BOSS, and they will level up along with the BOSS as it grows, with a certain probability of leveling up after a long period of nurturing.]
The BOSS treasure chests created by Lin Xiaoxiao have the same effect. In fact, her treasure chests can be customized according to the client's requirements: the shape can be designed, and an equipment, weapon, or resource of the same level as the treasure chest can be placed inside...
Compared to the high-priced BOSS treasure chests from Lin Xiaoxiao: (Bronze-level treasure chest: 30 points of low-level Faith Power; Silver-level treasure chest: 60 points of low-level Faith Power; Gold-level treasure chest: 90 points of low-level Faith Power; Diamond-level treasure chest: 25 points of medium-level Faith Power...)
It's essentially more cost-effective to have a treasure chest craftsman customize it and then configure the resources yourself.
The man opposite me had a hoarse voice, filled with helplessness. He quickly explained his predicament: "The treasure chest craftsmen lately aren't taking orders. I have a batch of gold-level monsters waiting to be implanted into BOSS treasure chests. Can't you give me a discount?"
Not accepting orders? Has something important happened recently?
Lin Xiaoxiao replied gently, "There's no way to make it cheaper. You know, the materials for my treasure chest are better than those used by those craftsmen. The cost of the materials is right there."
Compared to treasure chest craftsmen who can make do with whatever wood, metal, or gemstones they find useful, treasure chest craftsmen can use.
Her treasure chest crafting technique has strict requirements for materials; if the materials do not meet the required level, the chest may be scrapped at any time.
The person clearly knew this too, as a sigh came from the small screen on the communication module: "Alright, get on with it as soon as possible, the resources inside..."
Lin Xiaoxiao quickly jotted down the requirements made by the other party with the pen and paper in her hand. After writing it down and confirming it, she replied softly, "No problem, I'll contact you again after I've finished it in the next few days."
Xiao Weizhi lifted the tent flap, walked around the screen, and just then saw Lin Xiaoxiao hang up the communication screen. She asked in a low voice, "Shall I go to the hotel and get you a room?"
He knew that Lin Xiaoxiao would occasionally take orders to make treasure chests, but he never asked about the details of her orders. He would only arrange for someone to help her purchase the materials when she needed them.
Lin Xiaoxiao gently shook her head: "No need, we have stock."
She used to make treasure chest prototypes whenever she had free time, and she had accumulated quite a few treasure chests. Now all she had to do was put equipment and resources inside... close the lid, and have Quan Zhi help her cast an imprint spell, and that would be it.
Fortunately, there were still over 1600 gold-grade treasure chest prototypes in the warehouse, so completing this order was no problem at all.
Instead of focusing on the orders, Lin Xiaoxiao was trying to recall what had happened during this period that would cause the treasure chest craftsmen in the City of Divine Favor to stop accepting orders at the same time.
Fifty-six days later, Xiao Weizhi successfully completed the first condition of his sixth-tier upgrade quest: two million level 100 monsters.
During this period, Cheng Cheng, Huang Yuwei, and Chen Yijin successively reached level 110, triggering the fifth job advancement quest.
Therefore, we stayed in this secret realm for another 7 days.
Otherwise, the entire Dragon Fang team would have evacuated this secret realm long ago by day 49.
Stepping out of the secret realm's teleportation portal, ignoring the bright sun overhead, Lin Xiaoxiao clasped her hands together above her head, tilted her arms slightly backward, and bent over to stretch her tired waist.
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