The Fourth Disaster: People become gods through high martial arts and gaming

Chapter 173 Ultra-High Level Map
The City of Light, Obsidian Martial Arts School.

In the master's lounge, Lin Qi, who had just finished extracting the players' information, hadn't even had time to fully experience the effects of the Thunder Palm's second level, Thunderclap Entry 22%, the 2.5x increase in strength, and the 20% increase in power, when a system notification suddenly sounded in his ear.

"What's the situation with these three?"

Lin Qi stared at the system notification in astonishment, momentarily bewildered.

System: Congratulations to players Lu Fanchen, Lin Xinyao, and Li Tianxing for triggering the special hidden quest 'Molten Crystal'. Collect 10,000 units of Molten Crystal and you will be rewarded with the right to build a Basic Meditation Room. (The Basic Meditation Room can improve mental agility and tranquility.)

"This beginner meditation room is incredibly powerful!" Lin Qi exclaimed, looking at the effects of the beginner meditation room. He felt it was practically a breakthrough artifact.

An increase in mental agility is like an increase in inspiration. Although it is unknown how much the beginner meditation room can improve one's mental agility, it will definitely play a significant role in creating martial arts techniques or breaking through one's own bottlenecks in cultivation.

Especially for those who are not very perceptive, it can definitely raise their potential significantly.

Thinking of this, Lin Qi immediately issued a task to the three of them on their smartwatches, asking them to collect 10,000 units of Molten Crystals. The reward for completing the task was 5,000 contribution points and 300,000 points for each person.

Deep underground in the Obsidian Martial Arts School, Lu Fanchen and his two companions, who had been resurrected and were once again standing before the metal gate, were discussing how they had just died when they received a mission from Lin Qifa.

"The reward for collecting Molten Crystals is amazing!" Lin Xinyao exclaimed in amazement as she looked at the quest details. "It's 5,000 contribution points in one go! The reward for this hidden quest is a hundred times that of the daily quests."

"Such a high reward, it seems the level on the other side of the door is exceptionally high." Lu Fanchen looked at the metal door, his eyes shining.

A single resource gathering task yielded 5,000 contribution points, which is much higher than the large-scale hidden storyline team missions they had completed before. Clearly, the map level inside the gate is much higher than their current map level.

This was absolutely a windfall for them.

"Shall we try again now?" Li Tianxing, who was standing to the side, also looked at the door, his breathing becoming slightly rapid.

A task requiring 5,000 contribution points is quite a lot for players these days, especially since selling captured weapons and equipment to martial arts schools only yields points, not contribution points, making it even harder to earn contribution points.

The only relatively quick way is to kill monsters. A single unicorn gold-devouring rat can reward you with 500 contribution points, but the number of unicorn gold-devouring rats in the maze tunnel is decreasing, which is clearly not a place to farm contribution points for a long time. Moreover, even if you could farm them, it is unknown how long it would take to reach 500,000 contribution points.

However, a high-level map that has not yet been explored is of immeasurable value to these expert players. After all, the higher the level of the map, the higher the quality of the treasures and the higher the value of the items. This can be considered common knowledge in the game.

"No rush, we still don't know how we died." Lu Fanchen shook his head slightly. "If we don't even know the reason, we're just throwing our lives away. Did you discover anything before you died?"

"It was too dark inside that door. The moment I opened it, I couldn't see anything at all, and then, just like I said, I was kicked out of the game." Lin Xinyao shook her head, feeling quite helpless.

“Me too.” Li Tianxing nodded and pondered, “However, at the moment of my death, I felt a significant increase in pressure on my body, and I felt unable to move, as if I was being watched by something terrifying.”

“I feel the same way.” Lu Fanchen couldn’t help but look at the metal door. They had opened it before, but after they were resurrected, the door closed again. It was very strange. He then said, “It seems we can only try it first. Tianxing and I will open the door. Xinyao, you go to the far end of the cave and watch how we died.”

“Okay.” Lin Xinyao walked directly towards the tunnel entrance.

After Lin Xinyao took her place, Lu Fanchen and Li Tianxing slowly began to push open the door. As the metal door was gradually pushed open, revealing a crack, Lin Xinyao, watching from a distance, saw Lu Fanchen and Li Tianxing collapse to the ground, motionless, as if they had lost their souls. "What's going on?" Lin Xinyao looked at the two who had suddenly collapsed, completely bewildered.

The two people died inexplicably without being attacked at all.

Before Lin Xinyao could even process what was happening, an overwhelming sense of oppression swept over her, making her feel dizzy and causing her to collapse to the ground. Her breathing became increasingly difficult, and she eventually died from suffocation.

"Xinyao, how come you died too?" Lu Fanchen looked at Lin Xinyao, who had also logged off and woken up in the virtual pod, and was very puzzled.

Before they pushed open the door, Lin Xinyao was more than 200 meters away from them and was hiding. Even if a monster killed them instantly, they probably wouldn't have noticed Lin Xinyao.

“I already know how you all died,” Lin Xinyao said, her face pale. “Whether it’s you or me, we all died from mental oppression. It’s just that you were very close, so the mental oppression you felt was very strong. I was farther away, but I still couldn’t withstand it and suffocated to death.”

"Died from mental oppression? What level is this map?" Lu Fanchen was stunned.

Previously, even in the high-level Azure Sky City, when facing those three lord-level monsters, the three of them only felt physically heavy and mentally stressed.

The main reason, of course, was that the three lord-level serpents were far away and not targeting them, but they were scared to death just by approaching the map. They couldn't even imagine how terrifying the map's level was.

“I feel that if my spirit is improved a bit more, I should be able to withstand this mental pressure,” Lin Xinyao explained. “When you two opened the door, you were suddenly subjected to that level of mental pressure, which is why you died so suddenly. The fact that I didn’t die immediately shows that the intensity of this mental pressure decreases with distance. In other words, a distance of 200 meters is about the limit that we can currently withstand. If our spirit can be improved further, we should be able to enter this super high-level map.”

"It seems that although this game is an open sandbox game, it uses mental pressure to restrict players' activities. It seems that we need to improve our mental level more in the future." Li Tianxing was speechless. He thought he had found a great treasure and taken advantage of the game's loopholes, but the game developers were one step ahead and used a disguised level suppression to prevent them from taking advantage of the loopholes.

"It's not bad. At least we now have a chance to enter this super high-level map. The attenuation of 200 meters shouldn't be too much. As long as we improve our stellar explosion visualization technique a bit more, we should be able to get in," Lu Fanchen said with a smile.

Although game developers have set up safeguards for players to explore high-level maps, they haven't completely banned it, which is quite good news.

After being resurrected, Lu Fanchen and the other two stopped cultivating and improving, focusing all their attention on the Stellar Explosion Visualization Technique and frantically increasing their proficiency in it.

Beginner level 20%...23%...26%...30%...

Almost every time the three of them made progress in their visualization of stellar explosions, they would try it out. In fact, the more they tried, the faster they found themselves improving in their visualization of stellar explosions. It was practically a holy land for cultivating the visualization of stellar explosions.

After a night of frantic improvement, the three, who were already highly talented, gathered more learning experience from other veteran players, and their Stellar Explosion Visualization Technique reached over 35%, allowing them to try opening the door again.

"it is good!"

"Success!"

Lu Fanchen and the other two looked at the open door. Although they felt an unprecedented sense of mental oppression and had difficulty breathing, they were not dead this time. They even saw inside the door.

(End of this chapter)