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

Chapter 209: The False Difficulty and the Real Gameplay?
"What's going on? I was planning to grind for half a year to become a core disciple, and now all I have to do is pass the assessment?"

"Haha, game developers have finally shown some humanity. Now we don't have to grind anymore, and we can finally showcase our true skills."

"However, this assessment seems quite difficult. It requires venturing into the wilderness, where the number of monsters is extraordinary. Even martial arts level players would be doomed if they encountered them. Even those who have reached the intermediate level of martial arts would probably find it difficult to safely bring back a ton of gold ore."

"But apart from the requirement that the strength must be above the martial artist level, the time limit is five days, and each assessment requires 2,000 contribution points and 300,000 points, there seems to be no restriction that teams are not allowed. Players who have become martial artists can work together to complete this assessment."

"No way, if teams are allowed to complete it, wouldn't it be easy to finish the assessment?"

The players in the martial arts hall were overjoyed by Lin Qixin's announcement, especially the new players who missed the limited-time version event. This was definitely a great opportunity to quickly catch up with the top players in the game.

The core disciples have the highest level of player privileges at this stage of the game.

Not only do they have level one wilderness exploration privileges, but they can also occupy a territory and have their own stronghold, earning contribution points and credits without even lifting a finger.

This would normally require spending a lot of time grinding for contribution points, so the fact that the game company is now offering players another quick way to obtain them is definitely a pleasant surprise.

"The game patches too fast." Yi Ye Fuyun looked at the notification on his smartwatch and said speechlessly, "I haven't even really enjoyed the benefits of free exploration yet, and now martial arts level players can easily become core disciples. The game developers are simply too unethical."

"This assessment isn't as simple as you think." Ye Qinglu, who was standing to the side, laughed after reading the announcement. "Although this assessment allows for team formation, we've both seen the conditions in the wilderness. Any group of monsters could wipe us out. Even if we have Desert Eagles, it's useless. High-level monsters have self-healing and vitality. Unless we have unlimited ammo, we'll just be worn down by them. Not to mention, venturing hundreds of kilometers into the wilderness and bringing back a ton of ore, a group of beginner-level martial artists have no chance."

Yi Ye Fuyun suddenly realized: "I was wondering why the previous wilderness escort mission was mandatory. It turns out it was to demonstrate the core disciple assessment. If a novice martial artist doesn't know the situation in the wilderness, participating in the assessment would be a complete waste of time."

“No! Even beginner-level martial artists have a chance.” Ye Qinglu shook her head and analyzed, “Didn’t the martial arts school launch a beginner-level gravity chamber? I guess this is a path left for beginner-level martial artists. As long as beginner-level martial artists can cultivate the Body Strengthening Secret Technique to the second level in the beginner-level gravity chamber, their physical strength should be comparable to that of a mid-level monster. With this powerful defense, as long as they are not surrounded by high-level monsters, they have a chance to survive.”

"Doesn't that mean I also have a chance?" Upon hearing this, Yi Ye Fu Yun thought it was indeed true.

Now, through his training in the primary gravity chamber, he understands just how wonderful it is. He is currently reconstructing his cells under five times gravity and with 24% proficiency in the first level of the Body Strengthening Secret Technique, and his body's defense and recovery capabilities are already close to those of a beginner-level monster.

If one were to master the Body Strengthening Technique to the second level, which is the level of a martial artist, their physical defense and recovery would likely surpass those of ordinary mid-tier monsters. If paired with a B4-level battle armor, they would be difficult to injure even by mid-tier monsters, and only high-tier monsters could manage to harm them.

The cultivation of the Body Strengthening Secret Technique, while requiring some points, is unlike the cultivation of training methods, which consumes type-two potions. If you want to cultivate quickly, it depends on whether you are willing to die.

The B2-level Desert Eagle he creates is a favorite among the super-rich. While they may not be able to provide the monsters, they have a lot of points to acquire. He has already earned over 20 million points, enough for him to splurge on for a long time to improve his Body Strengthening Technique.

“Actually, we can discuss with Fang Zhen and the others, like those super-rich people, renting a basic gravity chamber together. If we aggressively try to improve our physical strength techniques, we'll die countless times. After becoming a martial artist, each resurrection takes anywhere from forty minutes to an hour. During that time, others can use it, which will not only save money but also be more efficient,” Ye Qinglu said. “Then everyone can complete the assessment quickly together.”

“Okay, then I’ll discuss it with Fang Zhen.” Yi Ye Fu Yun nodded, agreeing that this was indeed the best approach.

Although he has more than 20 million points, if he wants to use them all by himself, he can only rent them for one day. If he uses those days to aggressively improve his body-strengthening techniques, the actual time he can use them will be very short.

If everyone shares the apartment, although only one person can enter at a time, an hour's rent can be used by several people, which saves money.

For a time, none of the players in the martial arts school who had participated in the wilderness escort missions chose to sign up for the assessment. They were all so engrossed in the beginner gravity chamber that they couldn't extricate themselves. It could be said that apart from eating online and offline, they lived in the beginner gravity chamber and frantically improved their body strengthening techniques.

The next morning.

"What's going on with them? Aren't the strongest people coming to sign up?" Lin Qi looked at the list of participants in the assessment in his hand, his mind full of doubts.

Now he's just waiting for Rem Titanium to repair the armor of the Wanxing City garrison. This has also been confirmed by Luo Qi. The armor can be repaired, but it must be made of alloy of the corresponding level. In fact, some of the severely damaged B4-level armor must be replaced with the same alloy to ensure the performance of the armor.

As for alloys of B4 grade and above, they are not available for sale in any major city, let alone the City of Light; they are absolute strategic resources.

Perhaps some forces in the city have them, but those are all privately mined, and without sufficient trust, there would be no transaction.

All he can do now is to have Luo Qi piece together the armor using alloys, and put together as many sets as possible. As for the remaining armor, they can wait for the Rem Titanium that the players bring back from the wilderness.

But to his surprise, a whole day had passed and Luo Wushang and the others still hadn't reacted at all.

The allure of being a core disciple is something no player could resist, but apart from Lu Fanchen and others who had only recently become beginner-level martial artists and had already set off, all the players who participated in the wilderness escort mission last time were completely silent and not in a hurry at all.

Instead, they all stayed in the primary gravity chamber and refused to come out, intending to spend their lives in the primary gravity chamber.

Just as Lin Qi was about to go and see what was going on with these players, a system notification suddenly sounded in his mind.

System: Congratulations, host, the basic meditation room renovation is complete.

"The renovation is finally complete. I wonder how it goes." Lin Qi looked at the renovated beginner meditation room and, no longer caring whether Luo Wushang and the others were willing to participate in the assessment, went straight up to the third floor to check on the beginner meditation room.

The beginner meditation room has the effect of enhancing mental agility and calming the mind.

This effect has the greatest impact on him and the local residents compared to the players.

Players can revive infinitely by spending money and engage in all sorts of extremely aggressive training, while he and the local residents dare not play like that. In fact, after becoming a martial artist, every step they take will bring considerable danger to their lives.

Furthermore, increased mental agility has a calming effect, which can maximize the speed of cultivation and ensure relatively safe cultivation.

Upon arriving on the third floor, the newly renovated beginner meditation room is located directly in front of the staircase.

The entire beginner meditation room covers an area of ​​200 square meters. The floor and walls are all covered with a layer of light red crystals, and some runes that are difficult to understand are engraved on them.

As soon as Lin Qi stepped into the room, he felt a refreshing sensation in his mind. His five senses became more acute, and he could even clearly feel the flow of qi and blood in his body.

"What amazing results!"

Lin Qi slightly manipulated his own Qi and blood, and felt that his control over Qi and blood had significantly improved to a higher level.

If controlling Qi and blood in the past was like manipulating a puppet on strings, with a layer always separating the two, then now controlling Qi and blood is like directly manipulating a puppet with your hands. The level of precision in controlling the puppet is completely different.

"With such the ability to control qi and blood, my control over mineral energy has also improved significantly. Coupled with my heightened senses, whether it's improving my daily training methods or learning martial arts, I'm afraid I can advance to more than one level." Lin Qi briefly used the energy mineral to experience the effects of cultivation and couldn't help but marvel at the power of the beginner meditation room.

Although it only involves cultivating with energy ores, the effect is not much worse than using Type II energy potions normally, and it can even be said to be safer.

Lin Qi then glanced around the room.

"With this size, if we use a barrier to separate them, it should be able to allow ten people to cultivate at the same time. This will provide a place for the garrison to train and improve."

Lin Qi estimated that in a 200-square-meter room, each of the ten people would have 20 square meters of space, which would not be a problem as long as they were not practicing martial arts.

With each person spaced more than three meters apart and isolated by a special barrier, even the qi and blood of a martial artist should not have a significant impact on others.

Just as Lin Qi moved a pile of energy ore out of the warehouse and divided the entire beginner meditation room into ten areas, Meng Wei suddenly contacted him.

Lin Qi looked at Meng Wei's image on the smartwatch again and noticed that Meng Wei seemed younger, with excitement and anticipation evident on his face.

"Master, I have already selected the first batch of disciples to be trained by the garrison. Here is the list." Meng Wei said, while also sending Lin Qifa a message. "I gave the Qi and Blood Watermelon that the Master gave me to my disciples and a few old friends with great talent. They have all become martial artists now and can start training the garrison disciples at any time."

Lin Qi glanced at the list and found that Meng Wei had selected mostly young people, generally around twenty years old, with strength at least at the intermediate apprentice level. As for those around twenty-five years old, their strength was also at the advanced apprentice level. They were all a group of young people with excellent talent.

"Is Xia Ling here too?" Lin Qi looked at a very familiar name on the list, puzzled.

“Master, Miss Xia already joined our Obsidian Martial Arts Academy, but I was too busy and forgot to tell you,” Meng Wei explained. “Miss Xia’s talent is exceptional, and she’s almost at the limit of becoming a quasi-martial artist. It would be a real shame if she didn’t join the academy’s guard regiment.” As the young lady of the Phosphorus Fire Gang in the suburbs, Xia Ling’s resources are unquestionable. Even the resources that the Obsidian Martial Arts Academy currently provides to the guard regiment, such as meat from mid-level monsters and the allocated Type II potions, are not difficult for the Phosphorus Fire Gang to obtain.

After all, there are now more monsters in the wild, and the major forces can obtain a lot more monster flesh, especially the flesh of mid-level monsters. Dozens of train cars of it are being transported back from the front lines, making monster meat on the market much cheaper and no longer in such short supply.

If the Obsidian Martial Arts Academy hadn't limited its external teaching resources but offered free training methods and advanced martial arts techniques to its members, Xia Ling would have been wasting her talent by joining the garrison.

"Alright." Lin Qi nodded and then instructed, "The martial arts school has set up a meditation room that can accommodate ten people to cultivate together at a time. You can have the ten best performers from the garrison come here to cultivate for six hours every day. As for the remaining time, you can use it as a reward for the garrison members."

"A meditation room?" Meng Wei looked puzzled, completely unaware of what a meditation room was, but still agreed, "I understand, I'll arrange it for them."

Monwe then hung up the communication and began training the garrison personnel.

"Given the current size of the garrison and the players' demand, a basic meditation room is far too few. It seems we need to get the players to collect more Molten Crystals."

Lin Qi looked at the list of garrison personnel sent by Meng Wei. The first batch alone had more than two hundred people, and there would be more and more in the future. The demand for the primary meditation room would definitely increase. So he posted a long-term daily collection task on his smartwatch.

Collect Molten Crystals; for every 10,000 units of martial arts school, you will be rewarded with 100,000 points and 10,000 contribution points.

This task immediately piqued the interest of many new players.

Although no one knew what Molten Crystal was, 10,000 contribution points was a huge sum for new players, and even some veteran players were tempted by it. This was definitely the daily task with the highest contribution reward since the martial arts school started issuing tasks.

One task earns 10,000 contribution points. Doing 50 tasks earns 500,000 contribution points. This way, even if you are not a martial artist and cannot participate in the core disciple assessment, you can directly become a core disciple.

This prompted even veteran players who were still a long way from becoming martial artists to inquire and investigate what Molten Crystals were and where they could obtain them.

The players asked around all day but didn't get any particularly useful information. The only thing they knew was that the Molten Crystal came from a mission that Lu Fanchen and the others had done last time. In the end, everyone guessed that the Molten Crystal must have come from somewhere underground in the martial arts hall.

For a time, many players in the martial arts school resumed their underground digging and exploration activities.

As time passed, two days went by unnoticed, and more and more martial arts players emerged in the Obsidian Martial Arts Academy. After becoming martial arts players, they all began to try to challenge the core disciple assessment, which made Lin Qi very gratified, as the repair schedule for his garrison's armor was getting closer and closer.

However, the martial arts players who participated in the assessment only realized how difficult it was once they entered the wilderness.

Even experts like Lu Fanchen were almost all wiped out within 50 kilometers of entering the wilderness; no one survived. It was clearly not a place that martial artists could explore at will. Many martial arts players gave up and chose to obediently do missions. Only Lu Fanchen and his two companions, for some reason, were still happy to enter the wilderness time and time again.

Above the wilderness.

"Fan Chen, that should be the wounded lord monster up ahead. Should you go this time, or should we go?" Lin Xinyao, who was in the grass, looked at the pale golden bloodstains on the ground and couldn't help but lick her lips, her beautiful eyes filled with excitement.

“I’ll go. I’m already a mid-level martial artist. If you guys take a few more breaths, you should be able to break through to become mid-level martial artists as well,” Lu Fanchen said directly.

"Then it's up to you." Lin Xinyao nodded.

"Don't worry, I'll give it a big one this time." Lu Fanchen smiled and crawled over.

Lin Xinyao and Li Tianxing stayed where they were, quietly watching Lu Fanchen walk away.

These past few days, after they entered the wilderness, they discovered that the wilderness was indeed extremely dangerous. Not to mention going a hundred kilometers into the wilderness, even going less than fifty kilometers in could be deadly. Everywhere there were monster groups composed of hundreds of mid-level monsters, and the leaders were even high-level monsters. Not to mention the three of them, even thirty people would be easy prey.

It's fair to say that this assessment is simply beyond human capability.

They were about to give up when they soon spotted a lone monster. This monster was over twenty meters tall, a black cheetah with two horns on its head and a chilling aura emanating from its body. The sheer blood aura emanating from the cheetah alone made it difficult for the three of them to approach.

The two-horned cheetah was injured for some unknown reason. With such an injured boss in the wild appearing before them, the three of them, as gaming experts, certainly couldn't let it go.

If we don't find a way to finish them off, it would be an absolute injustice!
Without saying a word, Lu Fanchen gathered up a Heaven-Shaking Fist and punched the injured Two-Horned Cheetah. The Two-Horned Cheetah screamed in pain, and pale golden blood spurted out of the wound as if it were free.

However, after Lu Fanchen's punch, they realized that it hadn't actually hurt the two-horned cheetah. The strong impact had only reopened the cheetah's wounds. Killing the cheetah was simply impossible.

But after the blood sprayed by the two-horned cheetah landed on the three of them, they realized that this was not a wild boss at all, but a mobile treasure.

They could feel their entire body's energy boiling just from a little of that blood on their lips. It was several times more potent than using Type II energy potions for cultivation; it was practically a natural miracle drug.

Although the two-horned cheetah killed the three of them in an instant, after tasting the sweetness of the pale golden blood, the three of them could no longer tolerate using the Type II energy potion, so they simply tried to find a way to cultivate using the two-horned cheetah.

If the Heaven-Shaking Fist is executed well, it can cause the Two-Horned Cheetah to be momentarily paralyzed due to the pain from its wounds. This is the perfect opportunity for them to rush in and suck the blood.

As long as you drain the energy and run, the second Heaven-Shaking Fist will be unleashed, making the Two-Horned Cheetah completely disregard those who escape and focus solely on the person who makes it howl in pain.

These past few days of trials have not only allowed them to master the Heaven-Shaking Fist, but their training methods have also improved rapidly. Not only is Lu Fanchen already a mid-level martial artist, but they have also reached the level of the initial stage of the limit martial artist. If they try again, they can become mid-level martial artists. It's simply too awesome.

Just as Lu Fanchen slowly approached the two-horned cheetah, a transport convoy that was only a little over a kilometer away also arrived in this dense jungle.

"Deputy Commander Donna, according to the established route, we should reach the front-line stronghold in another three hours." A garrison commander from Wanxing City came to the beautiful woman with a pair of snow-white beast ears standing on the roof of the vehicle and reported in a low voice.

"Okay, I got it. Be careful, everyone. The monsters are very active here. A whole caravan was wiped out here before." Donna nodded and gave a reminder.

As Donna spoke, the captain of the garrison became even more vigilant about his surroundings.

These days, going to the front-line strongholds is becoming increasingly unsafe. Fortunately, this time the team is led by Donna, one of the top ten graduates of the genius training camp. Her true strength is not much less than that of those mid-stage Bone Forging Realm warriors. Even if they encounter a low-level lord, they can only hold out for a long time.

Just as the garrison commander was about to take his leave, a deafening explosion suddenly came from the distant jungle. The shockwave from the explosion even made the trees around them shake, followed by a heart-wrenching roar.

"There's fighting over there!"

"Everyone on alert! I'm going to investigate!"

Donna gazed at the firelight illuminating the sky in the distant jungle, and couldn't help but step onto the armored vehicle, flying towards the firelight like a cannonball.

As Donna got closer to the fire, she found that her body began to instinctively tremble.

When they got closer, less than 500 meters away, they saw a two-horned cheetah, 20 meters tall, wincing in pain and glaring at a human man whose arm had turned to charcoal and whose other hand was raised as if gathering something.

"Who is he?"

"He dares to fight the mid-level lord, the Shadow Panther King, all by himself?!"

Donna stared at the human man, unable to believe her eyes.

The Shadow Panther King is the top predator in this area. Other low-level lords would turn and run away at the sight of the Shadow Panther King, fearing that they would become its food.

While Wanxing City would probably need to send several high-level Bone Forging Realm warriors to barely fight against the Shadow Leopard King, now a human man has managed to injure the Shadow Leopard King.

Before Donna could even react, two figures emerged from the jungle, dressed in silver-gray clothing just like the man. They rushed straight to the Shadow Leopard King's back and bit down on the wound...

(End of this chapter)