Lords of the Heavens

Chapter 191 Expansion Sheet

Seeing Li Wei make such a decisive choice, the old man was not surprised. He still had a warm smile on his face, but Li Wei had a feeling that the old man was a little displeased. Of course, it was just displeasure, since they had no past grudges.

Perhaps they felt that the number of spots was limited, and giving it to him would be a waste.

Perhaps it's because Night Owl decided to give him the spot, which is why Old Deng has reservations about it, right?

Sigh, Night Owl is really nice. She pointed these things out in her words when the Rookie King was being settled.

Therefore, we can now understand the old man's inexplicable hostility; it all comes down to self-interest.

"Are you sure?"

The old man asked again, still not entirely convinced.

"Sure!"

Li Wei nodded; there was no need to hesitate.

"Alright, you can go back and wait for further notice. Now, what would you like to buy? As usual, since you are a new king and a newly promoted three-star lord, you will receive a one-star resource card whenever you purchase supplies from the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Theoretically, you only need to buy one more card, which should be enough to handle most missions."

As the old man spoke, a one-star resource card popped out of his hand and was handed over.

Wow, the Ministry of the Interior's benefits are really good; they saved Li Wei 100 standard gold coins directly.

At this moment, the old man stopped talking and gently gestured in front of Li Wei. Instantly, a list of hundreds of supplies appeared, ranging from one-star to three-star, from weapons and equipment to various semi-finished supplies, as well as magical items and hunting pets.

"There won't be any supplies of four-star quality or higher here. Also, here's a suggestion: when you're going to carry out your next exploration mission, it's best not to bring four-star weapons and equipment. It's not that it's forbidden, but it's easy to trigger some minor troubles. Of course, if you're confident, powerful, and fearless, then it's fine."

"Thank you for your guidance, sir. May I learn about this exploration mission first, or can I learn about it when the time comes?"

Li Wei then asked that he needed to purchase the corresponding supplies based on the situation.

"Of course, there's nothing to keep secret. The relevant information is right next door, and all qualified members of the Ministry of the Interior can go in and read it. After you've read it, you can then make targeted purchases of supplies."

Wait, this mission storyline expansion was released four months early?
Li Wei was surprised. He thanked him and left. After walking a few steps, he entered a similarly inconspicuous room next door. However, once inside, he discovered that the space was actually quite large, enough to accommodate about fifty people.

There were several people talking here at that moment, three of whom were acquaintances: Hathaway, John Jr., and Lyon's strategist, Clyde.

Upon seeing Li Wei, the expressions of the three were somewhat subtle. John was rather indifferent, as if to say, "I don't know you, and you'd better not know me either."

Clyde has a penchant for the unusual, and there's a strange fighting spirit ignited within him. In short, he's practically saying, "LeBron, bring it on!"

As for Hathaway, she seemed somewhat wistful. Li Wei could even read a poem in her eyes: "The moon shines brightly over the vast sea, pearls weep; the sun warms the fields of Lantian, jade emits smoke. This feeling can only be cherished in memory, for at the time it was already lost."

Yes, it's all in the past.

This is her real ex-girlfriend.

None of the three spoke, except for Clyde, who nodded slightly at Li Wei.

"So, you're that newcomer king, Li Wei? The amazing guy who quietly lay down for a month after the mission, haha! Nice to meet you. I'm a three-star tactical officer from the tactical department, codename Grasshopper! I'm here to deliver the Expansion Mission expansion pack to you. It's all there. You can watch it repeatedly. As for anything you don't understand, just figure it out yourselves."

At this moment, a young man next to Hathaway and the other two laughed and then hurriedly left.

After he left, Hathaway asked, "Li Wei, are you feeling better?"

"I'm almost fully recovered. I'm doing rehabilitation training, and I estimate I'll be back to my peak condition in about a month," Li Wei said honestly, there was no point in hiding it.

"It's a pity you missed the last round of title missions half a month ago. I think your 'Dog Slayer' title might have been upgraded to a codename," Clyde said at this moment.

"So you've really decided to join this pioneering mission?" Hathaway asked again.

“Yes, I have no reason to give up, and I don’t want to wait another ten years. Speaking of which, will the four of us become competitors again?” Li Wei said half-jokingly. He was quite curious why Hathaway was here. Could it be that she was demoted because she failed too many four-star lord missions?
"No, the Ministry of the Interior received four pioneering cards, which represent four branches of pioneering storylines. The straight-line distance between them is between 300 and 500 kilometers, making it difficult for them to meet. You can think of these pioneering missions as enhanced versions of rookie missions. Of course, many rules have changed. There is no Rookie King anymore, but there is a pioneering ranking list with a total of twenty pioneering teams competing. As long as you can break into the top five, the benefits will be huge."

"There is another hidden list, which is the competition among the five major departments. I won't go into details about this, but I think you should understand."

Upon hearing Hathaway's words, Li Wei nodded, indeed understanding.

For individual players, the Trail Blazers rankings are certainly important, but for larger departments like the Internal Affairs Department, Logistics Department, and Tactics Department, the competition is all about the overall team rankings.

At this moment, Clyde pointed to the seat next to him, "Li Wei, you're still injured, sit down and talk. We've already watched the expansion pack once, now we'll watch it again with you. Oh, by the way, the four of us are the four confirmed holders of the Expansion Card. You can share your thoughts with us later, in a sense we're allies."

"it is good!"

Li Wei nodded and sat down. Hathaway walked over and manipulated something. The next moment, a huge image appeared on the massive wall in front of them. This image showed a space perspective.

The main character is a planet similar to Earth, with blue oceans, but the details of the ground are not visible. However, judging from the dense array of huge spacecraft and space stations in outer space, it is a technologically advanced planet.

However, in the upper right corner of the image, a huge meteorite, shimmering with mysterious colors, is hurtling toward the planet.

Then it was gone.

That's all the content displayed on the screen.

At this moment, Hathaway looked at Li Wei and said, "Lord Night Owl should have explained to you the situation where the source of magic went out of control and eventually evolved into the chaos of time and space. The world that this planet is located in is one of the unfortunate ones that went out of control of time and space."

As she explained, a second image silently appeared, showing a large number of what appeared to be missiles, but were undoubtedly more sophisticated, flying in space, preparing to intercept the magical, out-of-control meteorite.

This must have been the beginning of the disaster. They thought it was an ordinary meteorite, but they didn't expect it to contain the source of terrifying, out-of-control magic. So, would it have been better if it had hit the dinosaur era?
Or is it that Earth appears normal now precisely because it crashed during the age of dinosaurs?
While Li Wei was letting his imagination run wild, Hathaway continued, "This kind of magical meteorite is a kind of super-limited magical confinement device. If it had hit a planet directly, and there had been no leakage, the planet itself would have only suffered some physical damage and could have survived. Unfortunately, they detonated it, releasing the uncontrolled magical source power, which combined with those high-energy substances, ultimately completely annihilating all the technology and weapons on the planet, and directly rewriting the physical laws of the planet at the particle level."

"However, quite a few creatures survived the magical radiation. There were giant trees that suddenly mutated and grew to several thousand meters tall, ants that suddenly became the size of tanks, and fire-breathing beasts. Many people also discovered that they suddenly had superpowers. Well, they called this magical radiation superpowers, and sometimes they called it spiritual energy revival..."

"In short, some people suddenly become invulnerable to swords and spears, some become incredibly strong, some grow horns on their heads and are covered in scales, some grow claws, some can jump quickly like spiders, some turn into giant octopuses, and some lucky ones find magical items or other strange things."

"Thus, a new era began. They fought and struggled against each other, as well as against the mutated insects and beasts, vying for survival space and establishing survivor camps of all sizes..."

"But we should all know that they, or rather, they are all magical zombies, victims of this transdimensional magical origin going out of control."

"We can't save them, we can only do some rescue-style plundering, which is basically the core principle of the Alliance of Lords of the Heavens."

"As for our pioneering mission, it's actually not complicated at all. It's very simple, so simple that it's remained unchanged for hundreds of years."

"It's nothing like the newbie missions where the rules are changed all the time."

"Specifically, this mission lasts for three years and there is no settlement in the middle. However, if a member dies, the headquarters will fill the vacancy during the end-of-month summary. There are many candidates."

"At the start of the mission, there are only five players, one of whom is a seed player who holds a pioneer card, but it doesn't actually provide any benefits. The only thing that can be guaranteed is that the seed player will not appear in the same side quest storyline. In the future, only the seed player can become the head of the scavenging family and continuously become the head of the family, leading the various developments of the pioneering camp until the end of three years, which counts as winning."

"During this period, we will have to experience at least one magical zombie siege, but if we are unlucky, we may have to encounter it more than ten times. Even the native superhuman forces may launch an attack on us."

"In addition, apart from seeded players, the pioneering mission will not, in principle, assign newcomers who know nothing to join, nor will it assign players whose strength is lower than three stars to join. Other players who can make great contributions to the development of the pioneering camp, seize the position of head of a camp, and can hold the position for a long time, and whose pioneering score exceeds that of the seeded players at the final settlement, will become the true lord of this pioneering camp."

"That means all five players are competitors, and whoever wins gets the territory."

"In addition, the first six months are generally a relatively safe time. After six months, as the camp gradually upgrades, the population of the scavenging family will also gradually increase. The new player's mission is not aimed at the final lord. He may be for the title mission, or he may be to plunder resources, or he may simply be to earn gold coins."

"These players usually only have a six-month term, but if they have a breakout performance and perform exceptionally well, the headquarters may decide to extend their term and make them eligible to take over new territory."

"Also, if the frontier camp can unlock the two-star tavern building after about a year of the mission, it can recruit mercenaries from the main camp. This rule is no different from the newbie mission."

"Furthermore, for each side quest, the five initial players will have their order completely shuffled and randomly assigned, except for the seeded players who remain the same. Cheating behaviors such as using fake accounts or 'mad dog accounts' will be absolutely prohibited."

"They will play the role of a family. Apart from not openly killing each other, they need to make reasonable use of the rules, exert their strength, deceive each other, form alliances, use plot kills, and use various reasonable methods to suppress their opponents."

"Because the ultimate goal of the five initial players is to expand their territory, they are clearly in competition from the beginning. Therefore, before the mission begins, all participating players will sign a contract indicating their willingness to abide by the above rules. The competition is only to better select the pioneering lord, not to kill each other."

"In short, that's basically it. The rules for pioneering missions haven't changed much in the last few hundred years."

After listening to Hathaway's explanation, Li Wei basically understood. Indeed, this kind of pioneering mission was simply an enhanced version of the newbie mission.

However, he also had questions.
"Does that world also have gods? Why do they need to act out a storyline and pretend to be a family? Wouldn't it be simpler for 100 players to play PUBG, with each person having their own starting location?"

"There are no gods, but given the bizarre nature of magical zombies, you have no idea whether they can detect any flaws in your words and actions."

"Furthermore, even without these constraints, you can use your toes to think about it: in a battle royale game with a hundred players, how many people would die in a single match?"

"If you die and no teammates collect your body, the three professional cards you painstakingly trained will never return, and you will be completely dead. This goes against the most basic humanistic concern."

Hathaway sneered, "Admittedly, there are indeed some amazing people who can win in the end all by themselves. But have you ever thought about it? If you were thrown into a mission like this, would you prefer to be all alone, or would you prefer to have four companions with you, even if you're secretly scheming against each other, but on the surface you have to support each other, with the most basic rules to ensure your guaranteed minimum reward?"

"That kind of real-life PUBG isn't nonexistent. The Alliance of Lords of the Heavens isn't the only one in the heavens. It's said that in the chaotic killing battlefields of five-star difficulty and above, you sometimes encounter those terrifying beings that have been selected like venomous insects. One of them can take on three of us. They're very troublesome."

"But how can you be so sure that you are that one-in-a-million genius, and not just a pile of nameless bones under someone else's feet?"

"At least under the rules, a single mission can yield at least ten new territories, but in a 100-player battle royale, you might only get one. Don't our bigwigs know how to do this?"

(End of this chapter)