The Fourth Calamity: Starting with Dungeon Slimes

Chapter 133 Heading to the 58th Floor

Hearing what the amateur welder said, Tianqiong was even more confused.

"Wait a minute, welder, you said you'd make more money doing this than just selling the second-generation stuff. What do you mean by that?"

Upon hearing this, the welder pointed to a spot not far away.

At this moment, quite a few veteran players have already started forming teams over there.

"They're teaming up, what's the big deal?"

Tianqiong looked at the spot the welder was pointing to with a puzzled expression, then asked with some curiosity:

In response, the amateur welder lowered his voice, "Didn't you hear what they were saying when they formed a team?"

"You can take a closer look. When they form teams now, they always ask what generation of mortars they are carrying and how much ammunition they have."

"This is called the equipment hierarchy. Simply put, when a new generation of equipment comes out, those who use the latest equipment will look down on those who use the older generation of equipment."

"At first, not many people cared about this, or they thought it wasn't a big deal."

"But believe me, this situation will only get worse later on, just like if you join a team now, 5..."

The other four are using second-generation mortars, while you're only using a first-generation one. Your damage output and other aspects are naturally lower than theirs.

"Here's the question: why should you get to split the final prize money?"

"So once you get there, you'll find that the people in your team who use first-generation weapons will only team up with other first-generation weapons, and the people who use second-generation weapons will only team up with other second-generation weapons."

"This raises another issue: under the same conditions, the revenue from second-generation weapons will definitely be higher than that from first-generation weapons. At that point, do you think they will consider switching weapons?"

"And our weapons aren't very expensive, so replacing one wouldn't be a big problem for them."

That's roughly the situation.

"But we can change weapons. Why change weapons? Because some of them are currently using the first generation, while others are newly purchased first generation weapons. In other words, these newly purchased first generation weapons become our secondary consumers."

Sky was stunned by the amateur welder's eloquent speech.

What seemed like an absurd operation was something Tianqiong never expected to have so many twists and turns hidden inside.

"Wow, you've got some skills. You've mastered this trick. No wonder you're making money."

The amateur welder simply waved his hand dismissively.

"Keep it low-key."

"Moreover, this is the most basic logic of business competition. To be honest, this kind of business competition logic is not even worth mentioning in the face of real business."

"But this is a game, not reality, so this approach is sufficient."

Sky Dome was deeply shocked by what the amateur welder said.

While the amateur welder and Sky Dome were still discussing this matter, the players gradually formed their teams.

Currently, they usually go out to explore in teams of five.

First, this makes team formation easier; second, the damage output and other aspects are also acceptable.

In summary, compared to other teams with more members, this 5-person squad is currently the mainstream configuration.

Of course, besides 5-person teams, there are definitely teams with even more members.

However, these larger teams are usually placed in special areas, such as when encountering powerful and numerous monsters, in which case they choose to expand their teams.

Because the five-person teams can be formed very quickly, so far, seven or eight teams have already set off.

Seeing that some teams had already set off, the teams behind them naturally became even more anxious.

"Exploring floor 58, quick, someone come! Requirements: bring a mortar and at least 20 rounds of ammunition. If you meet the requirements, come and form a team as soon as possible, let's go!"

"Those of us with 10 rounds of ammunition can join, and we'll set off immediately."

"We have five rounds of ammunition here. Send one quickly, and we'll leave now."

"You three idiots, why don't you just stop using the cannonballs? You think you're going on a vacation? You'll be crying your eyes out if you die on the way."

"If you can roll these up, you won't be able to get your weapons out when you're surrounded by monsters. You'll be crying when you suffer heavy losses. And now you're trying to reduce the number of shells you can carry. I don't know what you guys are thinking."

Amidst the players' chatter, one team after another set off.

Before long, almost half of the people left in a flurry.

At this moment, at the entrance on the 58th floor.

The guardians here had already been killed, so the players didn't encounter anything when they arrived.

After confirming that it was safe, the players immediately went to the 58th floor, took a quick look around, and returned after seeing the fortresses of the Dark Elves and Nightmares. They then informed the others of the situation, which led to the current team formation.

And just like that, a group of people quickly gathered here, and as time went on, more and more players gathered here.

"Brothers, what's the situation now? What should we do?"

"One player asked."

"No rush, let's wait for the main force to arrive."

"By the way, will the mechs from the amateur welder's group be coming over?"

"Don't count on that. The mecha that the amateur welder is working on isn't finished yet. He said it would take at least 10 to 15 days to fix, mainly because he suffered too much damage last time."

"This is awkward. Without their mechs, we'll be in trouble if we encounter those powerful monsters."

The others didn't seem to care what this player said.

"It's no big deal. You're overcomplicating things. Let me put it this way: if you encounter a powerful monster, fight it if you can, and if you can't, use your life to fight it. If you really can't fight it, retreat. It's that simple. You don't have to go and risk your life."

"You make it sound so easy. This is real profit. You can't just give up all the profits later, can you?"

"You can't just fight a losing battle. Take this battle for example, don't you have any idea how bad it turned out?"

'

"A typical case of fighting a monster you can't beat will result in losses of several thousand gold coins. If you encounter a stronger monster later, the losses will be much greater. So sometimes there's really no need to force a fight."

7

And so everyone discussed it, each offering their own opinions.

It's normal for players to have different opinions, and there's nothing wrong with that.

While everyone was still discussing, more and more teams of players arrived one after another.

Before long, about 300 players had gathered here.

Looking at such a large team, even veteran players couldn't help but feel a bit emotional.

Previously, even if everyone was online, we couldn't gather this many people. Now, even before everyone has arrived, there are already this many people.

"You guys, your time is almost up. We won't wait for the rest of the teams."

"Similar to the situation on the 59th floor, we also found a fortress on the 58th floor. I think we don't need to say more about what the fortress is for. First, we need to level the fortress, deal with the dark elves and succubi inside, and then we can explore this place smoothly."

66

Hearing what the player said, everyone nodded and then divided up their tasks, being quite cautious in exploring the fortress.

"Brothers, let's find out the strength of the troops inside first, so we can make relevant tactical plans in advance."

66

"Then the mortar brothers set up in advance, so that if there is any emergency, they can fire immediately."

6

As they talked, the players began to make their own deployments.

First, we found a suitable location, built up the bunkers and other shelters, and then set up the mortar.

After doing all this, the players began to wait, because the scout players they had sent out had already quietly headed into the fortress.

However, the scout players who were sent out first soon discovered that something seemed amiss.

"So what's going on here? Why does this place seem different from what we imagined?"

.

At this moment, Player Number Four was not far from the fortress, looking somewhat puzzled.

Upon hearing this, the player next to him nodded in agreement.

Both players were scouts before they retired from the military.

Because they both enjoy this kind of thing, they took up their old hobby again in the game. It has to be said that the game's level of realism is almost identical to reality; at least the things they learned in real life can be applied here.

"It's strange how quiet it is here. Normally, this place should be quite noisy. With so many people gathered here, it's impossible for it to be this quiet. The reason it's this quiet is either that our presence has been exposed, or that there's simply no one here at all."

"Your analysis is correct. If I'm not mistaken, there's a high probability that there's no one here."

The player then continued to probe towards the fortress for a distance.

"It's pretty much confirmed that there's no one here. It seems the developers haven't fixed the bug they set up yet."

"This has caused quite a stir, so what do we do next?"

"Whether there's anyone there or not, let's go in and check first. Once we're absolutely sure no one's there, then we'll notify the others to come over."

The two quickly made their way into the fortress, and as they had predicted, there wasn't a single monster there.

Before long, they returned to the location where the players had deployed.

Upon seeing the two return, everyone immediately gathered around to inquire about the situation.

"Don't worry, it's probably because the bug from before hasn't been fixed yet, so there's no one there at all."

"ha?"

"Has the bug not been fixed yet?"

"What are the officials doing?"

"Actually, isn't this pretty good? We took a fortress without shedding a drop of blood, so we can skip attacking the fortress and go straight to exploring floor 58."

"Anyway, we won't lose money no matter what we do, so let's just go do whatever we want."

And so, the players began to explore this level.

When there were fewer players before, exploration progressed very quickly. Now that there are so many players, the exploration speed is like riding a rocket.

The 58th and 59th floors of the maze are different. The 58th floor is a sea of ​​forest, with huge towering trees throughout, and various kinds of shrubs growing below.

In terms of ecosystem alone, this level is undoubtedly the best dungeon that players have ever seen.

The players were dazzled by the variety of strange-looking plants with special abilities, and all sorts of monsters they had never seen before roamed around here.

Many monsters simply watched from afar, curiously observing this group of outsiders, the players.

However, this curiosity quickly turned into fear.

As the players began to act, a barrage of cannonballs swept through one monster horde after another.

Many monsters were forcibly captured by players and imprisoned in the fortress.

The players didn't know what to do with this complete fortress. Finally, one player thought it would be suitable to use it to raise some poultry or magical beasts for combat. So, some players started to capture magical beasts and raise them there.

Of course, only a small portion of them could be kept in captivity; the vast majority were wiped out by players in battles, while some escaped beforehand.

In short, when this group of Pata arrived, their original ecological niche was disrupted, and the Pata caused quite a commotion in the area.

Aside from their daily food consumption, players only need a certain amount of meat for doing business, and otherwise they don't have much need for meat.

Therefore, the players' siege of these monsters did not last very long.

After initially fulfilling all their needs, the buyers stopped buying meat and began exploring the dungeon. As long as the monsters didn't actively provoke the players, the players were too lazy to bother with them.

They found the ruins on the 60th floor and a special copy on the 59th floor.

This led all players to a consensus that each level of the dungeon should have a hidden instance, so now they are all focused on finding the instance here.

After all, compared to killing monsters, which only yields a few gold coins a day if you're unlucky, finding a dungeon that drops good items can earn you thousands or even tens of thousands of gold coins. They can easily tell which is more important.

However, it is clear that finding the dungeon this time was not as easy as expected.

The players searched the forest thoroughly, leaving no stone unturned, but still found nothing.

While the players were still busy, little did they know that deep in the woods, a shadow slowly disappeared.

Not long after, in the territory of the Nightmare Clan on the ground.

"The boss has already investigated everything."

Hearing what his subordinate said, the succubus squad leader nodded.

"Tell me the details of the current situation in the dungeon. I want to see what my nemesis has done to it."

Upon hearing this, his subordinate nodded and began to recount in detail what he had investigated over the past period.