The Fourth Calamity: Starting with Dungeon Slimes

Chapter 143 The Troubles of Veteran Players

Upon hearing this player's suggestion, Amateur Welder and Sky Dome's eyes lit up.

"Upon closer inspection, this method actually makes a pretty good decision."

"Isn't this just copying the tricks of online merchants and platforms? Although this method is a bit old-fashioned, it is still very practical. You don't know the harm without comparison."

"If we compare all the mechs to our main battle mech, then there's basically no comparison. But if we compare them to specialized series, it's different. Each series represents a different role."

"There are so many electronic products online now. If you're talking about the difference in functionality, the difference isn't that big. But because they're different series, they're given different attributes, and consumers are willing to pay for these special attributes. In reality, it's just a tiny bit of something that's been changed."

"Since that's the case, let's do it this way. This approach is highly feasible, and most importantly, it allows us to create mecha NPCs—in comparison."

"We'll definitely be able to figure out the situation quickly, and the mission shouldn't be a big problem."

And so, they decided on this plan. After finalizing the plan, the next step was to discuss the manufacturing of the mechs.

Designing a new mech is indeed a huge challenge.

Semi-automatic, compact, powerful in combat, etc.

With several factors combined, the inscription of magic circles definitely needs to be studied carefully.

However, just as these amateur welders were beginning to explore these things, on the other side...

The 56th floor of the underground city.

The salted fish is leading its friends on a stroll here.

He felt the intense heat of the air and the unique rock formations surrounding him.

The geographical features, completely different from other levels, left the players overwhelmed.

The advanced salted fish, surrounded by his friends, is a team formed by the players he's been playing with recently.

They originally planned to join the development team, but they didn't want to spend money to buy information. After all, they were veteran players and should be able to find it themselves.

So since the new maps were released, they have been searching within them, but unfortunately, some of the places they found have already been bought up, and others are completely worthless.

Until this moment, the advanced salted fish discovered a tragic thing: they couldn't seem to find a really suitable place.

However, this is what the attacking salted fish finds most incomprehensible.

"I find it strange that we can't find a suitable place. This thing shouldn't be that difficult."

Hearing what the attacking salty fish said, the other players nearby couldn't help but feel the same way.

"There must be some method to find these places, but we don't know the method, so we haven't found anything special so far."

"The problem is, we're all playing the game together, so why do they know how to do it when we don't?"

The group discussed the issue amongst themselves, and the more they thought about it, the less they understood it.

But at that moment, a player stepped forward.

"I roughly know the reason for this. I specifically inquired about it yesterday. At first, I was also curious. Finding this thing should be based on luck, so why have we been searching for so long without any clues, while those players who sell territory found it so easily?"

As soon as the player finished speaking, everyone turned to look at him, waiting for him to continue.

The other party didn't keep them in suspense; instead, they directly shared the information they had gathered with the others.

"After some investigation, I roughly figured out the situation. To put it bluntly, we're not that professional."

"You wouldn't believe it, but most of the players who are in charge of finding territories are geology majors. Although this is a game, it's still a 100% realistic simulation, so some professional knowledge from real life comes in handy here."

"Of course, many environments in this world, including some other things, are very different from the real world. However, there are still clues connecting different mining areas, different minerals, and even the areas where magic crystals are born, the surrounding geographical environment, the special plants that grow there, and the geological composition of these things."

"Back when we were playing games, if we found a mining area, we would rush over and start mining."

"In the past, before they started mining, they would carefully observe the surrounding geological structure and what kind of plants were growing there, and then slowly compile the information. So when they arrived at these new places, they were able to discover the differences immediately."

Upon hearing what the player said, Salty Fish suddenly realized.

"Wow, there's such a saying? But that doesn't make sense. I don't remember many people studying geology, but suddenly there are so many geology students in this team that's looking for land?"

The reason why the salted fish said that was probably obvious to everyone.

Ultimately, it's just that I don't really believe that's the case. If that's the case, then there needs to be a foundation to do this, and clearly they don't have that foundation. So, it's basically unrealistic for them to do this. After all, you're relying on luck, while they're relying on ability. The two are simply incomparable.

Seemingly having guessed what Salty Fish was thinking, the player added.

"Don't worry, here's the gist of it."

"Indeed, there aren't that many people who study geology alone. Some of them study specialties like tactics, and they go to schools you know what I mean."

"They are very knowledgeable about the surrounding environment, tactical infiltration, concealing identities, and other such professional knowledge. Although they may not know the difference between different things, they will at least learn some related knowledge. In addition, they may have received various training in the past, so their understanding of many things is no less than that of ordinary people. Through these things, they can find some clues and then conduct a systematic search in this area, and they can find it quickly."

Upon hearing what this player said, Attacking Salty Fish immediately felt an immense headache.

"If that's the case, then it's absolutely ridiculous."

"In other words, without this knowledge, people like us would be completely wasting our time, and we really couldn't do this business."

, 7

Upon hearing what Salty Fish said, the player did not deny it.

"From a certain perspective, that's roughly the situation."

"But there's nothing we can do about it. After all, this kind of thing requires combining reality with one's own knowledge to find a suitable place relatively stably. For someone like us who relies on luck, unless we're really lucky, it's basically unrealistic."

"The worst thing right now is that it seems we haven't been very lucky this time, so we haven't encountered anything."

After understanding the general situation, Salty Fish was also somewhat frustrated.

"Well, it seems like all this work has been for nothing."

As he spoke, Salty Fish looked toward a certain spot where a large number of trucks, loaders, excavators, and other vehicles were lined up and heading toward a certain place.

Although the road conditions ahead were very bad, two excavators were already digging and clearing the way.

It's obvious they want to connect resource points with other places, which would make transporting materials much easier.

Seeing this, a hint of envy flashed in the salted fish's eyes.

With the arrival of players, the ecosystem of this layer is undergoing tremendous changes.

Players repaired roads and cleared out most of the monsters in the surrounding area.

When these strangely-looking Pata first arrived on this floor, many of the local monsters attacked them.

These monsters had basically never seen a slime before, but out of instinct, they included it on their food list. However, when these Pata revealed their fangs, disaster struck this level.

The Pata were clearing away the monsters, and the various machines they brought began to change the terrain.

In many mining areas, high walls have been erected, and various equipment has begun excavation inside.

In short, tremendous changes are taking place here in a very short period of time.

Although many monsters resisted, it was to no avail. Of course, the actions of the Pata attracted the attention of some powerful monsters on this level.

Since many of the Pata's mining areas are located within the territories of these powerful monsters, they naturally cannot tolerate these weak creatures running rampant on their land.

The final result was that these powerful monsters were defeated by the players as bosses.

And so, this group of strange creatures established themselves here, and made all the other creatures understand their place in the food chain.

Fortunately, compared to other monsters, these strange monsters did not attack them too aggressively.

Instead, he was particularly interested in some strange and unusual stones.

As long as you don't provoke them, and as long as you don't touch the strange stones they dug out, you'll be safe.

The monsters here quickly figured out the habits of these outsiders.

As a result, a relatively balanced ecosystem is gradually forming.

And that's roughly the situation now.

However, many other players have started making money, while Xianyu hasn't yet found a good way to do so, which makes him a little impatient.

He wasn't the only one; many other players who couldn't find the location were in the same situation.

Simply put, this is roughly the current situation: veteran players are trying to find places on their own, but some places are either too inefficient or have no resources at all, so the results aren't particularly good.

"No, we can't continue like this."

"I heard someone predict that a medium-sized mine should yield a total profit of 5000 to 6000 gold coins."

"Moreover, the biggest problem now is that these mining areas are basically gone, except for some low-level mining areas, whose income usually fluctuates between 1000 and 4000, with most only around 1000."

"I didn't pay much attention to this kind of thing before, after all, such predictions are nothing more than empty talk. But now it seems that it was probably the work of those players who were responsible for finding territory."

"So you actually have some knowledge in this area to make a prediction. I reckon the error shouldn't be too big. If that's the case, then things are in big trouble."

Several thousand gold coins is a considerable income for them. You should know that when they were relatively wealthy, they would only earn about 10 gold coins a day, and most of the time, they would only earn one or two gold coins a day.

These new players, after accounting for their investment costs and commissions, can at least make a 50/50 profit after mining a single area. Even if things go badly, they can still earn one or two thousand gold coins.

This figure will significantly increase the game's spending level, meaning that prices will skyrocket later, and my current income will be completely insufficient.

"Although I hate to admit it, that's where the problem lies."

"I didn't expect that developing a new map for this game could bring in such high profits. But thinking about it carefully, it seems that land development has always been a way to make money."

"If we continue like this, we'll soon be overtaken by those new players, and all our hard work will have been for nothing."

Hearing what Salty Fish said, the group realized the seriousness of the situation. If things continued to develop in this way, it might really turn out just as Salty Fish had predicted.

"Oh dear, if that's the case, what should we do?"

"We can't just do nothing, or go somewhere with no value; what if we lose money then?"

Hearing the discussion, Salty Fish frowned and began to think.

They didn't want to miss such a great opportunity to make money, but now things have come to this. Not only them, but also many veteran players are in a similar situation.

"I have to say, the game changes really fast. You might have an advantage at the beginning, but because of a certain decision-making problem, you can be overtaken in an instant."

"This thing is really outrageous, we need to think of a solution."

Not wanting to be left behind, the group of people started discussing it.

However, the salted fish soon had a clue.

"Brothers, I have an idea. Although mining is very profitable, don't forget that there are things in this game that are even more profitable than mining."

Everyone was completely bewildered by what the salted fish said.

However, some players quickly realized something.

"Salted Fish, do you mean to start a war?"

The salted fish nodded in agreement.

Indeed, compared to mining, fighting is far more profitable. The spoils of war can be sold for a very high price, as they are one of the raw materials for manufacturing various weapons. Plus, with a bit of luck, you might even find some better equipment, which fetches an even higher price.