The Fourth Calamity: Starting with Dungeon Slimes

Chapter 163 The Problem

"Holy crap, little Annie's living conditions are a bit...unpleasant."

Looking around at the scene, one of the players couldn't help but feel a little shabby.

"This can no longer be considered a house; it's just a few pieces of foam board that's been put together."

"Honestly, I don't know how anyone can survive in this kind of living environment, and the most crucial thing is that this little succubus seems to be a succubus living there."

"It seems that the living conditions are worrying. In other words, many low-level succubi live like this. Thinking about it, I feel that the combat strength of the succubus race is not that great either."

Upon hearing what the player said, Salty Fish shook his head.

"You are all too young. I have only a general understanding of the succubus system."

"First of all, the upper limit of a succubus of different levels is determined from birth."

"This isn't the real world; it's a magical game world. In this game, bloodline is actually very important. Unlike in the real world, where having a bloodline or not doesn't seem to make much of a difference, in this game, the strength of your bloodline will directly impact your combat power."

"For example, a low-level bloodline might have a growth cap of 40 to 50 levels, while a high-level one could potentially reach 80 to 90 levels."

"Then this will involve a problem, which is the difference in attributes between high and low levels. This difference cannot be eliminated by any means. In other words, if you are born into a low level, then I'm sorry, you can only stay at the bottom level for the rest of your life."

"So what's at the very bottom here? You can take a look; it's consumables. Ultimately, for someone like Annie, having a piece of land to cultivate is already a huge luxury."

"Do you know what this means? Even without land, you still have to consider what to plant, the harvest, and a lot of other miscellaneous things. Most importantly, you still have to pay taxes. Under such circumstances, you may have already been plundered to the point of exhaustion. But even so, for a little succubus, it may still be a pipe dream."

"This explains a lot of things. Obviously, even such a life is a luxury here. The reason is simple: they are the lowest-level succubi, and their growth potential is very low. Under such circumstances, even if you want to rebel, the level cap has already determined everything."

After hearing what Salty Fish said, everyone roughly understood the situation. However, after truly understanding the situation, they couldn't help but feel that these succubi were probably not having an easy time.

"So the reality right now is that the most crucial thing for these little succubi is how to survive, because in this system, they are essentially a kind of consumable, a kind of expendable resource."

"If it can't generate any value, it will starve to death. That's why this little guy has to go out and take risks at such a young age."

Upon hearing this, one player expressed some confusion.

"I can guess the general situation, but the question is, I'm curious why they don't go hunting outside? There's plenty of food in the forests. It should be much better than gathering herbs, and with multiple succubi working together, the chances of a successful hunt are quite high."

After hearing what the player said, Salty Fish gave him a simple explanation.

"This is a bit like the 'let them eat cake' mentality. To put it another way, the lowest-level demons can't even hunt, let alone level up. What they need are resources, which they don't have. So most of their small-scale levels are between 10 and 20, even though their growth potential is far greater than that."

"Next are the magical beasts outside. There might have been some that were easier to hunt in those mountains before, but they have probably been hunted down to the last few. What's left are either difficult to hunt or extremely strong."

"So here's the question: in this situation, don't you think it's a bit ridiculous to send them hunting? Putting aside whether they have the ability, where would they get the skills? They're struggling to even feed themselves, how could they learn powerful skills? Without skills, how would they hunt?"

"In the end, they don't even have the most basic qualifications. Under such circumstances, what can you expect? But it's understandable. After all, their true identity is that of consumables. As consumables, it doesn't matter when they die, because a large number of consumables will be replenished."

"The main purpose of these consumables is to support higher-ranking succubi through their efforts, and that's all."

"It's somewhat similar to a pyramid structure. At the bottom are the most numerous low-level succubi. All the resources these low-level succubi acquire are handed over to the next higher level, and then the next higher level also needs to use resources to support the next higher level. This is how it progresses layer by layer."

"What's most terrifying is that this pyramid structure is firmly locked in place by something called bloodline, leaving no room for competition."

"Moreover, the most crucial aspect of this bloodline is that it directly manifests various differences, preventing situations where you, being of a low-level bloodline, have the opportunity to kill someone of a high-level bloodline."

"The gap in level, attributes, and equipment is an insurmountable chasm, leaving absolutely no chance of turning the tables. In ancient times, there was a saying that a common man's anger could lead to bloodshed within five steps, but here, such a possibility simply does not exist."

"At least in ancient times, you would have had the opportunity to inflict some damage on those high-level guys, or even threaten their lives. But here, the despair is that you simply don't have that ability. You can't even break through their defenses. That's the most despairing thing."

Hearing what the salted fish said, everyone looked at each other in bewilderment. Living in the 21st century, they naturally couldn't understand it.

This kind of logic is very anti-human for people living in the 21st century.

Being forever locked into a certain social class, without even the slightest possibility of survival, is the most despairing thing. At least in their world, this situation doesn't exist. Even if you are very bad, as long as you work hard, you can at least solve the problem of food and clothing and make a living.

Some people are even lucky enough to open a small restaurant or company or set up a stall outside, gradually accumulating enough initial capital to live a better life and enter a higher social class. This is a possibility. Although they may not be able to reach the very top, they can at least go from the bottom to the middle.

But here, if you're one of the lowest-ranking succubi, then you'll always remain at the bottom.

"I have to say, sometimes when I think about it carefully, a world with a supernatural system like this is indeed too dangerous compared to a normal world."

"That's how it is. In short, in this world, there are excellent people and there are bad people, but compared to other things, those who are bad in this world have no chance to turn things around. You can only stay like this forever."

As he spoke, Salty Fish sighed.

"Everyone, although we've managed to infiltrate, things aren't as simple as we thought. Obviously, you all know the situation with this little succubus. Given her circumstances, it will be very difficult for her to get us to go where we want to go."

Without a doubt, places with these kinds of rules must have something in common. If you had to pinpoint what that commonality is, it's not complicated. Some places simply don't allow succubi of a certain caliber to pass through.

Simply put, succubi like the Little Succubus are not qualified to go to these places, but these places happen to include the locations that players want to go, which puts players in a dilemma.

"So if we don't resolve this issue, won't all our efforts be in vain?"

"At that point, we won't even be able to get through the area. If we force our way in, we'll inevitably be discovered and alert the enemy."

"If that's the case, wouldn't things be awkward? We have to find a way to solve this problem, otherwise it'll all be for nothing."

After considering this problem, the group looked at each other, at a loss for what to do.

Clearly, this thing is not as easy to solve as they thought.

Firstly, this little succubus's identity has some issues, making her unsuitable for that position.

Asking players to go find succubi again is basically unrealistic. Small succubi like these are easy to handle and won't cause too many problems. But if players go looking for powerful succubi, players are guaranteed to encounter all sorts of unexpected trouble.

The group immediately realized the seriousness of the problem; if they didn't solve it, it would be virtually impossible to infiltrate successfully.

"This is a big mess, so what should we do?"

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"There is definitely no perfect solution. Let's try to see how far we can go as this little succubus, and then make other decisions based on the situation."

"6

And so, for now, players can only take it one step at a time.

However, they soon discovered that things were not as simple as they had imagined; in fact, things became very complicated.

Since we're looking for something, the first thing we need to do is determine where to look and what the situation is like there.

This is simply about gathering intelligence. In fact, gathering intelligence is not that difficult, at least for players.

Of course, when they actually tried it, players realized they had oversimplified things.

There are several difficulties. The first is the identity of the little succubus herself. Players cannot obtain any useful information from her at all, in addition to the area where she lives.

In a sense, they are all succubi of the same level as little succubi. Even if players want to find out more, they will find that they know very little about these inside stories.

If you think about it carefully, you can understand the reason. In the end, it's just that they don't need to know so many things, and they don't have the mind to understand so many things. For them, being alive is already a great achievement.

What else can we expect? What else can we expect them to care about?

When they are living with all their might, it is clear that they have no time to care about those so-called messy things. Compared to those messy things, living is the most important thing for them at that moment.

Of course, this is only one of the reasons. There are also more complex reasons, such as the fact that the area they are in now is fundamentally different from the areas where lower-level succubi live and the areas where middle-level or even higher-level succubi live.

These low-level succubi live in the area closest to the outermost edge of the city walls. If any danger occurs in this area, these succubi will also suffer.

From a certain perspective, those living here are just cannon fodder. However, the most crucial point is that there are too many problems if they want to leave here and go to other areas, because little succubi like Annie are simply not qualified to leave this area and go to other places.

They don't even have the right to set foot in better areas; from birth to death, they can only live in this one area.

However, this is what really breaks the players' nerves. In other words, they have no way to leave this area in a reasonable way. If they leave, problems are likely to arise. However, the players quickly came up with a relatively reliable solution: to properly package the little succubus and transform her into a high-level succubus.

Moreover, players felt that this approach was feasible. As contracted beasts, the little succubus who possessed such a strong contracted beast was itself a high-level succubus. This argument wasn't that difficult to make. However, the only problem was that there was a significant difference between high-level succubi and these little succubi.

Level can be addressed by the fact that the character hasn't fully developed yet, but what about other aspects? Like appearance and such.

Features such as the succubus's tail and special horns are distinguishing between low-level and high-level succubi.

These things need to be disguised.

Of course, that's not the most crucial point. The most crucial point is that the little succubus's personality must be changed, otherwise no matter how much you pretend, it will be useless.

Actually, everything else is fine, but this personality issue is really hard to resolve. Living in this kind of environment for a long time, it's normal to be introverted, afraid of people, and unable to speak. Solving this problem is not something that can be done overnight.

This is what makes players feel most stressed. Although Nicole knew this was an opportunity to change her fate and she seized it, the problem lies in the long-standing habits that cannot be completely changed simply by seizing an opportunity.