Chapter 7: Emperor's Sign | Monsters Are Coming
Emperor's Mound Village, 300 meters underground.
Qi Sheng stood before the blue crystal Primordial Containment Wall, his gaze sweeping over the three already-contained Primordial Monster soul imprints. Tubes extended from within the crystal wall into each of their backs, continuously siphoning some kind of crimson energy.
He closed his eyes, and in an instant, scarlet flames engulfed his body.
His head transformed into blazing crimson fire, shifting between states of solidity and illusion. Three small orbs of light revolved around his body.
Switching to Emperor's Sign form, data feedback from the Guide surfaced in his mind.
[Monster King: Emperor's Sign]
Control over the Land of Origins.
Emperor's Mound Village (Territory Trait: Flesh Reconstruction)
Territory Resistance to Black Tide Consumption: 1,000 Sacrificial Power/day
Vassals: Nine Yin, Yan Ming, Guide, Transdimensional
Remaining Sacrificial Power Pool: 130,428
Containment Wall Sacrificial Power Generation: 30/hour
Contained Primordials: Gargoyle (Petrification), Black-Scaled Serpent (Venomous), Owl-Headed Fiend (Dirge)
—
Although he had inherited the essence of the Emperor's Sign and become the new Emperor, his current strength was not yet formidable.
Over ten thousand years ago, the previous Emperor had broken up his own power into countless Primordial Monsters and scattered them across Monster World.
As the new Emperor, Qi Sheng had inherited only his inherent essence, while losing the numerous power traits that had been divided.
The original intent behind recruiting players was to have them explore the Monster World, ravaged and twisted by the Black Tide, and contain the Primordial Power lost by the Emperor's Sign, namely, the Primordial Monsters.
Each Primordial Monster contained brought him not only a power boost but also one of the lost traits of the Emperor's Sign.
Furthermore, Primordial Monsters born from the Emperor's power, once imprisoned in the Containment Wall, generated 10 Sacrificial Power per hour.
The three already-contained Primordials, Gargoyle, Black-Scaled Serpent, and Owl-Headed Fiend, generated 30 Sacrificial Power per hour, amounting to 720 per day.
But the daily consumption needed to resist the Black Tide in Emperor's Mound Village was 1,000 Sacrificial Power. At this stage, expenses exceeded income.
The remaining Sacrificial Power would soon be depleted, and he needed additional revenue sources.
That was one of the reasons he had chosen to impersonate the highly popular Dark Land to recruit players, hoping that players would create more Sacrificial Power.
Another reason for recruiting players was that he needed more territory nodes.
Monster World was tens of thousands of times larger than Earth, composed of countless domain nodes, each containing rule traits once governed by the Emperor's Sign.
For instance, the rule trait of Emperor's Mound Village was Flesh Reconstruction.
Players were able to resurrect through the trait powers provided by Emperor's Mound Village.
There were many such territories across Monster World. He needed players to reclaim nodes corrupted by the terrifying Black Tide and integrate them into Emperor's Mound Village, thereby acquiring more territory traits.
First, Contain Primordials. Second, Reclaim territory nodes.
These were the two most important reasons he was recruiting players.
If the plan succeeded, he would become a true God Emperor, gaining the power to directly confront the terrifying Black Tide.
[Boss, the first batch of players has generated 32 Sacrificial Power in just half a day. Not bad.]
At that moment, the floating Guide beside him suddenly spoke.
"Still too slow. We need to recruit more players."
The 32 Sacrificial Power the Guide referred to was extracted from the refined energy produced by Li Zheng and his team after killing a large number of Cursed Soldiers. Qi Sheng took 30% of that energy and funneled it into the Sacrificial Power pool beneath Emperor's Mound Village.
He had carefully considered this setup.
Extract too much, and it would hinder player growth. Extract too little, and it wouldn't offset the village's daily Sacrificial Power expense.
Thirty percent was just right.
Switching back to human form, the crimson flames on his head extinguished, and the three orbs circling his body disappeared.
[When will you start the next round of recruitment?]
"Right now!"
As he raised his hand, a spatial teleportation array lit up beneath his feet.
After a brief spatial distortion, he returned to his bedroom in the real world.
He already had a clear plan for recruiting more players.
In the early stages, he would use the wildly popular name Dark Land to draw new players.
What players wanted was virtual reality, what he offered was a real world.
This time's target remained those who wanted to play Dark Land but were restricted by its high price.
This group had generally played virtual reality games before, possessed some technical background, and could quickly adapt to the game environment and grow fast.
Compared to pure pay-to-win players, this group was better suited for the early-stage development and exploration of Monster World.
He still had 130,000 Sacrificial Power. It took 1,000 to craft a monster body for each player, so he could recruit up to 130 players.
Including the cost to maintain Emperor's Mound Village's defense barrier, he could only issue a limited number of qualification slots for now.
—
[Kindergarten Little Class Passion Chat Group (Online: 38 People)]
Kindergarten Principal (Group Owner): (news link) Latest news: The Lunar Eclipse Race behind Dark Land has issued another 1 million purchase slots to the Human Federation!
Little Class – Black Ball: I don't even want to hear it. Clearly, I'm not one of the million. And that price is insane. (sigh.jpg)
Little Class – Iron Hammer: I saw that news too. Apparently, the Human Federation higher-ups want more slots to use the virtual environment for experiments, but the Lunar Eclipse Race refused.
Little Class – No Naptime: Well, that's what we get for not being able to develop a virtual reality game as high-fidelity as Dark Land.
Little Class – Drunken Milk: I have a suggestion. Since we all want to play but can't afford it, I propose we pool our funds to buy one copy of Dark Land for me. I'll carry your hopes and dreams into the game and have a great time playing it.
Little Class – Cute Baby replies to Drunken Milk: I agree with pooling funds, but why should YOU be the one to enjoy it and not me? (angry table-slap.jpg)
—
Just as the group members were moaning about Dark Land's sky-high price, a small notification appeared at the bottom of the chat.
[Welfare Officer has joined the group.]
Kindergarten Principal (Group Owner): Who is this? I checked the approval info, no application details shown?
Little Class – No Naptime: Blind guess, the newbie is a porn poster, probably has a massive stash of spicy videos and pics, so they call themselves the Welfare Officer… On behalf of the group, I extend a warm welcome.
Little Class – Black Ball: @Welfare Officer, newbie why so quiet? Start your welfare show, we're ready.
Under the barrage of tags, Qi Sheng sent his first message after joining the group.
Welfare Officer: I've got just the thing you all want. Give me a second, I'll send it over.
Little Class – Drunken Milk: We all know you've got something, but we hope it's free. This group doesn't welcome paywalled sellers, only freebie kings.
Welfare Officer: Do you guys want to play Dark Land?
Kindergarten Principal (Group Owner): Bro, are you about to say you've got some discount deal on legit copies? (laughing spray.jpg)
Welfare Officer: Since fate brought us together, here's a massive welfare gift, I've shared a cracked version download link for Dark Land in the group. Feel free to download it anytime. *(link: ***)
As soon as the Dark Land download link appeared, the lively group chat fell dead silent. Then the group owner broke the silence.
Kindergarten Principal (Group Owner): @Welfare Officer, get lost! Here's a one-way ticket. That scam is like 500 years outdated. Anyone who falls for that is a total idiot.
[Notice: Member Welfare Officer has been removed from the chat.]
Little Class – Cute Baby: This guy was way too impatient. Not like the scammer who joined our group a year ago. That guy stuck around for three months, even handed out red packets now and then. Then one day, he claimed he had insider recharge discounts for Bloodthirsty Berserker. I bought in and lost 800.
Kindergarten Principal: Hahaha, I remember the worst-hit was Drunken Milk, dude paid 3,000 for that so-called discount.
Little Class – Drunken Milk: This cruel world… I still feel the pain. That was when I lost my innocence… The more I think about it, the angrier I get. I'm gonna click that link and report it to the Federation's cyber police. Everything online's real-name verified now, maybe we can get that scammer caught and put on trial.