Translator: AnubisTL
"Mapping" was a simple concept: essentially, it meant claiming territory.
Riding the world tree, they flew forward continuously. Whenever they passed through unfamiliar territory, Li Hao would imprint the area into his mind, instantly making it Chen Jiang's domain.
Thanks to Li Hao's innate ability, the player activity within these imprinted territories could be updated in real-time. Scar Dog could also open phantom gates to Li Hao's map from any distance.
Anywhere within the Steel Sword Autonomous Rotating Turret's firing range was now Chen Jiang's territory.
Although the turret's current range was only about 20,000 meters, with the combined enhancements from Li Hao and Scar Dog, its theoretical range could extend infinitely!
Today marked their third day of mapping.
Three days had passed since they resolved the Black Europe Company incident involving the father and sons. During these three days, they had focused solely on mapping, achieving significant progress.
They discovered two mechanical race cities and an ape-man tribe hidden in the mountains.
But they didn't attack. Striking now would be a waste.
They'd wait for an alien race extermination event to strike, where the rewards would be doubled, maximizing their gains.
As human players, failing to capitalize on such events would be utterly shameful.
During these three days, the world tree never stopped moving, except for brief periods when Li Hao needed to rest and recover his mental power.
"Phew!"
Scar Dog, sitting on what was once the world tree but had now transformed into a floating island, strode to the edge and casually settled on a rock, gazing at the distant white clouds.
"Brother Jiang, do you think that Wu Jinshen guy is an alien?"
"He looks just like a human."
"I'm not sure," Chen Jiang replied softly, leaning on his cane. "Now isn't the time to dwell on that. We need to focus on claiming every reward we can from the Ten Thousand Races Arena."
"Once we're out, these opportunities will be much harder to come by."
Just then—
A voice suddenly echoed in everyone's ears!
[Global Announcement!]
[The global event "Ten Thousand Races Fusion" will officially begin in 6 hours!]
[All players, please prepare!]
"It's here," Scar Dog said, his expression showing little surprise, as if he had anticipated this announcement. "Brother Jiang, the Ten Thousand Races Fusion starts in six hours."
They had known about this global event for quite some time.
After all, the 1024 Central Control Room allowed them to preview the next global event.
Naturally, they couldn't have been unaware.
Although they had been exploring the map and were now far from the 1024 Central Control Room, the mutated beast fabricator remained there, and Zhao Ritian and Wang Defa were still grinding monsters relentlessly.
Scar Dog had to return periodically to replenish the energy blocks in the Perpetual Motion Monster Grinding Machine.
During these trips, he would also check the 1024 Central Control Room to see the details of the upcoming global event.
In other words, they had known about the event's nature and start time long before the official announcement.
Chen Jiang didn't reply, but calmly gazed at the event introduction panel before him.
[Global Event: Ten Thousand Races Fusion]
[All players will have the precise coordinates of all alien race players within a 200,000-meter radius displayed on their maps.]
[During this event, killing an alien race player will earn you one fusion point!]
[Note: Fusion points can be used to purchase special and essential items, as well as the racial innate abilities of other race players!]
A simple introduction.
In an instant, Chen Jiang obtained the precise coordinates of all alien race players within his 200,000-meter radius.
For the past three days, they hadn't been exploring the map aimlessly.
They had been exploring with a purpose.
They had been advancing in a straight line eastward, avoiding lateral diversions.
This strategy ensured that when the precise coordinates of all alien race players within their 200,000-meter radius appeared on the map, they would have a larger area of unexplored territory revealed!
It was about maximizing this advantage.
Unfortunately, Li Hao's mental power wasn't strong enough. Otherwise, they could have positioned the four members (excluding Wang Defa) at the cardinal directions—north, south, east, and west—to instantly illuminate four vast sections of the map.
The moment the surrounding map lit up, Chen Jiang immediately spotted numerous alien race gathering points. Among them, five stood out with the largest player concentrations, likely mechanical race cities, as only the mechanical race could support such densely populated alien settlements.
This global event included a crucial mission: to replace Scar Dog's racial innate ability.
Yes, this event allowed players to purchase the racial innate abilities of other race players and exchange them for their own.
The human race's racial innate ability, Phoenix Nirvana, was a one-time use ability. Once used, it was gone forever, leaving Scar Dog effectively without a racial innate ability—a blank space in his combat capabilities. Replacing his racial innate ability would perfectly fill this void.
With these five mechanical race cities, plus the two they had discovered along the way, they had already located seven mechanical race cities in total, essentially securing the top ranking in advance.
Meanwhile, within one of the mechanical race cities...
Feng Jiutian knelt solemnly on one knee, his expression grave. "Grandpa," he said, "I don't know how to thank you for securing this opportunity for me. All I can promise is that I, Feng Jiutian, will never bring shame upon your name!"
"Hmm."
The elder seated before Feng Jiutian remained silent for a moment before speaking. "The mechanical race expended a vast number of merit points to unlock the launch authorization for the starship bomb."
"The starship bomb is the mechanical race's most devastating weapon."
"It can completely annihilate a city of two million people."
"Kindling City's exact coordinates were revealed during the recent global event, 'Guardian of Kindling City.' Since Kindling City is immobile, the starship bomb is guaranteed to detonate within its boundaries!"
"Kindling City's population density far exceeds two million."
"Under these circumstances, the direct casualties from the starship bomb could reach five million. When you factor in indirect deaths and injuries, the total toll becomes impossible to calculate."
"The starship bomb is a weapon of unconventional warfare."
"But you know the immense price the mechanical race paid for this. The honor is yours, but the benefits are not. All rewards you receive must be surrendered without compensation. I can't help you with that."
"After all, I'm just an elder of the mechanical race, not its leader."
"Don't worry, Grandpa," Feng Jiutian said with a serious nod. "I'm not foolish enough to try and pocket the rewards from the starship bomb. The honor is enough."
"Good. It's best you think that way."
The elder nodded in satisfaction, then paused before rasping, "Should we send a global speaker announcement to inform Chen Jiang? It would further enhance your honor."
"Absolutely not!" Feng Jiutian exclaimed urgently. "No, no, absolutely no global announcements before the starship bomb detonates in Kindling City! Based on my experience, global announcements always lead to unfortunate consequences."
"Alright, I'll listen to you."
The elder shook his head with a hint of helplessness. "You're always acting like Chen Jiang has scared you out of your wits. But there's no need to be so afraid of him. No matter how powerful he is, he'll be harvested once the Ten Thousand Races Arena ends."
"Unless he possesses the power to shatter planets."
"The Ten Thousand Races Arena ends?" Feng Jiutian paused, a flicker of confusion in his eyes. "What do you mean, Grandpa? I don't quite understand."
The elder fell silent for a moment before speaking. "You're still young. You only know that the mechanical race survived the last Ten Thousand Races Arena and then participated again."
"But you're unaware of the deeper truths."
"The official explanation is that the Ten Thousand Races Arena ends only when the last race player remains. But that's just a rough approximation."
"After all, completely eradicating a race is nearly impossible. In life-or-death situations, some will always find a way to hide and survive."
"In reality, the Ten Thousand Races Arena ends when roughly eighty to ninety percent of the other races have been eliminated. The race that achieves the top ranking in the final global event will be declared the ultimate victor."
"At that point, the Ten Thousand Races Arena will conclude."
The elder suddenly paused, fell silent for a moment, then spoke with a complex expression: "Never mind, let's not dwell on this for now. All you need to know is that the mechanical race paid a significant price to participate in the second round, and... they have a mission to fulfill."
Soon, six hours had passed.
It was now daytime, precisely four o'clock in the afternoon.
A voice echoed in every player's ears once more.
[Global Announcement!]
[The global event "Ten Thousand Races Fusion" has officially begun!]
[Act like a hunter and seek out alien race players around you, or like a rabbit, evade them.]
[The rules are simple: kill or be killed.]
[Good luck to all players!]
Chen Jiang stood motionless beneath the world tree, gazing at the fusion point shop that had appeared with the event's launch.
He quickly noticed several items he had never seen before.
[Item Name]: Racial Innate Ability Random Card
[Item Star]: Two-Star Item
[Item Effect]: Use this card to randomly acquire the racial innate abilities of three other races. Choose one to replace your current racial innate ability.
[Item Restriction]: Each player may use this item only once.
[Item Description]: Fate cannot be altered, but there are always exceptions.
[Item Price]: 500 fusion points
"Only once?" Chen Jiang frowned slightly, his dissatisfaction evident. "Wouldn't it be incredibly difficult to randomly get a racial innate ability you're satisfied with?"
"Don't worry about it. It's already pretty good," Scar Dog said optimistically. "No matter what ability I get, it'll be better than my current one, which is already useless since I've used it. As long as it's not the insect race's ability, I'm fine. That thing is just disgusting."
"The insect race's ability is actually quite good," Li Hao couldn't help but chuckle. "If you get it, you might be able to use the heart of the insect hive. Your combat power would skyrocket!"
The Heart of the Insect Hive was one of two items they had purchased during a global event.
Restricted to insect race players, its sole effect was to increase the Queen Mother's reproduction speed tenfold!
Beyond that, it had no other uses.
They hadn't bought these items for their own benefit, but purely to antagonize insect race players and simultaneously diminish their potential.
However, since they couldn't use the items themselves, they remained locked away in storage. Using them for enhancement materials would be a waste, to say the least.
"Wait a minute!" Scar Dog exclaimed, his eyes lighting up with sudden inspiration. "Brother Jiang, I just had a brilliant idea!"
"We get a one-star item for every alien race player we kill beneath the world tree, right?"
"Even though we can lower the world tree by destroying mechanical race cities and then absorb the flesh and blood of alien race players from the ruins to create one-star items..."
"You can never have too many one-star items! We can always use more."
"I think we should capture a Queen Mother, attach the Heart of the Insect Hive to her, and then lock her in a cage."
"We'll design a special cage that exposes the Queen Mother's abdomen, allowing us to pull it outside."
"This way, the insect race Queen Mother can frantically lay insect race larvae for us."
"Then we'll light a fire beneath the cage. The newborn larvae will instantly perish painlessly. Since they're beneath the world tree, a fruit capable of hatching a one-star item will appear in the tree's canopy."
"Wouldn't this provide us with a constant supply of one-star items, day and night?!"
"And it's a completely self-sustaining perpetual motion machine!"
"The only question is how quickly the Queen Mother can reproduce. But even if she's slow, the heart of the insect hive should accelerate her production. Wouldn't this give us a massive daily output of items?"
"..."
Chen Jiang pondered for a moment, a peculiar expression on his face, before finally exclaiming, "That's a brilliant plan! Let's see if we can find an insect race Queen Mother. If we do, we should definitely capture a few."
Although he already had multiple channels for obtaining one-star items—Wang Defa's Automatic Monster Grinding Machine, the Black Europe Company's external supply from the trio of father and sons, and burying slain alien race players beneath the world tree—one-star items were the kind of resource where more was always better.
(End of the Chapter)
📖Read [MCC3KM] ahead on Pa.treon@AnubisTL upto c288. [+5k]
🌐Read for FREE Upto Ch222 on the Site. Visit 𝐰𝐰𝐰.𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐥.𝐜𝐨𝐦.
🔥Translated [1.5k+] Chapters and [3.04M+] Words.