Chapter 391: Chapter 391: Dividing Forces (650 Monthly Tickets)
 

They had been walking along the tunnel for over three hours, not because the tunnel was of such length.

Rather, the path that Li Yao had chosen was not calm; cave dwellers and some small unintelligent mechanical monsters started to block the way.

Moreover, as they moved in deeper, the quantity and quality of the monsters began to elevate significantly. They spent less time walking and more time fighting.

“Master, how much longer till we reach the checkpoint you mentioned? It’s nearly half a day now, and there’s still no sign of it,” War Horizon asked impatiently.

His impatience wasn’t unjustified. As the main tank, he was likely the most exhausted among them. Aggroing monsters was no easy task.

What’s more, they had only bumped into two other teams within half a day. Since there was no conflict of interest, both teams cooperated for a while before parting ways at a fork in the path.

The layout here was overly complex. Li Yao had a map, so he at least knew where he was, but the players without a map were confused. The tunnels looked similar and there were forks everywhere—every short distance, there were several paths branching out. Now, even if they wanted to backtrack, they wouldn’t be able to find the correct path.

The mechanical gnomes that built these tunnels in the past really accomplished a monumental project.

They had killed a large number of monsters, but because Li Yao led the charge, their golden puppet, combined with the NPC model, gave the players very little experience.

Thus, even though they exerted a lot of effort, the little experience they gained left them feeling somewhat weak and powerless.

They all wistfully imagined that if they were to kill all these monsters by themselves, they would likely have leveled up by now. However, this was simply wishful thinking. Without Li Yao’s golden puppet and Death God 4000, their progress would likely have been as slow as a turtle’s. There was no way they could have achieved this level of efficiency.

“We still need to get through the passage ahead, although the map in this area is incomplete, so I don’t know which one will be the next passage,” Li Yao said.

Little Cold Hands asked, “So what are you suggesting, Master?”

“As you’ve seen, these tunnels are too long and intertwined. If we try to explore each one by one, I’m afraid we’d run out of time today. Besides, we need time to return as well. So, I’ve decided we should split into two groups. I’ll go one way, and the rest of you will go another way. Each group will explore a different passage,” Li Yao confidently said.

Light Flower hesitated. The tunnel was not safe, and without Li Yao, they would likely encounter many difficulties.

“That’s decided then. From what I know, the strength of the newcomers is improving rapidly. With me around, it’s difficult for you to enhance your capabilities. Actually, the monsters here are not particularly tough. As long as you progress slowly, based on your abilities, you should be able to increase your strength while traveling. It will be a win-win situation.”

Upon hearing Li Yao’s words, everyone was tempted. His words were indeed true.

Whether it was in the arena or other leveling methods, due to their familiarity with the game, many experts had figured out ways to level up. The level rankings had changed dramatically in the past few days, with some experts already reaching level 16.

Although there was still some distance from the top-ranked Prairie Fire, Prairie Fire’s experience hadn’t changed in several days.

While browsing a forum yesterday, they saw a user postulate that Prairie Fire was probably stuck in a certain plot mission. Otherwise, with his skills, he would have advanced his level a long time ago.

A few days later, Li Yao was still at level 16. Even though he was close to level 17, the experts behind him were striving to surpass him and sit on the first place throne.

They had been kept in the dark by Prairie Fire for a long time. His level was always far ahead of others. Seeing his leveling speed, others could only despair.

Now there was a chance to overthrow him. Many people were seizing this opportunity fervently, regardless of how it arose.

Li Yao was alerted to the situation of his level by his sister. When Li’s sister asked him what was going on, Li Yao replied that he would recover his level today.

Many people were now waiting to laugh at Li Yao’s mishap.

Truth be told, Li Yao didn’t particularly care for the level rankings, but during this special period, many guilds were waiting for a reason to deride Starfire.

So, Li Yao felt that he needed to maintain his level advantage.

On his journey, Li Yao discovered a place that was perfect for leveling-up. However, it wasn’t easy to switch to the player interface with them around as it was easy to expose himself.

That’s why he thought of splitting the forces. According to the map, it was clear where to go. Li Yao planned to let them go ahead and catch up after he leveled up.

“It’s this fork. I’ll take the path with more monsters, and you guys take this one. As long as you’re careful, you should be fine,” said Li Yao, pointing at a junction.

“Hey, Master, how do we contact you if we find the checkpoint?” Light Flower called out as she saw Li Yao entering one of the tunnels.

“No need to worry, my mechanical puppet and the Master can communicate,” Little Cold Hands explained.

“If that’s the case, then while you all kill monsters and level up, I’ll be responsible for collecting information from all over,” Ephemeral Bloom volunteered, activating stealth mode.

“Come on, your combat power is not weak. If you aren’t here, our efficiency will drop significantly,” Master of Magic protested.

“You’re afraid that while I’m not fighting, I will be just leeching off the experience, right?” Ephemeral Bloom sneered, understanding the hidden message in the Master of Magic’s words. “In fact, I don’t want to be killed by an enemy who suddenly pops out while fighting monsters. If you want that, fine, I’ll just leave the team.”

Ephemeral Bloom immediately left the party. Though they had been working together, they didn’t chat much. Everyone was too cunning and always trying to gain some advantage off of each other.

“I also have a puppet, so I get less experience overall. I won’t be holding any of you back,” Little Cold Hands added, not hesitating to leave the group either. Even though she was slightly shy, she wasn’t a fool, and she particularly didn’t like Master of Magic always trying to take advantage of others.

“Right, you three take this passage. Me and Little Cold Hands will take this one. It will be more efficient that way,” concluded Ephemeral Bloom, after forming the new party with Little Cold Hands.

“Humph,” War Horizon glared at them discontentedly and led the way.

Li Yao arrived at a position in the tunnel where there was a large hall. Tiny robots constantly crawled out of the ducts there, forcing them to keep killing them. As such, it was pretty much impossible to clear all the monsters, and the longer the battle lasted, the larger the quantity of high-quality monsters became.

There were also many excellent locations nearby to set up artillery, with the monsters being unable to reach these cannons and arrow towers.

Soon after, Li Yao jumped onto a large stone column that was collapsed by two-thirds.

After a while, Li Yao saw a figure controlling a puppet appearing in his vision.

“I knew a smart one would show up,” he sighed. “You’ve known me for a while so it should be easy to guess who I am. Come out.”

“Those who knew you before wouldn’t find it hard to guess who you are. Just like you guessed who I am,” Ephemeral Bloom said, canceling stealth. “I was surprised to find out that Little Cold Hands also figured out you’re not an NPC. I was shocked. Did you two know each other before?”

“I don’t know her. But Little Cold Hands, you have a special piece of equipment, don’t you?” Li Yao said…