Chapter 80: Abyss Nightmare Key
【Ding, you have obtained the "Core Abyss Nightmare Source Fragment", would you like to annex it immediately? Yes/No!】
The core Nightmare Source was in hand!
Hang Yu let out a long sigh of relief.
Although it was expected, this step was a critical move in his career as a Lord, absolutely of great historical significance!
"Annex it!"
【Ding, annexation successful, your Talent Points +15, you have obtained "Abyss Nightmare Key" +1, and "Abyss Treasure Chest (Green)" +1!】
A whole 15 Talent Points were obtained in one go!
This meant that Hang Yu now possessed 17 Talent Points!
And he only needed 5 Talent Points to activate a Talent, thus fulfilling the prerequisite for advancing to Tier Two; in other words, with the current conditions, he could step into Tier Two at any time!
He then looked at the other spoils of war.
【Abyss Nightmare Key】, Special Item... Description: This is a secret key transformed from the Core Nightmare Source, which can be used to break nearby Nightmare Barriers and open up a brand new area for the territory.
【Abyss Treasure Chest (Green)】, Reward Chest, a special chest formed by the condensation of Abyssal Fate, offering more abundant rewards than Fate Chests.
The former was a tool to unlock a new map.
With this item, Hang Yu could open the second map.
In other words, it was considered a pass to leave the Beginner Village, and the beginning of a new journey.
As for the Abyss Treasure Chest?
This thing was similar to the Fate Chest.
Only the rewards it gave would be even richer than those from Fate Chests.
Hang Yu was not in a hurry to open the map or open the chest for now; he planned to finish the aftermath and cleanup first.
After Ma Yuanyi fell, the other monsters were no longer a concern, and with the efforts of both Players and NPCs, all threats were cleared out.
Hang Yu glanced at the Essence reserves.
The current Abyssal Essence reserves in the territory were: 259,450!
It actually reached close to 260,000, what an astonishing harvest!
Players had each died at least three times, and some players even died four or five times; if the number of deaths exceeded five, it would directly trigger the Safety Protection Mechanism, thus forcing them into a cooldown state.
To reward the troops.
Hang Yu promptly issued the mission rewards.
The players quickly received Xiao Ba’s notifications.
【Ding, mission completed, you have received Essence +3000, Contribution Points +4000, Silver Chest +1!】
【Ding, mission completed, you have received Essence +3000, Contribution Points +4000, Silver Chest +1!】
【Ding, mission completed, you have received Essence +3000, Contribution Points +5000, Silver Chest +1!】
【……】
【Ding, mission completed, you have received Essence +1500, Contribution Points +3000, Bronze Chest +1!】
【Ding, mission completed, you have received Essence +1000, Contribution Points +2000!】
"Mission complete!"
"All rewards have been distributed!"
"Everything has been completely settled now!"
"I announce the successful conclusion of the Territory Defense Event!"
"……"
Players excitedly cheered and danced, celebrating this hard-earned victory!
In this development of the storyline, everyone had been highly immersed, investing a lot of emotion and passion, so compared to receiving rewards, being able to fend off the enemy invasion and protect the homeland intact made them even happier.
Of course.
The mission rewards were also extremely generous.
Although Hang Yu would profit during the Players’ suffering.
He still did not shortchange his players, not only allowing the Players to distribute all the spoils themselves but also feeding back a portion of the obtained Essence to the people, making the Players' losses negligible compared to the gains.
For instance, this event.
Even though the Players’ role was somewhat limited.
Hang Yu still was not stingy.
The strength of the Fourth Calamity Army was insufficient and needed to be raised.
Thus, nearly 90,000 Essence and over 150,000 Contribution Points were given out through mission rewards in one go!
Five Players with outstanding contributions each received 3000 Essence, along with a high of 4000–5000 Contribution Points, and a Silver Chest.
Fifteen players who made major contributions received around 1500–2000 Essence along with about 2000–3500 Contribution Points and a Bronze Chest.
The rest of the Players received 800–1200 Essence, and around 1000–2000 Contribution Points as rewards.
Once these rewards were distributed.
They naturally caused a huge sensation.
"Lord Hang is so generous!"
"In this battle, we Players didn’t even play a decisive role!"
"Yeah, and under such circumstances, we still got so many rewards — truly generous!"
"I hope next time we can be like in Hexi Village, not relying on the NPCs and making the main contribution ourselves, so we can get the top-tier mission rewards!"
"……"
With the rewards distributed.
Players experienced a significant boost.
Now, the number of Level 8 Players had reached six, and the number of Level 7 Players had also surpassed ten.
Mission rewards were just part of the gains; the spoils dropped by monsters in this battle were extremely abundant, most of which were from Player kills, thus triggering the Heavenly Dao’s Blessing effect.
The most anticipated.
Of course, was the green loot dropped by Ma Yuanyi.
Ye Li Meng, as the Player representative, personally picked up the loot.
【You have picked up loot: Essence +15000, Abyssal Magic Stone Fragments +70000, Advanced Fallen Gems +30, Thousand Skulls Demon Hammer +1!】
Awesome!
Absolutely outrageous!
So much Essence and resources.
It was hard to believe such loot exploded from a single monster!
【Advanced Fallen Gem】, Tier-One Material, Green Quality... Description: Rare material dropped from Abyss Fallen Commanders, can be used to upgrade White equipment quality or enhance Green equipment quality.
【Thousand Skulls Demon Hammer】, Tier-One Equipment, Mid-Green Quality, Attack +40, Defense Ignored +20, Strength +10, comes with skill: Charged Strike, Durability 35/50.
Green Material!
Green Equipment!
Unprecedented and unseen before.
Players were all shocked at the equipment's attributes.
This equipment looked almost identical to the one Ma Yuanyi wielded, just scaled down proportionally for human size, about one and a half meters long, looking domineering and dazzling in hand.
Aside from this, the battlefield was littered with loot.
The total Essence estimated from the loot collected this time was about 110,000; if added to the 90,000 Essence Hang Yu fed back to the Players, it totaled up to 200,000 Essence.
Even if divided absolutely evenly.
Each Player could receive around 2500.
Enough for the entire Fourth Calamity Army’s levels to soar again.
Of course, Players did not immediately allocate this batch of Essence; on one hand, there was still the matter of discussing the exact distribution ratio, and on the other hand, most Players did not plan to absorb the Essence right away.
Hang Yu did not encourage Players to store Essence.
Thus, he had not developed a function to store excess Essence.
Once the Essence accumulated in a Player’s body reached the upgrade threshold, it would automatically level them up.
This was because the lower the level, the lower the amount of Essence dropped upon death, so Hang Yu wished for all Players to level up as soon as possible, so he could reap more when the time came.
If he allowed Players to store Essence.
There would inevitably be many Players hoarding experience and stalling levels.
This would certainly be detrimental to both the territory’s development and the overall profit.
Of course, although level was very important, one could not blindly pursue it; if one only had a high level without sufficiently strong skills, it would just be flashy but useless, equally detrimental to the army's development.
To solve this problem.
Hang Yu designed the "Essence Contract".
This item was not only used to distribute experience points in a team.
It could also act as a tool to temporarily seal and store experience and loot.
The Essence and loot players obtained during battle could all be sealed into Xiao Ba through the contract, and then distributed after the battle ended; thus, the contract possessed the function of temporary Essence storage.
If they did not want to level up too quickly.
Players could directly consume the Essence stored in the contract to enhance their skills, but it must be used before the contract expired; otherwise, once the contract disappeared, the Essence would automatically be distributed.
This operation.
The Essence harvest alone was very large.
Unless it was some low-level players who had not even reached Level 5.
Other players generally intended to use the Essence to upgrade skills, at least to train one initial skill to max level, to ensure strong combat effectiveness in the next battle.
Hang Yu observed and found.
Players were very satisfied with the evaluation and experience of this event.
Whether it was the gameplay experience, immersion, sense of gain, or sense of achievement, it was all highly engaging.
If there was any slight regret, it was that they had not achieved a gold-level rating in the mission.
But this could not be helped.
Hang Yu had distributed as many rewards as possible.
But he could not forcibly give out the highest rewards.
Without rules, nothing could be accomplished; the management team's rewards and punishments must be clear, especially for the players.
Back during the defense of Hexi Village, players had hardly relied on NPCs, overcoming the difficulties and defeating Fallen Xu Feng with just the Fourth Calamity Army.
Only under those circumstances could they obtain the gold treasure chest rewards.
This time, players’ contributions were not that great; fortunately, Lord Hang had given special care, helping them earn a lot of military merit, and even if they did not get the highest rewards, having 5 silver ratings and 15 bronze ratings was still quite good.
Players who received treasure chests quickly opened them.
Although the chest quality was not high, the mission level was, so quite a few functional items, skill cards, and quality equipment were obtained—these were all things players needed.
"Lord Hang!"
Black-Eyed Rui Ge came forward to report.
"That Jian Shuo doesn’t seem to be completely dead yet!"
Although Jian Shuo was part of the Abyss faction, his betrayal dealt a significant blow for the territory, at least preventing potential losses, so players were unsure whether he was friend or foe.
Hang Yu followed Black-Eyed Rui Ge to the scorched pit, where Jian Shuo lay with only half of his body remaining, his asphalt-like body emitting a burnt stench, his health nearly depleted, in a dying state, but indeed still alive.
"Lord Hang!"
Chenxi quickly stood up upon seeing the Lord arrive.
She said, "I tried to help treat him, but he refused!"
Chimera Wraith said, "We also tried to persuade him to surrender, but this guy was determined to die."
Hang Yu nodded slightly and then asked, "Why did you betray Ma Yuanyi and help us, the people of the Stars?"
Jian Shuo said calmly, "I neither betrayed Ma Yuanyi nor have any interest in helping you; as a servant of the Son of Heaven of the Han Dynasty, I have always been loyal only to the Han court and His Majesty; my actions were merely to repay His Majesty's heavenly grace."
Although he was a eunuch.
He was loyal to Emperor Ling of Han.
"From the moment the Abyss descended, the Han had already collapsed; even without the Abyss, the Han’s destiny had reached its end, your loyalty at this point carries little meaning."
Hang Yu said, "However, although you have been polluted, you have not yet fully fallen into corruption; if you are willing to work for me, I can offer you a place to stay."
"No need... I can barely hold on anymore!"
Jian Shuo closed his eyes: "My will is constantly corroded, my soul has been completely twisted and deformed, and the time I remain conscious grows shorter and shorter; if you really want to repay me, then please grant me a swift death."
A bit of a pity!
But Hang Yu still nodded.
Since it was Jian Shuo’s own choice, he would have the players help free him.
The core Nightmare Source of the Luoshui Execution Ground had already been purified, granting Jian Shuo a chance for peace; dying in the normal way was liberation for him, and also a small contribution to the territory.
After dealing with Jian Shuo.
Hang Yu returned to the territory.
Chimera Wraith curiously asked while following beside him: "Lord Hang, is Jian Shuo’s condition the so-called Abyss Walker?"
Hang Yu nodded: "Correct, in this world, there are some beings who, although polluted and even highly deformed and corrupted by the Abyss, have not yet completely surrendered to the Will of the Abyss due to personal willpower or other objective reasons."
"Such types of corrupted beings are called Abyss Walkers; however, once dragged into the Abyss, it is almost impossible to walk out again—out of thousands of walkers, barely one survives!"
"Almost all Abyss Walkers live in a state where they can neither survive nor die."
"Because it is extremely painful, death becomes a form of release for them."
Chimera Wraith: "Are there many Abyss Walkers like this?"
Hang Yu nodded and said: "I believe the number is not small; these kinds of corrupted beings are usually neutral units, sometimes they can become powerful allies, sometimes even more dangerous than regular Fallen ones."
"Why?"
"Because not every corrupted person resists the invasion of the Abyssal Will; besides objective factors and luck, personal willpower is crucial, and those with such willpower are generally very difficult to deal with."
"Ah, I understand now, thank you for answering my questions, Lord!"
"You're welcome!"
Chimera Wraith became increasingly interested in this world.
Soul-like games had very obscure narratives.
The story would not be directly played out.
For example, why Jian Shuo could remain conscious during his fall into the Abyss—was it due to his hatred of Ma Yuanyi, or his loyalty to Emperor Ling of Han, and what kind of entanglements and stories lay between him, Emperor Ling, and Ma Yuanyi.
These were not explicitly shown in the game.
What players could access were often just clues, and most of the story needed to be deeply investigated, or pieced together through imagination; different people would have different views and understandings of the plot.
According to the information revealed on the official website.
The game would soon enter its second closed beta.
Many new maps, new scenes, and new content would be unlocked.
Chimera Wraith was very much looking forward to the upcoming plot developments of Twisted Three Kingdoms.