“Shen Lu,” a mysterious game that descended upon Lan Xing 20 years ago. Only one million spots are available each month. Once you become a player, you gain extraordinary power and rise to the top of society. ...... Ling Yi awakens the Super Mutation System. From consumables to divine artifacts, everything can be mutated! Once the mutation potential reaches perfection, he can even mutate multiple abilities comparable to a “golden finger”! By mutating the “Luck +1” talent, he gains the game-breaking ability—Probability Reversal! A 10% probability flips to 90%! A 0.1% drop rate becomes 99.9% for him! By mutating the “Eye of True Vision,” he gains the game-breaking ability—Eye of Truth! Not only can he see invisible units, but he can also view hidden information about items! In addition to these, there’s “Malice Manifestation,” which turns others’ ill will into voice-over commentary, and the “Intelligence-Lowering Aura,” which continuously reduces enemies’ intelligence… One year later.
Chapter 20: On the Shen Lu, Strength Reigns Supreme!
Seeing this, Ling Yi was greatly surprised. For someone who had allocated all his stats to Mana, it was no big deal to fail to kill monsters a few levels higher with a skill that dealt “massive damage.” But this Flame Star, ten times its normal size, possessed ten times the power. Failing to kill them was simply absurd! “Unless those monsters have some special survival skill.” That was the most reasonable explanation at the moment. However, such survival skills could generally only be used once in a short period of time. Therefore, Ling Yi cast [Starfall] once more. However. Much to his surprise, when the shockwave from the Flame Star dissipated, not a single Blazing Flame Butterfly was missing from that area! Above the massive crater, forty meters in diameter, the Blazing Butterflies, their bodies ablaze, continued to fly up and down at a leisurely pace. As if nothing had happened just moments ago. “This...” A look of bewilderment flashed across his face for an instant, but then he couldn’t help but laugh. [You defeated the Fire Elemental (Lv12), +4 EXP] [You defeated... ] [Automatically picked up 3-star skill [Summon Fire Elemental]] [Automatically picked up 3-star skill [Body of the Fire Elemental]] [You have... ] “Never mind. Let’s take a look at these dropped skills first.” Ling Yi had never been one to dwell on things. If he couldn’t kill it, so be it. He’d check the forum later to see what skills the Blazing Flame Butterfly had, and then he’d know why. For now, he could take a look at the skills. [Fire Elemental Summon (3-star)]: Summons a fire elemental that lasts for 1 minute. [Body of Fire Element (3-star)]: Transforms the body into flames; stamina consumption doubles while active. In addition to these two skills, the Fire Element also dropped a [Fireball] skill. Everyone knows how that one works—no need to check it. “Both of these skills are pretty good, and they both have high mutation potential. If there weren’t any star slot restrictions, I’d learn them both.” Ling Yi hesitated slightly. He would inevitably encounter all sorts of excellent skills in the future. But due to the star slot limit, he—like everyone else—was destined to have a limited number of skills. It was truly hard to say which ones would be most beneficial for his future. “Hmm… In any case, I’ll keep one of each skill for now, and recycle the rest.” Time on the Shen Lu was limited. It wouldn’t hurt to think this through more carefully once he got back. For now, [Starfall] was still sufficient. After recycling the excess skills, he closed the inventory interface and turned his gaze back to the Blazing Flame Butterfly in the distance. After a moment’s thought, he decided to check the forum for information on the Blazing Flame Butterfly. Soon. After searching for the keyword “Blazing Flame Butterfly,” a series of posts appeared below. [Blazing Flame Butterfly: The Darling of Fire-Elemental Monsters! ] (Posted by: Fire Forest) [A Detailed Analysis of the Blazing Flame Butterfly’s Skills! ] (Posted by: Echoes in the Forest) [...... ] These top posts each had billions of likes and tens of billions of views. (Each click counts as one view. ) The buzz around them remained consistently high. Ling Yi just wanted to know what skills the Blazing Flame Butterfly had, so he clicked directly on the second post. Skipping over a paragraph or two of meaningless content, he went straight to the skill analysis. [...... The Blazing Flame Butterfly has a total of four skills, the most valuable of which is undoubtedly its racial skill, ‘Rebirth Through Flames.’ Just as the name implies, when it dies, it will revive upon contact with fire. It also has a skill that sets its entire body ablaze; when combined, these two form a nearly invincible combination...... ] “So that’s how it is.” Ling Yi raised an eyebrow in understanding. It turned out that earlier, it wasn’t that his attacks had missed, nor that they had dodged. Rather, they had revived. “Flame Revival, huh!? That’s quite a nice skill.” It revives upon contact with fire. In other words, no skill that produces fire can kill it. It’s not just fire-based skills—most explosions produce fire, and those explosions can’t kill it either. Including Ling Yi’s Flame Star. “In that case, I’ll just ignore them.” He poked his head out and cast [Starfall] toward other areas within his field of vision. He’d just pretend the Blazing Flame Butterflies didn’t exist. After all, the fire elementals right in front of him were more than enough to get him to Level 10! Whoosh—! One by one, Flame Stars—spheres of crimson energy with golden flames blazing on the outside—appeared from a height of four hundred meters, all plummeting at an ever-increasing speed. They sliced through the air, trailing golden trails of flame dozens of meters long! Their piercing roar echoed across a radius of hundreds of meters! Finally, with a thunderous “BOOM,” they slammed into the crimson earth, a deafening sound like a bolt of lightning striking out of the blue. [You defeated a Fire Elemental (Lv. 13), +5 EXP] [You defeated a Fire Elemental (Lv. 11), +3 EXP] [...... ] ...... Meanwhile. At the foot of the grassy slope in the Crimson Orchard, hundreds of people were preparing to set out. They had all received missions from their respective clans or organizations, instructing them to do their utmost to find the person in this area who was summoning meteors. Just moments ago. Many had witnessed another meteor appearing deep within the Crimson Orchard. Realizing that it would be difficult to traverse this area alone, they spontaneously gathered, intending to investigate together. “Although we don’t know each other, we share a common goal.” A middle-aged, heavyset man wearing a white short-sleeved shirt and a pair of black square-framed glasses spoke loudly to the crowd. His name was Zhang Gang. He was the owner of a small-to-medium-sized company in the real world. Accustomed to bossing others around, he now felt that this makeshift group needed him as its leader. “Beyond that grassy slope lies the Crimson Orchard. I just took a look—there’s...” Before he could finish his sentence, he saw many people ignoring him and heading straight for the grassy slope. “Hey! What are you doing!?” Zhang Gang bellowed at them, “As soon as you step outside, the Red Fruit Monsters will spot you, and then we’ll all be doomed along with you!” Quite a few people glanced at him but continued walking up the slope, ignoring him. As one person passed by, he looked at Zhang Gang with disdain and snorted, “Hmph, who says ‘we’ includes you?” Hearing this, Zhang Gang’s expression grew much colder. He wanted to scold them, but realizing he might not be strong enough to defeat them, his mind was forced to calm down. He suddenly came to a realization. —Since the laws and morals of the real world have absolutely no effect on Shen Lu, and every player possesses extraordinary powers, no one is willing to listen to anyone else unless they have the strength to silence everyone. If summarized in a few words: It would be— On Shen Lu, strength reigns supreme! Having grasped this, Zhang Gang clamped his mouth shut and silently followed the others up the grassy slope. Standing atop this high grassy slope, the group saw the Red Fruit Monsters covering the grassland. As far as the eye could see, there was simply no end in sight. “Whoa—” Seeing this, the group collectively gasped in shock. They exchanged glances, each seeing the tremor of fear in the others’ eyes. “There are way too many of these monsters!!” “Is that guy really over there? How did he even get across?” “Maybe we should just call it quits and try again next time.” “That’s hilarious. It’d be a miracle if we could even get through this. Unless we bring a few thousand people, there’s no way just the of us will get very far.” Some people started talking and then just slipped away on their own. Others snorted derisively and turned to head down the slope. Most remained where they were, their expressions ranging from stiff to gloomy to resigned.
