NOVEL NEXT Chapter 51: Descent
The chat with old classmates didn't last long, or one could even say it didn't stop at all, as Li Aozi embarked on the path to the Underwater Abyss.
Unfortunately, players with excellent luck like the Caramel Snail and Long Yuqiong didn't make it to the first batch list due to the random selection. But this wasn't a bad thing.
Since they were still busy suppressing rebellions across Azure Star, with the help of Baizhu Star, 6.09 million people obtained Interstellar Citizen qualifications. After simple training, they would register as mercenaries at the Valkyrie Fortress and then have some physical interactions with aliens, giving them a bit of player shock.
In his spare time, Li Aozi visited the planet where the Ajincour server was located nearby to test the effect of the Xides skin.
Although it was simply displaying his identity as the Seed of the Starry Abyss, many players found it interesting.
Along with Xides' occupational skills... it was truly abundant.
Including the Seventh Pathway of the Void, players could learn the basic occupational skills of the Six Grand Paths from Xides.
Moreover, upon switching to the Xides skin, Li Aozi discovered he could also summon some Void Creations.
From the most basic Void Egg, which could hatch into a weak Void Floater, to the fierce Lantern Serpent, Li Aozi even felt that once his main body's level increased, he might be able to summon the higher Eye of Calamity.
This opened up a new chain of industries for Li Aozi. He sold the players the most basic Void Eggs and then let players spend money and experience to hatch them.
Once the randomly hatched small pets grew, players could seek Li Aozi for evolution.
Although it was just a flick of the wrist for Li Aozi, the manual fee couldn't be omitted—every evolution required players to prepare some rare materials on their own.
Rare metals, high-level biological pheromones, legendary plant genes...
Of course, Li Aozi knew how to raise pigs.
For a pig to gain weight, a crucial factor is to reduce the pig's activity frequency while increasing its food intake.
Throughout history, the techniques of pig farming have been successfully applied by people.
If one seeks firmer meat quality, the pigs must be raised wild, running—drastically increasing the amount of liver exposure, and using various activities, passes, and collaborations to keep the players constantly by your side.
If one needs to refine the delicious taste of the meat, it must involve castration and bloodletting—reducing the players' innovation ability, keeping them within their range, guiding them to where they should spend, and fully recovering the wages distributed.
Also, the meat yield of pigs is a huge test—although fat houses flavor, lean meat provides more chew. To improve player quality, they must learn to produce grain and conduct secondary creations and self-crystallization.
The results were very satisfying for him.
Due to issues with the server where Ajincour was located, most players' daily routine was "Starry Valley Tale"—logging in to farm, make money from farming, then buy more land, and continue farming... After two versions, players are starting to plant rice underwater.
When the mysterious, noble, and powerful image of Xides appeared before them, Ajincour players were almost like fans at a concert seeing their idol.
More importantly... In reality, Ajincour is a Colonial Planet, far away from Fiery Summer. Even without removing the reality filter, the Starry Abyss probably doesn't care much about these deities.
Disseminating the image of Xides among them did not draw attention at all.
After reaping a significant amount of experience, Li Aozi's strategic reserves were complete. He was truly disinclined to visit far-flung planets and other servers—the experience gained from such trips was less than completing two tasks, and his time was quite precious.
All preparations were made, and Li Aozi didn't even bother to notify Dialan and others. The afternoon after saying goodbye to old classmates, he boarded a ship and departed.
This exploration vessel named "Greenfield Vessel" wasn't very large but utilized some space compression technology internally. It could accommodate a massive 200,000 people and various supplies, capable of sustaining itself for two years with life-support functions, even without energy supply.
However, Li Aozi wasn't very concerned about supply issues—being the Lunar String Archbishop, he directly opened two dimensional channels through which players could continue leveling up on the road, and any lacking materials could be directly snagged from the Otherworld.
What? Would the Otherworldlings protest against this invasion of their homeland?
Those matters weren't significant. If it had to be counted, just find a two-thousand-year-old online novel, and claim it's the land deed.
The journey was very smooth. The entire time they flew the merchant vessel flag, and no one gave them any trouble. Plus, with Li Aozi's generous spending to ensure confidentiality, everything went smoothly.
No one complained about the under-maintenance course—who would, after being offered five thousand ammonium gold? "Please, Lord Baizhu, go this way."
This road requires clearance documents—"Oh, dear Sir, you know, we are not such people. You're offering too much; I would only need half..."
"Move it, foreigners; this starry sky is controlled by the Crystal Tower"—"Ahem, er, sir, I was rude just now, please don't hold it against me."
The post-war Eye of the Galaxy was still under construction, and most Starfields were prohibited from passage. This was partly to prevent any remaining Night Butterfly Men from guerrilla warfare, and partly to prevent ordinary people from risking themselves to scavenge and strike gold.
Not that the Crystal Tower cares about public safety—as losing lives is secondary, but their confidential documents or items might be leaked.
Fortunately, Li Aozi had a knack for social leverage, and these troubles were ultimately avoided. Everyone knew that this money was not just a benefit but also hush money.
As facts proved, when it's time to spend money, one must have the resolve to spend generously.
It took less than three days for Li Aozi to lead this group safely and discreetly to the Dark Star Domain.
"We are about to enter the Dark Star Domain; proceed with body checks again,"
The captain ordered:
"All personnel please immediately return to their fixed cabins; the gravitational field in the Dark Star Domain is extremely chaotic. We cannot guarantee constant safety; please protect yourselves."
"It's finally time to go down."
Players discussed excitedly:
"What's the deal; going down to Lower Starry Abyss still requires a spaceship? Isn't that a bit uncreative."
"What else, then? Do you think interstellar travel should be—wait for a loading animation, play a spaceship takeoff scene, then the screen blackens, after several seconds, you arrive at your destination, and the broadcast says: 'Dear passengers, we have arrived at the destination. Please collect your belongings, take care of the elderly and children, and we look forward to serving you again. Have a pleasant journey, goodbye'?"
"Exactly, very efficient. Look at this 'Starry Abyss' game; it's not, every time I leave, I have to personally fly the spaceship, sit in the spaceship, sitting like a fool, playing cards with NPCs, chatting, triggering tasks, running errands—and after several hours, we've reached the destination, I'm totally exhausted."
"Looks like you are more suited for simple games; the difficulty of 'Starry Abyss' is truly too high for you—by the way, what games have you played before?"
"Link Look."
In such playful banter, players moved to the nearest fixed cabins, laid flat, allowing the devices to fix them in gaseous gels, continuing their teasing banter.
However, Li Aozi was not as excited as they were.
He tore open the dimension and stepped directly onto the bridge, asking the captain:
"What's going on, Captain? This ship should theoretically withstand the gravitational turbulence of the Dark Star Domain."
"Under normal circumstances, there's no problem, Lord Leoz. Due to the cosmic pressure imbalance causing the Dark Star Domain, at most three to four different directions appear; although the body of an Ascender is not enough to break free, with the assistance of a high-power antimatter engine, it's completely doable."
The captain looked solemn and pulled up a large amount of data to show Li Aozi:
"But look, the gravitational turbulence here has completely lost control. The entire model has transformed from a trough into an amplifier effect; frankly, all it takes is a light flap of a butterfly's wing to constantly erode outwards, eventually leading to a widespread gravitational tsunami."
"A gravitational tsunami..."
Li Aozi's face grew serious:
"I myself am not the concern, but such a massive ship can't withstand the overwhelming pressure from two layers of the Starry Abyss just yet."