The Era of Gods

Chapter 494: Chapter 494: Preparing to Cheat

Lin Xiao looked at him expressionlessly for a dozen seconds, cracked a smile, and walked straight past him.

He didn’t have time to put on airs here, it was too exhausting.

Anyway, the people were his subordinates, whether it was intentional or unintentional, deliberate or accidental, the responsibility was on him.

After resting with his girlfriend for a bit, he came to the guard tower wall and engaged in the battle against Demons from his vantage point.

Clearing a group of Demons with a thundercloud, his body flashed with golden light, and he leveled up.

He attempted to communicate with his True Body immediately, feeling that the layer separating them was getting thinner. He could already sense the presence of the Creation Rubik’s Cube and the True Body and had a premonition that once he leveled up to Level 70, this barrier would disappear, allowing him to formally communicate with the Creation Rubik’s Cube and True Body.

At that time…

Lin Xiao’s lips curved slightly upward, thinking he would make those who had wronged him pay.

A temporary loss wasn’t shameful, as long as it wasn’t a constant occurrence.

Cheating wasn’t shameful either—if you had the skill to cheat, it was considered a skill.

Standing on a high platform tens of meters above, where the Demons couldn’t reach him, and with powerful NPC allies protecting the entrance, he could unleash his powerful burst damage without concern.

After reaching Level 69, he didn’t focus on ordinary Demons but specialized in long-distance targeting of the central Demon Overlord, constantly casting Lightning Chain, Thunderbolt, and Lightning Strike spells. Especially Thunderbolt and Lightning Strike had incredibly high burst damage, and he cast them as soon as they were off cooldown.

This Level 76 Demon Overlord had a Leader Template and a whopping health pool of over 800,000, with extremely high defense and resistances that could negate most of the damage.

Aggravated by Lin Xiao’s attacks from over a hundred yards away, the Demon Overlord had taken the initiative to lead an assault on the watchtower’s gates early on.

Fortunately, there were more than one Leader Template NPC within the guard tower. One was a commandant of the watchtower with a Level 75, boasting 600,000 health and clad in thick armor. Being a close combat professional, he was holding off the Demon Overlord head-on.

The other was a Level 75 Grand Magician, also with a Leader Template, having about 500,000 health. Positioned on a high tower within the watchtower, protected by a bunch of elite warriors, he had an even longer casting range than Lin Xiao and continually summoned massive, several-meter-tall ice crystals that plummeted with astonishing force.

The Demon Overlord, despite being strong, found it unrealistic to take down the guard tower defended by two equally ranked powerhouses who had the advantage in defense.

After the Demon Overlord had been fighting for more than ten minutes, the majority of the Demons, including two Centurions, fell in battle. The Overlord began retreating while still fighting, preparing to withdraw.

After such a long fight, this guy still had just over 100,000 health and was as lively as ever.

The two powerhouses inside the watchtower were in fairly good condition. The commandant was holding against the Demon Overlord, who was down to half health, thanks to the full-powered healing from the Priests behind him. Yet, they didn’t dare to pursue further,

The strategy of the Expeditionary Army’s headquarters was to continually weaken the Demons’ capabilities in the surrounding areas. The responsibility of the watchtowers was to plant stakes within Demon territory and eliminate Demons, which was the duty of another battle system, unrelated to the watchtowers.

Though the watchtower might not give chase, the players were another story. Two previously reserved players from the Fortress Regiment simultaneously led their troops out, followed by a swarm of other players.

But Lin Xiao didn’t join them. It wasn’t that he looked down upon them, but it was quite unrealistic for that group of players to think they could hunt down a wounded Demon Overlord with their abilities.

Not to mention that there were still a bunch of remaining Demon minions, including a Centurion and numerous brave warriors and elite soldiers. The Demon Overlord alone, with his tremendous power, could rout them.

Bosses in the wild were different from those in dungeons.

Those in dungeons had predetermined mechanisms, making them easy to kill if you followed the mechanics.

But wild Bosses had none of those complicated mechanics, not even an aggro system. The ordinary NPC soldiers they recruited could understand various complex verbal player commands, so the intelligence of this Demon Overlord didn’t need explanation.

He was sure that within half an hour, they would all be scurrying back with their tails between their legs.

He rode a Griffin from Eagle Tower’s flight point back to the Expeditionary Army Fortress and exchanged for two small squads of soldiers.

This time he didn’t recruit too many, just exchanged six Green Demon Marks for six elite NPCs—two warriors, two ice mages, and two priests; the remaining fourteen common NPCs were all warriors.

Having too large and cumbersome a team was inefficient, so he assembled two small squads to make do, planning to level up to 70 and then consider cheating.

When he returned to Eagle Tower two days later—he knew NPCs couldn’t use flying mounts—sure enough, he discovered the chase from two days prior had ended in failure. The Demon Overlord’s combat strength was something they simply couldn’t withstand.

Neither players nor NPCs were a match for him in a solo fight. Even elite NPCs who hadn’t reached Level 60 or higher were completely dominated, getting one-shot with 10,000 damage, no questions asked.

And the Demon Overlord moved much faster than they did. This wasn’t like a real game where the speed of the big Boss is forcibly adjusted to match the players. With the Overlord’s five to six-meter-tall figure and superior attributes, he was faster than the players on two legs and, unopposed, he picked them off one by one. Before they could grind down the Overlord, their group was decimated.

“A bunch of Level 50s and 60s challenging a Level 75 Boss who ignores most control and can’t be taunted—what a death wish!”

“`

Players who had previously reveled in Lin Xiao’s misfortune were now behaving themselves.

As some people would say:

“When everyone sucks, let’s not make fun of each other.”

Afterward, centered around Eagle Tower, Lin Xiao would head out early and return late with his girlfriend and a group of subordinates for leveling every day, simultaneously training himself and his troops.

NPC soldiers gain experience differently from players’ pets; they cannot gain experience from monsters killed by players. They must inflict their own damage to earn it.

It doesn’t mean they have to be the ones to kill, but rather the experience is calculated based on the percentage of damage they deal.

For example, if they inflict thirty percent of the damage on a Demon that Lin Xiao and his men have killed, they would gain thirty percent of the total experience the Demon would offer—it’s quite simple.

Therefore, training soldiers could only be done step by step. The method of leveling up by having players mass-killing wasn’t feasible.

Luckily, NPCs require far less experience to level up compared to players. Considering that it took him ten years to reach level 69, these NPCs, starting at level 55, could never be trained up to level 70 if they had to follow the players’ leveling experience. Not even a hundred years would suffice.

Lin Xiao divided all his subordinates into two teams to specifically eradicate scattered Demons.

These scattered Demons were not regular Demon soldiers, and their levels varied between 55 and 65, with occasional higher-level or elite monsters appearing.

They were not greedy: they targeted small-scale groups that they could handle, and if they encountered too many, they turned and ran.

Since entering the Outland, Lin Xiao had suffered several major setbacks, which not only struck a blow at his confidence but also made him realize the harsh reality—this world was not a game, and it wasn’t easy to muddle through. A lack of caution could easily lead to failure.

As time passed, his experience continued to grow, and the levels of his troops slowly increased as well.

From level 55 to 56, then 57, watching their levels rise gave him a great sense of achievement and satisfaction.

In contrast to his cautious approach, two other Corps-style players near Eagle Tower had the backing of large teams and deep pockets. Their troops, numbering in the hundreds, were training in a wild manner, even drawing in large groups of Demons to exterminate without regard for the many NPC soldiers that would die in each battle.

Or maybe that was precisely their intention, using a portion of the NPCs as cannon fodder to train another batch. Indeed, by utilizing this method, they had trained a group of elites, about seventy to eighty in total, with levels beyond 60, and their strength was growing.

Fortunately, although relations weren’t great, these players would only engage in underhanded tactics and wouldn’t dare to attack openly.

At least, they wouldn’t dare within the Expeditionary Army’s control.

The reason was simple: the central tower in the guard post had the capability to monitor a large area around the tower, and while indirect sabotage might be ignored by the stationed mages, direct aggression against allies was not permitted.

Therefore, they could coexist peacefully at this stage. Once they trained their soldiers and ventured deep into the Outland, beyond the reach of the Expeditionary Army, disputes over minor benefits or resources could lead to outright hostility and annihilation, which would be entirely normal.

Half a year later, the fourteen soldiers who survived had all risen to level 60, while Lin Xiao was still halfway from level 70.

There was no helping it; he couldn’t focus solely on grinding, and the Demons available were all around levels 50 to 60, offering little experience.

Then, he decided to expand his forces again, replenishing his squad to a hundred men, among which twenty-seven were of the elite template.

He had come to realize that ordinary template NPCs were indeed cannon fodder and even if trained, they weren’t very valuable. Although NPCs could upgrade their templates, the cost of upgrading was not low. Instead of that, it was better to train elite NPCs from the start.

Time flies, and the days go by swiftly.

The other two Corps-style players, feeling strong enough, could no longer restrain themselves and left the tower to delve deeper into this world, while he remained behind to train his soldiers.

Before he knew it, a year and a half had passed. One day, behind a barren red rock highland, a dazzling golden light suddenly shot into the sky, followed by Lin Xiao’s loud laughter. Looking at his panel displaying level 70, he was filled with emotion.

It took a total of thirteen years, but he had finally reached level 70.

He immediately sensed the Creation Rubik’s Cube, and coincidentally, his True Body was using the Cube to synthesize a Card at that moment.

Feeling the presence of his True Body in the Star Soul Crystal Wall System, Lin Xiao’s True Body immediately realized that the Incarnation had reached level 70, and he stopped synthesizing the Card to communicate with the Incarnation right away.

Shortly after, he took out twenty crystals emitting a faint golden light, half of them denser than the others and the remaining half with a richer gold hue.

These were prepared in advance using the blood essence of a Rank 7 Supreme Naga. Considering the strict rules of that world, he added a bit of Creation Energy into half of them, wondering if there would be any special effects.

Knowing what these items were, Lin Xiao’s Incarnation gleefully wrapped his consciousness around the twenty crystals and stowed them away.

“`