Translator: AnubisTL
"Besides, this item is perfect for Zhao Ritian. It'll help him get his slave factory up and running sooner."
"Keep it," Chen Jiang said, shaking his head and falling silent.
The blood sacrifice of the ten thousand races event had only recently concluded. His treasure chest remained unopened.
For securing the top ranking in the event, he had received a bonus three-star item chest, but it wouldn't be accessible for another twelve hours.
"Let's go," Chen Jiang paused, then headed into the city. "We'll wander around for a bit, then wait three hours for the global Kindling City defense event to start. We'll give those light gates a twenty-four-hour carpet bombing."
"Speaking of which..."
"I wonder if those light gates can withstand the bombardment?"
Soon, Chen Jiang and his group were inside the city.
It had to be said:
Among four-star items, this city-building token was definitely one of the better ones.
The neatly arranged rows of civilian dwellings within the city looked quite impressive.
A chaotic crowd of people was gathered in the middle of the road. Members of the Human Race Guardian Association were assigning housing based on each person's innate ability and strength.
After all, housing was limited, and only a select few could be accommodated.
The majority would have to pitch tents outside the city and make do temporarily, as the sheer number of people was overwhelming.
Even after the recent missile bombardment near the light gate, a steady stream of human players continued to pour out.
This massive, surging crowd emerged from the light gate and surged toward the city, posing a significant test of the Human Race Guardian Association's organizational capabilities.
Despite their efforts, the association remained a grassroots, volunteer organization, lacking the experience and resources of an official government body.
Fortunately, the human players seemed to understand the gravity of the situation. Most cooperated reasonably well, and no one was seen protesting that being asked to remove their clothes was a violation of their human rights.
Anyone who had survived more than three months in this world had long since abandoned the concept of human rights.
What bullshit about human rights? Survival comes first.
Chen Jiang and the others sat around a table in a civilian house, each holding a bowl of noodles. A plate of cold dishes sat in the center.
"Hah!" Scar Dog slurped up a mouthful of noodles, his face beaming with satisfaction. "To get a bowl of noodles like this in this godforsaken world... it almost feels like I've suddenly been transported back to Blue Star."
"Auntie, these noodles are absolutely delicious."
"Salty enough, spicy enough, oily enough—just perfect."
"You must have run a restaurant back on Blue Star, right?"
An older woman, her eyes crinkled with laughter behind her apron, chuckled from her chair nearby. "Oh, running a restaurant is the boss's job, dear."
"I was just a village woman back then. When my old man went to work in the fields, I'd stay home and cook."
"Auntie..."
Li Hao picked up a bite of cold dish with his chopsticks and asked, "There's no currency system right now, and human race merit points can't be traded. How do you plan to make a profit running this noodle shop?"
"Profit? There's no profit," the woman replied, sitting down and removing her apron. "My son used to live here. Now that the Guardian Lord has built the city, he's been allocated housing."
"He's a member of the guard."
"His innate ability is attack-based—very powerful. My old age has rendered my own ability useless, so I figured I might as well stay home and make noodles."
"Anyone who's hungry can come in for a bite. It's my way of contributing, you see."
"Otherwise, just staying home all day would leave me feeling empty."
"I see," Li Hao nodded thoughtfully, then continued eating in silence.
To be honest, the noodles weren't particularly good—too salty.
As people age, their sense of taste for salt diminishes.
The saltiness of the noodles was a bit off.
Yet this meal tasted exceptionally delicious.
It was different from the food in the mechanical race city.
Although the food in the mechanical race city tasted good, there was always a sense of detachment.
This slightly salty bowl of noodles perfectly filled that void.
Chen Jiang gently set his bowl down and looked up at Auntie with a smile. "Auntie, your cooking is excellent. When peace comes, you could open a noodle shop."
He slowly stood up.
"We're leaving now, Auntie. Consider this one-star item payment for the meal. I'll leave it here for you."
"Aiya, aiya, aiya!"
Auntie hurriedly rose, her voice anxious. "No, no, no! My son told me these items are incredibly valuable. A few bowls of noodles aren't worth that much. You must take it back!"
"Besides, I'm just an old woman hiding in the city, making noodles. What use would I have for such a powerful item?"
"Don't worry about it."
Chen Jiang shook his head with a soft smile. "One-star items aren't worth much. I have tens of thousands of them. Keep it. If you can't use it, give it to your son."
"Alright, we're off. We'll come back for noodles next time, Auntie."
With that, Chen Jiang and his group strode out of the shop.
Auntie was left standing alone, staring anxiously at the one-star item in her hand.
"What... what am I supposed to do with this?"
She didn't believe a word that man had said about having tens of thousands of one-star items.
Her son had told her that items were incredibly valuable. If it weren't for Chen Jiang repeatedly topping the race kill rankings, all human players wouldn't have been rewarded with a one-star item.
Many players still didn't even possess a single one-star item.
Meanwhile, Chen Jiang and his group had already moved on, heading straight for the city walls.
With less than ten minutes remaining until the event's countdown, the area around the light gate had been completely cleared.
The human guardian, Liu Yiping, continued to broadcast urgent warnings through the human race horn.
[Human Race Horn!]
[Player Liu Yiping: "I am the leader of the Human Race Guardian Association. From this moment forward, no human player is permitted to enter the light gate!"]
["The Human Race Guardian Association will engage in a life-or-death battle with the alien races when the event begins!"]
["Therefore, human players must not enter the light gate to avoid being caught in the crossfire!"]
This warning had already been broadcast nearly ten times.
For the past two hours, the message had been echoing in the ears of every human player.
This explained why the light gates weren't swarming with human players like they had been just hours earlier.
Yet even so, scattered human and alien race players still emerged from the light gates.
All were swiftly dealt with.
Ten minutes flashed by.
[Global Announcement!]
[The global event 'Defend Kindling City' has officially begun!]
[Race players, charge through the light gates, slay human players, and seize their personal innate abilities!]
[Human players, hold your ground! Time will reward you!]
The next moment—
A new ranking list appeared before everyone's eyes.
[Player Kindling Points Ranking]
[Top Ranking: (Empty)]
[Second Ranking: (Empty)]
[Third Ranking: (Empty)]
Currently, no one had made it onto the ranking list. After all, the event had just begun, and even the fastest players couldn't have accumulated points yet.
At the instant the event started, not a single alien race player emerged from the light gates. Everything fell silent, as if nothing had happened at all.
"Hmm?"
Scar Dog frowned slightly, a flicker of confusion in his eyes. "No one?"
Before them, thousands of arched light gates stood on the desolate mountains outside the city. Yet not a single human player emerged from them, nor did any alien race players. It was as if all the alien race players had completely ignored the event.
"Let's wait a bit longer," Chen Jiang said, his eyes narrowing. He casually summoned a turret and placed it on the city wall, its cannon barrel aiming at the light gates in the distance.
Since upgrading his turret, he hadn't had a chance to fully unleash its power. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to finally let it rip.
After all, with a caliber exceeding three meters and a firing rate of 6,900 rounds per minute, it could easily cover half of the thousands of light gates before them.
Of course, only half.
He glanced down at the item in his hand.
[Item Name]: Mother-Child Bullet Energy Cartridge
[Item Star]: Two-Star Item
[Item Effect]: This energy cartridge causes energy bullets fired from your weapon to split into ten smaller energy bullets upon impact. However, the power of each split bullet is correspondingly reduced.
[Item Description]: This item can greatly assist you in handling specific combat situations.
Without hesitation, he removed the Armor-Piercing Bullet Energy Cartridge that had been in the turret's energy cartridge slot and replaced it with the Mother-Child Bullet Energy Cartridge.
The Mother-Child Bullet Energy Cartridge splits a single energy bullet into ten smaller energy bullets.
While this division randomly reduces the turret's firepower, the original cannonball's diameter exceeded three meters. Even split into ten smaller energy cannonballs, their combined destructive power remained formidable.
In fact, with a firing rate of 6,900 rounds per minute—nearly seven thousand rounds—the resulting bombardment would blanket the entire light gate area with a density rivaling a hailstorm.
Under such intense bombardment, accuracy became irrelevant.
No aiming was necessary.
Once the turret activated, the entire area surrounding the light gate would be engulfed in flames.
Moreover, the entire city had entered a state of full alert.
Soldiers armed with heavy machine guns and other firearms climbed the city walls, aiming their weapons at the light gate.
The area around the light gate had been heavily mined.
These were the guardian's preparations.
He personally felt the mines were unnecessary, but he refrained from voicing his doubts, uncertain whether the alien races might possess special tactics.
This time, he would face players from various alien races.
Yet he had only encountered a handful of alien race players so far.
Still, they were fully prepared.
But not a single alien race player emerged from the light gate.
Five minutes had passed since the event began.
Scar Dog frowned, puzzled. "Could those alien race players have chickened out?"
"Impossible," Li Hao shook his head. "The human race has so few players, while the alien race players can continuously reinforce the battlefield through the light gate. Logically, our chances of winning are slim."
"That's true enough."
Scar Dog nodded in agreement. "But this is war, not some children's game of 'who has the bigger number wins.' My score is higher, so I win."
"The event started with a three-hour preparation period."
"Even the dumbest alien race players should know the human race would have already prepared. In this situation, the first ones to enter will definitely get shot first."
"So... those alien race players are probably just being cowards, waiting half an hour until the battle inside is already raging before joining in."
In fact, Scar Dog was right.
Outside the light gate, a considerable number of alien race players had already gathered.
Yet not a single one dared to step through the gate.
Players from different races had gathered together, surprisingly without immediately engaging in combat. They merely eyed each other warily, standing apart in distinct racial groups.
Before one particular light gate, players from the ape-man race, elf race, mechanical race, and even the titan race had converged.
They waited in unspoken agreement.
They were just aliens, not idiots.
Charging in now would mean facing the full brunt of the human race's initial onslaught. If they waited half an hour or an hour, the alien players from other light gates would have already softened up the human defenses, making it safer to advance.
This strategy would allow them to avoid the initial barrage and pick up the spoils afterward.
And so, a bizarre scene unfolded.
Many alien players slowly converged on the light gate from afar, but instead of entering, they joined their respective racial groups and patiently waited in place.
This gathering also allowed many lone-wolf alien players to find each other.
"Half an hour has passed," Scar Dog said expressionlessly, pulling a cigarette from his pocket and sticking it in his mouth. "I have to say, these alien players' mental fortitude is really lacking."
"A little setback and they're already stumped."
"What cowards."
Meanwhile, the kindling points ranking list had undergone some minor changes.
[Kindling Points Ranking List]
[Top Ranking: Soul Clan, Soul Impermanence]
[Kindling Points: 62]
[Second Ranking: Human Race, Wei Wufeng]
[Kindling Points: 38]
[Third Ranking: Mechanical Race, Morgana]
[Kindling Points: 27]
So far, not a single alien race player had teleported through the light gate, making it clear that all the players currently on the ranking list had obtained their kindling points outside Kindling City.
"Soul Clan?"
Chen Jiang glanced at the race, narrowed his eyes, and nodded slightly without speaking.
This was the first time he'd seen someone from this race on the ranking list.
Judging by the name, their racial innate ability must be related to souls or something similar.
He remained silent, turning his attention back to the kindling points shop.
He'd briefly scanned the shop earlier and noticed several valuable items, many of which he desperately wanted.
Moreover...
Chen Jiang looked at the panel in the upper right corner of his vision.
(End of the Chapter)
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