Beyond the town's borders lay a forest.
In gaming terms, it was the wilderness, a place for grinding.
This was one method of growing stronger. Within the virtual game's restricted zones, defeating monsters yielded experience points, which in turn led to increased power.
It was also a tactic for tackling bosses, or perhaps, a flicker of hope for those trapped here, suggesting a way to escape.
However, Bai Ye, having been through this before, knew that attempting this without sufficient strength was ill-advised.
The reason was simple: the strength gained from grinding in this place directly translated to physical attributes, which were ineffective outside the game.
Physical attributes were not among the items one could bring out of the virtual game's restricted zones.
Therefore, to put it more bluntly, grinding monsters in the virtual restricted zones was a waste of time.
In Bai Ye's previous life, many had come to regret this very decision.
It was straightforward: some believed that since the virtual game's restricted zones could enhance one's strength, they might as well do it here, pushing their levels as high as possible, even managing to bring three gold-quality items out of the virtual game's restricted zones.
And then…
When this person left, the central area was already embroiled in war, and aside from his three gold-quality items, he had nothing else…
This was a true story. A cadre of the Cang Long Society, named Xiao Hua, who had been at the forefront of the Cang Long Society's strength, ended up becoming a laughingstock.
Being forced to stay and grind monsters in the virtual game's restricted zones was a choice made only when one was trapped.
...
Walking deeper into the forest for about half an hour, a treehouse appeared before them.
The treehouse didn't look large from the outside, but upon entering, one discovered it was quite spacious, approximately three hundred square meters, a stark contrast to its exterior structure.
But this was a game, so such discrepancies weren't unusual.
Gao Ming pushed open a room's door and said, "All the collected items are in here."
"Alright, I need time to think while I pick things," Bai Ye replied. "Don't disturb me."
Gao Ming nodded, not overly suspicious. After all, each person could bring out three items per level. These items left behind were all things they wouldn't be taking. Thus, even if Bai Ye claimed he wanted to take everything, Gao Ming wouldn't care.
What use were items that couldn't be taken out of the virtual game's restricted zones?
Gao Ming added, "The rest of our team should be on the third level by now. I need to contact them."
Bai Ye waved his hand. "Go ahead."
After seeing Gao Ming off, Bai Ye entered the room and closed the door.
"That's quite a lot!" Bai Ye exclaimed excitedly, clapping his hands. "This time, we've hit the jackpot."
Bai Ye had only one objective…
The King's Treasure!
Bai Ye didn't need to bring items out of the virtual game's restricted zones; he could simply engrave them using the King's Treasure.
In fact, Bai Ye had conceived of this bug long ago. He had even considered continuously engraving weapons sold by vendors in the Chosen One Market.
However, this strategy was only theoretically feasible; it was practically impossible.
This was because engraving was a process that took roughly three to five seconds to complete, creating a copy of the original weapon and sending it into the King's Treasure.
If one were to engrave it publicly, the process would undoubtedly be noticed by others.
Although engraving didn't affect the original weapon, the other party would still need to believe that.
Even if they could verify with the screen that the weapon was intact, without a clear explanation of the process, suspicion would linger.
And as for explaining it…
Why would they help him?
Furthermore, Bai Ye did not want the capabilities of the King's Treasure to be widely known.
Therefore, Bai Ye needed a large quantity of weapons, and he had to do it secretly.
When Gao Ming invited Bai Ye into the virtual game's restricted zones, Bai Ye knew his opportunity had arrived.
According to the rules of the virtual game's restricted zones, each person could bring three items out of each level. So, how were these three items to be chosen?
Since the quality was fixed, they were all roughly similar in basic effectiveness.
At such times, one could only choose what was most suitable, or what best met their needs. This required careful selection, which in turn necessitated gathering as many items as possible, sifting through them one by one, before proceeding to the next level.
Therefore, it was safe to assume that the Evil Spirit Group had hoarded many good things.
And that was precisely his opportunity!
Bai Ye first set aside all non-weapon items, selected all the weapons, and then began to engrave them furiously using the King's Treasure.
The final result was a total of seventy-nine weapons, but it wasn't over yet.
Theoretically, through synthesis with Steel Slimes, this number could be multiplied tenfold.
However, Steel Slime synthesis required the synthesized items to be considered one's own possessions, so Bai Ye couldn't synthesize them yet. But Bai Ye could select three blue-quality and three black-quality weapons, which would then become his possessions after conquering the first and second levels.
With the constant combination of these six weapons, excluding the probability of failure, at least twenty more weapons could be added.
And…
Even without considering synthesis, with seventy-nine additional weapons, the weapon storage capacity of the King's Treasure had smoothly surpassed the two-hundred mark.
King's Treasure (Noble Phantasm) (Black): The treasury of King Gilgamesh, containing infinite treasures. Its quality increases based on the number of weapons engraved within the King's Treasure (no upper limit to quality improvement).
Current engraved weapons…
Current quality enhancement: 236 / 300
After the number of weapons in the King's Treasure surpassed two hundred, its quality also reached Black.
However, this was of little significance.
Three hundred weapons would bring it to Red, five hundred to Gold, but the weapon storage capacity of the King's Treasure was: infinite!
This meant that even beyond Gold quality, the King's Treasure could continue to store weapons, making its quality rather insignificant.
Regardless, with the addition of seventy weapons, the King's Treasure's power had instantly increased by a significant margin.
Bai Ye walked out of the room and said to the others, "You can pick now."
Bai Ye instructed the other members of the Evil Spirit Group to choose their items, then turned to Gao Ming and asked, "Have you made contact?"
Gao Ming replied, "Yes, we've made contact. They'll be waiting for us at the exit of the third level in an hour."
Bai Ye mused, "Waiting? Not a rendezvous? There must be a reason!"
Gao Ming explained, "We're worried about an ambush from the Cang Long Society. To be honest, we sent someone midway, not to contend with the Cang Long Society, but to gather twelve people to clear the third level and leave with the items…"
Gao Ming trailed off and then shrugged.
The gesture was self-explanatory; clearly, the people they had sent had been eliminated by the Cang Long Society.
This was good news for Bai Ye. The Evil Spirit Group actually aimed for peaceful development because bosses could be re-challenged, meaning there were no inherent conflicts.
Everyone could gather their own items and take turns challenging the bosses.
However, the Cang Long Society clearly did not wish for peace.
…