hotmtlnovel Chapter 408 The Strange Painter
Chapter 408 The Strange Painter
With Boss Hu setting an example, other players quickly followed suit.
Not only backpack trading, but tasks requiring the collection of large amounts of materials like healing or map trading were taken over by specialized groups of players who used organizational strength to lower the entry barriers.
As for purely intelligence-based tasks like the evolution path of the Skeleton Soldier, there were players who directly shared information, to prevent others from being deceived.
The official forums were no longer empty; they began to fill with numerous strategy and experience posts specifically sharing this kind of news.
In this way, Old Necromancer Heim could no longer deceive players out of Blood Clams with just a few words.
However, Baldy and others were not worried, as the influx of a large number of players overall hastened the pace of material collection in Red Ridge Town.
Although some tasks were essentially annulled, they could earn double from other tasks.
The town was no longer quiet and deserted; players bustling about could be seen everywhere.
After a week of trading, the price of Pie Coupon Fragments had gradually stabilized at 109 yuan each, meaning it would cost 10,791 yuan to obtain the purchasing rights for an Atonement Cake.
Adding the 688 yuan needed to buy the Atonement Cake itself, this means paying 11,479 yuan could painlessly reduce one's weight by 1 kilogram.
This price, compared to similar weight loss products or training camps, might not be cheap.
But the key is it's painless, has no side effects, is 100% effective, and works immediately.
Ordinary people might find it expensive, but wealthy individuals like Boss Hu are paying for the experience.
In fact, a week had passed and Boss Hu had already consumed 15 Atonement Cakes, quickly losing almost 30 pounds.
Now, he felt Light as a Swallow, as if he had rejuvenated; his complexion looked much more radiant than before.
He had just visited the hospital for a check-up not long ago - no more high blood pressure or high cholesterol, and even his nightly activities with his wife had become more frequent than before.
With such personal experience, he didn't stop buying Pie Coupon Fragments after losing weight; instead, he increased his purchasing.
What's worse, some encountered Goblins that treated players as monsters to farm, leaping into a crowd with a Whirlwind Slash, instantly sending a team of five back to the respawn point.
Players accustomed to weaker and softer gameplay had never seen such intensity; many threw their controllers down in anger right then and there.
Those who stayed often had a solid base in action games; they would observe each monster's movements and attack patterns, blocking or dodging in advance.
Once they familiarized themselves with the monsters' behaviors, the coordinated efforts among teammates made defeating powerful enemies possible.
Early-phase battles could often last ten to twenty minutes—truly intense, but the sense of accomplishment afterward was also substantial.
Moreover, the bones dropped by monsters could be equipped to enhance one's strength.
Many noticed the lone Skeleton Puppy in town, radiating dazzling purple light, and some even had the fortune to witness it single-handedly killing a Mud Giant ten times its size.
This gave other players confidence that if they collected enough high-quality bones, they too could someday reach that level.
Additionally, Red Ridge is one of those rare games that has escaped the "hit crayfish with a wooden rod" law.
The so-called hit crayfish with a wooden rod involves players using a Damaged Wooden Rod to fight Crayfish at level 1, upgrading to a Refined Staff to fight Mutated Crayfish at level 20.
At level 40, they then use a Demon-Subduing Staff to fight Thunderous Crayfish, and by level 80, they're still using a "Heaven Rending Earth Shattering Thunder Staff +12" to fight the "True Twilight Overlord Crayfish".
Much of the world's games are like this, especially in the mid to late stages, where the initial novelty wears off and players easily feel weary.
Because the monsters and equipment are just rehashes with new names and appearances, tweaked stats, but otherwise indistinguishable from before.
But Red Ridge is different. The deeper players go, the more they realize that this game, which at first seems noncommittal with its dozens of differently colored Goblins as Wild Monsters, is actually intricate.
Each type of Goblin has its own attacks, a rich array of derivative moves, and behavior patterns, and even Goblins of the same species show distinct differences.
Sometimes, even when players have figured out a Wild Monster's routine, the creature might pull a move they've never seen before when its health drops to a certain level or just before death.
Although this causes plenty of people to curse the planners and their soaring blood pressure, one must admit that in Red Ridge, there's no chance of feeling the boredom of crayfish beating; every second in battle demands full attention.