166: Chapter 166 Blackrock Tower
Purple Scorpion couldn't understand it even until the moment of his death.
What exactly had happened during the six months or so that Xie Yunzhou had been missing?
Where on earth did he bring back such a group of monsters from?
"Ah... the boss is dead."
As soon as Purple Scorpion fell,
the Wind and Cloud Gang completely lost its footing.
On the other hand, the side of Xiake Island fought with increasing courage.
Most of them had already switched back to their strongest equipment.
They were slaughtering to their heart's content.
"Refreshing! This is so damn refreshing! This is what a game should be like, haha..."
"Right, right, following Boss Xie is just awesome."
"Sob... today's battle is enough for me to brag about for a lifetime."
[The Wind and Cloud Gang has surrendered; Xiake Island wins.]
"Damn, this Purple Scorpion sure moved fast."
Xie Yunzhou cursed.
He had planned to find a few more enemies and have a good killing spree.
But the other side chose to surrender directly?
[Kid, do you want to drain the enemy's territory funds?]
Jiang He was stunned, and then the corners of his mouth curled up uncontrollably.
"Does that even need to be said? It's a must!"
[Done. Top-up of 10,000 yuan successful.]
[Obtained 80% of the Wind and Cloud Gang's territory funds, added to personal inventory.]
Jiang He chuckled inwardly and checked his inventory.
"Heh... that's quite a lot!"
Seeing that his gold coin count was about to break a million,
he couldn't be more delighted.
As the battle ended, Xie Yunzhou stepped forward and shouted:
"Brothers, all the equipment dropped on the field belongs to you. Go pick it up!"
Boom—
Everyone's minds went blank.
They never imagined in their wildest dreams that Xie Yunzhou would be so generous.
Looking at the equipment scattered all over the battlefield,
everyone's eyes lit up, followed by a thunderous cheer from the crowd.
"Long live Boss Xie! Xiake Island is awesome!"
Then Xie Yunzhou returned to Jiang He and the others, saying with a smile, "Thanks, guys. If we weren't scattered all over the place, I'd definitely be treating you all tonight."
Everyone smiled.
Jiang He said, "Alright, let's get back to our business."
Hearing this, everyone stopped smiling and exited the battlefield.
Inside the territory, Jiang He and the others gathered together.
They examined the map of Storm City.
They discovered a problem.
There was also a Sea of Death here.
Clearly, this Sea of Death was the passage between the four nations.
Once opened, there would be no more restrictions between the four nations.
What caught their attention the most was a special map in Storm City.
It was called Blackrock Tower.
The tower's height pierced the clouds; to this day, no one knew how many floors it had.
According to Xie Yunzhou's account,
he had challenged it before, but had only reached the 39th floor before he couldn't go any further.
Everyone expressed their understanding.
At that time, his level was low, and he was fighting alone.
Reaching the 39th floor was already no easy feat.
Even now, with everyone's levels generally increased,
the highest record on the Blackrock Tower rankings was only the 67th floor.
No one had been able to go higher until now.
"How about it, guys? Want to give it a shot?" Xie Yunzhou asked.
Everyone nodded.
For them at the moment, leveling up was still the top priority.
Whether they could open the four-nation passage was no longer that urgent.
Resisting those monsters from the Immortal Realm was the immediate priority.
Half an hour later, the group arrived in front of the Blackrock Tower.
"The early parts are easy to fight, just some low-level monsters, even Level 1 ones. It gets harder the further you go," Xie Yunzhou introduced.
They entered the tower.
From the outside, the tower didn't look large,
but the internal space was incredibly vast.
The way to proceed to the next floor was to kill all the monsters on the current floor.
As soon as they entered, Jiang He and the others couldn't help but grin.
"Heh... I haven't seen these monsters in a while."
Wild Chickens, Forest Wolves, and a host of other minor mobs—thousands of them—were wandering around the vast hall.
"Guys, let's get to work..."
What followed was a scene of players over Level 90 battling Level 1 Wild Chickens.
It was simply effortless.
Aside from spending some energy, there was no real sense of combat.
In less than a day, the group had already reached the 80th floor.
From here, the level of the monsters took a qualitative leap.
[Void Insect · Silver Rank BOSS · Level 80]
Looking at the hundreds of Silver Rank BOSSes packed together, Jiang He and the others also felt their scalps tingle.
Although they could fight them, the sheer number was just too many!
Fighting and resting along the way, they didn't even know how long they had been inside.
They pushed all the way to the 90th floor.
With a thud—
Xie Yunzhou sat down on the ground.
"Wait a second, I can't do it anymore."
He was drenched in sweat and panting heavily from exhaustion.
From the 80th to the 90th floor, it was the same type of monster,
but the quantity kept doubling.
By the 90th floor, there were as many as 3,000 of them!
This had completely exhausted them.
Not just him, but the other four girls were also slumped on the ground, rubbing their arms and pounding their legs.
They felt like even standing up was difficult.
Jiang He wiped the sweat from his forehead and looked toward the entrance to the next floor.
"Let's rest for a bit first."
While they were resting, they had no idea
that the city had already exploded with excitement.
"Heavens, look! Someone has reached the 90th floor of Blackrock Tower?"
"Damn, which great gods are they? Ten of us were kicked out at the 60th floor before. How did they do it?"
Blackrock Tower had always been a mystery to the players of Storm City.
This map appeared after the first beast tide ended.
Countless people had challenged it since then, but so far, no one had reached the top floor.
Nor did anyone know exactly how many floors the top was.
"Report..." A soldier rushed into the main hall of the City Lord's Mansion.
"City Lord, someone has already reached the 90th floor of Blackrock Tower!"
"What?" Thomas's expression was startled, and he suddenly stood up.
His face gradually darkened.
Then he waved his hand. "I know. You may leave."
The soldier exited the hall.
Thomas sat back in his chair, pondered for a moment, and then shouted:
"Men, prepare a carriage. I need to make a trip to the Sea of Death."
Three days passed.
Jiang He and the others had barely managed to reach the 95th floor.
At this moment, before them were nearly eight hundred monsters packed together.
[Void Beast · Gold Rank BOSS · Level 90]
"Holy crap, this is too hard!" Xie Yunzhou cried out.
"Stop talking nonsense and get moving," Jiang He urged.
The group's coordination was decent, but they still found it extremely taxing.
Seeing that everyone was about to reach their limit,
Jiang He gritted his teeth and thought, should I just use a cheat?
If they continued like this, it wouldn't be long before they were worn down to death.
Just as he was preparing to spend money on an assistant,
a system announcement suddenly came from the sky above the game.
[Warning: A beast tide will launch an attack on Storm City in 10 hours. All players please resist together.]
"What the hell? What's going on? Why is there suddenly a beast tide?"
Beep beep beep—
Messages popped up continuously in the gang chat channel.
"Boss Xie, where are you guys? Come back quickly, the beast tide is coming!"
Jiang He and the others looked at each other, then said, "Let's go, let's head back and see what's happening first."
"Damn, this beast tide came at a really bad time!" Xie Yunzhou cursed.
Blackrock Tower had a rule.
Once you left, if you entered again, you had to start over from the first floor.
They had worked so hard to climb to the 95th floor, and now it was all for nothing.
But they couldn't not go out.
If the beast tide came and they didn't hold it off, the entire city would be finished.
Then, after several flashes of white light, the group disappeared from the spot...