10: The novice period is over! Welcome to the bloody battle of life and death!

Lin Feng closed the reward panel and stored the 500 units of black, viscous heavy oil in his warehouse.

This substance was the heroes' food.

It was also the key for him to personally dominate the battlefield in the future.

At the same time, the regional channel, which had just experienced a life-and-death catastrophe, was engulfed by the revelry of survivors and an incredibly fervent personal worship after a brief silence.

"I survived! I really survived! Military Advisor, you are my reborn parents!"

"Oracle! The Military Advisor's strategy is simply an oracle! I had just placed the last arrow tower when that tin can walked right up to my face. It really only hit me once! The city wall had just over three hundred durability left. My soul was scared out of me!"

"Strategy Group is awesome (voice cracking)!"

Amidst the overwhelming praise, a player with a grayed-out avatar also expressed his gratitude like a survivor.

"Military Advisor, thank you so much! I listened to you and dismantled all four Trebuchet. Although I only got half the gold back, which means a loss of four hundred, at least I saved my life! Money can be earned again, but if life is gone, everything is gone!"

This statement once again propelled Divine Strategist's prestige to godlike status.

Countless people echoed him, praising him for having the resolve and courage of a "hero severing his own arm."

Lin Feng looked at this message expressionlessly.

However, a hint of extremely cold mockery flashed in his eyes.

Hero severing his own arm?

No.

This is called severing one's own meridians, crippling one's own martial arts.

In Lin Feng's mind, the attributes of the Trebuchet clearly appeared.

[Crushing Pressure].

A brief knockback effect.

With four Trebuchet, if one had even a little bit of sense and staggered their attack frequency, they could form a perpetually active knockback wall against the P.E.K.K.A. Superman.

Forget about touching the city wall.

That iron simpleton wouldn't even be able to take a single step forward.

This player not only wasted a huge sum of four hundred gold but also personally threw away a perfect, no-damage victory that could have been recorded in textbooks.

As for that Divine Strategist, who was revered as a god by countless people...

Was he stupid? Or evil?

Lin Feng leaned towards the latter.

A flock of sheep that only knew how to build arrow towers was always easier to control than a pack of wolves that knew how to think independently.

A unified, fragile, and uncharacteristic defense system was the most desirable situation for some ambitious individuals.

He coldly closed the noisy channel.

This stupidity and revelry, unrelated to him, would only waste his precious time.

Just then.

That grand, cold, emotionless system notification sounded without warning, echoing throughout the entire world!

[The novice protection period has officially ended at this moment.]

[To all survivors, we wish you good luck.]

This cold "blessing" brought the festive atmosphere in the channel to an abrupt halt, as if someone had choked them.

Immediately after, a series of new rules, flashing with crimson bloodlight, like a red-hot branding iron, were deeply seared onto the retinas of every survivor.

[Rule Update: Elite Challenge Mode risk increased! If the challenge fails, the fortress will be directly destroyed, and the Lord will die! Please choose carefully!]

[Rule Update: PVP Mode officially activated!]

[After the Lord's Main Camp is upgraded to Level 5, a special building—the Barracks—will be unlocked.]

[Through the Barracks, you can recruit and dispatch combat units to actively attack the fortresses of other Lords!]

[PVP Rule: Deathmatch—If the attacking side wins, they will plunder all resources in the defending side's warehouse and receive high system rewards and a server-wide announcement!]

[PVP Rule: To protect the Lord's basic right to survival, in a Deathmatch, all of the defending side's defense towers will temporarily receive a 200% attribute bonus!]

Boom—!

If the previous P.E.K.K.A. Superman was just a pebble in the lake.

Then these bloody new rules were a monstrous tsunami capable of overturning the entire world!

Silence.

A suffocating silence lasting more than ten seconds.

Then, a volcanic eruption of completely uncontrolled panic!

"No!!!"

"PVP? Has the system gone mad? It wants us to kill each other!"

"One step slow, always slow! How can we play like this? Do the weak not even have the right to live anymore?"

"Don't... don't attack me! Please, all youBig Boss! I have nothing in my warehouse! Really! Don't attack me!"

Wailing, begging for mercy, cursing, despair...

The weakest and most unbearable aspects of human nature were exposed at this moment.

Soon, some relatively calm individuals trembled as they tried to comfort everyone.

"Everyone, don't panic yet! To activate PVP, the prerequisite is to upgrade the Main Camp to Level 5! This requires astronomical amounts of resources! Even for Lords with economic talents, reaching Level 5 will probably take another week!"

This analysis allowed many people to temporarily breathe a sigh of relief.

But the Sword of Damocles hanging over their heads still emitted a suffocating chill.

Just then.

A golden SSS-level badge appeared at the top of the channel, suppressing all other noise.

The speaker was the man who had always dominated the top of the rankings.

Dragon Aotian.

"Destroying you mortals yields no benefit for me."

"My time is precious, and I have no interest in wasting it on meaningless slaughter."

These two short sentences carried an absolute arrogance and confidence that was impossible to refute.

This arrogance miraculously calmed the emotions of most people.

Even the predator at the top of the food chain said so; others probably wouldn't easily make a move, right?

Lin Feng watched all of this quietly, his heart unmoved.

His brain had already completed precise calculations and deductions for the new rules.

Defenders, 200% attribute bonus.

This was an extremely terrifying number.

It meant that, at this stage, trying to break through a fortress of a player at the same level was an almost impossible task.

Unless one possessed overwhelming power, like Dragon Aotian, capable of ignoring conventional defense systems.

Therefore, the activation of PVP mode, in the short term, was more like a deterrent.

A psychological shackle hanging over everyone's heads.

It was forcing everyone to invest more resources into defensive construction, thereby slowing down the pace of economic development.

Thinking of this, Lin Feng's lips curved into a cold arc.

For others, this was a shackle.

But for him...

This was precisely a heaven-sent opportunity.

What he had to do was to continue revving his economic engine to the maximum while everyone else became timid and stagnant due to fear.

Operating steadily, never making a single wrong step.

Using absolute economic advantage to roll an unshakable snowball of power.

This was the true kingly way to leave everyone, including those so-called "gods," far behind.