“Any thoughts, Sword God?” Shen Chi’s gaze swept toward Xie Lin, as if trying to see through his ulterior motives.
Xie Lin analyzed the situation with impressive precision. “The poison element is actually a branch of the nature element. Once mastered, it develops into the calamity element, which means both of them encompass poison.
“Finally, we have to consider our resources. At present, all we have left to fight are the divine power fragments and divine envoys from the elemental, mechanical, and future maps.
“With limited resources, rather than choosing poison, we should raise calamity and nature to Level 2 and increase our combat power.
“If our ultimate goal is to slay the gods, then naturally, the higher our divine power level, the stronger we’ll be—and the greater our chances of defeating a god.
“Three Level 1 demigod abilities might not necessarily be stronger than a single Level 2 demigod ability.”
Xie Lin had truly hit the nail on the head.
Chu Fu had actually been hesitating as well. After all, the calamity element had evolved from the poison element and was even more mysterious.
Moreover, when resources were limited, improving one element and becoming a true god was the most important thing.
Chu Fu agreed with this reasoning.
The secretary team on Feng Huimin’s side also provided a detailed analysis, including estimated calculations for the divine envoy fragments in the three future maps.
Just as everyone was enthusiastically discussing the matter, another announcement rang out.
[System Announcement: The number of Level 50 players worldwide has exceeded ten million. The Elemental God has launched an all-out war. In 24 hours, a global natural disaster will descend. All players, prepare yourselves!]
[System Announcement: Please note that players below Level 10 will be unable to survive the disaster and will die immediately. Please take precautions.]
This was effectively a death sentence for all Level 10 players and below.
Thinking of the situation in the real world, everyone felt fortunate that they had already grown powerful.
“This announcement seems to be saying that if the Elemental God’s forces descend, all players below Level 10 will probably die.”
“Not necessarily all of them. Don’t you remember those shelters built underground in the future maps? Maybe those will be the way forward.”
“There’s no need to worry about that. Perhaps by the time the game invasion truly arrives, we’ll have already driven the gods away!”
“That’s right. Prepare for battle! This is an all-out war. Every city needs to have personnel stationed there to prevent it from being wiped out.”
Chu Fu gave the order, and Feng Huimin once again began arranging the personnel roster.
Chu Fu stroked her chin as she studied the system announcement.
“A natural disaster? Does that mean earthquakes, extreme heat, and extreme cold? If those count as natural disasters, then can we…”
An idea immediately rose in her mind. She quickly communicated with Feng Huimin and issued instructions throughout the entire Thorn Guild.
This time, because they had been given twenty-four hours, they had ample time to prepare, and every player made thorough preparations.
The prices of all kinds of potions skyrocketed.
Many merchants saw a business opportunity and began hoarding goods, speculating in cold-resistant and heat-resistant medicines and equipment.
Only the Thorn Guild began mass-producing potions. The entire guild was busy mixing pills.
They put everything in the warehouse up for sale.
Of course, since everyone else had raised their prices, the Thorn Guild raised theirs as well—selling everything at double the usual price.
For a time, the Thorn Guild actually became known as a conscientious merchant.
Instead, the hoarding merchants were publicly condemned.
But those merchants and corporations did not care in the slightest.
This game was simply too profitable, and money directly translated into strength.
They had never had an opportunity before, but now that one had appeared, they had to make a huge profit. Otherwise, when would they ever have the chance to rise?
Even if it meant committing crimes, they would make money.
Chu Fu paid no attention to those people and continued making preparations.
A disaster that erupted across the entire server was the perfect opportunity to farm attribute points and earn contribution points.
Twenty-four hours passed in the blink of an eye.
Finally, as spatial rifts unfolded, monsters began to emerge.
Although the game had also been updated to Version 6.0, these monsters were all in high-level areas and had not yet attacked the main cities. The high-level players had also been active recently in the Goblin Forest and the Land of Death.
Players were not actually very familiar with the elemental spirit monsters from Version 5.0.
Now, they experienced firsthand just how terrifying these monsters were.
The first wave consisted of fire elemental spirits.
Their number: one million!
That might not sound like many, but every single one was a Level 50 monster, while the total number of Level 50 players worldwide had only reached ten million.
Distributed among the various cities, there were only about a thousand Level 50 players in each city. That meant they had to fight monsters outnumbering them by a thousand to one.
That wasn’t all.
The other players were facing monsters far beyond their level of strength.
These fire elemental spirits even possessed combination skills.
Moreover, they were all flying monsters. Once they gathered together, they formed a massive elemental domain, unleashing terrifying natural-disaster effects.
The fire elemental spirits were comparable to ten suns blazing in the sky!
The air temperature instantly soared to seventy degrees Celsius—and continued rising.
It was hot enough to roast a person alive.
Countless fire elemental spirits scorched the earth. As they gathered together, they actually formed a domain.
Orange-red clouds assembled in the sky, then descended in a rain of fire. Most terrifying of all, the ground was baked until it melted. The soil crystallized, and in the blink of an eye, the land became a sea of lava.
“Damn it, heat-resistance potions aren’t enough! We need cold-resistance potions too!”
“Are there any water mages or ice mages? Cover the ground with ice!”
“I should’ve bought mechanical wings. If I don’t fly, I’m going to be boiled alive!”
Just as everyone was screaming in panic, players bearing the words “Thorn Guild” above their heads leaped from the city walls in every city. Their feet landed directly on the lava as they arranged themselves into formations.
“Great Goddess of Misfortune, who wants to become a vegetable? I offer this natural disaster to you!”
Everyone else stared at the scene in stunned disbelief.
“Seriously? You’re this invested in the game? I’m getting secondhand embarrassment.”
“Wait, no way. We usually call your guild master a god, but you actually think you’re gods?”
“I have to hand it to you—their faith is incredible!”
These players were all low-level players. Although they knew that the game could be used to withdraw money, they had no idea how powerful the top players truly were.
Not to mention that there were at least six or seven billion players in the game, while there were fewer than ten god-level players.
The gap was simply beyond their comprehension.
The Thorn Guild players did not laugh at all.
They had to be kidding. Every day, they used this method to obtain Constitution and Spirit attributes from Chu Fu. Even if they could only exchange for one point a day, it was still a path completely beyond the understanding of other players.
And this time, they could clearly feel that something was different.
The lava flowed into the formation and was rapidly absorbed.
Even the fire elemental spirits simultaneously gained a negative status effect.
[Divine Power Absorption (Negative): Energy is being absorbed.]
All ten thousand cities across the world activated their formations, absorbing the natural disaster created by the fire elemental spirits.
In an instant, Chu Fu felt her body grow warmer.
[System Notification: You have comprehended the natural-disaster skill—Ashen Calamity.]
