The Lord Demon King is Unfathomable!

The next time is just a polite way of saying it.

Skeleton soldiers can be summoned again even if they die, but if the Demon God Statue is destroyed, it's gone for good, and there probably won't be a next time.

Aware of the severity of the issue, Youyou immediately responded.

"Received!"

Meanwhile, on the other side, the first floor of the labyrinth.

In a hall filled with cobwebs, two skeleton soldiers were using flamboyant positioning to kite a lone Earth Cave Spider to its limits.

Simply put, Hu Wan would advance and lure the spider next to a pillar, then exploit the creature's inability to move in anything but straight lines, allowing Yiye Zhiqu, holding a spear, to sneak attack from the side.

According to their tests, an Earth Cave Spider under two meters in length generally could be killed with three stabs.

Compared to its hard head, the Earth Cave Spider's rear—especially the sides of its rear—was relatively easy to penetrate due to its softness.

The only tricky part was that these spiders could shoot thick webs from their mouthparts, and being immobilized by it was almost a certain death.

Fortunately, these spiders had a noticeable wind-up before "spitting,".

Once the bulging of the target's cheeks was seen, Yiye Zhiqu hiding behind the pillar would strike the ground with his spear to remind Hu Wan to dodge.

After working together for an afternoon, they had farmed almost twenty Earth Cave Spiders without a single mishap.

Yiye Zhiqu calculated that, ignoring the Joss Paper income from spider eggs, both could split 100 Contribution Value from twenty spiders.

When they returned, if they killed another 20 Ratmen and spent some Joss Paper to buy 1000 catties of coal at slightly higher than the official purchase price from the lifestyle players, they could max out the 100 Contribution Value from the daily activities task.

In this way, when most players could only earn 50 Contribution Points a day, their earnings could reach 200! They could reach Iron rank in five days!

This leveling speed was enough to leave other players far behind right after the game's launch.

Watching Yiye Zhiqu as he crunched the numbers, Hu Wan pondered for a moment before speaking.

"I'm thinking of giving you all the Contribution Value from these twenty spiders. If we farm a few more later on... by tomorrow night at the latest, you should be able to reach Iron rank and raise your level cap to LV10."

Upon hearing his teammate's words, Yiye Zhiqu paused, blurting out without thinking.

"Why?"

Hu Wan simply shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly, stating as if it were obvious,

"Instead of dividing evenly and slowing down our pace, don't you think it's more efficient to let one person reach Iron rank first and then help the other level up?"

Indeed.

Yiye Zhiqu understood what he meant; this method was a core tactic of many guilds striving for strength when pioneering new games.

That is, to focus all advantages to nurture a few key players first, then use these key players to snowball and extend the advantage, thereby supporting the other players...

However, such arrangements usually occurred among acquaintances; the two of them had been strangers until today.

Yiye Zhiqu didn't believe the other party was oblivious to the potential of the game and the value of early advantages.

"Aren't you afraid I'll renege?"

Hu Wan smiled faintly, appearing carefree as he said,

"I've always been pretty accurate at judging people, and I believe you're not the type to take advantage of minor gains... moreover, this isn't much to take advantage of."

Upon hearing this, Yiye Zhiqu could almost confirm that the guy must be from a gaming guild.

"...Then I won't be polite."

He owed this favor!

Switching his dagger to his left hand, Hu Wan smiled and extended his skeletal right hand for a shake.

"Pleasure doing business... Oh, I think I just leveled up."

"I think I did too."

"Hss... peculiar."

"What's wrong?"

"My attribute points automatically went to Agility," Hu Wan stared at his attribute panel, deep in thought, "While this suits me fine... doesn't this game have a system for free allocation of points?"

"It seems mine went into Strength." Yiye Zhiqu opened his attribute panel and confirmed.

[

ID: Yiye Zhiqu

Race: Undead (Skeleton)

Soul Level: Common (Level Cap LV3)

Level: LV.1 (+1)

Experience: (33/1W)

HP: (200/200)

MP: (0/0)

Constitution: 2

Strength: 4 (+1)

Agility: 1

Intelligence: 0

Spirit: 0

]

He had actually wanted to be a Mage, but it seemed like the lowliest skeleton soldiers couldn't become Mages.

"If I'm not mistaken, this should be a hidden mechanism of 'Scourge Online'."

Hu Wan looked over at him.

"A hidden mechanism?"

"Yes," Yiye Zhiqu nodded, sharing his thoughts, "Normally, games let you allocate points after leveling up, but it seems this game works on the logic of 'level up after attribute growth'. I don't know why the development team designed it this way, maybe for realism? But the term 'experience bar' is indeed a bit misleading; calling it proficiency might be more appropriate. That is, whichever attribute you train through your actions in the game, that's the attribute that will grow."

"I see..." Hu Wan's eyes lit up as he looked at Yiye Zhiqu with interest, "Seriously, dude, are you sure you're not an insider at the gaming company?"

"How could I be? Do I really look like it..."

Yiye Zhiqu looked at Hu Wan with a wry smile, paused for a while, then turned his gaze aside.

"Though... I did want to develop a game like this once."

"So we just happened to think alike, huh?"