Less than three hours passed.
Four Adventurers cleared the novice mode one after another.
They were: Wind in Sleep, Lonely Swordsman, Black Stone Hammer King, and Moonlight Shines on Snow.
"We finally have enough people!"
Wind in Sleep's face was full of anticipation.
"Level mode! Let's get started!"
Black Stone Hammer King laughed proudly and wildly, "Hahaha, Lord Quinn, the difficulty of your secret realm is completely insufficient. Watch how we'll clear your level mode!"
"Looks like there's a chance to get higher-grade zombie soul essence!"
Moonlight Shines on Snow's bright eyes flashed, "We won't accidentally bankrupt the Lord, will we?"
Lonely Swordsman: "That wouldn't be good. Unique secret realms are rare these days, and Doomsday Frenzy is basically irreplaceable."
Black Stone Hammer King: "Let's protect the treasure Lord, a sustainable way to drain the pond. I suggest we try to hand in and recycle the zombie soul essence we get, so the Lord can also recover some health and not go bankrupt and close down in a few tries."
A group of Adventurers nodded in agreement.
"Good!"
"Hammer Bro is righteous!"
"Even fishing has a closed season."
"Miracle City is just a tender newcomer right now."
"This little body can't withstand being ravaged by so many of us in turn."
"Protecting the saplings is everyone's responsibility. A high-quality Lord should be fattened up a bit, and then severely whipped to make him create more fun secret realms for us!"
Listen to that. Is that even human language?
Quinn's eyes were about to roll back into his head.
The relationship between Adventurers and Lords is actually very delicate.
Neither can do without the other, but it's definitely not a loving relationship. Most of the time, it's full of gamesmanship, calculation, and scheming.
But these guys? They're worried if Boss Quinn will go bankrupt?
They think they've figured it out just by clearing the novice mode?
They really are a bunch of guys who don't know the immensity of heaven and earth or the dangers of the world!
Little do they know! The real torment and suffering are just beginning!
Today, he wanted to see how these Adventurers would clear this carefully designed Doomsday Shura field!
The other Adventurers waiting in line all gathered around the crystal where the four were to watch.
After Black Stone Hammer King selected multiplayer mode, a new interface appeared before them, offering two modes: random matching and room-based teaming. The four quickly completed the team formation by creating a room.
The game began!
The four Adventurers arrived on the rooftop.
The surrounding environment and layout were slightly different from the single-player mode. For example, the workbench had four pistols, four axes, and four medical kits, exactly one set per person, which was quite generous.
Black Stone Hammer King: "Even though there are more of us, we can't be careless!"
Wind in Sleep: "Old Sword has more experience, so let Old Sword be the captain this time!"
Moonlight Shines on Snow: "No problem!"
Lonely Swordsman: "First, clear the hallway and scavenge for supplies. Otherwise, we can't fight our way out with just a few pistols. We must be especially careful of special zombies!"
Pushing open the door, down the deep, dark hallway, they saw the zombie that smiled back again.
"Tch, same old trick, let me handle it!"
Black Stone Hammer King grabbed the large ax and killed the zombie with a leaping slash, splattering blood everywhere.
"Hahaha, how was that? Was my skill top-notch or not?"
"Well done!"
Everyone felt completely safe. More people meant stronger firepower and higher error tolerance. This kind of fighting side-by-side greatly increased immersion and fun. Plus, the potential special zombies added unknown excitement. Everyone felt the secret realm was becoming more and more fun.
Then it was Black Stone Hammer King who heard a faint scraping sound.
"Listen carefully."
"There's a strange sound!"
The Adventurers poked their heads out and ended up having an intense stare-down with twenty to thirty pairs of eyes in the corridor!
"What the hell?!"
One by one, the hideous-faced, bloody zombies heard the commotion and instantly rushed forward like beasts that had smelled blood.
"Not good!"
"Retreat!"
"There are too many of them!"
"Open fire, open fire, hurry and open fire!"
"..."
Moonlight Shines on Snow pulled out her pistol, ready to shoot the zombies, but her hand trembled from nervousness, and a bullet directly hit Black Stone Hammer King's knee.
"What the heck!"
"Why did you shoot me?!"
Black Stone Hammer King immediately fell to the ground.
In just a few moments, he was overwhelmed by the surging raging tide of zombies.
The others frantically shot their guns, but even after running out of ammo, they only managed to take down a small fraction.
"Let's fight them head-on!"
The three took out their melee weapons and continued fighting. Although they successfully chopped down several zombies, they were quickly pounced on by other zombies. They were completely wiped out without even getting through one corridor or encountering a single special infected.
The other Adventurers watching were amused.
Lone Wolf: "Haha, that's hilarious, turning a corner and meeting love!"
Pig King: "Hammer Bro, weren't you complaining the secret realm difficulty was too low?"
Cat Meow Meow: "More people doesn't necessarily mean more power, you might even hit your allies by mistake!"
Violent Little Chicken: "That's what you get for bragging like that just now! Now you know how tough it is, right?"
Several Adventurers exited the secret realm.
Although they didn't expect to clear it in one go, falling so quickly was quite embarrassing.
Black Stone Hammer King looked over. "Lord, what's going on? Explain yourself. Why were there so many zombies in the hallway?"
Quinn spread his hands. "The number of challengers quadrupled, so I multiplied the number of zombies by several times. Isn't that reasonable?"
Everyone stared at each other.
"That sounds a bit reasonable."
"But can't you do something a bit more intuitive?"
"Is it right to cram so many zombies into such a narrow space so haphazardly?"
"Don't panic, everyone!"
"We were careless!"
"Yeah, we were caught off guard because we alerted the horde prematurely, which led to the tragedy!"
"If we had been prepared and made tactical arrangements, with the firepower of four guns and the cooperation of four people, using the hallway terrain, killing twenty-odd zombies wouldn't be a problem!"
"This round doesn't count!"
"Again!"
The four discussed tactics beforehand, luring them in batches, alternating firepower, and coordinating ranged and melee combat. This time, they successfully cleared the hallway zombies but also used up all their bullets.
The tense adventure was just beginning!
The Adventurers found that multiplayer mode allowed for cooperation and offered more abundant supplies along the way, but the random zombie refresh rate and fixed zombie quantity had increased, and the new special zombies with unknown abilities were even more troublesome.
In addition to the Boomer and Smoker.
There were two new types of zombies: the Hunter and the Jockey.
The Jockey looked like a thin monkey. It would suddenly climb onto your head, making you lose sight and direction, and controlling you.
The Hunter looked like a hooded parkour runner. It was extremely agile, like a ninja, running on walls and roofs. You couldn't hit it if your aim wasn't good, and its pouncing ability was extremely powerful.
[Adventurer "Lonely Swordsman" has died, Soul Crystal +1, Mental Power +1!]
[Adventurer "Black Stone Hammer King" has died, Soul Crystal +1, Mental Power +1!]
[...]
"Ah!"
"Dead again!"
"The Hunter zombie is too agile!"
"The most disgusting ones are still the Smoker and the Jockey!"
"Why would the Lord create such terrifying monsters? Isn't there anything more friendly?!"
"Hey, if you're bad, practice more. I think the Lord is a genius. You won't see such interesting monster inspiration in other Underground Cities!"
"Looking for team!"
"I've cleared novice mode too!"
"Big shots, please take me to play the level mode!"
Although the Adventurers were badly beaten in the level mode, and they kept complaining, the constantly generated mental power proved the fact that their bodies were honest even if their mouths weren't!
Multiplayer level mode was much more fun than novice mode.
Time passed minute by minute.
Today, the Dungeon had been open for ten hours. Thirteen Adventurers had passed the novice mode, but they were all stuck in the formal levels. All Adventurers' energy was exhausted, and the Dungeon's reception capacity had reached its limit. It seemed impossible to make further progress today.
Quinn tallied his gains.
Today was a day of harvest!
He hosted 125 Adventurers. A total of 636 soul crystals and 1222 points of spiritual power were produced!
In addition, Quinn also recovered 18 zombie soul essences. A normal new Dungeon might not get this many in half a month.
Currently he had:
Soul Crystals: 732
Mental Power: 1370/1000.
Mental power is the core resource for creating secret realms, and also the experience points used by the Lord to level up.
Each time a Dungeon Lord advances in rank, he can increase the level cap of his territory, his own lifespan, and also gain an opportunity to open the Sea of Inspiration and awaken an Inspiration Crystal.
In other words, every upgrade allows him to draw new materials.
The current upgrade requires 1000 points of mental power.
The current spiritual power reserve is completely sufficient. He can already upgrade and draw a brand new Inspiration Crystal.
He had only been a Dungeon Lord for a week and officially open for business for only three days!