Chapter 179 Laid Back

The following days were quite mundane… sort of.

The game continued to make subtle changes through various hot updates, but the only significant addition was the much-requested player-versus-player (PvP) mechanism—like arenas and custom match dungeons created by third parties, finally catering to the needs of avid PvP lovers.

Of course, all player-versus-player mechanisms required consent from both players, so those not interested in this stuff could still enjoy the game their way.

Moreover, there was the first-ever completely free module update for the game pods, allowing them to better care for players’ health while they gamed. The game’s mall even stocked special nutritional liquids for the pods, claiming that as long as the liquid levels stayed above a safety line, players could remain in the game indefinitely.

However, judging by the current reactions, most players were skeptical about this update.

In addition to all this, the game launched a new type of dungeon that was still in testing. This type of test dungeon seemed to share many similarities with the original Battle Zone and Safe Zone dungeons, the only noticeable difference being the time required—

It no longer had a fixed duration of three hours, but rather a dynamic adjustment of the dungeon-to-reality time ratio. Players leaving the dungeon sequentially would be reflected in the game hall instead of returning to the hall at the same time as before.

Even with an extremely high time conversion ratio, such dungeons tend to increase the time spent in gameplay. The longest playtime for one such dungeon even exceeded twelve hours, which seemed less impressive compared to the previous maximum of three hours. Many players on the forums criticized the officials for their questionable decision to create such test dungeons.

However, the officials paid no attention to those critics. After realizing players had little interest in the test dungeons, they announced an event the next day—during the testing period, all earnings from the test dungeons would be multiplied by five, plunder chances would be improved five-fold, and all dungeons would have a 5% boost in power-enhancement speed.

Players were left with no choice.

They continued to complain, but many shifted their focus toward these test dungeons.

What could they do? Avoiding these dungeons meant falling behind. They could always wait until the event was over and never look back.

It’s worth mentioning that once this event launched, it boosted the sales of nutritional liquids.

After all this fuss, some discussions in the player community about the game’s transformation into reality were overshadowed by the surge of topics, but in reality, some news that had just begun to surface still caught Xia Xinyan’s attention.

For example, someone punched through a wall in one place, another learned to walk on water, and someone else used a sliding kick to take down a tiger…

Of course, until they witnessed it firsthand, most still regarded such news as jokes. However, Xia Xinyan had begun to agree with the notion—that people’s physical abilities really can’t be generalized.

In her memory, the first time someone began to draw supernatural abilities out of the game and garner public attention was years later, and these matters quickly got suppressed by the government. It would be quite a while longer before the era of universal abilities truly arrived.

But this time, as she genuinely started paying attention to these happenings, she discovered these signs appeared much earlier than she had imagined.

The game pod had been subtly altering players’ physical conditions from the start. Still, at this stage, perhaps only those strong enough in the game could notice their bodies were already beyond the norm. However, these individuals wouldn’t be foolish enough to expose themselves this early. Yet, as more people became involved, anomalies would emerge—like those puzzling news reports she saw earlier; most were likely pranks, but it was hard to rule out a genuine case or two.

Or perhaps, those powerful factions were already starting to take action in reality?

Of course, she couldn’t touch upon these current circumstances; the immediate priority was still within the game.

The test dungeon appeared at the same time as in her last life, and this five-fold profit event was the best phase to enhance her strength. After this, such events might never occur again. She had to seize this opportunity and help Ling Mo scrape together as many benefits as possible.

Those on the forums hoped complaining would force the officials to scrap the test dungeons’ implementation, but they didn’t understand the officials wouldn’t change anything based on player attitudes—after all, it’s not the game that needed the players, but rather the players who needed the game.

So contrary to what those players imagined, the test dungeons would be implemented after this testing phase. Moreover, in future updates, the time ratio would shrink further, eventually approaching a one-to-one state. But before that, the Cataclysm would already arrive.

By then, quite a few people would probably wish the dungeon durations could be a bit longer—because compared to the dangerous realities of the Dark Zone, at least the Safe Area and Battle Zone dungeons wouldn’t actually kill you.

Amidst this tumult, December arrived in the blink of an eye.

During this time, Xia Xinyan quietly took Ling Mo through the testing dungeons, filling their days with gameplay. The remaining time was spent on combat training, mainly to address both their weaknesses—Xia Xinyan didn’t mind; she only wanted to train Ling Mo to match her former capabilities or perhaps even surpass them.

By then, Ling Mo would probably be capable of protecting his family during the Cataclysm, right?

And she’d tag along.

However, Xia Xinyan gradually noticed that Ling Mo seemed… consistently off his game during their training sessions.

This feeling became more palpable when she successfully ambushed Ling Mo and pinned him down.

“Mo Mo, are you not being serious?”

“No!” Ling Mo immediately denied it. Looking up at his girlfriend sitting on his waist, he even somewhat enjoyed shrugging his shoulders, “Xinyan is really amazing; I can’t win.”

To be precise, he couldn’t bring himself to strike back at Xinyan.

That’s why he had been so opposed when she first suggested sparring, but too bad that argument didn’t hold water. She seemed more stubborn than he was, and he eventually softened his heart.

Despite that, in a private training ground, there was a setting for painlessness during training; under such conditions, being defeated by his girlfriend in various ways… was quite pleasant?

…Does he have some M tendencies?

Cough, but aside from that, Xinyan’s strength was undeniably impressive. Her speed and reaction times had become so swift he couldn’t even keep up, and her attacks were merciless—just a moment’s distraction could lead to him being pinned down.

At his current level, he genuinely wasn’t her match.

Since there was no way to resist, he chose to just go with the flow.

He laid back.