HPDBC Chapter 415 No, whose generals are these?
Chapter 415 No, whose generals are these?
In the central square.
The players and NPCs who had just finished the preliminary selection all looked up.
"Holy crap, what's that?"
"A seven-colored beam of light! A divine artifact has been born!"
"The direction is towards the City Lord's Mansion!"
"Hurry up! If we're late, we won't even get any soup!"
The crowd surged wildly toward the direction of the city lord's mansion.
In the city lord's palace.
Golden light poured down like a waterfall, instantly engulfing Chen You.
Sander's massive body was thrown back two steps by the blast of air. She raised her hand to shield her eyes from the blinding light and peered through her fingers at the spot where Chen You had disappeared, her expression excited.
"Mentor, you must come back alive!"
The light faded, and the night sky returned to calm.
Chen You opened his eyes and found that he was not in some ancient battlefield filled with knives and fire.
He was standing on a suspended, semi-transparent disc.
Below the disc is a vast, boundless sand table.
The sand table shows undulating mountains and meandering rivers, with most areas shrouded in a thick gray fog.
Only the area directly below is clearly visible.
There stood a simple thatched hall, next to several barren farmlands and a dilapidated logging camp.
"This art style..." Chen You's eye twitched.
[Ding! The Trial of Virtue has begun.]
[Trial Mode: Lord's Conquest (Real-Time Strategy)]
[Clearance conditions: Resist the enemy's attack and destroy the enemy's main city hidden deep in the fog.]
[Failure conditions: Your main city is destroyed, or your lord (you) dies.]
As soon as the notification sound ended, a semi-transparent virtual control panel popped up in front of Chen You.
The panel displays the following resource information: Wood 0, Stone 0, Food 0.
Below are the building options and unit recruitment options.
Chen You looked down and saw five emaciated NPCs shakily walking out of the thatched hall.
They held broken hoes and axes in their hands, and green text floated above their heads: [System Laborers].
[System notification: The first wave of enemy reconnaissance troops will arrive in three minutes. Please gather resources and build defenses as soon as possible.]
Chen You looked at the five laborers who were panting after just a few steps, and then glanced at the panel showing the cost of "100 wood and 50 stone" needed to build a basic arrow tower, and fell silent.
Three minutes? These old, weak, sick, and disabled people can't even cut down a single tree, let alone build any defenses.
"System, are you sending me to my death?" Chen You said coldly.
[Special privileges detected in the trial participant, triggering a hidden auxiliary protocol.]
The control panel flashed, and the previously grayed-out "Special Recruitment" option lit up.
Two huge dialog boxes popped up on the screen.
Option 1: Follow the old method and use the system's default resources.
[Note: Free. You will lead these five laborers on a pure, hardcore survival journey from scratch. Showcase your unparalleled strategic talent!]
Option 2: Open an astral portal to recruit "Immortals" (players).
[Note: 100,000 gold coins are required to activate the channel. After activation, you can spend gold coins to summon immortals as your action units without limit.]
Chen You stared at the long string of zeros in "100,000 gold coins" and sneered.
"The fox's tail has finally been revealed, hasn't it? So, the core mechanism of this ancient trial is to force players to spend money?"
For ordinary players, let alone 100,000, they can't even scrape together 1,000 gold coins. They can only choose option one to experience "hardcore survival" and then get crushed by the first wave of monsters.
But who is Chen You? He has the financial backing of the entire nation of China.
"This money has to be spent." Chen You raised his hand without hesitation and slapped the [Option Two] option.
[Ding! 100,000 gold coins deducted. Astral portal activated!]
As the notification sound faded, the ground suddenly cracked open beside the dilapidated thatched hall on the sand table.
A massive teleportation array, radiating a deep blue light, rose from the ground.
At the same time, a glaring red server-wide announcement popped up in the view of all online players in the Origin Realm.
[Server-wide Announcement: Honorary City Lord "Chen You" has unlocked the hidden campaign "Trial of Virtue"!]
[Recruiting mercenaries from across all servers!]
[Mission Objective: Follow orders and destroy the enemy's main city.]
[Reward Mechanism: Massive experience points are distributed based on kill contribution, with rewards settled at the end of the battle! No penalty for death, 10-second respawn time!]
Would you accept the draft?
In the square of Hidden Star City, even the players who were on their way to the City Lord's Mansion were stunned for a moment, and then burst into earth-shattering cheers.
"Holy crap! Boss Chen You has issued another mission!"
"No punishment for death? That's practically free stuff!"
"Go! Go! Go! Go! I'll fight anyone who tries to take it from me!"
White light flashed wildly in every corner of the Source Realm.
Inside the trial sandbox, the azure teleportation array began to operate frantically.
"Swish swish swish swish!"
Within seconds, hundreds and thousands of players poured out of the teleportation array like dumplings being dropped into boiling water, instantly filling the open space around the thatched hall.
Chen You stood on the circular platform high in the sky, looking down.
The art style of this group of players is extremely bizarre.
There were berserkers in heavy armor, elves wielding staffs, and orcs wearing tutu skirts who had just finished a talent show.
"Guys, where is this? The perspective is weird!"
"Look at the sky! Boss Chen You is floating in the sky!"
"Wow! Watch me! I'll show you how to change outfits with a single click!"
The sandbox was in complete chaos, with players running around like wild dogs, while the five system laborers were huddled in a corner, trembling with fear.
Chen You rubbed his temples.
He tried to select the group of players by drawing a box in the air with his finger, just like in an RTS game.
[Note: Immortals possess independent will and cannot be subject to forced micro-management.]
"Can't micro-manage? How am I supposed to command?" Chen You frowned.
A system notification sounded in Chen You's ear.
[Note: Lords can only issue macro-level commands via "Global Voice".]
Chen You looked down at the players who were in complete chaos in the sandbox below.
A berserker is wielding a greatsword and hacking at the pillars of a thatched hall, testing the building's structural integrity.
Several orcs surrounded the five system laborers, trying to tear off the tattered rags from their bodies.
A group of mages were throwing fireballs at each other in an open area, ostensibly to "test friendly forces."
Do you think these idiots will listen to you?
Chen You took a deep breath and clicked the global voice chat button.
"Attention, everyone! Quiet!"
The sound was like rolling thunder, exploding above the trial sandbox.
The players below, who had been making a ruckus, instantly fell silent and looked up in unison at the god-like man in mid-air.
Chen You cleared his throat: "Now, everyone follow my orders."
"See that grove of trees on the left? We need wood to build defensive towers. Go chop down some trees!"
The air was silent for two seconds.
"Charge! The boss wants us to cut down trees!"
Thousands of players surged towards the woods on the left like a burst dam, howling as they rushed towards the forest.
Just as Chen You breathed a sigh of relief, the muscles at the corners of his eyes twitched violently.