From the Abyss of Stars

75. The Path

 

Li Aozi wasn't lying.

 

In his past life, he started in the Kingdom of Arlanka, later emigrated to the Red Arrow Empire, became an imperial citizen, and after leveling up and developing, he got himself a GTB legionnaire membership card, which greatly improved his gaming experience.

 

This path was called "corporate dog" by players.

 

Players sought novelty, excitement, fun, and benefits.

 

For this purpose, some went to the Sky Ring to become war criminals, some became vagrants in the outer lands, and some even worked in family planning in Zhuxu. Naturally, there were also those who worked for GTB and the four nations as unlucky employees.

 

GTB had immense influence, and Li Aozi was well aware of the dirty and dark side behind this "bank."

 

But that didn't stop him from spending extravagantly at Lejitian and Mombilon with his legionnaire card, lingering and unwilling to leave...

 

Yes, those were legitimate places, just with more niche experiences.

 

The legionnaire membership card had no overdraft limit, and it was common for players to overdraft tens or hundreds of thousands of Galon.

 

Compared to the Deb of the Frost-Plated Republic, the Galon of the Red Arrow Empire was much stronger and wouldn't face severe devaluation like during the financial crisis of 226.

 

Unfortunately, if he had known he would blow up a planet, Li Aozi would have defaulted on more debts.

 

Nimotin, looking dejected, sent the bounty application to GTB, then urged Agent Yavanna to quickly escape.

 

Staying any longer with this madman Li Aozi, she'd lose her life sooner or later.

 

Agent Yavanna briefly made eye contact with Li Aozi; she didn't understand his intentions, but from his eyes and reaction, he seemed confident in what he was doing.

 

In the end, she said nothing and helped Nimotin leave.

 

As for what they'd do next, Li Aozi didn't care. Anyway, Nimotin had a dedicated network; as long as she escaped his sight, she'd have no shortage of support.

 

【‘Yavanna Huskisin’ has left the team】

 

Li Aozi didn't mind Yavanna leaving; he couldn't raise her affection for him in the short term anyway, so he let her go for now.

 

After all, he would eventually return to the Frost-Plated Republic.

 

After all, she was Dawelin's daughter. If he really wanted to increase her affection, he might as well go save Dawelin directly; that would be more practical than anything else.

 

Knowing this, Li Aozi wasn't in a hurry.

 

Dawelin was a genuine legendary figure. Throughout history, there were few who possessed both character and talent. Dawelin's personal virtue was praised by nearly half of Blue Star's population, being incorruptible and an expert in national defense affairs.

 

He couldn't just let that go.

 

Moreover, Dawelin's eldest son, Daixin, was also a graduate of the Frost-Plated Business School. If not for being implicated by his father, he would have been a high-ranking official in GTB long ago—he was also a talent. Li Aozi, planning to monopolize the jewelry and equipment trade in the future, needed a knowledgeable financial manager.

 

"The Abyss of Stars is too deep and vast, requiring an immense amount of manpower and population to develop. I need a large number and variety of talents."

 

Li Aozi was calculating meticulously in his heart.

 

Initially, players thought that since the level cap in "Abyss of Stars" was non-existent, reaching hundreds or thousands of levels was possible, it was just a matter of grinding.

 

Therefore, they naturally believed that this game, like traditional fantasy worlds, respected individual heroism, where the stronger the individual, the more powerful they were.

 

However, the subsequent development completely exceeded their expectations.

 

First, because the universe had no concept of time, the thirteen narrative-level civilizations each controlled parts of space-time. No matter how strong an individual was... unless your body could span tens of thousands of light-years, causing space-time collapse, you weren't qualified to challenge these narratives.

 

Take the Empire of Heroes as an example, this narrative's power was enough to interfere with dimensions and planes, a power that could only be based on the immense size of a narrative dominating the universe.

 

But if you formed a neutral organization, it would be much more convenient.

 

Whether in trade or military actions, narratives welcomed these neutral organizations.

 

This was the second point—in interstellar journeys lasting hundreds of natural years, these extraordinary beings actually became more magnanimous. Issues that mortals couldn't tolerate were trivial to these long-lived species.

 

Cosmic beings prioritized benefits, but the longer-term benefits were obviously more important.

 

If an issue couldn't be resolved in a few years, we could discuss it again in a few thousand years; it would eventually be resolved.

 

For ordinary player groups, populating the star map with extraordinary beings allowed them to claim this as their homeland. Dominating a few star regions with individual extraordinary power would easily provoke dissatisfaction from many neighbors, civilizations, and star clusters around them—but as long as there was a group of 'ancient' civilizations here, you held the moral high ground in the interstellar community.

 

But that wasn't the biggest problem. Benefits were earned through battle, individual combat power could tolerate their forces not expanding, and even disdain it.

 

But they couldn't tolerate their individual power being frustrated.

 

Especially as they dived deeper into the Abyss of Stars, people were horrified to find that individual strength was especially powerless in the narrative-level Abyss of Stars, as their enemies came not only from the outside—but also from within themselves.

 

The cost of each dive and rise was enormous, the stronger the individual, the stronger the curse from the Abyss of Stars.

 

If you didn't dive, then sorry, you could only stop here, higher realms were out of reach, and you'd slowly await your end in the shallow starry sky.

 

In this situation, no matter how strong a Starfall Master's individual strength was, it was useless. In fact, being too strong would cause extreme inconvenience, unable to rise or dive.

 

You might guard the front door and hold the ground, but if the backyard caught fire, no matter how powerful you were in the front, you'd watch helplessly as everything you accumulated was destroyed.

 

Unless it was a narrative-level civilization, forming a larger and more elite team was the most cost-effective, distributing people across every layer of the Abyss of Stars to consolidate influence.

 

But the premise of this was... your group had to have enough extraordinary beings, and these powerful beings, under the intervention of narrative-level civilizations, were difficult to truly unite.

 

Of course, Starfall Masters were an exception. Li Aozi always found it a pity and a regret—this group couldn't unite simply because there were too few of them and they were arrogant.

 

Fortunately, this issue was slowly being resolved at the root. As long as the number of future 【Starfall Masters】 could double, Li Aozi would consider it a great success.

 

"My macro plan is basically set, whether players can make the 【Mutants】 rise depends on my performance."

 

Seeing the reward for "Remember," Li Aozi was completely certain that this was the main quest for the 【Mutants】 of the Frost-Plated Republic.

 

Especially with the settlement condition C: "Eradication"—its reward was a choice between 【Biological Nest】, 【Gene Extractor】, and 【White Obelisk】.

 

New players would be confused by these items with no descriptions. Li Aozi knew them very well.

 

"【Mutants】' path buildings."

 

Li Aozi squinted:

 

"The player who completes the class main quest first will unlock the path building—in simple terms, it is a tool that allows all members of the class to follow the same development path as the creator."

 

Path buildings were like founding a sect on a mountain, solidifying a class's foundation, allowing later members to grow quickly.

 

This wasn't very useful for solo players, but for guilds, it was extremely important.

 

Training new members was costly for any guild organization. Skills, specialties, and psionic energy required real money to develop.

 

The greatest significance of path buildings was helping guilds and organizations greatly reduce the cost of training new members. As long as newcomers were willing to follow this path, they could apply for assistance from the creator through the path building, no matter how far they were, they could communicate.

 

Besides, paths had many important functions.

 

【Biological Nest】 focused on physical enhancement, capable of replicating and nurturing bio-beasts based on the path creator, suitable for strong individuals with a shortage of personnel.

 

It was a war-oriented path building, helping new rookies gain powerful pets, making it very convenient for new members to level up.

 

It could also use bio-beasts to monitor subordinates, who wouldn't refuse such powerful helpers, instead seeing it as a symbol of trust from the leader, making both sides happy to cooperate.

 

The only flaw was that 【Biological Nest】 required a lot of manpower to maintain—this was quite awkward.

 

Because those who needed this were usually strong individuals lacking trusted personnel.

 

The boss generously distributed bio-beasts, and everyone went out to fight and level up. But then, who would maintain the building?

 

【Gene Extractor】 followed a path of harming others for self-benefit. Simply put, once the path creator set up the gene extractor, their subordinates could bring individuals with super genes to extract some of their genes, modify bodily defects, and enhance attributes. Very useful.

 

But based on Li Aozi's experience, the actual use of 【Gene Extractor】 was a pain...

 

Mainly because it couldn't be moved and was quite large (1.4 kilometers high, covering an area of 600 hectares), and every activation was visible from outside the atmosphere.

 

If it attracted too much attention, it was too obvious, a meteor thrown from the atmosphere could smash it, and where would you cry then?

 

As for what the 【White Obelisk】 was, Li Aozi didn't know.

 

The closest thing he had seen in his past life was the 【Black Obelisk】 with a length-to-width-to-height ratio of 1:4:9.

 

That was a terrifying path building, made of strong interaction materials, indestructible, unchangeable, immovable, and absolutely precise—standing there as a silent warning.

 

Choosing the 【Black Obelisk】 granted continuous buffs, ensuring those on this path wouldn't get diseases, wouldn't experience bodily deformities, and every 2001 days, their cells would undergo a complete evolution, eventually shedding their physical form and living as energy beings, enjoying endless life and indestructible will.

 

The only downside was the slow effect, taking four or five versions to see results, and there was even one player who, after perfecting their body, received a message—'you can transform into an energy life form.'

 

Wow, all the previous efforts were suddenly wasted, what a big fool. So much time wasted on tasks and gathering materials.

 

Why did Li Aozi know this so well...

 

Because he was that big fool.

 

"The Black Obelisk is very powerful, said to be a creation of a narrative."

 

But as for what the 【White Obelisk】 was, Li Aozi truly didn't know.

 

Path buildings were rare items, even with his knowledge, he hadn't seen them all.

 

Compared to these, Li Aozi's attention was more on the gains from killing the professor's avatar, the Cannibal.

 

After a quick inventory... it was quite impressive.

 

Unexpected events, side quests, scattered enemy kills, and the major contribution of killing the Cannibal across levels—totaling 781,250 experience points.

 

With so much experience, Li Aozi could finally level up to 20.