Chapter 382 - 170: Speedrunning the Game World! An Unparalleled Reward
With his Experience Bar unlocked, he could once again gain experience by killing bosses directly in the Game World. Moreover, a single world boss yielded a billion experience points. After the monster tide, many Monster Nests had been destroyed. Shen Fei had thought the only way to gain substantial experience would be through special Secret Realms, so this new development made him quite happy.
Originally, his goal in tracking his father was simply to rescue him and the others from the [Heaven-Opening Gate] mission as quickly as possible. He never expected that he would end up following them into a counter-invasion of the Game World. Furthermore, while helping kill monsters, he could also obtain special items and experience. This gave Shen Fei some new expectations for the mission ahead.
Just after checking his gains, Shen Fei suddenly used his Detection Tower to pinpoint a peculiar location. "Found it!"
At the same moment Shen Fei shouted, Zhao Li also cried out in excitement, "Found it!"
The two of them had detected the strange place at almost the exact same time.
After detecting the situation, Shen Fei and Zhao Li, still unsure which Game World they had teleported to, exchanged a look. "Let’s go!" they both exclaimed, setting off to lead the way at almost the same instant.
Previously, during the battles from the first to the Fifth Ring, Zhao Li, who had the highest Combat Power, had not contributed much. Aside from controlling the field with his Immortal Sword and using Magic attacks that did not consume much Immortal Yuan, he would only unleash a major ultimate attack when everyone else used theirs at the very end. This was because after entering the Game World, Zhao Li discovered that his Immortal Yuan recovered much more slowly. To put it simply, his "mana" could not regenerate quickly. After discussing it with Father Shen and the others, Zhao Li’s combat strategy was to conserve his "mana" as much as possible to ensure he had reserve Combat Power for the higher-level Ring Skills and stronger monsters they would face later.
But now, from the moment Shen Fei joined the team, Zhao Li knew. I don’t have to wait anymore! I don’t have to conserve my "mana" anymore... For everything that comes next, Shen Fei is enough. I don’t need to be the "backup" anymore!
WHOOSH. WHOOSH.
With Shen Fei and his Teleportation Gate Tower assisting, the group’s movements became incredibly fast. The instant Shen Fei and Zhao Li nodded, Shen Fei deployed his Teleportation Gate Tower. In the blink of an eye, the group stepped out of the Teleportation Gate and appeared before a colossal, dark mountain peak. The anomaly Shen Fei and Zhao Li had detected was right here.
The moment their feet touched the ground, a cacophony of rustling noises erupted around them.
RUSTLE. RUSTLE. RUSTLE.
They whipped their heads around. "Holy crap!"
In the darkness, they saw countless black figures, each taller than a person, crawling out in a dense swarm.
"Ants!"
In an instant, everyone recognized that these enormous, horse-sized creatures were, in fact, ants. Normally tiny, but now magnified to the size of a horse, they looked incredibly ferocious and terrifying. They had sharp mandibles, fur like steel needles, and jet-black, vicious eyes. The horse-sized ants immediately began to swarm toward the group.
A black mass of giant ants charged toward them like a stampede of wild horses.
Young Master Void, who had been a game reviewer before the apocalypse known for attracting fans with risqué content, exclaimed, "What the—! Don’t tell me this is the game *Ant Kingdom*? I remember that being a mobile game... Did the Earth get bigger, so the maps in the Game World also got bigger? Why is this map so huge! And why are the ants so big?"
He wasn’t surprised that the tiny ants from the game *Ant Kingdom* were now bigger than horses; after all, the monster strength in the Game World gradually increased as part of their mission. What truly shocked him was that the world map itself had been enlarged countless times over. Just a moment ago, Shen Fei had mentioned that their teleportation covered over a thousand kilometers.
Everyone perked up. They had now journeyed through six Game Worlds, and finally, they had encountered one that could be identified by name. Seeing the giant ants recognized, everyone felt a jolt of excitement.
"So, the boss of this Game World is the Ant Queen?"
"And this endless mountain in front of us is the anthill?"
Now that they had finally identified a game, their task became clearer. As long as the Game World was recognized, they could use its settings and background to quickly find its strongest being. The objective of the mandatory [Heaven-Opening Gate] mission was to find that being, kill it as fast as possible, and thus complete one ring of the mission.
Seeing Zhao Li’s Immortal Sword already circling the group and slicing the charging giant ants in half, Young Master Void answered involuntarily, "That should be it..."
Seeing Zhao Li attacking without conserving his "mana," and knowing that time was of the essence, Shen Fei shouted, "Then let’s do this!" He didn’t hesitate for a second, instantly summoning 100 Defense Towers around himself.
BOOM!
In a hurry, Shen Fei had no intention of testing his attacks. The moment the Defense Towers appeared, he immediately fired a Cluster Attack at the massive anthill before them—a structure that looked even taller than Mount Everest.
FWOOSH.
The immeasurable pillar of light appeared once again. It shot up from below, diagonally piercing through the entire colossal anthill in an instant.
FWOOSH.
As everyone watched with jaws agape, the pillar of light punched through the anthill and just kept going.