Absolute Death Game

He checked the time, not yet two o'clock, and Xiao Buli thought to himself that he might as well go back to honestly tending to the horses.

The entire afternoon was spent in a cycle of animal taming—meditation—animal taming—meditation. Meditation could restore both Mana and Physical Strength, which was perfect for trying to level up his Taoist Heart to LV2 during the intervals when his stamina was drained from animal taming.

Unfortunately, despite several meditation sessions lasting up to thirty minutes, not a hint of a breakthrough appeared.

Could it be that Hua Yueying was fooling him? Sometimes, Xiao Buli couldn't help but wonder.

But he wasn't someone who gave up easily, nor did he change plans without good reason. If the afternoon attempts were unsuccessful, he would experiment again at night. Once he had set his mind on a plan, he would implement it wholeheartedly.

After dinner, he returned to the computer room to start gaming again, joined by most members of the Azure Dragon Group. After all, with the crunch for time, it made sense to work overtime.

However, as darkness fell, creatures like lonely ghosts and specters became more prevalent outdoors, prompting most of the players to return to the city and log off.

By after ten o'clock, only Xiao Buli, Bai Yunfei, and Liu Xing were still persisting. Bai Yunfei was on a Prestige task for the Grand Yin Sect, while Liu Xing was furiously practicing Swordsmanship at Longquan Sword Pavilion.

Xiao Buli hadn't stayed up late in a long time. Watching his Taming Skills level up one by one, he decided to go all out.

Cups of coffee kept coming in, and he and Liu Xing drank one after another. The bitter taste and the effects of caffeine kept them both excited, while Bai Yunfei didn't touch a drop, the strange fellow seemingly more spirited as the night wore on.

By the wee hours after two o'clock, although Xiao Buli's meditation hadn't leveled up yet, his 'Taming' skill had advanced to LV10 first.
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System prompt: After a long career in animal taming, your Taming Skills have improved, currently at level LV6, and new content has been added to your Beast Compendium.

System prompt: Through long-term labor, your speed has increased by one point, stamina has increased by one point.

System prompt: Through a long life of taming horses, you have gained insight into Elementary Riding during the process of taming horses.

Elementary Riding: Basic riding skills. You can ride tamed mounts with a riding difficulty not exceeding 2. This skill cannot be upgraded through experience points but can be improved through a Skills Trainer.

At last, it's over! Xiao Buli couldn't help but heave a long sigh of relief upon seeing the prompts, as playing these repetitive mini-games had been numbing. However, the results he saw now seemed worthwhile.

With level 6 in Taming Skills, according to Zhang Yaoyang, he could even tame fierce beasts like tigers. And now with Elementary Riding, he could use mounts to travel around, saving a lot of time. However, a travel horse cost 50 silver coins, which Xiao Buli felt was better to avoid for the time being.

After saying goodbye to Bai Yunfei, who was still going strong, Xiao Buli dragged his tired body off to bed.

He slept surprisingly soundly that night, and when he woke up, it was already daylight.

After washing up and going for breakfast, Liu Xing was there with huge panda eyes, seemingly impacted by the previous day's events.

Halfway through breakfast, Zhang Yaoyang suddenly walked in.

"Hey, you're all here. Here are some Character Cards. Fill them out after breakfast. The management will assign positions and level-up funds based on your profession, skills, and attributes."

Xiao Buli took a card and looked at it. There was quite a bit to fill out—skills, attributes, profession—but what drew his attention was the method of filling out paper forms.

(It seems the company can't directly retrieve each person's data through the computer and needs this old-fashioned way to monitor.) Thinking this, Xiao Buli was somewhat pleasantly surprised. It seemed that the company's control wasn't all-encompassing, and this thought brightened his mood.

When filling out the attributes, Xiao Buli, wanting to test his hypothesis, intentionally left out one Strength point. Such an omission wasn't a big deal, and even if discovered, Xiao Buli could explain it as a variation due to his Taming Skills. But if there was no reaction at all, it could prove something.

Everyone filled out their forms and submitted them. Zhang Yaoyang took the forms and left, and after breakfast, everyone headed to the computer room to start another day's work.

After logging in, Xiao Buli didn't know what to do next. He couldn't afford to learn swordsmanship, and he was unable to upgrade his Taoist Heart. Was he supposed to improve his basic attributes now? However, that was something he planned to do at night.

While he was pondering, Zhang Yaoyang walked in, holding a list in his hand.

"Alright, the results are in," Zhang Yaoyang said as he tapped on the table, signaling everyone to pay attention to him.

"The higher-ups have sent down our arrangements. This list specifies everyone's role and the direction for ability enhancement for the next month. Depending on the role, each person will receive a set of upgrade materials. I'm going to start reading now, so listen carefully. I'm currently at the tavern in Nine Dragons City, those who are called come here to collect."

Since everyone was already in the city, they hurried to the tavern. Seeing that everyone had arrived, Zhang Yaoyang started to read the list.

"Liu Xing: Physical DPS.

Upgrade materials: Five Body Refining Pills, 15 Gold Coins."

"Zhao Yunlong: Tank/Aura Provider.

Upgrade materials: Five Bone Refining Pills, 25 Gold Coins."

"Hua Yueying: Healer/BUFF Provider.

Upgrade materials: Five Soul Refining Pills, 30 Gold Coins."

As the contents of the list were read one by one, Xiao Buli gained a good understanding of this distribution method. Clearly, healers received the most support, followed by tanks, then magic DPS, and the least supported were the physical DPS.

"Xiao Buli, your role is support healer. You will receive upgrade materials: Five Soul Refining Pills, 30 Gold Coins, so for the next month, you should primarily focus on this area. Go to the auction house and buy a few skill books in this field to learn, because we will be relying on you in the future."

Xiao Buli deeply empathized with Zhang Yaoyang's words, feeling that without a healer, it would be impossible to take on an advanced dungeon. Yet this time, Xiao Buli could only disappoint him, as with these thirty Gold Coins the first thing he planned to do was to choose one or two powerful swordsmanship styles to learn.

If Zhang Yaoyang knew this, he would probably be spitting blood in frustration.

After distributing the upgrade materials, Zhang Yaoyang took out another document.

"Here's some information on how to improve basic attributes, collected by Vermilion Bird Group after long-term experimentation. If anyone needs to raise their basic attributes, just follow these guidelines. If there's anything else you'd like to inquire about, you can apply to me, and I'll discuss it with the higher-ups." As he spoke, Zhang Yaoyang posted the document directly on the wall.

Xiao Buli glanced at it, and indeed, it detailed all the life skills that could improve basic attributes. Just like what he had encountered before, each life skill could lead to learning different skills during the improvement process; for instance, Woodworking LV10 could lead to acquiring Mechanical Techniques, Medical LV10 could lead to learning Alchemy, and so on.

It seemed that his understanding of the game was still not profound enough.

After posting the document, Zhang Yaoyang added, "Lastly, concerning the improvement of equipment, Black Tortoise Group can only offer limited quality gear. Therefore, to ensure we have a sufficient equipment base for pioneering the dungeons in the Dark Forest, over the next month we will distribute an introduction to dungeon coordinates every week.

Considering that these dungeons are for five-person teams, we will split into two groups to tackle them separately."

"Me, Hua Yueying, Li Chuang, Zhao Yunlong, and Du Yibo will be one group. Xiao Buli, Wu Tao, Yaoyao, Bai Yunfei, and Liu Xing will be the second group. Does anyone have objections?"

No one objected, as the teams were quite scientifically balanced, each with a tank, healer, and DPS.

Zhang Yaoyang nodded, "Then it's settled. Who will be the team leader for your group?"

After some mutual deference, Liu Xing was chosen for the role.

"Now, let's assign the dungeons. This week, Vermilion Bird Group has provided the coordinates and basic intelligence for six white dungeons. Let's review them together.