Chasing Light City, Black Obsidian Martial Arts Hall.

In the Hall Master's lounge, Lin Qi, who had just extracted a player once, hadn't had the chance to fully experience the effect of the Thunder Light Palm's Second Layer Thunder Shock Introduction at 22%, a 2.5 times Strength increase, and a 20% Power boost, when suddenly a system alert sounded in his ear.

"What's the situation with these three people?"

Lin Qi looked at the system prompt in astonishment, momentarily confused.

System: Congratulations to players Lu Fanchen, Lin Xinyao, and Li Tianxing for triggering the special hidden quest 'Molten Fire Crystal', collect 10,000 units of Molten Fire Crystal, and be rewarded with the construction permission for the Basic Meditation Room. (The Basic Meditation Room enhances mental activity and tranquility effects.)

"The capability of this Basic Meditation Room is so strong!" Lin Qi looked at the function of the Basic Meditation Room, feeling like it was simply a breakthrough artifact.

The enhancement in mental activity is akin to an increase in inspiration. Although it's unclear how much the Basic Meditation Room can enhance it, it certainly has a significant effect on creating Martial Arts or cultivating to break through one's bottlenecks.

Especially for those with low comprehension, it can definitely elevate the upper limit by quite a bit.

Thinking of this, Lin Qi couldn't help but immediately issue a task to the Smart Watches of the three, asking them to collect 10,000 units of Molten Fire Crystal, with the reward being 5,000 Contribution and 300,000 Points for each upon task completion.

Meanwhile, deep underground in the Black Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, Lu Fanchen and the others, having revived and returned to the metal door, were still discussing how they had died earlier when they received their task notification from Lin Qi.

"The reward for the Molten Fire Crystal gathering task is really high!" Lin Xinyao exclaimed at the task details, "It's 5,000 Contribution in one go. This hidden task's reward is a hundred times that of regular tasks."

"With such a high reward, it seems the level beyond the door isn't ordinary." Lu Fanchen looked at the metal door, his eyes shining.

Just one resource gathering task offering 5,000 Contribution is much higher than the large team hidden storyline tasks they completed before, indicating that the map level inside the door is much higher than their current map level.

It's definitely a fortune for them.

"Should we try again now?" Li Tianxing, standing by, looked at the door, his breath slightly quickened.

A task with 5,000 Contribution is a lot for current players, especially when selling captured weapons and equipment to the Martial Arts Hall only earns Points and not Contribution, making Contribution harder to acquire.

The only faster way is defeating monsters; one Single-Horned Gold-devouring Rat rewards 500 Contribution, but there are fewer and fewer of them in the Maze Tunnel, clearly not a place for long-term Contribution farming. Even if they could farm, who knows how long it would take for 500,000 Contribution.

Yet an unexplored high-level map offers immeasurable value to top players like them. After all, the general understanding in the game is the higher the map level, the more advanced the treasures and higher the value of various items.

"No rush, we still don't know how we died earlier." Lu Fanchen shook his head slightly, "If we don't even know the reason, we'll only die in vain. Did any of you notice anything before dying?"

"It was too dark inside that door, the moment it opened, I couldn't see anything, then, just like I mentioned earlier, I was directly kicked out of the game." Lin Xinyao shook her head, seemingly helpless.

"Same here," Li Tianxing nodded, pondering, "but at the moment of death, I felt a clear increase in pressure on my body, an inability to move, as if something terrifying was watching me."

"I felt more or less the same." Lu Fanchen couldn't help looking at the metal door, clearly already opened before but now closed again upon revival, eerily strange, and said, "Seems like we'll have to test it out first, afterward, Tianxing and I will open the door while Xinyao watches from afar to see how we die."

"Okay." Lin Xinyao then headed towards the tunnel entrance.

With Lin Xinyao in place, Lu Fanchen and Li Tianxing began slowly pushing the door. As the metal door opened bit by bit, revealing a slit, Lin Xinyao from a distance saw the two collapse to the ground like soulless husks, completely still.

"What's going on?" Lin Xinyao was puzzled by the sudden collapse of the two.

The two clearly weren't attacked but died just like that, inexplicably.

Lin Xinyao didn't have much time to be puzzled before an overwhelming sense of oppression swept over, causing her to feel dizzy and fall to the ground, breathing increasingly difficult, finally dying due to suffocation.

"Xinyao, how did you die too?" Lu Fanchen, watching Lin Xinyao wake up in the virtual chamber after logging offline, was perplexed.

Before they opened the door, Lin Xinyao had been 200 meters away from them, hidden, so even if a monster instantly killed them, it shouldn't have noticed Lin Xinyao.

"I know how you died." Lin Xinyao, with a somewhat pale face, said, "All of us likely died from spiritual oppression. You two were too close, experiencing intense spiritual pressure, while I was further but still couldn't withstand it, ultimately suffocating."

"Died from spiritual oppression? What level is this map?" Lu Fanchen was astounded.

Even in the high-level Azure Sky District, facing the three Lord level monsters, they only felt slightly heavy and mentally pressured.

The main reason being the three Lord level Serpents were far away and hadn't targeted them. But now, just nearing the map got them killed directly, making the map level unimaginable in horror.

"I feel like my spirit could resist if it's boosted a bit more," Lin Xinyao explained, "You two opened the door, suffered that level of mental pressure, and died instantly. I didn't die immediately, meaning the spiritual oppression weakens with distance. At around 200 meters, it's nearly our limit; enhancing our spirit should let us enter this ultra-high-level map."

"Looks like the game, despite being open-world, uses spiritual pressure to limit player activity. We'll need to enhance our mental level more." Li Tianxing was vexed, having thought they found a treasure by exploiting game loopholes, yet the developers outmaneuvered them with virtual level suppression to prevent exploitation.

"Still, it's not bad; we have a chance to enter this ultra-high-level map. A 200-meter reduction isn't much, and by enhancing the Fixed Star Explosion Visualization Technique, we can get in." Lu Fanchen smiled.

Though the developers set protective measures against high-level map exploration, they didn't completely ban it, which is promising news.

After reviving, the three focused their efforts on improving the Fixed Star Explosion Visualization Technique intensely, madly enhancing their proficiency.

Entry-level 20%... 23%... 26%... 30%...

Almost every time there was an improvement in the Fixed Star Explosion Visualization Technique, the three would try again. The more they tried, the faster their improvement seemed, becoming almost a sanctuary for cultivating the Fixed Star Explosion Visualization Technique.

After a night of intense enhancement, with the high talent of the three, and gathering learning experiences from older players, they reached over 35% in the Fixed Star Explosion Visualization Technique, attempting once more to open the door.

"Great!"

"We did it!"

The three watched the door open, experiencing unprecedented spiritual oppression, struggling to breathe, but they didn't die this time and even caught sight of inside the door.

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