Senior Sister Red Butterfly returned safely, and Xu Lang went back to practicing with his blade.

An entire day passed just like that.

Purgatory's Master and the Demon Emperor Set were both in the Weapon Armory, temporarily inaccessible, so Xu Lang had no intention of going pioneering. He spent nearly the entire day training.

That evening, Wang Yazhi and Cao Yaxuan returned, bringing a piece of news.

A second stronghold had been found in the Blood Mist World.

Zhang Dahai had discovered this stronghold. At the time, he was being hunted by Blood Mist creatures, and Wang Yazhi and Wu Huihui had to go rescue him.

When Wang Yazhi, Cao Yaxuan, and Xu Ruyan went pioneering, they always teamed up with Wu Huihui and other female partners. They never went out alone either—it was far too dangerous, with no backup at all.

The seventh round of the game had dropped a lot of electronic communication devices, which could still be used in the Blood Mist World. This provided a huge boost for players out pioneering.

"That stronghold was discovered over at Clear Sky University's 'Feihong Building.' As soon as he saw the stronghold's halo, he turned right around and left."

"This is the photo Dahai took at the time. I'm sending it to all of you."

Wang Yazhi shared the image with Xu Lang.

"Dahai's pretty clever." Xu Lang gave a wry smile.

Wang Yazhi shook her head with a rueful laugh. "But even being that careful, he still got tangled up with Blood Mist creatures."

"Give us the details!" Sherry's eyes lit up.

Zhang Dahai wasn't weak by any means. He could usually take down ordinary Blood Mist creatures solo.

"According to Dahai, that was his former dean of students... and it seemed to have some intelligence. It called out his name." Wang Yazhi recounted with a strange expression.

That got everyone interested.

Xu Xiaomeng pressed pause on her game, stopping even that.

"And then?" Ayiguli pressed, quietly pulling out a bag of chips and gently tearing it open.

The snacks in Mad King Building were way too delicious!

"That's it." Wang Yazhi spread her hands. "That Blood Mist creature might have sensed we were coming and slipped away early."

"You didn't chase after it?" Yinsha asked.

Since becoming tenants, Jinsha and Yinsha no longer spoke in unison. They had only done that before to boost Queen Ayiguli's prestige.

"No." Wang Yazhi shook her head. "We were running low on supplies, and chasing it could easily have led to casualties."

"Didn't Dahai have any other information?" Xu Lang frowned.

With the Mad King Building's ecosystem developed to where it was today, almost every player had some kind of detection ability, and support-type players had even more of those skills.

"No." Wang Yazhi shook her head again, then explained, "Dahai also warned us not to go near Feihong Building anytime soon. The dean's Status might be very high—he couldn't get any information out of it at all."

Upon hearing this, Xu Lang sent a private message to Zhang Dahai.

[Xu Lang: What level is your detection ability?]

[Zhang Dahai: One Level 20 Uncommon reconnaissance skill, one Level 10 Legendary item. Neither ability revealed anything, and they kept warning me of danger.]

Zhang Dahai replied instantly, as if he knew exactly what Xu Lang was going to ask.

Xu Lang closed the chat window and looked at Wang Yazhi and Cao Yaxuan. "What do you two think?"

Cao Yaxuan shrugged, indicating she had no opinion.

Wang Yazhi said calmly, "Building 20 has been pioneering that area all along, and Huihui and I don't really want to give it up."

"Besides, clearing out and understanding those Blood Mist creatures in advance would help when we eventually take over the stronghold."

"The first time we occupied a stronghold, we played it way too wild. The risk was enormous."

Before occupying a stronghold, scouting or clearing the surrounding area was the standard pioneering procedure.

"Alright. If you encounter a danger you can't handle, crush the replica of the magic box I gave you. I'll sense it immediately." Xu Lang nodded.

"Good!" A smile bloomed on Wang Yazhi's face.

She had been afraid Xu Lang would refuse to let her go pioneering again. It felt like wanting to start a business while your family held you back at every turn—you couldn't say your family was wrong, but it was incredibly frustrating.

Fortunately, Xu Lang wasn't like that.

The only hard rule Xu Lang had set for the women was to sleep at fixed times and places.

The women had once speculated that Xu Lang's abilities might be connected to sleep, but they later dismissed that idea.

Players were killing each other over scraps of resources, and the idea that someone could just sleep their way to seven crowns was just too absurd.

There had to be a deeper reason for Xu Lang being this strong.

...

That night.

Kui Zi brought good news.

She and ten researchers had developed a new type of surveillance camera, divided into three tiers based on the materials used. The higher the tier, the harder it was to destroy.

As soon as these cameras were put on the shelves, players bought them all up.

Level Five dormitories generally had a small window on the front, but the field of view was only slightly better than a peephole. Sticking your head out to look could get you attacked.

It was worth mentioning that although everyone's dorms had been breached in the last round of the game, the dormitory levels hadn't been reset to zero. And as long as you paid Copper Coins, the damaged built-in furniture could be restored.

This inheritance feature might seem insignificant, but it was actually very important to players. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

Some newly unsealed dormitory buildings didn't have this feature. As a dormitory building grew stronger, players' welfare benefits would also improve—this was a mutually beneficial arrangement.

Player migration was very much like changing your nationality.

Maybe you'd just switched to Country A, only to find that Country A had few players, abundant resources, and even had a Level 10 vacant room waiting for you.

You could go ahead and live there, but you also had to think: if the big shot who owned that Level 10 dorm was dead, could you really handle the pressure?

Thinking about it that way, it made perfect sense that Mad King Building wouldn't allow people to move out.

If normal players knew about Mad King Building's glorious track record, they'd definitely be thinking about moving out right away.

Nobody really wanted to pin all their hopes on Xu Lang alone. The other players were so enthusiastic about Xu Lang purely because they had no choice. They had to rely on him.

That aside, Xu Lang's personal charisma was genuinely very high.

In this dark jungle, people only worshipped the strong. Fear bred a sense of security at the same time.

In other words, if you were fierce and wild enough, you really could attract a bunch of followers.

As for Xu Lang's reputation... it had never been good.

Xu Lang didn't bother with that anymore. The players fearing him only boosted the production of Terror Force, which was fine by him.