Beyond the town limits lay a forest.
In game terms, this was the wilderness, a place for grinding monsters.
It was one method of growing stronger. In the virtual forbidden zone, defeating monsters yielded experience points, which in turn led to greater strength.
This was also a strategy for tackling bosses, or perhaps, it offered a glimmer of hope to those trapped here, suggesting there were ways to escape.
However, Bai Ye, having been through this before, knew that attempting this without sufficient strength was ill-advised.
The reason was simple: the strength gained from grinding monsters in this place directly translated to physical attributes, which were ineffective outside the game.
Physical attributes were also not among the items one could bring out of the virtual forbidden zone.
Therefore, to put it more bluntly, grinding monsters in the virtual forbidden zone was a waste of time.
In Bai Ye's previous life, many people regretted this immensely.
It was simple: some believed that since the virtual forbidden zone could enhance strength, they might as well do it here, aiming to clear as many levels as possible, even bringing out three gold-quality items from the virtual forbidden zone.
And then…
When this individual left, the war in the central region had already erupted, and besides the three gold-quality items, he had nothing else…
This was a true story about a cadre of the Canglong Association named Xiao Hua. He was once considered top-tier within the association, but ultimately, Xiao Hua became a joke.
Staying in the virtual forbidden zone to grind monsters was a choice made out of desperation, only after being trapped within.
...
Walking deeper into the forest for about half an hour, a treehouse appeared before everyone.
The treehouse didn't look large from the outside, but upon entering, it was surprisingly spacious, approximately three hundred square meters, not matching its external structure at all.
However, in a game, such discrepancies weren't considered magical.
Gao Ming pushed open a door and said, "All the collected items are in here."
"Alright, I need time to think when I pick things," Bai Ye said. "Don't disturb me."
Gao Ming nodded, not particularly suspicious. After all, each person could only take three items per floor. Anything left here was deemed unnecessary, meaning it wouldn't be taken out. Therefore, Gao Ming wouldn't care even if Bai Ye claimed he wanted to take it all.
What use were items that couldn't be brought out of the virtual forbidden zone?
Gao Ming said, "Our other members should be on the third floor now. I need to contact them."
Bai Ye waved his hand. "Go ahead."
After seeing Gao Ming off, Bai Ye entered the room and closed the door.
"There are quite a lot of them!" Bai Ye clapped his hands excitedly. "This is a good haul."
Bai Ye had only one objective…
The Gate of Babylon!
Bai Ye didn't need to bring items out of the virtual forbidden zone. He could directly engrave them using the Gate of Babylon.
In fact, Bai Ye had conceived of this bug long ago. He had even considered repeatedly engraving weapons sold by vendors in the Summoned Ones market.
However, this trick was only theoretically feasible; it couldn't be executed in practice.
This was because engraving had a process, taking about three to five seconds to imprint the original weapon and then transfer it into the Gate of Babylon.
If he were to engrave in public, this process would undoubtedly be observed by others.
Although engraving didn't affect the original weapon, the other party had to believe that.
Even if they could verify through the light screen that the weapon was fine, without a clear explanation of the process, they would still be suspicious.
And explaining it clearly…
Why would they help him?
Moreover, Bai Ye didn't want the effects of the Gate of Babylon to become common knowledge.
Therefore, Bai Ye needed a large quantity of weapons, and it had to be done secretly.
When Gao Ming invited Bai Ye into the virtual forbidden zone, Bai Ye knew his opportunity had arrived.
According to the rules of the virtual forbidden zone, each person could take three items per floor. So, how should these three items be chosen?
Since the quality was capped, they were all roughly similar, with no significant difference in their base stats.
In such a situation, one could only choose what was most suitable or met their specific needs. This required careful selection, which in turn meant gathering as many items as possible, picking through them one by one, and then proceeding to the next floor.
Thus, it was obvious that the Evil Spirit Squad must have hoarded a lot of good stuff.
And here was his opportunity!
Bai Ye first set aside all non-weapon items, selected all the weapons, and then began frantically engraving with the Gate of Babylon.
The final result was seventy-nine weapons in total, but it wasn't over yet.
Theoretically, through synthesis with Steel Slimes, this number could be multiplied more than tenfold.
However, Steel Slime synthesis required the items to be considered one's own possessions, so Bai Ye couldn't synthesize them yet. But Bai Ye could select three blue and three black weapons. After clearing the first and second floors, they would become Bai Ye's.
With the constant combination of six weapons, and disregarding the probability of failure, it could increase the weapon count by at least another twenty.
And…
Even without considering synthesis, after the seventy-nine weapons, the storage capacity of the Gate of Babylon had smoothly surpassed the two-hundred mark.
Gate of Babylon (Noble Phantasm) (Black): The treasury of King of Heroes Gilgamesh, containing endless treasures. Its quality improves based on the number of weapons engraved within the Gate of Babylon (quality enhancement has no upper limit).
Current engraved weapons…
Current quality enhancement: 236/300
After the number of weapons in the Gate of Babylon surpassed two hundred, its quality also reached Black.
However, this had little significance.
Three hundred weapons would elevate it to Red, and five hundred to Gold. But the storage capacity of the Gate of Babylon was: infinite!
This meant that even after reaching Gold quality, the Gate of Babylon could continue to store weapons. Therefore, quality held little meaning for the Gate of Babylon.
Regardless, with the addition of seventy weapons, the power of the Gate of Babylon had instantly surged significantly.
Bai Ye walked out of the room and addressed the others, "You guys go pick."
Bai Ye let the other members of the Evil Spirit Squad choose items and then said to Gao Ming, "Have you made contact?"
Gao Ming replied, "Yes, we have. They will meet us at the entrance of the third floor in an hour."
Bai Ye remarked, "Meet us? Not rendezvous? There's a plan here!"
Gao Ming explained, "We're afraid of an ambush by the Canglong Association. To be honest, we sent someone midway through. We didn't intend to fight the Canglong Association, our goal was just to gather twelve people to clear the third floor and leave with our items…"
Gao Ming trailed off and then spread his hands.
His gesture was self-explanatory; it was clear that the people they had sent in had been dealt with by the Canglong Association again.
This was good news for Bai Ye. The Evil Spirit Squad actually preferred peaceful development, as bosses could be re-tackled, so there were no inherent conflicts.
Everyone could collect their own items and take turns tackling bosses.
However, the Canglong Association clearly did not wish for peaceful coexistence.
...