"What?"
Chen Xiaoyi had just finished his battle and missed what his brother, Chen Dajia, had just said.
Chen Dajia pointed at the canyon's entrance a hundred meters away and asked, "Don't you think something is going on in the canyon?"
The Gale Prairie was a meadow where strong winds would blow. The grass on the ground grew very tall, reaching the players' knees. The bent grass tickled everyone's legs like soft feathers when the wind blew.
It was summer now, and almost everyone was wearing shorts.
Chen Xiaoyi felt a little ticklish when the blades of grass would graze his skin, causing goosebumps to appear.
As he looked at his brother, he bent down and rubbed his calf to smooth the prickly skin.
"What?" Chen Xiaoyi turned to look at the canyon entrance a hundred meters away.
The second checkpoint was Zephyr Canyon. An area sandwiched between two thousand-meter-long hills with an average width of two hundred meters.
The entrance was very narrow, only fifteen meters wide.
But right now, the path was blocked by countless thorny dark green vines, intertwining together, forming a thirty-meter-tall wall.
The vines were created by the Boss of the current checkpoint, the Vine Treant. The vines would not recede and would only continue to regenerate until the Boss was killed.
Even if a huge fireball were used to burn through the vines, it would recover instantly.
Of course, there were other ways to go over the vine wall, but it was unnecessary for most people.
Chen Xiaoyi focused on the wall of vines and observed it for a moment. Then he frowned and said to his brother, "I don't think so. Isn't it very peaceful over there?"
"Ah? Is it? But I thought I heard a powerful wind coming from over there…." Chen Dajia touched the back of his head and laughed. "Hahaha, I guess I might have imagined it, but I thought someone was already fighting the second checkpoint's Boss or something."
"That's impossible." Chen Xiaoyi immediately denied it. He shook his head and spread his hands. "Look, if you look closely, most of the wind is coming from here, and there's not a single sign of movement coming from the canyon. If someone was fighting in there, they can't stay still."
"Yes, yes. I hear you."
The two of them didn't dwell on this topic. Instead, they quickly entered combat mode and continued to kill the nearby Vine Tree Spirits.
Vine Tree Spirits was a monster from the Gale Prairie. Its body was like a wooden stake, and it moved by jumping around the field. It has two long sharp vines acting as its hands and weapons.
When they waved their vines, it would make an aggressive swishing sound as if they were whipping the air. Just the sound alone was enough to scare some players away.
However, as early as the first month after God's Path descended, someone had discovered the Vine Treant and the Boss monster Vine Tree's weakness.
It was fire!
Fire-type skills could cause more noticeable damage to them.
Also, since this was a meadow, some people came up with the idea of burning the grassland to eliminate all the monsters at the first checkpoint.
After testing, it was found to be very effective.
The biggest weakness of the first checkpoint's boss, the Strange Vine Tree, was that it could not move.
Although it could simultaneously wave dozens or hundreds of thorny vines as an attack, it was just an immovable tree.
As long as the players attacked it from outside its attack range, it was only a matter of time before it would die.
The flames that followed the grass were undoubtedly the best choice for it.
But in the end, they decided to abandon this plan.
The main reason was the experience points. Since the monsters were burned to death, the experience would be shared by everyone who set the fire.
This was a significant loss for individual players who thought they were strong.
And almost all the players here thought that they were mighty...
...
It was 2:25 am.
After being surrounded by hundreds of players' fireballs for nearly half an hour, the first checkpoint's Boss finally fell.
Although killing the Boss monster would give 100 times the experience, after splitting it evenly, each person would only get a few points.
After the Strange Vine Tree fell, it dropped some skill materials.
Everyone present had a tacit understanding not to pick it up.
In the course of 20 years of development, various unwritten rules were established in countries worldwide.
One of them was—
When the boss killed by everyone's joint efforts would drop any items, it would belong to the Global Player Alliance.
As compensation, each country would give a certain amount of gold coins to all local players in the region.
This was a measure to reduce the conflict between players.
It would seem that all countries around the world naturally advocated for players to help each other and work together.
"Who's going to hand in the materials?"
"Of course, we must get someone everyone trusts to go."
Everyone looked at each other, and finally, they turned their eyes to the girl standing alone in the distance, looking up at the sky.
Perhaps sensing everyone's gazes, the girl slowly turned her head.
He glanced at the crowd in confusion.
"What?"
"Oh."
Luo Yao's mind was wandering, but she was a little dazed when she saw everyone looking at her. It wasn't until she noticed the materials on the ground that she suddenly reacted.
"Alright, I'll go." She nodded and sputtered.
She wasn't part of the group that just killed the Boss. In fact, she had just arrived.
When she came, all she was met was the sight of the Strange Vine Tree being destroyed from afar.
She didn't get any experience from killing the boss, and there were no other monsters on Gale Prairie, which made her a little upset.
She then looked up at the sky, thinking about what to do next.
Accepting the given "quest" to hand over the materials, Luo Yao slowly walked to the center and picked up the dropped items.
[You have obtained the 4-star skill [Vine Winding]]
[You have obtained the 5-star skill [Stamina Absorption]]
[You have obtained a D-grade material [Strange Tree Soul]]
[You have obtained the E-grade material [Monster Tree Branch]]
"Everyone, look carefully. There are only four of them." To let everyone see clearly, she deliberately picked them up one by one.
Seeing the people around her nod in agreement, she accepted it with peace of mind.
Seeing that there was still half an hour left, the crowd couldn't help but start to chat with each other.
"There's still half an hour. What do we do next?"
"Go back to the plains outside the camp to farm more experience? Or do you want to continue taking the main road?"
"Nah, no way. Those monsters towards the second checkpoint are all above level 10. We can't just waltz through it without a plan."
"Geez, don't take it too seriously. I'm just joking with you. Let's go back."
"... Let's open up this wall of vines a little."
The vine wall was 30 meters tall and 15 meters wide. It was not a problem to open a small hole for observation.
This was a habit of many players.
After passing a checkpoint, many people couldn't hold back their curiosity and wanted to check out the environment and monsters in the following area.
Even though most of them had already seen this on the forums and other channels, the sense of novelty and desire to explore and experience with their own two eyes and feet were still there.