Nonstop cries of rage could be heard in an ordinary hut inside the White Base.
This was a normal family inside the White Base. The three siblings were all surnamed Yang. The eldest brother was Yang Guang, the second brother was Yang Quan, and the third sister was Yang Lan.
Today was originally supposed to be the day when champions would descend and the entire White Camp would rejoice. However, the Yang family wasn't happy.
"Too much! He's simply too much!" A sturdy and muscular young man scowled and shouted furiously, "Don't tell me that he can do whatever he wants just because he's a champion?!"
A young girl whose eyes were swollen from crying was beside the youth, but she just stared blankly into space.
A basket full of fruits and vegetables was on the ground in front of her, but everything had a portion that had been chewed, torn, or bitten off. None of them were in good condition.
"Ah Guang, calm down!" Another person stood beside the young Yang Guang, earnestly trying to persuade him.
"The esteemed champions are here to help us defeat the evil Black Base. Haven't you always looked forward to the champions' arrival?"
The young man consoling Yang Guang had a more elegant manner, unlike Yang Guang's tough and stocky build. Rather, he looked somewhat scholarly; he was the second brother—Yang Quan.
"I do look forward to that, but Ah Quan…" Ah Guang didn't know what to say when he was halfway through, so he could only punch the table bitterly.
"Forget it." Yang Quan sighed. "It's just some fruits and vegetables. If we can defeat the Black Base, why would we care about this?"
Even the third sister, Yang Lan, placated him, "Yeah, Big Brother, let's forget it… Maybe that Excellency has this kind of strange hobby…"
Yang Guang just had a stiff expression and didn't respond.
It really was just some fruits and vegetables. Compared with the great cause of one's home and country, it was way too trivial of a trouble. But for the Yang family, this basket of fruits and vegetables was their livelihood for half a month.
Yang Guang was a warrior and Yang Quan was a scholar. They practiced martial arts and studied hard all day long, all to contribute their strength in the upcoming war.
But it was precisely because of this that their entire family's livelihood was maintained by Yang Lan selling some fruits and vegetables. But now…
"Ah Guang and I are going to the battlefield soon, and there's food in the army. It's just that you'll have to suffer, Little Sister…" Yang Quan smiled bitterly from the side.
...
Battle start.
It was already two days after Gu Nan and the others arrived in this plane. The war between the two bases had already started, and minions[1] were constantly pouring onto the black and white lanes.
For Gu Nan, this meant that minions had already "started spawning."
"So then, now we just need to defend?" Wu Gui stood next to Gu Nan, frowning at the "minion wave" that was constantly being pushed forward.
Gu Nan nodded. "In terms of tactical assignments, that's true."
There were two lanes—black and white—between the two bases. The arrangement on these two lanes were completely symmetrical, but the different colors had a hidden rule.
Standing on the lane with the same color as one's base can give a certain attack bonus.
After Gu Nan's testing, this bonus was about 10%.
For example, Gu Nan and his team belonged to the White Base, so their attack power would be 10% higher than normal when standing on the white lane. Both killing enemies and "pushing waves[2]" will be faster than on the black lane.
Conversely, the enemy champions will also have this attack bonus when standing on the black lane.
Clearly, this was the offensive and defensive rules the world provided for "players," who would naturally have an offensive advantage when standing on the same lane color as their base.
In Gu Nan's four-person team, they chose the most common "two-two" assignment, with Gu Nan and Wu Gui standing on the black lane focusing on defense.
The two veterans, Ying Ge and Zi Dian, went to the white lane that had an attack bonus to attack the enemy.
This assignment was very reasonable, and even Gu Nan agreed with it.
Because at both ends of the lanes were city walls that would automatically attack the incoming enemy, and in the early stage of the "game," it was difficult for champions to pose a strong threat to these walls.
In other words, in the early stage, the defending side inevitably held an advantage.
This sort of role assignment was for the two newcomers to adapt to the rules of Champions World as quickly as possible, while Ying Ge and Zi Dian's mission was to try to wear away the "health" of the opponent's city walls.
"If you don't know how to play, you can just freeload and earn experience. Leave the manual labor of last hitting to me," Gu Nan said this to Wu Gui.
Although there was no equipment to buy here, that didn't mean last hitting wasn't important.
Here, although money couldn't buy equipment, it could buy skill points—that's right, the skill points here weren't given when the champion leveled up. Instead, they had to spend their own money to buy them.
Besides the one free skill point they received when first descending upon this world, players who wanted to rank up their abilities could only buy skill points from the "Heavenly Dao" here.
There was a distinctive small number in the upper right corner of Gu Nan's retina, which had been rising slowly since the game started.
'This thing is called champion coins, and the growth rate… is roughly one coin per minute?'
Gu Nan looked at the number that remained motionless for a long time and silently estimated in his heart.
The two sides' minions soon made contact with one another, and Gu Nan also started to rush to the frontlines. But the idea of last hitting was more difficult than Gu Nan imagined.
Bam!
Wu Gui firmly threw out a handprint that contained shocking Buddhist and demonic intent, hitting one of the enemy cavalry.
The cultivation of this cavalry member was merely at Innate Realm. It was reasonable to say that even with a full suit of armor, he would be deader than dead after being hit by a palm strike from a Prodigious cultivator.
However, he merely spat out a mouthful of blood after falling from his horse, then simply got up again like nothing had happened and threw himself into the battle once more.
"Was that an ability just now?" Gu Nan's eyebrows wrinkled slightly as he asked.
"Yes." Wu Gui's expression looked a little ugly. She didn't expect to meet such a difficult problem so early on when all she wanted to do was kill her first enemy to make money.
"Maybe this is the Prodigious suppression they mentioned." Gu Nan, on the other hand, was open-minded. In fact, Ying Ge and Zi Dian had already warned them.
In Champions World, any power above Prodigious Realm wouldn't be affected if used against others above Prodigious Realm, but when it was used on people or objects below Prodigious Realm, the effect would be greatly reduced.
Gu Nan also scratched his head slightly. He understood better than anyone else that this was clearly to hinder players' last hitting, so as to prevent players from using overly strong laws to indefinitely clear the lane.
To put it bluntly, through various rules, this world shaped the gameplay into something similar to that of competitive games.
"Don't use abilities to last hit anymore, and don't use abilities to attack minions either. I'm guessing there's also an MP limit," Gu Nan said airily.
"MP?" Although she was already used to Gu Nan talking to himself, Wu Gui still didn't understand his words.
Gu Nan just shook his head lightly but had no plans to explain. Anyhow, she would naturally understand after personally experiencing it.
At this time, he pointed straight ahead and said, "They're here."
Their true opponents this time—the Star Rulers who descended upon the Black Base—finally appeared. They were two people, one old and one young. As soon as he appeared, the young man gave an excited roar and threw himself downward.
His entire person turned into a ray of light that slammed onto a minion from the White Base, directly blowing the latter away.
It was a minion who already had light injuries. He died instantly under this attack.
The moment the minion died, a red glow lit up on the young man's body.
"Should we attack?" Wu Gui frowned. Although the other side also suffered from Prodigious suppression, it was clear that they were more familiar with the war situation.
"No." Gu Nan shook his head decisively and pointed to the opposite side. "We control the wave[3]."
"What do you mean?"
"From the second he habitually killed the first minion, the laning phase[4] has already ended."