[Server 3145?]

There wasn’t a hint of joking in his words.

Slack Bro and Rich Bro could feel the subtle shift in atmosphere—especially when their Brother Zhou seriously pulled up the gameplay page for the Roaming Zone and even managed to find those key words hidden in walls of text: “no entry limit for the Roaming Zone.”

He was serious. Very serious.  

Their Brother Zhou really intended to grind.

The new update brought more loot in the gameplay mode—every player knew that. But with greater rewards came greater risks.

Dying inside the Roaming Zone cost you more EXP than dying in the regular open world. Players on other servers usually moved in packs, which helped, but for server 3145 players who didn’t have groups, stepping into the Roaming Zone was pretty much a death sentence. That’s why, ever since the update, server 3145 had been eerily quiet. Occasionally a few players would team up to try their luck, but most would walk in standing up and get carried out lying flat—losing EXP and then crying about it in world chat.

“It’s not easy to get in even as a team,” Slack Bro added. “You might get split up.”

The Roaming Zone spawned randomly within each server’s chaos zones. In other words, no one ever knew when it would appear. And when it did, you had only 10 seconds to decide whether or not to enter. Each instance allowed a set number of servers—say, over 40 servers per round. With that many players, trying to queue as a pre-made team risked getting split up if one server had too many players.

So even though the Roaming Zone event had been live for several days, it was basically impossible to enter with a pre-assembled squad. The system would break up large groups automatically.

“If it’s just four people, would it still split us up?” Zhou Sui asked curiously.

Little Bunny 123 thought for a moment and replied, “The chance of being split is less than 1%. Most groups go in as 6-man squads.”

The more the two big shots talked, the more interested they seemed in the Roaming Zone.

The other two: “???”

Zhou Sui didn’t really mind. He could grind solo if he had to—it would just be slower.

He hadn’t activated his third skill yet. The appearance of “Incense Ash Fire” had confirmed one of his theories: without enough tree food, randomly creating mutation skills using skill materials could be hit or miss. If he ended up with a basic skill with weak effects, he might lose a combo piece—especially if it landed in a slot tied to his basic attacks.

So he wasn’t rushing to use [Chaos Statue] yet. He planned to wait until he had enough tree food to guarantee a level-up before trying again.

But after hearing Little Bunny 123’s explanation, it seemed that with the same time investment, the benefits of teaming up would be higher. Zhou Sui turned his head to look at the two silent teammates beside him, just about to say something—when both of them suddenly, as if heading to their doom, spoke up in unison.

Slack Bro cupped his hands: “I’ll risk my life for a gentleman!”

Rich Bro followed up: “I’ll fight to the death for my brothers!”

Zhou Sui: “……”

In the wild chaos zone of server 3145, toxic gas filled the air, and foul-smelling wastewater flowed downstream along the river.

Slack Bro and Rich Bro genuinely hadn’t expected Brother Zhou to be so decisive. One second he said, “Let’s go,” and the next second, the whole party was already deep into the chaos zone—no hesitation, no prep whatsoever!

Slack Bro asked, “We’re just going in like this?”

Rich Bro replied, “Roaming Zone spawns seem pretty random… we might have to wait around in the wild for a while—”

Before they could even finish their sentence, a notification popped up in front of them.

[You are about to enter the Chaos Roaming Zone. Please be aware!]  

[Entering shortly. Countdown: 10, 9, 8…]

Zhou Sui snapped back to focus and saw the familiar mist rolling in.

As the notification chime changed, he opened his eyes again to find the familiar interface now in front of him:

[Chaos Roaming Zone (Resource Scramble)  

Current Players: (12456/12456)  

Newbie Servers Participating: (247/3200)  

Divine Fragments: (0/1200)]

The mist surrounded the party, transporting everyone to the shared Roaming Zone wilderness.

When Zhou Sui saw the number of players listed in front of him, his gaze froze—it was more than ten times the number from the area he had previously entered. Seeing this, he instinctively observed his surroundings. The trees nearby had become sparse. Not only had the player count increased, but even the map environment had changed!

“Holy shit! A large-scale Roaming Zone??” one teammate exclaimed through the comms.

Zhou Sui looked around but didn’t see Slack Bro or the others—only their dimmed-out team avatars. The four of them had been split up. “Large-scale Roaming Zone?”

Rich Bro gulped. “There’s only four of us—do we really need something this intense?”

Little Bunny 123 didn’t seem surprised by the situation and casually replied, “With our team setup, the chance of being placed into a large-scale Roaming Zone is about 30%.”

Server 3145 was considered a small server at best. Normally, a four-man squad wouldn’t be thrown into such a large-scale zone. But among the newbie servers, they were players who had already cleared Tiandi Temple, and their overall ratings placed them among the top tier within the Divine Tree’s level range.

If it had been just one or two players queuing, it would’ve been fine. But with a group of four, the system’s AI—seeking balance—had tossed them into a harder zone.

After Little Bunny 123 finished speaking, silence fell across the team chat.

After a long pause, Rich Bro finally couldn’t help complaining, “You couldn’t have mentioned this earlier, Brother Bunny?!”

On the other side of the forest, Little Bunny 123 leaned behind a tree, fingers flying over his panel. He scanned through the shifting map and quickly pinpointed Zhou Sui’s position. His eyes measured the distance between them—it was a bit far.

“Didn’t Cycle of Eternity say he wanted to grind the Roaming Zone?”

Zhou Sui asked, “Mm, the rewards are more generous too?”

Little Bunny 123 paused. “Yes. The benefits multiply.”

“…”

So, Brother Bunny 123 knew this would happen all along!

Slack Bro and Rich Bro definitely hadn’t expected that their one-time noble sacrifice would throw them straight into a large-scale Roaming Zone.

The Roaming Zones were categorized based on the number of participating players from up to 3200 servers—small, medium, or large. The zone they had encountered before barely qualified as small. A large-scale Roaming Zone could involve hundreds of servers and a much larger pool of players—meaning more competitors from each individual server.

And now, barely having entered, Slack Bro and Rich Bro were already surrounded by enemy red dots on their mini-maps. If a small Roaming Zone felt like 1vN for server 3145 players, then a large one meant 1v3N—or even 4N to 5N.

A battlefield. A top-tier slaughterhouse.  

A mass grave for server 3145 players.

Little Bunny 123 calmly reminded them: “Regroup first—head to my location.”

The team’s coordinate system still worked, and the coordinate shorthand they’d been taught in their guild base came in handy now. But when Zhou Sui clicked to confirm, he realized his location was the farthest from Little Bunny 123’s—nearly three times the distance compared to the other two.

Zhou Sui: “You guys regroup first.”

Little Bunny 123 noticed Zhou Sui’s coordinate had stopped. It was too far; trying to rendezvous would cost more than it was worth.

The map was unfamiliar, and the number of hostiles was rising. Zhou Sui had barely moved a few steps before over a dozen red dots lit up on the mini-map—right along the shortest path to Little Bunny 123. He immediately abandoned that route, circling toward a less populated side instead. The situation was even trickier than the first time he’d entered a Roaming Zone—moving around came with a higher risk of being exposed.

The environment around him felt unfamiliar. Zhou Sui quickly found a safe spot and opened his map right away.

A larger number of players didn’t mean a larger map. The first players to show up were often the first ones to get focused down.

Sure enough, as soon as he ducked behind a tree, he saw those dozen red dots converge. Zhou Sui shrank back into the shadows of the tree, lowering his presence, eyes quickly scanning the numbers above the heads of those players—they were from seven different servers.

When a dozen players ran into each other like this, their attention immediately locked onto the two Divine Fragments under a nearby tree.

Divine Fragments didn’t have markers on the map and only emitted a faint glow—easy to miss if you weren’t paying attention. But this time, the fragments were right out in the open, with no trees or grass covering them, instantly drawing everyone’s attention.

Among the dozen players, some—realizing they were alone—wanted to retreat. But for those with teammates, it was a whole different story.

Divine Fragments could be looted from other players. At the end of the day, it all came down to PVP.

Among the crowd, three players from server 147 immediately banded together. Their coordinated movements revealed they were experienced Roaming Zone players—they knew the key to success here was to establish control early on. With a teammate advantage already in hand, if they let the solo players run, those stragglers would just regroup later—and then come back in full force.

This situation reminded Zhou Sui of a simulation he’d encountered years ago during training camp. Back then, he was up against monkeys scattered throughout the forest. At first, the monkeys were alone, but later they called for reinforcements and came in swarms. The best strategy for clearing that scenario had been to either take them out one by one—or eliminate the monkey king.

This current situation wasn’t much different.  

In a chaotic battle, the key was to strike first.

Sure enough, the players from Server 147 didn’t rush to grab the Divine Fragments. Instead, they immediately locked onto other players and launched an attack. The moment their skills were unleashed, the front line broke into a brawl.

A solo squishy player hadn’t even made it out of the chaos before losing half their HP. The wounded state made them an easy target, and in the blink of an eye, they were eliminated in a puff of smoke. The Server 147 trio moved swiftly through the chaos, picking off players one by one. Several were eliminated in quick succession, and their team’s advantage grew. One of them—a Daoist—moved closer to where Zhou Sui was hiding.

Zhou Sui paused slightly—then made his move.

The Daoist from Server 147 had just exited the melee, finding a perfect vantage point for uninterrupted DPS. He began targeting the other squishy players. Just then, he glanced at the mini-map and noticed a red dot suddenly appear behind him. As he turned to check, a flying needle struck him from the side!

Sealed right off the bat! The Daoist’s heart skipped a beat. Seals couldn’t be broken with control-cleansing—only dispelled. The first response to a seal was to reposition and create distance.

But the moment he stepped back, he walked right into the attacker’s prediction. Right after the seal, a stagger effect kicked in, and his movements slowed drastically!

What the hell!?

That fast?! Is it an assassin?!

The seal was immediately followed by a combo. A burn effect stripped his defense, and as the slowed Daoist tried to cleanse the debuff and flee, Zhou Sui was already closing in.

Three seconds of burn, interwoven with Serpent Venom Water attacks—by the time the Daoist saw the 3145 server number on Zhou Sui’s tag, half his health bar had already been blown away.

Daoist: “???”

It all happened so fast he didn’t have time to react. Just as he tried to call out to his teammates—  

Another wave of lockdown and burst damage hit.  

In less than 15 seconds, without even figuring out who he was fighting, his screen went black and white.

“What just happened?!”  

“Shit, we lost our ranged DPS!”  

The remaining two from Server 147 were finally realizing they’d lost their most important teammate.

Hidden in the shadows, Zhou Sui had already locked onto his second target. Grouping up gave a team the advantage—but if only one person was left, that advantage disappeared. He targeted another squishy—Server 147’s swordsman—and dived into the fray, immediately applying three stacks of Incense Ash Fire.

The swordsman, hit with defense debuffs in the chaos, took amplified damage from stray skills.

The moment other players noticed his health dropping, they all targeted him.

Before the swordsman even understood what was going on, he was instantly focused and taken down.

“F*ck, someone’s kill-stealing!” Server 147’s last remaining player finally realized the issue—  

While they were busy attacking, someone had been hiding, waiting to clean them up. And now, he was the only one left. The situation was out of control. That hidden player had clearly been waiting for an opportunity to wipe them out.

Amid the chaos, as the burn effect refreshed—  

The last man standing from 147 finally saw Zhou Sui, the Qi Ling Village player from Server 3145. But by then, the next wave of attacks was already upon him!

Zhou Sui smoothly secured the kill, cast a healing buff on himself, then turned to lock onto new targets.

The biggest threats—the trio—were already gone. What remained were mostly wounded, vulnerable players.  

Zhou Sui applied more Incense Ash Fire and Serpent Venom Water, then comboed six strikes using his gear transformation, instantly eliminating a player who tried to crowd control him.

In just a short while, the chaotic battlefield of over a dozen players had been cleared. Zhou Sui’s gaze shifted to a couple of distant players.

Those two immediately turned and ran without looking back.

Zhou Sui: “?”

“We’re regrouping and heading your way now. Brother Zhou, are you okay?” Rich Bro’s voice came through the team comms.

Zhou Sui was a little confused. Those two had a good position—if they’d countered properly, they might’ve been able to interrupt him. Why did they just run?

But since they ran, he didn’t bother chasing. After confirming there were no remaining red dots nearby, he picked up the three Divine Fragments.

Zhou Sui said, “I picked up three.”

The other two in the team: “…”

What just happened—how did he end up with three?!

[Amidst surging winds and gathering clouds, Server 12 has taken first place!]  

[Amidst surging winds and gathering clouds, Server 455 has come from behind to take the lead!]

News of the surging activity in the wilderness emerged, the rankings on the leaderboard changed in an instant, and just as their group of four had gathered, a new notification popped up on the game interface!

The Divine Fragments count on the field jumped to (147/1200). The broadcast of servers battling for the top spot updated frequently. In just a few minutes, three different servers had already taken turns in first place.

Slack Bro had never seen a Roaming Zone grind move this fast: “Damn, this is a match full of pros—these fire servers ^[1] Fire server: a very active, competitive, and usually top-ranking server are insane!”

The pace of a large-scale Roaming Zone was much faster than they’d expected. But the real issue wasn’t how many Divine Fragments they picked up—because as long as the zone hadn’t ended, nothing was considered safe in your inventory. You could lose everything upon death, and your ranking could be wiped instantly.

Little Bunny 123 said, “This round has quite a few fire servers matched in.”

“…”

Quite a few? The top spot’s been rotating constantly since the start!

“So what now?” Rich Bro asked. “We group up and hide somewhere?”

Zhou Sui had more or less figured out how things worked in the large-scale Roaming Zone. “We can’t hide right now.”

Little Bunny 123 added, “We need to establish an early advantage.”

The two spoke in unison, leaving Slack Bro and Rich Bro blinking in confusion.

After that, silence fell over the team. Zhou Sui was considering how to explain the strategy when suddenly another voice cut in:

“How do you plan to kill?”

Little Bunny 123’s tone was steady—a kind of calm that instantly made people pay attention, with a breeze-like clarity that drew others in.

While Zhou Sui was still thinking of how to explain his combat strategy, Little Bunny 123 had already tossed out a simple, direct question. No need for reasoning or backstory—just straight to the method.

Zhou Sui’s hand paused over the leaderboard. His gaze flicked past the servers that had briefly held the top spots. He cleared his mind of extra noise, and with a sense of ease, said:

“Start with small groups.”

Right after he spoke, he looked up and saw the apothecary watching him.

The two locked eyes. Zhou Sui was a bit confused—he wasn’t used to holding eye contact with others. “What?”

“Nothing,” Little Bunny 123 was quiet for a moment, then suddenly said, “Just… you can tell me a little more.”

Tell him more? Zhou Sui hesitated. While they were making eye contact, Little Bunny 123 slightly turned his gaze to the side, as if glancing at someone else—Slack Bro and Rich Bro were still chatting away nearby. His eyes were clearly resting on the two of them, yet his words were clearly meant for Zhou Sui: “Like, who to kill.”

Zhou Sui understood and added, “The ones with more people.”

Slack Bro and Rich Bro: “???”

‘Bro! You’re not even picking the low-hanging fruit?!’

—-

In the large-scale Roaming Zone, over ten minutes had passed. The wilderness had already seen its first wave of bloodshed. The system panel now showed the Divine Fragments count had reached (200/1200). A built-in leaderboard in the zone clearly displayed how many fragments each server had collected in real time—those in the lead were all low-number servers.

These leading servers quickly formed squads once they met up. The smaller servers grouped in threes or fours; the bigger servers ^[2] The bigger the server number, the weaker had squads up to seven players.

Among them, the most ferocious were Servers 12 and 455. Players from those two servers went at it from the start, aggressively claiming fragments and stacking up their advantage.

The brutal pace of the battle forced other servers’ players to avoid clashing head-on, opting instead to steer clear. That was exactly what the server 555 players were thinking: “Shit, we got matched with those two servers? This’ll be rough.”

“It’s fine. We’ll circle around the map and hunt down some stragglers.”

The seven-player team from Server 555 figured that as long as they avoided the worst of the chaos, they could secure a major edge.

So when they saw only four red dots on the map, they pounced like hungry wolves spotting fresh meat—no hesitation.

And those four red dots reacted just as expected: they turned and ran.

To the 555 team, it made no sense to let prey escape—especially when they saw that the beastmaster at the rear had “3145” over his head. A lone target about to be cornered. The faster players in the squad activated speed boosts and charged.

But that charge caused a split in their formation.

Just as the lead group was about to reach the beastmaster, an AOE attack suddenly rained down from the nearby brush—an apothecary’s crowd-control skill!

The four who had been running suddenly stopped and turned to counterattack the 7-player squad.

The two fastest players were immediately caught in the control. The beastmaster’s pet turned and bit one, while a swordsman burst out from the side, sword in hand.

“It’s an ambush!”

“It’s a 4-man team! Get over here, now!”

The two trapped players quickly used their cleanse skills and tried to retreat, shouting for the rest of the team to regroup.

But two more were already waiting for them. The apothecary scattered a new batch of powder from their medicine case. Just as the enemies had used their cleanses, they got hit with another round of control.

Two back-to-back crowd-control waves. The lead player suddenly felt a wave of heat—an alert on his screen: [Burning]. Before he could react, three layers of defense-breaking had already stacked. They had no cleanse left, and were instantly hit with more debuffs. A barrage of damage followed, and their HP plummeted.

Under everyone’s eyes, the two of them evaporated on the spot!

The rest of the 555 server team was stunned. What the hell just happened? Their teammates were just gone—no chance for healing at all!

What was supposed to be a 7v4 had instantly become a 5v4.

The temporary shot-caller on 555’s side snapped back to reality: “Cut the healer first! Get their healer down!”

The remaining players acted quickly, locking onto the healer in the 4-man team—a Qi Ling Village player. But when they locked on, they realized there were two Qi Ling players. Their initial crowd-control split between them!

“Hit that one!”

“Which Qi Ling do we lock?!”

“Shit, it’s Little Bunny 123! Little Bunny 123’s the healer!”

Their own control chain broke down. The two Qi Ling players dodged the attacks cleanly.

In that moment of hesitation, the apothecary slipped out of their focus and buffed Zhou Sui.

With the buffs active, Zhou Sui ignored the crowd-control around him and instantly locked onto the only healer in the 5-man squad. The swordsman, Slack Bro, and the beastmaster, Rich Bro, instantly followed his lead and locked onto the same target.

“Brother Zhou landed the defense break!”

“Hell yeah—finish him off!”

While the 555 squad was still trying to focus fire the enemy healer, their own healer got instantly shredded by the 3145 team.

The fight flipped on its head. 4v4— the 555 side had lost their healer. The rest of the players froze. What the hell!?

How are they the ones losing people?!

“We’re outnumbered now—run!” the shot-caller shouted.

The 555 players scattered with zero intention of dragging it out. But no matter how fast they ran, they couldn’t outrun that Qi Ling player.

Zhou Sui stepped in with an AOE stun. With his high movement speed, he pinned down the fleeing enemies first. “CC ^[3] Crowd Control ’s on.”

Slack Bro and Rich Bro had been waiting—when they saw Zhou Sui lock them down, each ran up and locked down a target of their own.

Zhou Sui, after locking down his targets, made a beeline for the furthest one. A few steps in, and the defense break was up. His Incense Ash Fire skill turned out to be even more useful than he’d expected in real combat—especially when paired with Serpent Venom Water. Even if the target managed to cleanse, as long as they didn’t dodge his follow-up combo, the debuffs stacked, and Serpent Venom Water started tearing their HP apart.

The last player from 555 turned around only to see all his teammates gone. He didn’t even get a chance to shout before joining them on the ground.

Holy shit! This is the server 3145?! Why the hell are these four people so damn fierce?!

[You killed a player from Server 555. Acquired Divine Fragments x2.]

…

Several messages rolled in—Altogether, Server 555 had given up 10 fragments.

Having tasted their first real success, the four teammates had very different moods now.

“That’s it?”

“Damn, that was satisfying!”

And the server 555 team wasn’t the only small squad with the same idea. A bunch of teams had been circling the map, avoiding the fire servers and picking off stragglers to bump up their rankings.

So when the 3145 team popped up again… more players started getting ideas.

If a group is running together, that usually means they’re carrying fragments. Four people—no more, no less—looked just right. Not too much to handle, and definitely worth the risk. No small squad could resist that kind of temptation.

The new small group had just caught up when they saw the people who were previously running suddenly turn around and counterattack.

They immediately realized what was happening—this was a backstab!

“Warrior got Defense Down,” Little Bunny 123 reminded.

Zhou Sui, having just finished off one opponent, locked onto the nearby warrior. “I saw.”

To Zhou Sui, it was way too hard to search for Divine Fragments all over the map—but finding people was much easier.

If they ran into a large group, they’d play it by ear and strike second. But if they spotted a scattered or solo group, they’d go in and surround them directly.

“There are five more to the east,” said Little Bunny 123, looking at Zhou Sui. He’d already studied the terrain around the minimap and pointed to a spot. “Do we go?”

Zhou Sui was just about to look for the next target. He closed the map. “Yeah.”

At first, Slack Bro and Rich Bro were wondering why Brother Zhou always went for the tough fights—but then they realized: damn, a four-man team playing like this is crazy fun!

As long as Brother Zhou initiated with crowd control, the rest of them could just follow up. All they had to do was tie up one target—leave the rest to Brother Bunny and Brother Zhou. The former would handle the CC and healing; the latter would go for the highest DPS and burst them down.

With this coordination, they had unknowingly collected over seventy Divine Fragments!

Seventy! For those two who had never seen this many before, it was a straight-up epic leap—especially in a large-scale Roaming zZone!

Slack Bro and Rich Bro’s whole mindset had changed. But Zhou Sui and Little Bunny 123 had started to slow their pace.

“There are fewer teams now,” Little Bunny 123 noted.

Zhou Sui felt it too. He glanced at his position on the leaderboard. “We’re on the leaderboard.”

“We’ll need a different strategy now.”

The two exchanged a glance, then suddenly turned to look at the two who were still chatting nearby.

—-

Out in the field, players in the large Roaming Zone suddenly sensed something was off—because a completely unfamiliar server had suddenly appeared on the Divine Fragments collection leaderboard.

Players had long gotten used to the top ten being dominated by high-population servers, but when a name no one had ever seen before shot up the ranks, it threw everything into question.

“What’s going on?”

“Who’s that in third place?”

“Server 3145??? What kind of mystery server is that?!”

The fire-server players were stunned. They’d been grinding hard for just a few fragments, unaware that a server they’d never even heard of had already overtaken them.