"The Forbidden Land is too dangerous, and there are many rules I can't see through... Senior Sister Red Butterfly and I have strong undying abilities, so we can go play there, but you can't come." Xu Lang shook his head. "Besides, I haven't even set a clear strategy time yet."

"Lang Ge, I think I can come too!" Tong Qi raised her hand.

"No, you can't. Although you can borrow Senior Sister Red Butterfly's skills, there's still a cooldown between casting, and your undying ability isn't as strong as hers." Seeing Tong Qi's reluctant expression, Xu Lang continued, "The Forbidden Land is very special. It's not something you can brute force through just by stacking combat power."

Currently, Tong Qi could only borrow one of her Ghost Pet's skills at a time. Meanwhile, Senior Sister Red Butterfly's strong recovery came from a combination of multiple skills plus her special Constitution.

Bringing Tong Qi there—if something unexpected happened, it wouldn't end well.

"Fine." Tong Qi didn't insist further.

She just wanted to fight alongside Xu Lang, that was all.

Senior Sister Red Butterfly couldn't stop grinning. She felt that Xu Lang had already praised her several times now—he really had good taste.

Next, Senior Sister Red Butterfly used the Prometheus serum, and everyone began testing the upper limits of the Danger Precognition ability. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

Admittedly, this ability was truly powerful—traps, ambushes, unavoidable attacks—Senior Sister Red Butterfly could sense all of these in advance.

Xu Lang felt it still fell a bit short of what Luo Lin described as the original version.

All products within the Dorm Survival Game were optimized—safer and suitable for all players, but at the same time, their effects were somewhat diminished.

...

Time passed, and soon it was approaching midnight.

The girls either went to take a bath or get on the bed, except for Kui Zi, who was still grinding away.

The Nightmare Bed could only fit so many people. She couldn't squeeze in even if she wanted to, which was honestly a bit sad.

Kui Zi's long-awaited Firepower Squad had already been formed. She took the firepower team to the second-floor balcony to stand guard, but on the way, when they passed the living room and heard some noises, she couldn't help but quicken her pace.

"They're at it again!" Firepower Girl's head whipped around instantly, as if she'd spotted an enemy.

"None of our business!" Kui Zi twisted her head back.

"Fine." Firepower Girl nodded.

The twelve android firepower units followed Kui Zi up to the second floor.

"They saw us!" Zhen Lu anxiously patted Xu Lang.

"What does it matter? They're all female robots." Xu Lang replied from behind Zhen Lu.

"That's still not okay!"

"Fine, fine, I'll be more careful next time. It's almost twelve o'clock—we should get some sleep too."

...

At midnight, Xu Lang had just settled the girls down and was about to go to sleep on time when he suddenly felt a violent tremor.

Immediately after, the Dorm Survival Game's broadcast sounded.

[The Iron Blood Coliseum is undergoing ascension. It will be temporarily sealed and is expected to complete ascension in 3 hours.]

The Divine Seal on Xu Lang's brow flickered, and a bird's-eye view appeared in his mind. He saw that the source of the tremor was indeed the Coliseum.

At that moment, players were rushing out of their dorms, gazing into the distance.

The girls also wanted to join in the excitement, but Xu Lang forcefully suppressed them.

Earning Nightmare Coins as early as possible was more important than anything else.

...

Day Five of the Rest Period.

[Base Nightmare Coins: 1280, Conversion Rate: 5754%, Total Output over 8 Hours: 74,931 Nightmare Coins]

[Total Nightmare Coins: 928,886]

"Tomorrow—one million Nightmare Coins!"

Xu Lang wished he could fast-forward straight to midnight and just sleep like crazy.

Instead of getting up immediately, Xu Lang scanned the market and found that a large chunk of the items listed in Demon King Castle had already been bought out.

Then, he opened his Private Messages.

Last night, Zhou Ye, Su Yuan, and the others had all sent him messages—even Li Shuwen was among them.

Every single message pointed to one core topic—the Coliseum!

Xu Lang had also received an email from the Coliseum.

[Iron Blood Coliseum: The Coliseum Points system has been abolished. Compensation Reward X1]

Xu Lang redeemed the compensation reward, and a unique-looking black-red metal Pistol instantly appeared in his hand.

[Nightmare Eye·Purgatory Pistol: A weapon compensated by the Coliseum to the player "Purgatory." Level 18, Rarity: Excellent, outstanding Lethality, with a burst-fire mode.]

Xu Lang smiled.

It had been so long since he last held a gun.

Thinking back, he had started his journey with this very weapon.

Xu Lang toyed with the Purgatory Pistol in his hand, feeling its heavy metallic texture, and let his mind settle as he learned about the latest changes in the Coliseum.

To be honest, he didn't really care much about it.

With Nightmare Coins about to break a million, everything else was just clouds—nothing could stir even the slightest ripple in his heart.

[Xu Lang: Compile the latest changes to the Iron Blood Coliseum and send them to me.]

[Su Yuan: On it!]

Su Yuan quickly sent over the refined information.

There were six main changes to the Iron Blood Coliseum.

First, the Veil of Isolation was gone. Newcomers could now move freely, and players from different dormitory buildings could talk to each other—they just couldn't spread dangerous information, or else the Coliseum would severely punish and ban them.

Second, an Isolation Barrier had been added. Players could only stay in the spectator stands of their own dormitory building.

Third, the Points system had been replaced by a Combat Power system. All players started with 100 Combat Power points. The more victories, the more Combat Power. There was also a complex Combat Power coefficient evaluation standard that was very hardcore. After each game session, the Iron Blood Coliseum would settle Combat Power points based on the player's Combat Power, and these points could be used to purchase supplies in the Combat Power Shop.

Fourth, the mandatory duel rule was completely abolished.

Fifth, in addition to the original Deathmatch mode, there was now a Betting mode. The Iron Blood Coliseum would take one-third of the bet, and the stakes couldn't be too low.

Sixth, the punishment mechanism had been strengthened. Inappropriate behavior and malicious swearing would result in fines.

This series of changes made the Iron Blood Coliseum incredibly lively. From the moment the changes took effect, duels between players had been non-stop!

Before, going on stage meant risking your life. Now, it wasn't as brutal.

The market was the only truth for testing success. If fewer people played, the Iron Blood Coliseum would be forced to change.

And in Xu Lang's view, this was just fattening up the pigs.

Also, the Iron Blood Coliseum had banned players from farming Combat Power through mutual duels. The corresponding measures were very thorough, leaving almost no room for loopholes.

[Xu Lang: How's the win rate for Mad King Building players?]

[Su Yuan: Not bad. Against players from other buildings, it's 22 wins and 25 losses—basically breaking even.]

Huh?

Xu Lang was somewhat surprised.

This win rate was actually decent. He'd heard before that Mad King Building didn't do badly in duels, but he'd never asked for details.

After all, the other four buildings in the Iron Blood Coliseum were either from the thirtieth-cycle rank or strong players from the twentieth-cycle rank.

Mad King Building, when it came down to it, was just a level nine dormitory building—and what's more, it had skipped levels.

Thinking about Mad King Building skipping levels recently, Xu Lang couldn't sleep at night.

Building, how can you be so capable?

Can't you just throw in a few more Tang-style low-level dungeons and let me get some good sleep?

It felt like a worried father fretting over his child being too successful, suffering from late-night insomnia.

[Su Yuan: It's mainly because of weapons and items stacking up. Mad King Building players don't accept pure challenge duels.]

Raw power smashing through everything—oh well, forget it!

The Dorm Survival Game didn't believe in that "it's all external stuff in the end" kind of talk. If someone really had that attitude, they could just go stand outside the dormitory building when the game started and see if the monsters would kill them or not.

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