The Doomsday Lord: Starting as a Insect Queen-Chapter 236 - 148 Cycle Challenge: Unmanned Battle Zone

"The Free Market is getting fixed?

No wonder they needed to give advance notice; this is indeed a big deal.

The storage function of the Free Market will be changed to a consumption system, where certain materials can be exchanged for special points. Every time an item is listed for storage, it will consume points according to the item, but items that have already been uploaded to the Free Market will not be forced off the shelf.

Isn’t this just a form of taxation...

However, one can also choose not to upload items and simply display the existing goods, directly taking away the object tagged as goods within one’s territory once it’s sold.

At least there’s a way around it, otherwise the Free Market might have just vanished...

It seems it really is just targeting the phenomenon of storage currently, which doesn’t affect me much."

After reading through the entire announcement, Bai Yi let out a sigh of relief.

After all, she had just developed a mass-producible space storage ability and created an alternative to the Free Market, with the Space Storage Network even more convenient than the Free Market.

The Space Storage Network doesn’t require setting selling permissions every time one uploads items; as long as there is a storage terminal and a command is given in the network, the nearest Brain Clan will directly retrieve the corresponding items, which is extremely convenient.

And although this change does have an impact, it’s not a damage to the core infrastructure.

If it were the early period when hunting was the main food source for Lords, and the hunted mutant creatures and various foods lacked preservation methods, the loss of the Free Market would have been truly difficult.

But now, as everyone has developed, the stored materials have mostly become various durable building materials.

Thanks to her collaborative efforts with Landon, the production rate of food crops far exceeds their spoilage rate.

At least there’s no need to worry in White Poplar City.

Her soul slice had already opened the channel panel, and Lords had already started to mention this matter.

It didn’t cause panic; instead, those low-tier Lords even had more praise for her and Landon.

However, it’s almost foreseeable that those Lords will definitely not want their food reserves to hit zero, as this is an obsession etched in their genes.

All Lords will definitely start looking for new ways to store food.

Soon, something like iceboxes, which no one cared for before, will probably be highly sought after.

"Wait, did I see similar architectural blueprints in the Points Store just now?"

Reopening the Points Store, which she hadn’t closed, although she no longer had any points, she could still browse and quickly found some storage-type blueprints among the cheapest buildings.

Bai Yi was certain that these blueprints had not appeared before in the Points Store; they were definitely newly added.

Moreover, the prices were not expensive; even the most costly large-scale freezer warehouse needed only 100 points.

As a large-scale building, it was already at a bottom-selling price.

The cheapest ones, like grain barns and smoked meat warehouses that delay food spoilage, needed less than 5 points.

At least according to the current harvest of the Lords of White Poplar City, buying several types wouldn’t hurt their infrastructure.

But according to the current situation in the channel, it seems that no one has noticed this yet.

So the soul slice just went ahead and gave a reminder in the channel.

Fan Mao: "Just a small reminder, if you still have points spare, don’t rush to spend them."

Fan Mao: "Maybe you haven’t noticed, but in the latest Points Mall, among the cheapest architectural blueprints, there are quite a few of the storage type, which you can purchase according to the situation of your territory."

Fan Mao: "I’m also conducting research on the corresponding storage methods and should be able to present some results soon."

The Lords who were discussing this matter dived back into talk after Bai Yi’s reminder, and it took over ten seconds before each of them resurfaced to express their thanks.

However, Bai Yi was pondering if these architectural blueprints were part of the compensation for the Free Market repairs, then why weren’t these types of buildings present in the previous Points Mall at all?

"If the Free Market was not intended as a regular storage method, there should have been formal storage buildings available, and the compensation would merely require a price reduction.

Instead of just now releasing these storage buildings.

It’s like the Market was meant to be used like that all along..."

Bai Yi was originally a bit puzzled by the timing of this announcement and the completion of her Space Storage Network, but now it seemed more like it was a process the game had already planned.

It just so happened to coincide with her own actions...

But on second thought, it turned out to be a good thing.

She had been considering selling some biological equipment similar to Space Rings, and this was a good excuse to start.

She could use the "just researched, not yet perfect" excuse to first sell some storage capacity extremely low, ultimate neutered versions and then gradually upgrade the storage space.

By means of iterative space equipment, she could reap a crop after crop of unskilled marketers.

— Although she does not lack resources now, just as the wealthy always want to earn more, her reason is even simpler; she just wants to enjoy the sensation of "being able to make money herself."

This is also the reason she took the opportunity to advertise for herself after the reminder.

Besides the update related to the Free Market storage, the other updates are relatively benign, such as naming conventions for the Free Market, channel feature additions, etc.

For Bai Yi, there are no negative impacts; in fact, there are certain benefits.

After reading the announcement carefully again to confirm there were no omissions, she then clicked to preview the next Cycle Challenge.

In the previous discussions amongst the lords, she had seen bits and pieces mentioning "area opening," "Iron Blood," "alliance," and other terms, which she was very interested in.

[Cycle Challenge—No Man’s Battle Zone: After a rewarding, leisurely challenge, war has come again. Rest assured, this time your enemies will not be lords from the same area, but those from other areas.]

[In this cycle challenge, a special area "Battle Zone" will be opened where lords will encounter other area’s lords. Points can be earned by defeating combat units of opposing area lords or by occupying more land.]

[Notice: The Battle Zone is a large special area between different regions, which will be marked the day before the challenge starts and will partially lower its barriers at the start of the challenge for lords to pass through.]

[Notice: The channel to the Battle Zone can only be used by the lords of the same region; lords from other regions will not be able to pass through it.]

[In this challenge, there will be multiple areas participating in warfare. The area that ultimately wins will have the opportunity to expand, merging the land of the Battle Zone, permanently removing some barriers, and the territories occupied by the lords during the challenge will then gain ownership rights.]

[Notice: After accumulating points, lords can redeem rewards in the Points Mall after the challenge ends, and based on the total points earned by all lords in a single area, rewards will be distributed according to ranking after the challenge.]

[Notice: This cycle challenge will last for 4 weeks, with a delay in the leaderboard settlement. Please take the opportunity, lords.]

"Hisss...

I thought about area opening, but didn’t expect it to come so quickly...

Although it’s not completely open, this is still a direct encounter.

But what exactly is the ’Battle Zone’ mentioned on the panel?

I’ve annexed 3 areas already, how come I don’t know about it?"

Bai Yi didn’t intend to keep her questions in her own heart. While she was still pondering, her soul slices had already dispatched the cats to search for the supposed Battle Zone at the area borders.

As long as this so-called Battle Zone actually exists, the carpet-style searching by the cats should always lead to its discovery.

"Couldn’t it be just my bad luck, having chosen two directions in a row, both of which are regular areas..."

Bai Yi felt that, given her luck, it might actually be possible. free𝑤ebnovel.com

According to the law of the conservation of luck, everything has been going smoothly lately, and I was worried about a downturn in luck, but it seems the bad luck has come early.

The cats’ search still required time, and Bai Yi, as usual, speculated about the game’s intent through this challenge.

"Apart from the most obvious, following up on the last cycle challenge, continue to make contact with lords from other areas.

This time’s rules are quite interesting too, rewarding all lords based on total points. Is this to encourage collaboration within an area to improve collective strength?

The area merging later is also interesting, as it directly enlarges the area, implying more ways to obtain resources.

In the future, after the areas open up, is it preparing for regional wars?"

However, Bai Yi felt, at least until the next challenge, the area opening probably wouldn’t arrive; otherwise, the notion of merging the Battle Zone territories would be a joke.

If the areas were to open right after this cycle challenge ended, then there would be no mention of removal of parts of the barriers.

And if the lords encountered in this cycle challenge are accounted for, the top lords are currently averaged at Rank 4, then the feature of obtaining ownership rights after land occupation might also be an important rule of this cycle challenge.

With a way to gain territory now present, it is also a good source of the Fearful in wars—conditions for advancing to Rank 5 are all set, and it’s clear that the stage is set for the emergence of Rank 5 lords.

If you add the developmental time of the next cycle challenge, by the time the areas open up, Rank 5 lords would have matured and started preparing for advancement.

Then, the rewards of area annexation at that time, including the Area Core necessary for promotion to Rank 6, will directly drive them to actively or passively participate in warfare...

According to this estimate, it’s likely that not only the few areas participating with White Poplar City, but all areas in the world will soon undergo similar Cycle Challenges...

"This guidance is truly imperceptible..."

Yet Bai Yi felt no particular emotion about this arrangement.

After all, she had already relied on her own strength to completely break out of this arrangement and was even about to break free from the game’s restrictions, using the game solely as a tool.

Even the other lords of White Poplar City, under her intervention, seem to be subtly ahead of this progress and breaking away from the game’s guidance.

Even without counting those Low-level Lords, just Jun Lin and Landon should already be preparing for promotion.

At least she knew that Landon was ready, just waiting for this instance to end, to then seek an opportunity to enter an instance for promotion.

"Oh? Found it?"

While Bai Yi was contemplating, news had already arrived through the network.

—The cats had found a massive area suspected to be the Battle Zone.

......

Shengkong VI Space Ring (Rank 3/Gold): Due to a technological breakthrough, compared to the fifth generation, the storage space has significantly increased to 500 cubic meters, supporting a freshness-preserving feature, as items stored within are permanently preserved, never expiring. Now on sale at a special discount price, a blood-spilling price of just 998 Magic Power Coins...

[Remark: Oh gosh, finally removed the spoilage function. It really took a lot of effort to allow things stored inside the space to spoil...]