Wasteland's Only King-Chapter 115 - 104: Tier Ten! The Planet Pulsates for You!
[You used ’Tier Ten Energy Crystal’!]
[Energy surplus, automatic tier up!]
[...]
[Your tier has increased!]
[You have become a Tier Ten Evolver!]
On the panel, lines of text flickered.
The ’risk’ Yu Jin imagined didn’t show up.
Clearly.
Yu Jin still underestimated Brother Tongzi’s ability by a long shot.
But...
"Why’s there another earthquake?"
Yu Jin hadn’t even felt the boost from breaking through Tier Nine to Ten yet, when he noticed the ground shaking beneath his feet.
This commotion...
Way bigger than when Dawn City took off before!
[You broke through Tier Ten, causing a rule fluctuation in A3 Planet!]
[A3 Planet’s rules are searching every corner, hunting for flaws!]
[During this time...]
[The whole planet will pulse, just for you...]
Before Yu Jin could ask, Brother Tongzi already answered.
In a flash.
Yu Jin fell into contemplation.
Planetary pulsing?
Why does that sound...
Kind of like a big deal?
...
...
Tens of thousands of miles from Dawn City.
A Refuge City rivaling Naiya City in size lay quietly.
Boom——
RUMBLE——!
But at this moment.
The earth shook, mountains swayed.
Even the sky began to fade and lose color.
"What’s going on?"
"Did Lord City Lord break through to Tier Nine?"
"Ah..."
"Invincible Lord City Lord, you’ve finally done it?"
"Forty years!"
"..."
Inside the massive city, tens of millions of subordinates howled.
But the next second.
"Noisy!"
Above the city, a figure appeared out of thin air.
BZZZZ——!
It took only an instant.
A terrifying gravitational force swept the whole city.
All those tens of millions who’d been cheering for the City Lord were crushed by gravity, each falling to their knees with a thud.
The low-tier ones, or those whose posture made kneeling tricky, even had their bones crack under the pressure.
But...
Even with broken bones, even in agony, nobody dared to scream out loud.
Just because——
The figure in the sky was their invincible Tier Eight City Lord of Ghost King City!
"Who is it?"
"Who broke through Tier Nine?"
Above the city.
Austin Zorn looked into the distance, full of suspicion.
He could feel the whole planet below him was rioting.
This upheaval, never seen before...
Most likely, someone broke through Tier Nine and set off the game server!
SWISH——
A translucent light screen appeared in front of Zorn’s eyes.
On the screen was A3 Planet’s leaderboard.
Zorn’s gaze landed on the ’A3 Planet Player Tier Leaderboard’.
[No.1: ???]
[No.2: ???
[No.3: Austin Zorn]
[...]
On the leaderboard, he couldn’t see anyone else’s info.
Zorn couldn’t decide who caused this chaos.
"That lunatic from Shili City?"
"That old loli from Moore Star?"
"..."
Zorn guessed for ages, but couldn’t find a definite answer.
"Only 175 days left till promotion starts."
"Such a key moment, if someone really stepped into Tier Nine..."
Zorn’s expression turned a little somber.
For over a hundred years,
No Tier Nine City Lord ever appeared on A3 Planet.
This led to——
The Tier Eight Limit being the very peak.
The top ten City Lords, their strength and influence pretty much matched, years locked in mutual restraint.
But...
If a Tier Nine City Lord really appeared?
That’s unacceptable for any Tier Eight City Lord!
"No way!"
"If someone really took that step, we have to get the word out early, join forces..."
Zorn made up his mind.
WHOO——
A light breeze passed.
Austin Zorn’s figure vanished.
But in the sky,
The black mist lingered.
Within it, the sharp, tragic wailing of ghosts could faintly be heard.
...
...
A369 Area.
Mang City, City Lord’s Mansion.
Yu Limin sat openly, face flushed with excitement.
Across from him was a refined-looking middle-aged man.
"Uncle Yu, let me toast you another glass."
The middle-aged man wore white, poised and mannered, a total mismatch for the wasteland aesthetic.
He lifted his glass, tipped his head back, and drank it all in one gulp.
The wasteland obviously didn’t have ’liquor’ as a resource.
These two bottles were bought from the Refuge City’s Resource Mall with points specifically to entertain Yu Limin.
"Oh, you’re too polite, too polite!"
"Haha!"
When it came to alcohol, Yu Limin was a lightweight who loved drinking.
This moment.
A few shots in, he was already tipsy, his words half nonsensical.
"Xiaoluo!"
"Why call me uncle?"
"From now on, we’re brothers!"
"You call me bro, I call you little bro, those guys keep calling you City Lord as usual!"
"Sound good?"
The middle-aged man smiled slightly at that.
"Brother Yu, as your little bro, I’ll toast you once more."
As soon as he finished speaking——
RUMBLE——!
Mang City and the surrounding earth suddenly shook.
The middle-aged man’s face changed a bit, eyebrows furrowing slightly, but quickly smoothing out again.
"No big deal, Brother Yu, let’s keep going..."
...
...
A349 Area.
Cui Xiangyu was wandering the wasteland wilderness alone.
He had a heavy pack slung over his back, dust and wind covering his face.
Right now.
He could already spot the faint silhouette of a Refuge City in the distance.
"Finally found another Refuge City..."
Cui Xiangyu let out a long breath, relieved.
RUMBLE——!
Suddenly.
The ground beneath his feet began to shake.
Not far off,
That Refuge City started ’wobbling’ too!
"WTF?"
"Earthquakes on the wasteland too?"
Cui Xiangyu was shocked, steadying himself as he formed a double-handed seal.
Waves of attribute energy with spatial fluctuations released from his body.
This was the new ability he’d unlocked at his last Refuge City——
[Curved Pathway Teleportation: Charge up in advance for spatial teleportation in a set direction]
This ability doesn’t pack combat power but for his ’wandering’ on the wasteland, it’s a divine skill!
For the past days,
This ability was how he repeatedly escaped dangerous mutant beasts and infected bodies.
RUMBLE——!
The earthquake continued.
Cui Xiangyu readied himself, on guard from all sides, wary of mutant beasts that could leap out due to the quake...
...
...
A316 Area.
Alpha City.
Five days ago, a new bookstore opened here.
Bookstore on the wasteland—pretty rare.
And the owner was Wu Yufei, awakened to the ’Knowledge’ attribute.
Through the bookstore, he sold knowledge to refugees, and took knowledge from them.
Just five days since crossing over.
Originally inheriting the old Alpha Star guy’s Tier Three level, now he was almost at Tier Four.
RUMBLE——!
Alpha City trembled.
Wu Yufei, buried in his writing, stopped his pen.
"An earthquake?"
Wu Yufei shook his head.
"According to recorded history, Alpha City and its surrounding area have never had a natural earthquake."
"If not natural, then it’s man-made."
Wu Yufei pondered, not panicking like the other refugees, but lifted his pen and wrote on paper——
[Speculation on ’Wasteland’ Game Mechanics——]
[Man-made Earthquakes]
[Personal guess: When in-game, a player or Refuge City force unlocks a new achievement or breaks through a high tier, it might cause localized or global earthquakes.]
[The quake is just a surface effect, the real nature is rule fluctuation of the game...]
Finishing the last sentence,
Wu Yufei put down his pen.
He closed his eyes, quietly waiting.
BZZZZ——!
A wave suddenly radiated from him.
[Congratulations!]
[New knowledge recorded!]
[This knowledge is highly secret, extremely valuable for transmission!]
[Your tier is increasing...]
[You have become a Tier Four Evolver!]
Wu Yufei opened his eyes, face calm.
"Knowledge is power."
He murmured, and went back to his writing.
...
...
"Charge!"
"Take down the City Lord!"
"Seize the Refuge City!"
"Boss Yu Chen promises——"
"Once he’s City Lord, we’ll never suffer that kind of oppression again!"
Inside an unknown Refuge City.
Yu Chen led over a hundred evolvers, storming the City Lord’s Mansion.
"Rebels——"
"How dare you!"
A powerful figure stepped out of the mansion.
He looked at Yu Chen leading the charge, raging so hard he almost laughed.
"So it’s you!"
"Three days ago, you barely escaped me."
"Three days later, you dare show up here?"
The City Lord sneered, his Tier Five Evolver aura bursting forth.
But the next second,
The sneer froze, slowly twisting into terror.
"What, how’s it possible?"
"Just three days, how did you break through from Tier Four to Tier Five!?"
Yu Chen said nothing, just charged.
SWISH——!
Blade light flashed.
Blood splattered everywhere.
The Tier Five City Lord’s head soared skyward.
"Heh——"
"No one told you? Villains die from talking too much."
"While you were running your mouth, my Tier Five big move was already charged!"
Yu Chen shook his head, full of disdain.
Just two hours later.
The Refuge City changed hands.
Amid shouts of ’Yu City Lord’,
Yu Chen reluctantly accepted, stepping up as the new City Lord.
Notably,
From start to finish, the ground beneath him hadn’t shaken once.
...
...
Dawn City.
The ground quake caused a minor commotion.
But...
This wasn’t panic, but excitement.
"About to fly again?"
The new subordinates, just registered and admitted to Dawn City, couldn’t hide their anticipation.
Outside the city gates,
The refugees in line were all frantic.
"Don’t fly yet, don’t fly!"
"I haven’t gotten on—not in the city yet!"
Chen Gang stood at the gates, watching the refugees, sniffing disdainfully.
"Line up properly!"
"No cutting!"
"Otherwise, you won’t get any of the crystal scavenging work later!"
At the same time.
Dawn Inner City, in a stand-alone house.
Yin Yao, just finished off a Tier Four Crystal and was quietly absorbing energy, suddenly froze.
"This..."
She felt like something deep inside her body was about to come out!
That was...
Energy, vast and surging!
Boom——!
In a blink.
Yin Yao’s aura soared!
Tier Five, Tier Six, Tier Seven...
Yin Yao was stunned to find her tier didn’t actually increase, but her pressure and energy had skyrocketed to Tier Seven Evolver level!
In a daze,
She recalled what Yu Jin told her three days ago.
"Level up while lying down?"
Yin Yao muttered, a little confused.
She hadn’t even lain down yet...
How’d she level up?
...
...
Dawn City.
Core Area.
Yu Jin lay on a ten-meter bed, eyes closed tight.
After breaking through Tier Ten, since the A3 Planet’s rules were searching for loopholes everywhere, Yu Jin didn’t rush to test his abilities.
Idle and bored, he decided to open the ’Tier Ten Powerful Being’s Legacy Blind Box.’
The result...
No Tier Nine widow inside.
[You received a memory fragment of some Tier Ten Powerful Being!]
No doubt, a dud.
At that moment, Yu Jin knew this was the worst luck out of three blind boxes.
But...
Since he opened it, not claiming would be a waste.
Yu Jin simply chose to claim it, to see whatever this ’memory fragment’ was about.
Turns out, he shouldn’t have looked.
As soon as he did...
Just broke through to Tier Ten, feeling invincible, Yu Jin suddenly felt a thick sense of crisis rise inside!
[My name is Sike, I come from Owen Star, and today I randomly received a game helmet.]
[...]
[Fifty years passed, as a Tier Nine, I led Owen City at level nine to ascend to Star System Wasteland.]
[...]
[The Star System Wasteland is extremely dangerous, filled with powerful Tier Ten Mutant Beasts and infected bodies. My subordinates and I have to be very careful.]
[...]
[I successfully broke through Tier Ten, and my odds of being chosen by a high-dimensional civilization went up a bit more.]
[...]
[I found a barren planet; taking it will raise my ranking.]
[...]
[A group of weird players fell from the sky, trying to seize the planet I’d claimed. They were clearly only Tier Nine, but I wasn’t even a match for them.]
[...]
[I died at the hands of a Tier Nine Evolver.]
[Before dying, I heard him call me——]
["Bed Bug of Low-grade Civilization"]
...
(ps: Quick note—though I’ve written about the protagonist’s origin earlier, the protagonist is from Blue Star, pure Blue Star bloodline, just so no one gets confused by upcoming plot twists.)
