Lulina lifted the Master Ball, putting away the conspicuous Dragon Cat Bus, and gazed forward.

The exit of the cave was a rugged, overgrown mountainous terrain. Large numbers of unidentified insects sensed the vibration of the fallen leaves and scurried underneath the dry leaves to hide.

Sunset Melting Gold casually released a large batch of drones. As a small leader of the Whale Song Guild, he naturally didn’t use the mass-produced goods from Prometheus,

but rather hundreds of exceptionally intricate flapping-wing machines shaped like dragonflies.

Each flapping-wing drone was equipped with a laser radar, which, once deployed, would automatically scan the surrounding terrain and features, and detect the traces of living creatures.

The tail end, like a small spotlight, cast a light source providing illumination.

"There are trace amounts of methane, carbon monoxide, and sulfur dioxide in the air, which are slightly toxic to humans, though still within tolerable limits."

Sunset Melting Gold thought for a moment, then took a bottle of soapy water from the Backpack, and gently blew out nine vibrant, colorful, transparent bubbles.

This bottle of soapy water was called [Lung Oxygen Head Mask], a Fine Quality item, effective at isolating external toxic gases for 30 minutes and providing ample oxygen. It doesn’t interfere with speech but breaks and becomes ineffective if attacked.

"Thanks."

Lulina removed the straw hat she was wearing, held the bubble, and placed it on her head, and the others followed suit.

Strictly speaking, Li Cheng and Gray Rain didn’t need the oxygen headgear: the former could use an Assembly Puppet to directly stuff a compressed oxygen tank into his lungs, or activate the genetic cluster to enable anaerobic respiration mode.

The latter simply didn’t need to breathe, using his mouth and nose merely as decorations for puffing on e-cigarettes.

Nonetheless, they put on the bubble headgear, mimicking the lunar surface walk of astronauts under low gravity, advancing by bouncing with a floating engine.

"By the way, hasn’t the scoring formula for the [Song of Kings] event been released on the forum?"

Wanli Sealed Blade, with a hand resting on the hilt at his waist, walked with ease on the rugged terrain and remarked casually: "I just happened to browse through it before heading out."

"There are a few theoretical models, roughly accurate."

Sunset Melting Gold nodded, "The large guilds, led by the GOC, compiled reports from over a thousand players ranging from Level 10 to Level 35,

correlating their recent Script/Regular Task strategy videos with event scores.

A B-Level settlement roughly nets 350 points. An A-Level settlement corresponds to 600 points, and an S-Class settlement 700 points.

If more than two tasks are performed during the event, the total scores cannot be summed up simply but involve a very complex formula.

Basically, two S-, or one S+, can yield over eight hundred points to steadily rank in the top 3%."

After saying this, Sunset Melting Gold paused subtly, pondering: "I heard from my colleague’s childhood friend’s boss’s partner’s uncle that originally, the Wild Laughter Troupe guild intended to utilize the Out-of-game Help Card to stir up some trouble during the event.

But for some unknown reason, they suddenly stopped."

Out-of-game Help Cards, like Escape Cards and VIP Cards, are special killing field items.

The holder can consume the card to send a distress signal in a task, bringing in players of a much higher level—even at Level 1, you could summon a Level 40 to assist in a Script Task in purely ideological, or even physical, form.

And there is no level restriction, a Level 1 could conjure a Level 40.

High-quality Help Cards even do not affect the final task rating. They can be used in Punishment Tasks that exceed difficulty levels as well.

Because of such traits, the already low-drop rate Help Cards are even more valuable and scarce.

Being a historically old guild, if Wild Laughter Troupe had been secretly collecting Help Cards since the killing field’s descent and preserved them till now, theoretically, they should have hundreds in stock.

In other words, they might stockpile these hundreds of cards until the last day of the event, grab the same number of Level 10 player alt accounts, trigger tasks to farm high scores, and mass-produce a large group of S+ rated contestants to clinch a top 3% position at the eleventh hour.

Anyway, all who enter the top 3% receive system rewards, which would more than cover the costs and yield profits.

"The killing field isn’t short of clever people. If Wild Laughter Troupe could come up with it, others could too."

Lulina pondered, "I suppose several major guilds exerted pressure on Wild Laughter Troupe, forcing them to back off."

"Hmm..."

Card Emperor rubbed his hands together, saying, "Those qualified to be in the top 3% are either the backbone of various guilds or promising stars with limitless potential, even though they’re only in their teens or twenties.

Wild Laughter Troupe stirring the pot normally is one thing, but doing so at this time really would provoke all guilds to fight them to the death."

The group spoke with methodical analysis, and Li Cheng thought for a moment, then turned and said: "Is it possible, I’m saying is there a possibility,

that it’s not due to pressure from the major guilds, but simply because the president of Wild Laughter Troupe, God of Laughter Sacco, encountered an Otherworld player during a highly difficult task?

He failed in his own strategy and did not survive, coming back to life only with the help of fellow Earth compatriots,

then had an epiphany, realizing the global collaborative destiny of Earth, so he proactively abandoned the idea of causing trouble during the event?"

"..."

"..."

Be it Sunset Melting Gold, Lulina, Zak, or Brother Xiao Dao, everyone stood with mouths agape, momentarily stunned, before bursting into laughter, "WTF, this is the funniest joke I’ve heard all year."

"It’d be a pity not to perform this at the Spring Festival Gala hahaha."

"Mr. Pi Fu, your joke is more powerful than an Elbow Strike hahaha."

"Damn, it’s epic, Jupiter Elephant Tribe-level shock."

Having laughed hysterically while clutching onto a dead tree, Wanli Sealed Blade straightened up again, blinking away tears, struggling to maintain composure: "At the very onset of the killing field’s descent, when God of Laughter Sacco was still Level 3, he dared to infiltrate the Washington White House using a Skill Scroll to remotely control the ’Great Leader’ into sudden diarrhea in front of tens of millions of viewers.

Characterized by self-damaging mischief, he indulged in whatever was fun, whatever was dangerous, whatever was active.

Even if it meant blowing himself to bits, he’d insist on tossing fireworks into the septic tank.

Getting him to give up on stirring trouble... don’t make your joke-bro laugh."

"I was just saying."

Li Cheng shrugged, not insisting further.

During the casual banter, the group had crossed over the hill and finally saw the abandoned building cluster mentioned by White Horse Tombstone.

It covered an area of about 14 square kilometers, filled with crumbling walls and remains. From the eroded and cracked pavements and remnants of what seemed to be street lamp metal components,

it could be deduced that the architectural technology matched, or perhaps was slightly more advanced than, Modern Earth—notably, there were no power lines in the ground, suggesting wireless transmission technology.

The handsome, Mediterranean-haired Sunset Melting Gold waved his hand, immediately arranging the fluttering drones to remotely scan the soil spectrum.

Sunset Melting Gold mused: "From soil composition and geological features, we know that the entire area is not native to the killing field, but directly air-dropped into the mountains 80 to 100 years ago."

"So, it’s a Otherworld building engulfed by a rift..."

Wanli Sealed Blade smacked his lips, understanding that Otherworld structures within the killing field were akin to the perilous space hulks within Warhammer, possibly containing all kinds of goblins and demonic creatures.

At this moment, the system broadcast began.

[Task Type: Regular Task (Explore the Killing Field)]

[Task Name: Ready Player One]

[Phase One Task Objective: Enter the arcade and play different games to collect eight golden coins]

[Phase One Task Time Limit: 24 hours]

[Task Reward: Can specify one in-game item to be taken out]

[Task Failure Penalty: None]