Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 83 Fire Went Out! (4/10)

Chapter 83: Chapter 83 Fire Went Out! (4/10)

Each person pulled out a small trinket from their belongings, and to everyone’s surprise, quickly piled them into a small mountain in the open space.

Crowds gathered around.

Instructor Ding looked a bit dazed, "How... How did you all bring so much stuff out?"

Michelangelo once again gave him the middle finger: "Isn’t all this stuff just piled up by the roadside? I want to ask you, how did you manage to come out of the Divine Realm after so long with nothing at all!"

Instructor Ding: "Huh?"

After exchanging information, they realized it was because Instructor Ding and his team had made a strategic error when they previously entered the Divine Realm.

It wasn’t that materials could only be collected from buildings!

The entire Divine Realm not only had various large-area buildings, but there were also many open areas between these building complexes. There were roads, flower beds, withering forests, and more.

Previously, Instructor Ding and his team had followed the signs and chosen the Prison of Sinners as their destination.

Despite being the least dangerous building, it was still a building after all!

And Michelangelo’s group, not being adept at adventuring, didn’t enter those buildings, just wandered around the outskirts instead.

Later, they discovered that actually, one could pick up some materials in the wild.

For example, by the collapsed divine statues, one could pick up rocks; in the withering forests, one could collect branches; some places had raised mounds of earth from which things could be dug up.

They first collected a batch of trash and exchanged it for gold coins to buy lanterns and shovels. Then, as it happened to turn dark, they took the lanterns and shovels to dig around in an abandoned cemetery at the edge of the Divine Realm, where they dug up discarded metal road signs, rusted nails, and fragments of damaged armor.

Under the cover of darkness, the wilds of the Divine Realm were actually very safe, with no horrifying hunters or hounds to speak of, and the collection of materials went smoothly.

Then, when the bell rang, they left with their materials.

These materials, which looked insignificant within the Divine Realm, turned out to be quite valuable resources outside of it.

Take the insignificant pebbles for instance, once outside their size inflated by hundreds of times, even sufficient to fulfill the entire stone requirement for the remaining work on the Great Canal.

Instructor Ding was speechless, "That doesn’t make sense, guys, can it really be like this?"

He also felt more regret, wondering what the good stuff he had picked up in the Prison of Sinners would have become if he had taken it out.

Alas, one must risk dangers for riches, and sometimes risk losing them in the process.

The comment section was once again mercilessly mocking him.

"The streamer claims to be a pro gamer, yet relies on viewers to carry him through the game, huh?"

"Boss Mi is awesome! In contrast, look at that streamer who led his team to their doom and didn’t bring out even a single stone."

"Streamer, just keep on doing manual labor, let Boss Mi take the lead!"

Instructor Ding was extremely irritated, but he still pulled Michelangelo aside, "Good job, brother! There’s likely to be another random selection for the Flame Thief soon. If both of us get in, we split up! I’ll lead a team to explore dangerous places, gambling for riches; you go to the safer places to pick up trash, ensuring a basic reward.

"Together as brothers, we will definitely be unbeatable!"

However, no sooner had he finished speaking than the bell rang again.

"Dong!"

Instructor Ding looked at himself and saw no pale blue light.

He then looked at Michelangelo, who also had none!

Looking around with confusion, he then heard Li Wenhao say in a panicked voice, "Hey! Hey, hey! Why is it me again??"

Li Wenhao, the member of the Original Five Members of the Fire-Theft Group who disliked exploring the most and preferred to stay and do manual labor, could never have imagined he would be the first to re-enter the Divine Realm.

Before he had a chance to say anything more, he disappeared from the spot, and his voice cut off abruptly.

Instructor Ding looked around and saw that of the five people chosen this time, Li Wenhao was part of the Original Five Members of the Flame Thief, and two from Michelangelo’s second group were selected. The other two were picked from the six who had been working as manual laborers up until then.

Chen Tingquan looked at Michelangelo, "Haizi is the weakest among us. I hope your two brothers will take good care of him."

Michelangelo was also silent, "The two that went in are also the weakest among our five..."

Instructor Ding paused, "What?"

...

After another monotonous and boring brick-moving session, the third batch of Flame Thieves came out.

Compared to last time, although they still brought back some materials, the quantity had clearly decreased.

The reason was simple; these five individuals just happened to be particularly timid!

Out of the dwarves, a general is chosen. Li Wenhao might not be skilled, but as a streamer, he had no choice but to take on the responsibility of team leader, leading the group cautiously to the wilderness to scavenge for trash.

Unfortunately, their luck wasn’t great this time—they encountered sunny weather twice and faced formidable monsters.

Moreover, the areas where items had previously been picked up did not refresh immediately, so the yield was significantly reduced.

But luckily, the materials from the Divine Realm could be sold for several times their value outside, so the materials needed for construction were barely sufficient for now.

As for the external constructions, the workshop had been completed, and a section of the Great Canal had been finished as well.

After that, a new structure was initiated: a tower.

From an optimistic perspective, at least the new structures being unlocked were increasingly complex. Though they still couldn’t be built independently, there was still a tiny bit of a sense of accomplishment after completing them.

Instructor Ding was already yawning unconsciously.

"Alright, brothers, let’s keep moving bricks and aim to finish this tower tonight!"

He hadn’t expected to enter a period of ennui in the game so quickly. The game had officially gone on sale at 8 o’clock and it had been just over three hours— not even midnight yet—and he was already struggling to keep his eyes open.

If it was an especially exciting game, he would have to stream until 1 a.m. tonight, but now, these Manual Laborers were forcing themselves to keep playing this game with sheer willpower.

After more rounds of selecting Flame Thieves, the strange thing was that Instructor Ding and Liang Chun were never chosen once!

Instead, players like Li Wenhao and Michelangelo, who originally didn’t like to explore, were frequently selected.

Li Wenhao, in particular, except for the second time, was always chosen. He could practically be called "the most experienced Flame Thief."

But the problem was, being experienced did not mean being capable. As the team leader, he often held the team back the most.

This led everyone to complain, wondering if there was something wrong with the selection mechanism for the Flame Thieves?

Why were they choosing players who were reluctant to enter the Divine Realm?

But since everyone was still relatively new to the game, they hadn’t grasped its nuances yet, so construction in the Human World was steadily progressing.

Another section of the Great Canal was completed, and the tower was nearly finished, just missing the final touch to the top.

Ding Qiang went up to the top of the tower, looked down the spiral staircase, and then out at the distant scenery, inadvertently questioning the purpose of it all.

"These buildings, do they even serve any purpose at all?

"What exactly does this game want us to play?"

So far, the players had constructed four types of buildings: racetracks, the Great Canal, workshops, and towers. But besides the workshop, which at least had some use, allowing for the smelting of iron bars, the other projects seemed to serve no practical purpose!

The racetracks were smooth, but there were no carriages in the game; using one’s legs to walk, what difference did it make whether one walked on a racetrack or a dirt path?

The Great Canal and the tower also didn’t seem to have any practical purpose, at best they were just a cosmetic enhancement to the environment.

For ’ant-like players’ who enjoyed moving bricks, perhaps they could derive some joy from the process, but for players like Instructor Ding, who loved adventure and challenges, it was pure torture.

At that moment, Liang Chun hurried up the tower, "There’s trouble!"

Instructor Ding had just placed a stone brick, "What happened?"

Liang Chun said, "We have one bad news, and another bad news."

"Pff!" Instructor Ding almost sprayed out a mouthful of blood, "What do you mean one bad news and another bad news? So there’s no good news? Spit it out, what’s the situation?"

Liang Chun explained, "The first bad news is, every new project we start requires a cluster of Divine Fire. We’ve already used up four clusters of Divine Fire.

"The Flame Thieves haven’t acquired any new Divine Fire, so once this tower is completed, all we can do is continue building the Great Canal without any Divine Fire to start new projects!"

Instructor Ding quickly asked, "Huh? Where did the previous clusters of Divine Fire come from?"

Liang Chun continued, "That’s the second piece of bad news I have. The previous clusters of Divine Fire were taken from the central high platform’s Divine Fire, and now, that Divine Fire is almost extinguished!"