Chun emerged from the pit and returned to the blacksmith shop to begin forging iron-handled hoes by melting iron.

The issue of forging affected by heavy hands still existed, but it wasn't as severe as mining. After all, heavy hands only needed to hold the tongs, while a normal hand could hold the hammer.

But now Chun was full of ambition and really wanted to try wielding the hammer with his heavy hands. Wouldn't this refining effect be as solid as a forging press?

If there's no difficulty, create one, and face it head-on. Not to mention there's a Divine Artifact Forging Ring to back it up.

As expected, the plan was correct, and under the heavy hammer, there were no failures!

However, the proficiency didn't increase either. After all, he already rushed to Advanced Forging Level 3 by rapidly refining Magic Gold, and it was impossible to improve with basic iron forging.

But Chun firmly believed that this heavy-handed forging was definitely innovative, and persisting with it would surely trigger something—perhaps activate the Gravity Field and increase the weight again?

On second thought, he decided against it. Using Gravity Field consumed Resentment, and it needed to be saved for critical moments to unleash Warrior Skills. Moreover, with a Grandmaster like Tie around, there was no need to burn his coal...

Chun spent an hour welding several iron-handled hoes in the blacksmith shop, then packed some food and returned to the pit's deep pool.

Having figured out the key points of understanding, he made improvements this time by solely using the Sea Emperor's Soul. It seemed that this Sea Soul provided guidance with its Combat Skills, so there was no need to dive too deep, saving as much Physical Strength as possible. Then he took a few sips of Centennial Tapioca Burn to boost his state.

With preparations complete, he officially started training underwater. Sure enough, the Heavy Slash proficiency steadily increased amidst the clanking sounds. The Underwater Construction progress skyrocketed even more! Indeed, revisiting what once was, the review was not difficult.

The only regret was that it couldn't be automated; it had to be done manually.

Then manually it would be, for even watching the monotonous proficiency data increase was a joy in itself.

No suspense:

—— System Prompt: Congratulations! You have overcome your own affliction and persevered through arduous training. Your Basic Heavy Slash has reached Level 2, achieving the Accomplishment: Life+1, Carry+1, Physical Strength+1, Critical Strike Rate+1%. Bonus reward: Life+1.

—— System Prompt: Congratulations! You have learned insights into Water Combat techniques, and your muscle memory successfully restored the Underwater Construction skill to Basic Level 5, earning an additional Accomplishment reward: Life+4...

This is awesome!

Once Underwater Construction returns to its previous level, it will undoubtedly lead to a series of reviews, bringing back Underwater Mining, Artistic Swimming, and all these skills together will definitely trigger Water Combat!

And once mastered in Water Combat, paired with the Cleaner Fish's skills—the imaginative possibilities should be freely explored...

In any case, continue!

...

5 AM, in-game time 5 PM.

Black Iron City.

Thanks to the free culinary fish and price-slashing promotions by the Shenqian Consortium, the sashimi combos launched by the Shangri-La Commerce Association became a hit at dinner tables all over the city, even allowing the slum NPCs to indulge.

Not only did it easily meet Baron Bapeng's task goals, but sales were also skyrocketing several times over...

As Bapeng looked at the ever-refreshing sales figures, the delivery staff laughingly ran back and forth, burning calories from all the excitement.

The Peeping Immortal felt the time was ripe: "Esteemed Baron, what about my position as Vice President?"

The chubby man was straightforward: "Excellent, I'll appoint you as Vice President. I expect tomorrow to sell just as well."

"Please look forward to tomorrow's good news, my lord."

After becoming Vice President, Peeping quickly added 9 team members, thus successfully monopolizing all 10 membership slots of the Shangri-La Commerce Association.

The next step was to fully expand the commerce association and continue monopolizing membership slots.

Of course, these affairs could be handed over to the team members. Nightfall was approaching, and the Shenqian Consortium and Tata Consortium's attack on the Count's Mansion was imminent. This time, on the fifth day since the server opened, the team's economy was robust, and the methods were more advanced—they'd buy a large number of mining lamps and toss them into the Count's Mansion like Molotov cocktails.

For this operation, Peeping specifically switched professions to a thief and had to participate to find the underwater passage and retrieve Chun's exploded equipment.

But before that, Peeping had to visit the port bar to report his achievements to Dancing Girl Vivian. The higher the player's achievements, the more attention they get from NPCs.

Entering the bar, he once again checked in with the surveillance team on-site. The player was not abnormal, but the Dancing Girl seemed a bit off, appearing somewhat unhappy.

Peeping felt it appropriate to cheer her up with his achievements, so he confidently sat at Vivian's counter: "Miss Vivian, thanks to your introduction, I successfully became the Vice President of Baron Bapeng's new commerce association!"

Vivian's face darkened: "Hmm, that's impressive."

Peeping sensed things weren't that simple: "Is there something bothering you, Miss Vivian?"

Vivian grew impatient: "Are we very familiar with each other?"

Peeping instantly realized their friendliness level had dropped significantly, a bit too much—what's the deal?

Speaking of which, indeed, they weren't familiar! It was only through the special privilege of being a reporter that he was able to contact her. So he had to start over from scratch.

Peeping chuckled obsequiously: "How about I buy you a drink, miss! Although I am only a Level 1 commerce association Vice President now, as long as I work hard to strengthen the association—"

Vivian was extremely annoyed: "You should focus on your work instead of wasting time in the bar!"

Friendliness level plummeted!

Frightened, Peeping could only bow and exit: "Sorry for bothering, I'm going to work hard now!"

At this moment, Peeping was completely bewildered! What was going on!? Wasn't her task only to assign chores, and did becoming the Vice President exceed the scope of chores, thus she was unhappy? But that makes no sense at all...

Amidst this confusion, back at headquarters, there was a surge of excitement!

"We opened up Hell!"

Gazing at the subterranean lava scene ahead, the Young Master exhaled a deep breath of relief!

After the Count's Mansion's elite retreated, and the Crystal Bats didn't appear, obviously indicating mutual defeat, allowing the team to pass safely through, and after hours of trekking, finally reaching the depths.

"Is that volcano-like place the Gate of Hell? Assign a team member to jump in!"

"Roger that!"

One team member readily went to his death, the screen went dark, and a prompt popped up:

—— System Prompt: Your reputation in the human world is extremely low and constitutes a major criminal offense of jailbreak escapism, would you like to abandon your life? (Warning! Choose carefully)

The Young Master excitably gave the order in person: "Abandon!"

—— System Prompt: You have chosen to fall into depravity; your life is irreversible. Alignment shift initiated, you enter the first layer of the Hellish Trial Ground, and your resurrection point has changed.

In the next moment, the team member resurrected at a clanging mining site, surrounded by a group of knee-high, Level 1 red-skinned Little Demons mining around him.

"Report to the Young Master, we made it! And they won't attack me!"

Headquarters cheered once again!

"The remaining team members, all jump into the mountain fire's vent!"

The Young Master felt gratified. Perhaps the prior pursuit for Magic Stones was misled by some insider development team information. The Magic Stones' energy was limited, only capable of transporting a few elite mission team members down, utterly inadequate for his need to enter Hell on a large scale; the right path was to dig through and walk down.

If one had to say there was any difference, perhaps Magic Stones could teleport bidirectionally, sparing the need to "abandon" one's life? That would imply espionage—the strategic value would also be considerable, so probably Magic Stones shouldn't be abandoned...

As more and more team members reached the assembly, a rumbling tremor echoed from afar in the tunnel. The entire batch of Little Demons mined fervently like they were on steroids.

The team members uniformly knelt in anticipation.

Striding forth appeared a massive, elephant-sized, blazing Inferno Two-Headed Hellhound ridden by a Level 26 Elite Demon: "You from outside, go get a hoe from the warehouse, start working for Master Ali Benga..."

The team members were slightly surprised but complied: "Understood!"

As the entire group of over two thousand formally got to work enthusiastically, all team members activated the task:

—— System Prompt: Your involvement caused an overabundance of Hell's strategic resources, triggering the monster siege task to the surface world, requiring collection of 10,000 weight of Mineral Crystal in 3 days...

All members were in an uproar!

The Young Master laughed, finally comprehending!

The abundance of resources underground far exceeded that of the surface, leading to inherently stronger forces belowground. Consumption thus became necessary, which was probably the design team's true intent, not wanting millions of players worldwide to carelessly exchange Mining Coins.

And now, the key to the monster siege lay in his hands, allowing assaults on the city whenever he wished...

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