Chapter 152: First Glimpse of the Clues

For several consecutive days, the three brothers and Mei Mei wandered around the Bichee Mining Zone. While helping Mei Mei level up, they loitered in the eastern part of the mining zone, attempting to figure out the secrets and patterns of entering the Zombie King Sanctum. After days of research, the three brothers finally discovered some clues!

There are multiple entrances to the Zombie King Sanctum in both the Bichee Mining Zone and the Serpent Mining Zone. Currently, Lin Jia and the others only clearly knew that the coordinate 137:108 in the eastern abandoned mining zone could grant entry, while the other entrances were difficult to find at the precise time due to unknown coordinates.

Moreover, the Zombie King Sanctum could not be entered at any time; that hidden map seemed to open only at certain intervals. When it was not open, even if a Monk Zombie was refreshed on the ground, players could not drill into it. Additionally, if someone managed to enter the Zombie King Sanctum ahead of others during the spawn, anyone entering afterward could not stay inside; they would mostly be "Whoosh!" teleported straight to the southern part of the mining zone.

This explained why Boss and Fourth Brother had rushed over with great difficulty last time only to be teleported to the southern mining zone. When Mei Mei stepped on it earlier, she was also teleported, whereas Lin Jia entered right after and was not teleported. This was likely because when Mei Mei entered, a player named Juedi Xiaozhike was already inside the Zombie King Sanctum, and when Lin Jia came in, he happened to catch Juedi Xiaozhike being killed by the Zombie King.

The brothers experimented multiple times, and it was proven that the opening pattern of the Zombie King Sanctum might involve the following factors:

1. It refreshes and opens once every 2 to 3 hours.
2. Each entry is restricted to a single player or a team of players. Unless this group of players logs off, dies, or exits, others cannot enter. Even if they managed to get in, they would be teleported to the southern abandoned mining zone—precisely the situation that scared Lin Jia half to death last time when Boss and Fourth Brother were teleported, vanishing with a "whoosh" right after entering.
3. Upon opening, a Monk Zombie is guaranteed to spawn, digging a hole out from the ground for players to enter. If no one passes by the coordinate point after the spawn to draw out the underground Zombie, the Zombie King Sanctum will remain in a waiting-to-be-entered state until someone walks past. If a player draws out the Monk Zombie but merely kills it without stepping into the hole at the coordinate point, everyone will have to wait for the next opportunity to enter once the pit on the ground is refreshed by the system.

This was the reason why players occasionally stumbled into the Zombie King Sanctum by mistake!

Lin Jia and the others had only managed to enter twice over several days, still unable to master the exact timing and having to rely entirely on luck, running over to try their luck around estimated times. Of the two entries, one ended in tragedy when Lin Jia accidentally landed right in the middle of a pack of Zombie Kings and was instantly killed. The other ended in a total party wipe and disbandment due to poor coordination.

The benefit of lingering in the Zombie Cave for several days was that Mei Mei, the little Taoist girl, with the three brothers sacrificing their own experience gains, bought a large amount of poison to attack monsters from a distance, hitting each one once. Then, the combined attacks of the three brothers would instantly vaporize the monsters, as if they had three formidable Lei Feng comrades volunteering to help out. Her experience skyrocketed like a rocket, shooting up rapidly, and it did not take long for her to reach Level 20.

To have leveled up so quickly, they also had to thank the brothers from the Alliance of Yesteryear for their help. According to what Fourth Brother secretly told them, the Elder of the Alliance of Yesteryear, "Crazy Lingjia," was personally bringing his real-life "girlfriend" along. Everyone was enthusiastically helping by sending potions, clearing out the leveling zone, and cordoning off territory to provide them with a steady source of monsters. Lin Jia felt quite embarrassed, feeling that they hadn't really contributed much to the guild brothers.

The escort provided by the three Elder-level players of the Alliance of Yesteryear and countless other Alliance members made players in the eastern abandoned mining zone voluntarily vanish. Cordoning off territory for leveling had become the exclusive privilege of guild players, and Mei Mei, monopolizing the entire eastern mining zone, tasted the feeling of being a princess for the very first time.

Having a preliminary grasp of the patterns of the Zombie King Sanctum, Lin Jia and the others planned to take Mei Mei back to Mengzhong to level up, as there was no further point in lingering here. Mei Mei needed higher-level monsters to raise her level, and Lin Jia and the others could not constantly sacrifice their own experience to boost Mei Mei's progression. Due to various reasons, their levels had already been left far behind by the first wave of players. Little Shrimp had mentioned that he was already approaching Level 30, and the number of players at Levels 28 and 29 was also quite substantial.

"Shall we make one last trip to the Zombie King Sanctum? If it still hasn't spawned, we'll head back to town to Mengzhong. I heard from people in the guild that there's a spot in the Centipede Cave where monsters spawn like crazy—there's nowhere to even stand once they respawn. Let's four go there and roast monsters! Find a corner to trap Second Brother inside, and you, Boss, along with Mei Mei's skeleton, should be more than enough!" Fourth Brother said after unleashing a few sword glint attacks to finish off the two Zombies in front of him.

Ever since Fourth Brother learned the Assassination Technique, he had developed a fanatical obsession with this skill that could slash out long blade lights. However, because the Assassination Technique only took effect when two monsters were aligned in a straight line, its destructive power was extremely difficult to master. Yet, as long as a player held down the designated "forced attack" key, the cost of every single unleashed assassination slash was the forfeiture of the right to move.

There are gains and losses, which was unavoidable, but through clever positioning and mouse-and-keyboard coordination, after a period of practice, one could surely learn to stop on the movement just in time to execute an assassination. Minimizing damage to oneself in combat was a profound science.

After Lin Jia and the other three cleared out the Zombies in the eastern mining zone, they ran back to the entrance coordinates of the Zombie King Sanctum once more. However, this time, no new Zombies had spawned. Lin Jia said disappointedly, "Let's go! Fiku website hasn't even refreshed for 3 full hours; how could it be enterable so quickly? When we came earlier, we got teleported to the southern part. I suppose high-level players from elsewhere must have been teleported in too; maybe they killed it? Forget it, let's go! We might as well go to Mengzhong to level up!" Lin Jia and the others had never expected that only they could enter the Zombie King Sanctum, because long before them, many players had already experienced entering it.

Although somewhat reluctant, the brothers had no choice but to head back. Boss asked tentatively as she ran, "Do you guys think the Zombie King Sanctum opens based on the length of time?"

Lin Jia scoffed disdainfully, "How is that possible?! Have you forgotten that yesterday we stood guard here for half the night and couldn't catch the Zombie King Sanctum spawning?! In my opinion, that place is entirely, fundamentally, just like the randomly refreshing wild Zombie Kings in the mining zone—it belongs to random probability. Whoever has good luck gets in. Otherwise, why haven't we been able to figure out any pattern after being here for days? Sometimes it doesn't open for over a dozen hours, and other times we can go right back in immediately after a spawn! How could it be that reason? Our calculation of 2 to 3 hours for entry is just a rough estimate!"

"Screw it! This place is driving me damn crazy! It's wasting our time! Our levels have fallen behind everyone else by quite a bit over the past two days!" Fourth Brother complained, paused for a moment, and continued, "That being said, I agree with Boss's opinion. Based on my 'many years' of online gaming experience, that place should spawn based on time limits! Didn't you notice that sometimes it doesn't spawn for a long time, but right after it does, it spawns twice in a row? I guess this concept of a 3-hour respawn includes both the beginning and the end; anyway, it respawns roughly every 3 hours. Maybe the situation you mentioned was just two respawns within 6 hours happening back-to-back? We've encountered situations like this before! Regular monsters respawn like that too, let alone a Boss!"

The spawning state Fourth Brother described frequently occurred with regular monsters. Whenever monsters were slaughtered to a certain extent, chaotic spawning would happen. It was possible that right after wiping out one batch of monsters, before you could even refill your potions, a second batch would rapidly spawn; it was even possible for the respawn to begin while you were still in the middle of killing monsters, forcing you to wipe out the second batch before you could even pick up the loot on the ground.

"Is that so? Then shall we come back to check at 05:15? Should we go leveling first for now?!" Lin Jia was terrified that Boss and Fourth Brother intended to stay behind to guard the Zombie King Sanctum; he was already starting to reach his limit.

"You even remember the exact spawn time?" Fourth Brother and Boss were utterly astonished.

Lin Jia chuckled and said, "Just now, in order to tab out to check the time, I jumped out of the game once. It happened to be a quarter past 10 last night. If you're right, then the Zombie King Sanctum will definitely spawn again around a quarter past 5 this morning! Why don't we come back and take a look then?"

Earlier, when Lin Jia and the others went and got teleported to the southern mining zone, someone must have been inside the Zombie King Sanctum. Whether it was a coincidence or intentional, if this time estimation was accurate enough, Lin Jia and the others could completely rely on this timing to deduce every future opening of the Zombie King Sanctum. As long as they showed up every time and mastered the stable timing, they could completely monopolize the ownership of the Zombie King Sanctum!

I'll go inside and squat every single time! If I can't beat you to death, I'll disgust you to death! I bet for a long time, many players will feel depressed about constantly being teleported to the southern abandoned mining zone!

"Good! In that case, let's go leveling in the Centipede Cave first! We'll come back after 3 hours!" Fourth Brother made the decision.

The three brothers, with Mei Mei in tow, ran through the Serpent Valley and arrived at the earthen city of Mengzhong. From now on, Mei Mei would begin leveling in this high-level map. Lin Jia and the others eagerly anticipated the appearance of a high-level Taoist, which meant that future leveling and monster-hunting activities would be much safer and more convenient!