World’s End: My Keyword is One More Than Others - Chapter 297: Familiar faces in the competition

Cutting off contact with Nan Youlong, Du Ge temporarily abandoned the idea of cultivating the “Shangqing True Scripture.”

He indeed needed to change his mindset and adapt to his new identity.

Why take risks himself if he didn’t have to?

After all, in reality, life only happens once. If he messed up, it would be over for good. In the Simulation Field, didn’t Sheng Wenhua also go mad and end up dead?

Nan Youlong moved quickly and sent a group of people to Du Ge the same day.

Among them were cultivation technique experimenters, doctors, and cultivation technique testers, all top-notch talents.

It had to be said.

As Du Ge’s status and position rose, the personnel around him increased as well.

According to Nan Youlong, these people would be his core team in the future.

On the day the new members moved in, Du Ge forcibly changed their names, claiming that fish names were auspicious, making them his private property and ordering them to keep everything confidential.

Skills should be used when needed; there’s no point in hiding them forever.

…

Turning them into his private property, Du Ge taught them the “Shangqing True Scripture” he had comprehended from the Simulation Field, letting them verify the cultivation technique’s feasibility.

The cultivation technique experimenters were specially trained on Qi Yuan Star, highly familiar with meridians and acupoints, with exceptional talent and comprehension.

They quickly got into the groove.

Within a few hours, they provided an accurate answer: the “Shangqing True Scripture” was a complete cultivation technique that could moderately improve physical constitution, enhance mental power, and had no harm to the body.

However, reaching the Inner Core stage as in the Simulation Field was highly unlikely.

Even if it were possible to form an Inner Core, it would require a tremendous amount of time.

Not worth the effort.

After verifying the technique’s safety, Du Ge dismissed everyone and began his own cultivation.

To be safe, he used an oversized bathtub, cultivating in water. With the Power of Poseidon, water could help him recover, nourish his soul, and aid his cultivation.

Once he started cultivating, Du Ge immediately felt the difference from the Simulation Field.

Without the attributes boosted by Keywords, the cultivation speed was too slow.

The experts Nan Youlong sent were right; at this cultivation speed, who knew how long it would take to reach the Inner Core stage.

Du Ge experienced firsthand the difficulty of cultivation for the natives in the Simulation Field, but the technique wasn’t without benefits. After starting cultivation, Du Ge could clearly feel his physical fitness improving and his soul solidifying.

Compared to purely using mental power to improve the body, the speed was at least doubled.

However.

If the experts had tested Du Ge’s cultivation speed, they would never have reached their previous conclusion. Cultivating the same technique, Du Ge’s speed was at least thirty times that of those talented experimenters.

At Du Ge’s cultivation speed, forming an Inner Core might take just twenty or thirty years.

…

In the following time.

Du Ge spent most of his time cultivating.

When tired, he watched replay videos of the Alien Star Battlefield to understand the customs and conditions of the alien world.

His strength was gradually increasing, and his backstab speed was catching up to the speed he had in the first Simulation Field.

During this period.

Nan Youlong invited him to watch the Simulation Field selection to see if he could pick out some suitable candidates.

Du Ge glanced a few times and gave up.

Due to national propaganda, most candidates in the Simulation Field were using his combat style.

Once they randomly got suitable Keywords, they quickly achieved overwhelming results, forcing others to follow the same survival tactics.

Usually, once one person grew stronger, the rest had no chance.

Occasionally, there were evenly matched battles, but they never ended in mutual destruction. One side would devour the other, growing even stronger, leaving no chance for the others.

This was also related to the short duration of the Simulation Field.

In just over two months, those who played it safe had a hard time developing.

Those who stood out in the Simulation Field often relied heavily on luck.

…

Unknowingly, two months passed.

Du Ge’s strength had further improved, and the additional Simulation Field ended.

Qi Yuan Star selected three hundred Alien Star warriors, gathering them for the final pre-battle mobilization, allowing them to get familiar with each other and make final adjustments.

Previously.

Before heading to the battlefield, selected Alien Star warriors from Qi Yuan Star didn’t have this step.

Now, with the battlefield rules changed, no one knew what might happen on the battlefield, so the previous rules of not setting signals or meeting before the battle were all scrapped.

…

The new Simulation Field for Du Ge was also considered a pre-battle exercise.

Like Du Ge, Qi Yuan Star’s advisory team couldn’t extract effective tactics from it; they only saw chaos and overwhelming force.

After all, the environment of the Simulation Field was vastly different from the Alien Star Battlefield. Two months was only enough for one Simulation Field, leaving too little time for collecting and studying tactics.

In a sense, this additional Alien Star Battlefield was left to fate.

No one knew what would happen on the battlefield.

The only confidence Qi Yuan Star’s high-level had was Du Ge, the creator of this tactic, who had maintained an undefeated record so far.

At the pre-battle mobilization meeting.

Du Ge and Lao Mi, as surviving warriors from the previous battlefield, represented and encouraged the new recruits, seated on the podium.

Lao Mi was in a bad mood.

In the last Simulation Field, as a warrior from the Alien Star Battlefield.

He randomly got the Keyword “Support,” completely clueless on how to utilize it. Despite his best efforts, he couldn’t make it work and was eventually eliminated…

Compared to Du Ge, who dominated with the “Friendship” Keyword and took first place, Lao Mi felt utterly humiliated.

Thinking about possibly getting more useless Keywords on the Alien Star Battlefield, and facing maniacs like Du Ge, Lao Mi’s mood sank to rock bottom.

Yet, he couldn’t refuse to go to the Alien Star Battlefield.

After all, he was a warrior selected through the Rotational Examination System, destined to fight four rounds on the Alien Star Battlefield.

No.

Now it was five rounds.

The chances of survival were slim.

Eliminated, Lao Mi repeatedly studied all of Du Ge’s video footage but couldn’t figure out how he consistently took first place, each round seeming so smooth and unaffected by Keywords.

Sitting on the podium, looking at the excited candidates below, Lao Mi had only one thought: find the real Du Ge among these crazy guys and cling to him. That might be the only way to survive the Alien Star Battlefield.

Du Ge was unaware of Lao Mi’s thoughts. He gazed at the fervent yet immature faces below, frowning slightly.

He recognized several familiar faces.

Yin Erchuan (Feng Zhong), Yu Xia (Wang San), Gao Ming, Xu Sheng (Feng Jiu), Wang Yunwei (Yao Tong), Wen Fei…

All familiar faces he had interacted with.

When Yin Erchuan and the others saw Du Ge, they excitedly waved and greeted him.

But Du Ge’s expression was not good.

He quickly understood the reason behind Qi Yuan Star’s high-level decision to include these people: to prevent him from distributing resources evenly to people from other planets!

A warning to him?

These politicians were too cunning.

Nan Youlong, sitting beside Du Ge, saw through his thoughts and explained in a low voice, “Du Ge, they were the first to follow you, and their performance in the Simulation Field was also good. The advisory team thought your coordination would be better on the Alien Star Battlefield, so they included them.”

“Can I kick them out?” Du Ge asked. “You said before I could form my own team and send them to my estate.”

He thought he had no real connection with Gao Ming and the others, but seeing them now, he realized he couldn’t ignore their lives. However, having ties on the battlefield would inevitably hold him back. It was best not to let them go to the battlefield.

“No.” Nan Youlong replied, “The list is already set, and it’s too late to find suitable replacements. Besides, they carry their own honors. Eliminating them before the battle would be unacceptable to them.

Du Ge, don’t always think the worst. Having a few people you can coordinate with on the Alien Star Battlefield increases our chances. After all, Keywords are too random; you can’t guarantee every Keyword will suit you.”

“Okay.”

Du Ge nodded, saying no more.

He could clearly sense several gazes on him while talking to Nan Youlong, but his mental perception didn’t detect anyone, proving that many on this planet were stronger than him.

Which was normal.

After all.

Skills from the Alien Star Battlefield could be brought back.

In two hundred years, Qi Yuan Star had surely found more ways to enhance themselves. Otherwise, Nan Youlong wouldn’t have demonstrated the secret sound transmission technique at the No. 24 Middle School.

With over a billion people on Qi Yuan Star participating in the Alien Star Battlefield for 200 years, luck couldn’t belong to him alone.

Moreover, surviving one Alien Star Battlefield didn’t guarantee survival in the next!

His current influence wasn’t enough to sway Qi Yuan Star’s high-level decisions.

…

The pre-battle mobilization meeting was filled with grandiose rhetoric.

After it ended, Qi Yuan Star’s politicians gradually left, leaving the venue to the Alien Star warriors to interact.

As soon as the meeting ended.

Gao Ming and the others surrounded Du Ge, chattering about their admiration for him, sharing their experiences in the Simulation Field, and dreaming of continuing to dominate the Alien Star Battlefield with Du Ge…

Du Ge responded with a smile, not showing any sign of distancing himself from them.

Nan Youlong was also right; finding allies on the battlefield was undoubtedly more reliable than working with strangers.

Moreover.

In the last round, he distributed resources because of the Benevolent Healer Keyword, which allowed him to gain favor. Who knew what Keyword he would get this time?

Giving away resources again would be foolish.

He wasn’t the saint Qi Yuan Star’s high-level thought he was; all his decisions were made for his own benefit, following the path that best suited his development.