Chapter 40: The number of players exceeds 100, and meditation is upgraded!

Time quickly approached late night, and during this period, the Mad King Dormitory Building welcomed many more players, pushing the total population directly past one hundred.

And they weren't all veteran players!

A large portion were complete newcomers, even newer than Xu Lang's group, having not participated in a single game yet!

What was better for them compared to Xu Lang's group was that each of them received one thousand Copper Coins as starting funds, a level one dorm room, and two Free Attributes.

This made some people develop crooked ideas.

If they could rob all these newcomers, how rich would they become!

Robbing ten newcomers would net ten thousand, seventy would be seventy thousand!

However, this behavior not only faced united resistance from the new players, but many veteran players also condemned such actions.

Setting aside discussions of moral character and good versus evil for now.

Besides, if you accidentally killed someone and became tainted with Blood Grudge, everyone on the entire floor would suffer misfortune.

No matter how chaotic things got outside, it had nothing to do with Xu Lang.

You guys fight all you want!

I'm just going to lie flat!

Evening was the main meal time for Xu Lang's household.

Today they were eating stir-fried dishes.

Cao Yaxuan and the other two women each cooked one dish, and Xu Lang ate happily, remaining completely silent throughout, just wanting to finish eating as quickly as possible.

Finally, Cao Yaxuan asked that most terrifying, most indescribable question.

"Xu Lang, what scores would you give these three dishes?"

What was destined to come had finally arrived!

Tong Qi looked at Xu Lang with sparkling eyes.

Although Wang Yazhi's gaze was more reserved, she also pursed her lips lightly, showing some concern.

"Senior Cao, aren't you just stirring up internal conflict? If I say yours tastes better, Tong Qi and Yazhi will definitely be unhappy, and vice versa." Xu Lang put down his bowl and chopsticks, staring seriously at Cao Yaxuan as he said solemnly: "Don't ask this kind of question next time!"

"Oh~ alright then." Cao Yaxuan felt Xu Lang was right, but couldn't resist asking anyway.

There was no helping it - it was instinct.

"I still have over seven thousand Copper Coins on me now. Is there anything you want to buy? I can have Wu Huihui purchase it for us." Xu Lang said with a smile.

Although it was late night now, Wu Huihui and some others were still outside searching for supplies.

To be honest, going out to look for supplies at this hour was somewhat dangerous.

Several players had already been robbed.

Even if they didn't kill you, breaking both your legs was possible, so nobody would resist to the death.

This kind of robbery targeting individuals was truly impossible to guard against completely.

After all, as long as it wasn't targeting the collective, people weren't that united.

"Probably not." Wang Yazhi shook her head, unable to think of anything she wanted.

Cao Yaxuan and Tong Qi felt the same.

During this period, everyone was being frugal.

"Actually, Xu Lang, I think you should save your money to upgrade the main door." Wang Yazhi pursed her lips and suggested: "The facility area sells level three door blueprints. Once you get that, you just need to gather some materials."

Currently in the Mad King Dormitory Building, level three doors weren't nonexistent - Xu Ruyan's door was the level three "Vermilion Door," said to have special protective effects against ghost-type monsters.

"Hehe, no need, I'll just keep trying my luck with the lottery." Xu Lang said with a laugh.

His ability to upgrade items would eventually be impossible to hide.

So he could only use having a "random item upgrade" skill as cover.

"Alright." Seeing Xu Lang insist on this, Wang Yazhi didn't say more.

When the Swift Repeating Crossbow upgraded earlier, all three women had witnessed it with their own eyes. They knew the skill Xu Lang mentioned probably wasn't as simple as it sounded, but none of them pressed for details.

Besides this, some people in the hallway had also noticed this point, but they all assumed Xu Lang had bought the blueprint at some unknown time.

The Bronze Repeating Crossbow design blueprint was sold in the facility area for three thousand Copper Coins, while the actual item cost seven thousand Copper Coins - not something ordinary people could afford.

After finishing the meal, Cao Yaxuan and the others went to wash the dishes. Xu Lang thought for a moment, then upgraded his Meditation skill.

Nightmare Coins -45.

The introduction was similar to before.

After upgrading two Swift Repeating Crossbows and Meditation, Xu Lang now only had 119 Nightmare Coins left.

"Should I upgrade Meditation?"

Xu Lang faced a dilemma.

The next door upgrade required 300 Nightmare Coins. If he didn't spend anything, he could upgrade the door after tomorrow, which was undoubtedly the safest approach.

"The Steel Door plus two level two Attack Facilities should be sufficient, as long as veteran players don't come knocking collectively..."

"It's best to save the door upgrade until after the game starts, so I can choose the upgrade direction based on the game type."

"Upgrading Meditation now is the most cost-effective option - I might even roll out several extra mental attributes!"

Having thought this through, Xu Lang no longer hesitated and directly upgraded Meditation.

When items reached level three, they underwent special changes - skills should be no exception.

And indeed, that proved true.

After thinking for just over ten seconds, Xu Lang chose Advanced Meditation.

His original purpose in purchasing Meditation was to increase basic attributes, so naturally he should follow this path to the end.

Glancing at his remaining four Nightmare Coins, Xu Lang silently strengthened his resolve.

That was to temporarily avoid speaking in the chat room and minimize his presence.

Speaking of which, since the newcomers arrived, his presence hadn't been particularly strong anyway.

Now the chat topics were either veteran players pontificating or new players asking naive questions.

The frequency of his name appearing in the chat room was gradually decreasing.

For example, at this very moment, a veteran player from the second floor was holding forth, boldly claiming that during the Zombie Attack game round, he had over ten different methods to ensure 90% of players survived, and he explained it all quite convincingly.

This earned him admiration from many players, who hailed him as a great expert.

It's worth mentioning that the tenth floor was already full, and no new players would be moving in.

Xu Lang didn't pay too much attention to the chat room. After glancing at Cao Yaxuan and the others, he began meditating again.

This meditation session was particularly effective - his self-awareness felt stronger, as if he could hear the subtle sounds emanating from his cells, incredibly marvelous.