Wood, stone, and ore could be exchanged for attribute points. For newbie players, that was a huge temptation.
But what did the chanical Race want with all these resources?
Could it be that those chanical beings were actually manufactured?
Johnnie frowned, feeling like that was the only explanation that made sense.
The newbie warrior saw Johnnie fall silent and spoke up, "Hey man, if there’s nothing else, I’ll get back to it. You can collect those resources too—The chanical Race is pretty generous."
"Alright, thanks." Johnnie nodded, but he was honestly not interested in any of it.
He had a thought and pulled out the Induction Compass.
He’d stolen this from the Doe Family. Not only could it sense the whereabouts of the Map of Heaven and Earth fragnts, it could also detect other unknown ancient artifacts nearby.
"Huh? Nothing?" Johnnie’s expression turned puzzled as he looked at the compass in his hand.
The needle spun aimlessly, as if there was no Map of Heaven and Earth fragnt here.
"Master, the fragnt is definitely here. I can feel it. There must be so special power blocking the compass." Coco’s voice rang in his mind at that mont.
Johnnie put the compass away and asked in his heart, "Can you sense the exact location of the fragnt?"
After a while, Coco replied, "No. There’s a special force cutting off. I can only tell it’s nearby, but I can’t pinpoint the location."
Johnnie nodded slightly, not bothered by it.
He’d already learned from Coco that the chanical Titan that attacked the Montemar Empire was actually crafted from a fallen Titan Race Divine in the Map of Heaven and Earth space.
That ant the fragnt here had already fallen into the hands of the chanical Race.
And they must have arrived at Novice Village No. 33 a long ti ago, secretly plotting sothing all this ti.
But in his previous life, Johnnie never heard any news about the chanical Race in Novice Village No. 33.
It seed his rebirth had changed a lot of things.
Johnnie stopped dwelling on it and started heading toward the novice village in the distance.
The place had already been taken over by the chanical Race. The original NPCs were all gone, likely slaughtered.
Near the village, there were still crowds of people coming and going, and players’ faces were lit up with joy.
Clearly, they’d traded for quite a few attribute points.
Johnnie grew curious and opened the Horizon ga forum, searching for any posts about Novice Village No. 33.
There were quite a few threads about Novice Village No. 33 and the chanical Race establishing the cha Divine Nation, but they were mostly questions about how to join the cha Divine Nation or analysis of the chanical Race’s strength. Not a single post ntioned exchanging resources for free attribute points.
Were these newbies really that tight-lipped?
Johnnie didn’t buy it.
Even if soone wanted to keep Novice Village No. 33’s secrets, there was no way nobody would make a post.
Johnnie had a vague suspicion in his heart, so he wrote up a thread and posted it.
The Secret of Novice Village No. 33: Exchange Wood, Stone, and Ore for Free Attribute Points.
His post had barely gone up before a ssage popped up.
[Your post has violated forum rules and has been automatically deleted. Please follow the forum guidelines. Posting inappropriate content will result in a ban.]
Just as I thought!
Johnnie wasn’t surprised—he’d already guessed that soone was deliberately deleting posts about exchanging free attribute points.
Looks like soone is colluding with the chanical Race!
His expression turned cold, and the first person he thought of was Macbeth. Only the Apocalypse Group had that much power, enough to erase every post about Novice Village No. 33.
He imdiately sent Macbeth a private ssage.
Johnnie: "Macbeth, you’re testing my limits. Don’t think I won’t kill you."
Macbeth, who was busy leveling up, saw the ssage and was totally confused. He replied right away.
Macbeth: "Lord Johnnie, I’ve been investigating the whereabouts of the Doe Family, but there hasn’t been any news."
Johnnie: "I’m talking about the chanical Race."
Macbeth: "The chanical Race? Lord Johnnie, I have nothing to do with the chanical Race! The Snow Kingdom I built with the Snow Family was destroyed by them."
Johnnie was taken aback by his response.
It was true that the Snow Kingdom, founded by the Snow Family, was backed by Macbeth and the Apocalypse Group.
If he was really working with the chanical Race, there’s no way he would’ve let them destroy Snow Kingdom.
Could it be that he really guessed wrong?
Johnnie: "You’re not working with the chanical Race?"
Macbeth: "Lord Johnnie, I’m no saint, but I know where the line is. Ever since I found out the people behind Horizon wanted to destroy Earth, I beca their enemy. If I still controlled the ga, I would have shut it down myself."
Johnnie frowned. Had he really misunderstood this guy?
But besides Macbeth, who else could control the entire ga forum?
Could there be trouble inside the Apocalypse Group?
Johnnie ssaged again: "So posts about Novice Village No. 33 have been deleted from the forum. Do you know what’s going on?"
Macbeth: "Hold on a sec."
Macbeth replied, his userna turned gray, and he logged off.
After a while, he ca back online.
Macbeth: "Lord Johnnie, I checked it out. There have been a lot of posts deleted from the forum, but it wasn’t us."
Johnnie: "It wasn’t your Apocalypse Group?"
Macbeth: "No. I only had people delete posts that were bad for Apocalypse Group, or posts about the truth behind the ga. I didn’t tell anyone to ss with anything about Novice Village No. 33."
Johnnie: "Maybe it’s another hacker? Can you look into it?"
Macbeth: "I’ve already got my subordinates investigating, but so far, nothing suspicious has co up. If I find anything, I’ll let you know."
Johnnie: "Alright. Also, keep looking for news about the Doe Family for ."
Macbeth: "Understood."
Johnnie closed the chat. It really did seem like this had nothing to do with Macbeth or the Apocalypse Group.
But besides the Apocalypse Group, what other force in the real world could have that much influence?
Could it be a country?
It seed like only a nation could have that kind of power.
No matter who’s working with the chanical Race, as long as they’re wiped out, they’re no threat.
Johnnie stopped worrying about it and walked into the novice village.
His arrival didn’t draw any attention from the players in the village.
Most of these people were brand new to the ga and didn’t know anything about his reputation.
As for whether the chanical Race had noticed him, Johnnie couldn’t be sure.
He wandered around the novice village but didn’t find anything noteworthy.
The liveliest place was still the old village chief’s residence.
But now the chief was gone, replaced by a cold-looking chanical Battle cha from the chanical Race.
Players were lined up to hand over wood, stone, and ore, exchanging them for attribute points.
So players turned in over a hundred units of wood at once and got more than a dozen free attribute points in return.
Not just these newbie villagers—even those who’d already left the village would find this hard to resist.
It was tough for players to get stronger in this ga.
Of course, Johnnie was an exception.
Besides the replaced NPCs, he didn’t see any other mbers of the chanical Race, nor did he notice anything strange in the village.
"Maiev, have you found anything?" Johnnie asked silently in his mind.
"No. Other than a few chanical Race mbers who replaced the NPCs, there are no other chanical beings here." Maiev’s voice echoed in his head.
That was definitely not normal.
According to the info passed on by Macbeth, the chanical Race had supposedly established the cha Divine Nation in Novice Village No. 33.
There’s no way a nation could just disappear into thin air.
Unless...
Johnnie suddenly had a thought.
Last ti, when they founded Montemar Empire and the chanical Race attacked, what showed up was a city—an entire city made up of powerful chanical Race mbers!
Could it be that the cha Divine Nation was actually a huge, mobile city?
Johnnie figured that was entirely possible.
"Hey, man." He grabbed a burly guy walking past and asked, "I heard the chanical Race built the cha Divine Nation here in Novice Village No. 33. Where is it now?"
As he spoke, he took a dozen gold coins from his bag and slipped them into the man’s hand.
"Bro, you’ve co to exactly the right guy with that question." The burly man weighed the coins with a sly grin, then pulled Johnnie aside and whispered, "The chanical Race did build a nation here—a gigantic chanical city. But just recently, a thick fog rolled in and covered the entire novice village, and that massive city flew away."
Flew away? So it really could move!
Johnnie wasn’t surprised. He glanced at the man and asked, "That’s not exactly a secret, is it?"
"Think again," the burly guy said, his tone suddenly serious. "Nobody else knows about it but . The weirdest part is, I asked around, and everyone swears there was never a steel-built city. I think their mories got ssed with. I even tried posting about it on the ga forum, but my thread vanished into thin air. There’s definitely sothing shady going on here!"
What the man said pretty much matched Johnnie’s own suspicions.
But there was still one thing bugging him.
Johnnie asked, "You said everyone’s mory got wiped—how is that even possible? And if it’s true, why are you the only one who rembers?"
The burly man explained, "To be honest, bro, I wondered if I was losing my mind, but I know what I saw. I accidentally stumbled into an underground cave beneath the village chief’s hut and hid out down there when the fog rolled in. I figure it was that fog that made everyone lose their mories."
That underground cave he ntioned was probably the novice village’s Undead Cavern.
Johnnie frowned deeply. Erasing mories—especially wiping the mories of a huge group of players at once—that was both creepy and downright unimaginable.
Suddenly, he realized sothing—what if the chanical Race had shown up in his previous life too, but everyone’s mories of them had been erased?
Otherwise, there’s no way there’d be zero news about the chanical Race.
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