With a clear objective in mind, Qiyu headed full speed toward the location where he’d discovered the black ancient tree yesterday.

Along the way, aside from the rain swifts, he didn’t spot any other mutated creatures.

Qiyu maxed out his stealth attribute and combined it with the Light Body Technique; most of the first-tier Swifts only felt a gust of wind pass by and couldn’t catch a glimpse of him at all.

Spotting the black silhouette in the distance, Qiyu breathed a sigh of relief.

He also spotted the swifts perched on the massive black tree. 

However, perhaps because they were hunted so relentlessly yesterday, some of the swifts fled and didn’t dare return; today, the swifts in this grove aren’t as dense as they were yesterday.

With no time for unnecessary chatter, Qiyu raised the Heart of the Great Tree Staff and greeted the swarm of swifts with an area-of-effect spell. Countless swifts were startled into the air, swarming densely above Qiyu—for a single moment, even the torrential rain was blocked.

【Cockroach Taste Is So Weird: The gaming pro is at it again.】 

【A Stray By The Road: So strong… That kill speed—I don’t believe it’s just the effect of the Energy Tower.】

【Irritable Brother: With a kill rate like that, it’d be even harder to do it solo, right?】

【A Stray By The Road: Could it be that the top player has put together a team to help him farm points?】

【Dare Not Open My Eyes: The top player doesn’t need to do that—his score is already way ahead of everyone else. Bottom line, you guys just don’t believe in the skills of the number one player on the power rankings?】

【Civil Engineering Brother: Haha, you guys know absolutely nothing about the farmer’s skills.】

【Liver Emperor: I took a quick peek at the leaderboard in the middle of a busy day—this guy is pushing us to the limit.】 

【Cockroach Taste Is So Weird: @Liver Emperor,  take it easy, boss. Looks like you’re the one getting caught up in the grind.】

【Liver Emperor: No big deal—as long as I don’t grind myself to death, I’ll keep grinding like crazy!】

【Reaching for the Moon: Just checking in with everyone in the region—has anyone found the “Black Tree” that the game experts were talking about?】

【Twilight Morning Song: No.】

【Liver Emperor: Nope.】

【The More I Involution The Bitterer My Life Becomes: Nope.】

【Little Old Me: Nope.】

【I Am Lily: No.】

……

A whole string of “None”s—it’s like some kind of mysterious word-chain ritual.

【Cockroach Taste Is So Weird: Oh my god… Did you guys go out looking for them? Does everyone have a shelter and defensive gear? So I’m the only noob stuck here in the shelter.】

【Huge Umbrella: Yes, there are—but only the pros are lining up to answer.】

【My Fate Is in My Hands, Not the Heavens: None. Does the Black Tree really exist? I Love Survival Game hasn’t given any specific info or screenshots—what if they’re just messing with us?】

【The More I Involution The Bitterer My Life Becomes: I don’t think so. What would top players gain by lying?】

【I’m Lily: Don’t say there are no rewards for the points ranking—even if there were, no one would threaten him.】

【Liver Emperor: I don’t think the top player has any reason to lie. They’re already high up on the leaderboard—why would they bother popping up in the regional chat just to trick someone?】

【Need A Little Money To Save Me: Um… maybe… I’ll look for one?】4

【Need A Little Money To Save Me: Holy crap, my trypophobia is kicking in.】

【Need A Little Money To Save Me: (pic) (pic) (pic)】

They happened to be discussing this very topic at that moment, so everyone clicked on the images that “Need A Little Money To Save Me” had taken after adjusting the camera angle.

A huge, black, dead tree—bare and pitch-black—so massive that the entire tree didn’t fit in the frame. The dead branches and twigs of the giant tree were packed with a dense swarm of gray swifts.

【Need A Little Money To Save Me: Holy crap, even though the gaming pro said swifts use this tree as a nest, he didn’t say there’d be this many!】

【Need A Little Money To Save Me: Help! I’m a noob—I’m scared!】

【Reaching for the Moon: So many points…】

【Liver Emperor: Holy crap! Let me handle this! Let me go! Those are all my points—why wasn’t I the one who ran into this tree!】

【Cockroach Taste Is So Weird: So, a top-tier gamer cleared out a whole tree full of swifts with just one lifestyle profession, right?】 

【Civil Engineering Brother: That just goes to show—don’t have stereotypes about professions.】

Observant players noticed that, although he claimed to be scared and a wimp, he hadn’t spoken in the zone chat since posting the picture. At the same time, his points began to rise rapidly.

Even more observant players noticed that “Money’s” points were rising at a pace that couldn’t hold a candle to the top player’s. 

The swifts seem to have gotten smarter.

After Qiyu spent over half an hour dealing with the swifts, he noticed that the remaining ones were no longer mindlessly crashing into his spells like before.

They began to spread out, hovering far away in midair.

Moreover, when he occasionally glanced at the survival panel’s updates, it seemed that the proportion of Level 2 mutations among today’s swifts had increased.

Top of the Leaderboard: I Love Survival Game, 128,999. 

When he last checked the leaderboard, his score had just barely passed 90,000.

In other words, he’d just racked up nearly 40,000 points in the short time since then.

He picked up the loot on the ground and checked the number of Level 2 Beast Crystals in his backpack. Sure enough, there were more Level 2 Swifts.

A Level 1 Swift is worth only 1 point, so when he spotted one in the air, he didn’t bother chasing it down.

Digging up the tree is crucial.

It’s a bit of a challenge to dig it up intact without damaging any of the tree’s roots or bark.

The flock of swifts hovering in the air had no idea what this damned mage was up to. They watched as he placed his palm on the ancient black tree, magic surging through him, and a moment later—

Where’s that huge tree of mine? 

Gone?

Although Level 1 and 2 mutated creatures aren’t exactly intelligent, they can still understand simple things like “my home is gone.”

In that instant, Qiyu heard countless angry chirps, and the swifts—who had just started to get a little smarter—charged at him again.

【Cockroach Taste Is So Weird: Report! The top player’s points are skyrocketing again! They’ve already surpassed 140,000! And they’re still rising rapidly!】

【Liver Emperor: Help! Please, just shut up, okay? Just looking at this makes me feel a little queasy! My blood’s boiling, and my grinding power is surging through my whole body! Why can’t I find that black tree?!】 

【Reaching for the Moon: There’s really nothing we can do. Logically speaking, the tree in the picture posted by Money should be huge and very conspicuous. If you can’t find it, you just can’t. Let’s just say you were a little unlucky.】

【My fate is in my own hands, Not The Heavens: The rate at which his points are increasing—it’s definitely not just one tree. Surely all the black trees in the Forest of the Whole Star Forest aren’t just going to him, are they?】 

He was so jealous that even my speech returned to normal. 

But no one was paying attention to him right now—everyone was too busy feeling jealous.

This feeling of watching others rack up points while he was powerless to do anything—it’s damn painful.

Qiyu found himself growing fonder of the swift the more he looked at it. 

Not only do they themselves turn into warm points, but their meat can be sold to District 88, their feathers can be made into down jackets, and even while they’re alive, they keep him company while he practices magic. 

He felt as though his control over magic had risen to an entirely new level.

When casting spells, the flow of magic through his body felt smoother and more efficient—he had been subconsciously adjusting his technique to avoid running out of magic. 

This was the sort of thing only a half-baked mage like him, with his self-taught background, would dare to do.

Such subtle control and adjustment of the body’s magical energy is something ordinary mages usually only begin to attempt after advancing to the rank of senior mage. 

When one’s magical proficiency is too low, doing this can easily result in injury.

Since he had been using water arrow spells all along, and found it boring to see the same thing over and over, Qiyu had taught himself to transform the form of his water magic.

As a result, in addition to the arrow-shaped Water Arrow spells, there were now droplet-shaped “Water Arrows,” feather-shaped “Water Arrows,” and the gold-thread fish-shaped “Water Arrows” he had just seen. 

He was having fun with it. 

And so, after fending off a wave of rain swifts, he began digging at a tree right in front of them. 

He’d dig a bit to provoke the swifts’ anger, then stop to kill another wave.

After finishing them off, he went back to digging at the tree. 

Players in the regional channel who had been glued to the leaderboard felt their spirits plummet.

They watched as his points would skyrocket one moment, then settle back into a steady climb, only to skyrocket again, and then settle back down…

【Irritable Brother: It wasn’t this thrilling when I was trading stocks on Earth.】 

【Cockroach Taste Is So Weird: Just looking at this leaderboard is making me short of breath—I wonder what kind of exciting life our number-one big shot is living.】 

【Liver Emperor: Wake up! When the top player’s points stabilize, they’re still rising faster than everyone else’s. Why aren’t you guys grinding for points instead of just hanging out in this channel?】 

【Cockroach Taste Is So Weird: We little players haven’t gone out. When swifts attack, we kill them; when there aren’t any swifts around, we just hang out in groups, grinding points to kill time.】

【Obtained 1 Mysterious Ancient Tree of Lost Life.】

Qiyu opened his backpack and saw that the number of Mysterious Ancient Trees had already reached 65. 

Subtracting the five he dug up yesterday, he had dug up a total of 60 ancient trees today. 

These trees were truly massive; it seemed that such a vast-looking grove actually contained only a few dozen trees. 

There weren’t many swifts left in the sky. They screeched in confusion, anger, and helplessness, but ultimately didn’t dare to attack Qiyu again. 

“I’m tired, too,” Qiyu muttered. 

A sudden gust of wind swept past him, and a pair of beautiful blue wings appeared out of thin air.

“Goodbye, my dear swifts. I hope to see you again in my domain.” The wind carried Qiyu into the air and flew toward his domain. 

He returned a little earlier than he had yesterday. Back at his territory, he gathered up all the scattered light.

Qiyu exhaled and opened the leaderboard.

First place: I Love Survival Game. Points: 163,680. 

Second place: Reaching for the Moon. Points: 49,008. 

……

After this round, the players trailing behind him wouldn’t even come close to his score. Without a moment’s hesitation, Qiyu opened the Points Store and redeemed a Level 3 Shelter blueprint. He then clicked on the Trading section.

All 20 Quantity Towers were sold out.

【Obtained 1,660 blue-quality wood, obtained 340 blue-quality stone materials.】

He wasn’t particularly surprised by this disparity: Server 01 was located in the Star Forest, where obtaining wood was indeed far easier than obtaining stone materials. Getting 340 units of stone materials had already exceeded his expectations.

Upgrading a Level 3 Shelter requires a total of 600 units of blue-quality stone materials.

He sent a message to God Has No Form:

【I Love Survival Game: I’m short 260 units of blue-quality stone materials. Do you have any?】

The other party responded almost immediately:

【God Has No Form: Did you get your shelter blueprint?】

【I Love Survival Game: Yeah.】

【God Has No Form: I’ve reported it—there’s a cheater!】

【Your friend “God Has No Form” has sent you a trade request.】