Poison God's Heritage

"Is that even allowed?" the commentator asked.

Eccentric Long shrugged, "The merchant there acts as an arbiter, as long as he didn't say no, then it is all within the rules of the competition."

The commentator sighed and said, "I guess, although it feels like cheating, Du Shen didn't break any rules. He didn't use any of his personal power or actively stop or hamper the wave from attacking his base. All he did was make puppets go beyond their determined level. I guess that your earlier assumption that Du Shen will be unstoppable in this trial aren't wrong."

"I won't lie, I did believe that Du Shen will have the upper hand here, due to his familiarity with creation and craft. But not to this overbearing extent. Not only did he upgrade low tier puppets to become destructive and powerful enough to clear an entire wave in three seconds. But also, he didn't waste a single point so far upgrading his base. I wonder what the reward will be?"

"I also wonder," the commentator said, "Because there actually is a factor that improves the received rewards per wave. From what I could see in the secret rules of this event. If one were to defeat a wave, the pointing system rewards speed and efficiency not only survival. How much the base takes in damage and how many of the operable tools, puppets and turrets included are damaged and functional.

With Du Shen having cleared the wave in absurd record time, I suppose he will be awarded with the maximum points for this trial." The commentator said.

"That should put him up ahead of everyone in the tower defense fight. What about the rest, from what I see a few had already taken a lot of damage," Eccentric Long said.

"Indeed, from what we see, many cultivators are at a loss, the fifteen puppets given to them by the merchant can indeed defend the base against the first wave. However, they are technically at the level of commoners being sent to fight against dire wolves, casualties are guaranteed but not defeat.

The game was designed to make cultivators realize that they'll need to sacrifice some of their forces for a measly amount of points at the start, then they'll use those points to minmax their base." The commentator said.

"Indeed, there are other cultivators who are more cautious, for example, Zhang Tian, the scholar, he actually taught his puppets the art of formations, and applied it to fight against the incoming wave. There were almost no casualties but one, and a few injured puppets that can be easily repaired at the merchant for a small price in points," Xiao Du interjected.

"Yes, also the Demon Blade, who although is powerful in person, had also used a wave tactic to make his puppets fight in waves, sending five puppets supported by five more, and the remaining five were there to support any injured puppet and take their spot. Although slow it was effective in clearing the waves with no losses but a bit of injuries," Eccentric Long explained.

"With the first wave almost done, what do you think the cultivators will be purchasing from the merchant?" the commentator asked.

"I could take a guess and say, that most cultivators will opt in improving their puppets and repairing them, then use the remaining points to upgrade their base, some might even have enough points to recruit more puppets," Eccentric Long said.

"That is indeed the normal course of action, however, we have an abnormal person with an abnormal amount of points, do you dare guess what he'll use them for?" The commentator asked.

Eccentric Long raised both arms in surrender, "I wouldn't dare, I have little knowledge when it comes to puppeteering not to mention Du Shen had shown great flexibility and an unorthodox methodological thinking process,"

"A lot of fancy words to say that you don't know," Xiao Du snorted in laughter.

The commentator and Eccentric long both couldn't help but laugh, and focus their eyes on Du Shen's screen.

***

"This is strange," I said.

"What is?" the merchant asked.

"The points, why does it say 9,970 it's such an odd number," I asked.

"Oh, it is because you managed to achieve a hidden achievement. Damage that puppets take is usually subtracted from the overall possible point reward. Not only that, even time is deducted, so the longer you take the less points you can get. Damage to structures is also subtracted.

And the more materials and tools you have in your base the higher the point gain and at the same time point loss," the merchant said.

"What is the maximum score?" I asked.

"For the first round… it's ten thousand," he said.

I thought for a moment and said, "So basically, each second wasted in the wave is ten points loss, and since no puppet was damaged, and no structure was damage and I only took three seconds I almost got full score. Wait, you said that the more material I have the more points I'm bound to lose if they're damaged. Does that mean the more I improve my points the more overall points I could gain?"

"In essence yes, not only that, starting from the next wave, beasts' worth points will start appearing, killing them will award you bonus points that you can use on the fly to build or even save for later," he said.

"I see, so I technically need to waste points building stuff, so I could earn even more due to the overall value of my fortress. Good to know, anyway show me your wears," I said.

"Since you have a bit more than ten thousand points, I'll only show available materials that can be bought at that price range." He said.

He then began showing me a list of all materials I can use. Some were walls that would be erected around the base the moment I buy them, and others included furnaces and smelting facilities costing about 5,000 points each. The price was too much for their immediate value so I declined those.

I then focused on the military tools that can be bought. Mainly the turrets that would act as assault force to reduce the number of incoming beasts.