On the Cold River City's Flood Dragon Ridge map, a natural vein of raw gold stretched for dozens of miles to the southwest of the ridge. At that moment, players bearing different guild emblems on their heads gathered around this seemingly endless vein, swinging pickaxes at the solid rock, sending sparks flying with each strike.
"Clang!" "Clang!"
The pickaxes struck the hard stone with metallic clangs, rising and falling like a symphony.
"I get it now. No wonder I couldn't attack the raw gold vein—I wasn't using the right tool!"
Watching the pickaxes in these players' hands, Jiang Yuan suddenly understood. He quickly pulled one from his backpack and gripped it.
"Hey!"
Imitating the others, Jiang Yuan raised the pickaxe high with both hands, let out a breath, and slammed the tip hard into the rock before him!
A damage number of "-1" appeared on the raw gold vein in front of him, and a few ore fragments scattered.
Jiang Yuan bent down, picked up the fallen pieces, and examined them closely. They were hard, white with a touch of ochre—a mix of brown and red.
This wasn't pure gold yet, just raw ore mixed with white impurities. Jiang Yuan swung the pickaxe again, this time knocking off a piece of solid brown-red metal.
The metal didn't fall to the ground but went straight into Jiang Yuan's backpack.
"Ding! Congratulations, you've obtained Raw Gold*1!"
A system prompt sounded in his ear, and the raw gold count in the upper-right task bar jumped from 0/1500 to 1/1500!
With the first piece in hand, Jiang Yuan calculated it had taken about a few seconds.
"If each piece takes three seconds, then 1500 pieces should take just over an hour!"
Jiang Yuan did the math in his head and found the time wasn't too bad. So he raised his pickaxe and started digging with gusto!
-1 -1 -1 ...
Damage numbers kept popping up from the raw gold vein before him, ore fragments flying everywhere. Jiang Yuan, like the hundreds of players around him, became a miner on Flood Dragon Ridge.
"Phew!"
After about a hundred swings, he had only gathered six pieces of pure raw gold. He bent over, panting heavily.
"Screw this, I'm done!"
Just as Jiang Yuan finished resting and was about to pick up his pickaxe again, he heard a nearby warrior player from the Ten Thousand League curse loudly and casually throw a skill at the raw gold vein!
-1
A white crescent of light slashed into the vein, still dealing just 1 point of damage.
"How is that possible? That skill should do two thousand damage!"
The warrior player stared at the damage he'd just dealt, disbelief written all over his face as he muttered.
"Hey, buddy, did you forget to switch weapons?"
Someone nearby immediately reminded him.
"Oh, right!"
The warrior from Ten Thousand League looked down at the pickaxe in his hand and suddenly understood. Then, with a flash of white light, a gleaming broadsword appeared in his grip.
"Moonlight Slash!"
He raised the sword with both hands and brought it down hard on the raw gold vein. To his disappointment, even with the weapon swap, the same skill still only dealt 1 point of damage!
"Alright, looks like skills don't work on the vein. I'll just—"
"Wait!"
Jiang Yuan, seeing that the other player's skill couldn't effectively damage the vein, shook his head in disappointment. He muttered to himself and raised his pickaxe, ready to settle in for slow mining, when a sudden idea sparked in his mind!
"Whoosh!"
To test his theory, Jiang Yuan first summoned a Steppe Wolf.
"Go!"
He then ordered the Steppe Wolf to attack the raw gold vein.
"Whoosh, whoosh!"
A cross-shaped green flash passed by, and just like that other guy, the Steppe Wolf dealt only 1 point of damage to the vein.
A few seconds later, another Steppe Wolf appeared beside Jiang Yuan, flanking him on either side.
"Attack!"
Jiang Yuan gave the command again, and both wolves struck the vein almost simultaneously. But to his disappointment, even though both attacks landed, only one "-1" damage number appeared!
"Sigh! Is there no shortcut?"
Disappointment flickered in Jiang Yuan's eyes. He sighed and gripped the pickaxe handle again, but his unwillingness to fail made him let go and try once more!
"Summon Wild Boar! Summon Sand River Turtle! Summon Steppe Wolf!"
This time, Jiang Yuan summoned three different types of creatures and ordered them to attack!
"Snort!" "Moo!" "Growl!"
Three distinct sounds rang out as the Wild Boar, Sand River Turtle, and Steppe Wolf simultaneously struck the raw gold vein!
-1 -1 -1
"Haha! It worked!"
Seeing three damage numbers pop up in a row, Jiang Yuan was overjoyed—his experiment had succeeded!
When the same type of creature attacked the vein, the system automatically judged it as Jiang Yuan using one skill, so it couldn't stack damage. But now, with three different types attacking at once, the system treated it as three separate skills being used simultaneously—a small exploit of the system's bug!
A minute later, six different creatures stood around Jiang Yuan: a Wild Boar, a Steppe Wolf, a Mang Mountain Bear, a Thunder Marsh Bull, a Sand River Turtle, and a Dragon Beard Tiger.
Including Jiang Yuan himself, that meant seven simultaneous attacks on the raw gold vein!
"Three, two, one, attack!"
Counting down in his head, Jiang Yuan swung his pickaxe alongside his six summoned creatures, all striking the vein at once!
-1 -1 -1 ...
"Ding! Congratulations, you've obtained Raw Gold*3!" "Ding! Congratulations, you've obtained Raw Gold*3!" "Ding! Congratulations, you've obtained Raw Gold*2!" "Ding! Congratulations, you've obtained Raw Gold*1!" "Ding! Congratulations, you've obtained Raw Gold*8!" "Ding! Congratulations, you've obtained Raw Gold*6!" "Ding! Congratulations, you've obtained Raw Gold*5!"
With seven damage numbers appearing, seven prompts rang in Jiang Yuan's ears! In a single attack, he had gathered 30 pieces of raw gold!
"Hahaha! Isn't this way faster?"
Jiang Yuan laughed heartily, raised his pickaxe again, and happily got to work mining with his creatures!
"Thud! Thud! Thud!"
The impacts echoed continuously, especially from the thick-skinned Sand River Turtle and the massive Mang Mountain Bear—each of their strikes made the ground tremble violently!
Soon, the commotion around Jiang Yuan caught the attention of nearby miners. They turned to look at him, their gazes freezing as a single question formed in their minds.
"Damn! This guy isn't mining—he's literally blasting the mountain!"