Libra Tavern.
Faced with the overly gamified scenes inside the tavern, the artist Enzo realized one thing:
Only a god can defeat another god.
Perhaps they are merely pawns, while those with the names of constellations are the players.
It's unclear whether the commander in front of them is a pawn of a certain constellation or truly a strong human ally.
Enzo obviously didn't talk much compared to others.
This time, it was an SSS rating and they received a hidden task reward. Wen Xishu is currently upgrading the tavern.
But the others' experience is — we entered the third level, we awoke, we won.
Although Nico made contributions, it really felt as if the commander ventured alone, and we inexplicably won.
So, there was no joy of barely winning after putting in all their effort.
Everyone was a bit bewildered, realizing Enzo was not on the same level as them. They were realists, but Enzo was strong enough to face curses alone.
Thus, it was hard to communicate.
The tavern was very quiet.
Everyone had their own thoughts.
As a hacker, Borg inquired about information from the previous stage, feeling the change in the difficulty curve was too drastic.
In the third level, without Nico, there would almost surely have been total annihilation, since the final boss turned into a teammate, and based on the boss's abilities, one could deduce the outcome.
"If Enzo awakes, even with Nico, we wouldn't be able to win..."
"In the fourth level... is there really a need for people like us with ordinary abilities? Will I be discarded?"
The excess in population quota was something Borg was very concerned about.
Others felt the same.
Enzo, on the other hand, didn't think he would die, since his abilities were far ahead of other heroes. But he also cared about solving the problem in...
Wen Xishu remained silent, as though unaware of others.
The options in his vision were invisible to others.
At this moment, there was no joy in the tavern like there was after passing the first two levels; everyone was a bit anxious.
Wen Xishu had achieved an SSS rating and naturally already knew the content of the fourth level.
"The Land of Division. Every death is a new birth. Please find the power to stop its endless regeneration... otherwise, it will be invincible, it will devour everything."
This is the fourth level.
The difficulty curve was indeed unreasonable, and Wen Xishu seemed to have guessed the situation of the fourth level.
But he was troubled about whether to make precise recruitments.
Wen Xishu currently has 170,000 tavern coins in total.
It's worth mentioning that there indeed exist ways to increase the population quota —
[Upgrade Tavern Expedition Team Size: 150,000 Tavern Coins.]
But the problem is that once you upgrade the team size, you can't make precise recruitments.
"150,000... just for one population."
Wen Xishu frowned.
Going back and forth, tumbling once more, and then correcting one's negative population value by turning it around, would make the excess even more severe.
"Without precise recruitment, the difficulty will inevitably spike."
In the third level, Wen Xishu actually lucked out with the Nightmare Forgiveness sequence, but without it... then Nico was the key of all keys.
"Now it seems that precise recruitment is very necessary."
He escaped a dilemma with a cheat, but the game process is long enough that skipping classes means makeup classes.
"Increase population, or sacrifice someone for precise recruitment?"
Wen Xishu's expression was very calm, not seeming to be in a quandary.
That's because he knew everyone was watching him, and he didn't want anyone to notice — that the tavern itself is also a game of life and death.
"I have proficiency and Mad Dice as two cheating methods, I can even loan Tower Power Value to summon Sagittarius' divine punishment... even if the enemy is strong, I can theoretically deal with it without recruitment."
Actually, Wen Xishu realized that the level difficulty spiked, and old cards couldn't keep up with the strength.
But Wen Xishu had already adopted the no-abandonment strategy, so he felt that temporarily abandoning it was not suitable.
After thinking for a long time, Wen Xishu smiled and said:
"Well, the population issue is resolved. Because the last level was another great victory, there are a lot of resources, and I compared for a while the optimal strategy."
"For now, our population quota is 5/5."
Enzo already knew that Wen Xishu, the commander, had somehow altered the population value, so seven people counted as five.
Wen Xishu said:
"Next, we have to head to the fourth level. The enemies in this level will probably be very tricky."
Colonel Devon noticed there was no sound outside the door this time:
"Commander, if a time comes where someone needs to be sacrificed to push the frontline, please choose to let me die."
Colonel Devon's thoughts were rather meticulous.
This time, Wen Xishu did not recruit others, which means the commander might have made some sort of compromise.
Wen Xishu smiled and said:
"That's not the case, I always believe that the boat will straighten when it reaches the bridge. Ladies and gentlemen, our team size is getting larger, which is a good thing."
"Let us forget the shadow of the curse and head to the next place."
In the first and second levels, Wen Xishu realized the curse's influence on certain people.
After delving deeper into the third level, Wen Xishu found the artist and got to understand the big picture.
He had a feeling that the fourth level might not be the last level, but it would definitely uncover more secrets, secrets of Libra, and surely Sagittarius is also interested.
"This level doesn't require recruitment, so I saved some costs because for this level, Enzo and I should be able to handle it."