Boom—

  A flash of white light, and Ye Bai appeared in a tunnel. As soon as he landed, the ground began to shake.

  In the dim tunnel, stones kept falling, raising a cloud of dust.

  A rough man's voice shouted,

  "Run!"

  "The mine is collapsing!!"

  Another tremor shook the earth, and stones rolled, completely blocking Ye Bai's way out.

  Behind Ye Bai came the sound of a woman sobbing.

  "Save my husband, cough... he went deep into the mine to earn money for my medicine... sob sob..."

  The choked cries echoed in the tunnel, eerily chilling, making one's skin crawl.

  "Would you like to accept the quest [Medusa's Request]?

  [Quest Content]: Bring back Medusa's husband or his belongings.

  [Quest Reward]: Automatic level rating upon quest submission."

  "Accept."

  Only after accepting the quest could Ye Bai proceed in the tunnel and start the challenge.

  "Thank you, kind person."

  The crying behind the pile of stones disappeared, and a gust of cold wind blew past the back of Ye Bai's head, leaving him alone in the tunnel.

  "This level's design even includes a backstory, interesting."

  When the Eternal Tower first appeared, people treated it as an online game for a reason.

  Levels three to six are like traditional RPG games, offering a quest under a cliché backstory to enhance player enjoyment and motivation.

  Ye Bai looked ahead, not acting rashly.

  He had 6 hours and the Eye of Insight to help him, making clearing the level a certainty.

  However, achieving a 100% completion rate was what Ye Bai needed to consider!

  [Method to achieve 100% exploration: First reach 99% exploration, then gain 1% more.]

  Easier said than done.

  "Great hint, next time don't hint like this."

  Ye Bai surveyed his surroundings, trying to gather more information.

  [This is an abandoned mine, rumored to have man-eating monsters. Miners who attempted to repel the monsters eventually turned to dust.]

  [You are now in the first grid.]

  [Straight ahead, you can obtain 100L of pure drinking water.]

  [To the left front, a giant lizard is guarding a campfire. It is friendly and will not attack you unless you can communicate in the complex lizard language or happen to have the SSS Rank Talent Eye of Insight.]

  [To the right front, damn, it's dark, nothing there.]

  Three choices lay before Ye Bai, and he ruled out the last option.

  "Pure water is useless to me, but with my RPG game experience, such items usually have effects later on."

  Otherwise, there wouldn't be 100L of pure water placed on Ye Bai's path for no reason.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  "If it's just about needing water, I could try water element spells."

  Ye Bai wasn't a water mage, but he carried related spell scrolls.

  "Water Ball!"

  Ye Bai tore open a scroll, and a water ball hovered in his palm before falling.

  As soon as the water touched Ye Bai's skin, it began to evaporate instantly, disappearing!

  [Mine rules: Magic cannot create 'water' for cleaning or drinking!]

  There were special rules!

  This made the value of 100L of pure water skyrocket!

  "But the lizard can communicate, clearly holding special clues..."

  Compared to water, the lizard seemed more rare!

  If it were anyone else choosing, they'd undoubtedly pick the pure water!

  Oh, Ye Bai forgot they had no choice but to guess.

  Ah, the blissful dilemma.

  "Choose the lizard."

  Ye Bai had a bold idea in his mind, wanting to try it out.

  He could only move forward in the grid, unable to move sideways, but that didn't mean the lizard couldn't.

  If the lizard could help him fetch water, Ye Bai would gain both clues and water!

  Only children make choices; adults want it all!

  Ye Bai headed toward the left front tunnel, moving to the next grid.

  Second grid.

  In the empty mine, the campfire crackled, and a giant lizard lay resting near it.

  Seeing Ye Bai's arrival, it merely glanced at him before turning away, losing interest.

  "Indeed, it won't attack me, a neutral NPC or creature."

  "I need to communicate with it in lizard language to see what clues I can gather!"

  Lizard language characters appeared before Ye Bai, and he was instantly exasperated.

  [Sorry, I forgot you don't know lizard language.]

  [Converted to phonetic pronunciation mode.]

  Following the subtitles' prompts, Ye Bai spoke:

  "Waibi Babu?"

  What the heck! Is this lizard language?!

  I've long suspected that Crazy Dave from Plants vs. Zombies is actually a lizard person!

  "Waibi Babu!!"

  The lizard suddenly rose from the ground, looking at Ye Bai with eager eyes. It had been countless years since it last encountered someone who could communicate with it!

  "Aba Aba..."

  Ye Bai communicated with the giant lizard in lizard language, and the giant lizard's words were translated by the Eye of Insight.

  Soon, Ye Bai understood what the lizard was trying to convey.

  "Run, telling me to run?"

  "A monster that petrifies, one I can't defeat?"

  Really? I don't believe it! Ye Bai looked at his 30 layers of readiness and felt there was nothing to fear.

  In the giant lizard's description, the term "petrifying monster" repeatedly appeared.

  Even its left hind leg had turned to stone, making movement extremely slow.

  'She'?

  This was the first time Ye Bai had heard of it!

  A female monster?

  If you want to talk about this, then I'm all ears.

  Ye Bai looked at the giant lizard's hind leg and asked,

  "Is there a way to heal this wound?"

  Ye Bai had gathered a lot of information from the giant lizard and tried to help it.

  Giant Lizard: "Once the monster is dead, all petrification will cease, no other way."

  Its intelligence wasn't high, repeating the same few phrases, urging Ye Bai to run.

  "Alright, I'll deal with her later, consider it avenging you."

  Then, Ye Bai expressed his desire for the lizard to help him fetch water.

  "There's water in the nearby pit?!"

  Without even needing Ye Bai's reminder, the giant lizard burrowed into the ground to fetch water.

  "I bet right!"

  Ye Bai gained clues from the giant lizard and relied on it to retrieve pure water, achieving two goals at once.

  When the giant lizard returned, the water jug was only half full, about 50L.

  "I'm too thirsty..."

  The giant lizard explained, "Drinking water can alleviate the pain of petrification and slow its spread."

  "Water is the source of life."

  "Should I leave you some?"

  Since the water was fetched by the lizard, Ye Bai felt it was inappropriate to take it all.

  The giant lizard shook its head, "I've drunk enough for the next 100 years."

  Goodness, Ye Bai exclaimed, "Goodness!"

  "Alright then, lizard buddy, I'm off, see you later."

  With 50L of water, Ye Bai bid farewell to the giant lizard and set off again, heading to the second grid.

  [Straight ahead, you will encounter a meaningless battle.]

  [Left front....]

  With the help of the Eye of Insight and Ye Bai's years of RPG game experience, he could nearly make the optimal choice for each grid!

  The exploration rate was rapidly increasing.

  1%...5%..10%!

  Ye Bai passed through nine grids in succession and was preparing to move to the eleventh grid when something unexpected appeared before him:

  A message board?!

  [Message Board: Placed every ten grids to provide valuable information for those who come later.]

  [Leave a message here, and all travelers passing by can see it. Each message board has only one chance to leave a message.]

  The dungeon on the third floor of the Eternal Tower was essentially a single-player dungeon, but the message board allowed players to chat across servers, making it a popular feature among players.

  Ye Bai opened the message board and found that messages could even be liked!

  Messages with high likes would be placed at the front for more people to see.

  The first thing that caught Ye Bai's eye was a message from a Supreme Being!

  NO.1 [Nightmare]: 'First, leaving my mark.'

  Likes: 12,454,961,679

  Typical Nightmare, always unreliable in unreliable places.

  Ye Bai looked from top to bottom.

  NO.2 [Traceless]: 'Is 100% exploration really that hard?'

  Likes: 10,486,145,710

  Ye Bai nodded, thinking to himself:

  "It is indeed hard because you didn't achieve it either."

  Before Ye Bai, the highest exploration rate for humans was only 99%!

  Messages here had only one chance and couldn't be edited or deleted.

  "A major social death scene for a Supreme Being, making bold claims but failing to deliver...."

  Ye Bai browsed two pages of messages and summarized some patterns.

  Early players tended to grab the first comment, posting trivial messages.

  After all, the first ten grids weren't difficult and didn't require special attention.

  Later players even treated it as a wall for confessions and a tree hole for complaints.

  [XXX I love you]

  [Secretly eating poop, no one will notice!]

  [One like, no porn for a day!]

  [Supporting every dream, sending you up!]

  [...]

  "Quite interesting, it feels like a game."

  Ye Bai pondered, preparing to write something on the message board.

  Since he was here, it would be impolite not to write anything.

  "This thing will display the Eternal ID once posted."

  "I need to write something classy, even if it's just for show, or else I'll be the one socially dead in the future!"

  With 'Traceless' as a cautionary tale, Ye Bai felt the need to be cautious with his message.

  Otherwise, his message would be left here for ridicule and social death for ten thousand years.

  After a moment of thought,

  Ye Bai opened the message board, his expression serious, and wrote a line.

  [Asura: "Water is the source of life."]

  "Done, time to move on."

  Ye Bai closed the message board and continued his journey in the Eternal Tower.

  On the message board, as soon as Asura's name appeared, it sparked a storm!

  "Asura is on the third floor of the Eternal Tower!"

  "He left a message, 'Water is the source of life'!"

  "This is Asura calling for everyone to protect the environment and cherish water...."

  "Upstairs, with a Battle King's [Great Water Spell], there's plenty of water, wake up!"

  [...]

  Regardless, these six words quickly dominated major platforms' trending headlines, maintaining high popularity!

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