Do You Even Know What Accelerated Mining Means

"The match has begun!"

"The final round's map is [Immortal-Demon Plateau], a classic 8-player battleground!"

"Lu Ze has spawned in the middle of the northern camp. This position... he's sandwiched between two sects!"

"To his left is the Qingshan Sect, and to his right is the Wuji Sword Sect."

"Junior Brother Lu is under a lot of pressure!"

...

Zhong Yi's commentary was impassioned.

However, those inside the illusionary realm—Lu Ze and the others—couldn't hear it.

Zhong Yi was providing real-time updates. On the first day of commentary, a dispute had erupted between the Tianxuan Sect and the Wuji Sword Sect over this very issue.

The Tianxuan Sect accused the Wuji Sword Sect of using the commentary to anticipate their ambush, leading to their defeat.

Since then, a sound barrier had been erected around the contestants' area during matches.

"The six players' disciple laborers have started mining! Wait, no—Junior Brother Lu's should be called slaves!"

Under Zhong Yi's deliberate control, the screens simultaneously displayed the base camps of all six players.

Each player started with four disciple laborers.

For demonic factions, the basic production unit was called [Slaves].

The five elite disciples all followed the same routine: they corralled their four laborers and sent them toward the spirit mines near their bases.

Only Lu Ze's screen was different.

As his four slaves made their way to the mines, they split off one by one, each heading to separate mining nodes.

"Haha, Junior Brother Lu's slaves seem to have developed sentience—they're running off on their own!"

Zhong Yi joked, not taking it seriously.

In the early game, everyone's actions were nearly identical.

Mine, recruit more laborers, then mine again.

Yet, within just a few moments, Zhong Yi noticed something unusual.

"What's going on? Lu Ze's slaves seem to be mining faster than the others?"

Zhong Yi was a veteran of [Immortal Realm Domination].

Mining was an automated task for laborers—they simply ran back and forth between the mines and the base.

Everyone's mining actions were almost perfectly synchronized.

But Lu Ze's slaves were noticeably quicker—half a beat ahead of the rest!

Especially at the two farthest spirit mines, where the slaves maintained full speed without slowing down at all!

Nearly everyone in the audience had played [Immortal Realm Domination].

This anomaly left them baffled.

"What's happening? Why is he faster than the others?"

"Laborers slow down when delivering spirit stones—why don't his?"

"Is this a demonic faction advantage?"

"Impossible! I've seen 'Mad Foe' play—his slaves move just like laborers!"

"Cheating! Cheating!"

"The illusion creator must have tweaked the numbers for himself!"

"Don't make baseless accusations. Junior Brother Lu isn't that kind of person."

"Look closely... Junior Brother Lu's micro is insane!"

...

Zhong Yi zoomed in on Lu Ze's screen.

Now, not only was the game visible, but so was Lu Ze himself in the command room.

Using his fingers as a mouse, Lu Ze executed rapid commands across the interface.

The menu options from his past life had been transformed into incantations and spells.

What he was demonstrating was a classic technique from [StarCraft]—

"Worker Splitting" and "Efficient Mining."

If left to their own devices, laborers (or slaves) would automatically gather spirit stones.

But this often led to inefficiencies—like a worker turning away from a mine when its inventory was full.

Lu Ze had instinctively split his slaves at the start, manually assigning each to a specific mining node to prevent such waste.

Of course, this was just the basics.

There were finer details, like optimizing the workers' entry angles to minimize travel distance and maximize efficiency.

Compared to splitting, efficient mining required even more precision.

All units—including laborers—had acceleration and deceleration mechanics.

They sped up while moving toward a target, then slowed down as they approached.

When returning to base to deliver spirit stones, laborers would decelerate and turn around just before reaching the drop-off point.

But this animation could be canceled with precise inputs.

The principle was simple:

When a laborer was returning to base, manually command it to move past the base.

As it neared the entrance—still accelerating because the target point was beyond—issue a new "deliver stones" command.

The laborer would stop instantly, completing the handover without wasting time.

It sounded easy, but timing was everything.

A single misstep would negate the benefit, and the effect only compounded with multiple workers executing the maneuver repeatedly.

Pulling it off flawlessly was incredibly difficult.

Yet Lu Ze made it look effortless.

"Just received a message from Elder Lin of the Tianxuan Sect. He has confirmed there are no signs of tampering within the illusion. Rest assured!"

"Based on my analysis, Junior Brother Lu likely optimized the slaves' movement paths to reduce travel time... Such meticulous planning is truly impressive!"

Faced with the crowd's skepticism, Zhong Yi swiftly defended Lu Ze.

But even without his explanation, the doubts had already begun to fade.

One look at Lu Ze's lightning-fast fingers was enough to understand the sheer skill involved.

At this moment, in Lu Ze's sect, one new slave after another began to appear.

"All five righteous faction players have recruited new labor disciples, and Junior Brother Lu is no exception… Hah, I thought Junior Brother Lu would come up with something unconventional. What a pity!"

Zhong Yi sighed dramatically.

Truthfully, he was just trying to lighten the mood.

In the early stages of the game, even the most difficult demonic faction AI had to focus on development.

Without resources, how could one muster an army?

You couldn’t possibly send slaves to battle, could you?

"Junior Brother Lu's slaves are heading toward the spirit… Wait a minute!!"

Zhong Yi’s jaw dropped mid-sentence.

"Junior Brother Lu's slaves… are running outside the sect!?"

"What does this mean? Is he using them to scout?"

"Hold on! That direction leads to…"

"Qingshan Sect!!"

...

Meanwhile, at the Qingshan Sect’s base.

Xu Huoyao was silently grinding for resources.

After the first three days of competition, he had suffered quite a few humiliations.

Since Yang Zhengxin disapproved of "Immortal Realm Domination," they couldn’t openly train and battle like the other sects.

They had to practice in secret.

As a result, their skill level had fallen far behind the others.

Xu Huoyao himself was actually quite capable, but his fellow disciples dragged him down.

Out of three days of battles, they had only won once, leaving them dead last in points.

Now, free from those deadweights, he was determined to prove himself.

The Qingshan Sect’s passive ability dealt 15% extra damage to demonic factions.

In sect wars, this passive was utterly useless, but in the finals, it was a god-tier skill.

"If I can just kill that guy, my points will definitely skyrocket… Just you wait!"

Xu Huoyao muttered to himself as he frantically recruited labor disciples and mined resources.

He was dead set on crushing Lu Ze.

This was his chance for redemption!

Just then—

He suddenly noticed three slaves dressed in demonic faction robes standing right outside his base.

"What the hell?"

Xu Huoyao was stunned.

When facing high-difficulty AI, the demonic faction would often launch aggressive early attacks—but only after stabilizing their economy.

Who the hell rushes in right at the start?

How did Lu Ze even afford troops this early?

Xu Huoyao panicked.

But upon closer inspection, seeing only three slaves, he relaxed.

What could three slaves possibly do?

Fight?

Their pitiful attack power wouldn’t even scratch an itch.

Then it hit him—

Lu Ze was just trying to mess with him!

If he sent his labor disciples to kill them, their movement speed was the same—they’d never catch up.

It would only slow down his mining progress.

If he recruited novice swordsmen, sure, he could kill them, but building a training hall now would waste resources and still hinder mining.

"I get it! You’re just trying to sabotage me, to drag Qingshan Sect down to fourth place…"

"Well, I won’t fall for it!"

"Go ahead, do your worst! Unless… you’re here to mine spirit stones for me? Hahaha—"

Xu Huoyao’s laughter abruptly died.

He watched in horror as Lu Ze’s slaves began hammering away at a structure right outside his base.

"Are you insane?! You’d rather crash both our economies than let me win?!"

Xu Huoyao cursed and immediately ordered his labor disciples to construct a training hall.

He assumed Lu Ze was building a barracks at his doorstep to force a mutual economic collapse.

But when the foundation took shape, Xu Huoyao froze.

"Is that…"

"An arrow tower!?"