Chapter 342: Chapter 218: Genealogy Relies Entirely on Counting Growth Rings

If you die once, you have to start over from the beginner’s point, which makes Yao Mao extremely cautious when playing.

Watching his every step!

Afraid of stepping into a trap or being ambushed by some monster, he prioritizes careful actions with survival as the main focus.

Yet, even so, he died no less than four or five times in the second randomly generated map before finally reaching the third level...

The third level’s map is also random.

Perhaps by coincidence, it was another swamp map this time, with the monsters and traps strengthened, but Yao Mao was not unfamiliar with a sapling next to a spike trap.

Of course!

That was the Ancestor Tree left by his second death! His first major piece of loot, a Fine Level dagger, was still hanging on it.

Unfortunately, due to the increased difficulty of the swamp map this time, retrieving the dagger was useless as it couldn’t outperform the knife he currently wielded.

Death births the Ancestor Tree!

Revival leads to continued exploration...

Due to a lack of deaths and random map generation, Yao Mao actually hadn’t encountered many of his previous Ancestor Trees from past deaths.

No choice!

With a dozen or twenty maps, one would have to die on each map at least once to confidently say they could inherit the "legacy" each time they venture.

Moreover, the legacy depends on circumstances.

The fruits from the Ancestor Tree are limited, making it impossible to inherit everything — only one item or skill from before death.

Perhaps as he progresses, the Ancestor Tree will grow taller and bigger, and the number of fruits will gradually increase...

As he played on, without noticing, night had already fallen.

Under his mother’s urging, Yao Mao reluctantly left his room and went downstairs for dinner.

During dinner, he suddenly thought of something.

The Ancestor Tree grows where the character died. So, if one were to die multiple times in the same spot, would the Ancestor Tree "overlap" in growth?

This question sparked significant interest for Yao Mao.

So, after quickly finishing his meal, he returned to his room and resumed the game he had paused earlier.

In front of him was an Ancestor Tree.

Yao Mao controlled the character, cautiously bypassing traps and evading patrolling monsters, until he stood before the Ancestor Tree.

Instead of picking the fruits from the Ancestor Tree like usual, he planned to lure a monster there to kill him, to see if dying in the same spot would lead to overlapping growth of two Ancestor Trees.

The result proved it wouldn’t!

The layer of the Ancestor Tree seems to override the background textures, and Ba, while developing the game, might have considered this possibility and prepared a contingency.

When a player dies more than once in the same place, no second Ancestor Tree will appear; instead, the quality and item yield of the first Ancestor Tree will be improved.

For example:

The Ancestor Tree Yao Mao used to test initially had just one fruit, but now it bore two, and the tree had grown taller.

"How boring!"

Seeing this change, Yao Mao couldn’t help but sigh, amused by his own idea.

The game map is only so large, and the development team likely considered the issue of excess Ancestor Trees from too many deaths in the same map.

In other words, not every death will result in a new Ancestor Tree.

If you die in a location that already has an Ancestor Tree, your corpse will become new nourishment for the growth of the existing tree rather than spawning a new one.

Yao Mao revived.

With the test complete, he’s lost interest in such a tedious task, especially as the maps all appear randomly — getting that particular map again is... Hey!

Just as Yao Mao was about to speed through the first beginner forest map, he realized something when passing by the Ancestor Tree from his first death.

Other maps indeed appear randomly, making offering nutrients difficult, but this first map, the beginner level, remains unchanged.

Which means he starts every adventure from this map upon revival!

So, the question arises... 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

Having died once on this map, an Ancestor Tree had grown — albeit a sapling without any fruits.

If he repeatedly poisoned himself to death at the same spot, what would happen to this Ancestor Tree? Would it bear fruit?

If fruits could be borne, it would certainly be beneficial! Knowing that one has to re-acquire equipment and skills upon revival is quite taxing.

If upon revival, he could gather a guaranteed item from a nearby Ancestor Tree, wouldn’t that be splendid?

Think, then act!

Yao Mao is a man of action; having considered it feasible, he executed his plan, dying repeatedly under the Ancestor Tree on the initial map level.

"Why hasn’t it borne fruit yet?"

After offering nutrients through death a dozen times, the Ancestor Tree had grown considerably, even surpassing all others in height and size.

But to Yao Mao’s dismay, despite such growth, not a single fruit adorned its branches.

Consuming without producing, like a giant pixiu, right?

Hey! He refused to believe it!

Stubborn as he was, Yao Mao couldn’t believe this Ancestor Tree would never bear fruit.

He continued to die...

Twenty times, thirty times, fifty times!

The Ancestor Tree grew taller and thicker, its canopy nearly covering half the screen, yet still no fruit appeared.