Chapter 184 : Chapter 184
Chapter : 184
But fortunately, before falling asleep, I had already laid out the methods to deal with the increase in players. I had explained pretty much everything that needed to be explained.
When the new players came online four days ago, it did indeed make those NPCs flustered for a bit, but only for a short period. Soon, these NPCs skillfully got on the right track and started enslaving the new players (x).
At least no major blunders occurred among the old and new players. After three days, the NPCs had successfully passed the adaptation period and accepted the fact that the number of players had changed from three thousand to ten thousand.
I finished reading the messages and let out a long sigh of relief, wiping away invisible cold sweat without a trace. When I realized I had slept for nearly seven days straight, I had already thought about how to explain it if the players found something amiss.
Luckily, luckily, the people of 'Flame' were reliable enough and were already mature NPCs; they didn't need me, the screenwriter behind the scenes, to wipe their asses for them hand in hand.
Opening the system panel and switching to the forum to take a glance, the new players had been logged in for fully three days.
The forum pages were still filled with various meaningless screams of excitement. A glance at the hot posts showed there weren't many worth my attention.
Very good, nothing happened on the forum either. Everything was moving in a good direction.
I nodded with satisfaction, finally willing to spare a glance for Palos, whom I had neglected on the side for quite a while.
While I was processing messages, Palos had been sitting obediently by the side, staring at me without blinking, like a puppy waiting for its master to play with it—this description was very strange, considering Palos was a man nearly two meters tall. With this build, calling him a bear would be no problem; how could words like obedient and puppy be used to describe him?
Even large breed dogs aren't this large!
Yet, I really felt Palos was like a dog. Perhaps it had to do with him being canine in nature.
The former Demon King also treated Palos like a dog, even naming him after Cerberus, the three-headed dog of hell, which showed that Palos really resembled a dog.
So it wasn't my fault.
I thought to myself.
"You..." I spoke up, opened my mouth but couldn't think of what to say for a moment, so I abruptly closed it again.
Palos blinked. He suddenly stood up, knelt on one knee in front of me, took my hand, and placed it on top of his head.
A pair of majestic wolf ears appeared on Palos's head, twitching sensitively when my hand touched them.
The fur on the wolf ears was much softer than the hair on his head. It was soft and fluffy, warm to the touch, feeling excellent. When my fingers pinched the ear tips, the ears would twitch along with it. The soft ear cartilage seemed able to deform at will with the force of kneading, completely at his master's will.
My brows couldn't help but twitch. Immediately after, a fluffy big tail was stuffed into my arms. This big tail was like a feather duster, fluffy and extremely attention-grabbing. My gaze couldn't help but be hooked away by the big tail.
The ears in my palm twitched back and forth, tickling my palm. The tail in my arms also wagged back and forth, constantly tempting me to stroke and smooth its fur.
Me: ...
Good guy, Palos learned bad tricks. He actually learned fluff tactics!
Unfortunately, this set of tactics worked on me.
I pinched my nose and accepted it, hugging the big tail and petting it several times to vent.
After satisfying my craving, I finally let go of the big tail, straightened the expression on my face, and looked seriously at Palos—but as I looked, my composure broke. seeing this handsome face, I couldn't help but recall how this guy had pressed me on the bed just now, swallowing saliva non-stop.
I ordered expressionlessly: "Change into your beast form to speak with me."
Palos paused, seemingly sensing that my mood wasn't right at the moment. Without any hesitation, he switched to his beast form.
Palos had already left his childhood stage long before the Demon King established the Eternal Empire. Naturally, what appeared before me couldn't be that wolf pup resembling a little milk dog the Demon King first picked up.
Instead, it was a large alpha wolf with silver-gray fur and a robust build, looking majestic and awe-inspiring.
The same deep blue eyes carried mystery, madness, and occasionally revealed a hint of clear obedience on the human-form Palos. But on the wolf-form Palos, only ferocity remained.
If an ordinary person saw this, just one glance would be enough to scare them into trembling legs and wanting to flee first.
I could guarantee that if I had met Palos right after transmigrating, I would have been scared into trembling legs too. It was really because even though that bloody killing intent on him was restrained, I could still feel it completely.
I rubbed my nose, choosing the latter between 'being gazed at affectionately by human-form Palos' and 'being stared at ferociously by wolf-form Palos'.
At least the latter would at most give me the urge to train a dog, not make my scalp tingle like the former.
"Palos, let me ask you some questions." I straightened my mood, meeting the wolf's eyes. "Okay?"
It was clearly a questioning tone, but I said it like a declarative sentence.
However, Palos didn't mind at all. He enjoyed this commanding tone very much. The wolf took a step forward with its front paws and rested its wolf head on my knee.
This action explained everything: Palos would tell all he knew without reserve.
A smile touched the corners of my eyes, and I rubbed the wolf head again.
"You are the leader of 'Blood Mist'? Yuchir is your public identity? I want to know the current meaning of 'Blood Mist's existence, and why you have acted against the Augreer family several times."
I was very interested in 'Blood Mist'. previously, because this organization was mysterious and I couldn't gather any information, I didn't investigate deeply. Now discovering that their boss Yuchir was my little doggy, I wouldn't let go of such a good opportunity.
Palos didn't disappoint me and answered readily: "Yes, I am the leader of 'Blood Mist'. Yuchir is my public identity."
"The name Palos is still too conspicuous. It always attracts trouble from some annoying old guys—King, I mean those annoying elves and dragon whelps. They always like to find trouble with me, and I needed to change my name to better search for you." Find you and then hide the King away, hide him in a place where no one can find him.
Palos spoke righteously. I couldn't hear his subtext, only taking it as him secretly badmouthing others to me again.
During the Demon King era, the wolf pup liked to do this. Because Divic always liked to turn into a cub to compete with the real wolf pup for the Demon King's attention, the wolf pup always disliked Divic.
It was just the elves—so when did Silf forge a grudge with the wolf pup?
I wasn't clear on that. I habitually filtered and blocked the wolf pup's green tea statements.
Seeing no reaction from me, Palos could only temporarily put aside his discord with Divic and Silf, focusing on the parts I was interested in.
" 'Blood Mist' was a third-rate mercenary group I encountered a few hundred years ago. At that time, it coincided with a demonic beast riot, and many people died in the mouths of demonic beasts. I joined them, and because of my strength, they took me as the boss."
No expression could be seen on Palos's wolf face. "I led them to fight demonic beasts, occasionally killing a couple of nobles—King, those were hateful guys who subverted your empire. I have never killed an innocent person."
He emphasized, earning a smooth petting from me.
Palos was satisfied, narrowing his eyes contentedly. "Then the mercenary group grew larger—inexplicably, many people joined. I couldn't drive them away, so I let them stay. Anyway, I can afford to raise them. At worst, I just kill a few more nobles."
Listen to this talk. If you run out of money, just go kill two nobles to explode some gold coins to raise subordinates, right?
This is truly...
Deeply inheriting the Demon King's legacy!
Didn't the Demon King fight his way through by beating up minor gods to explode some believers' gold coins to continue expanding when he ran out of money!
These are all old infrastructure-building traditions.
"Blood Mist was what others called the mercenary group. I thought it wasn't bad, so I used it."
Palos said, "As for Augreer... the people of Blood Mist are not just humans, but also some other races. A few years ago, people under the Augreer family kidnapped several members of Blood Mist and sent them to the auction house. The grudge was formed then."
"Later, we investigated the Augreer family and discovered something else."
Speaking up to here, Palos didn't continue, seemingly thinking about how to organize his words.
Recalling the things I investigated in Sunset Village, I tentatively asked, " The Augreer family is smuggling demonic beasts in private, right?"
Palos looked up in surprise, but soon calmed down, resting his head on my knee again. "Mn, not just smuggling demonic beasts, but also manufacturing demonic beasts."
Me: ?!
I was startled, my voice changing a bit: "Manufacturing demonic beasts? What does that mean?"
Palos said, "The Augreer family initially just simply sold magical beasts in private. Later, it seems they researched how to create demonic beasts... that is, turning ordinary magical beasts into demonic beasts, then selling them to those who need demonic beasts to earn more money. And through artificially created demonic beast attacks, they kill political enemies while paving the way for the family, climbing all the way up."
"Augreer Auction House wasn't the largest or top auction house in Bartovita at the beginning. At that time, commerce in Bartovita was still very developed."
I remembered. The fundamental difference between Romunik and Bartovita lay here: one empire focused more on money, where even noble titles could be bought and sold as long as one had money; the other empire focused more on bloodline, strictly adhering to bloodline theory, with power and influence in the hands of those old-school nobles.
In Bartovita, the only noble family known for commerce was the Augreer family. However, the Augreer family's status in Bartovita was unique.
I initially thought it was only because Augreer produced a Queen, helping the family climb above a crowd of old-school nobles, allowing them to stand out in an empire that valued bloodline and become the unique one.
After all, the history of the Augreer family wasn't long. Their rise to power was only within the last hundred years or so; they couldn't compare to those old-school nobles who had existed since the founding of Bartovita.