Chapter 481
Chapter 481: The Third Stronghold “Wolf Castle” Has Been Captured
When Tris and Murphy returned, Plague Town was already filled with jubilation.
Just a few minutes ago, the King Gnawbone, who had been kited around by players using ranged tactics, finally fell. But rather than saying the players defeated that desecrated remains of the legendary figure with their “wisdom and courage”, it would be more accurate to say the King Gnawbone “died of exhaustion”.
After all, with the players’ current power levels and weapon tiers, they couldn’t break through its defense even if they all rushed it at once.
They kept luring the King Gnawbone to circle around the ruins of Plague Town searching for sunlight, while the precisely dropped sunlight from Femis continuously drained what little midnight power remained in those bones, eventually successfully depleting it to death.
During this process, another batch of little players who had barely survived the previous difficult conquest died, but the good news was that they finally managed to clear this dungeon!
Though their victory wasn’t particularly glorious, though they suffered heavy casualties, though the reserve replacements from various guilds were completely wiped out, a win is still a win!
They didn’t allow any powerful NPC vanguard to enter the town and participate in this battle, which means they completed an incredibly wild “0 Light Mode”!
Although Murphy and Tris had been lingering in the Land of Creation deep in the swamp, Murphy’s eyes, namely the Spirit Vulture Revnor, had been observing the battlefield the whole time. Therefore, the moment the King Gnawbone fell, all surviving players on the Plague Town battlefield simultaneously received a “Server-wide Announcement”:
【Congratulations to players for successfully completing Team Dungeon 003 ‘Land of Rotting Corpses’!
Dungeon settlement begins!
Please proceed with collecting loot in the ruins of Plague Town and wait patiently for the settlement to complete.
Because players completed the dungeon conquest and cleanup of the Plague Clan without any faction’s direct intervention, relying on their own wisdom and strength, this dungeon area forms Player Stronghold 003.
This stronghold is currently under the custody of the Transia Administration and will determine stronghold ownership based on guild contribution levels within 3 days.
Because of your accomplished feat, all supporting forces who participated in the assault on Plague Town view you as true heroes, and they have prepared generous rewards for you.
These rewards will be distributed gradually over 3 days.
Because of your accomplished feat, Transia’s threat from the Foul Swamp direction has been declared ended, and Transia’s Crimson Regent Lady Miriam is grateful to you.
Thanks from the Administration will be prepared and distributed within 7 days.
Because of your accomplished feat, the Nature God personally witnessed your contributions to preserving the swamp’s ecology, and Avalon has decided to bestow upon you the Blessing of Power as a reward for your heroic deed.
As this reward involves divine power operations, it will be implemented within 1 month.】
This server-wide announcement officially recognized the players’ conquest as valid, causing all survivors in the ruins to burst into cheers.
Today’s bitter victory represents more than just clearing a team dungeon, it proves that their past 20+ days of “grueling march” through the swamp was valuable and meaningful!
The sense of achievement from getting returns for their efforts felt a hundred times better than simply receiving rewards.
But before everyone could catch their breath, a second server-wide announcement followed immediately.
Compared to the first one, this second announcement was clearly much more explosive.
【Transia “Hall of Fame” First Selection Round Complete!
Congratulations to testers “Leading Pigeon”, “Ah Yuen”, “Invincible Tyrannosaurus Cheche”, “Spicy Gugu Chicken”, “Kono Maomao Shark”, “Does the Cyborg Snail Dream of Electronic Trees” for being selected into the Player Hall of Fame.
The above testers receive the exclusive title “Hero of Transia”, holders of this title enjoy 10% discount on all commercial activities within Transia.
Please visit the Stonemason Guild Headquarters to commission your own statue and select its inscription and placement location.
Please visit Professor Malcolm at the Crimson Citadel Administration for interviews, your heroic deeds will be compiled into 《Transia General History: Black Plague Chapter》.
Please visit Corpse Mage Bella at the Dead House in Blood Vulture Halls to receive your exclusive hero mount, Skeletal Night Patroller.
Please visit Blood Claw Chief Hog at the Blood Claw Clan Great Beast Den to trigger Hog’s personal exclusive quest line “Offspring of Gnawbone”.
Congratulations to “Crimson Beast Team” for being selected into the Hall of Fame guild sequence!
Crimson Beast Team guild rating +1, granted 1 Operations Base Deed, may freely select base location within Crimson Citadel.
Crimson Beast Team guild will be assigned 200 special formation test slots, can freely recruit testers to join the guild under this formation, but still subject to player manual restrictions and constraints.
Crimson Beast Team guild will receive 200 Recruit Armor and Weapons provided by the Adventurer Guild.
Crimson Beast Team guild will receive administrative reward subsidy, subsidy lasts 12 months, can apply for monthly action funds of 1,000 gold coins during subsidy period.】
“Damn!”
The Player Hall of Fame inclusion notice was just entertaining news for regular players, envying those six people’s good fortune, but for guild leaders, that series of reward measures made everyone’s eyes turn red with envy.
Even the usually gentle and elegant Lady Aqua couldn’t help but sourly say:
“Brother Stick and Brother Meow and Typal were all ambitiously vying for first place, Lumina also wasn’t content to keep being idle, but who would’ve thought those well-prepared parties would end up as mere companions in defeat, while these young people who showed no interest in such matters took first prize instead.
Ah, perhaps this is the power of ‘passion’?”
“They’re different from us, they’re always very serious when playing games and never consider those unnecessary things, unlike us… sigh, we’ve been pondering the truth about so-called ‘reality and illusion’ lately, completely unable to fully invest ourselves anymore.”
Sister Pomegranate was also somewhat discouraged.
She sat on a nearby rock propping up her chin and said to her companions:
“I used to be one of them too, but then I came to our side following Lumina, alas, painfully losing the qualification to enter the Hall of Fame.
It’s all your fault.
Why didn’t you try harder?”
“Go away, we clearly used our brains too, okay?”
Little Ashina was also full of unwillingness as she leaned on her Iron Warden and complained:
“I said long ago, don’t think about those unnecessary things in Transia, what’s the use of thinking so much? You can’t solve it anyway, right?
Isn’t this just pure mental exhaustion?
Rather than that, might as well fully invest in enjoying life, just be happy, what’s so important about truth and falsehood?”
“Ah yes yes yes, everything you say is right, happy now?”
Lady Aqua reached out to press down on Little Ashina’s head, sighing as she said:
“If everyone had simple thoughts like you, there wouldn’t be so many conflicts in this world.
But I admit you’re right, the issues we’re pondering now are ones we simply cannot solve.
So considering too much about it is indeed just a waste of time, and even if we were given a chance to exit, none of us would just leave like that.
Therefore, I propose we invest ourselves more from now on.
Wandering this land in pursuit of leisure fun rather than with some purpose, letting the truth come naturally.”
The others nodded repeatedly.
They had been quite troubled lately by those vague pieces of information, especially Sister Pomegranate. Now hearing Lady Aqua bring this up proactively, everyone tacitly made an agreement.
To no longer search for evidence of reality and illusion, at least not openly feel anxious and worried about it anymore.
This scene falling into MoeHaha’s eyes made the physicist shake her head and click her tongue.
With these people’s intelligence, expecting them not to overthink was impossible… Smart people’s minds work fast, sometimes they can’t even control their own wild thoughts.
Ah, knowing too much isn’t always a good thing in many cases, this is probably the legendary “curse of knowledge”.
While the girls quickly admitted defeat, Joy Stick’s team wasn’t so easy to convince.
The surviving Tiger Leopard Rider brothers were very stubborn and unanimously believed the development team’s judgment was problematic.
They didn’t deny the decisive role student players played in today’s battle, but the student players all died at the start of the conquest and didn’t participate in the subsequent assault.
The subsequent conquest was completed entirely by people from other guilds, so even if student players took the biggest share, under such circumstances, isn’t it unreasonable to not select a few from the other survivors for the Hall of Fame?
They complained loudly and gathered a group of people planning to give harsh feedback on the forums.
But before they could act, they were stopped by Brother Stick.
“Don’t f**king go embarrass yourselves! All of you get back here and properly search for loot! Get this done before evening, we still need to go back to the positions to continue supervising defense line construction.”
Joy Stick stood leaning on his weapon, but revealed a sense of weakness.
This weakness came not only from the long kiting just now luring the BOSS to step in sunlight, but more from that vampire girl Melia finding him to “replenish magic” again.
Even saying something about being very weak due to continuously casting speed enhancement on Brother Stick, so this weakness must be doubly repaid by Joy Stick and other nonsense, Brother Stick believed that vampire girl was just deliberately making things difficult for him!
“Stick! We’re speaking up for you! You bastard not only reject goodwill but even call it embarrassing?”
Hearing Joy Stick’s rebuke, Tiger Leopard Rider Fight, who served as scout captain, immediately retorted dissatisfied:
“Are we saying anything wrong? The student players’ effect was indeed huge, without their stroke of genius we wouldn’t have been able to attack into the Sorcerer’s Tower, but we killed everything afterwards including the gold BOSS.
Doesn’t this difficulty deserve a Hall of Fame spot?”
“So, what do you think that Hero title is?”
Joy Stick was so angry he laughed, sitting on a rock panting heavily as he snorted and said:
“You really think you can get the name of ‘Hero’ just by casually clearing a dungeon? Before we didn’t know the arrangement of the two BOSSes after this team instance, but now that we’ve finished you all know too.
Let’s not mention Lame Claw’s terrain battle, just the strength of that final ‘Desecrated King Gnawbone’ you all witnessed personally.
Let me ask you, if the student players hadn’t lured the giant snake to fight with that King Gnawbone until both were severely wounded, could we complete this dungeon in the next 8 days with just our current strength?
Absolutely impossible!
Understand?!
The development team never intended for us to complete this conquest alone, that final gold BOSS is clear proof, they raised the difficulty to a level that players absolutely cannot handle at this stage!
But it’s precisely because of the student players’ crazy move that we not only cleared the dungeon, but even completed it ahead of time.
They were inducted into the Hall of Fame not just because they lured the giant snake to breach the Plague Tower, you stubborn idiots!
It’s because those six people turned ‘impossible’ into ‘possible’!
They broke through the development team’s difficulty lockdown in their own way, directly influencing the battlefield and event progression, if this were reality, their actions would fully deserve a second-class merit.
Let me put it this way.
Before the student players lured the giant snake, Plague Town was an impregnable wall, but after the giant snake charged into the position, any batch of veteran players could gnaw it down with just pure tenacity.
So what use is just being able to fight?!
This is war!
You need to use your brains!
You’re all commanders now, how can you still think with a grunt’s mindset?
All of you go back and write me a self-criticism, submit it tomorrow morning!
The Black Plague is coming!
If we can’t adjust our thinking, I’m afraid the outcome of the Maginot Line we’re responsible for won’t be too good either.”
The members who got harshly scolded by Brother Stick hung their heads dejectedly, they wanted to retort but Stick already had no time to argue these things with them.
Now that Plague Town had been taken meant Joy Stick’s defended Maginot Line would gain a “salient” extending into the swamp, the mutual coordination between the two places would allow Joy Stick to come up with more usable tactical plans in the following war, as a commander his thoughts had already started spinning frantically.
“My master, I cannot understand your rebuke of your subordinates, you are striking down their passionate loyalty.”
Melia whispered in Brother Stick’s ear:
“Actually, I can feel that you’re dissatisfied in your heart too, but you can suppress this combative mindset and turn to consider more distant situations instead.
Are you really as selfless as you appear?
Don’t you want that ‘Hall of Fame’ qualification, and use it to make a name for yourself among your peers?”
“I want it, I’ve been thinking about it since this event started.”
Facing his servant bound by blood covenant, Brother Stick didn’t hide his thoughts.
He said:
“But I don’t have time to feel regret for today’s small defeat, less than 50 days remain until the Black Plague begins, that war I’m determined to win is already right before our eyes.
I know that will be my destined stage to shine, I will forge war legends there and through those victories I will surely complete truly heroic deeds.
The qualifications for entering the Hall of Fame should naturally be as selective as possible! Because victory has never seemed so precious without filtering out the mediocre!
Only sufficiently high gold content can ensure I’ll feel truly proud when joining that group, rather than feeling empty because I’m surrounded by a bunch of limited edition idiots.
Let me ask you, Melia, would you feel proud sharing the same honor with a group of mediocre fools?”
Melia remained silent for a long while.
She couldn’t answer this question.
Brother Stick’s response reminded her of her father, that father who despised old Edward yet desperately wanted to climb higher, even if just to gain the qualification to be looked at eye-to-eye by old Edward.
She couldn’t understand her father’s series of arguably crazy gambles before, but now, she seemed to taste some flavor of it.
Ah.
Men’s damned competitiveness, driving batch after batch of stubborn madmen onto paths of no return…
Fortunately, this contradictory “new master” of hers won’t really die, perhaps this is the capital for him to be so twisted?
————————
“Hall of Fame? Is this a special honor established by Lord Murphy specifically for these otherworldly heroic spirits?”
Outside Plague Town, Miss Becky looked at the players busily working in those horrifically ruined ruins while mounted on her horse, sighing about all the battles that had just happened.
She felt regretful for not being able to personally join in, even pounding her chest and stamping her feet, while beside her Knight Liwen covered her left eye with her hand.
Her right eye had already turned into a snake’s eye of emerald color.
This was her deity watching everything happening in this swamp through her eyes.
Knight Liwen didn’t know what the deity would think, but she personally only had full recognition and sighs for this victory before her eyes, only these fearless otherworldly heroic spirits could use such an insanely unreproducible battle method to complete the attack on Plague Town in one day.
“If they can capture Plague Town, it means no outpost of the Pioneer Army on the border can stop them.”
Not far from the two female knights, Major Ron said softly:
“Marshal Loren thinks he’s been vigilant enough against the Transians, but I now believe the Marshal’s vigilance is still not enough… we must strengthen border defenses, even if not just for the Black Plague.”
“You can’t stop them.”
Liwen covered both eyes, saying softly:
“The border between Transia and East Prussia is too long, unless you learn from the Ancient Calum Kingdom and block off the entire border with unclimbable high walls, there will always be places you cannot guard.
One gap will become a highway for Transians to attack into your positions, and once they attack in, don’t think about getting them to peacefully withdraw.
The only way to counter them is to become their friends.
My deity just told me that They don’t believe Transians will lose in the battle against the Goldflower Kingdom, yes, my deity has already firmly determined the rise of this land!
Time is running out for Marshal Loren and King Louis.
The Black Plague…
The Black Plague is not just an excuse Transians use to extort resources, it’s also an opportunity for all of Transia’s enemies to adjust their final defenses.
They will temper themselves into absolutely fierce weapons during the Black Plague, but after drinking their fill of Gnoll blood, this blade will not return to its sheath.
They have too many reasons to wage war with you, and you absolutely won’t choose to retreat just because they’re formidable enough, a blood-stained lone wolf licking its wounds, a lion eating its fill yet still greedy, and a giant bear struggling to crawl out of death despite being ancient and decrepit.
Ah.
The Fifth Black Plague is no longer a sign of turmoil ending.
It’s just a symbol of a chaotic era arriving, except for the Transians, none of us seem to be prepared to face that oncoming era.”
“I’ve decided, Liwen!”
Just as Knight Liwen and Major Ron both fell silent, Miss Becky raised her fist high and shouted:
“I also want to set joining Transia’s Hall of Fame and becoming a Hero of Transia as my goal!”
“But yesterday you said your goal was to become a member of the Winged Cavalry, and the day before yesterday your goal was to become a better swordsman than Lord Murphy.
The day before that your goal was to find a named blade befitting your status during the war…”
“Shut up, Liwen, I’m excitedly telling you my goal because I want your support, not for you to criticize me, you’re really so annoying!”
“Uh, Becky, having goals is good, but having too many goals isn’t necessarily so, I mean, why don’t we make a step-by-step plan? I can help record your successes and failures, so when we’re both old, I can take it out to thoroughly mock your lack of accomplishments.”