Chapter 14 The Noisiest Undead Army
The server opening time is 8:00 a.m. for the players, but 4:00 p.m. for the residents of the magic plane.
Two hours before the server opening (in the other world time), Yang Qiu called 19 senior NPCs who were waiting to take up their posts to the newly built "Town Hall" in the eastern area of Exile Town - in fact, it was a small square house built on a flat land with earth magic - to gather for a meeting.
In the hall full of people, Yang Qiu looked around at his subordinates with satisfaction: "How is it, are you used to it?"
Except for Bat Brother who looked dull and obviously in a daze, everyone else had no expression on their faces.
"It's okay... it's just..." Hal raised his hand stiffly and pointed to the top of his head, "Why do we have these strange square words on our heads?"
On Hal's head, about ten centimeters above his scalp, there were two rows of green Chinese characters floating. The first row read: "'Razor' Hal Maxwell", and the second row, which was slightly smaller, read "Assassin's Mentor".
"Of course this is... proof of companionship." Yang Qiu said with a smile, "Only members within the matrix can see each other's names above their heads, which makes it easier for us to intuitively identify who is our friend and who is a stranger."
There were three rows of floating Chinese characters on top of Yang Qiu's head, namely "Lord Tarantan", "Undead Resurrection Mentor Yang" and "Magic Apprentice Mentor".
Originally, Yang Qiu had no plans to be an NPC himself... but considering that the first batch of NPCs selected to be tortured by players, well, 90% of the high-level NPCs who come to provide services to players are former thieves, in order to avoid trouble between players and indigenous NPCs and then painstakingly issuing patches to correct it, it is better to intervene directly in the supervision from the beginning.
"Our guests are in the same branding matrix as us. The spiritual connection allows us to easily understand the language and text between the two sides, which facilitates our communication." Yang Qiu's expression became serious. "But I want to remind you that when these 'special guests' are not talking to you, don't care about what they say. I repeat, when the guests are not talking to you, don't pay attention to what they say."
Bat brother who suffers from mental pollution... Weapon Master Charlie Rex still had no reaction, staring blankly at the ceiling.
Hal looked at his trusted ranger, Tattle Joe, and raised his hands suspiciously: "Sorry, Yang, I don't understand... It's impossible that our guests have been corrupted by an ancient god and can't control their nonsense, right?"
"No, Hal." Yang Qiu said seriously, "The madness of the 'guests' has nothing to do with the ancient gods, and is not contagious. When you hold the power I give you to increase their 'favorability' through the branding matrix, the 'guests' are the safest and most harmless to you, and this will never change."
"On this basis, you can issue tasks to them and ask them to do things. You can ask them to help you with everything. Of course, you cannot exceed the scope of the tasks I have set for you. Otherwise, you will bear the consequences yourself." After a pause, Yang Qiu said in a deep voice, "Believe me, if the 'guests' think that you are evil and an enemy of Exile Town, then... even if our 'guests' are still weak at the moment, they will unite to find a way to kill you and fight to the death."
Hal, Tuttle and other former members of the thieves group suddenly looked very unhappy...
When they were tricked into this ghost town deep in the Tarantan Wilderness, these former thieves who came here hoping for an easy and good life were instantly disheartened.
However, before they could make the difficult decision of "falling out with a high-level black magician", they were pulled into the mental imprint matrix... Even though they were unwilling, they had no choice but to stay.
Even though there were more than a dozen hideous zombies in the town besides these living people, they could only hold their noses and endure...
"Of course, our 'guests' are still a great help in rebuilding this town and turning the dilapidated Exile Town into our dream home." Yang Qiu softened his tone and smiled, "As the first batch of formal residents of this town, I will never be stingy with your treatment as long as you contribute to the town's reconstruction. I hope that while you are receiving the 'guests', you will work hard to learn how to use the limited resources in your hands to command the 'guests' to work for you, and how to gain the love and respect of these 'guests', while trying not to be disturbed or affected by the 'guests' outrageous words and deeds as much as possible."
"Yes..." Hal and others responded weakly.
To be fair, Yang, the new leader, was not bad to them. Although he half-forced them to join the branding matrix, everyone did receive unprecedented living supplies...
After the mobilization meeting, Hal returned to his temporary residence, sighing.
"I can only say that it's a good thing that we are not asked to rebuild this broken town with our own hands... I, Hal, am the famous 'Razor'. If I were really asked to do such hard labor, I would definitely not do it."
His trusted friend, Tattle Joe, also sighed, "I always feel something is wrong, whether it's this town or that... black magician." Tattle almost let out a word but he swallowed the word "evil" and looked around guiltily, lowering his voice, "Yang himself admitted that this town will welcome a large number of undead creatures and be used as a base by these undead creatures - what the hell, they actually want us to arrange for these undead creatures to do things, how is this possible!"
"Hush, Tuttle!" Hal quickly raised his index finger towards his best friend. "Come on, don't say that. Yang didn't ask us to let the undead participate in the work. If they don't want to do it, it's none of our business!"
Tuttle exclaimed, and suddenly realized, "Yes, Hal, if the undead don't work, then this town will never be built."
The two smiled at each other, and both understood how to safely deal with the evil black magician who arrogantly proclaimed himself the Lord of the Tarantan Wasteland and was madly trying to use the undead to build his territory - isn't it just a matter of delaying? Anyway, he still has to feed us, so why can't we afford to delay!
The two who thought they had found a solution returned to their temporary residences with their heads held high and prepared to wait for the "guests" to arrive as Yang requested...
Two hours later in the other world time.
Hal, who was assigned a residence closest to the crossroads, suddenly heard an extremely excited and strange cry.
Hal hurried out of the tent and stretched his neck to look towards the cross street.
Because of the serious damage to the collapsed wooden buildings in the town, Hal could clearly see the situation in the direction of the cross street from two streets and a block away. The assassin with good eyesight was dumbfounded as he saw ancient white skeletons with green Chinese characters floating above their heads, one after another, emerging from the earthen platform in the middle of the cross street...
Hal, who had never seen such a horrifying scene, dropped the whetstone in his hand to the ground.
"Dead, undead plague? Is this the scene of the legendary undead plague?! That evil black magician is indeed——"
Before Hal could come up with any specific conspiracy theories, he was stunned to find that... the undead army that emerged from the mud was not the same as he had imagined.
These undead souls that filled the center of the cross street in a very short time were very lively. As soon as they were "born", they made all kinds of shocking noises that made it unclear whether they were happy or frightened. Moreover, some of them very lively broke away from the "army" and made all kinds of strange "ah ah" sounds while running around...
Hal, who had no idea what was happening , watched helplessly as one of the undead stretched out its arms and ran wildly, then crashed into the earth wall with a bang, and its skeleton scattered all over the ground.
Hal: “???”
“Hahahaha! It really happened that ‘we dispersed while walking’!”
"My God, they just scattered while we were walking!"
“What the hell, hahahaha!”
The scattered undead got up in a panic, and from its throat without a trace of flesh came a clear voice of a young man: "Stop laughing, help me pick up the bones!"
Hal, who was spying on the group of undead from afar, held his head in his hands: "???"
"Didn't I tell you to meet up online first and don't run around?"
A few more undead broke away from the main group and trotted towards the first few undead who left the group. One of them shouted loudly, "Stop playing around, Xiao Zhou. Take your brothers with you to complete the task of getting the novice equipment first!"
Hal found out that the last few undead were wearing clothes, which he couldn't understand at all: "???"
"Got it, Brother Qin." The shattered undead put his bones together and stood up. "Is my skeleton different from yours? Why does it fall apart so easily?"
Another skeleton wearing clothes said, "It's not that you are easily scattered, it's that you bumped into the wall. Our undead race doesn't seem to be able to withstand collisions, so be careful."
"If I could wear a set of armor like that zombie general, I guess it wouldn't be so easy to disperse. But the NPC doesn't pay for the quests, and I don't know how to get the equipment in this game..."
The clothed undead and the naked undead gathered together, chatting as they walked toward the north street...
Hal watched the group of undead disappear behind the wooden house, then slowly raised his hand and rubbed his stiff face.
Hal, with a blank mind, turned his gaze to the large group of undead in the center of the cross street.
This group of undead... is still very noisy.
It seemed that everyone was talking very excitedly, and it was impossible to hear what they were saying.
Hal had a blank expression on his face. He was certain that this group of undead was definitely not the "Undead Army"... Even the worst militia he had ever seen was not so chaotic and disorderly.
As if to confirm Hal's guess, this group of undead, who did not look like an army of undead in any way, began to disperse in all directions, either in groups of a few or individually...
“It’s really true, it’s real—!! This game is real, aaaaaaaa—!!”
A naked undead soul cheered like this while running through the garbage-strewn streets.
"Hey, come over here! This zombie NPC has a mission!"
An undead ghost discovered a zombie squatting in front of a cabin and immediately shouted to his friends.
"This Novice Village is so shabby, it looks exactly like the one in the video... Hey, has anyone seen the vanilla pudding?"
"I think I saw it just now, but there were too many people and I couldn't see where it went."
"Never mind him, just find a mission!"
"Fuck! Why is my game character's potential only 31 points?! So much lower than vanilla pudding??"
"Wow, are you the legendary non-African?"
Hal was really annoyed by these noisy undead who could make alarming noises even from across the block. He turned around and pinched his eyebrows hard .
"ah--!!"
A particularly shrill, loud, and powerful shout suddenly rang out, scaring Hal, who was about to retreat back to the tent, and made him shudder.
Hal looked back in shock...
Across the dilapidated streets without a single intact house, an undead standing on the street raised his finger in surprise and pointed at Hal: "Qingyue! Look! It's a human! A high-level NPC!"
"I heard it, Tang Jia, please keep your voice down..." The undead companion moaned weakly.
The undead player with the ID "Gummy Candy" and real name "Tang Jia" shouted in excitement, as if stirring up a hornet's nest.
"High-level NPC?! Where is he?"
"Ah! Over there! In front of the tent in the ruins at nine o'clock!"
Dozens of undead souls who were not too far away from the crossroads looked at Hal with sharp eyes.
Then… all these players, whether they were originally preparing to take screenshots or record videos, or were doing tasks, or running around the map, all rushed towards the lonely Hal from all directions with the momentum of a hungry tiger pouncing on a sheep…
Hal: “?!”
