Chapter 55 "Total Collapse"
As soon as the second half of the "Dynamic Story Mission", the long-term mission of escorting the civilians of Kamor back to the Exile Town, was released, the players who were squatting in the poisonous swamp to kill monsters, wandering around to practice gathering, and engaging in passionate PKs due to disputes over the ownership of a certain monster during the monster killing process, immediately called off their efforts and hurried back to the base to gather.
The game time is 11 noon, and the real time is only 6 in the morning. This time period is not the peak online time. Many people have just logged off after playing all night, and many people have not yet come online.
So... the priests who quickly packed up and waited outside the base were surprised to find that the number of undead was less than half of the previous day...
Andre, who was riding on his horse, kept looking at the noisy and chattering undead on the platform in the base. He turned his head and whispered to Supervisor Lowell: "It seems that because of the monster cleaning, the number of these undead has decreased a lot."
Rowell nodded slightly.
Skeletons are only the weakest of the undead, and can be eliminated by either completely destroying them or using a repatriation spell to send them back to the dimensional underworld.
The monsters in Tarantan have been breeding rampantly for thousands of years, and powerful monsters and beasts are everywhere. No matter how united and intelligent the fragile skeletons are, there will inevitably be a large number of casualties in the process of clearing out the monsters.
Andre sighed slightly, and when he looked at the group of noisy undead, his expression became complicated...
The void invasion is a disaster second only to the revival of the ancient gods.
No one can tell what the unstable space-time rift that appears accidentally in a certain place will bring - from small things like the spread of demonic energy to desecrate the earth and demonize and pollute living things, to big things like void demons slaughtering villages and destroying cities, turning fertile land into barren wasteland.
Tarantan is a severely affected area where unstable space-time rifts appear. Although there has been no invasion by void demons so far, the monsters roaming everywhere are enough to turn this thousand-mile wilderness into a forbidden zone for life.
Having witnessed with his own eyes how these undead spirits eliminated monsters in a brave (and reckless) manner of "regardless of cost, willing to sacrifice, and not afraid of casualties", even though Andre disliked such low-level creatures in the demon world as the undead, he had to respect their behavior.
Andre, who was feeling mixed emotions, suddenly saw... an undead walked to the earthen platform in the center of the platform, and sank straight into the ground with his hands and feet together.
Andre: “???”
Rowell, who also has good eyesight, said: "???"
Other priests: “???”
"This, this is - this undead soul chose to return to the dimensional demon world on its own?!" Andre gasped.
When the undead are sent back by spells, or when the black magician actively/passively cancels the summons, they return to the dimensional demon world by sinking into the ground like this.
This made Andre extremely puzzled. The black magician Yang stood on the side of the civilians and commanded the private soldiers to load the vehicles. How did these undead cancel the summoning contract on their own? !
...It is not wrong to interpret the process of players going online as a summoning contract to some extent; however, this kind of contract is not mandatory, and either party can unilaterally suspend, terminate, or even end the contract...
As the group of priests watched in shock, more than a dozen undead walked to the platform on their own and sank into the ground in just a few minutes.
The other undead simply ignored the "return" of their companions and continued to do their own things, making noise in groups or in twos and threes.
Andre: “…”
This "young" paladin, who had lived for more than a hundred years, held his head in his hands in pain.
I don’t understand! I really don’t understand!
What kind of contract did these undead who knew how to communicate using a systematic language and knew how to work in a team conclude with the black magician Yang... He simply couldn't imagine!
Andre felt a sharp pain in his head, and there seemed to be a complex and overlapping sound in his ears that was sometimes far away and sometimes near, and was difficult to understand...
"Stop, Andre."
Andre shuddered, and then he realized that he was covered in cold sweat.
"I... I'm sorry, I lost my composure." Andre wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and lowered his head in shame.
"Don't think about things you don't need to understand." Lowell, who discovered his subordinate's abnormality in time, said seriously, "No one can know everything. There is no need to question yourself."
Andre said hoarsely, "Yes."
Lowell shook his head slightly, turned his eyes away from Andre, and frowned at the wanton and scattered undead.
Although he stopped Andre, Lowell himself was actually more curious about these undead spirits than Andre.
Andre was already a relatively mature veteran in the cavalry. Even Andre was easily shaken, which made Lowell a little worried... Maybe it was not a good idea to accept Yang's invitation.
"Hurry, look at that!"
At this moment, a paladin from the cavalry team pointed somewhere in horror and called out to others excitedly.
Lowell was slightly angry and was about to scold the holy warrior for not being serious enough, but he caught the direction the man was pointing out of the corner of his eye... and Lowell was also stunned.
The priests were waiting in the open space outside the stronghold. Because the construction of this stronghold had not yet begun and it was still a vast wasteland, they could see places in the stronghold without tents blocking their view while riding horses.
Over the heads of the chaotic undead, the priests clearly saw... the earthen platform where a dozen undead had "returned" before, skeletons emerged one after another...
The priests: “???”
Rowell turned his head with a look of horror, looking for the black magician.
Yang Qiu, who was directing his private soldiers to do something, didn't even look at this side.
Rowell: “…”
The black-robed inspector turned his gaze back to the direction of the earthen platform.
The skeletons that "floated" out from the earthen platform have already walked down the platform, but the number of skeletons on the platform has not decreased - skeletons still continue to pop up!
One batch, another batch, and another batch...
In less than half an hour, the number of undead on the platform doubled, returning to the same size as yesterday—no, Lowell found that there seemed to be more undead! More than what he saw yesterday!
Lowell: "... (゜ロ゜) "
Lowell kept a straight face and turned his head away stiffly.
Joyce Andre, his trusted and capable subordinate, had a pale face, a dull look in her eyes, and was holding her head in her hands.
"Calm down, Andre!"
Lowell quickly cast a calming prayer on Andre, and immediately took the team to a place some distance away from the base where the undead could not be seen to rest...
Another half hour later...
"Sorry for the long wait. We can set off now." Yang Qiu rode a simple-looking undead horse and came to inform the priests. "The undead caravan will set out first to lead the way. Please follow me."
"Okay." Lowell responded in a dry voice, and then realized something was wrong. "Hmm? Convoy?"
"That's right." Yang Qiu turned his horse's head and signaled the priests to follow.
Lowell led the priests and followed Yang Qiu out of the temporary flat ground, and suddenly saw the caravan of undead... An elegant and handsome face that was slightly younger than the shaved Yang Qiu, turned into (゜ロ゜) again.
A convoy of more than 30 metal tricycles, supported by small teams of undead, marched eastward in a mighty manner.
The undead on tricycles pulled more than a hundred shivering civilian women, along with their simple luggage and supplies for the journey. Their laughter and joy could be faintly heard from hundreds of meters away...
Rowell: “…”
The black-robed inspector silently chanted a calming prayer for himself.
The atmosphere was tense, and the Crusader Cavalry followed the group of undead for less than ten minutes... The priests witnessed a scene that shattered their worldview:
Some of the undead who were jogging after the vehicle climbed into the bed of the tricycle on their own, said a few words to their companions, and then "collapsed completely", scattering into a pile of bones.
These undead companions… nonchalantly wrapped up their companions’ “corpses” and equipment and property with clothes and the like, sorted them out, and then made noise while jogging behind the car…
After a moment of silence, the black-robed supervisor had no choice but to pray a calming prayer for all the team members...
Players who have reached level one can use the teleportation function of the resurrection point to teleport between Desolate Stronghold and Exile Town every half an hour. Players who are below level one cannot activate the teleportation function.
This kind of "level discrimination" setting... If it were a week ago, players would have definitely criticized it. Most of the troops only have potential values of 40 or so. How come you have a teleportation function limited to 50 potential values?
Nowadays, not many players would criticize it.
Even if your potential value hasn't kept up with the main group, after completing two days of dynamic story missions and killing countless "elite monsters", your potential value will increase.
Even if your potential value is not 50 and you cannot use the teleportation array, as long as you actively participate in dynamic tasks, you will not miss the version plot.
As for those who don't have time to do long-term tasks, or who haven't found relatives or friends to help bring their "corpses" along, they can only stay in Exile Town and watch others jealously discuss the feng shui and topography of the Desolate Stronghold, and jealously watch others teleport over to do long-term tasks...
"It's too difficult. This game is too difficult."
Mr. Yuchi, who was resting at home due to a severe cold and was rarely online on weekdays, squatted at the construction site of the Life Career Collection Master, sighing and doing the task of moving bricks in a boring way.
Those who could be teleported or had been with the main force had all gone off to do quests. Plus, it was the peak online period, so the entire Exile Town was deserted. Even the most popular career mentor, the Master of Gathering, had only a few kittens left at the construction site.
"Teacher, do you also want to do that long-term task? Then why didn't you ask someone else to bring your account along?" Another casual player who was also doing some hard work said with a smile.
Teacher Yuchi’s ID is “Your teacher is always”. This weird ID is probably because when she named it, she didn’t know that the ID in the game can only display six characters... In short, because the ID is quite weird, although Teacher Yuchi is a casual player who has more than enough time to play games every day, she is still remembered by many players.
"When this mission came out, I was in the hospital with an IV drip. I had a bad cold. Xiao Liu called me, but I didn't answer at the time." Teacher Yuchi said bitterly, "I should have brought a helmet to the hospital earlier. The IV drip wouldn't delay my going online anyway."
"Yeah, last time I accidentally hit my toe , it hurt so much that I couldn't sleep, and I felt better after playing the game." The casual player said, "This game is pretty awesome, it works better than painkillers."
Two players who were only wearing two sets of novice equipment passed by and heard their conversation. One of the players with the ID "Master Liu" looked in their direction.
"Hmm? I've never seen your ID before, are you newcomers?" Teacher Yuchi also saw the two people and casually cast an identification spell over them.
"ID: Master Liu"
"Race: Undead"
"Level: 1"
"Potential: 82"
Teacher Yuchi: “What the hell??”
Teacher Yuchi looked in confusion at the other new player who was walking away with "Master Liu".
"ID: Lao Geng"
"Race: Undead"
"Level: 1"
"Potential: 98"
Teacher Yuchi: "What the hell?!"
The casual players didn't understand why Mr. Yuchi suddenly reacted so strongly: "What's wrong? What's wrong with the newcomer?"
Teacher Yuchi pointed at the two newcomers' backs as they walked away and shouted at the top of his lungs, "Identify! Identify yourself!"
The casual player said "Oh" and used his skills...
"What the hell?! This potential is going to go to the sky?? This bastard planner is not a human being, right? He opened such a backdoor for the newcomer! Shady dealings! I want to report this shady dealings!!"
