Chapter 74: Spineless Players
"Hal lied." Qin Guan said affirmatively.
"I think it's very likely that he's telling the truth," Miaobishenghua said.
The disguised phantom will continuously consume mental energy, which will be converted into the warrior's rage value/mage's blue bar on the player's personal panel. Before Qin Guan's rage bar was completely consumed, the two found an excuse to hurriedly leave the Traveler's Guild.
Qin Guan said puzzledly: "Why? In the Heart Demon book, the young Hal took the job of burying corpses for money, but Hal himself said that his family is rich. This is a conflict."
"No conflict. He was once rich, but his family fell into poverty. He went from being a young master who could attend a key university to being a member of the lower class who does anything for money. This makes sense." Miao Bishenghua said, "Although Hal we saw in the Heart Demon Book was in a very embarrassed state, he was wearing a woolen windbreaker, which proves that Hal's family was once wealthy."
Qin Guan: “???”
"Before chemical fiber fabrics became popular, woolen fabrics were very expensive. When I was a child, the elders in my family only had two woolen coats. Unlike now, woolen fabrics can be bought for dozens of yuan." Miaobishenghua is a few years older than Qin Guan after all. He also looked up a lot of information to write online articles, and his general knowledge is broader than Qin Guan. "I feel that the background setting of this game is closer to 19th century Europe. Under this background condition, ordinary street teenagers can't get woolen windbreakers."
Qin Guan: "Emmmm...Okay, so Hal met Jim after he got down and out. He refuses to talk about what happened after he got down and out. How can we gather intelligence like this?"
Miaobishenghua said: "It has been collected."
Qin Guan: “???”
Miao Bi Sheng Hua said: "The word 'heart demon' has two interpretations. The first one refers to the good and evil in the heart. One thought can make you a Buddha, and one thought can make you a demon. It can also be understood as defects and obstacles in the spirit, consciousness, and psychology."
"The second type is in the idealistic field, such as movies, comics, and games, which usually rely on 'illusions' to express it."
"...So what?" Qin Guan said.
"Obviously, the Inner Demon dungeon in the game "Otherworld" is a combination of these two explanations." Miao Bishenghua compared three fingers, "Hal lived in the north when he was a teenager, and the young Hal we saw in the dungeon was indeed wearing thick clothes. The body of Jim, whose name we know, in the woven bag was wearing a woven sweater and overalls, which means that Jim was killed in a warm room and then carried out by Hal. Hal and the deceased Jim lived in similar environments. This is one of the reasons."
"Two corpses with only upper bodies emerged from Jim's body. The first one was a woman with her chest and abdomen exposed, and the second one was a man with very strong upper limbs and wearing a jacket. The ages of these two people were obviously different from Jim and the young Hal. They were both adults, and their clothes did not show that they lived in the north in winter. They must have been people Hal met after he changed his living place after he became an adult. This is the second."
After a pause, he raised his last finger bone: "The most important... is the third one. The two adult corpses that emerged from Jim's body are not only half of the body, but also so distorted that their original appearances are almost unrecognizable. Based on the premise that the 'Inner Demon Copy' is the embodiment of idealism, we can conclude that Hal is truly most guilty of Jim, whom he owed in his youth. Everyone else is just an extension of Jim."
Qin Guan: "Uh..."
"Maybe... I know the real solution to this dungeon." Miaobishenghua said confidently, "When it gets dark in the game, we can give it a try. If it doesn't work, we can use Qingyue's leg-cutting tactic."
On Saturday, October 26th, Earth time, at 10:30 p.m., the players in the game once again welcomed the night.
After a round of failures, the three veterans of the closed beta test successfully sent a well-prepared team into the copy.
It was still the eerie northern forest. Hal, a young boy, dragged a blood-soaked woven bag and staggered over the thick leaves in the forest.
The young Hal fell down, and a hand stretched out from the mouth of the woven bag. The dead person resurrected, and two connected corpses with only the upper torso grew out of the young body like bean sprouts...
“Get on it!”
Qin Guan called out in a deep voice, and a team consisting of two knight players, six walkers, and two warrior players rushed out, and according to the experience they had gained from the previous night, they grabbed the BOSS and fought it.
The only wizard in the team who could heal was very good at writing... but he didn't go up.
While his teammates were holding back the BOSS, Miaobishenghua walked up to the young boy Hal who was lying limp on the ground.
"Hal, isn't that your friend Jim?"
The young Hal, the NPC who had always been used by players as a copy mirror tool... raised his head with a look of horror.
Miaobishenghua was greatly encouraged and continued to point at the boss and repeat: "Hal, that's your friend Jim."
"No...no! He is not my friend, I don't know him!" Young Hal suddenly lost control and shouted at Miaobishenghua.
The brilliant pen said with certainty, "That's your friend Jim, Hal."
"No, no! He is not my friend. I have no friends!" The young Hal trembled violently and even started crying.
The brilliant pen was totally unmoved and asked coldly: "What did you do to your friend, Hal?"
"I...I..." After struggling in fear and confusion for a long time, the young Hal uttered a string of words painfully and mechanically, "A gold coin...bury Jim...don't let anyone find out..."
"You buried Jim's body for a gold coin?"
“Ah—! Aa ...
The young Hal held his head in his hands and howled in tears: "If I don't do this, I will be killed like Jim! Only by accepting the money can I prove that I am a bastard who doesn't care about the death of my friends for money!"
"I don't want to be a jerk, but I can't survive unless I become a scumbag that even I am ashamed of!"
"It works! Huahua, it works!"
Qin Guan's joyful voice came from behind. Miao Bishenghua turned his head and was immediately cheered up - the centipede BOSS made up of three corpses actually disintegrated, and the two corpses that curiously grew on Jim's body fell off by themselves and turned into ashes!
This means that the difficulty of defeating the BOSS is instantly reduced by more than half!
"I am the best!" Miaobishenghua clenched her fist happily, turned around and prepared to continue to verbally attack the young Hal...
Then she froze.
The young boy Hal, who was originally slumped on the ground and unable to move, stood up...at some point.
The thin boy's body grew taller and thicker visibly, and in a few seconds, it turned into an adult's physique.
Not only that… the young Hal’s childish face also matures, gradually approaching the adult Hal in “reality”.
But he is much more sinister and weird than the adult Hal in "reality".
The young Hal's eyes were unfocused when he looked at people, but this dark version of the adult Hal seemed , staring strangely at the brilliant writer closest to him.
Miaobishenghua knew clearly that this was just a copy in the game and the other party was just a mirror NPC in the copy, but he still took a half step back involuntarily.
"Everyone knows ... It's a survival rule that you have to do... But Jim still won't forgive me."
The dark version of Hal stared at the brilliant writing, and like a madman whose mind had lost control, he spoke illogical words: "Every time, every time... as long as I relax a little, Jim will find me... How did he find me? Why does he always pester me? Why can this guy find flaws in whatever I do... Why is this?"
Miao Bishenghua half opened his mouth and took a half step back.
"I am already so powerful..."
"I killed a bastard who was even more powerful than the one who killed Jim..."
"I'm obviously... no longer someone who can only be a scumbag!"
When the dark version of Hal roared out these words, he became even more curious. His body expanded more than three times as much as a balloon. His head was swollen and deformed, and fangs were exposed from his mouth. His skin first turned into dark blue leather, and then it sprouted dense, terrifying hair like steel needles, like wheat seedlings. His hands, which were as big as cutting boards, all had ferocious claws...
Not to mention the brilliant writing nearby, even Qin Guan, Give Me Medicine and others who were more than ten meters away were stunned.
At this moment, a yellow message popped up on the players' information panel:
"Congratulations on triggering the hidden boss of Hal Maxwell's Inner Demon Realm: Hal's true inner demon."
Players: “What the hell?!”
“This is not the result I want ah ah——!!” Miaobishenghua held his head with both hands, and while screaming... was grabbed offline by a claw of the hidden BOSS.
One minute and twenty seconds later, the three veteran teams of the closed beta test were wiped out.
On the other hand, the Entropy Bu Zeng team, who entered the dungeon at the same time as Miao Bi Sheng Hua and others, fought with the BOSS for more than 20 minutes and cut off one of the BOSS's legs with great difficulty. However, because the only blue bar (mental power) that could be used for treatment was exhausted, the Entropy Bu Zeng team was humiliated and wiped out in front of the BOSS with less than 10% of its health bar...
Sunday, February 27th, 12:30 a.m. Earth time.
The desolate stronghold in the game is also at night, but it does not have the depressing atmosphere of the Exile Town. There will be no active monsters suddenly jumping out from a corner to kill the player, and the noises made by NPCs can be heard in tents everywhere.
As soon as the Wonderful Writing Team came out of the teleportation point, they saw the Entropy Team standing in front of the Zombie General's tent to receive the mission.
"Hi...Qingyue, you guys are here too." Miaobishenghua waved and greeted them with a forced smile.
"Yeah." En Bu Zeng was also a little embarrassed, "Well... although the double warriors chopping legs tactic is indeed useful, our overall output is still a bit lacking. I don't have enough mana for healing... why don't we get more materials first to see if we can get equipment with healing effects. How about you guys, how is the development going?"
Wonderful writing: "Hehe, hehe..."
Fortunately, the characters in this game have no face, otherwise she would not be able to control her expression...
Qin Guan knew that his friend was in a very bad mood, so he stepped out to smooth things over: "I heard from Xiao Zhou that there is a mission in the Desolate Base that is very profitable. Do you want to do it together?"
The Xiao Zhou he mentioned is the one who runs the studio with the ID "Yi Yi Ba". Many players on En Bu Zeng's side have bought gold from them. After hearing what Qin Guan said, En Bu Zeng asked, "Which task is it? It's convenient for multiple people to do it together, right?"
"It's convenient, convenient." Qin Guan walked to the notice board and pointed to the top one. "That's it. It's a logging mission. You can chop down trees at the designated logging point outside the base. You can process the chopped trees and remove the branches and then turn them in. The mission rewards are not only reputation and copper coins, but also materials. It's very cost-effective and more profitable than clearing the poisonous swamp..."
They were originally discussing taking on a gathering mission related to the poisonous swamp, completing the mission while killing monsters and increasing their period income, and they had not noticed the missions outside the poisonous swamp, so they all looked up.
When Entropy Bu Zeng heard the term “logging mission”, for some reason it sounded very familiar to him…
People from both sides received the task and were acting together enthusiastically when Brother Lahong and his die-hard supporters also walked out of the teleportation point.
The three parties looked at each other.
"Ha, haha, you guys are here too." Brother Lahong laughed awkwardly.
"Yes, yes." Qin Guan, Ji Tang and others responded with awkward smiles.
This group of players, who usually make sarcastic remarks when they meet, gritted their teeth and chatted with each other for a few words, and all accepted the logging mission...
There is no way, if the team is wiped out too often, it is inevitable that equipment will be lost... Although the players have found ways to tie up the good equipment that they are most concerned about, if too many steel knives are lost, the money is not enough...
Yang Qiu, who rarely did not hide back on Earth to slack off and was still observing the players in the town hall of Exile Town, let out a "tsk".
"They all gave up... Is the dungeon too difficult?" Yang Qiu put down the rune equipment he had just completed, touched his chin and muttered to himself, "That's impossible. How could there be a problem with the difficulty I set? It must be because these guys are too spineless!"
"But then again, Hal's little psychological shadow has stumped them, and Rex's inner demons are almost impossible for them to get through... Forget it, let's increase the combat power of these guys."
Yang Qiu put away the rune equipment that he was going to sell at the Undead Chamber of Commerce for a high price and to recycle currency materials, straightened his clothes, and walked out quietly.
Half an hour later, in Exile Town, where all the players had fled, the instructors responsible for the combat job transfer, Hal, Tuttle, Pansy, Jerome, and Rex, were all called up...
"Professional...mission?" Hal, who was sleepy and dared not speak, became much more sober after hearing Yang Qiu's request.
"Yes." Yang Qiu spread his hands and said, "You all have seen that although our undead friends have chosen the combat professions you have chosen, they are indeed too lacking in ambition. They are only satisfied with attacking those low-level monsters with low intelligence in groups, and have no desire to challenge the strong. This is really not good for the first batch of undead who need to blaze a trail for the revival of the undead race."
Well... one of the fundamental reasons is that the average potential value of players stagnated after it reached 55 points, which made it impossible to add functions such as instant text and voice chat and friend list to the brand matrix; and the players had no idea that this was their problem, and instead greeted the production team on the forum every day - this blame-shifting behavior is too bad!
The second fundamental reason is closely related to the development of Tarantan.
Yang Qiu did not accept the sugar-coated bullets that "Director Lu" threw at his production line, but he was still interested in doing some low-tech production activities in Tarantan, otherwise he would not have secretly arranged a logging mission in the desolate stronghold... He had little money (RMB) in his pocket and did not want to accept the sugar-coated bullets from "Director Lu", so he might as well find a way himself.
There is coal in Tarantan. There is an open-pit coal mine less than ten kilometers outside the exile town that was chosen by the pioneers as their residence. If Yang Qiu can get some drilling and mineral processing equipment and run a small factory at the township level, he will no longer have to worry about how to feed the natives under his command.
Let the indigenous people be self-sufficient and attract more indigenous people. If this virtuous cycle is maintained, it will only be a matter of time before Tarantan develops.
But the premise of all this is... the players' monster-killing activities can clear up the safety hazards around the indigenous settlements.
Exile Town was fine, but in Desolate Stronghold, you could hear the roar of monsters every night. Why did Yang Qiu feel so relieved to just throw those sixty noble private soldiers to Desolate Stronghold? Besides the fact that Desolate Stronghold at least provided meals (you could eat instant noodles as you wish, and the zombie general would issue cooking tasks regularly), these guys didn't dare to leave the stronghold too far away where the zombie general was stationed...
You should know that there are no big rats blocking the way in Desolate Stronghold, and players can explore the entire map freely; however, players still focus on spawning monsters in the Poison Swamp. The biggest reason is that this swamp with miasma fog as a natural barrier is safer and not so easy to be discovered by high-level monsters.
Although Yang Qiu does not need the players to charge into battle for him, he still needs the players to act as a safety barrier for the natives who come to Tarantan.
He himself is working diligently day and night to hone his mental strength and strive to become a great magician. Players should also make an effort!
