As they spoke, they had come to a heavy gate. In front of the gate, an Ogre Boss was guarding loyally with a big mace, and beside it were two other Difia guards.
“This is the eldest of the Death Mine, Ogre Puck, an NPC tanky Boss. He is in charge of guarding the gate. We use him to test the strength and strategy of the Adventurer teams entering the dungeon,” Dakar Rhode introduced.
Great minds think alike. It seemed that it had become a hidden rule to arrange the eldest of the dungeon as the tanky Boss that did not move much.
The Ogre saluted Dakar Rhode and opened the gate. As they went in, the place turned out to be a smelting plant. Many Goblin workers were pushing the mined ores into the furnace.
The melted iron flew into molds and solidified into pieces of iron plate in the busy scene.
In charge of the smelting plant was a Goblin Boss—the Goblin Techies Dr. Lester.
Dr. Lester (Goblin Techies) said, “Thank God, Boss, you’re finally here. I was just about to report the project progress to you.”
“How is it, Lester? Are the ores enough?”
Dr. Lester (Goblin Techies)said, “Yes, Boss. We have over-fulfilled the casting task. We will be able to finish it in a week’s time. But there are a few workers dead today, so you might need to arrange more people for me. Those clumsy idiots always fall into the furnace by accident.”
“Don’t worry, there have been many huge changes to the Monster Forces of Night Whisper Forest. I will get you some workers from there.” Dakar Rhode nodded as he walked inside.
As they walked through the smelting plant, there was a wood factory. Many loggers were processing huge logs. But the Boss in charge here was a Goblin.
Ripper 2000 (Goblin Timbersaw), as well as his driver, Espy (Goblin Timbersaw Driver).
Seeing Dakar Rhode walk in, Espy immediately drove his Goblin Timbersaw over and greeted, “Hi, Boss. You’re still awake so late at night!”
“So are you. How is the project going?”
“Very well!”
“That’s good, keep going.”
As they continued to walk, Xiao Yu was clearer about what he was doing. This Dakar Rhode seemed to be building something with steel-making and wood processing, and his co-called big plan had to have something to do with what he was building.
After they went through the wood factory and entered a tunnel, he was more certain about his idea. Soon, they reached the end of the tunnel, and on the other side was a natural cave. The center of the cave was an underground lake, and in the lake was an ironclad warship.
“WTF!” Although he was mentally prepared, Xiao Yu was shocked at the moment he saw that. He had made this thing? Was he playing the right game?
Dakar Rhode looked at Xiao Yu’s expression with great satisfaction. “This is the Rebel gunboat, the most powerful gunboat designed by the Navy Alliance. Unfortunately, it was not made due to the fact that its manufacturing cost is high and it’s unsuited for long-distance voyages. But I managed to make it. It’s magnificent, isn’t it?”
Xiao Yu nodded. “Yes, indeed. What are you going to do with it?”
“What else can I do? Improve my reputation, of course. Like how you attacked Night Whisper Village, I’m planning to use it to blow up Storm City.”
“Damn, that’s a bold move,” Xiao Yu thought. If he really took this gunboat to attack Storm City, Dakar Rhode’s Reputation Points would definitely soar. This would be a great chance to farm Reputation Points, as it could affect the plot of the whole game, and Dakar Rhode could advance to a Skeleton Level Boss, thus improving his position in the players’ minds. Although it would be hard for him to get into the top three, he would definitely be nominated.
“Now that you know my ability, are you interested in joining us?”
Xiao Yu shook his head. “I’m afraid that I have to think about it carefully before I can give you an answer.” Even though Dakar Rhode was pretty powerful, Xiao Yu was not stunned by him, as he was once the Demonic Blaze Overlord. After the initial shock, he thought carefully and felt that it was just normal. Although it sounded cool to bombard Storm City, it was impossible to do so with only one gunboat, or even to cause any major damage to the Alliance. After all, a whole defense fleet was stationed at the port of Storm City, hence his plan would help him to farm Reputation Points and have some sense of presence at most.
Dakar Rhode smiled. “No problem, you should indeed consider this kind of thing carefully. Anyway, you haven’t seen our studio’s salary and benefits. It’s very late tonight. Well, I’ll arrange a room for you to stay tonight, then you can reply to me after you have thought about it.”
He seemed to be certain that Xiao Yu would join them. With a snap of his fingers, a dark shadow appeared behind him immediately. It was a Shadow Guard.
Dakar Rhode (Shadow King) said, “Prepare a room for Mr. Eric.”
The Shadow Guard replied, “Yes, Boss.”
While he followed the Shadow Guard, Xiao Yu could not help but start to consider Dakar Rhode’s offer. However, it seemed that he could not digest the overwhelming information he had just received in a short time. It was true that he would gain more support if he joined the studio, but his gains would be shared with others. It was hard to say whether it was a good or a bad thing. Although they would get $2,000,000 if they were nominated, there would not be much left after splitting with so many people in the studio. And as the guild leader, Dakar Rhode would take the majority of the share, then what would be left for him? At most $180,000.
Moreover, in his opinion, Dakar Rhode was still narrow-minded. How could you rely on just one ironclad gunboat to make a breakthrough in Firmament? Human Bandits were too inferior. Although they were steady, it was not good for them to play with the Monster Mode, as they had to be more aggressive. It could be said that Dakar Rhode had been on the wrong track since the beginning.
As he was thinking, a weird voice suddenly sounded beside him.
“How dare you? Why did you do it!?” That voice was a little hoarse, a bit similar to a whisper, but not quite the same.
“What did you say?” He turned back and took a strange look at the Shadow Guard.
The Shadow Guard also looked at him strangely. “I did not say anything.”
Xiao Yu was stunned. The voice he had just heard was indeed different from that of the Shadow Guard. Was he having auditory hallucination?
“Oh, never mind.” But after taking two steps, that voice came out again. “You will pay for what you have done.”
Xiao Yu was shocked and thought that he was not wrong this time. He was definitely not hearing an imaginary voice. He secretly turned around and looked at the Shadow Guard, but he was just walking with his head down and did not seem to have opened his mouth.
“You will die a violent death!” That voice came out again, but the Shadow Guard’s mouth did not open at all. Finally, Xiao Yu could not help it.
“Hmm, is this place haunted?”
The Shadow Guard shook his head weirdly, as if he felt that there was something wrong with the Goblin in front of him.
The Shadow Guard said, “Mr. Eric, this is your room. You might want to walk around if you have nothing to do.”
Xiao Yu nodded and watched the Shadow Guard leave.
He looked at his room. A cabin on the starboard side of the ship, a very simple and small room. There was nothing but a bed, but it was enough to act as a place for him to go offline.
Sitting on the bed, that voice still sounded from time to time, and there were no good words from it., “Why don’t you go and die!? Why are you still alive?! Don’t you know what you have done?” One strange line after another, as if it was coming from a place far away. Xiao Yu was a bit scared.
“Who are you?” Xiao Yu asked aloud.
“You don’t even know who I am? You don’t know who I am!” That voice suddenly became excited, and there was anger in it.
“You’re so noisy!” Xiao Yu shouted loudly, and the surroundings suddenly quietened down. He was a little easy, and thought that it was weird to hear such a voice for no reason.
Looking at the time, it was already past five o’clock in the morning. Was it because he had played for too long and hallucinations had appeared in his mind?
Although this game was played in a semi sleep state, it did not have a complete sleeping function, so the players would feel tired after playing for a long time.
Hence, there was a game alarm function in the gaming cube. The alarm would ring automatically if the player had played for more than 12 hours continuously, and would force the player to log out if he had played for more than 24 hours.
But as a professional player, Xiao Yu would definitely be online for a long time, hence he had uninstalled this function as it was too irritating. Now he was thinking that it could be an imaginary voice that had appeared because he had been playing for a long time.
Xiao Yu had once read an article talking about how someone had become a madman after playing a game for three days and nights continuously. It was said that the gaming cube had affected his brain waves and caused permanent brain damage. Xiao Yu thought that he could be in such a situation right now. He should log out of the game and go to bed before he became a madman.
Thinking of this, Xiao Yu quickly quit the game and got out of the gaming cube. As expected, his head felt a bit dizzy. His brain was excited but tired, which was very strange.