Chapter 222:

Murphy very cunningly created a point pool for this task of exterminating the gnolls. He wanted to try using this “more work, more gain” model to see if it could better motivate players and increase participation of all players by setting a common goal. If this method works, the vampire lord would have another “weapon” at his disposal. However, the number of players is still too small at present. Even if all 140 people under his command each kill 20 gnolls per day, they would only eliminate nearly 3,000 in a day. But the exact number of gnoll bandits and their kobold servants on the Transian land is a complete unknown. According to Tris, since the 4th Black Disaster 110 years ago, Transia has been in a state where “monsters outnumber humans”. The reason why gnoll bandits haven’t been able to occupy this place is partly because of their beastly nature and their great pleasure in internal strife, and partly because the Blood Vulture Clan has been guarding here, preventing gnolls from acting recklessly. But now, the Blood Vulture Clan is gone, and the cunning gnolls have witnessed the scene of Kadman City being destroyed, which is enough to stir up these barbarians. When the Witch Hunters were moving to Murphy’s territory earlier, they discovered that the gnolls in the Anderma Hills had already begun abnormal gathering and movement. Such rapid integration of wilderness bandit groups among the gnoll race can only mean one thing! That is, a “warlord” has emerged among them. Weak gnoll bandit groups will naturally gather around the warlord, and then form a snowball-like expansion effect. In the past, once there were signs of a warlord emerging, the Blood Vulture Clan would immediately send out Midnight Hunters to clear out the potential threat. But Murphy now has a pile of things to deal with and doesn’t have so many resources for this kind of “precision decapitation”. According to his prediction, perhaps in less than half a month, the gnolls in Anderma Hills would gather into a real army and advance towards the Crimson Citadel. He must be prepared before such a thing happens. “You have just completed the investigation of the Transian gnoll bandit strongholds, which is productive work, proving that you are quickly integrating into our new system. But now the situation has changed subtly. I need the Adventurer’s Guild to send out another elite cavalry to enter Anderma Hills and conduct a deeper reconnaissance of the rapidly expanding bandit groups there.” In the office, Murphy interlaced his fingers to support his chin, saying to Natalie, the Guildmaster of the Adventurer’s Guild who had come at his summons: “Regarding the warlord who is supposedly rising on that land, I need a detailed report. As you can see, Guildmaster Natalie, my warriors have already started clearing the gnolls in the Count of Kadman’s domain today, and Anderma Hills is our next target. I need the Witch Hunters to gather enough intelligence before the action begins.” “Gathering intelligence is no problem at all, it’s our duty to fulfill.” Natalie nodded and said: “But your warriors are too few in number. Even if you spread them all out, it’s not enough. Given the vast area of the Count of Kadman’s domain encompassing so many villages and complex terrain, it might take them over two months to complete the cleanup.” “I bet they’ll finish in 20 days!” Murphy said quite confidently. “Impossible!” Natalie immediately retorted: “Even if they are otherworld spirits and have the assistance of your Kadman People’s Army, they can’t do it! They are humans, and humans always have limits.” “Humans have limits, but players don’t.” Murphy said in Mandarin. Natalie looked at him puzzledly, and the lord didn’t bother to explain. He said to Natalie: “I don’t need them to kill every gnoll they see, just destroy the organization of these barbarians and reduce their numbers to an acceptable level. But this is not what I want to discuss with you. The second important matter for which I summoned you is the key point. The scattered villages in our territory are about to be relocated around Crimson City. In at most one more week, they will come to establish the first batch of collective farms, and my administrative team is already working overtime to prepare. But there is one area they cannot reach. Faith! The relocated subjects will harbor resentment, which is caused by the anxiety of changing their familiar lives. I hope they can settle down faster and establish new homes. This aspect cannot do without the support and comfort of faith. Therefore, I need the Avalon Church to send priests to settle in five collective farms! You need to establish nature cathedrals to comfort the people, and at the same time use your perception and manipulation of nature spirit energy to fertilize the land and prepare for next year’s spring plowing. This is the specialty of Druids. Although you are not Druids, I believe you also understand the mysteries therein.” “But we don’t have priests, we even lack missionaries.” Natalie said with a headache: “Now there are only two nuns in the cathedral, Sister Jules and Marianne. We simply don’t have time to cultivate new church hosts.” “Does this even need cultivation?” Murphy asked back in surprise and puzzlement: “You have 1,000 compatriots in Morland Village, they are all devout believers who have gone through the Ten-Year War but still have not changed their faith in Avalon. Can’t you just pull a few out, put on nature priestly robes, and they can change profession to Avalon priests? Don’t tell me that as sincere Witch Hunters, you are not as familiar with the scriptures of the natural church as ordinary people? If that’s really the case, then you are undoubtedly heretics.” “How can this be the same!” Natalie glared fiercely at the outspoken Murphy, wanting to rebuke him for his disrespectful tone towards the gods, but then she thought that he was a vampire, and this was indeed a “racial disadvantage”. So, the president of the Adventurer’s Guild changed to an explanatory tone and said: “In the old church system, Witch Hunters belong to the fighters. Although we also study scriptures and divine teachings, our understanding of the classics is far inferior to that of missionaries like Sister Jules. We are Avalon’s sword, but His precepts are the responsibility of church members who are good at this to spread.” “But I’m not asking you to debate scriptures with the priests of the Winter Wolf Church, right?” Murphy spread his hands and said quite frankly: “I just need you to use religious rituals to stabilize my subjects, to comfort their barren hearts that are longing for a sense of belonging. I don’t need the priests you send out to be of high quality. To put it bluntly, as long as they can teach the subjects to recite scriptures and hold a nature nurturing service in the church every Sunday, I’ll be satisfied.” “Then link a trigger-type quest, let the lucky ones who get the hidden token take it to the Blood Rat Gang, find ‘Razor’ Dorothy to exchange for the design drawing of the ‘Soul-stealing Scythe’. That thing is a forging + alchemy item, right? Just right, your alchemy cottage can also skim some profit from it.” “...” Tris was a bit confused by Murphy’s series of responses. Then, she complained: “If your little players knew that you want to squeeze them to the extreme at every step, they would definitely draw their swords to chop you.” “But my lovely little players don’t know all this, so they will only praise me as a generous and handsome lord, and they gain happiness throughout the process, especially when they get the hidden token and learn that they can obtain a hidden weapon. Trust me, every little player who goes through this will cheer for their ‘red hand’. They will be immersed in the satisfaction brought by their luck for at least one night.” Murphy held the wine glass in front of his eyes, looking at the floating halo in it. He grinned and said softly: “This kind of happiness, satisfaction, and sense of achievement is the reward I give them. Everyone is just taking what they need, it’s not about squeezing or using them. Tris, you need to truly understand this point to better integrate with them. By the way, about that pearl bracelet we got from Zweig earlier, do you have any results from your reverse tracking?” “Not yet, the other party is hiding very deep.” Tris answered lightly: “Leave this matter to me. You have too much to be busy with, don’t worry about it. I’ll handle it well.” “Mm, if you really don’t want me to intervene” Murphy lowered his head and said: “Tris, you’re not hiding anything from me, are you?” “No, don’t overthink it.” —— “Bang” The speeding arrow drew a red light in the darkness, crossing a distance of over 10 meters to accurately shatter the head of a gnoll Animal Trainer. Its eyes were burst open, but it still didn’t die immediately. This creature had a humanoid form, about 2.3 meters tall, weighing around 136 kilograms, but covered all over with spotted mane, with flexible claws that could grip various weapons. The fellow had a fierce hyena head. With this build, it could easily tear apart an ordinary adult in close combat. If they happened to have gnolls’ favorite flails or morning stars, these heavy weapons, then the battle scene would turn into a meat-grinding massacre. Therefore, any rational being wouldn’t think of engaging in close combat with an elite gnoll, unless they were very confident in their own skills to attempt this deadly challenge. Previously, little players thought dealing with gnolls would be easier than dealing with ghouls, but today’s experience was enough to tell them that trying to pass the Black Iron Trial with elite gnolls was no less difficult than challenging the stinky ghouls in the sewers. However, the good news was that gnolls were living individuals, they could feel pain and fear, and would become weak when injured. Therefore, the “long-range one-cut style” invented by Little Ashina was very effective against them. The common characteristics of these barbarians were a mouthful of sharp teeth and a swaying tail. When walking upright, they were faster than ordinary people running, exuding a beastly aura and extremely ferocious. They often had cowardly but extremely numerous kobolds as servants to dig comfortable nests for them to live in. They also tamed beasts. The hyenas tamed by gnolls possessed supernatural powers just like them. These beasts were loyal and savage. It was said that a litter of hyena pups could hunt on their own in just half a month, which obviously didn’t quite fit the circumstances that naturally born life should have. But considering this was a fantasy world, seeking natural laws here was somewhat unnecessary. “Puff” A second arrow with a crimson glow shot out from the darkness again, piercing through the other eye of the gnoll that was trying to get up while growling. The Dark Spirit attached to the arrowhead produced a slight internal explosion in its skull. This spirit-enhanced heavy hit finally completely defeated it, making it fall to the ground. It could smell the stench of a vampire emerging from the darkness, while Miaomiao Shark from the student party put away the vampire hunting crossbow in his hand and drew out the clan guard halberd from his back to thrust forward fiercely, sending this Black Iron Animal Trainer cornered into death. The number +5 jumped on his character interface, reaching 15 points, but it couldn’t even enter the top 30 in the gnoll hunting action point pool that had already started. Currently, Sister Pomegranate ranking first had reached an astonishing 44 points! Brother Mao’s 41 points followed closely behind. “Sigh, professionals are indeed different.” Miaomiao Shark sighed. He was also in the first echelon among players, with good equipment and skills, and had even changed profession to Midnight Hunter to learn advanced skills that could add extra spirit damage to his arrows. However, the gap between people was indeed too big. He crouched down, pulled out his hunting knife and removed the gnoll’s teeth, claw blades, and tail mane. These were all collectible materials that could be exchanged for usable low-level potions at the alchemy cottage. But just as Miaomiao Shark was about to leave, he suddenly heard a strange call. It sounded like the cry of some young beast, which immediately interested Miaomiao Shark. He explored forward in this smelly beast den, and a few minutes later, this guy came out smiling with a litter of four hyena pups that had just opened their eyes. Hey, he was envious of Feel You Poor’s manticore earlier, and now he suddenly had his own little pets too. As an Animal Trainer, a branch of Midnight Hunter, he should indeed start practicing his professional skills from now on. He was going to be the man who would become the midnight cat-petting king in the future! Let’s start with petting these blood-thirsty hyenas. Ugly, indeed a bit ugly, but it shouldn’t be a big problem. However, he still needed to consult a professional about how to raise these things after going back. “Little Rich seems to have specially hired a fierce beast keeper to help him take care of the manticore. That guy is called Belly. Hmm, I’ll go ask him later.” Miaomiao Shark, carrying the yapping hyena pups, thought while walking: “The players in this game are all talented, with people from almost all walks of life. If you know it’s a game, it’s fine, but if you don’t know, you might think it’s some kind of weird social experiment. Speaking of which, could it be true as the rumors on the forum say, that this is some damn little experiment conducted by aliens? Ew~ that’s creepy. Never mind, I’ll go kill a few more gnolls and call it a day.”