Chapter 26:

The little players who wanted to see the story and exploit the rich loli lady have already made a “storyline branch choice”, so Murphy, as an “NPC”, naturally has to satisfy their wish. He left his two assistants here to take care of Lady Adele and guard the “quest items” they robbed from the Goldflower transport team, and then with a command, he led the 11 excited and fully armed little players, who had physically swapped their weapons for guns, towards the area where the Midnight Hunters and the main force of the transport team were battling. Although in this world, the development has only reached bolt-action rifles, which are not necessarily better than cold weapons in small-scale battles, the little players clearly trust these ranged weapons that can pull the trigger more. For example, Onboard Joy Stick was complaining that the firepower in this battle was too unscientific in the magical world, while teaching others how to use these bolt-action rifles, as if finding the happiness he had when he was an instructor in Africa. But as he went on, Joy Stick, this former professional, just like Miss Lumina before, quickly noticed something was off. “Hey! Wait a minute! This gun is different from what I know! There’s no firing pin, is there? And this ball-shaped bullet looks so strange! Why is it this color?” He exclaimed, putting the disassembled parts in front of him for a closer look. He could be sure that those old antiques he had seen in the past did not have these weird-looking things. This also caused surprise among the other little players, and Murphy rolled his eyes inwardly as he listened to their chatter. Hey, steam technology, kid! This is an otherworld with spirit energy! If you want to live happily here, you’d better discard your original knowledge of physics and your worship of Newton like he did. Although he didn’t know much about the “technology tree” of this world, Murphy knew that the technology here was absolutely not the same as the technology he was familiar with after seeing that outrageous automatic crossbow! He could still explain the miniaturization of steam engines with advanced craftsmanship, but the fact that such a small device could maintain the power to drive a revolver cylinder and fire automatic rifle rounds... If steam engines were really that good, internal combustion engines and the like would never have appeared, right? Miriam has a lot of authority in this regard. The Shaldor Engineering Academy where she studied was the origin and core of mechanical knowledge in this world. Although she was not a mechanical engineering student, she had told Murphy a bit about the principles of the halflings’ steam engineering. She repeatedly mentioned something called a “Combustion Gold Catalyst”, saying that it was this thing that transformed steam engineering, and Murphy can confirm that this did not exist in the original world. The group moved forward noisily along the Smuggler’s Woods towards the battlefield, and after leaving the ambush area, Murphy finally saw the prompt he had been waiting for: 【Newbie Guide Quest (5/6): Comprehensive Assessment (Completed) 1. Alpha must complete tactical discussions and form strategies with the lovely little players in the game. (Completed) 2. The main combat action must be carried out solely by Alpha and the player faction. (Completed) 3. Alpha or the players must personally kill the leader of the chosen combat target faction, and ensure that at least one-fifth of the current manpower survives at the end of the action. (Completed) Evaluation: At the end of the operation, 11 people remained, completing the quest with: Outstanding! Reward: +10 Test Invitation Codes, in-depth Data (Combat Record) function unlocked. Outstanding completion bonus: +10 Test Invitation Codes, Tester Active Login function unlocked, limited to 6 hours/day, this function requires manual activation by the test administrator. Developer’s note: Outstanding! It’s hard to imagine anyone could achieve such a high rating, just one step away from perfection. Ah, it seems I set the strict quest limitations too low. By the way, you cheated, didn’t you? You must have, right?】 “Got it!” Upon seeing the reward for the fifth Newbie Guide Quest, Murphy punched the air violently. At this moment, the reward of 20 reserve manpower was nothing. The prompt that allowed him to manually confirm and activate the player active login function was what he wanted the most! If the players could not actively control the game time, no matter how good the game was, it would seriously dampen their gaming enthusiasm. But now, this problem that had been plaguing him and the players was finally solved! He, the game tester in charge, could finally go to the forum and report this good news to the little players who had been eagerly waiting, while boasting about how hard the virtual development team that only existed on the forum had worked. Rejoice, brothers! You no longer have to wait for my summons to go online. This way, it’s convenient for you, and I don’t have to make up test content on the forum anymore. Then, as usual, a new guide quest popped up: 【Newbie Guide Quest (6/6): Reach the beginning and the end, return to Kadman City, pass the Trial of Strength – Black Iron Body, and obtain your own exclusive territory. Reward: +10 Test Invitation Codes, all remaining basic functions unlocked, additional advanced function rewards based on the scale of your exclusive territory. Developer’s note: You have finally reached this step. According to my estimation, it should have taken at least a year for you to reach this new beginning. In this year, you have had enough experience to temper your will and polish your character. You will take the final step, and then, you will shed the mundane and become a truly qualified test administrator. Let the lovely little players take pride in you, and let you take pride in your lovely and loyal little players!】 “A year?” Murphy sneered and said: “I finished your damn challenge in just one month and five days! Excluding the one month it took to unpack and install your shit, I speedrun your broken challenge in five days. Most of this is thanks to the bravery and wisdom of the little players, but I also did a little bit of trivial work in it. Anyway, don’t underestimate me! Bastard.” In that instant, he felt extremely proud and accomplished, but Murphy soon noticed the “in-depth Data” function in the reward for the fifth guide quest, which made him very curious. Hasn’t his character card already been digitized? The content of each stage’s Trial of Strength for testers is designated by the test administrator, but the test administrator must first pass that stage’s Trial of Strength. Explanation 4: In in-depth Data mode, all racial traits will also be digitized. Taking vampires as an example: Vampire – Blood Vulture Clan Racial Traits: Night’s Blessing: When in a dark environment, close combat and spirit skill checks +1, agility increases by 20%, intelligence increases by 20%, life, stamina, and spirit recovery rates greatly accelerated. Can perform Blood Wings flight (0.5x speed of sound) during the night. Day’s Curse: When fighting in a bright environment, damage dealt is reduced by 30%, life recovery rate reduced by 50%, and continuously suffers from【Sunlight Burn】which is treated as a negative effect. This effect can be negated by spells but cannot be dispelled. Vampire’s Touch: Each attack has a chance to drain the enemy’s life force to replenish or enhance one’s own attack, and when the power of blood reaches its limit, it can be used to enhance the next attack. This racial ability will be activated upon reaching the Black Iron Body rank. Bat Heritage: When a vampire is near death, they can dissipate their physical form and transform into a bat swarm to escape mortal danger, usage limit【3 times/night】. Using this ability multiple times in a short period will cause the vampire to suffer【Mental Strain】and【Physical Collapse】negative effects. This racial ability will be activated upon reaching the Black Iron Body rank. Reclusive Blood Clan: The seven vampire clans have a unique and complex prestige system, causing vampires to have reduced goodwill and difficulty communicating with other factions. Eternal Sin Descendant: Vampires, bearing the original sin, are abhorred by all other life forms, making it difficult to increase charisma. Explanation 5: In in-depth Data mode, detailed combat records can be viewed. But please note that this combat record is only a digitized interpretation of the original combat. To obtain more information, professional data analysis skills are required. Engaging in combat in in-depth Data mode will introduce a【Dice Roll】option, adding more fun and unexpected elements to otherwise lackluster battles. Warning! It is not recommended to use this advanced function at low power levels to avoid unexpected instant deaths. Continue enabling in-depth Data? Yes/No】 This long string of numbers popped into Murphy’s eyes, making him feel immense pressure just from reading it. Now he could be certain that no matter which idiot handcrafted this admin system, that guy must be a hardcore RPG campaign lover. Just look at his nonsensical suggestion! Rolling dice! You wish. If I roll six 1s in a row in a duel, wouldn’t even a favorable situation suddenly turn disastrous for me? That’s way too exciting! What sane person would use this? “Disable!” Murphy muttered. The complex data disappeared from his sight in an instant, and the character card returned to the pleasing, concise, idiot mode. His headache immediately subsided, and he was instantly revived to full health. Surrounded by the little players, he stood up and thanked them for their help, while batting away Ah Yuen’s hand that was still pinching his chest. However, he was pondering that considering the attribute explanations earlier, the reason he couldn’t withstand in-depth Data was most likely because his intelligence attribute was still not high enough? In other words, he wasn’t smart enough? Ugh, that was a bit too hurtful, wasn’t it? The vampire sneered. But when he looked at the little players in front of him, he felt amused again. No wonder these guys were so weak – their initial character values were all 5, at most fluctuating by 3, with a measly total of only 30. Tsk tsk, they were definitely bottom tier scrubs. If they remained this weak, it would indeed be worrying. However, the little players’ growth potential was 1.5 times that of the natives. Considering that even the initial racial values of supernatural beings like vampires were only 40, even a single attribute point was very important. Yet these guys could get 6 more attribute points than the natives every time they crossed a power threshold! This meant that after just two Trials of Strength, their total attribute value would surpass that of natives at the same rank. Most importantly, the natives only had one life! But the players were not afraid of death. This meant their leveling speed would definitely be more than ten times faster than the natives! Perhaps in less than a year, Murphy could have a super army with everyone at the Silver Body rank! By then, conquering the world would be a piece of cake. Of course, the players’ inability to upgrade their character templates meant they could only be evaluated using the standard template. At the same rank, their combat power would probably be ranked at the bottom tier. But that didn’t matter. When the numbers were large enough, quantity was a quality of its own. No matter how powerful an elite template was, it couldn’t withstand a group battle against 25 standard templates of the same rank. Thinking of this, Murphy’s gaze towards the little players became increasingly gentle and affectionate. My adorable little leeks, you really do have a promising future! “Ah!” Just as Murphy was pondering this wonderful future, a familiar scream suddenly rang out from ahead, causing him to frown and turn his head immediately. What on earth was Lady Femis screaming about? Is this the kind of scream a vampire lady should make? That’s way too unbecoming! Screaming so miserably, did she see a ghost or something?