Chapter 311:

Words : 2809 Updated : Oct 13th, 2025

Dorothy said she needed negotiation assistants, but only 5 people. This clearly meant letting the little players quickly select representatives to participate, and the three Dump Truck members who initiated this “debt collection action” were naturally among them. Along with the current Honorary Knight Typal, leader of the “Torrent Knights”, and Leading Pigeon, leader of the student faction, the five people were assembled. The veteran players all knew the reputation of these five, so no one had any objections. Of course, not all new players were convinced about being represented, but they had just entered the game and hadn’t even figured out the basic gameplay. For such major events that directly determine the plot direction, forget about others, they themselves weren’t confident. However, with 214 players here, reaching consensus wasn’t an easy task. Blood Claw Clan’s chieftain Hog was escorting goods toward the abandoned tax collection office, leaving at most 20 minutes for everyone to discuss. Time was very tight. This was when you could see the difference between having organization and not having it. The Torrent Knights, with over 80 members all present, found a place to properly collect opinions in an orderly fashion. Although they were a player knight order, their RP experience in other games meant their basic command structure extended down to the decurion level. This way, Typal only needed a very short time to unify the opinions of his members. In contrast, the other individual players were in chaos, with some more hot-tempered ones even getting into arguments over this matter. All of this was under the observation of the veteran players. They didn’t have complex in-depth discussions about whether to accept the Blood Claw Clan, everyone had already reached consensus. Since this Blood Claw Clan was a reputation faction supported by the players themselves, it must continue to exist! Therefore, the biggest question now wasn’t whether to accept them, but whether the “apology” offered by the gnolls would satisfy the players. “This Torrent Knights is quite something,” said Dump Truck Iaido, sitting in a wobbly chair, quietly speaking to Leading Pigeon who was hiding in the shadows wiping his staff with a handkerchief. “Their level of organization is almost catching up to the player legion that Brother Stick painstakingly trained. I estimate after they formally establish their army, Brother Stick might be anxious for quite a while.” “No way,” Leading Pigeon was quite open-minded about it, waving his hand saying: “They’re RP players, focused on story experience, and most have switched to administrative professions. I estimate they’ll be the ones holding up Transia’s administrative system in the future. Those management level matters will keep them busy enough, which alone determines their combat power can’t surpass Brother Stick’s legion. Besides, formations and actual fighting are two different concepts. Brother Stick is a war maniac with zero interest in management and construction. He’s solely focused on fighting, he’s a professional. As the saying goes, don’t challenge someone’s livelihood with your hobby. But later when administrative profession levels increase and one person can lead four guards, the Torrent Knights’ NPC guards alone could organize 500 people, potentially even influencing the strategic direction of a small-scale battle. This is something even the most powerful combat professionals simply cannot do. However, Brother Dump Truck, Miaomiao Shark from our Beast Team, who has the highest Perception, just told me that three guys from this batch of newcomers give him an unsettling impression.” Leading Pigeon looked around and lowered his voice saying: “You know Miaomiao Shark took the hunter path, and after passing the Black Iron Trial his vampire senses were specialized into the ‘Killing Intent Detection’ talent. He told me those ‘Three Slacking Brothers’ have a kind of murderous aura that ordinary people don’t have. They’re very dangerous. Even more dangerous than Master Mao. Master Mao is just a warrior swordsman. If I had to make an analogy, Master Mao is a sheathed sword, but these three are drawn blades. Do you think they might be in reality...” “Shh!” Hearing Leading Pigeon bring this up, Dump Truck Iaido’s heart skipped a beat and he quickly covered his mouth. The worldly middle-aged man looked around and gestured: “Don’t talk about this, just play your game. No matter what their background is, don’t interact with them too much.” “Right, just play your game.” The ever-clear-headed Bulldozer Man Charging glanced discreetly toward the direction of Border Town Wanderer’s six people, quietly reminding: “Given this game’s special nature, it would be strange if it wasn’t noticed by those above. But regardless of their identity, being able to enter the game means Alpha Company has already cleared the path on that end. They might be official ‘representatives’ sent to monitor if anything illegal happens in the game. This is actually a good thing, you understand? Completely unregulated freedom would definitely lead to things none of us want to see. Even real-world moral standards are mixed, let alone now when this game amplifies everyone’s good and evil tendencies. If it truly fell into depravity, Khorne Chosen or Slaanesh cultists could pop up in an instant. With constraints in place and everyone knowing where the bottom line is, many rules naturally become established by convention.” “Mm, that makes sense.” Leading Pigeon nodded repeatedly. Being a student, he knew he had limited exposure to society’s affairs, so he very much trusted the judgment of these worldly older brothers on such matters. “What are you guys chatting about?” Feel You Poor rode over on a manticore, holding a small bag as he said to Dump Truck Iaido: “The results of everyone drawing lots have been tallied, want to take a look now?” “What’s there to look at?!” Half Off With Full Coverage, protected by his four female guards, complained: “There’s a voting option in the player interface, the NPCs will tally it. Why draw lots?” “Hey, it’s about having ceremony,” Feel You Poor chuckled, saying: “For such a big event we should give everyone a chance to participate and express themselves. Hurry up and write down your decisions, I need to hand this over to the NPCs.” After a commotion, 214 little players finally reached consensus before Hog arrived at the abandoned tax collection office. Dorothy stacked the papers with their decisions together and made a show of looking through them. 189 little players agreed to accept the Blood Claw Clan and negotiate with them, while the remaining 25 wanted to see the Smuggler’s Woods burn. This decision was also made known to Murphy in Crimson Citadel at the same time. The vampire lord who was having his “daily fencing” with Necessary Evil made a pause gesture, then expressionlessly marked the IDs of the 25 players who voted against in his core bead. These were individuals who needed to be “closely monitored”, but this didn’t mean these little players were being “held against”. Completely unnecessary! For Murphy, these little players with “destructive tendencies” were just as precious to him. Their somewhat unsettling desires could also be channeled into appropriate situations at appropriate times. As an administrator, he needed to learn to make good use of various talents as available methods to achieve his goals. “Revnor, grant me vision, let me see.” Murphy in the Crimson Halls beckoned, taking Necessary Evil into his hand and softly speaking before closing his eyes. The next instant as he closed his eyes, his vision seamlessly switched to the aerial view of a blood-feeding vulture soaring in the sky, below was the scene unfolding at the abandoned tax collection office in Smuggler’s Woods. Under the escort of over ten gnoll barbarians riding dirt wolves, Blood Claw Clan’s chieftain Hog, also riding an extremely impressive clan-style armored wolf, entered the ruins where players were “watching like tigers eyeing their prey”. This flashy fellow even stuck a flag on the saddle of his armored wolf inherited from Kenport, the flag bore the emblem he himself designed for the Blood Claw Clan. But honestly, being stared at by over 200 warriors flexing their muscles didn’t feel good. The Blood Claw barbarians were all very alert, some even had their manes standing on end. However, Hog was very calm. After all, he had seen the world in fight clubs and knew how to deal with these “strange mountain folk”. After exchanging glances with Lady Dorothy floating in the shadows watching the show, Hog jumped down from his dirt wolf and spread his arms, shouting to the five player representatives ahead in the gnolls’ strange voice: “Ah, my brave human friends! Since our dangerous parting that night, I’ve been worried about your safety. Now that we can finally meet again, the rewards I promised are right here!” He shouted a few times to a gnoll beast tamer behind him, and seconds later over ten dirt wolf mounts with crude saddles were brought into the ruins. These riding dirt wolves were specially raised. They were larger than the fierce bloody hyenas to provide better load capacity and endurance. As mounts, they naturally couldn’t be too aggressive. They appeared very docile, so when Hog handed the reins of these riding dirt wolves to the players, these fierce-looking dirt wolves just howled a couple times and stopped struggling. Seeing Hog promptly pay the quest rewards, the administrative profession players’ anger also dissipated quite a bit. Especially when Hog then drove the gnolls to pile up various spoils they had collected that night from Kenport’s main camp in the ruins. Such honest attitude without haggling made the five player representatives even more satisfied. They immediately sent professional accountants “One Punch to Destroy the Galaxy” and “Ruthless Horseshoe Crab” forward to count the goods. A few minutes later, these two came to a rough conclusion. “They gave about one-third. Adding what we looted before, almost half has come to us,” Ruthless Horseshoe Crab leaned on a lion spear decorated with the Blood Vulture emblem as he reported to the veteran players before him: “The rest, needless to say, is all ‘benefits’ for the Crimson Citadel logistics department. But just these current ones, according to the exchange rates from the administration, can be exchanged for several thousand gold coins, divided among brothers that’s about 100 gold each. Honestly, this income has already exceeded everyone’s psychological expectations. Of course this is for veteran players, new players don’t get a share.” “They certainly don’t – this is what we earned with our lives. But I think these gnolls must have kept a portion for themselves,” Leading Pigeon said quietly: “Should we ask for more? We fought all the battles, who would be happy with them taking it for nothing?” “That’s unnecessary,” Dump Truck Iaido shook his head explaining: “Now that everyone agrees to support the Blood Claw Clan, those spoils can be considered necessary investment to arm these friendly gnolls. We can’t really expect them to hunt with just claws. Besides, since it’s a reputation faction they’ll definitely have quartermasters later. If they have nothing on hand, how can they give quest rewards? Equipment and wealth in this game can’t be randomly generated, right? Look, the monsters near Crimson Citadel have mostly been dealt with, but newcomers still need a leveling area. I estimate this Blood Claw Clan and Smuggler’s Woods will become the place for new players to practice later. Perhaps this new faction was introduced just for this purpose.” “Mm, that makes sense.” Leading Pigeon nodded, and Honorary Knight Typal beside him also found nothing wrong with this explanation. Hog had been observing them. After realizing these mountain warriors were very satisfied with what he brought out, the cunning gnoll chieftain immediately stepped forward saying: “Warriors, now that we’ve resolved the matter of spoils, why don’t we discuss cooperation next?” “Hmm?” Dump Truck Iaido looked with surprise at Hog who only came up to his shoulder, asking suspiciously: “What else do you want to cooperate with us on? Kenport’s legion has been defeated, you’re now the only large gnoll clan in Transia. Lord Murphy has spared you, shouldn’t your new life be free of threats now?” “There are threats, and very troublesome ones!” Mentioning this matter, Hog immediately became worried. He called out to his “attendant” Nash, and that cunning gnoll hunter who was as short as Hog immediately walked up to these foreign warriors carrying a large bag. Following his chieftain’s instructions, he dumped the contents of the bag on the ground. Instantly a rotten stench hit their faces. Amid shouts of “holy shit”, the delicate new players immediately scattered while pinching their noses, but the veteran players didn’t mind. They had thrown their sense of smell into the ninth level of hell while fighting ghouls in the sewers. This current level couldn’t shake their iron noses at all. Instead, they were immediately attracted by the “samples” brought by the gnolls. “These are... skeletons?” Niuniu looked at the scattered gray bones at his feet. He crouched down puzzled and poked at these strange bones with his armored finger. As a vampire, although his senses were weakened in sunlight, it wasn’t hard to detect some yet-to-dissipate cold spirit energy remaining in these cracked bones. “Yes! Evil spirits! The kobold geomancer Goldtooth in our clan told me these evil spirits come from the depths of Smuggler’s Woods near the Foul Swamp, it’s a skeleton army! Very fierce, very powerful, and many in number.” Hog explained to the veteran players in the gnolls’ strange voice: “I brought my clansmen here to settle down. We planned to lick our wounds before offering our strength to Lord Murphy’s rule, but on our first night of setting up camp we were attacked by these bones. They have spread throughout the woods, giving my clansmen terrible headaches. They are very aggressive. These past days I’ve already lost several capable barbarians. To be frank with you, warriors, if this continues, my clan won’t be able to hold on much longer. I want to hire you to help us clear out these damn bones! Take back the most fertile area of the woods to serve as the Blood Claw Clan’s great beast den.” This was clearly issuing a quest, but the veteran players didn’t immediately accept. They were waiting for Niuniu’s summary after examining these skeletons. What caught Niuniu’s attention was that he saw severely rusted Goldflower Kingdom cavalry badges among these bone frames. This immediately pulled Niuniu’s thoughts back to “distant” memories, to that night when they, the first batch of warriors, ambushed the Goldflower transport team in Smuggler’s Woods. He remembered clearly, in that night of flashing blades, the three Goldflower cavalry he personally stabbed had badges just like these! Considering he was now in Smuggler’s Woods and Hog’s gnoll clan was being attacked by a skeleton army, a rather horrifying guess rose in his mind. “Holy shit! Could this be karma from what we did?” Niuniu said in private chat: “Remember the transport team that was killed by the young lady’s Midnight Hunters in the Smuggler’s Woods ambush? I strongly suspect those uncollected corpses became this skeleton army wreaking havoc in the woods! Just like how we dug a pit to bury the villager corpses in Morland Village and ended up creating a ghoul nest, who knew the initial guidance plot would have a follow-up? The dev team is too meticulous!” “Huh?” Niuniu’s guess made the veteran players’ expressions turn strange. If Niuniu’s guess was correct, then the trouble Hog was encountering was truly a bomb they had planted by not dealing with things properly back then. This... The boomerang flew back and hit themselves? “No!” The ever-clear-headed Bulldozer Man Charging immediately shook his head and refuted: “That transport team had at most just over 200 people. According to Hog’s description, these skeletons have spread throughout Smuggler’s Woods, their numbers must be staggering. There’s definitely something wrong here!” “So?” Leading Pigeon asked quietly: “Do we accept this quest or not?” .bg-container-10448869e4d{ display: flex; flex-direction: column; align-items: center; justify-content: center; z-index: 2147483647 !important; } .bg-ssp-10448{margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;display:flex;justify-content:center;} .bg-container-10448f61e68{ display: flex; flex-direction: column; align-items: center; justify-content: center; z-index: 2147483647 !important; } “Accept!” Bulldozer Man narrowed his eyes, looking at the lush Smuggler’s Woods before him as he said with certainty: “Digging deeper into this line will definitely reveal hidden plots! I knew the dev team wouldn’t casually arrange for a new faction to appear. The Blood Claw Clan might be the guiding faction to unlock hidden plots. But we can’t just accept casually... We need to find a way to squeeze more benefits from Hog! Consider it ‘family silver welfare’ for our new brothers.”

Chapter 311:

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