Gamers of the Underworld

After midnight, when Bacon finished helping female students, he liked to sit by the window in the cafe.

Through the French window, he could stare languidly at the empty streets while listening to the heavy metal band in the cafe.

Healing metal music, a cup of piping hot bloody chrysanthemum tea, an old book, and a sofa while waiting for someone.

When he saw the familiar figure appear on the street, Bacon gave a subtle smile.

He held up his cup and felt the fragrance of the bloody chrysanthemum tea. He lifted his head and drank the tea, which dripped down his vertebrae. Occasionally, some tea would drip on his ribs and make his ribs fragrant.

“Ding Ling.”

The doorbell rang. A Slime waiter led the tall, handsome Devil to Bacon.

Bacon placed his tea at the side of the table and stood up.

“Lord Sherlock, I’ve finally met you. Apologies for meeting you late at night.”

“No problem. I don’t have many things to do at night except researching materials on Dungeon development,” Sherlock said casually as he sat opposite Bacon.

“How are you doing, Professor Bacon?”

“Ai, not bad. Working daily from 9 am to 5 pm with rest on the weekends. The students are naughty and rebellious, colleagues are double guessing each other, and my best student resigned and left. He’s a future promising star in the Spiritual World…” Professor Bacon said with pity.

“Is that student Brainiac? The once-in-a-thousand-year genius in Specter College?” Sherlock ordered a cup of bloody chrysanthemum tea and said to the Slime, “Please add some ice cubes. Don’t make the blood taste too thick. Thank you.”

The Slime took the menu and left. Then Professor Bacon replied, “Did Lord Sherlock hear about Brainiac?”

“Hmm, I’ve heard about him a few times. Now, he’s working in my Dungeon,” Sherlock said casually.

“Ah? Working at Lord Sherlock’s place?” Professor Bacon looked surprised. He took his bloody chrysanthemum tea and sipped it. The tea flowed down his bones onto the sofa and made dripping sounds.

The distant Slime cleaner looked on with disdain as he wobbled his body and swallowed the trash on the ground into his body.

“Ah, I was worried about what he was going to do after resignation. I didn’t expect him to work at Lord Sherlock’s Dungeon. Hmm, it’s good for him to learn more. Lord Sherlock, you have to take care of him,” Professor Bacon said earnestly.

“Brainiac isn’t good at handling interpersonal relations, but he is a capable worker.”

“Hmm, I’m very satisfied with him, and I’m giving him good benefits. Only three workers are slightly better than him, but the benefits of the other workers are far inferior to his. He’s leading an important department with 2,100 creatures. We can’t do without him. Perhaps in the future, many of my departments will depend on him. Don’t you worry, Professor Bacon.”

Professor Bacon was satisfied as he smiled at Sherlock.

“That is very good.”

“Ah, in regards to the recent examination combatants. Professor Bacon, don’t worry. The situation will normalize within a few days. Can I make a request?”

Sherlock took out a contract with detailed contents and said, “There could be a few Gnomes or Houndhead Men combatants, so the contract has to be amended. Don’t worry, the price remains unchanged. I’m a man of my words. Is it possible to place a book, Mana Skills Book, on Level 4 of some Training Grounds?”

Bacon was taken aback. “Ah, yes, but why are you doing that? I can understand the situation with the Gnome combatants, but the Houndhead Men are unpredictable. As you know, their intelligence is low, and they are uncivilized barbarians.”

“I understand your point. As it’s slightly tricky, I have to depend on Professor Bacon,” Sherlock said as his palm slid a piece of paper across the table.

Professor Bacon’s eyes lit up. He coughed twice and said, “Lord Sherlock has his reasons for this proposal. I’m an understanding person. Without Lord Sherlock, we’re unable to solve our graduation problem. Don’t worry, Lord Sherlock, I’ll deal with this matter.”

“I’m relieved to hear that. Let’s discuss the new terms…”

…

“Dragon Raja Warriors, gather! The Guild War is about to start!”

A Goblin called CarefreeCutey had the words “Dragon Raja” underneath his name. Dragon Raja was his Guild name.

There were close to a hundred gamers gathered nearby. Most of them were Second Beta Gamers with standard shields, armor, and Short Swords.

There was another group of gamers nearby. Underneath their names was the Guild name “Meat Vegetable Rice Alliance.”

It was the day for the Guild war.

When the PVP System was released, both Guild leaders, btkangren and Stir-fried Vegetable Rice, applied for the Guild war.

According to the public announcement on the official website, PVP could be registered as an organization, a guild, or an individual.

As the PVP System was in Beta Testing, the individual and organization options weren’t available. The Guild registration was slightly different from the other two options, as the Guild registration required five silver coins.

The money wasn’t paid in vain. There were PVP rewards for Guild wars. In addition, before the war, there would be a full-service public announcement and another announcement after the war to announce the victor.

For example, the first Guild war in Eternal Kingdom was between Dragon Raja and the Meat Vegetable Rice Alliance.

To be fair, each Guild was limited to 50 members. The rules of engagement were indicated on the signboard located at the entrance of the Dungeon Core Main Hall.

The rules were simple, 50 members versus 50 members. The battle was without rules. The last surviving Guild would be the victor.

Though the rules were simple, for the 50 members versus 50 members battle, a gamer’s fighting prowess was insignificant, whereas an excellent battle commander was extremely important.

Both Guilds paid high prices to employ the most experienced veteran gamers to be their temporary commanders.

This battle command was different from normal online games, which depended on the reporting of enemy locations, map memorization, taking shortcuts, and the utilizing of latency differences.

In the Gladiator Arena, intelligence was important, but it wasn’t the deciding factor.

The deciding factor was the quality of equipment, combat prowess, battle formations, and war strategies. This was much more difficult than normal battle command in traditional online games.

In “Dungeon: Eternal Kingdom,” the battle command would be similar to the era of passive weapons battlefield command. The effective execution of battle formations and charismatic leadership were two important factors in a battlefield commander.

Instead of using the term battlefield commander, it was more accurate to use the term General.

However, the 50 members vs. 50 members was a small scale battle.

For the first premiere in the Gladiator Arena, Sherlock made arrangements for the gathered 100 gamers to be directly teleported to the Northern Underground World Gladiator Arena.

After a series of preparations and the introduction by the presenter, the arena, which could accommodate millions of creatures, had only a paltry 100 or so spectators. However, there were significantly more spectators than the previous time.

The arena rang with the sparse applause of the spectators.

The reactions of the 100 gamers were the same as the first 50 gamers. Seeing the almost empty spectator seats and the Lich who used Mana to create the illusion of a fully packed Colosseum, they cursed at the lousy game producers.

The gamers charged at each other under the cheering of the presenter.

The entire arena was filled with grotesque bloodshed.

The small number of spectators were excited by the grotesque view of the bloodshed.

…

While the two Guilds were slaughtering each other, Sherlock and Poison Skin signed the long contract of strategic collaboration.

At the Marsh Inkspewer’s tribe north of the Eternal Kingdom…

The Goblin Dragonborn opened his eyes while he was in mud.

It wasn’t accurate to say mud as there was water that reached his ankle.

But according to Salted Fish, this muddy pit was the best room in the whole village!

A Marsh Inkspewer would naturally stay in the muddy pond!

Though Dragonborn knew that this was a highly realistic online game, he was dumbstruck when he was led to the muddy pond to rest. In the Dungeon, he slept on the ground. There wasn’t much difference sleeping in the mud.

“Are you online? You’re late by ten minutes.”

Dragonborn heard the voices while he was getting used to the sensations of being online.

TakeASpearHit and SealHeadLingChong, who were covered with mud, were waiting by his side.

TakeASpearHit extended his hand and said, “Get up quickly. We’re going to see the Darting Birds!”