Gamers of the Underworld

After Nicholas put forward his request, Sherlock pondered and said, “As you know, to stop Samael and protect the Underworld’s peace, we paid painful prices. One hundred thousand Eternal Kingdom citizens perished in Winterfell. We are still mourning over the losses.”

Sherlock’s face was full of sadness. Nicholas turned his head to look behind him and saw a group of chatty gamers walking past the Dungeon Lord Main Hall. The arm of one of the gamers was broken, but as he walked, he swung his broken arm and smiled like a small kid.

The eyes of Nicholas became red!

“Lord Sherlock, I sympathize with you and your citizens. I noticed that the pitiful Gnomes aren’t in a correct state of mind due to depression.”

Nicholas wiped his tears.

“That’s right. But you’re my friend, no, my close friend, so I can’t leave you in the lurch. Moreover, the alliance between Eternal Kingdom and Winterfell is beneficial for both of us. We just experienced several battles, so the military expenditure will be huge. Though there was death compensation, it was for the families of the deceased. I also disbursed my mental distress compensation to the families of the deceased. To tell you the truth, I have invested 500,000,000 Magic Stones in a huge project. I also donated 1,000,000,000 Magic Stones to help the poor districts. Now, I’m financially tight.”

Sherlock spoke thoughtfully, while Nicholas nodded and said, “Lord Sherlock, I understand your difficulty. I arranged a few more boxes of materials to support you and allocated 300,000 Magic Stones to you for dealing with the Ogres.”

“Aiya, how can I take your Magic Stones? Our relationship…”

“In addition, there are 200,000 Magic Stones for reserve use, making 500,000 Magic Stones in total. I will transfer the money to you. As for death compensation, I will disburse 20 Magic Stones for each death. If you help me destroy the Ogres and protect Winterfell, even if I go bankrupt, I’ll still do it! This is the Magic Stone card.”

Sherlock slammed down on the table and stood up, saying solemnly, “Am I such a Devil? Though it’s going to be difficult, I won’t let the Ogres invade Winterfell. Defending the Underworld is what all superior Devils should do! I’m not doing it for the 500,000 Magic Stones, I’m doing it for our close friendship and my deep love for the Underworld!”

Sherlock took Nicholas’ Magic Stone card and said seriously, “The 500,000 Magic Stones aren’t for me, they are for the Goblins, Gnomes, Houndhead Men, and perhaps Orcs who will be sacrificing for Winterfell.”

“I understand completely. Lord Sherlock is the hero of the Underworld. Without Lord Sherlock, we would be in a living hell,” Nicholas said emotionally.

Nicholas’ request for help was successfully negotiated, and Sherlock soon bade a warm farewell to him. Before leaving, he said he would organize the intelligence on the Ogres before sending it to Sherlock.

Amidst the wild cheering of the gamers, Nicholas left Eternal Kingdom.

“Lord Sherlock, Nicholas is spending a fortune this time. Helping him is a wise choice. I made adjustments to our comprehensive battle plan.” After Nicholas left, Bru commented.

Sherlock sat down and said, “Are you planning to use this chance to gain his trust, launch a sneak attack on the Winterfell Dungeon Lord Main Hall, and control Nicholas and Winterfell?”

“Lord Sherlock, your strategy is excellent. If we conquer Winterfell…”

While Bru expounded upon his Nth version of his plan to invade Winterfell, Sherlock was browsing the official website. A ball of fire appeared in the Dungeon Core, and the Winterfell Monthly Digest was thrown out.

In this Winterfell Monthly Digest, there were no advertisements, only a huge bold title with the words:

“Bankazia Jailbreak: The terrifying plague bearer Polio escaped from prison. It’s an apocalypse!”

There were no advertisements.

Sherlock stared at the title and remained silent for a long time.

…

“Da—da—da.”

A rhythmic knocking reverberated in a dark room.

A tall figure sat in a chair. From the direction of the back of the chair, he was facing the main door.

The main door opened, and a flabby figure stood at the doorway and said to the figure in the chair, “Lord Alexandria, I’ve handled the Bankazia incident. I didn’t leave any evidence.”

The figure in the shadow nodded, and the door was shut. It was silent again.

…

Hoodlum squatted in the metal cage as he watched the passing crowd. He was imprisoned by the Slave Merchant and escorted to a strange small town.

It was more like a camp, with many exposed quarries and huge mining devices. There were many slaves with leg shackles doing excavation work in the quarries.

Fully armed soldiers whipped the slaves as they shouted, “Make haste you vile prisoners! Mining is your way to salvation!”

Hoodlum had become one of the vile prisoners, though he wasn’t sure what crime he had committed.

That wasn’t important. The important thing was that the Plot, screenshots of the NPCs, and his forum posts would bring him popularity. And that created financial opportunities!

A bald man in white pastor clothing walked over.

“Ah, ignorant sinners. You’ll pay with your labor and wisdom in order to obtain the Holy Lord’s forgiveness. You have been judged…”

While the pastor was chanting, he looked at the guard to the side and asked, “What crime has he committed?”

The guard took out a document. After examining it, he said, “This man is called Hoodlum. He killed a chicken in a village.”

“What!” The pastor was as pale as a sheet. He looked at Hoodlum as though he was the ugliest pile of sh*t and scolded loudly, “In the name of the Holy Lord, I sentence you to lifelong imprisonment. You’ll work until your death, you scumbag!”

“Grand Priest, don’t be angry, relax.”

The guard comforted the furious Grand Priest as both of them left. Then, another guard dragged Hoodlum out of the metal cage and led him to the quarry.

“Quick, go and work!”

Hoodlum obtained a pickaxe and looked at the quarry, deciding to be subservient and wait for an opportunity to escape later.

When Hoodlum smashed down with his pickaxe, a green light flashed before him, and words appeared:

“A person sits in a car that is on a slippery ice sheet. The weight of the man and car is M=70 kg. When he receives a box with mass m=20 kg and velocity v=5 m/s, he threw the box back at the velocity of u=5 m/s. What is the velocity of the car?”

Hoodlum was dumbstruck, and he said, “What the heck…”

The guard at the side whipped at him and screamed, “Excavate the ores, you sinner!”

…

Dragonborn was busy recently. Because he changed factions, he had to start from scratch. Dragonborn wasn’t willing to divulge his reason for doing so or the source of his Magic Stones. TakeASpearHit and SealHeadLingChong asked him several times, but they didn’t get any answers.

Besides, it was meaningless to ask since they had already changed factions.

It was just a game, and they didn’t have to take it too seriously.

“It’s difficult. This Spiders’ Lair is too difficult!”

TakeASpearHit had just revived, immediately shaking his head and complaining.

Dragonborn took out several pieces of equipment from the Teleport Portal. There were other gamers behind him, and they had horrible wounds.

They were Guild members of For that night with Sherlock.

Victoria City had opened up the Teleport Portal to the Spiders’ Lair, so the gamers could explore the lair freely.

The Spiders that were killed couldn’t be used to improve their weapons. Instead, the carcasses could be exchanged for Reputation Points and game currency with the three Hamsters who took shifts in the castle.

The weapon forging and improvement system in Victoria City was different from Eternal Kingdom.

The weapons in Victoria City were forged using Diamond Seam, while other varieties of ore had to be used for weapon improvement.

Other varieties of ore were rare, and they had to answer questions when mining ore. It was similar to logging trees in the Underworld.

It wasn’t an obstacle for the gamers. As long as they could improve their equipment, even if they had to attend college entrance examinations…

The cost of weapon upgrades in Victoria City was more expensive compared to Eternal Kingdom due to the difficulty of mining ores.

But that was temporary since there was a second shipment of raw materials from Eternal Kingdom.