Chapter 55 - The Battle Entrance Slogan Must Be Cool

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

At the survivor camp entrance.

In order to make it easier to enter and exit the campgrounds when the new players came in, the entrance drawbridge was now completely opened to the public.

When Meng Yang quickly hopped onto the walls of the campground, he could see three figures fleeing in panic from afar. They were all familiar faces—Zhuang Dafa, Xu Zhe, and Li Yuncheng.

The three of them were desperately running toward the camp. While they ran, they were even frantically waving their arms around and shouting, “Quick, come fight monsters, brothers!”

“We’ve lured the monsters back here! Hurry and get out here to get the rewards!”

“Brothers, defend the camp!”

“You’ll gain prestige! The scorpion will drop the best equipment!”

The voices of the three people were each louder than the previous one. Very soon, quite a few players were at the campground entrance, lured by their voices.

Soon after gathering, these players saw a huge black shadow appear behind the trio. Every one of their exclamations reached the highest point instantly.

“Motherf*cker, is this game this intense?”

“F*ck, F*ck, F*ck! Isn’t it too lifelike?”

“My legs feel weak!”

…

On the broken street, among the collapsed buildings and various messy piles of abandoned rubble, giant scorpions appeared one after another. They waved their huge pincers and wiggled their gleaming black stingers as they emerged from each corner.

The giant scorpions looked ferocious, and there were many of them. Their appearance was enough to make people feel a strong impact of shock.

Many first-time players who saw this all looked stunned.

After all, most players were still curiously experiencing the game’s virtual reality. One player had even followed two survivor kids around in the camp in order to self-test the NPCs’ intelligence. He had played the game for a full half-hour and even been playing it very happily.

By this time, the activity at the camp entrance attracted more and more players. Those who had been wandering around, accepting missions, or chatting leisurely with the survivors of the Land of the Forgotten all came out one after another.

“Prepare for battle! Didn’t think it’d be yet another defensive battle.”

“F*ck, the scorpions that came this time look even scarier than that gnoll last time.”

“Newcomer brother, let me give you an exclusive tip. If you want to truly appreciate this game’s charms, your pain level must be a hundred percent.”

“Yes, yes. For a hundred percent gaming experience, you must not lower your pain level.”

“Can we really gain prestige through beating monsters?”

“Possibly. My classmates said they were awarded prestige when they fought gnolls before.”

“What about equipment, then? They’ll drop equipment too?”

“Probably…”

“Like I’ll believe you!”

…

The sound of clamoring and shouting from the crowd was becoming louder and louder. Quite a few players who had gone through the attack of the gnolls were tirelessly imparting their gaming experience to the frozen newcomers.

Seeing the calm behavior of the experienced players, some of the new players gradually calmed down.

Although the scene before their eyes was indeed shocking, since everyone had a calm appearance, they could not appear overly ignorant.

Mhm. This was just a game. Just a game.

When Meng Yang saw the swarm of giant scorpions crawling up from everywhere, goosebumps were raised all over his skin. This was even more shocking than the sharp beetles he had seen from a player’s perspective last time.

The dense swarm of bugs, particularly scorpions that were looking exceptionally scary just by looking at them, were surging up in the hundreds or even thousands in a black mass. It was enough to numb everyone’s scalps.

“Black giant scorpions are pack creatures. They mostly prey on smaller insects and won’t actively attack humans. However, if they are attacked, these creatures will hold grudges and summon many of their comrades.”

Wearing a hooded cloak, Phoenix appeared next to Meng Yang with her bow and arrows on her back. Watching the swarm of bugs pouring out in the distance, she spoke to Meng Yang.

“F*ck, these troublemakers!”

Meng Yang barely even had to think to know that it was definitely Zhuang Dafa and the others who had actively provoked these giant scorpions.

“Should I issue another [Steel Line of Defense] mission?”

Seeing the black mass of giant scorpions, Meng Yang’s head hurt. Just looking at the size of these things made it clear that they were not easy to deal with. Players could say it did not matter if they died a few times, but for the survivors of the Land of the Forgotten, losing one would mean there would be one less. These were living people here.

“No, no.” Meng Yang shook his head after thinking a little. He already heard Zhuang Dafa’s shouts just now.

Camp defense battle and prestige gaining… If he issued a defense mission now, this… He would still be played to death by these players luring monsters back every now and again. What could he do?

Meng Yang had thought of how these people would do anything to gain prestige. Even if they did not get any rewards, some people might do it on purpose. When he played a 3D game back then, he had done just that—baiting a wandering boss all the way back to the main city just to see the battle between the NPCs and the wild boss.

“Close the gate! Close the gate!”

Meng Yang abruptly shouted this at an old man behind him responsible for issuing alerts. Since he was not planning to accept the trouble the players provoked this time, it was fine just closing the gate and guarding their camp. If the players were really willing to sacrifice themselves below, he could not order otherwise either.

Very quickly, this old man produced a small bronze bell and hit it speedily with a hammer.

Ding, ding, ding—

The clear sound of the bell rang out. When the four or five players standing by the city gate heard the bell ringing, they were still at a loss, but then someone came back to their senses and leaped quickly over to the drawbridge.

Not far off, when Zhuang Dafa, who had run till he was dripping with sweat and about to nearly collapse, heard the bell clanging, he said a little suspiciously, “What’s this about? A call for retreat?”

Xu Zhe was also so tired that he could choke. He swept his gaze over the gate of the campground, then shouted in shock, “They’re closing the gate!”

The creaking of the rope turning sounded, and the wide drawbridge slowly rose up. A few of the players who had been watching the commotion earlier started frantically climbing up the drawbridge.

“No way! I’m fine with dying, but I don’t want to die at the hands of scorpions!” Li Yuncheng’s face blanched. Dying at the hands of monsters or whatnot was actually very normal, but dying at the pincers and stingers of scorpions was not that easy to accept.

After all, he remembered that a player who had been eaten by jackals before seemed to have developed Stockholm syndrome, revolving around a jackal who had survived.

“Hahaha, you guys stay outside then!”

“It’s too funny. You even wanted to trick us into fighting the monsters!”

“Ahh, does this game have screenshotting or screen-recording functions? I want to capture this.”

…

The many players they originally thought would enter the fight started going up to the top of the walls after the drawbridge was raised and shouted gleefully at the trio who had run to the bottom of the walls.

“Dafa, don’t retreat. Unleash your spartan spirit!”

On the walls, Liu Chuanfeng, who had just sat down, started laughing loudly when he saw the people who had rushed to the bottom of the city walls.

“Motherf*cker, aren’t you guys too hopeless!” Zhuang Dafa looked like he was crying without tears. He felt that if they knew the situation would turn out this way, they should have just died earlier. They had wasted so much energy only to run to the camp gates to await death.

“Fine, fine, they’ve closed the gate! These jerks want us to die!”

Sun Shuai held on to a railing next to the walls. Just glancing down made him shiver involuntarily, and his face was incomparably pale.

Bugs were already enough to frighten him, yet there were many of them too. This was simply a death sentence.

“Pro brothers, help your brothers out for the sake of doing missions together!”

Xu Zhe’s chest and abdomen rose and fall violently as he stood at the bottom of the walls, panting heavily. Li Yuncheng was the same. Every one of them actually did not mind dying all that much. The main issue was that dying this way was truly meaningless. Especially since the feeling of dying at the hands of these giant scorpions was really unpleasant.

“You guys can’t just abandon a dying man!” Li Yuncheng shouted as well.

Zhuang Dafa beat his chest and pointed to the top of the wall. “I’m not letting you guys off even if I become a ghost!”

At the top of the wall, Liu Chuanfeng glanced at the trio below. His expression suddenly became a little serious, and he reached out a hand to pat the pale Sun Shuai’s shoulder before standing at the edge of the wall.

Liu Chuanfeng took a deep breath and shouted loudly, “Whether you want to be a coward forever or a hero, you only have one minute! What you need isn’t just courage. The shouts from your hearts will only awaken a few!”

After shouting this, Liu Chuanfeng jumped down from the wall.

When the many players around saw Liu Chuanfeng’s actions, all of them were a little baffled.

Only a good while later did someone suddenly shout, smack his thigh, and call, “So self-important, I like it! I’ll kill one every ten steps, and nobody can stop me for miles! Time to kill monsters!”

“F*ck me, what are these two doing?!” Someone said as he watched them.

However, yet another voice rang out next.

“The one who can kill nine million is the hero among heroes! I’ll show you all a 40-meter dadao!”

Once these words were said, the brother who just finished shouting them hopped off the wall like the other two.

“Motherf*cker, you guys are just playing a game. Must you have a slogan for your battle entrance? I’ll do it too. It’s fine even if you cut my head off; it lives up to my youthful pride!”

“Stupid c*nt, that’s a traitor’s poem!”

“I don’t drink not because I value my body but that I’m afraid the craze I feign will cease to be false. As I’ve once whipped a great horse due to drinking, I now worry my passion will drag your good person down…” (TN: This is an old Chinese poem that is now used as an analogy for being wary of getting into a relationship with someone because of what happened in the past)

“Wanyue style, get out!” (TN: 婉约 wǎnyuē, meaning ‘delicate restraint’ or more simply ‘grace’, is a style of the Chinese poetry, ci)

“This kill is to protect. I kill not the person but the misdeeds that will be done! What I’m going to kill are monsters!”

“A room full of floral fragrance intoxicates countless guests. I make fourteen states surrender with one gleaming sword.”

“I do not like cultivating good deeds, I only like killing and starting fires. See my fist as big as a sandbag!”

“Wind roars over thousands of miles, uproars ripple through, and the world is at a loss. In the end, the ancient road sleeps deeply, the clouds are vast, and the sky is washed away.”

The sharp sound of what sounded like male ducks calling rang out. The players on top of the wall jumped down one after another. As they stared at the swarming giant scorpions, not only were they unafraid, but they also became more excited.

“F*ck me, this is too weird!” someone yelled in surprise.

“What’s there to be scared of? Just lower your pain level!”

“I’m saying how self-important you guys are! Reciting motherf*cking poems! It’s really so incomparably self-important! I… The strong wind blows and the floating clouds fly!”

Hundreds of giant scorpions were getting closer as they waved their huge pincers around. This otherworldly force made many of the players who had entered the game for the first time feel inexplicably attacked.

At the same time, however, it also made many players feel oddly thrilled and excited.

Especially the portion of the second-batch players who had previously experienced the gnoll attack. These people all had snapping spears, axes, and other such weapons in their hands. At first, everyone played according to the game’s instructions and felt that since it was a defensive battle, they should just watch from the top of the city walls. However, after they were led by the self-important Liu Chuanfeng, their feelings were all ignited one after another.

Reality was already bitter enough. It was just a game—could they not afford to be a little self-important and enjoy themselves a little?!

“You guys want to force me to my death!”

Sun Shuai stood where he was and slid a glance at the swarm of giant scorpions getting closer. He gritted his teeth and jumped toward the bottom of the wall. “My life is my own to control! I, Old Sun, am coming!”