Gamers of the Underworld

As the days passed, the lives of the Winterfell inhabitants returned to normal.

The crisis caused by the Ancient Gods army less than a month ago was like a dream. As the new Dungeon Core was about to arrive in Winterfell, the first Dark Rider Tournament was officially commenced.

The 3,000 participants of the tournament came from Winterfell or the surrounding Dungeons. Two thousand of the participants were from Eternal Kingdom.

The tournament only catered for hundreds of participants, at most a thousand participants. Due to the overwhelming response, the tournament proceedings came to a halt. However, Onionhead was very enterprising, and he came up with a pre-tournament mass battle selection to choose 300 participants.

It took place at a huge Training Ground, and the mass battle wasn’t open to the public.

Andrew arranged for his elite warriors to participate in the Dark Rider Tournament. He was unhappy with the sudden change by the Merchant Alliance to have a mass battle for the pre-selection.

To Andrew, his warriors couldn’t fail. Even if they were placed in a mass battle, they would obtain the first prize.

His warriors were able to defeat all opponents, so he thought it was unnecessary to have semifinals and finals. The Dark Rider would be determined just by a selection contest!

Two thousand participants from Eternal Kingdom? That was a joke. Even if they had the numbers, they were like dispersed sand and fought among themselves for selfish gains. Perhaps they would have defeated themselves even before his warriors had the chance to fight them!

Though Andrew was jealous of Sherlock, he was condescending towards Sherlock’s servants.

How could a bunch of Goblins, Gnomes, and Houndhead Men be compared to the high standards of a superior Devil?

During the selection contest, Sherlock was in front of Andrew. Sherlock was in an Airship with 1,000 warriors. He brought them to the contest location.

Two hundred of Eternal Kingdom’s warriors were disqualified because they were late.

Andrew was laughing merrily once he heard the news. They were that ill-disciplined before the contest, which meant they would have no hopes during the contest. What could a bunch of Goblins, Gnomes, and Houndhead Men do in a battle?

Unless they were all Great Magicians, they were just sheep waiting to be slaughtered.

The contest commenced. As the third successor of Eternal Fire and a sponsor of a billion Magic Stones to Winterfell, Andrew had the qualifications to oversee the grand competition.

The contest rules stated that all participants were to use blunt weapons to prevent casualties. They only needed to knock out their opponents. This was a measure to deal with the Underworld Unions. If there were thousands of deaths in a tournament, it would alarm the Unions.

It might even cause widespread strikes, which would make the tournament not worthwhile.

If the Merchant Alliance were to lose these inhabitants, they would lose a huge fortune!

Onionhead’s plan was perfect. Everyone cherished their lives. Even the rules stated the use of blunt weapons, so there would be few deaths. Even if there were deaths, they would be exceptions.

It was a common occurrence to have one or two casualties in a violent competition.

Once the contest started, the Eternal Kingdom gamers formed a Shield Wall Formation and swept across the battlefield like a vicious tornado. For those difficult opponents, like the towering Giants or the Werewolves, the gamers simply tossed their Bladder Bombs or used Mana.

Hundreds of instances of Mana were cast freely at the contest. After various explosions, there were tens of casualties and hundreds of participants who gave up.

It wasn’t a competition, it was a war zone. The participants were vying for the alias of Dark Rider and the Magic Stones, they weren’t there to throw away their lives.

The participants who stayed were mostly hardcore warriors from other Dungeons, but they could never be as hardcore as the gamers.

They were a bunch of Bladder Bomb-laden creatures who would run happily into a crowd and perform self-detonation!

How could they not be happy? The self-detonating gamers had the support of rich gamers and would be given Legendary Equipment. With the title of Dark Rider at stake, they would gladly bomb their way to victory!

The game “Dungeon: Eternal Kingdom” wasn’t lacking rich gamers.

The combat power of a single gamer wasn’t strong, but the mass battle wasn’t a one-on-one duel. The participants were intimidated by the prowess of the gamers. When the remaining combatants recovered from their shock, they discovered that it wasn’t easy to defeat the gamers who were in a combat formation.

Moreover, hundreds of gamers were Mana users. They could cast spells as though Mana was free-flowing. Before long, only the gamers were left on the battlefield. Those opponents who surrendered and were knocked unconscious were in good states. For those opponents who weren’t unconscious or weren’t willing to give up, the gamers fought them viciously.

After killing off those obstinate opponents, the gamers started to turn on each other. The contest became a violent and bloody spectacle.

When fighting NPCs, the gamers were only allowed to knock them unconscious. However, there were no such rules between the gamers. Moreover, the feud between the Guilds made them eternal foes.

Between the Guilds, their members would kill each other on sight. And they treated their opponents as their main motivation to play the game.

Since they were given such a grand opportunity, why would they not kill each other?

No matter how the gamers fought among themselves, it wasn’t a problem because nobody could compete with them. Sherlock had obtained his desired result the moment the contest started.

Andrew was bursting with jealousy.

Why! Why were Sherlock’s servants so awesome? He was able to muster a 2,000 member team that consisted of ill-disciplined trash. However, it turned out that they were Great Magicians and had terrifying explosives. Why were they so frightening?

Was Lord Sherlock not afraid of the Union investigating him?

Though Andrew was filled with questions, his warriors were all killed in the pre-selection contest. However, their loyalty was highly commendable. They were given many chances to give up, and they could have even feigned unconsciousness, but they chose to fight to their last breaths.

It didn’t change the result of the contest. All the participants from Winterfell and the other Dungeons were out of the tournament. Only Eternal Kingdom’s warriors remained. The plan was to select 300 participants for the semi-finals, but there were massive killings that reduced the participant count to about a hundred. The organizing committee from the Merchant Alliance quickly stopped the contest.

Onionhead was appalled by the situation. He immediately looked for Sherlock and said, “Lord Sherlock, what’s the situation?”

“I’m letting my servants take part in the contest to support your work,” Sherlock said as a matter-of-fact.

“But Lord Sherlock, there are massive casualties, the Unions…” Onionhead said worriedly. Sherlock understood his intention and reassured him.

“Don’t worry, these Goblins and Gnomes aren’t union members. Houndhead Men can’t possibly have unions, so there are no problems with the Unions.”

“But I’m worried… someone may lodge a complaint.”

Onionhead was full of worry, but Sherlock said confidently, “Impossible. I don’t think anyone will lodge a complaint against me.”

At this instant, Andrew was writing a letter to the Union, “Letter of Complaint”.