Gamers of the Underworld

NotWearingPants and Sylvanas dragged the corpses of the Houndhead Man Specter Warrior and Arthur as they ran to the stronghold that was set up by the gamers in the Spiders’ Lair.

There were ten gamers in the stronghold who were eating Spider Meat, resting to recover their strength, and chatting.

When they saw the two gamers running anxiously with Arthur, whose face was shot, they burst into laughter.

“Is it funny? The Houndhead Man died once and revived, and new monsters started appearing from the sides. They looked like skeletons that we haven’t seen before. I guess it could be a BOSS. Call for reinforcements. I’m posting on the discussion forum!”

Sylvanas blushed from the gamers’ teasing. After speaking, she laid on the ground and went offline. She had gone to the forum to create a post.

When they heard about the new monsters, they climbed up and wanted to take a look. NotWearingPants brought the gamers to the cave where the Skeletons appeared.

The cave was filled densely with Skeletons, and they continued to grow in number.

There were a lot of bones accumulated over the years in the Spiders’ Lair. The gamers contributed their fair share over the past month. The bones were conjured by Professor Bacon to become the Spirit Legion.

The gamers hadn’t witnessed such a scene before, and the Skeletons were frightening. They were accustomed to Underground Spiders, but with that many Skeletons, whose eyes were beaming with green light, they started to panic.

Nobody fled despite their panic. It wasn’t easy to encounter such a strange phenomenon. There must be something, perhaps a hidden plot or mission.

It was terrifying, but with more than ten of them gathered together, the gamers composed themselves. Moreover, it was only a game!

The Skeleton Soldiers on the outer perimeter discovered the gamers. They opened their mouths and “Ka Cha” sounds filled the cave as they charged at the gamers.

“Oh my God! It’s scary!”

“Is this a horror game?”

“Be quick! Who’s fighting the monster?”

The gamers hadn’t fought with Skeleton Soldiers before, and they were disorganized. There was a gamer who collapsed to the ground after being scared offline.

There were only five Skeleton Soldiers, and they didn’t have any weapons. They used their bones or the stones on the ground as weapons as they charged at the gamers. One of the Skeletons was a Dire Wolf. The mouth had sharp fangs that made this Skeleton more threatening than the normal humanoid Skeletons.

The gamers were fully armed with shields, weapons, and armor. Though they screamed and were terrified by the Skeleton Soldiers, they gained courage in greater numbers. They had ten of them versus five Skeleton Soldiers.

The gamers charged at the Skeleton Soldiers and slashed wildly.

The fighting alerted the other Skeleton Soldiers, and more of them made their way to the commotion.

The gamers realized their predicament. They shouted to each other before fleeing.

On the discussion forum, Sylvanas made a post entitled [Undead monsters appearing in Spiders’ Lair! Call for all Beta Gamers to rally!]. The post created a sensation on the forum.

The chain reaction was that the gamers who were carrying bricks went out in force, except for the offline gamers and a pro-life gamer who was planting at the flowerbed.

The gamers marched out together, leaving only four NPCs in the Dungeon.

Moroes made use of the opportunity to chat with Simba and Mufasa at the Blacksmith Shop, as they appeared more normal than the Goblins.

Even the useless Little Fairy, who laid on the bed daily and spat saliva at the gamers who harassed her, appeared more normal than the Goblins.

Two Blackiron Dwarves and a Gnome sat in the Blacksmith Shop, enjoying a cup of bloody chrysanthemum tea and a slice of mousse Spider Leg cake. They gazed in the direction the Goblins left and heaved a sigh of relief.

Another peaceful day in the Eternal Kingdom Dungeon.

…

Killing! More killing!

Every gamer was surrounded by one or two Skeleton Soldiers, and more Skeleton Soldiers started coming in.

When the gamers who were carrying bricks rushed to the Spiders’ Lair, the ten gamers who were defending the stronghold were being chased out by the Skeleton Soldiers. Other gamers in the Spiders’ Lair were also being chased out by the Undead forces.

The gamers consolidated their forces and fought a terrible battle with the Skeleton Legion!

The gamers were brave, but they quickly retreated.

It wasn’t that the gamers couldn’t defeat the Skeleton Legion. While the Skeleton Soldiers had greater numbers, most of them were without armor and weapons. The Skeleton Soldiers would use their bone fists to hammer the gamers’ chests while the Wild Beast Skeletons that had teeth stood by the side and watched.

The gamers retreated because they didn’t want to fight.

It was risky to fight the Skeleton Soldiers. If they were surrounded, they couldn’t run away, and then they would lose their equipment.

The situation wasn’t clear, and they didn’t want to kill the Skeleton Soldiers blindly. There were no Reputation Points and no loot. If there were Reputation or coin rewards, then the gamers would be willing to kill Skeleton Soldiers daily!

The gamers retreated from the Skeleton Soldiers, who were unable to catch up with them.

The Skeleton Soldiers didn’t pursue the gamers, wandering around in the Spider’s Lair instead.

The gamers gathered and did a roll call. Besides a gamer whose face was badly beaten by the Skeleton Soldiers, there were no casualties.

“What’s the situation? This is?”

“A Bug?”

“Is there going to be a new map?”

“Did someone unravel a plot?”

The gamers started discussing. Before they figured out what was happening, nobody wanted to fight with the Skeletons.

At this instance, the cave was filled with a gust of cold wind, and it sounded like a whistle. Dark Mana gathered from all directions towards the Spiders’ Lair entrance.

The gamers hadn’t seen such effects before, and they stared wide-eyed at the strange phenomenon.

“Gosh, that’s awesome!”

“Looks like Hollywood special effects. The game producers are awesome.”

“Did someone unlock a plot? Sylvanas, did you discover good stuff?”

“Could you keep quiet so that I can watch the plot?”

The group of gamers chatted incessantly. The dark Mana gathered and formed a cloaked man with dark smoke. The man was covered entirely by the cloak, and his face was indiscernible. Only two green rays shot out like some hellish flames from within the cloak.

“Small and lowly Goblins, you dare to challenge the Devil from the Void!”

The Devil’s voice was deep, muffled, and hoarse, as though it was emitted from a box.

The cloaked man appeared in an environment that screamed: “I am a BOSS”. The gamers started to chat loudly.

“Sh*t-!!! This is the first BOSS with dialogue! That’s strange!”

“Incredible. It seems like after defeating the terrifying Cramer, we’re going to save the world again.”

“This is hilarious. You are so entertaining. I told you that you had unraveled some plot.”

“The special effects of the BOSS’s appearance were incredible. It’s a pity that the special effects of the surrounding scene weren’t as good.”

“A large group of Skeleton Soldiers. Could it be a calamity brought by the departed souls?”

“How do we fight? How do we fight? How do we fight this BOSS?”

“Let’s strip out of our equipment and send in a wave of cannon fodder to check out his skills.”

“I’m going offline soon. Don’t kill the BOSS that fast. Wait for me?”

“Don’t worry. We fought for a few days to defeat Cramer. This BOSS looks more powerful than Cramer. We don’t even know if we can fight it. Perhaps it’s just a Plot BOSS to whet our appetite.”

“Gosh, that’s right. This BOSS looks powerful.”

The gamers chatted wildly in front of Ba.Mannoroth.Con. Some even stripped out of their armor and pants.

Ba.Mannoroth.Con was stunned by what he saw. A stone hit his cloak, and he turned to see the invisible Sherlock giving hints with his lips.

“Make haste, make haste!”

Ba.Mannoroth.Con recovered himself and continued to speak using his previous voice,

“I am—Ba.Mannoroth.Con. I’m here to destroy your paltry world. You are all—dispensable!”

Sherlock coordinated by exerting his dominance so that the gamers couldn’t move. It was like being immersed in a plot with a restriction on moving.

The hand of “Ba.Mannoroth.Con” gathered a ball of dark Mana that became dark rays and shot towards the gamers.

Before the gamers could react, dark rays appeared in front of them. A tall figure suddenly appeared among the gamers. His huge Devil wings extended, and a magical barrier engulfed all the gamers. The dark rays collided with the magical barrier and created scintillating effects and a static noise.

Sherlock lifted his hand, and his figure appeared Godlike in the lighting effect. He was resolute and commanded the gamers, “Keep close to me! Citizens of the Eternal Kingdom! I will shield you!”