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Chapter 33.2: Players Inner Circle
Chapter 33.2: Players Inner Circle
Chapter 33.2: Players' Inner Circle
"Sis Ying, Qingyue, should we challenge the Spider Cave again in the afternoon?" Tang Jia suggested.
"I think we should forget it," Yang Ying sighed. "Players are too weak right now and it's a slaughter when we go in. Let's all level up first before deciding."
"Yeah," sighed lone wolf Jia Luo, who had recently joined their little all-girl team. "Yesterday, we followed the large group in, being cautious and keeping our distance, but as soon as they were wiped out, we had no chance to flee as well."
"Ah? You guys aren't going?" Tang Jia asked dejectedly.
Since the worldview breakthrough quest was conquered by players, and the monster spawn spot, Spider Cave, was opened, players had been actively forming teams of all sizes, with more than two hundred people rushing to Spider Cave… and then, the first group of heroes was wiped out in under ten minutes.
Angry players that were kicked offline flooded the forums, complaining about the dense and treacherous monster spawns and stating that players were defenseless against them. In response, Yang Qiu promptly opened up the weapon and armor vendors, selling bulk-purchased steel-blade knives and some patched faux-leather armor vests made by prisoners.
A steel-blade knife was priced at 20 copper coins, while an ugly steel-plated leather armor cost 30 copper coins. Players expressed that the prices were reasonable, and a complete set could be afforded from just two days of grinding. Fully equipped, they regrouped and attempted another battle… only to be wiped out again.
Quite a number of players lost their equipment, especially their weapons. Being from Earth and having little combat experience meant that players were prone to inadvertently release their grips on weapons before their health bars were fully depleted. Yang Qiu secretly sent a few summoned creatures to retrieve the dropped weapons from players and collected more copper coins for free.
After experiencing two consecutive wipes, the players remained spirited and devised a method of tightly binding the steel-blade knives to their hands with vine strips while rallying a large group to continue their assault.
This time, the players successfully killed a dozen or so spider monsters, but someone accidentally stepped on spider eggs, triggering an onslaught of spider monsters and resulting in yet another wipe.
By this morning, the leaders who could rally a large group, Brother Lahong and Vanilla Pudding, had ceased their efforts and organized the players who were playing with them to do some labor while spreading the word of regrouping for another battle in the afternoon and inviting interested teams to join.
Despite what the others in her party thought, Tang Jia was genuinely interested in joining.
"How about you go play with Vanilla's group in the afternoon, Tang Jia?" Zheng Qingyue suggested. "I'll focus on raising my reputation with Lord Yang in the next few days so I can transition to being a support character. We can form a small team later on."
"But if I play with them too much and get invited to join their Blood Alliance, then I'll feel bad turning them down," Tang Jia was hesitant.
"Your sense of self-awareness is way too exaggerated. Didn't you see the explanation in the update announcement? A level-1 Blood Alliance can only have 30 members. Take a look at how many people are playing with Vanilla Boss. They might not even accept you even if you wanted to join their alliance," Zheng Qingyue taunted her childhood friend without showing mercy.
"Hehe… You're right. I'll go play with them then," Tang Jia chuckled sheepishly while rubbing her smooth skull.
"Don't always think about playing. Hurry up and raise your reputation with the Warrior Instructor. It would be ridiculous if you have enough Potential but lack the reputation to transition to a new job," Yang Ying advised.
"Don't worry, Sis Ying. I've got it under control!" Tang Jia waved her hand confidently.
The giggling girls said their goodbyes before going offline. About forty minutes of game time later, they logged back in nearly at the same time.
With her heart bent on fighting monsters, Tang Jia hastily said farewell to her companions and dashed over to the group that was about to go monster hunting. Zheng Qingyue and Yang Ying shook their heads, then joined Jia Luo to clear zombie quests. They had followed a large group into the Spider Cave yesterday and had either lost their weapons or armor. Now, they had to make an effort to recover those losses.
The three of them spent about half an hour completing the popular manual labor quests given by the zombie Bierda when they saw Vanilla Pudding and Brother Lahong leading a large group of players in a grand procession on a nearby street.
"I wonder how long they'll last this time?" Yang Ying said while pounding a wooden pillar with a large hammer to solidify it as a foundation.
"With yesterday's experience, they probably wouldn't die so miserably today," replied Zheng Qingyue as she mixed cement. "The large group won't all enter the Spider Cave. They'll carefully lure the monsters out in batches to fight, so they should be able to hold on."
"Most importantly, players haven't changed their classes and don't have any skills, so it's quite difficult for them to fight monsters," Jia Luo said while swiftly smearing the cement on bricks. "Even the dreamweaver, which was easiest to fight, required us to destroy its abdomen to completely kill it. That's not mentioning the most formidable: razor spider. If it is drawn over, there won't be any survivors."
A male player, who was also doing quests, waited for a long time for the opportunity to interrupt. "Did you girls go to the Spider Cave yesterday? Why aren't you going today?"
"We lost our equipment, so we need to earn money to buy new ones," Yang Ying replied in earnest.
"Heh, do girls need to buy their own equipment when playing games?" the male player said with a sleazy tone. "Just find a husband."
Yang Ying frowned. The players she had encountered in this game had been quite decent overall, but this was the first time she had come across such a senseless person.
Before Yang Ying could retort, Jia Luo pointed at the male player. "Your wall is crooked."
"Eh?"
"It's really crooked," said Jia Luo. "Look closely. You better fix it quickly, or when you turn in the quest to the NPC, he'll make you tear it down and rebuild it from scratch, wasting your efforts."
The male player doubtfully took a step back, took a careful look, and started sweating… It wasn't just slightly crooked; it was crooked as hell.
Thus, the male player quickly dismantled the wall while the cement hadn't yet dried and started over…
"I think I've almost become a skilled mason after doing manual labor for so long," sighed Jia Luo to her two companions. "If I had the physical strength in real life and was not afraid of getting sunburned, I would consider working at a construction site already."
Yang Ying and Zheng Qingyue burst into laughter together.
Though, after laughing, Zheng Qingyue grumbled, "This game really has no limits. At first, I thought that getting players to demolish abandoned buildings, sweep streets, and clear garbage was already the limit. I never imagined we would still make bricks and cement to build houses."
"Yeah. The NPCs even have this function where they won't accept the quest submission if the construction quality is too poor," Jia Luo grumbled. "If not for us being skeleton characters who don't get tired and aren't afraid of the sun, this game would be unplayable."
"Well, fortunately, the houses the zombies want us to build are quite simple. They aren't much different from the pigsty I helped my uncle build in the countryside when I was younger. Otherwise, I doubt many people will be able to continue working," Yang Ying said.
"Sigh, what's the point of zombies living in nice houses anyway? I haven't seen these zombie NPCs moving an inch, even when they're squatting outside, exposed to the sun and rain," Jia Luo added. "I'm glad I worked on increasing my Ranger reputation early on. Now the reputation quests over at the Wanderer Guild's site are ridiculously difficult. The criteria for acceptance are much higher than the zombie NPCs. Lots of players have spent hours working, but their work is still deemed unsatisfactory. Many cursed and even went offline to watch videos on how to build walls. It's really miserable."
"Hey, the Warrior Construction site isn't much better either," Yang Ying said, not knowing whether to cry or laugh.
"Say, Jia Luo, don't be too gleeful about having reached Friendly reputation. It's not like you won't have to increase your reputation with the Ranger Instructor in the future. Don't you still have to undertake a second advancement quest to become a Ranger?" Zheng Qingyue teased.
"That's something for later on, 100 Potential points are required for the second advancement. It's way too early to be talking about it. By the time I need to raise my reputation again, the Wanderer Guild will probably have been fully constructed already," replied Jia Luo nonchalantly.
The girls chatted and laughed while they worked, unaffected by fatigue, thirst, dust, or sunburn. With a positive mindset, they could even treat bricklaying as playing with building blocks… except that it was just a bit dirty. After completing their quests, they had to go to the river to wash off the dirt on their bones.