Chapter 51: Is There a Similar Game?
"It has been a long time since we last met. I don't know what feud you have with this Goblin, but he's my servant."
Sherlock released his grasp of the octopus Devil's hand and pushed NotWearingPants behind him. At the same time, he exerted his dominance so that the three gamers were unable to move or speak.
To the three gamers, it wasn't Sherlock's dominance that prevented them from moving, it was the start of the Plot Animation.
"Sherlock..."
The octopus Devil looked at Sherlock as though he had grievances, but he kept quiet and left.
After the octopus Devil left, Sherlock waved at the three gamers behind him.
"That's an irritating fellow, but he has little to do with Eternal Kingdom. Hope that we won't meet him again. Let's go, Arthur, Sylvanas, NotWearingPants. Your mission is complete. We have obtained sufficient funding and commendation. We should return back to Eternal Kingdom."
Sherlock intended to obtain financial support via loans or investments, but it wasn't feasible to obtain a loan, and the investment requirements were too stringent. Though the conference was about sharing experience, Sherlock had nothing to share except for his experience about his insane gamers.
Sherlock didn't return empty-handed, however. He had found a suitable mission that he could entrust to the otherworld's gamers.
As for buying other items or recruiting Magical Item producers, Alchemists, and Enchantment and precious stone talents, Sherlock was not interested after seeing the astronomical price tag.
He originally intended to let his gamers show their fearless nature during the loan process so that he could obtain a higher loan. But it wasn't necessary since he was unable to borrow money. Secondly, he had other avenues for earning money.
Sherlock didn't want to waste any more time. He had to plan how to work with the Specter College and come up with Plot Missions for the gamers. Sherlock found that the gamers were becoming more and more important to him.
They could work without pay. As long as Sherlock gave them rewards, they would work diligently. And now, they would even help him earn Magic Stones!
How could Sherlock not love the gamers?
The gamers were still keen on exploring the manor and were interested in the malevolent octopus Devil.
That was correct. They were interested!
"That octopus face was fierce. I wonder if it will be the first BOSS in the Open Beta."
"That's possible. He seems to be closely related to Sherlie, but Sherlie didn't explain anything to us. It might be another hidden mission."
They were discussing similar topics along the way.
Sherlock didn't respond to them as usual. He quickly took them to Winterfell and traveled back to Eternal Kingdom via the Teleport Portal. They were warmly welcomed by the gathered gamers.
The gamers surrounded Arthur, NotWearingPants, and Sylvanas.
Everyone was curious. The three selected gamers left for a few hours. What kind of mission did they do? What was it like at the conference?
The moment NotWearingPants arrived at the Dungeon, he found a place to lie down and went offline.
He was in a hurry to make a post in the discussion forum. He had just returned from the conference, so he had lots of things to share.
After NotWearingPants went offline, Arthur followed suit. That left Sylvanas to be surrounded and bombarded with questions by the gamers.
It would take some time for Sylvanas to answer the questions. Sherlock created Equipment Insurance for the six legendary items and gave the Teleport tokens to the three owners of the legendary items. They could install the Teleport tokens within the Dungeon.
Arthur had gone offline, so the Teleport tokens would be handed to him the next time he was online.
Sherlock revived some gamers' corpses that he didn't manage to resurrect last time. Then he returned to the Dungeon Core Main Hall and brainstormed for the gamers' Main Plot.
He shouted for Bru to help, but Bru replied, "The Main Plot can be anything, as long as the gamers enjoy being the saviors of the world. Without them, the entire Underworld would be finished. Use this as a guide and select the plots that the gamers prefer like the recent killing of the notorious Cramer. It's cool and awesome! I'm going to do coding for the banking system. It's not that easy..."
Then Bru remained silent.
Sherlock had to depend on himself for the Main Plot. After racking his brain for three minutes, Sherlock browsed the official forum. With his administrator account, he posted the words:
[Are there any games that are similar to the "Dungeon" series?]
The post received many replies:
[K|King: What? Instead of working, the administrator is skiving? Beware of your pay being docked! (Manual Comedy)]
[Garden's Sunshine: What "Dungeon"? Is that Dungeon and Fighter?]
[§Cloudless Piano§: The administrator is asking about the "Dungeon" series. It's the stand-alone game made by the German company. I cannot recall the actual name.]
[33 Cats: Heard of the "Civilization" series?]
[Chiffon Prattle: I am pleading for Beta Tester status! It's good to have an official live stream of the Beta Testing!]
Sherlock refreshed his screen a few times, and the contents were mostly people pleading for Beta Testing status.
"Bru." Sherlock closed the forum page and asked, "What is the 'Civilization' series?"
"It's a stand-alone quality game that is about the otherworld's progression of civilization. Is Lord Sherlock keen to try the game?" Bru appeared surprised.
"I'm not keen to play the game. I'm finding inspiration for the Main Plot," Sherlock explained.
"Hmm... let me suggest, try the game when you're free. This game is very popular in the otherworld. When the gamers started the game, they couldn't stop playing for at least ten days," Bru said earnestly.
"Do you think I'm like them? I'm a Devil."
Bru kept quiet for a while and said, "Since Lord Sherlock is that insistent."
The download icon of ["Civilization" series.rar] appeared on Sherlock's screen, and the download speed was much slower than before. It required more than 50 hours for a complete download.
"Apologies Lord Sherlock. I need large amounts of Mana to code the Banking System, so the resources for downloading stuff is limited. If you can't wait to play..."
Sherlock quickly said, "No worries, let it download at this speed."
It was more important for Bru to focus on the Banking System. Sherlock minimized the download window and opened the official discussion forum to browse.
A few gamers came to purchase private land and beds, but they didn't take up a lot of Sherlock's time.
Posts about the Dungeon Lord Experience Sharing Conference appeared on the forum and were created by NotWearingPants.
A post called [Mission: From the beginning to the end of the Dungeon Lord Experience Sharing Conference and speculations about Sherlie] became the most popular post. Even Sherlock's previous post on the "Dungeon" series was demoted in terms of popularity.
Sherlock opened up NotWearingPants' post, which was filled with many pictures. The pictures showed all the creatures and scenery on his journey. There were also captions to explain the pictures.
The main contents were about NotWearingPants' experience in the conference and emphasized two points.
First was Sherlie's unclear relationship with a Succubus NPC and possibly an unusual plot for gamers to discover.
Second was a Devil with the face of Kel' Thuzad who could possibly be a BOSS that had to be defeated. This Devil has a mysterious relationship with Sherlie. When he shouted "Sherlock", it was filled with animosity.
With such sensational news, an explosion of discussions ensued in the forum.
[Bachelor With Terminal Cancer: What's that? We have to give that dog some incentives just to play the online game?]
[Lusty Hero Saving Distressed Damsel: The Kel' Thuzad looking Devil doesn't look convincing. If he wasn't of giant size, would he be fear-inspiring?]
[Home Futanari Peony Legend: Hey previous poster, perhaps the Devil hadn't transformed himself?]
[Stargazer's Month Old Bunny: I had a grand vision of the world view and the countless BOSS NPCs. We will be fighting the Devils and Liches who appeared at the conference!]
[The aboveboard does not give flirty signals: If Sherlie doesn't remain single, he will lose a lot of fans!]
[RUOK Thunder Virus: Is there an official novel for this game? Like the Warcraft—War of the Ancients. I'm into world views.]
...
The gamers were responding excitedly to NotWearingPants' post, and they discussed the world view of "Dungeon: Eternal Kingdom".
Time sped by while Sherlock was browsing the forum. The number of active gamers dwindled, and many gamers went offline.
Sherlock looked at the progress of the "Civilization" download. Five hours had elapsed, but it was still quite some time before the download was completed.
Sherlock pondered if he should play another round of "Dungeon".
At that time, the Dungeon Core emitted a ball of fire, and a letter was spat out. It landed on Sherlock's table.
The letter had a skull with the words:
"To Eternal Kingdom Dungeon Lord, the respectable Lord Sherlock—Specter College (Sent)"