Chapter 36: Players are always more trouble than problems

The Demon King!!!

The Queen of the Shadow-Weaving Lair was in a panic.

She nearly suffered a stress response, vomiting up the male spider she had half-digested.

"A Demon King?! A new Demon King?! This... how is this possible! I mean... why here of all places! Damn it!"

She was anxious and furious, stamping her eight legs restlessly. Her massive body swayed on the cotton-white spider silk, making the entire palace feel like a giant trampoline.

Arakdo felt no less fear than this Cave Lord.

There was no other reason.

The impression left on him by the supreme Demon King Lei Ji Dragon was simply too profound! Once upon a time, he too had been a member of those myriad armies.

And that lord, with merely a single glance, had made tens of thousands of demons, himself included, tremble and prostrate themselves on the ground.

He did not want to return to those days.

But he wanted to be an enemy of the Demon King even less...

"Your Majesty... it seems Hell has not forgotten this place. We must make a choice!"

"A choice?"

Arachnos suddenly stopped swaying.

Her scarlet pupils shifted downward, looking down at the insolent subject with an oppressive posture.

"A choice?! You want me to surrender? Never! I have had enough of the Demon King's rule! My children are only meant to be my sustenance; the Shadow-Weaving Lair will never be enslaved! To hell with Hell, and to hell with the Demon Gods!"

She roared, her emotions growing increasingly agitated.

However, when she spoke the last sentence, her voluptuous, alluring body still gave an uncontrollable shudder.

Cave spiders were different from rat-men after all; the latter had never believed in the Demon Gods, nor did anyone care about their lies, but cave spiders still believed in the Demon God to some extent!

Of course.

This was a different matter from submitting to Hell.

Those pampered high-tier demons had long since abandoned the Demon Gods. They didn't care at all about returning to the surface, yet they still sent the Demon God's children to the surface to die without a second thought!

Yes—

Arachnos had never betrayed the Demon God; the ones at fault were those who twisted the Demon God's intentions!

As for that curse just now, it was purely because she was too agitated and had a slip of the tongue.

After all, she had just conceived, so emotional instability was normal. She believed the Demon God must be aware of her loyalty! Watching the Queen descend into madness, Arakdo shook even more violently, his large head pressed firmly against the ground as if he wanted to dig a hole right there.

"No—that is not what I meant, my lord!"

Arachnos roared in fury.

"Then what do you mean! You had better explain yourself clearly! Otherwise, I will eat you right now! Immediately!"

The moment he heard this, the hardest chitinous bones on Arakdo's body went soft, and he nearly flipped over.

But he was, after all, the resourceful Arakdo, a brave and wise general under the Cave Lord.

His brain whirred, and he quickly thought of a strategy.

"We... we can pretend to submit to him first!"

"Pretend to submit?"

Arachnos narrowed her eyes, staring at the tiny spider beneath her.

Hmm? That sounded interesting.

"Explain."

Facing the suppression of bloodline, Arakdo chattered out a 'chi-chi-chi' sound, but forced himself to calm down and said in a low voice.

"The Demon King... I mean the Demon King, chose our location as the entry point into the labyrinth, which I assume was after careful consideration. I speculate that in that fellow's eyes, compared to other forces in the labyrinth, the Shadow-Weaving Lair clearly poses the least threat... ah, I do not mean to belittle you."

Arachnos waved her forelimbs indifferently and continued with interest.

"I don't mind, continue!"

Arakdo breathed a sigh of relief and continued.

"Since we are not the main obstacle for the new Demon King entering the labyrinth, he clearly has no reason to target us... as long as we don't throw ourselves at him."

"Not only that, but with the labyrinth currently divided among many heroes, he is most in need of support. If we take the initiative to express our willingness to submit, even if he knows it is a temporary measure, he will likely turn a blind eye to our duplicity."

"In this way, we can gain precious breathing room, advance or retreat as we please... we can even subtly frame our mortal enemies—those lizards hiding in the sewers—for the chaos on the first floor of the labyrinth!"

Looking at the Queen who was already tempted, Arakdo slowly raised his head and adopted an excited tone.

"Once the new Demon King and the old subordinates of Lei Ji Dragon have fought to mutual destruction, we will surely have accumulated enough strength!"

"When that time comes, our chance to wash away our shame will have arrived!"

In the great hall below the Demon King's domain, the cave spiders were lined up against the wall, and the thumb-thick magic crystals were piled into a small mountain.

At first, the players were unskilled at digging, needing to use knives for a long time to find the right spot, and finally getting sprayed in the face with spider juice, forcibly saddled with the 'Foul Plague' aura.

It was fortunate the players had no sense of smell, otherwise, the stench alone would have caused massive casualties.

However, this situation did not last long.

As they dug, these players mastered the trick, quickly going from one every three minutes to three every minute, with the fastest even managing one every three seconds.

It was just a pity that there were no more cave spider corpses.

Otherwise, given a little more time, these 'roll-kings' might have even figured out an assembly-line dissection process.

In the corner of the hall.

A skeleton soldier stood before a spider corpse, rubbing its chin with its index finger, and after a long while, muttered thoughtfully.

"Interesting."

Seeing 【Table and Stool】 squatting mysteriously in the corner again, Gou Shi, who was wandering around with nothing to do, couldn't help but curiously approach.

"What's up, buddy? Are mushrooms growing here too?"

"No." Brother Table-Stool shook his head, "Just discovered some interesting things."

"What things? Tell me." Thinking this brother had discovered some bug, Gou Shi's eyes lit up, urging him to say more.

Brother Table-Stool didn't hold back and shared his accidental discovery.

"This thing called a magic crystal seems to be mainly distributed in areas with dense neurons."

The air was subtly quiet for a while.

Gou Shi initially thought this brother hadn't finished speaking, and only after waiting for a while did he realize that was all he had to say, his face showing confusion.

"Ah... is there a problem with that?"

Brother Table-Stool touched his nasal bone with his index finger, his voice filled with a hint of excitement.

"No problem... but don't you find it interesting?"

Gou Shi: "..."

He didn't understand! This was just a game setting! He couldn't understand at all what was interesting about it! However, Brother Table-Stool didn't think so and continued to mutter.

"Crystals that only form after a biological death, and they all coincidentally concentrate near the nervous system! I dissected the rat-man corpses, and even the rat-man BOSS corpse, and found similar situations! Even players... similar things can be found on player corpses, right at the back of the neck!"

But what is the significance of this?

Gou Shi really wanted to ask this, but felt it would be too unromantic, so he sighed helplessly.

"You and that guy Ye Zhiqiu would definitely get along."

"Maybe."

This weirdo didn't seem to care who he got along with, just muttering to himself.

"If only I could get a human corpse that had just died..."

Gou Shi: "..."

On the other side, 【Xiao Wan Can't Get Enough】, having just finished cleaning, dragged her exhausted body back to the Demon King's domain from the labyrinth.

Although this game was addictive, it was also quite tiring after playing for a long time, just like going to work.

But having said that.

Being able to move was already enough to satisfy her.

Perhaps this was the gold content of a fully immersive virtual reality online game! Thinking of the broad prospects after the game's open beta, she suddenly felt the exhaustion all over her body vanish, and the hardship before her didn't seem so hard anymore? Wait—

Had she been CPU'd? Just as Xiao Wan was thinking about finding an out-of-the-way place to log off, she suddenly noticed everyone looking at her.

Not just the players.

Even the few NPCs squatting in the stone prison were staring straight at her, as if looking at a monster.

Just as Xiao Wan was confused about what had happened, she heard the teasing of a few skeleton soldiers.

"Good fellow..."

"We're all still bare-chested, how come you're wearing clothes?!"

Xiao Wan was slightly stunned, and following their gazes, she looked down, only to see her ribs and humerus wrapped in circle after circle of spider silk, looking just like a frizzy spinning machine.

Thinking that this stuff was spat out of a spider's mouth or butt, her face immediately turned black.

Although her face was already pitch black to begin with.

"Go to hell!"

She picked up a stone in anger and threw it, but ended up throwing it at nothing, hitting nothing at all.

The few grinning skeletons ran off without a trace, and she couldn't catch them even if she wanted to, so she could only sit in the corner with a dejected face. At this moment, two friendly-looking skeletons walked over and squatted on either side of her.

"Need help?" The skeleton on the right smiled gently at her, a poetic ID floating beside its head.

【Whale Fall North and South】

Xiao Wan was moved.

Sure enough—

There were still kind players in this world!

However, being socially anxious to begin with, she really felt embarrassed to trouble others in the game, so she waved her hands politely.

"No need, no need, I'll just get it off in a while."

"Don't be so polite!" The skeleton on the left hugged her shoulder, laughing cheerfully, "My boss is trying to figure out ideas to make money! Because you look like you're alone, we decided to start with you—"

"Hey! You said it out loud, how am I supposed to make money now!"

Whale Fall North and South glared at her fiercely, then looked at the bewildered Xiao Wan, coughed lightly, and a gentle, intellectual smile returned to the skeleton's face.

"Don't mind her, my best friend's brain isn't normal, she occasionally says things without thinking... considering she's a corpse, can you forgive her this once?"

"Damn it! What do you mean my brain isn't normal? And besides, aren't you a corpse too!"

Just as the skeleton on the left was protesting aggressively, the bewildered Xiao Wan finally saw her ID—

【Shark Away Things】

"Pfft..."

What kind of ghost name is that?! Seeing the customer in front of them laugh, the two skeletons immediately stopped arguing and squeezed out business-like smiles.

Whale Fall North and South: "That... please allow me to introduce myself, we are running a skeleton dry cleaner!"

Shark Away Things: "You can understand it as a startup!!!"

Whale Fall North and South: "That's right, because—"

Shark Away Things: "The Demon King's reward is too little, relying on that bit of mission income isn't even enough to buy equipment! And also, those roll-kings are outrageous, they reached Black Iron in two days! Can you believe it?! Is that even human?! They must be skeletons in reality too!!"

Whale Fall North and South: "In short—"

Shark Away Things: "We decided to go solo! It just so happens that you roll-kings only care about working and have no time to take care of your hygiene, so we thought we'd just open a bathhouse for scrubbing!"

Whale Fall North and South: "Mm-hmm, although there's no water, scrubbing is still no problem! I heard there are bathhouses in the north that don't use water!"

"No, there aren't..."

Xiao Wan just wanted to weakly indicate that her home was quite far north, but before she could open her mouth, she was interrupted by a guy whose momentum was comparable to a great white shark.

"Listen to me first!"

Xiao Wan: "Yes! Yes...?"

Who exactly is the customer here! Shark Away Things: "So what happened! Those guys live too roughly! They don't care about the smell on their bodies at all, and even argue that they can't smell it themselves anyway, so if they stink out the opponent, they've earned it! Stingy guys, doesn't anyone care about the Demon King?!"

"That's the situation," Whale Fall North and South smiled and nodded, touched Shark Away Things' head, and looked at Xiao Wan, continuing, "Want to experience it? You don't have to worry about anything, just leave your body to us... it only costs 1000 Nether Coins."

1000 Nether Coins?

That is...

1000 jin of coal?! Xiao Wan, who had just wanted to support their business, recoiled her shoulders reflexively, distancing herself from these two black-hearted skeleton soldiers.

"So it really doesn't work..."

Shark Away Things sighed dejectedly, but didn't force it, just muttered a complaint in a low voice.

"I said so... who would accept that!"

Whale Fall North and South was also a bit regretful, but still comforted her best friend.

"Startups are always bumpy, just consider it accumulating setbacks."

Watching the two singing in harmony, while Xiao Wan envied their friendship, she couldn't help but complain a little.

"You guys... could actually do crosstalk, it feels like it would make more money than a dry cleaner."

"Really?!" Shark Away Things, who was dejected a second ago, pounced in front of her in surprise and grabbed her hand, "Tickets! How much are you willing to pay!"

The ghost fire burning in the skeleton's eyes seemed to have turned into the shape of Nether Coins.

"10... Nether Coins?"

"So little!"

Shark Away Things made a look of being deeply hurt, her right hand pressed against her empty heart.

Whale Fall North and South thought seriously for a moment, an intellectual light flashing in her eyes.

"Hmm... crosstalk? But I always feel that a beauty bath would have more selling points."

Xiao Wan: "Skeletons... can't scrub, right."

Whale Fall North and South: "Can't we just use a microphone?"

Xiao Wan: "Uh... uh? Are we talking about the same thing?"

Their understanding of 'scrubbing' seemed to have deviated.

But fortunately, Whale Fall North and South had already realized the problem and finally gave up on this idea, making a sighing look.

"Forget it... it seems this path is a dead end, let's wait until we reincarnate into slimes before considering it."

Hearing this, Xiao Wan also breathed a sigh of relief.

Although she was curious why reincarnating into a slime would work, her intuition told her it was better not to ask.

At least, this game currently didn't allow reincarnation into slimes, so the atmosphere shouldn't be led astray by these two weirdos.

But having said that, this was the first time she had chatted with someone for so long in a game.

It felt like the exhaustion of the day had been healed...

Shark Away Things: "Speaking of which, others only have some mucus on them, why do you have so much spider silk? Were you carried off by the BOSS?"

"That's not it, it's mainly the Demon King's mission..." Xiao Wan recounted her encounter just now with some embarrassment.

Because she was afraid of spiders, she was sent by the Demon King to clean, and when she came to her senses, her body had already become like this.

"Hmm... how pitiful," Whale Fall looked at Xiao Wan with sympathy, carefully examining her body wrapped in spider silk, and said helplessly, "I'm afraid this stuff can't be taken off... why not try roasting it with fire, or just commit suicide?"

Xiao Wan made a sighing look.

"Sigh, I'll consider it."

Watching the dejected Xiao Wan, Shark Away comforted her with a grin.

"Don't be too sad, actually it looks quite good not taking it off, it feels just like a wedding dress."

Whale Fall: "Oh? The kind that's torn to shreds?"

"Hey hey, you really know your stuff!" Shark Away got up and nudged her with her elbow, laughing wickedly, "Send me a copy of the data, let me appreciate it!"

"It's not impossible... but now I suddenly have a new idea I want to put into practice."

Whale Fall touched her chin, her eyes fixed on Xiao Wan, suddenly becoming fiery.

"What do you think... about using this stuff to make clothes?"

Clothes?

Xiao Wan was stunned, and her eyes lit up too.

This idea seemed pretty good...

Speaking of which, she hadn't even thought of it! Because it wasn't very convenient to move, she was actually good at some handicrafts, like knitting sweaters, weaving scarves, and embroidery.

"But skeletons don't need to wear clothes?" Shark Away touched her chin, looking disapproving, "And these guys don't care about their image at all, why don't we just do crosstalk—"

"Stupid!"

Whale Fall knocked her on the head.

"I said clothes and you only thought of clothes, think about it further! Like backpacks, there's always someone who needs this, right? Especially for those roll-kings, carrying more supplies can save on the number of trips home! And they can bring back more treasures!"

"Not to mention armor, there's also bandages! It would be very troublesome if bones suddenly broke while exploring the labyrinth, right? Use our bandages to tie them up, and you can fight again! Don't you think that as soon as we make them, they'll sell out immediately!"

"Holy crap! Holy crap holy crap!" Shark Away looked at her best friend excitedly, the ghost fire shaking in the skeleton's head turning back into the shape of Nether Coins, "You're really a talent! Right! And rat-man skin! Maybe that could work too!"

"That's a must!" Whale Fall had a confident smile on her face, then looked at Xiao Wan and extended her right hand, "After all, this inspiration came from you... what do you think? Want to do it together?"

The answer was obvious.

Looking at those shining eyes, Xiao Wan couldn't say no.

She wanted to try.

Even in a game, she wanted to try to find the value of her existence.

And the most important thing is...

She really didn't want to mine anymore.

If this went on, this MMO RPG with infinite bright prospects would almost be played by her as a coal mine simulator.

Watching Xiao Wan place her hand on the back of Whale Fall's hand, Shark Away also excitedly placed her hand on top.

"Yay! The first leather factory in the Great Graveyard is officially established!"

"Don't rush to say yay yet," Whale Fall, having completed the ribbon-cutting ceremony, pressed her hand on Shark Away's shoulder and pushed her toward the Demon King's workshop, "Since we've decided to do it, let's do it well, hurry up and make some preparations!"

Making equipment for weaving required many materials, including wood for building spinning machines and so on.

However, the entrance to the North Peak Mine was currently blocked by an air wall, and no one could go outside.

But Whale Fall felt that since the NPCs were so intelligent, there should be some room for negotiation if they communicated.

After all, hardware tools were sold in the shop, it would be too strange if there were no materials to use!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 37 =====