Chapter 85: Oke, Who Was Greatly Shocked

The chaos continued to spread.

Not just in the quality square, but also in Oke's magic workshop deep in the graveyard.

Since coming to Lord Demon King's territory, a considerable amount of time had passed, and Oke had gradually become accustomed to a life busy with research.

It didn't seem any different from when he was in the Academy, except that the cramped mage tower had been replaced by a cramped mine, and the dull familiars had been replaced by dull skeletons.

Not only that.

The master here didn't work either, and the work was basically left to the servants to do.

But this was actually a good thing.

Smart goblins all like to work, and goblins without work are much more miserable than goblins with work.

Moreover, Lord Demon King didn't need to publish papers, didn't need to lead students, and compared to his previous work, it was simply too relaxed!

Just when Oke thought such a fairy-like life would continue, respected Lord Demon King suddenly threw a crystal ball into his hand.

"Take this thing. As long as you are in my Demon King territory, inject magic power into it, and you can hear what my servants say."

Oke held the crystal ball carefully in his arms, while looking at Lord Demon King.

"Your servants? You mean that big spider and that cat-eared one? Oke can understand their language—"

The Demon King shook his head and pointed outside.

"Not them, but other servants, those skeletons, you idiot."

Oke didn't know who was the idiot for a moment.

Skeletons?

How can skeletons talk? But how could he dare to disobey Lord Demon King's meaning, and quickly said timidly.

"Res, respected! May I ask Lord Demon King... what will your skeletons say to me?"

"How would I know what they'll say," seemingly having heard some very stupid question, the Demon King looked at him with eyes looking at a fool, then threw a small booklet at him. "This is your work manual, everything you need to do is in it. You just need to remember the rules I said, answer their questions, and satisfy the requests they put forward."

When he said this, Luo Yan paused for a moment, then continued.

"Complete their commissions, and you will get Nether coins. Issuing commissions to them will consume your Nether coins... that's basically the situation. Additionally, there will be some skeletons coming to learn Nether-script from you later, just treat them as your apprentices."

"I will regularly examine your performance, the performance assessment standards are also in the small booklet, if you perform well, maybe I will give you some rewards."

Oke prostrated himself on the ground to thank him upon hearing this.

"As you command! Lord Demon King!"

The Demon King nodded and walked outside with a wave of his hand.

"Call me if there's anything."

Watching Lord Demon King leave, Oke didn't dare to be slow, opened the small booklet, and read it line by line along with the content.

"For Demon King's servants who don't use Hell language and surface common language, please read out their names according to the crystal ball's prompt, this helps increase their sense of immersion. If you really find it troublesome, you can also call them 'players (wanjia)'?"

"As the Demon King's familiars, their cognition believes that this world is a dream, and their behavioral motivation stems from the fun of role-playing... so don't be too polite to them, you can even be appropriately rude, this will instead gain their respect?"

"Respect? What a strange setting... remember, don't waste their time, they are busy working, preventing them from working might get you attacked by them? What the hell?"

Just as Oke was dumbfounded and had flipped the small booklet in his hand to halfway, a crowd of skeletons had already rushed to the entrance of the cave.

Looking at so many undead, even the knowledgeable Oke was a bit panicked, and quickly shouted in a shrill voice.

"Don't rush! One by one!"

And I don't know if it was his illusion, but these skeletons actually seemed to understand, and actually lined up obediently at his door?

Are the skeletons of the graveyard so polite? Oke was a bit confused for a moment, unable to recognize these skeletons.

Seeing that they had a tendency to go berserk, Oke suddenly remembered the words in the small booklet, and quickly pointed to the nearest skeleton and said.

"You! You come in! Say what's the matter! Hurry up!"

Accompanied by the creaking sound, the skeleton at the front of the line quickly walked in, and unexpectedly bowed to him out of Oke's expectation.

"Respected craftsman Mr. Oke! I would like to ask you to add Nether-script to my weapon!"

As he spoke, the skeleton handed over the two-handed sword hanging on his back, that set of smooth movements was simply like a living person.

"Nether-script? What kind of Nether-script do you want?"

The dim soul fire stared at him unblinkingly, and the skeleton said impatiently.

"The kind that explodes when hitting an enemy with a full-force strike!"

"What?!" Oke suspected he had misheard, looking at this guy dumbfounded. "Explodes when hitting an enemy?! Are you sure?! Your weapon will be directly destroyed!"

"I'm sure!" The skeleton nodded energetically, and continued excitedly. "The more powerful, the better! I just want to try the legendary 'Explosive Strike'! Hurry up, I've already paid! Ten thousand Nether coins! Hurry, hurry, hurry!"

Never heard such a strange request, but Oke saw that he didn't seem to be joking, and finally satisfied him.

"Alright... don't come to Oke if the weapon breaks."

The crystal ball listed the order requirements.

Oke muttered a sentence, held the greatsword and went to the operating table, picked up the awl and hammer for punching holes, and clattered on the side of the greatsword for a while.

Soon, the side of the sword body had a row of dense little holes.

Oke, sweating profusely, clattered again, quickly connecting the dense little holes to form neat inscriptions—or Nether-script.

Considering the effect of this thing, calling it Nether-script is indeed no problem.

As long as the user injects intent into it and swings a strike forward with all their strength, the entire sword body will explode the moment it hits the target.

Completing the final step, Oke carefully applied the magic crystal powder to the grooves to increase its magic-conducting properties, then threw the entire greatsword to the player like throwing trash, fearing it would explode before then.

"Take it! Take it away quickly! The further away from Oke, the better!"

"Ga ga ga! Thanks!"

Carrying the greatsword engraved with explosive Nether-script, that skeleton with a not-so-normal brain walked away happily, seemingly unable to wait to try its power in the labyrinth.

Oke, who had sent away this plague god, just breathed a sigh of relief, when another skeleton jumped in from outside the door, the flickering soul fire making his whole body feel wrong.

"Respected Nether-script master Oke! Please engrave a pair of flight runes on my shoes!"

"Flight? Too abstract! Magic is magic, Nether-script is Nether-script! Nether-script needs more specific requirements!"

Oke shook his head into a wave, shouting in a shrill voice.

"Are the shoes you want to attach Nether-script to? Consider some normal entries! Like lightweight or adhesion—"

Not paying attention to this guy's shouting at all, the skeleton soldier carefully finished reading the menu on the counter, suddenly raised his head, the soul fire in his skull flashing with excited light.

"Propulsion! Just this one! Please add it for me!" As he spoke, the skeleton's finger pointed to the entry on the menu.

Oke leaned in to take a look, and the entire goblin was stunned on the spot.

"Propulsion?! Are you sure? This entry is used on moving parts, not on shoes—"

However, the player didn't care about that at all, pointing at the menu unreasonably and saying.

"I want this! I've already paid! Hurry up!"

As he spoke, he had already skillfully taken off his adventurer-style leather boots and stuffed them into Oke's hands without question.

After all, the one standing in front of him was Lord Demon King's minion.

Although Lord Demon King told him not to be polite to them, Oke was a timid goblin after all, and really didn't dare to offend them too much.

Being tortured by that hot gaze, Oke gritted his teeth, finally made up his mind, scratched his oily and shiny scalp and said.

"Alright, Oke will help you think of a way... but don't blame Oke if it's messed up, it's you who insisted on Oke doing this."

While muttering, he turned and went to the workbench, picked up tools and clattered on a piece of iron, engraved the Nether-script while knocking it into an arc, and then nailed it to the ankle part of the two pairs of boots.

This Nether-script was much simpler than the one just now. Since Oke didn't know what effect adding a propulsion entry to the sole of the shoe would produce, he didn't write any judgment conditions at all, as long as the wearer focused their attention on the ankle, it could be triggered.

Looking at the leather boots with attached Nether-script, the player was excited as if he had found a treasure, and couldn't wait to put them on his feet.

However, unsurprisingly, an accident happened.

Just as this guy took his right leg forward, the two shoes seemed to come alive, grabbing his ankles and pulling forward.

That skeleton soldier sat on the ground with a "plop," his pelvis almost cracking.

And that wasn't all, the two shoes didn't care at all about their owner whose butt was grinding sparks on the ground, dragging his two legs and rushing out the door!

"Holy crap! Stop!! Hurry up and stop! Ah ah ah!!!"

The scream drifted away in the cave.

Until this unlucky guy took off all the boots, the enchanted leather boots that lost their spirit power source stopped going berserk.

Looking at the unlucky guy who fled with his butt, Oke covered his eyes in shame, pretending he hadn't seen anything.

As a craftsman, he still had a tiny bit of pride as a hand-worker in his heart... even if it wasn't much.

Even if it was the customer's strong request, it still didn't change the fact that this piece of trash equipment was still from his hands.

This was simply too embarrassing for his master!

However—

Although Oke thought so in his heart, the "players" queuing at the door of the magic workshop didn't seem to think so.

The trash in his eyes was simply outrageously strong in the eyes of the players!

"Awesome! Can this kind of thing be done too?"

"Perpetual motion machine???"

"Perpetual motion machine not quite, this kind of continuously triggered device feels like it consumes magic power, right?"

"That's also very awesome, okay!!!"

"If this changes two shoes into one shoe, and adds a trigger condition similar to 'squat and kick to start,' wouldn't it be able to slide and shovel on the spot?"

"Wait, if you say so, if I install a pair of propellers on my head, and write a forward entry for each blade... wouldn't it be able to spiral into the sky?!"

"Just write a rotation entry for the main shaft! Whether you can fly or not is hard to say if the speed is different."

"66666!"

Everyone seemed to have found the fun of hand-crafting F35s and J20s with building blocks when playing "Besiege" back then, and started exchanging brain holes.

Some wanted to try automatic beheading, some wanted to get an automatic pathfinding for leg armor, and even some wanted to arrange an automatic monster-hitting system for full-body armor... it's just that no one thought about attaching a few normal entries to their weapons.

Inspired by these varied brain holes, the queue at the door of the magic workshop became more and more outrageous—regardless of the length of the queue, or the things in the players' hands and the requests they put forward.

And after hearing those outrageous requests, Oke's scalp was numb again and again, and finally he couldn't hold back and screamed.

"Too many! Such a short time is simply not enough! Oke still has to complete Lord Demon King's research mission!"

"Right! From now on, the shop implements an appointment system! You write down your requirements, leave the things to be enchanted, and then come back tomorrow!"

"I'll help you estimate the price for what can be done, and take away everything that can't be done!"

There was only Oke in the entire magic workshop, and just listening to those varied requirements was enough to make him flustered.

As the inscription service changed to an appointment system, the long queue at the door of the magic workshop finally dispersed, leaving only the last person.

Looking at the guy named 【A Mouthful of Chemical Pool】, Oke said nervously.

"You? What are you here for?"

"Don't be nervous! Master Oke, I'm here to help... heard you're recruiting apprentices here." A Mouthful of Chemical Pool had a bashful smile on his face.

Although others couldn't tell, he considered himself quite bashful.

Hearing that this guy wasn't here to engrave Nether-script, Oke finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Finally, a normal guy came!

"Want to be Oke's apprentice, right, no problem! That... take this thing to the apprentice's room, start practicing from punching holes!"

At the same time he dropped this sentence, Oke threw a bumpy granite block into the hands of this guy with a strange name.

"Remember! Use an awl to punch holes first! After punching holes, connect the lines! Don't punch too deep, the rock will crack, and don't punch too shallow, the magic crystal powder won't stick!"

A Mouthful of Chemical Pool nodded excitedly, indicating he understood.

"Will it work if I just engrave Nether-script on it?"

Oke laughed mockingly.

"Of course not! You have to use materials with good magic-conducting properties to be effective! And, you have to condense spirit or connect magic stones on the Nether-script! This stone is for you to practice with! When you learn it, Oke will naturally give you the real thing!"

After dropping this sentence, Oke stopped caring about him, held a stack of orders and entered his room, closing the door behind him.

After an hour, when he was done, he would take time to check on where the apprentices were working, and pick some faults with their work, which could also be considered guidance.

After listening to Master Oke's instructions, Mouthful-brother took the granite in his hand and went straight to the room deep in the magic workshop.

The facilities here were quite simple, with only a few tables and a few crudely made processing tools, and if there were more people later, they might have to fight for them.

A large pile of stones was placed in the frame by the wall, probably also for practice, belonging to the kind that wouldn't have any effect even if Nether-script was engraved on them.

A Mouthful of Chemical Pool was very curious about where the limit of this magical power was, but now it seemed he had to start practicing from the most basic parts.

This game, whether it's spellcasting or crafting equipment, is unexpectedly realistic, not giving any shortcuts at all, so much so that he couldn't help but start thinking about what the significance of the game development team doing this was, or what secrets were behind this that he didn't understand.

Mouthful-brother found a seat and sat down, fiddling with the tools for a while, when footsteps came from outside, and another skeleton soldier walked in.

This brother's ID was Zheng Fangxing, looking like both a name and an old meme of netizens from the previous generation.

"Eh? Someone is already here?"

Zheng Fangxing was very surprised that someone thought of the same thing as him.

He thought this game was all liver-kings, and no one would be interested in this kind of slow work that doesn't add much experience.

Mouthful looked at him and sized him up twice, sensitively smelling the aura of his kind from him, and the soul fire flickering in his skull suddenly shook with surprise.

"You're also here to learn Nether-script, right? Hahaha, nice to meet you! My ID is A Mouthful of Chemical Pool!"

Hearing this name, Zheng Fangxing suddenly seemed to think of something, looking at him in surprise.

"Ooooh! I recognize you! You guy are a talent!"

"Hahaha, same here, since you also appeared here, that means you're not simple either!" A Mouthful of Chemical Pool squeezed his non-existent eyebrows at him, and said with a grin, "Have a chance to cooperate!"

Zheng Fangxing shook this brother's hand excitedly.

"Must be, old iron!"

On the other side, Luo Yan, who was heading toward the third layer of the labyrinth, suddenly felt an itch on his back, stretched his magic staff in to scratch it, and muttered in a low voice at the same time.

"Hearing You You... I always have a bad premonition."

Hearing You You, who was floating to the side, said thoughtfully.

"Don't worry, Lord Demon King, Hearing You You is helping you watch the situation in the quality square! So far, six violations of game behavior have been successfully stopped."

Luo Yan shook his head and instructed in a low voice.

"Not the quality square, there won't be any trouble there, I'm more worried about Oke's magic workshop... mark the apprentices there, and observe them closely."

Hearing You You: "Magic workshop? The apprentices learning Nether-script? Hmm... there doesn't seem to be any situation there, but please rest assured! Hearing You You can still handle this little thing!"

Luo Yan finally nodded with peace of mind.

"Mm, leave it to you!" - (Tendonitis hurts badly, the next chapter really wasn't finished, asking for half a day off, sorry...) (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 86 =====