Chapter 226: All of This Is the Mysterious Merchant

"My experience? I'm missing out, and seeing so many new monsters makes me happy and ready to jump to subject three."

"Maybe they don't give it because they're afraid we'll grind experience too hard, but since it'll be implemented sooner or later, practicing in advance isn't bad."

"True, since we're idle anyway, why not beat the living daylights out to protect the animals!"

Perhaps players can't defeat earth elements one‑on‑one, but those who can resurrect infinitely are strong because they don't fear death.

Facing these bizarre enemies, even without experience, we still erupted with quite fierce combat enthusiasm.

After all…

"Fam, tap to follow, rocket go a bit, I'll perform a powerful Siberian Giant Hamster for everyone!"

They will naturally obtain the high profits they want from elsewhere.

Watching the great situation suddenly turn, humanity's appearance has turned the once‑steady battle into a mess.

Standing at the foot of the mountain, the Golden King, who had been leisurely watching, furrowed his brow, clenched his teeth… and then, with a frantic scramble, led his subordinates back up the slope.

What a joke, not running… just waiting for someone to notice us charging to capture prisoners.

But as soon as we stopped, he angrily grabbed the collar of a nearby bodyguard.

"Damn, why did these humans suddenly appear?"

The bodyguard looked bewildered.

"I don't know!"

"Ah, even the rock elephant was toppled… how could they be that strong?"

"…I really don't know!!!"

The Golden King, hearing that, grew furious, still holding the bodyguard's collar with one hand while raising the other for a slap.

"Don't you know why you're still standing in front of me?"

Bodyguard: I'm testing…

As the earth elements fell, the besieged city‑gate opening gradually became visible.

Ji Ming had already switched back to the Mysterious Merchant skin, so what the players saw was a question‑mark‑masked figure and a pile of dead lizards on the ground.

"Huh?"

Clearly, in the morning everyone was still debating how majestic a group of lizard people guarding the gate would be, and after a single enjoyable noon they were all dead?

Seeing their bewildered expressions, Ji Ming had to become an NPC and roughly explain what had happened here.

"Wait, the Golden King is coming?"

Everyone looked toward the nearby slope and indeed saw a few vague figures that seemed to be lizard people.

No, not just seeming…

The one leading, all pale, stood out especially in the darkness; if not the Golden King, who could it be?

Last night's battle, you youngster ran fast, and everyone was busy handling other matters, so we couldn't keep you.

Today, not even digging three feet to pull you out for interrogation, you still dare to run back and smash my door?

Can't be weak. jpg

"Brothers, cut him!"

Seeing hundreds of enraged players charging with two tree‑spirit colossi, the Golden King turned as pale as earth.

Although his own earth elements can resurrect on the spot, losing once means losing a second time; relying solely on these things can't protect him, unless…

He casually grabbed a small brown speck of light and shouted urgently.

"Can you combine like stacking a castle? Form a big monster to protect us!"

The speck flickered in place twice as if pondering, then suddenly burst with intense light.

Bouncing, hundreds of earth elements gathered and all plunged into the ground.

Then.

Boom—!

Amid the roar, the entire small hill began to shake.

The earth cracked, rocks arched.

Two massive clawed limbs sheathed in scales emerged from the fissure, clinging to the ground and pulling the rest of the body out.

When the smoke gradually cleared, under the dim glow of the underground plain, a mountain‑like silhouette rose from the earth.

It turned out to be a super‑large lizard person modeled after the Golden King, over forty meters tall, entirely made of solid rock!

"Whoa, the earth‑made dog is furious!"

"Whoa, mountain‑ridge lizard person!"

"Whoa… uh no, at least compared to this body proportion… my little buddy is a bit absurd!"

???

Originally, seeing such a huge rock monster burst from the ground, the Golden King got so excited he started clapping.

But hearing the other side drift a distance away saying this, his heart startled, he quickly looked up at the giant.

…

"Bastard, you defame me! He defames me! Please, he's defaming, defaming!"

But such a debate is too futile, and arguing against the players serves no purpose; their innate rebelliousness only makes them more excited.

"Can we trust the lizard chief's words? Anything he denies is definitely…"

"The evidence is solid, no one can argue!"

Thus that afternoon, "Golden King's Minor Life Event" linked fantastically with "Sheldon's Apology."

Of course, there's also the classic "Rebirth: Me, who died from a failed lock‑picking with ○○, starts a second life as Lizard King in another world!"

But the thunder‑raging Golden King didn't know any of that, nor cared; he only knew his fragile dignity had been insulted again!

They jumped up and down in place, excited, shouting wildly.

"Charge! Kill them all for me! Step on all these damned bugs!"

After a silent roar, the stone giant took two strides and slammed into the city wall.

……

"Wait, King, we haven't gone in yet!"

"What? Ah, right! Come back, come back!"

But the giant had already launched its charge; there was no room to stop and turn around.

The Golden King's orders were temporarily cast aside, his mind fixed only on killing the enemy.

Meanwhile, fighting such a giant monster with melee weapons would only injure the legs, and no player wanted to test the opponent's weight with their own body.

So they each drew bows, crossbows, and firearms, launching an attack at the massive target that required no aiming.

Yet the landing point of this flying device seemed oddly strange.

"No, how did you… Ouch!"

The Golden King quickly covered his legs; although his true form felt no physical sensation, he couldn't help feeling a chill.

They fired their ranged weapons with a crackle, the players eager to unleash all firepower shouting while they fought.

"I don't know why, but I just can't help attacking here!"

Meanwhile, the viewers in the live stream watched the boss's pixelated blur drift back and forth, clueless about what the streamer was doing.

【Is this toxic? Why does the live stream auto‑blur?】

"Everyone, there's nothing we can do about it."

A streamer cleared their throat lightly, giving a subtle hint.

"The lizard monster… showed a tumor during the live stream."

【Ah?! Could this be a bit…】

【Please, let me take a look, let me take a look!】

【???】

Unfortunately, jokes aside, the players had deployed all their ranged firepower, yet the stone giant's dual resistances were frighteningly high.

After endless bombardment, they finally brought out 25.4 mm large‑caliber flintlock guns, which could only blast off the opponent's external attachments.

The Golden King, already weeping, sobbed: "Wuwu, what do you mean 'just'? Come try it yourself!"

Thus, the initial attempts to stop the giant from advancing all ended in failure.

No one could guarantee the city wall would withstand the giant's onslaught, so the players had to rely once more on human ingenuity.

"We can't continue; we need heavy weapons. Quickly summon the Divine Mighty Invincible Grand General!"

Everyone is from Earth, and trying to climb the tech tree isn't something one or two guilds can do easily.

Since the "Jinyi Nightwalker" could produce a Red Garment Cannon, other groups might try to overtake by directly betting on an even more advanced cannon.

So after teleporting away, several players soon returned to the battlefield carrying a black cannon driven by two massive wheels.

The stone giant had no idea what this huge ugly thing was, but the Golden King had thoroughly experienced the cannon's power yesterday.

Its eyes widened, and it immediately shouted loudly.

"Be careful not to let them operate that iron lump!"

Yet the players didn't produce any secret weapon; they just stood there, accustomed to letting the enemy knock them down.

Since the Grand General Cannon had already made a dazzling entrance, it was naturally fully loaded.

The sturdy fuse was ignited, and after a deafening roar came the whistling of an iron ball slicing through the air.

No matter how strong the Earth Element's fusion ability, it could never perpetually achieve a "11=2" result.

Otherwise, fifty‑one level‑2 Earth Elements together could instantly slay a god on the spot, right?

Therefore, even if they managed to synthesize a nearly thirty‑level powerful entity, under the cannon's might it could only be obediently subdued.

Yet the strength of a technological weapon like a cannon lies in its mass production; a single piece often makes little decisive impact.

Thus, while having an arm shattered by the blast, the stone giant unleashed a remarkably strong fighting spirit.

The dim‑witted yet loyal giant flawlessly carried out the Golden King's order, grabbing its remaining intact hand onto the Grand General Cannon.

It was an unimaginable force; even if one gunner strained with all his might, he could only be seized mid‑air together with the cannon by the giant.

At that moment, the only thing awaiting him seemed to be being smashed into mush together with the cannon.

Yet, by coincidence, the youngster was a new member of the Challenger Guild, inherently possessing a reckless boldness harsher on himself than on others.

So while stowing the cannon into his protective backpack, he produced a heap of thunder‑shattering explosives and detonated them on the spot.

Although the massive blast never matched the cannon's power, it succeeded in shattering the giant's hand.

"But the Golden King isn't afraid!"

Our Earth Elements are infinitely resurrectable; missing parts are simply dug up from the ground!

In fact, that's true; after noticing its combat power had waned, the stone giant lowered itself and planted its broken hand into the soil.

Though not as fast as before, recovery was visibly underway to the naked eye.

Even the Grand General Cannon could only sever one arm; the Red Garment Cannon and Repeating Cannon might not even guarantee basic accuracy…

Consequently, this scene appeared overly desperate to the players, who had thought it merely an Easter‑egg style entertainment battle, unaware of its difficulty.

"We're doomed; the giant has surrounded us."

"Perhaps we didn't grasp the mechanics; let's think more carefully?"

"We should get a professional, Fan Shao! Howard! Ji Jiang An, step up!"

As the two most influential players, Fan Taozhu and Howard also pondered what this sudden battle was meant to convey.

A player who, after a single strike, became overly arrogant in claiming victory?

What is the main content of the next version?

Or remind players to pay attention to the base camp's defenses to avoid ambushes?

What?

You say this is just the NPC who was beaten away last night whining to a parent to complain, then taking matters into his own hands and bringing a bunch of new underlings here for revenge?

Impossible. As everyone knows, every move the officials make has its own significance, and the examples are countless.

Questioning this is pure nonsense conspiracy theory; anyone, even pseudo‑scientists and victims of happy education, would laugh their teeth off!

Ji Ming: …Is that so? But I wasn't thinking about anything.

God of Holy Light: Yes, I feel the same.

Howard habitually stroked his chin, his gaze drifting over every blade of grass and object around him before finally settling on the Mysterious Merchant.

By the way, the strangest thing about this battle isn't that the defeated subordinate of the Golden King still dares to act out, but him!

Since the closed beta, the Mysterious Merchant has only appeared at the center of Dog Village and the center of the Pioneers Market, never having gone elsewhere.

And if you just want an NPC to explain what actually happened here, you could just pull any dog; his presence isn't needed at all.

Then there is only one truth to the matter!

Howard tidied his attire and, as steadily as possible, walked toward the Mysterious Merchant standing in the city gate opening.

At first he could keep his breathing steady, but as he drew nearer his chest grew heavier and he felt a choking pressure.

This odd feeling even far surpassed the last time he met the President; only when seeing the true controllers can one…

Indeed, to conjure out of thin air an almost entirely real VR game of another world, such power already surpasses the globe.

As the sole emissary between the Great Holy Seat and the players, how could the so‑called Mysterious Merchant possibly be simple?

He steadied his thoughts and spoke cautiously.

"Mr. Merchant, may we ask if His Excellency the Holy Seat has any information to share with us?"

???

No, I was happily watching the show; why are you running over all nervous, spouting some nonsense?

Ji Ming maintained a noble silence, merely extending his hand to gesture beside him, indicating that the pointed‑eared man who inherited elf blood should step aside quickly.

But in Howard's eyes that meant… the Mysterious Merchant was signaling me to hand something over?

Ah, I get it!

Suddenly enlightened, he quickly rummaged his backpack and produced a gold‑plated pole weapon engraved with delicate patterns.

As a weapon of great size, weight, ammunition capacity, power, and recoil, it requires two people to operate in reality.

One person aims and fires, the other lifts the front; both using and moving it are extremely cumbersome.

But this is a game; even a little girl, with a bit of health boost, can perform a magical version of the Overlord's cauldron lift, so wielding the gun alone is no problem.

Howard originally intended to give this gun to Bull‑Head Chieftain Agesi, to see what level the old bull reaches when swapping a totem for a gun.

But now is the time when external aid is needed; why not use it to raise the Mysterious Merchant's favor!

So he respectfully lifted the over‑two‑meter‑long heavy weapon and earnestly requested.

"I am willing to present this gun as a gift to prove our sincerity; please lend us a hand."