Chapter 242

The power structure of the entire mountain folk mercenary alliance seems to be dominated by An De Lu, but in fact all his actions are under Fei En's control.

So, since all his efforts are merely jumping around in a cage, all his achievements will only end up as someone else's wedding dress.

This is also the fundamental reason why Fei En goes along with his plan, pretending not to know the whole time.

——Who wouldn't like something where you can just sit back and reap the rewards without doing anything?

However, recently An De Lu has been mysteriously trying to send people and supplies out of the city.

Fei En tried sending people to investigate, but even the spy he had planted in the Mountain Folk Iron Hammer doesn't know what's wrong, only knowing that Xie Er Dun and his subordinates have mysteriously disappeared.

"You've already stabbed the knife in this deep, and yet there's still unknown information?"

The Adventurers' Association's arrangements are progressing steadily, the Commercial Union's deployments are gradually expanding, yet a blind spot has appeared right at our own doorstep...

This situation feels increasingly out of control and unpleasant, especially the existence of Fei En, who loves to hide and act as the behind-the-scenes manipulator.

He then put the empty coffee cup back on the table, thought for a moment, and pressed the magic bell beside him.

In less than ten seconds, a clear knocking sound rang outside the room.

Unlike those mercenaries who, despite having a military background, still carry a ruffian air, he, who once served as a general under a duke, bears a strong military bearing.

Thus, the one who pushed the door open was Fei En's deputy, a comrade who had shared life and death with him on the northern battlefield back then.

Even before speaking, he swished his hands up in a military salute.

"Commander, what are your orders?"

Fei En rested his chin on his hands and spoke in a calm voice.

"Recently, our little friend An De Lu seems to have become a bit restless; I need you to..."

The deputy immediately responded excitedly.

"Sir, do you want me to give him a beating?!"

"Cough... no, of course not."

Fei En nearly choked, could only rub his temples, and pulled out a sheet from the pile of documents beside him.

"Take a look at this first—do you recognize this person?"

The deputy lowered his head to glance, then snapped to attention with a slap.

"He's a chosen believer of the Holy Light Divine Cult, sir! May I ask if you want me to give him a beating?"

You!

If it were anyone else, Fei En would definitely beat this brat to death on the spot.

But back then, that person saved his life in the centaurs' deadly encirclement, and the reason Fei En could rise to commander is precisely having a group of sufficiently reliable subordinates.

This guy may sometimes act foolish, but when handling serious matters he's quite reliable—a very useful gun.

So he still held his patience and explained seriously.

"Good heavens, don't get so worked up—I don't want you to beat him; I want you to send people..."

"Understood! Send people to give him a beating!"

Damn it, why are you always...?

……

"Um, actually it's about the same."

Since Fei En had planted a spy beside An De Lu, he naturally also knows about the past grudge between An De Lu and Ji Ming.

Recently An De Lu has been somewhat neglecting one thing for another, focusing all his mind on laying out the Dark Forest while neglecting the more important Sunshine City itself—this is not good.

As his friend, superior, and senior, I have an obligation to help him improve his social relations and exchange opinions with a few more good friends.

"Go to the black-and-white checkerboard flower and hire a top-tier assassin at a high price, make Ji Ming think An De Lu wants to kill him, keep it clean from start to finish—understood?"

"Understood!"

If Sunshine City had a so-called 'global tension level,' then on the night the association building was blown up, that value surged considerably.

And after Boris returned to the position of head of the Adventurers' Association and convened the 'Victory Celebration for Countering Ferocious Beasts,' that value decreased considerably.

But what was reduced was the total; it cannot change Sunshine City's state of becoming increasingly distorted.

Even saying that, watching the increasingly busy goods traffic and personnel movements of all major powers, invisibly it seems to be growing faster than before.

Now Sunshine City is just a powder keg, waiting for a spark to blow everything sky-high.

In such a situation, it seems all people can do is continue to stockpile more explosives in their own homes.

Therefore, recently the small factions in the outer city have resumed fire mergers, and the intensity can be described as retaliatory.

In this arms race, Ji Ming once again accelerated the development of the underground city, even personally stepping in to bring smiles to the players.

From the 【Crooked Neck Tree】 to the 【Mysterious Merchant】, all-around, multi-angle, wide-field to increase the intensity for players.

Before, he faced players' long and short guns with mere acquiescence; now he wields a big gun and heavy fists to go on the offensive!

The 【Challengers】 gathered several guilds to form a united force, with a full hundred trainee players launching a grand general assault.

The result was that before they even touched the goods on the stall, they were turned into a sheet of death reports by that weirdly raised gun whose firing speed rivals a Gatling.

The underground revival pool of the warship was still welcoming this many guests together to squat in the urinal for the first time; looking out, it was a magnificent sight.

"Good grief, how dare the game officials give the newbie village boss extra strength, you guys internal love to be so over the top!"

"Yeah, when we were dirt poor he used a shovel to smack people; now we have guns and cannons, hey! Guess what? He's got one too!"

"This feels like playing Civilization VI, where the barbarians' tech rises with the players, eventually they come out piloting doom mechs from time immemorial."

"Damn, if later we all hand-craft nukes and launch them, would his BYD have to go out in a Gundam to hammer people?"

"That only shows our tech development isn't fast enough; never mind, I'll ask my buddy Er Mao if his family's aircraft engine schematics are still for sale."

It's a pity that everything else went smoothly, but in the team match, at the fifth round of eighteen to nine, the 【Embroidered Night March】 suffered defeat and sank.

This round their opponents were the 【Mage Battle Group】, that is, the eccentric guild formed by those beast‑folk buddies.

But whether on this side or that side, the core members are only four people each, not meeting the basic requirement of five‑person participation.

So both sides each brought in external reinforcements to make up the number of team members.

The mysterious fifth member of the Brocade Night Walk is the hereditary blacksmith known as Oyezi.

The reason the special team chooses to bring him is simple: they have the skill and ability, but they still lack suitable personnel for materials and manufacturing, so…

"Holy shit, I… this is a proper match, isn't it just a pure nepotism thing?"

"Shut up, whether we brothers can get a Maxim before the closed beta ends depends on their mood."

Meanwhile, the Mage Brigade contacted their friends' guild, Beast's Heart, and borrowed that pure‑love cow‑person who gets along instantly with the minotaurs.

"Great, we've got a tank, a mage, and DPS; we just lacked a healer—now we're set!"

"Yeah! Hey, by the way, Pure Love Bro, how do you heal others?"

"What do you mean… saying it would fail Shenhe's check?"

Thus, likewise taking advantage of the window period to make transfers, our side curries favor with connections while the other side seeks to strengthen, leaving us three points weaker at the start.

Furthermore, even if Ji Ming could blow away all the opponents, his role as an apothecary— Wai Bozi Shu—still couldn't.

To avoid giving anyone an excuse to bully newcomers, he simply banned all the skills the system gave him, making it a pure‑green game.

And there's one more important point.

"Sha Ge, are you sure that thing in your hand is a gun?"

Shouldering a heavy field gun, the Goblin Assassin nodded fiercely.

"I can lift it with one hand—it's not a gun, so could it be a cannon?"

……

Seeing the four teammates listed all squatting over a urinal, Ji Ming let out a faint breath.

Good, add another rule: prohibit the use of any firearms weighing over 500 kilograms.

Although many people are participating, if we stretch the schedule further, the four days should end.

For Ji Ming, the purpose of this tournament is to gauge the players' current overall strength, with more focus on the mid‑tier participants.

But for the players and even Earth's audience, this is the martial‑arts version of the World Cup, the fantasy world's MMA.

As expected, the finalists in the team competition are the teams Blade‑Gun and Starry Sky.

Even if the Khan's archery were stronger, it could not match the combined gun‑and‑blade prowess of the infantry and the senior brother.

And Howard's prepared trump card also couldn't match Fan Tao Zhu's hard‑to‑defend sneak attack.

Thus, as expected, Blade‑Gun lifted the arena trophy, becoming the inaugural team‑competition champion—truly deserved.

But the roster for the individual competition's finals is rather delicate.

First, many strong contenders faced off early.

For example, the title favorite Lost Wanderer, who possesses a hereditary fist art, was kicked out in the first round by the earnest martial‑police expert Great Desert Cang Lang.

Then came frequent upsets in the later matches.

For instance, the notorious Death Seeker, whom no one wanted as an enemy, was narrowly defeated by the dog‑headed toy designer Desert Death God, who barely won with subtle earth‑element manipulation, almost losing the "Death God" title.

Many star players crashed out early, so the final showdown unexpectedly came down to the Goblin Assassin and Mr. T.

That is, Sha Ge and Howard Thomas—a Goblin Chieftain and a pure‑blood elf, born with overpowered racial talent as a cheat‑bro.

All right, I know you're about to ask for a JM account, but don't rush, don't rush.

Little Howard, knowing he'd be completely harassed online, withdrew outright to protect his pitiful reputation.

Thus Sha Ge strutted onto the podium with his oily green arm, standing before all the players.

Taking a close look, the faces of those who had taken the closed beta all showed a hint of reluctance.

No, how did this guy shape his face? Why does he look like the Mad King?

The Mad King with ears as good as Ji Ming's: Aminos!

If Howard's making it to the finals still has a few points of chance thanks to the "West Coast Young Master Zhao" title he bought with lavish spending, then Sha Ge is pure hard power.

Although the fantasy world has existed for tens of thousands of years and has been altered over a hundred times by various saviors, Yangyue World is not lacking in means to cast spells simultaneously.

But stuck in this impoverished backwater of a dungeon, most mage players could even set their own hair on fire trying to toss a fireball, let alone develop any fancy tricks.

Thus, Sha Ge, who carries an old geezer inside him, possesses the fiercest combat cheat available in this setting.

—If I prepare one spell and the Mad King prepares another, we can unleash two different spells!

Besides having such hard power, there are also the slime, the dog‑headed person, and the goblin—this trio of clumsy schemers—offering plans.

With that, how could I lose?

Watching Sha Ge receive the champion's resource reward, the Mad King didn't forget to spout nonsense.

【Human, you see, right? As long as you make good use of my body, you can definitely part ways with these Pioneers!】

But Sha Ge is just a company worker in real life, not a wilderness survival expert, so he merely snorted.

"Split up? You want me to wander the savanna just to watch hippos bare their teeth?"

And so the four‑day player competition came to a close.

Ji Ming had intended to return to the clinic to sleep, but he received a notice that Director Zhao would hold a summary meeting half a month after the closed beta launch.

No matter how you say it, he'd already raked in fifteen W for free and even gotten a free ride on Cang Lang and Fei Ying's personal abilities—this face still had to be given.

So he turned on his heel and went to the activity room of the Brocade Night Walk at the forward base.

Though called an activity room, because the area has many buildings but few guilds, the whole building is actually theirs.

The four sat side by side at the long table, finally waiting for the cyber‑LaoZhao in the blue transparent frame to come online.

But before the old man could even speak, he started the applause himself.

"Good news—today I've got nothing but good news to tell everyone!"

Alright, I just attended the victory celebration in Yangguang City, and then immediately joined the one in the dungeon.

First, Cang Lang proved through the competition that his real‑world martial‑arts skills could be fully utilized in the game.

Then came Fei Ying, who, by restoring firearms from various eras and conducting various scientific experiments, proved that some rules of the game world are exactly the same as those of the real world.

Next was Wai Shu.

"The various information that Wai Shu has provided recently gave us many clues and inspiration, and also confirmed your two conclusions from another angle."

"As an ordinary person participating in our work for the first time, you already count as extraordinarily talented; many elderly people don't necessarily have this ability, and you have great potential ahead."

Huh?

Ji Ming suddenly felt that these remarks sounded somewhat familiar.

"... Is it just missing a stint in prison to cultivate the Dao, after which one could join the Tongliao Universe and become a hardcore badass?"

Three out of the four people were being praised, and Aurora got anxious.

"What about me?"

"You…… your mixing of black powder is not bad, so I won't pursue your secretly hoarding dangerous substances' manufacturing plans and the blueprints for various weapons."

"This…… the praise is less than the scolding? This won't do!"

As a leader accustomed to balancing things, LaoZhao quickly began to think seriously, remaining silent for a while.

"Also…… thank you for enduring hardship to stay alive; you must keep striving!"