Chapter 261

This game's production team definitely has a bit of that big sickness!

Cang Lang lifted his head and looked up, seeing the sun struggling to shine through the dry branches and thick dark clouds, he began to curse loudly.

And as he spoke, Fei Ying, Swallow Heaven, and Aurora also chimed in.

"Yeah, no wonder the sky was pitch black when we ran out at midnight."

"Turns out, besides the lush trees, the sky is completely covered by dark clouds all day, so you can't see the sky at all."

"Hmph, you can't even figure out how to paste an image? Really showing your weakness... Wai Shu, why aren't you speaking?"

Game designer: "I... you've already said all the things that should be scolded, what else can I say?!"

Under the banner of going to conduct surface exploration, the special operations team started another team-building activity.

Just after walking out of the cave entrance, they saw a large group of people facing the heavens, intensely performing the Parent-Mom Plunder Technique's counter-strategy special attack.

At first everyone thought it was that classic sociology experiment, with a mischievous spirit wondering if looking up at the sky would cause a bunch of idiots to follow suit.

Upon hearing keywords like "gray mist", "dark clouds", and "the plan's lemons are ripe", Cang Lang couldn't help but lift his head, but immediately let out the same angry tirade as before.

Everyone thought the early-opened surface content would have some big surprise or even a public test Easter egg, but the first thing they saw was this bizarre design, making them all furious.

Therefore, the area near the cave entrance quickly became a scene of a hundred schools contending, with so much maternal content and such a vast vocabulary that if someone compiled it, they could probably produce a Huaxia profanity dictionary.

Ji Ming: "... Whatever, anyway the one who messed up this broken ball thing is the 25th-generation savior; if you can curse him to death, that counts."

However, this look also let the group recognize the direction; after remembering the location of the underground entrance, the team began discussing internally.

Currently, the only known surface town is Sunshine City in the southwest; given the Production Team's development progress, it's uncertain whether it even exists, so the northeast direction is likely an unfinished air wall, and going there would be a waste of time.

And when they previously fought the mountain folk mercenaries, the main player force went south; the commotion was huge, and they had backup in the city, so there might be other presences on that battlefield; if it turned out to be another unbeatable newbie-village boss like the Mysterious Merchant, they'd be doomed.

Four options were thus directly eliminated three, leaving only the relatively safer west.

"You can also lean a bit south; if lucky, you can far off observe Sunshine City; if unlucky, you can still gather more surface information."

After the direction was firmly decided, the team headed southwest, and most players also chose that direction.

In other words, there were still some hotheads who chose to go to the mountain knowing there was a tiger.

So soon, the public channel transmitted some cries of misery from small guilds.

【Don't go east, brothers, there's a gang of bandits with red-eyed hunger; although their combat power isn't as good as ours, they're huge in number; if player corpses didn't disappear upon death, we'd probably end up in the pot!】

Since Sunshine City's closure forced the mountain bandits outside to band together for warmth, forming a huge gang specialized in robbing northbound travelers; as winter arrived and the violent creature events came and went, their lives, amid constant internal strife and squandering, became extremely miserable, which is normal.

Now they, under an excellent matching mechanism, have either gathered from nothing or split from a whole, becoming wolf packs wandering around Sunshine City.

【Don't go north either; we avoided some hostile NPCs thanks to few people, but ended up hitting the air wall, and now we're being surrounded by another bandit gang; sigh, I won't say more, see you in the piss pot!】

The air wall definitely exists; anyway, player accounts consist of the corpse of Ji Ming from the Yangyue World's infinite high-dimensional energy, plus personal consciousness and some influence, so restricting their movement in the basic settings is no difficulty—for example, don't let them go too far, just let them develop in peace.

【South is fine; I didn't encounter any waiting-for-rabbit mercenary partners, but there's a lot of blood on the ground (picture).】

Along with that message came many photos, because the full view of that night's battlefield, which was too dark for players to see, was finally revealed.

This player, who has a bit of a traveler's vibe, is probably also a decent photographer in reality; many angles and compositions are quite good, immediately stirring some sentiment.

【Although they're just scraps, I usually have to outsource even killing fish to a shop, yet I killed a living person; even in-game, it really doesn't feel good.】

【Friend, there's nothing worth regretting; at critical moments we still need to be decisive in killing, otherwise if they really start an underground war, the injured will be the good people!】

【Also, killing to protect life, cutting karma not people; after experiencing this, the brother has realized, and from now on in reality he'll absolutely not be timid!】

Unfortunately, the philosophical insight didn't last long, because the traveler's avatar, which was continuously taking photos, suddenly turned gray, cutting off the transmission.

【Damn, bro, how'd you get knocked out?】

【Uh, the prompt here says I was killed by an evil curse wizard; what unit is this?】

With so many players scattered out, Ji Ming certainly couldn't ignore it, so Silvia's report was sent over the next moment.

【My lord, that's a human mage who wants to absorb battlefield resentment to craft puppets; should I intervene to eliminate him?】

Ji Ming originally wanted to send a "yes", but after thinking he deleted it and changed it to.

【What level?】

【Level 23, and only a solo mage would do this kind of thing; there won't be any repercussions.】

Upon self-reflection, the calm premonition also told Ji Ming that Wendigo wasn't involved behind this, so he simply waved his hand.

【Reward Mission: Sinister Black Hand】

Once the game enters the public test phase, the so-called main storyline will surely become a major version update or even an important task that only appears in national wars.

Therefore, aside from mass management tasks, Ji Ming also plans to add long-term commission tasks and time-limited reward missions.

The requirements for commission tasks are very loose; at least they don't limit the number of participants, and if players can summon a truckload of bread people to help weed his corn, that counts as skill.

And reward tasks will be tied to certain events, such as an important nearby character being attacked, or Ji Ming taking a dislike to someone but not wanting to act personally.

However, he isn't the type who naturally exudes mockery and charm that makes strong men automatically resent him and beautiful women automatically like him; thus the reward missions he can issue are truly few, and he also lacks the energy to figure out what each player's daily task should be.

So afterward it will be handed over to the system design of Yangyue World for review, letting them issue tasks tailored to each player's current development status and surrounding events.

As long as we can keep the overall direction of player order and goodness stable, minor personal deviations can be overlooked; Ji Ming is very busy and can't manage that much.

However, the feeling that just typing a few words can cause a large crowd to rush over is indeed wonderful.

Upon seeing that there were rewards to be had, even many players who had already run far away turned back in a hurry, fearing to fall behind.

The evil curse wizard, smugly pleased with himself for sneak-attacking and killing a foolish passerby, was preparing to absorb the next location when he heard a strange noise coming from the nearby bushes.

That was the 【Challengers】 battle group, which had gradually fallen behind the version; its leader, Strong Child, let out a roar and swung his big blade at the wizard's head.

"Demacia!"

Ten seconds later.

【My lord, the wizard died, killed by a sneak attack of over ten players.】

【Specifically, they pulled out guns while the wizard mistakenly believed the enemy would engage in melee and was preparing a shield spell, then shot him down before the magic could be successfully cast.】

……

"The precious blade is not yet old."

Ji Ming had time to observe the players' game progress because he had now successfully changed jobs to become an elementary school teacher.

And the others in the team were like a group of elementary school students on a spring outing, finding everything they saw novel.

Cang Lang was trying to rummage through bird nests, preparing to study with Fei Ying whether the avian life of Yangyue World resembled that of Earth.

Tun Tian was brushing aside the snow on the ground; he had been heading toward the equator on previous missions and hadn't seen such thick snow in a long time.

Aurora slashed a large hole in the tree with her knife, and amid the squirrels' scolding from the branches, she stole something out from inside……

"I'm a scholar!"

"Steal, stealing pine nuts will do, right!"

Ji Ming flew into a rage.

Damn it, how did the team end up like this!

Does this even feel like a mysterious organization anymore? Might as well join a fantastical group!

However, the research wasn't completely meaningless; at least Fei Ying, after releasing the innocent birds, solemnly drew a conclusion.

"The flight-related data of this world are largely the same as Earth's; if we build flight equipment, it will very likely succeed."

After hearing that, Ji Ming expressionlessly tore a blank page from Fei Ying's notebook, skillfully folded it into a paper airplane, blew on it, and tossed it out.

Although the paper airplane's course was soon skewed by the cold wind, it still looped in the air and dove down precisely to strike Aurora on the head.

"Do I count as having officially proved it?"

…….

The group continued onward through the forest until Tun Tian suddenly stopped.

"Wait a moment!"

No matter how you say it, having spent a few months in Africa, his nose suddenly caught a somewhat familiar scent.

"Fei Ying, big brother, note this down: the leopards of Yangyue World have a certain taste like something on Earth."

"Oh oh."

Fei Ying, accustomed to using pen and paper, was about to dip his ink when he suddenly realized.

"Wait a moment, what do you mean by 'the leopards of Yangyue World'?"

Before his words faded, a harsh, grating roar like sawing wood echoed from the shaking trees, and a huge magic leopard appeared.

Tun Tian blinked, pointing at its shriveled belly.

"That's it."

The magic leopard was probably also dazed from hunger; being level fourteen, it didn't choose to ambush directly, but after appearing it hastily prepared to taste the delicious, juicy martial arts practitioner.

If it could be killed instantly, why bother getting injured?

Ji Ming immediately shook his left hand, making the magic leopard feel, even while airborne, the agony of a full-body cramp except for the calves.

Moreover, it seemed he didn't even need his help, for Tun Tian calmly faced the beast's bloody maw and revealed his own light blade.

The sharp edge formed from righteous vital energy allowed no refusal; even as the magic leopard desperately dodged, half of its nose was sliced off.

"Ow!"

It immediately let out a miserable cry, though perhaps it couldn't tell which part of its body the sound was for, followed by a series of extremely painful gurgling sounds.

Meanwhile, Tun Tian belatedly scratched his head.

"Hey, is it low blood sugar or a cramp? Why is its pouncing motion so strange? I thought I could just headshot it."

Support: "Don't look at me, I didn't do anything just now."

But who cares why it's suffering? This is experience from a wild monster of over ten levels.

As paragons of mercy and kindness among players, they let the poor magic leopard successfully eat something warm before death—at least enough. 44-caliber peanut husks.

Finally, the magic leopard let out a happy mournful howl and died beneath Ji Ming's Hidden Dragon Spur hidden in his glove.

【Let me have the experience all to myself, thanks】

Afterwards, Sunshine City will surely have tough tasks; better hurry up and gain two levels, or else when the time comes swinging a blade will be weak and no good.

"Wow, what a deceitful person, hiding a spike in his hand—you're truly a natural intelligence operative."

Ignoring his teammates' criticism, Ji Ming also sent the magic leopard's corpse back to the mortuary, counting it as grain stored away.

"Well, it's winter, so having hungry beasts is normal; anyway, we'll resurrect if we die, so let's keep moving forward."

After conducting a rather extravagant post-battle pep talk, the team continued on their path of exploration.

But just as they had rounded a large boulder, preparing to draw nearer to Sunshine City, they suddenly heard a woman's desperate scream.

"Wow, goblins, so big! Don't come over!!!"

"Ah this…… is there…… a special situation?"

Before the action team could even devise a countermeasure, they saw five young people—three men and two women—crying as they ran toward them.

Upon seeing the humans here, their eyes lit up, they charged straight over while also starting to wave.

"Save us, please save us, there are goblins over there, so big, so big!"

As everyone knows, swapping the words "big" and "goblin" produces two completely different meanings, so the team immediately recalled an existence that no player could fail to know.

Sure enough, the next moment, several bewildered "person" silhouettes appeared in the woods behind the young adventurers.

Goblin Chieftain, ordinary goblins, dog-headed people, and moreover a lump of slime in the bamboo basket behind the dog-headed people……

That was clearly just an innocent Mage Squad walking peacefully, until they suddenly heard human screams.

But their bizarre appearance made the adventurers see them as man‑eating beasts; glancing back, they screamed even louder.

"Wah wah wah he's looking at me, I don't want, I don't want!!!"

"It's over, my life, it's over!"

Then, like quail, they darted straight into the group's ranks and, without prior agreement, all scrambled to the rear of the strongest Cang Lang.

Possibly the leader, but the boy who cried the hardest trembled with his lips.

Hero, please protect us, they are evil goblins—they'll kill the men among us, then...

Then he saw the giant-like goblin bare its fangs, waving and smiling toward them.

Yo, why are you also here?