Chapter 40: Chapter 28: Underground Ruins_1
Duanmu Huai was not surprised by the dwarf’s request. In fact, many of the long-term tasks that players have experienced have similar plotlines.
Accept Task A to take person A to person B, but person B is not there, then accept Task B to find person B, and when you find person B, they can’t go back. If you want them to go back, you must complete Task C which person B gave you. But in order to complete Task C, you have to do the pre-task D…Ah, the blood pressure is going up all of a sudden.
Of course, for players, most of these tasks can often be simplified to “who to kill,” “where to kill,” and “how many to kill.”
And now it’s the same for Duanmu Huai.
“We’ve recently dug up an ancient ruin underground!”
Where to kill is no longer a problem.
“But what we didn’t expect is that there’s a bunch of damned ratmen in there! We have no clue where they came from, but they’ve quietly set up their camp right under our noses!”
The question of whom to kill has also been answered.
“We plan to completely eliminate these vermin! But we’re currently understaffed, so if you’re willing to help, we can make an exception and let you travel to Bartonilla!”
The question of how many to kill has been solved.
[Activate Time-Limited Task “Disinfection”]
[Task Objective: Destroy the Ratmen Camp]
[The Ratmen camp under the Grey Mountains is a significant threat to the dwarves. Completely eliminate it to prevent future problems!]
“Alright, no problem.”
Seeing the task information that jumped out, Duanmu Huai gave a decisive answer.
“I must tell you first, it’s not like I… What did you say?”
Duanmu Huai’s attitude really surprised the dwarf. He originally thought he would have to do lots of persuading, but Duanmu Huai agreed very readily.
“Are you sure? This isn’t an easy task, I need to make that clear. Those ratmen are no easy foes…”
“But only by doing this, you will let us cross the Gray Mountains and go to Bartonilla, right?”
Duanmu Huai couldn’t be bothered with beating around the bush and pointed out the key directly.
“Or can you make another condition?”
Hearing Duanmu Huai’s retort, the dwarf also pondered for a while, then slapped his thigh vigorously.
“Alright, it’s settled then, tall guy, don’t let me down!”
Duanmu Huai didn’t want to make a fuss, and the dwarf was pretty straightforward with his temper, so the two sides quickly reached a consensus – Elisa and the others could rest in the dwarf fortress first, while Duanmu Huai would take Ogis to help the dwarves attack the ratmen’s camp underground. Duanmu Huai trusted the dwarves’ credibility. Although they could be hot-tempered and stubborn as rocks, they also kept their promises and never went back on their word. Therefore, Duanmu Huai readily agreed to join them in eliminating the ratmen. If it were any other race, he might have to consider whether they had any ulterior motives.
“Please be very careful, Sir Knight.”
Before Duanmu Huai and Ogis set off, Elisa and Kristin looked at them uneasily, offering their blessings.
“Don’t worry, it’s just a small group of ratmen. It can be dealt with.”
Duanmu Huai seemed very calm. After reassuring Elisa, he looked at Old Knight Karol and the elf scout.
“Then I’ll leave it to you. Although I think there shouldn’t be any danger in the dwarf’s territory.”
“Leave it to us, and we can also take this opportunity to buy some supplies.”
The elf scout gave a cheery reply, and Old Knight Karol also nodded in agreement.
After that, Duanmu Huai went off again to meet with the dwarves.
“Big guy, you’re right on time!!”
Seeing Duanmu Huai again, the leading dwarf was delighted. He waved at Duanmu Huai with a hearty laugh and behind him were fully armed dwarf warriors clad in heavy armor. Clearly, dwarves were efficient and meticulous in their tasks.
Duanmu Huai’s arrival aroused a commotion among the dwarf warriors. They even mistook Duanmu Huai for a green orc in armor… Well, Duanmu Huai could only pretend he didn’t hear that.
After the two parties met, they set off together towards the underground ruins through the tunnel.
Fortunately, although Duanmu Huai was tall, the tunnel the dwarves had dug was also quite high; it was not a narrow tunnel, thus, it did not pose much of a problem for Duanmu Huai. He followed behind the dwarves along the excavated tunnel for what felt like a long time before the world before him suddenly widened.
What appeared in front of Duanmu Huai was an enormous, deep cavern, about the size of several football fields combined. Scattered within were various architectural ruins. Furthermore, under the glowing green light, Duanmu Huai could clearly see ratmen happily rummaging through the ruins.
However, Duanmu Huai didn’t pay much attention to these ratmen. On the contrary, he was immediately drawn to the unique style of the ruins as soon as he entered.
Hmm? This style is ……
“Big guy, do you see them?”
However, before Duanmu Huai could examine the ruins in detail, the dwarf’s voice rang out again, bringing him back to the present. He lowered his head to look at the dwarf next to his foot—he was the lord of the place, Brock Stone Trough.
“Well, what’s your plan?”
“We hope you can go up first and attract the attention of these ratmen. Then, we’ll strike them by surprise!”
As Brock spoke, he stared at Duanmu Huai with beady eyes and Duanmu Huai nodded his head without hesitation.
“No problem, leave it to me. Just follow my lead.”
Although Brock’s plan somewhat involved subjecting Duanmu Huai to the brunt of the attack, Duanmu Huai didn’t mind. This was his style of fighting, after all. Plus, with his towering stature and the power armor he wore, why would he skulk around shooting in secret instead of leading the charge?
Setting aside whether the visuals were fitting, his shooting skills… weren’t exactly great.
Actually, among the initial equipment available for players, besides the power hammer and chainsaw sword, there were also long-range weapons like the bomb gun for selection. But Duanmu Huai had never chosen them. For some unknown reason, his shooting skills were extremely poor; he belonged to the category of players who took ages to aim in FPS games but still couldn’t hit the target. This was one reason why Duanmu Huai had chosen the melee berserker style in the game.
Now, the only thing he could use was the grenade launcher that came with the power armor. Occasionally, he would throw sonic grenades to control the field—these things had a wide range of effect and could do damage whether they hit the target or not.
Another reason was… shooting weapons didn’t do much harm to Chaotic Demons.
According to the game, Chaotic Demons were the product of the condensation of the most primitive emotions and soul power of living beings. As the ancient fears deep within the soul, only weapons like swords and sabres could inflict damage on them; firearms didn’t do as much damage.
At the time, players had raised a huge fuss about this setting. If they followed this setting, wouldn’t my bows, arrows, slingshots, and spears all deal high damage too?
Or if I used a bone club, wouldn’t its damage soar through the roof? After all, the attack power of a bone club was equivalent to a spaceship, wasn’t it? ——— The person who said this must have watched too many space exploration films.
Although players had many complaints and criticisms, they eventually resigned themselves and equipped themselves with melee weapons… after all, many times, melee weapons were quite useful.
Especially when out of ammunition.
“Well then, I’m going up first!”
As his words fell, Duanmu Huai leapt into the air. At the same time, the jet pack on his back once again shot out a powerful gust of air. In the next moment, Duanmu Huai streaked across the sky like a meteor, crashing directly into the ratmen’s camp!!
“Squeak squeak squeak!!!”
The sudden attack sent the ratmen’s camp into utter chaos. Those who were previously happily rummaging through the ruins instantly sprung up, like rats who had their tails stepped on. They squealed and charged towards Duanmu Huai.
Seeing this, Brock also raised his battle-axe high and issued a command.