My Players Are So Fierce

Chapter 475: Drive Out Wolves to Chase Tigers!

Time advanced to the next day, the eighth day before the 40-day free challenge period of the “Swamp Shadow” event ended, Miss Femis resumed her work after six hours of rest.

She helped the Big Bird Team and Silver Moon Team from the southern front reopen the entrance to Plague Town.

The two player guilds entering this time were full of confidence. Although Brother Meow King, that unlucky fellow, died from poison yesterday because he got too excited about slashing enemies and lost his mind, it wasn’t a big deal.

His Vam’s Executioner was temporarily lent to Brother Black Stockings, who also had the 【Giant Weapon Specialization】.

Lady Aqua, who served as the healer, recorded all her spellbooks with healing and detoxification spells for instant casting without incantations. Players with Avalon Church professions also recorded detoxification support spells, and bought many antidotes from Amber.

Yesterday’s failure was clearly a disgrace, so today everyone was fired up. This desire for “revenge” filled them with fighting spirit.

As it turned out, angered players were indeed not to be trifled with!

In today’s raid operation, it didn’t even take an hour before Zombie Commander Kenport was cut down from his horse by the joint effort of Brother Black Stockings and Little Ashina.

To be honest, this kind of clumsy giant undead creature could hardly be called rational. Even though Lame Claw had given Kenport specialized defensive undead skin, when faced with a weapon like Vam’s Executioner, even the reinforcement from the Netherworld couldn’t withstand that chopping blade.

Not to mention that Little Ashina had very extravagantly equipped all the raid players with a full set of combustion gold ammunition for today’s operation, and even specially hired several veterans from Brother Stick to operate mortars in the rear for fire support.

With preparations this thorough, it would be really inexcusable if they couldn’t take down a gate boss.

But before the members of Big Bird Team and Silver Moon Team could rejoice for long, the problem that had stumped Brother Stick’s team also appeared before them.

After defeating the gatekeeper, their next target was the Plague Tower.

Although Flesh Render had already fled with his bucket, Lame Claw who guarded there could still operate the mage tower to cause them all kinds of trouble. The space inside the mage tower was very narrow and filled with gnoll sorcerers defending it, making the southern front’s elite players pay a huge price for every step forward.

Those damn gnolls also knew that once the high tower was breached, they would be dead for sure. Under this pressure, they completely fortified this mage tower.

Lame Claw, who was in charge of central command, activated all the traps in the mage tower, turning this place completely into a land of death.

The members of Big Bird Team and Silver Moon Team spent three hours breaking through the first floor, but when they stepped onto the second floor of the mage tower, they triggered a vicious trap. Horrifying plague toxins instantly enveloped the entire floor.

If Lady Aqua hadn’t reacted quickly and decisively joined forces with Brother Bursting Belly to release a dispelling spell to prevent the rapid spread of the violent poison, this plague attack alone would have been enough to wipe out the already quite exhausted raid group on the spot.

Fortunately, they had prepared enough antidotes, and only after leaving several corpses behind did they manage to retreat from the sorcerer tower in disarray.

When they retreated, Lady Aqua, who served as the main healer throughout, and Brother Bursting Belly, who served as auxiliary healer, were both exhausted.

Lady Aqua was carried on Orchid’s back and had already logged off to rest.

Brother Bursting Belly wasn’t so lucky with his treatment, being propped up by Little Rich Brother on the back of an injured manticore as they limped away from the danger zone.

“Can’t fight it, can’t fight it at all.”

On the way out of Plague Town, Brother Black Stockings, who carried Vam’s Executioner and served as the vanguard breaker, said with a pale face:

“That damn terrain really messes with your mind, the stairs in the mage tower only allow three people to pass side by side, and when they block you at the second floor entrance, there’s completely no way to charge up. This ghost game’s physics engine is so realistic that we don’t even have the chance to ‘clip through models’, we can only stack bodies.”

“It really is hard to fight.”

Even the usually optimistic Orchid was full of frustration at this moment. She carried Lady Aqua on her back while looking back at the dark and ominous mage tower, gritting her teeth as she said:

“If we had enough explosives, we might try internal demolition, at least reshape the terrain in our favor, and the explosions could also cover those indefensible traps.

I’m just grateful now that this mage tower is in disrepair and the gnolls haven’t been able to fully restore its internal defense mechanisms.

I heard the young lady say earlier that a qualified mage tower should include at least five autonomous defensive spirit cores, and can summon elemental beings or otherworldly creatures to overwhelm invaders when encountering external enemies.

According to the young lady’s words, the difficulty of attacking a mage tower with mages stationed in it is no less than attacking a fully armed fortress.

I believe this statement now.

If even a broken mage tower is this hard to fight, how are we supposed to tackle real mage towers when traveling the continent later? The power pool in this game seemed simple at first glance, but looking back now, it’s really bottomless.”

“It’s all Brother Loyalty’s fault for not delivering!”

Little Ashina, flying in the air, complained unhappily:

“If only he could make siege heavy artillery, how great would that be? We wouldn’t need to sacrifice lives to fill in, just bombard it from outside! If 100 shells aren’t enough, make it 1,000! Spirit mages are human too, I don’t believe they can keep defending forever.”

“Sigh, it’s Brother Stick’s team’s turn next, but I estimate they won’t have any good solutions against this mage tower armed like a hedgehog either, can only gnaw at it bit by bit.”

Sister Pomegranate rubbed her temples, showing rare fatigue as she said:

“But at this rate, with only 8 days left, it’s impossible to take this town. There’s still the construction tower after the Plague Tower.

Now that the Plague Tower is already this difficult, I dare not imagine how high the strength of the final boss in the construction tower might be?

The previous two team instances didn’t feel difficult with NPC assistance, but now without Governor Murphy and his lineup of capable main story NPC allies, the combat pressure suddenly maxed out.”

“Maybe this is the development team’s intention.”

Lumina, the bard who had been performing music to buff her companions, punched her long legs while saying:

“They deliberately set up two phases for the ‘Shadow of the Swamp’ event, didn’t they? If we can’t handle it, powerful NPCs will refresh to intervene in the raid progress.

I have good reason to suspect!

If we still can’t take Plague Town after 8 days, Governor Murphy will spawn right here and help us attack inside.

With his assistance, taking down this instance would be simple, but that also means players’ current strength still can’t operate independently on the continent without NPCs.

I suspect this raid is actually a ‘stress test’.

You remember Brother Alpha mentioned on the forum earlier that 《Reality Realm》 plot progression is non-linear, and once the Black Plague ends, the entire continent’s map will be completely open to players. At that time, we can’t just stay in Transia, this newbie village anymore.

We have to rely on ourselves to venture around the continent, and this Plague Town instance before us is used to test players’ current strength.

If we can’t resolve it ourselves, I suspect the development team might also make some corresponding adjustments when opening new maps later.

For example, sealing off some overly dangerous places, temporarily not allowing us to enter.

But if we can complete this raid ourselves, it means we have self-preservation ability even when wandering the continent, then the development team won’t set up barriers for dangerous areas.

Although I don’t have evidence, based on the development team’s usual steady work style, I have reason to believe this is their plan.

At least one of their plans.

So, no matter how difficult it is, we must try to complete this raid by ourselves! This is for unrestricted travel on the world map later.”

“What you say makes a lot of sense, Little Lumina.”

Little Hands, Big Bird Team’s chief assassin, sighed and said:

“However, problems won’t become simpler just because we know the reason, the monster strength is what it is, with players’ current average level, everyone really can’t handle it.

To successfully complete this instance, we need to gather five to ten silver-ranked leaders among us.

Otherwise, just like the monster strength and combat AI in the Plague Tower just now, we simply can’t break through their defense lines, let alone deploy formations to use tactics.

Or maybe gather the elites from all three battle lines together, make a large army, might work by overwhelming with absolute numbers.”

“Let’s see.”

Orchid waved her hand and said:

“If we still can’t break the Plague Tower after today’s raid ends, I estimate Brother Stick will propose this suggestion tonight.

He’s a pragmatist, we should trust his judgment in this aspect.

However, there’s really no solution for the student party.

The path they chose is really troublesome, so many spirit traps simply can’t be bypassed. Just now when we entered the Plague Tower I looked around, the switches to disable those traps might be above the third floor of the Plague Tower, at least there was nothing obviously interactive on the first and second floors.

So, the raid progress of the three battle lines is actually tied together.

The development team is really cunning.

And there’s another problem, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the number of gnoll sorcerers in Plague Town is wrong! Seriously inconsistent with the reconnaissance information we got earlier.

Thorn Nightwalker said there were over 100 gnoll sorcerers in the town, but as we’ve seen, there can’t be more than 60 gnolls in the sorcerer tower.

Where did the rest of those plague sorcerers go? They can’t all be squeezed in the construction tower, right?

That tower is very small, can’t accommodate that many people.”

Speaking to this point, Orchid rubbed her forehead and said:

“I keep feeling like we’ve overlooked some very important intelligence information, there are some very important things about this town and this event that I haven’t noticed.

Like a puzzle piece is missing, I feel that’s probably the key to breaking through.”

“Stop thinking, your brain’s going to explode!”

Little Ashina shouted in resignation:

“Let’s go, rest at the camp, and you log off to take a bath and relax by the way, you’ve been frowning these past few days and are getting wrinkles.”

“Ah? Really? Then I need to log off quickly to put on a face mask.”

————————

“Brother Stick’s people have already entered the sorcerer tower! Little Ashina and the others’ progress wasn’t smooth, took four or five hours just to break through the first floor of the sorcerer tower. According to the information disclosed by Little Ashina and Sister Pomegranate, the gnoll sorcerers have turned their high tower into a land of death.

Everyone’s very pessimistic now.

Brother Stick said their progress today can optimistically only clear the second floor of the sorcerer tower. Brothers, it’s time for us to show our worth!”

In the swamp forbidden area, Ah Yuen sitting cross-legged in the giant snake’s lair exited the forum, looked back at his brothers who had completed their preparations fully armed, then picked up a wooden stick and pointed at the simple map under his feet, saying:

“Brother Stick’s raid will last 6 hours, 2 hours have already passed, so we’ll set out in 2 hours!

It takes at least 40 minutes to fly from here to Plague Town, we also need to attract the giant snake’s attention along the way, lure it from this path to the west of Plague Town, wait for the young lady to complete the spirit countermeasures and let it charge in through the west gate.

No matter who takes the final baton, remember to best throw that egg into the Plague Tower!

This way, the giant snake will definitely attack that tower frantically.

I’ve already given Teacher Li and Lan a heads up, once our ‘Baron Nashor’ starts charging the tower, our people will also begin synchronized attacks on the town.

If all goes well, the giant snake charging through will be enough to detonate all the traps along the way, this way, the problems troubling us will all cease to exist!”

Ah Yuen threw away the wooden stick in his hand and rubbed his hands, saying:

“So, the most wonderful result would be the sorcerer tower being completely destroyed, leaving only the last small construction tower of Plague Town before everyone.

There’s at most one final boss in there, with eight days left even grinding can kill it!”

“But the giant snake will die, right?”

Miaomiao Shark, the vampire hunter who loved animals, said somewhat reluctantly:

“It’s already injured, going to attack a mage tower it probably won’t survive, aren’t we being a bit too much?”

“You think if we don’t do this, this ‘Baron Nashor’ could survive?”

Cheche sighed and put his arm around Miaomiao Shark’s shoulders, saying:

“You’ve also seen how those gnolls outside are ‘exploiting bugs’, although we don’t know why the giant snake doesn’t cross the forbidden area to deal with them, but the fact is that if this continues, the giant snake will become weaker and weaker and finally be killed by the gnoll sorcerers using shameless methods.

You could say in the current situation, the giant snake’s death is inevitable.

Those injuries weren’t naturally formed at all, there are still many hidden stories about this giant snake, our power is weak now, we can at most give the giant snake a dignified death.

Let it perish together with the vicious gnolls, at least better than letting it die so frustrated.

Besides, haven’t we all accepted that quest?”

Cheche reached out to touch the stone giant egg placed before everyone’s eyes, saying softly:

“We will definitely complete this hidden quest, hatch this thousand-year egg, let the giant snake’s offspring continue to live in this forbidden area!

It’s like we signed a contract with the giant snake.”

“Why don’t we try first?”

Gugu Chicken beside them stroked his chin and said:

“We can’t be sure the giant snake will definitely follow us because of the egg, so why not go outside and see, use this egg to lure the giant snake across the forbidden area to kill those damn gnoll sorcerers, consider it venting anger for it?”

“Good idea! Let’s do it!”

Pigeon looked at the time on the player interface and said:

“Everyone log off to eat now, gather online in an hour, we’ll first test the giant snake’s capabilities, then start this big operation of driving out wolves to chase tigers.”

“Tch, what fancy food are you eating that takes an hour?”

Cheche said disdainfully:

“30 minutes for a plate of fried noodles is enough, I can’t wait to see those damn gnoll sorcerers get their just desserts brothers, let’s go get them quickly!

By the way we can also pick up some drops.

This time we’ll probably lose several people, consider it recovering some blood in advance.”

“What food? Peh, I, Gugu Chicken, have always despised this kind of bullying of fools, and carrying out such righteous deeds fills my whole body with strength.

Eat after finishing this!

After completing the instance, tonight we’ll go eat barbecue! My treat!”

Gugu Chicken stood up and patted his chest, his heroic spirit causing other dormitory brothers to cheer one after another.

They helped Gugu Chicken put that stone egg on his back with all hands on deck, this thing belonged to “special items” and couldn’t be put into the spirit bag or even transported through teleportation spells, could only do it this way.

Fortunately although it was huge it wasn’t heavy, still not as heavy as the aerial bombs carried during the previous big bombardment.

“I’ll go first, you follow behind, when I die you continue flying with the egg.”

Gugu Chicken jumped up and down in place testing the binding strength, after confirming everything was fine, he flapped his wings to hover in the air, saying to his other brothers:

“From the current situation, this might be our only chance to take down Plague Town before NPCs intervene! Brothers, no matter what price we pay, we must take it down! This Hall of Fame first phase, we’re definitely getting in!

So.

See you in the Hall of Fame, gentlemen!”

Gugu Chicken shouted with blood rushing to his head, took an acceleration posture in the air after charging up, then whooshed away like ridiculous acceleration in an anime, with other brothers forming a “escort formation” following closely behind.

Under the watching eyes of the hiding Murphy, his brave little players flew across various parts of the forbidden area, even the small animals around seemed to sense that something big was about to happen.

Monkeys on both sides went ooh ooh ooh crazy calling in the trees, and swamp tigers also let out low roars as if blessing these vampire warriors.

“Those dog things are still bullying the dummy giant snake! I see them!”

A few minutes later, Cheche shouted in the air:

“Go! Gugu Chicken, give them some color to see! Let these evil-hearted dogs go buy sunflower seeds for the dummy giant snake!”

“Coming right up!”

Carrying the giant egg, Gugu Chicken grinned and accelerated again.

When he approached the edge of the battlefield where Ningkinanka and the vicious gnolls were entangled, the giant snake that was frantically attacking those undead cannon fodder raised its head with a roar, its black jewel-like eyes staring fixedly in Gugu Chicken’s direction.

Obviously.

It sensed the aura of its egg from its lair approaching.

The instinct to protect offspring made the giant snake even more frantic, breaking through the carefully arranged containment defense line of the gnoll sorcerers regardless of everything, roaring and spitting venom towards Gugu Chicken’s direction.

That horrifying rain of venom even dyed half the sky ink green, leaving absolutely nowhere to dodge!

Cheche and Pigeon, two spirit mages, accelerated forward, simultaneously raising defensive spell formations, using those light red shield-shaped spirit walls one front one back to help Gugu Chicken block the poison spray, and in the split second created a safe path downward for assault through the sky showering with murky green poison.

The vampire warrior carrying the giant egg successfully broke the sound barrier after three stages of acceleration, like an arrow leaving the bowstring brushing past the roaring giant snake darting towards the position where the gnoll sorcerers were hiding.

The giant snake followed closely behind.

It obviously hesitated for a moment when approaching the edge of the forbidden area.

Ancient memories were constraining it from crossing the boundary drawn by the “curator”, however the aura of that giant egg was like bait pulling it across that long-ineffective ancient frontier, after less than two seconds of hesitation, the giant snake took the initiative to step beyond this boundary for the first time.

This scene made the gnoll sorcerers who were indulging in “exploiting bugs” greatly alarmed.

They completely couldn’t understand what had happened.

But they knew they were finished.

Seeing Gugu Chicken carrying the giant egg letting out villain-like wild laughter in the air, the gnoll sorcerers were one by one dumbfounded, those with quick minds were already trying to open teleportation, while those slow to react were still trying to wave bone staves, commanding surrounding undead to encircle and try to kill the “walking into the trap” Gugu Chicken.

“Stupid thing, maliciously exploiting bugs comes with a price! Let me severely punish you on behalf of the development team! Die! Die!”

When approaching the gnoll position, Gugu Chicken specially slowed down.

He maliciously made a throat-slitting gesture to the gnoll sorcerers below while in the air.

As the giant snake behind charged up another poison rain spray in the second before release, the agile vampire perfectly dodged with a high climb, however when the rain of venom fell, it “melted” three gnoll sorcerers who couldn’t dodge in time on the spot.

“Ha! Phase one of the drive out wolves to chase tigers operation perfectly successful!”

Gugu Chicken shouted:

“Brothers, Plague Town is in our pocket, holy crap! How can it still teleport? F**k, my eyes are blinded. Quick! Miaomiao Shark, take over! Brothers, I’m gonna die, leave the rest to you!

See you in the Hall of Fame!”