Chapter 117:

After leaving his blessings and a bit of life experience as a Vampire elder, Knight Lord Palanno drifted away. Of course, at the end, he issued a small threat to Murphy, warning him not to follow the path of NTR.

Just thinking about having a golden-tier “NTR Slayer” watching him gave Murphy a chill, but he soon mustered his courage!

Pah, what’s there to be afraid of!

Anyway, he never planned on becoming some damn cheater, did he? With the perfect Tris by his side, when would he have time to seduce other women?

Besides, what upstanding person would cuckold others? Anyone who has such thoughts and dares to act on them is already abnormal, right?

Wouldn’t they be asking for a beating if they were struck with a heavy fist?

How could such an excellent and upstanding child like himself, strictly adhering to Vampire moral traditions, be associated with those “adulterers”? He has read the Spring and Autumn Annals!

With these thoughts, Murphy returned to his tent. It was now midnight, and he easily logged onto the game forum to see what amusing antics his adorable little players had cooked up for him this time.

But as soon as he entered the forum, he saw a “Hot Post of the Day” automatically pinned to the top, and the number of people discussing it was still increasing.

Out of curiosity, Murphy opened the post, and was immediately stunned by the huge title:

《”Under the Moon” Volume Two: Major Discussion on the Upcoming Plot! Pictures and Truth Inside!》

“Huh? You all can guess the upcoming plot? Well, let me see what shocking thoughts my whimsical little players have about extending the current plot.”

Murphy lay on the bed in his tent, casually taking out his notebook and pen, ready to extract some quintessential ideas from the players’ fanciful thoughts to supplement his own “dog planner’s” ideas for the upcoming story.

This post was made by Ah Yuen.

Naturally, among the current little players, apart from the light role-player Lumina, only Ah Yuen and a few others had much interest in exploring the plot.

The other players were still at the stage of simply “playing the game.”

“Buddies, brothers and sisters, although we’ve tragically died down to only three people left, we’ve finally broken through that damn Blood Vulture Halls! Since the server is now free of the risk of rollbacks and restarts, let’s happily discuss the progression of the upcoming plot today.

Since we’re all dead anyway, and just idling, why not indulge in some chatter?

Let me, Ah Yuen, make an irresponsible guess first!

Now that the last threat to Murphy’s dominion, the depraved Blood Vulture Clan patriarch Salrokdar, has been taken out, it means Murphy’s territory has entered a relatively peaceful period.

Although according to the intel from Meow King, Niuniu, and Cheche, the ‘Astral Realm Rift’ appeared due to the sub-space fissure explosion, I don’t think it will affect the upcoming plot development.

I think the game’s focus will definitely shift from combat to development, at least partially.

To be more specific, I think for a long period of time, we testers and Murphy’s warriors will be building our own newbie village brick by brick.

Why do I make this guess, you ask?

Ah Yuen doesn’t just talk nonsense. In fact, the dev team has already been testing this kind of content to lay the groundwork for future versions.

Not only did the Dump Truck brother trio become officials in the camp, almost single-handedly planning the new order for the survivor camp, but my little brother Grayman has also been appointed as the ‘Chief Architect’!

This title isn’t just given out randomly, you know.

Let me give a quick recap for the third batch of new players who just joined the game. My little brother Grayman still has a special mission he hasn’t completed, which is to submit a repair plan for Kadman City’s outer city area and designs for new buildings to Miss Miriam and Murphy!

Brothers!

You all understand what this means, don’t you?

This damned game is not only making us build the newbie village ourselves, but also design it ourselves! This is opening up the ‘construction mode’, and I bet there will definitely be an option to open in-game housing later!

In other words, as long as you do some PY with little brother Grayman and he makes a few edits on the designs, you’ll be able to live in a seaside villa in the game!”

Ah Yuen’s plot analysis was clearly infused with a strong personal style, but it had to be said that his summary made quite a bit of sense. However, the follow-up comments quickly exposed Ah Yuen’s tendency to “parrot” information.

MeowKing: 【Could you say something we don’t already know? You’re just confusing the newbies here. All the veteran players understand the stuff you mentioned.】

SwordSaintAshina: 【Oh oh oh, Uncle Meow’s ‘Server First’ badge looks so cool and dazzling! Is this how achievements are displayed on the forum? Damn it, why hasn’t the promised ‘Kingslayer’ title and badge been sent yet? I want a cool badge too!】

So I think while the main focus of the next version is likely construction, there will still be a significant portion of combat content that we need to sustain.

But this is actually not a bad thing.】

DoestheCyborgSnailDreamofElectronicTrees: 【How so? Uncle Meow, don’t leave us hanging.】

MeowKing: 【Because we don’t have enough manpower! Even if the current sixty players doubled, it still wouldn’t be enough to simultaneously support so many gameplay styles. So I boldly predict that we’ll soon be welcoming a ‘player wave’.

And based on elder brother Dump Truck’s summary above, I think this might be connected to the background story.

For example, Murphy might grant testing slots proportional to the development of his territory. After all, in this fantasy western magical setting, sustaining a warrior requires vast resources. So tying the player count to territorial development is actually quite reasonable game design.

So, in conclusion, I think the most promising job in the next version is not warrior or administrator, but slave catcher and the triangular trade crew, that’s the version’s answer!

Just don’t know if there are any black uncles for us to capture in this game’s setting.】

“Whoa! He actually guessed it all!”

Inside the tent, Murphy was so startled by Uncle Meow’s post that he immediately sat up. This guy really couldn’t be underestimated, he had guessed the basic logic of Murphy’s territory system through sheer speculation.

However, this wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Although the little players’ whimsical guesses were all in jest, they truly gave Murphy a lot of inspiration. He glanced at the lines of content he had jotted down in his notebook, then showed a subtle smile in the night.

Murphy put away his notebook, got up and walked to the front of the tent, gazing into the deep darkness before him.

He narrowed his eyes.

Elder brother Dump Truck’s mention in the post about the possibility of “war refugees” appearing gave Murphy a wake-up call. He felt he had to be prepared before such a situation truly arose.

Moreover, Lord Palanno had also promised that in his talks with King Louis and the Wolf Queen, he would urge them to quickly release the captured army of 26,000 armed Blood Servants. However, Murphy guessed the 10,000 elites from Fort Crimea were likely gone for good.

The remaining 16,000 miscellaneous troops could still be hoped for, to some extent.

But after these guys came back, they would also need to be properly settled, or else they’d cause a ridiculous scene of “rebels storming the national gates, mountain bandits destroying the dynasty” in no time.

He had to quickly establish a governing system.

It could be rudimentary, but it had to exist!

Using the current survivor camp as the basic framework, with his current manpower as the governing nodes, all he needed was a suitable external condition, and his territory could rapidly expand outwards at an immense speed.

Whether it was stable or not could be put on the back burner for now, the main thing was manpower feedback.

There were still too few little players!

60 people couldn’t accomplish anything. Even 600, a tenfold increase, would barely be enough. And the heavyweight challenge of the Black Disaster coming in six months was even more daunting!

Thinking of this, Murphy summarized his next goal.

Before the arrival of the Black Disaster in six months, he needed at least 2,000 players under his command, with at least one-third having passed the Black Iron Trial! Only then could he barely maintain qualitative suppression over the Gnoll monster hordes.

The development of the territory, unlocking the tech tree, and even maintaining the governing structure could all be handed over to the players. Therefore, he had to start selecting and secretly searching for usable talents.

A sense of urgency arose within Murphy.

His small territory was about to face a trial, which would directly determine the lower limit of his achievements in this otherworld.

“Huff.”

Murphy let out a long breath and opened his arms in the darkness, softly saying:

“Be bolder, even bolder! Not just a new city built on ruins, as long as you’re willing to play, as long as you’re willing to continue walking this path with me, I can entrust the entire Transia to you for construction and management!

I need your support and following.

My adorable little players, as a generous reward for your brilliant loyalty, I shall give you the entire world!”