Chapter 204:

When the little players logged in the next day, they immediately noticed two major changes in the Crimson Citadel.

First, the survivors who had been huddled in the advance camp outside the city preparing various building materials finally entered the outer city ruins en masse.

Selected camp workers, under the command of the Count of Kadman’s “Chief Architect” Heaven’s Chosen Grayman and “Deputy Architect” Bricklayer, had marked out the terrain of a block with something similar to white lime.

They were carrying carpentry tools like shovels, saws, hammers, planes, and ladders, preparing to start building the first house in the outer city ruins under the direction of two design students.

It looked quite professional and well-organized.

Specialized blueprints were brought out for the workers to see, and the cement mixer had a delicate model built with wooden strips in his hand, looking square and boxy like a 3-story dormitory building.

Except for these workers not wearing helmets and the lack of some large mechanized tools, this place was no different from a standard construction site.

The “Three Generals” of the camp, who were also the “Three Warriors” under Regent Miriam’s command – Dump Truck Iaido, Bulldozer Man Charging, and Half Off With Full Coverage – were standing nearby, holding some sunflower seeds, maintaining order and having their assistants loudly and repeatedly announce the new “Construction Worker Labor Point Calculation Rules.”

When the little players saw this, they knew that their Lord Murphy had finally begun the city construction plan that had been staying on paper.

However, clever players had already guessed that this must be related to their large-scale clearing of those dangerous ghouls in the sewers over the past few days.

“See, I told you before, this game is just like the real world, with a set of underlying logic driving it,” said Feel You Poor, who had already gone out for a ride on his beloved manticore and returned, to his good friend Life Is Pretty Good who had just logged in and was jumping around in the game to stretch his body.

“Because we cleared out the dangerous ghoul nests in the sewer area, the workers now dare to enter the city outskirts to start rebuilding. All plot advancements can be traced back to reasons in the background story, and players are the main drivers of the plot in this game.

If we left it all to these NPCs to do, I estimate it would take at least 3 months to formally enter the reconstruction phase, by which time winter would be coming!

They say Transia’s winters are very cold, cold enough to freeze people to death.”

“Tch, you also said they’re just NPCs, if they freeze to death, can’t they just respawn a new batch?” Life Is Pretty Good casually said something that exposed his “newbie status.”

Unlike other “anticipation party” members who had been hanging around the forums for a long time, this guy was also very busy in real life and had a very fulfilling personal life, so after filling out the test application at Feel You Poor’s urging, he hadn’t really looked at the forum posts much.

This forced Feel You Poor to explain again: “You wish! Let me tell you, the NPCs in this game are all unique. Once they die, they’re gone for good. You can even see changes to their tombstones and friends and family occasionally coming to mourn. You! You’re going to be a village chief in the future, don’t treat these NPCs we worked so hard to rescue as consumables! If you really dare to do that, be careful of other players putting a sack over your head.

Many people have become friends with the NPCs in the camp. If you dare to abuse them, those guys will dare to hunt you down in real life.”

“Tch, am I afraid of that?” Life Is Pretty Good grinned, looking around while riding his docile old horse. He quickly noticed a large number of little players flocking towards the inner city.

It was as lively as a fair.

Feel You Poor also noticed this and casually grabbed Old Tune, who was riding a black warhorse and holding a crisp pear as “breakfast,” and asked, “Brother Tune, where are you all going?”

“Don’t you know high-level NPCs have spawned in the inner city?” Brother Tune said to Feel You Poor while munching on the pear with juice splattering:

“They’re very powerful NPCs! Reportedly vampires from the Blood Pact Clan, each of them is a professional trainer. Some night owl players discovered them last night. These NPCs occasionally teach some Black Iron rank advanced combat techniques, and they can even trigger Blood Pact Clan reputation quests, especially their leader!

She’s a Silver rank bow knight, reportedly a long-legged vampire girl.

And rumor has it that she’s selecting talented ranged shooters and teaching them some advanced archery and reconnaissance techniques. Aren’t I a gunner? Although it doesn’t quite match the bow knight’s identity, I want to try my luck too. Want to come along?”

“Hey, didn’t you just say all NPC spawns have background stories as explanation?” Life Is Pretty Good, who had been listening intently nearby, immediately laughed and said with his hands on his hips:

“How do you explain these suddenly spawned NPCs?”

“Are you stupid, new friend?” Before Feel You Poor could speak, Brother Tune got annoyed first. He threw the half-eaten pear towards the distance where several crows were perched foraging.

The gunslinger wiped his hands and looked Life Is Pretty Good up and down, saying:

“That’s the advance support we agreed on with the Blood Pact Knights after we conquered the Blood Vulture Halls, of course there’s a background story! It takes about 10 days for them to travel from the Dark Mountain range to reach the Crimson Citadel. Tsk, look at you being all smug when you know nothing.

You’re a newbie, right?

You should be ashamed!”

“Damn!” Life Is Pretty Good wanted to argue after being scolded, but Brother Tune had already lifted his head with the pride befitting a veteran player and ignored him. He pulled out his riding crop and lightly whipped his warhorse’s behind. The majestic demon-hunting steed immediately neighed and charged towards the inner city.

This was the second change that little players discovered in the Crimson City.

At this time, on the vast ground in the inner city area that had been flattened by the Astral Realm impact, the second camp outside the Adventurer’s Guild was rising from the ground. The Blood Pact Clan’s reserve knights were given comfortable and useful “local specialty” gray tents, and Miriam had allocated sufficient supplies to them.

Of course, as vampires, their camp was naturally close to the shadow areas, and their stationed location happened to be near the previous cemetery.

The residual death spirit energy here made the temperature very low, which was naturally comfortable for the vampires.

As the leader, Lady Lainnia had her own room in the Blood Vulture Halls, but she preferred to stay with her soldiers, so she also pitched a tent for herself here.

The Blood Pact camp was very lively.

The little players who came to learn advanced general skills and seek new profession transfers didn’t mind doing a few quests along the way, so under the strange gazes of these Blood Pact reserve knights, these enthusiastic local blood servants speaking in odd languages almost completed half of the camp construction for them.

It was as if no matter what outrageous requests they made, these blood servants would happily and mindlessly go do it.

All of this was seen by Lady Lainnia.

She nodded with great satisfaction and looked again at the Computation Bead in her hand, gifted by Murphy.

“This place is far from sunlight, which shouldn’t scorch your delicate skin anymore.”

He walked towards the arena and said to Lainnia behind him:

“This is also where our blood servants and us, the last children of the blood vultures, release our fighting spirit. There are always weaklings here who stage unexpected comebacks, or honor the glory of battle with their blood.”

“An underground arena? How barbaric.”

The bow knight commented:

“It seems my words about that Lady Adele weren’t wrong. Aren’t you enjoying the decadent pleasures of the shadow elves?

I’ve never seen any civilized race immerse themselves in such barbaric slaughter.”

“You arrogant descendants really don’t know how to talk properly, do you?”

Maxim was getting a bit annoyed too.

Lord Palanno’s arrogance stemmed from his strength and that knightly demeanor that didn’t particularly annoy people, but he wasn’t as irritating as the elf before him, with every sentence carrying an unpleasant flavor.

“Shing!”

The Tomb black blade was unsheathed.

Lainnia didn’t draw her battle bow, but instead pulled out two vampire hunter daggers from her waist. She clearly didn’t intend to use her main weapon to bully the vampire before her, who was a whole rank lower than her.

But as a formal member of the Blood Pact Knights, she would gladly accept and emerge victorious from all challenges, continuing that pride of victory.

Maxim didn’t care about this.

He was a pragmatist.

The moment “Fight Club Crimson Lady” Mary flying in the air announced the start of the battle, the Tomb Guard’s Death’s Grasp shot forward, unsurprisingly easily dodged by the elf bow knight known for her agility, but the sweeping blade Maxim flashed over next wasn’t so easy to dodge.

The moment the hunter dagger and black blade collided, Lainnia’s expression slightly changed.

This vampire...

Something’s not right!

This strength is too great!

It’s not at all like the strength a Black Iron rank should have. She realized she might have underestimated her opponent a bit, but quickly adjusted her mindset and thrust forward with elf swordsmanship, only to be dodged by Maxim’s slide step. His sword style suddenly changed, and under Lainnia’s widened eyes, he used a counter-technique she was all too familiar with to flick one of her hunter daggers out of her hand.

The exquisite hunter dagger, blending elf and vampire styles, fell to the ground spinning, making a light and mocking sound, eliciting cheers from the local vampires in the surrounding spectator seats.

“Tomb Guard, shadow elf’s shadow steps, and the punishing sword favored by blood knights, you know quite a lot!”

The bow knight said coldly:

“Who taught you?”

“Well, that would be a noble figure who very much wanted to vent anger for their humiliated offspring, but couldn’t personally act due to their status.”

Maxim inverted the Tomb black blade, making its blade perpendicular to the ground. In this starting pose of the midnight killer sword technique, he answered in a low voice:

“If so-called ‘Black Iron’, ‘Silver’, and ‘Gold’ could determine victory or defeat on paper, then all wars in this world would ultimately be reduced to verbal exchanges. Lady Lainnia, I advise you to take this seriously.

Otherwise, a defeat will become the most memorable ‘gift’ you can receive upon entering Transia.

Additionally, I want to tell you that Adele, whom you called a ‘Halfbreed’, is not weaker than me in terms of actual combat destructive power. She is the most powerful assassin under Lord Murphy, and even Grand Duchess Shani praises her night hunting.

In other words,

You and your frail knights should be grateful for her tolerance that you could make it alive to Crimson Citadel!

Perhaps our welcome ceremony of us Transian ‘barbarians’ can serve as a lesson or a principle?

To teach you what ‘respect’ means!”

“I’ll only respond to you that I’m getting serious now.”

The bow knight drew her battle bow from behind.

Maxim shrugged. He knew he probably couldn’t beat the elite bow knight before him who had been trained for a long time in the Dark Mountain range.

But that didn’t matter.

If once doesn’t work, then twice. As long as he doesn’t die, there will always be a day to see victory. The ultimate potential Lord Murphy gave him made him confident that he could use the arrogant lady before him as a stepping stone.

Hmm.

A beautiful and proud stepping stone towards a more powerful realm!