CH 9

The voice was deep, with a heavy echo, and sounded very familiar.

“Morpheus?”

“Who if not me, you idiot? Are you going to sleep forever? Your danger is close at hand!”

At that moment, Murphy realized that he was in the middle of a dream. It was likely due to his constant thoughts during the day and night about the game “Firmament World”. He frequently dreamed about the black dragon Morpheus, sometimes even dreaming that he himself was a black dragon, but he had little control over his own body in these dreams.

In some of these dreams, the black dragon appeared as a separate entity and even conversed with him. However, the dragon’s attitude was usually unpleasant, constantly referring to him as a “stupid human” and “lowly ant”, much like the dragon’s tone during Murphy’s live broadcasts.

After a while, Murphy grew accustomed to these dreams. He suspected that they might be a manifestation of his subconscious mind or that his immersion in the game had begun to affect his thoughts.

Even so, he was not overly concerned and found the dreams rather intriguing. Knowing that the black dragon had a bad mouth, he was not angry but asked curiously, “What danger are you talking about?”

“Do you still need to ask? Haven’t you noticed something? You must have by now, but you hypocritical humans are so excellent at deceit… deceiving others, deceiving yourselves, never daring to admit the existence of a problem.”

“Hey, can you speak a little more clearly? Or at least give me a hint?”

Murphy immediately realized something was amiss. “Wait a minute, don’t use that move again.”

However, it was too late. The black dragon opened its bloody maw, and a stream of fiery dragon flames erupted, engulfing Murphy’s entire body in an instant.

Murphy felt a searing pain throughout his body and suddenly jolted awake, drenched in cold sweat in the dark.

As he wiped the sweat from his face, he realized that his friend had used this trick to wake him up every time. Could it be that he felt guilty subconsciously for all the people he had burned in the game? Or was his mind distorted to the point where he couldn’t feel comfortable without burning people?

“Damn, I need to see a psychiatrist,” he thought to himself. Playing such inhumane characters for too long could potentially cause psychological trauma.

He had read news articles about actors losing their grip on reality because they couldn’t shake off the characters they played, but he never thought that he would succumb to the same fate.

Just as he was thinking, the Song of the Dovahkiin suddenly rang out. It was his phone’s ringtone. He picked up the phone and saw that his supervisor was calling.

“Hey, what’s the matter?”

“Murphy, get up! Something big happened. Someone’s right in front of your dungeon. The team’s led a hero named Dawn Excalibur, and a plot battle has already been triggered! The name of the battle is called [Song of the Dragonslaying Warrior], so they’re clearly here to kill you! Come to the game room now!”

Murphy woke up abruptly and immediately got dressed before rushing to the live broadcast room. On the way, he was briefed by the supervisor about what had happened. According to the information, a team of adventurers had appeared at the entrance of the Dark Dragon’s Nest instance and attacked Longshou Peak without any hesitation. The group of elite dragon guards were quickly defeated within five minutes, and the adventurers had already entered the dungeon and triggered a plot battle.

Murphy finally realized why he felt something was amiss earlier. That entire guild’s attack was just a ploy to draw his attention, and the actual raid was happening now.

In the world of the game, plot battles are special events that can only be initiated when certain conditions are met.

One of the most common types of plot battle is the duel between the hero and the boss. However, if only a group of adventurers attacks the instance, the plot battle will not be triggered.

In the game’s plot, adventurers do not exist as individuals but rather as mere background elements. No matter how many times they defeat a boss, the boss can always be resurrected again.

Similarly, if a hero is defeated by monsters in the wilderness, it does not matter, as they can simply wake up in their own bedroom and be alive and well after lying down for a few days.

Once a plot battle is triggered, the situation in the game changes completely.

In the universe of Firmament World, all game events are recorded in the Sky Chronicle, which serves as the basis for the entire game’s plot development. If a player defeats a boss as an adventurer, it will not be recorded in the Sky Chronicle as the adventurer is merely a background element in the game’s plot.

Although adventurers exist as a group, they are not recognized as individuals in the game’s plot. Bosses are limited in number, after all, and it would be unreasonable for adventurers to defeat important bosses in the game’s plot.

For instance, if a certain demon king threatened to destroy the world, it would be unacceptable for the demon king to be defeated by a group of adventurers led by Bigg Dogg, Amazing Wang, and Whose Your Daddy. The plot would not make sense as no one can accept such an unrealistic scenario.

So in most games, no matter how many times a player killed a boss, the boss would always respawn as soon as the dungeon refreshed. This is because adventurers do not exist as individuals in the game plot, and bosses can only be defeated by heroes.

Firmament World also follows this principle. If a boss is defeated by an adventurer, it is not a significant event. However, if a famous boss or hero kills the boss in a plot battle, the event will be recorded in the Sky Chronicle as part of the game’s history, and it cannot be changed. This type of death is called a plot killing.

For example, if Murphy kills the hero player named Dawn Excalibur, it will be recorded in the Sky Chronicle that on a certain day in a certain year, Dawn Excalibur led a group of adventurers to attack the Dark Dragon Nest and was killed by a black dragon. Lord Morpheus was the one who killed Dawn Excalibur.

After this event, the character of Dawn Excalibur will disappear entirely from the game. Likewise, if Morpheus is killed by the other party, he will truly die.

It would be recorded in the Sky Chronicle: the hero Dawn Excalibur led a group of adventurers to defeat the evil black dragon Lord Morpheus and rescue the princess.

This makes such fights risky but rewarding. Killing famous bosses or heroes (including special NPCs and elite monsters) would earn a lot of plot points, which are needed for heroes and bosses to level up. The more famous the enemy, the more plot points earned.

Morpheus was promoted to the level of a disaster-level boss, the Black Dragon Lord, after killing many heroes and bosses.

Furthermore, defeating a BOSS or hero in a plot battle can yield all their relics and related plot items. Murphy once killed a human hero and obtained a plot weapon called the “Frost Blade”. This weapon was added to his drop list, and if an adventurer manages to defeat him, there is a 7% chance that a fake version of the weapon will drop.

If a hero defeats Morpheus, the weapon will be obtained 100% of the time.

These plot items are crucial for strengthening the loot pool of bosses, as they can attract more adventurer teams to challenge them, and also reduce the loss of loot points when they are defeated. (Drops that generate plot items only cost 50% in loot points).

For heroes, these plot equipment are truly powerful weapons, superior to the copycat versions used by adventurers, possessing extraordinary powers that some of the copies lack.

For instance, the counterfeit [Frost Blade] in adventurers’ hands is a weapon with a special effect that can freeze and slow down a target for 3 seconds, causing 100 points of freezing damage.

On the other hand, the original Frost Blade had a more powerful special effect called Frost Storm. It creates a frost storm that continuously freezes all enemies within 100 meters for 30 seconds, causing a cumulative 1000 points of freezing damage. Additionally, every 6 seconds during the Frost Storm, a freezing effect is triggered.

And that was just one of Morpheus’s many trophies.

The benefits of these weapons were significant, and as long as there was enough confidence to defeat the opponent, heroes and bosses would often make a move without hesitation. If they won, they would soar to new heights, but if they lost, they would delete their accounts and start training anew.