Atlas Studios

  Atlas Studios

  In the waiting hall of the Training Grounds in the dark, eerie Specter College.

  A large Teleport Portal was placed in the middle of the hall. Occasionally, a few Goblins would appear and wander around. After seeing nobody around, they would leave.

  But today, the Teleport Portal flashed. Two Gnomes and three Goblins walked out from it.

  The five of them walked along the corridor connecting the waiting hall of the Training Grounds to the Teleport Portal at the end. They entered the Instance Dungeon via the Teleport Portal.

  The five of them were Arthur’s team.

  The Academic Department of Specter College had an emergency meeting.

  “What’s the situation? Gnome? Why are Gnomes involved in the graduation examination?”


  “What’s there to be afraid of? If the candidates are unable to defeat Gnomes, they shouldn’t graduate.”


  “Didn’t we recruit Gnomes and Orcs in the previous years?”


  “What’s in the contract? Are there any terms that state it’s limited to Goblins?”


  “There are no such terms, so Gnomes should be alright.”


  “Director Bacon! Where’s Director Bacon?”


  “He’s on a business trip!”


  “Ah—!”
……

  “Backpack check, equipment check, shield check, weapon’s sharpened, food and drinks taken……”


  Arthur, NotWearingPants, BurningChestHair, Sylvanas, and Peasant squatted on the ground and performed checks on their equipment for the final preparation before battle.

  They were very familiar with the preparations as they had played “Dungeon” for more than two months. They were not highly experienced in battles, but after having died tens of times, they were no longer naive to charge recklessly into battle.

  The gamers discovered that they had higher combat efficiency if they maintained silence during battle.

  It was the same principle with not typing words when fighting a BOSS. Using voice chat for command and control had better efficiency.

  While Arthur and his team were checking their equipment, the two examination candidates on the top level were frantically preparing.

  No matter how they prepared, they could only use basic Skeleton Soldiers, and they were unable to fend off the advances of the elite team.

  The five of them had strong tacit cooperation. Arthur and NotWearingPants had evolved into Gnomes, who had greater combat prowess. They had battles along the way, but there were no major obstacles.

  They only suffered minor injuries when they arrived at Level 4.

  There were no fatalities like previous times in which there was at least a dead team member when they arrived at Level 4.

  After Arthur and NotWearingPants had reincarnated into Gnomes, their combat prowess improved by leaps and bounds.

  The two Lich candidates were in total panic when they saw the combatants challenging the last elite Skeleton Soldier on Level 4.

  “Senior! What shall we do? Are we failing? Is that the Black Armored Goblin?”


  “That’s not a Goblin, that’s a Gnome! My elite Giant Skeleton Soldier is invincible!”


  “Wait! Senior, what’s that Goblin doing?”


  A Goblin, Peasant, stripped himself of all equipment. Then, he followed his companion and took out a few bloated bladders from his backpack. He cut the bladders using his weapon.

  Peasant was holding flint in his hands as he chanted, “The Wind Fairy hidden in the air, hearken my summoning and cometh to my side!”


  With Peasant’s incantation, the gas near his body formed a visible magical wind protection barrier around him.

  Peasant brought the magical wind with him and ignited the flint as he charged towards the Giant Skeleton Soldier.

  “Pa!” Two pieces of flint struck against each other.

  “Boom—!”


  The Specter College Training Ground was filled with a sea of fire……

  “Team No. 2! Support the left flank!”


  “Commander! Kill the opposing commander!”


  “Concentrate firepower on that Gnome with the huge hammer! He crushed three of our members!”


  “D*mn! Why is there a Gnome?”


  “Chant our war cries! Advance! Advance! Don’t retreat! Don’t fear death!”


  “Lalalala~lalalala~”


  “D*mn, why are you singing?”


  “Disintegrate, reality! Blossom, synapse! Banish this world—!”


  “Boom—!”


  “Chairman’s Mana Skill is awesome!”


  At the Northern Underground World Gladiator Arena, the gamers’ battle was exciting. There were one-on-one and team-on-team battles. Some gamers fled, while others pursued their foes closely. Now, even a Mana Skill was used in the battle.

  The entire arena was a slaughterhouse. For the spectators, this was what they wanted to see on a grand scale.

  Whether it was real or not, none of the spectators thought about it as long as it was exciting.

  From the reaction of the paltry spectators, it was a successful Gladiator Fight……

  Sherlock and the 100 gamers completed their premiere in the Gladiator Arena with wild cheers from the spectators and a signed contract.

  The contract included improvements to the Teleport Portal, bringing out more innovative Gladiator Fights, providing equipment as a reward, and, most importantly, the price of 10 Magic Stones for each Goblin and 20 Magic Stones for each Gnome or Houndhead Man to be paid to Sherlock.

  Sherlock was pleased with the price tags as there would be more gamers participating in the Gladiator Fights. If the price tag was too high, the arena wouldn’t be able to afford it. Moreover, the price was already higher than normal performers.

  Sherlock was capitalizing on small profits with rapid turnover.

  As for future PVP gameplay, Sherlock decided to do more research by playing more games. He shouldn’t concentrate on single-player games. Instead, he could play the otherworld’s online games with PVP elements.

  Sherlock returned to the Dungeon and browsed the forum before publishing a post.

  [Requesting suggestions on games with PVP elements.]

  A group of forum members quickly replied.

  [NightlyClown: Is an online game good? Destiny 3 is pretty good. I have not heard the administrator’s voice before. The game requires voice chat. If the voice is good, the game will be fun. The teams are mainly gals. Waiting for the administrator to 818]

  [SenbeiYeah: It’s a must to play World of Warcraft for PVP! For the Alliance! Kill all the Orcs!]

  [yinyy1994: Recommending Exciting Battlefield and PUBG Mobile. They are based on the last man standing model. They are very popular recently.]

  [Winkel’s Wine: Preposterous! The lousy game producer is playing new games again!]……

  Sherlock noted down the names of the recommended games for Bru to download. Then he would try them out.

  As for the “Dark Souls” series……

  It was too obscure and harmful to his health.

  Sherlock would store it. After he was well-nourished, he would continue playing it.

  Sherlock browsed through other posts. There was a post which was pinned, and it received continuous replies. Sherlock thought that it was a Strategy Guide posted by NotWearingPants, but it was actually a post by SealHeadLingChong. The title was [Strange Encounter Mission Request. Reward: Darting Birds!]

  “For all my life, I’ve never spent money on games.

  But today, to arrive at my company at the earliest time to play ‘Dungeon: Eternal Kingdom,’ I didn’t take bus 11, I took a cab to work.

  Why? Because of a Strange Encounter Mission with the Darting Birds reward. Attached are the solo pictures of the Darting Birds.

  (Picture) (Picture) (Picture)……

  I’m not sure if you can feel my happiness.

  I will talk about the Strange Encounter Mission!

  According to NotWearingPants’ post, we know that ‘Dungeon’ has a Strange Encounter System. It will not have any mission notice, and the mission details will come from the NPC’s conversation.

  After the mission is accomplished, there will be rewards.

  I and my silly teammates, Dragonborn and TakeASpearHit, were fortunate enough to trigger a Strange Encounter Mission, and there was a follow-up Plot!

  Yesterday, most of our gamers were annihilated in exploring the new map. The three of us returned to retrieve our equipment when we encountered a Marsh Inkspewer. He brought us to his tribe. I am unable to describe the exact location since the route was complex and I don’t know the directions.

  In the morning, we will bring the Marsh Inkspewer to Dungeon Entrance No. 2. If you wish to join in the Strange Encounter Mission, wait for us at Entrance No. 2. Don’t ask me for the time because I don’t know.

  As to whether the reward of Darting Birds is valid, don’t ask me because I don’t know.

  The mission objective is to help the Marsh Inkspewers destroy the Large Lizards that have infested their territory for thousands of years. They were the strange creatures that attacked us.

  I am attaching the pictures of the tribe and Salted Fish’s photograph. Please take a look.

  (Picture)……

  The above-mentioned is all the information we have.

  We are setting out now. If you want to join in the Strange Encounter Mission, gather at Entrance No. 2.”