The Boss King actually disguised himself as a novice village chief?!
Chapter 652 - 492: It’s Like Someone is Speedrunning_2

Chapter 652: Chapter 492: It’s Like Someone is Speedrunning_2

Rella nodded, "Yes! I will follow your command."

"It’s not about following my command."

Lind had no interest in weak NPCs, even though he now knew that it wasn’t a case of "higher-level" maps equating to stronger power; he still believed that weak NPCs were incapable of communicating with the Undead.

Only those who could save their lives in the presence of the Undead were qualified to be NPCs; otherwise, they were just pitiful beings for them to kill for fun.

"If you really want to follow my command, go to the Rand Kingdom and find Queen Rania, and pledge your loyalty to her."

"Yes."

Rella nodded again.

It seemed that pledging loyalty to Queen Rania was the only way to become "one of us."

"Set off now, the journey should be very safe."

He had noticed earlier that the Undead were gathered around the outside of the Moonlight Kingdom, frustrated by the lack of entry, only capable of continuously running into the "invisible wall." As long as Rella asserted her NPC identity, there would surely be a large number of knights eager to escort her.

After Rella left, Lind ate grapes and enjoyed the rare peaceful afternoon when he suddenly remembered something he had once told Rania.

He had asked Rania to help look after the child, his and Tione’s child.

"Tione?"

His spirit suddenly jolted.

Ring Knight!

There was the possibility of integrating the Ring of Magic’s power into oneself to become a Ring Knight, which was not very rational; one might go mad, or suffer memory loss just like Tione.

But what if he could control the negative effects?

...

The Moonlight Kingdom had opened to the outside.

A large group of NPCs had escaped from the Moonlight Kingdom.

The Undead’s eyes gleamed as they immediately surrounded any new NPCs they saw.

Among the escaping group were villagers who had had previous dealings with Lind. They felt little about the King being slaughtered; they were not familiar with him anyway. But the farcical events that had transpired throughout the entire kingdom had terrified them.

A chef who was not a chef but a cobbler, a young lady who was actually a maid, a swordsman who could not wield a sword—these situations led everyone to believe it was impossible to continue staying in such a chaotic place.

As they ran out of the jungle, lost and unsure in which direction to flee, they encountered the Undead with amiable smiles.

The Undead offered food, clothing, and even threw money at them, quickly dazing those who had escaped. It turned out the outside world was so wonderful.

To all the questions from the Undead, they answered everything they knew in great detail.

The NPCs from the Moonlight Kingdom sat scattered in small groups, eating.

The Undead sat together in a circle.

"What’s going on? Is that a fairy tale world?"

"Is there a very strong person who swept through the Moonlight Kingdom overnight, stealing treasures?"

"Why do I feel..."

"Like someone is speedrunning."

From the snippets they heard, it seemed that the Moonlight Kingdom should have had many gameplay options, filled with various side plots.

But now they heard of someone who had destroyed it all with brute force.

"Why not just see if there’s any follow-up plot to know?"

"That’s easy to say, but how do we get to the Moonlight Kingdom?"

The Undead looked at each other, the Moonlight Kingdom lying right in front of them, with people able to come out but they unable to enter.

Everyone: Damn invisible wall!

Since the way forward wasn’t open, they dispersed.

The Undead who got nothing felt they had wasted a lot of game time, and reluctantly took the NPCs they had picked up halfway with them as they left.

Now, the most important thing was to go to the Magic Land.

But those guides sent from the Magic Land felt unreliable, already clashing with the local deities.

Only the Rand Kingdom and its surrounding forces had none of these problems. They truly had a way to go, whether it was to find Melulan’s Black Knight or Rania’s Lind.

So, why haven’t these two shown up?

...

Magic Land, Misty Rain City.

Undead had successfully made it to the edge of Misty Rain City.

Their power hadn’t increased, which was quite a shame. Although the game had been updated for "over a year," everyone was still stuck at level 20.

Fortunately, during this period, Lind and others had been busy; several NPCs had been updated within Newbie Village.

For example, the tactic of followers from the Mechanical God Cult’s Hong School – chopping off their own limbs to replace them with Magic Prosthetics – had become mainstream at the current stage.

Some people had undergone minimal modification, only replacing an arm, while others went full mechanical overhaul, leaving few parts of their original human bodies.

Black Tortoise Shield was organizing his weapons; he still preferred to use shields, now paired with a new weapon.

The Heavy Cannon from the Mechanical God Cult’s Rhinoceros School, dubbed the "portable small-scale fort," could both hit hard and take a beating.

"Got one-shot again?"

The voice of a companion came from beside him.

Moon Slash Blade nodded, "My Huanqu is supposed to be the flashiest among us when it comes to handling, yet I still got one-shot. I strongly suspect the BOSS is reading commands."

Dragon Scale Sword: "This game doesn’t have command-reading mechanics, I think the BOSS was just designed to be very tough."

As the two were heatedly arguing, Black Tortoise Shield suddenly spoke, "Is that really the BOSS?"

The two turned to look at him, asking, "If it’s not the BOSS, then what is it? It’s level 40, and after being caught, it only takes a few moves to kill someone."

"I don’t think it is."

Black Tortoise Shield shared his speculation, "Don’t you remember the side quest given by Magdalena?"

When the Undead returned to the Undead-led Newbie Village in the Land of Beasts, Magdalena couldn’t wait to approach the 3000 Undead and vividly recount the dangers faced by mankind.

Misty Rain City in the Central Region of Magic Land was responsible for guarding the Seal of the Ring of Magic. Until the Ring of Magic shattered, some of the guardians – Lords and formidable Knights – went mad and took over their respective areas.

If the Undead wanted to reinforce the Seal, they had to defeat the "Ring Knights" in each area.

If it weren’t for the "Black Knight" tasked with eliminating the mainline quest in the Abyss, they might have treated the task mentioned by Magdalena as the mainline quest, as it looked like one from every angle.

But unfortunately, the Undead-led Newbie Village was bound with Lind Armand, who was the default village chief of Newbie Village. Magdalena, at best, was a special NPC and was not very popular, partly because she wasn’t that good-looking, and also because of the emergence of the Black Knight.

In any case, everyone’s goal was set on resolving the Abyss.

It was by sheer accident that they stumbled upon the edge of Misty Rain City.

Since they were there, it would be remiss not to try their luck against the BOSS, leading to the current standoff of 3000 people.

"Are you saying the BOSS here might be even stronger?"

Black Tortoise Shield nodded, "I think at the very least, the BOSS should be on the same level as those Beast Kings."

"Damn, why bother playing if we, a bunch of level 20s, are going to fight a level 70 BOSS."

The challenge wasn’t about being cannon fodder; it was that they couldn’t even scratch the surface.

"The simplest piece of evidence." Black Tortoise Shield pointed at a small fortress ahead, "The knight with the heavy hammer that you encountered – he stands on the main thoroughfare right after entering the fortress. How could the BOSS possibly be guarding the door?"

There seemed to be a small dwelling inside the fortress; the real BOSS must be hiding in there.

"It’s of no concern to us anyway." Moon Slash Blade was quite relaxed, "I’ve been exhausted from exams these past few days and just wanted to log in to unwind. I hadn’t planned on facing hardship."

The other two nodded; they shared similar sentiments.

With everyone nearly burnt out from exams, logging in was meant to be a break, a chance to enjoy the scenery – they really didn’t have the energy to conquer a BOSS.

The battle at the front small fortress erupted once again.

"Boom!"

The heavy hammer smashed down, sending the charging Undead flying through the air.

The Undead gathered together and refrained from making another proactive assault.

"Not high enough level, not enough defense, should we try skipping it?"

There were indeed many ways to skip around challenges; since they started playing the game, they had discovered thousands of methods, including spell skipping, item skipping, terrain exploitation, and more.

It was through these exploits that they uncovered the game’s unique traits: no bugs, too much freedom. The more unorthodox tactics they invented, the more they appreciated the sophistication of the game.

But it was this very freedom that allowed the Undead to legitimately use every means at their disposal to achieve victory.

"Let’s see if it will take debuffs."

"Start with poison."

They pulled out their ranged weapons and began assembling.

Armed with equipment from the Mechanical God Cult, they transformed into ranged bombardment experts. With their current gear, if they went back to the "Golden Throne Campaign" against Goliath, they could have breached the wall with artillery alone.

They coated their weapons with Magic Potion.

Fire!