CHAPTER 372

My Players Are So Fierce

The last major version update of the closed beta was indeed mind-blowing, with just the introduction of the stronghold system being enough to catch everyone’s attention.

Although there are currently only 3 strongholds available for allocation, and two of them have already been assigned to specific player guilds, isn’t there still one last one up for grabs?

This is essentially equivalent to the development team announcing that whichever guild performs well in the upcoming events could receive the gift of a stronghold.

Though not explicitly stated, the official intention was quite clear.

They were secretly increasing rewards to boost player participation in the “Transia 100-Days Grand Construction,” which was obviously bait, but given how tempting the rewards were, everyone just accepted it.

As for the two strongholds that have already been allocated, most players and spectators expressed understanding.

The military stronghold “Maginot Line” goes without saying.

Currently among the players, aside from those “professionals with unlimited potential,” Brother Stick’s group of veterans is most suitable for building and operating it. Moreover, with the Black Plague approaching, even if Lord Murphy is comfortable with entrusting this crucial line of defense to other players, the players themselves wouldn’t be comfortable with it.

Professional matters should be handled by professionals, especially when it comes to matters of life and death.

However, regarding the ownership of the other stronghold “Torrent Fort,” some of the more particular players weren’t too happy about it.

Black Stockings Under the Keyboard: 【I understand why Brother Stick got the military stronghold, they’re professionals, but the Torrent Knights just entered the game, right? What makes them deserve a stronghold? This is like a goose that lays golden eggs.

I’m not questioning the dev team, but at least give others an explanation?】

Scholar Xiao Li: 【Yeah yeah yeah, if you’re saying only administrative players can get it, we’re administrative players too, and we even made it to the top 20 in the recently concluded administrative assessment.

We’re about to be assigned work locations, and if we could have our own stronghold that would be awesome.】

Several other administrative players also started making noise in the thread.

The lurking “Honorary Knight Typal” immediately became a bit nervous.

He planned to explain the reason, mainly that although the Torrent Knights had many people, they had been keeping their heads down and working hard since entering the game, not participating much in events around Crimson Citadel, making their presence somewhat low-key.

Typal was a clever fellow.

He knew this matter needed to be explained clearly now, otherwise it would easily leave observers with the bad impression that “the Torrent Knights got in through the back door.”

Although that was indeed the case

But for RP players, devoted followers of the Holy Light would disdain such low-level tricks, and from a gameplay perspective, leaving players with a bad impression wouldn’t do any good for the stronghold’s future development.

However, before Typal could finish editing his explanation document, an administrator jumped in first.

Alpha: 【Regarding everyone’s questions about stronghold ownership, I’ll release some backend data here, which shows the number of refugees each guild has found so far in the ongoing ‘Transia Population Census’ activity.

You’ll understand once you see it:

Silver Moon Pride Team: 4424, Big Bird Spin Spin Spin Team: 831, Crimson Hammer and Sickle Team: 1565, Crimson Beast Team: 1823, Torrent Knights: 9714, Stonemason Guild: 558.】

Alpha didn’t provide much explanation, but numbers don’t lie.

Just in terms of finding refugees alone, the Torrent Knights had more than the sum of all other guilds combined. The simple data release immediately silenced others, and those who were questioning earlier now fell quiet.

Well then.

In terms of operations and management, these RP players were indeed professional.

Sword Saint Ashina: 【Holy crap! This can’t be real, we went through the Bataxin Merchant Guild’s connections, using NPC power to recruit exiled Transians and even paid money for it.

How can you have so many more people than us?

You must be cheating!】

Honorary Knight Typal: 【First of all, we have many people, 81 members divided into multiple teams conducting continuous refugee searches in the Seicob territory, and we hired mountain folk guides, which led us to find 7 large refugee gathering points and 26 small gathering points.

Secondly, from when our valiant knights landed in Transia until now, our entire team has barely participated in any other activities, focusing on finding what Governor Murphy needs most urgently for Transia – ‘strategic resources’.

That is, people!

A territory can never develop without enough subjects, this is something we all agreed upon in the tavern before my knights arrived in Transia.

Facts have proven that the initial development strategy formulated by the Torrent Knights’ strategy team for us pioneers was correct.】

Gentle and Elegant Lady Aqua: 【Impressive! Your quiet yet diligent work has truly taught a lesson to all other current player factions in the game, showing us how an organization with belief and unity can unleash its maximum potential.

@Onboard Joy Stick, Brother Stick, watch and learn well!

This is the correct example of operating a large guild, only with clear goals and proper division of labor can the advantages of numbers be fully utilized and maximized.】

Onboard Joy Stick: 【Sister Aqua is right, I truly admit defeat this time.】

Alpha: 【So, in light of the explanation from the involved party and the data disclosed by the test group, does anyone else have objections to the development team’s decision? This thread is for discussion, everyone please speak up if you have opinions.

As long as they are reasonable opinions and views, we can have a rational discussion.】

Electronic Succubus Old Tune: 【With such clear data in front of us, anyone who isn’t blind can see they deserve to get the stronghold territory.

Currently it seems there aren’t any real nitpickers among us players, so Brother Alpha can relax.

However

The dev team still has one stronghold authority that hasn’t been distributed, right?】

Lumina Yanghen: 【What do you mean, Brother Tune? Didn’t Brother Meow say you wanted to go the small elite route? What use would you have for a stronghold?

You don’t have a single administrative player among you, even if you got one you wouldn’t have time to manage it.】

Meow King: 【Hehe, we indeed don’t have the energy and manpower to invest in stronghold management, but this game is so free that we don’t necessarily have to be involved ourselves.

Haven’t you heard of a management model called ‘trusteeship’, Sister Lumina?

We can completely hire civil servants from the administrative department to participate in territory management, we do our own things, this way we can get considerable resources every month from the stronghold to strengthen our armaments and logistics.

Black Stockings was right earlier.

This is a goose that lays golden eggs, who wouldn’t want it?】

Lumina Yanghen: 【Hmph, then let’s compete! This last territory, our Silver Moon team will definitely get it!】

Meow King: 【Bring it on, who’s afraid of who? We brothers will go catch slaves after the fighting tournament, I don’t believe it, the population census will continue until the hundred days construction ends, we still have 2 months and 17 days.

Let’s see who’s better.】

Alpha: 【Uh, it doesn’t have to be through capturing people, doing other things can also gain the favor of Crimson Citadel’s administrative department, Regent Miriam will notice anything that helps increase Transia’s development and prosperity】

East River Lion’s Roar: 【@Sister Pomegranate Uproots The Weeping Willows, @Onboard Joy Stick, @Meow King, quick quick quick! The sewer fighting king competition’s arena 3 today has Count of White Mountain Andrei defending!

Those handsome guys who want to get invitation letters to challenge Lord Murphy hurry up and sign up to fight, Brother Mao has already gotten Count of White Mountain’s letter of recommendation!

You don’t need to defeat him!

According to Brother Mao, you just need to survive for 3 minutes under Andrei’s attacks to get his approval.

However, this guy is an assassin + magic swordsman, his attack power is quite fierce and he can stealth backstab, if your HP falls below 40% you’ll be instantly killed!

So before coming, better buy Spirit Vision potions at Lady Tris’s alchemy cottage, and wear the thickest armor you can find!】

Scholar Xiao Zhou: 【Wait! What’s this about recommendation letters? How can we challenge Lord Murphy? What quest is this?

I didn’t know about this!】

Sister Pomegranate Uproots The Weeping Willows: 【It’s a challenge quest. You need to first get a Wolfsbane sword cane then go to Lord Murphy to challenge him to trigger the quest, the difficulty is very high, not recommended for ordinary players to try casually.】

Morning Edge Ranger Bucks: 【Lady Pomegranate please elaborate on the challenge, we foreigners have been in Transia for a short time and aren’t very familiar with local customs. So, what are the specific contents of this challenge quest?】

Sister Pomegranate Uproots The Weeping Willows: 【To challenge Lord Murphy you first need to get approval from seven of the most powerful lords under him, you need at least 4 letters of recommendation to enter the next phase of the quest.

The seven lords are ‘Monster’ Maxim, Hunting Baron Kudel, Countess of Anderma Femis, Baroness of Shadow Adele, Count of White Mountain Andrei, Moonlight Bow Knight Lainnia and Osprey Knight Valand.

Currently only Maxim, Kudel and Adele can be challenged directly, the remaining four will randomly appear daily on the 6 arenas of the fighting king competition.

But as I said earlier, the difficulty of this quest is ridiculously high.

Maxim’s challenge feature is that within one minute of entering combat, if your attack intensity and stance haven’t satisfied him, he’ll go berserk directly and instantly kill you with Night Claw’s cool execution.

Lady Adele’s dodge rate is ridiculously high!

She requires you to hit her 3 times within 10 moves, if you can’t do it you’ll similarly be instantly killed by a smooth small combo.

Of course they won’t let you die, they’ll just instantly reduce your health to 1.

Maxim and Lady Adele are the ‘gatekeepers’ of this quest chain, if you can’t get recommendations from these two, don’t even think about the rest.】

Like A Tiger Can Edge Wood: 【That’s right, these two have the lowest overall challenge difficulty.

I tried challenging Lord Kudel before, drank potions used scrolls and even had someone buff me, went in full of confidence, but got killed in two sword strikes by Lord Kudel.

He’s not someone we can challenge right now.

According to my estimate, you need to at least train one advanced swordsmanship and defensive technique to grandmaster level to have a chance at getting Lord Kudel’s recommendation letter.

Among these four hidden characters, I think only Count of White Mountain is a bit easier.

Knight Valand has already become a Holy Grail Knight, those muscles of his make me shudder just looking at them, Bow Knight Lady Lainnia is ranged, in a real fight it’s questionable if you can even touch her.

No need to mention the young lady.

She’s a noble mage.

However this quest chain gives a special achievement and limited title after completing it, and I think this might be the only way for us to fight with Lord Murphy in the game right now.】

Feel You Poor: 【Sounds like the effort and reward aren’t proportional.】

Sword Saint Ashina: 【Indeed not proportional, this is obviously a challenge quest left by the dev team for those battle maniacs, ordinary players don’t waste time running the quest chain, really not worth it. By the way, this great one has already gotten Lady Lainnia’s recommendation letter~

You don’t need to defeat her.

You just need to challenge her at the shooting competition venue, and complete 30 perfect target challenges within 3 minutes under her interference and you’re done.

However to challenge Lady Lainnia you must first get 24 consecutive wins in the shooting competition, that is, hold the championship for two days.】

Invincible Tyrannosaurus Cheche: 【The young lady’s challenge doesn’t need fighting either! You can trigger the challenge quest after reaching a certain favorability with her.

She’ll give you three spirit technique models, you must memorize the three models within one hour and successfully cast two of them to get the recommendation letter.

I personally think this challenge quest has the most generous rewards.

Not only can you get the recommendation letter but also learn skills, Cheche has already gotten the recommendation letter and took the chance to learn three advanced spirit spells, namely Confusion, Small Thunder Cloud Lightning and Static Field, so I must be a spirit genius right?

Hahaha.】

South Mountain Tiger’s Howl: 【What about Knight Valand’s challenge method? Have any big brothers explored it?】

Onboard Joy Stick: 【Uh should be comparing horsemanship?

Knight Valand said our current strength is too weak, fighting us has no challenge, but he’s interested in competing with us in horsemanship.

I haven’t tried it.

But I have brothers who’ve done this, the basic requirement is to reach the finish line before the Osprey Knight within the time limit, there are advanced challenges after that.

This thing is very hard!

Because according to the Osprey Knight’s own words, he was born on horseback, I don’t know if he’s bragging, but if this is true, I really admire his mom】

Wan Hao: 【So there’s such a quest chain for challenging strong ones? This game really did well in this aspect, looks like I also need to hurry up and level to pass the Black Iron trial then challenge local strong ones.】

Star Soul Eagle: 【Teacher Li you’ll definitely be fine! I estimate you might even be the first player to beat Lord Murphy!】

Fun-loving Alin: 【Wait! Wasn’t Lord Murphy said to be just a Black Iron rank Tomb Guard? Why do we need to beat so many Silver rank lords before challenging him?

Could it be that Lord Murphy’s combat power has already broken through rank restrictions?】

Led More Than Three to Five Pecks: 【Isn’t that obvious? He’s the noble ‘main quest NPC’, isn’t it normal for combat power to be ridiculous?

I estimate currently in this game those who can stably overpower Lord Murphy are probably only Lady Tris and that crazy golden Blood Knight lord who appeared before.】

Sword Saint Ashina: 【You’re all thinking wrong, I’ve carefully read the content of that challenge quest, I estimate we won’t be fighting Lord Murphy one by one at that time.

It’s likely to be a team battle!

Maybe they’ll open a timed instance, probably a 40-man challenge quest, after all our Lord Murphy is a boss-level NPC, making him a raid boss is simple simple.

Anyway, let’s keep doing it, try to complete this quest before the Black Plague arrives!

Let’s work together and strike down the bad bad Lord Murphy! Muhahaha, it really feels so accomplished!】

————————

Murphy sat in his office looking helplessly at his warriors discussing how to defeat him, he was already speechless about these “ungrateful disciples.”

He just silently decided that when 40 people with recommendation letters gather to challenge him, he must teach them a lesson!

Once the fight starts he absolutely won’t show mercy, first kill the healers then take out the DPS, finally play with the hard-to-chew tank Ts like crippled wheelchair monsters slowly.

Hey, a high freedom boss without time axis or fixed skill combinations can definitely let these guys experience what cruelty means!

Tsk tsk, what’s called the dignity of a main quest NPC?

Speaking of which, since these guys are so enthusiastic about challenge quests, should he make a separate challenge quest chain for Tris too?

Should he give them a follow-up quest after they pass “Murphy’s Martial Trial,” letting them challenge Blood Vulture Clan’s most noble supreme being?

Hmm, sounds quite interesting!

Thinking this, he casually took out a weapon box from his spirit bag, smilingly handed it to Meow King who had been summoned over, he said:

“My warrior Meow King, regarding that blood-thirsty magic sword you submitted earlier, research has finally yielded results, and I have the honor of returning it to you.

However, it’s still incomplete right now, you need to continue finding ways to make it powerful.”

“Thank you, Lord Murphy!”

Meow King, who had just suddenly received a hidden quest update notification, joyfully accepted the weapon box, opened it in front of Lord Murphy and saw that the magic sword “Scorpio” he had submitted earlier was completely renewed.

He secretly complained in his heart:

“I thought this quest had been abandoned, didn’t expect it would get a continuation after this version update, indeed, this is a super large hidden quest chain, right? I really am Lord Murphy’s most favored and beloved warrior, just ask around who else gets this treatment?”