Gamers of the Underworld (Web Novel)

Within a week of Winterfell being open to the gamers, they had already come up with thousands of strange ways to earn money. Many Strategy Guides were posted on the discussion forum on how to earn Magic Stones.

For example:

[The easiest way to earn money is by borrowing! There is a place where an NPC loans out 300 Magic Stones, and it will then snowball to three thousand. Their method is to loan 300 but only give out 200 Magic Stones. Then they will find all sorts of reasons for you to repay the loan on the second day. If you cannot pay, they’ll find another person to loan you money. Don’t hesitate to borrow more money! After numerous times, the figure will have snowballed to an astronomical sum that cannot be repaid. Whoever borrowed the money will have to die. However, we aren’t afraid to die. Once we obtain the money, we’ll just kill ourselves in front of the NPC.]

[Latest Crashing Fraud Strategy Guide: Seize the opportunity on the road and let tens of people dash across. If the Beetlemon only kills four or five creatures, it won’t stop. If the Beetlemon kills tens of creatures, the driver will reason with you. We will take the opportunity to blackmail for a large amount of money. But Winterfell is different. The NPCs will cover for each other. If the Garrison Guards arrive, the incident will be resolved with a hundred Magic Stones of compensation. The death compensation for a Gnome is only 20 to 30 Magic Stones. Houndhead Men aren’t worth a cent. Don’t bring along any Houndhead Men.]

[Upholding justice and exposing each other’s fraud is another money-making method: … ]

The discussion forum was filled with money-making schemes.

Dragonborn wanted to try them out, but the returns for the various methods were low. Only the method of borrowing money and committing suicide was a feasible method. After a few hundred such cases, the Winterfell loan sharks went extinct.

After a few days of crashing frauds, there were no more Beetlemon rides on the roads. Instead, only Hades Horses were used.

According to some gamers, since there were many Gnomes killed in road accidents recently, the higher management of the Merchant Alliance was subjected to immense pressure from public opinion and the Gnome Protection Guild. Hence, there was strict enforcement on capturing speeding offenders, and the heaviest penalty was the immediate execution. The gamers witnessed various speeding offenders being executed on the spot.

Dragonborn felt there was something wrong with his intuition. When he walked on the streets, a lot of Winterfell NPCs greeted him respectfully, and some even expressed their gratitude to him tearfully.

Many people were praising Eternal Kingdom. Dragonborn was puzzled, as he didn’t know what had happened.

Perhaps the lousy game producer secretly updated the game contents again.

Nobody knew.

Today, Dragonborn didn’t go to Winterfell to earn Magic Stones because he had other important tasks.

That was—the new Instance Dungeon “Specter College: Troops Training Grounds”!

This was the new Instance Dungeon announced a month ago. The preparatory mission was too scary:

Completed construction-related Daily Missions: 0/30

Completed construction-related Monthly Mission: 0/1

Completed collection of raw materials missions: 0/100

Completed “Specter College: Training Grounds”: 0/5

Aside from the Monthly Mission, the rest of the criteria was easy. The Monthly Mission required that the Daily Mission be completed, then the gamer had to carry bricks for a minimum of four hours daily. That was difficult to achieve. In addition, they had to conquer the “Specter College: Training Grounds” five times. It was easy to be deceived by the number of gamers challenging the Instance Dungeon, but very few of the gamers were veterans, so not everyone could complete this mission.

According to the situation on the discussion forum, the number of gamers who had completed the preparatory mission was less than 500.

Since less than 500 gamers were qualified to challenge the new Instance Dungeon, according to the nature of the game, the new Instance Dungeon must be extremely hard to conquer.

In addition, their Weapon Level had to be at Level 3! This was extremely difficult since the level could only be increased through combat experience.

And 15 members were required to enter the new Instance Dungeon, so Dragonborn had to do a lot of preparations.

An hour before the Instance Dungeon was opened, Dragonborn had gathered the top 15 members of the Springfield Flower Kindergarten Guild.

“Dragonborn, why don’t you challenge the Instance Dungeon with the veteran gamers? I remember that NotWearingPants invited you. That’s the strongest team, isn’t it? It’s the most likely team to conquer the Instance Dungeon.” TakeASpearHit looked at Dragonborn with a sense of pity.

“Yea, if you join them, you’ll fare better. I feel like if your equipment was on par with Arthur’s, you might not be less capable than Arthur,” SealHeadLingChong said.

“Ah… they invited me, but I don’t know them well… I’m more comfortable with all of you,” Dragonborn said, and his companions were moved.

“Wah, Guild Leader, I’m very touched by your words!”

“You’ll lead us to victory!”

The group chattered loudly. Though they were moved by Dragonborn, they conscientiously prepared their equipment.

Dragonborn let everyone check their equipment.

The first item was Bladder Bombs. That was the most powerful weapon they had. All gamers were able to produce the bombs. However, it wasn’t safe, and many gamers were suffocated to death.

Next was food. The gamers were able to feel hunger, as well as weakness. According to tests done by the veteran gamers, there was a slight difference in combat power with and without hunger. Some food even served as stimulants. For example, the clay burger with salted fish sold by the Marsh Inkspewers had stimulant effects. The explanation was as follows:

[Food Name: Clay burger with salted fish

Food effects: It takes three minutes to ingest the food. It increases satiation by a factor of +50 and lasts for three hours. In addition, there is an “Excitement” effect. Walking rate is raised by 5%, constitution is increased by 5%, and damage improved by 5%.]

This food was a necessity in challenging the Instance Dungeon.

Besides that, there were whetstones, various traps, flint, ignition objects, and quivers.

Though Short Bow and Longbow gamers weren’t very useful, they were vital for triggering traps in the Instance Dungeon.

Dragonborn’s team of 15 gamers was fully prepared. At that moment, the Instance Dungeon entrance was filled with other teams who were getting ready to be the first group to conquer the Instance Dungeon.