Free Web NovelChapter 474: We Call It “Suicide Strategy”
Let’s not mention how Governor Murphy was secretly criticizing the pure student party while hiding in the shadows.
After they played a rather childish game of drawing lots, the unlucky Cheche, under the encouragement and mockery of others, mustered up the courage to cast a spell on himself that could reduce the chance of being detected and be shrouded in shadows. Once everything was ready, he gave the middle finger to the people beside him before running like the wind into the swamp forbidden area ahead.
This was a place they hadn’t been to before, because last time when they wanted to scout, they had the misfortune of encountering an explorer who was sent on an astral realm journey with one spell.
But this wasn’t a big problem.
Because although the swamp forbidden area was large, it only had one path forward. They just needed to follow along those peculiar building ruins to continue deeper inside.
Speaking of those building ruins hidden in the swamp mist.
Cheche had a feeling!
Although these ruins had been corroded beyond recognition by the swamp’s climate, they were completely different in style from buildings outside.
If he had to say, the buildings outside, including Plague Town, actually all followed a unified medieval style, mainly utilitarian with some religious elements, but the remaining buildings in this forbidden area were more like temple structures!
Especially those pillars covered in moss and vines, and the collapsed statues.
The young man felt like he was trudging through a super large Parthenon temple in a swamp environment that had weathered more severely.
“I’ve heard Lady Aqua say this game’s aesthetic style is quite outstanding. Although I’m not an art student, after seeing more of it, I seem to be able to appreciate some of its flavor.”
The Blood Inquisitor turned on the recording function of his computation bead, recording these mysterious serene scenes of the swamp that he witnessed during his flight.
This was his habit.
Cheche was a comedic literary youth who always liked to record things he found interesting. Currently, when the game’s “promotional ambassador” in the real world, Medical Insurance Warrior Great Sion, made videos, he would often ask Cheche for materials.
All sorts of outrageous materials with various themes could always be found in his computation bead.
Cheche thought he might become an amateur photographer in the future, and of course, it would be even better if he could make money from this hobby.
“Damn, how are these gnolls still here trying to lure that swamp giant snake! Have they been doing this here all along without managing their town being attacked?”
The young student quickly reached the entrance of the forbidden area, but saw those damn gnoll sorcerers again, just like before, commanding their undead army to “exploit bugs” to weaken that clumsy swamp giant snake. Compared to three days ago, Cheche could clearly feel that this swamp giant snake had become somewhat weaker.
It seemed these gnolls’ attrition tactics were working.
He didn’t get closer, but stealthily planned to bypass the battlefield between the gnolls and giant snake, sneaking around from the side to take a look deeper in the forbidden area.
Best if he could find the giant snake’s lair.
But just after Cheche successfully sneaked around, one of his glances back made him immediately connect with his brothers waiting outside as if he had discovered a new continent:
“This legendary snake is injured.”
Cheche exclaimed in a suppressed voice:
“It has terrible wounds on its back that seem to be infected, those gem-like scales have turned purple with bruising, and the long tail that always hides in the muddy water actually had a small part bitten off.
Damn!
This wound is terrifying!
This definitely isn’t something the gnolls could have done, it must have been attacked by other giant beasts!”
“But who else in this swamp would provoke it besides the gnolls attacking it?”
Miaomiao Shark asked puzzledly from the other side:
“Could it be that strange NPC who killed us before?”
“Hard to say.”
Cheche ventured a bit closer and took out a monocular to observe for a while before reporting:
“Those wounds look like claw marks, so maybe it was injured fighting with other giant snakes?
No wonder it’s become weaker, it’s not that those gnolls are so powerful, but this guy was already injured and couldn’t rest, that’s why it’s suffering so much.
These gnolls are truly vicious.
They’re dragging it out just to let its injuries worsen.”
“Good, this means the giant snake must hate the gnolls to the bone, if it has something called thoughts.”
Ah Yuen said on the other side:
“This counts as good news, I suppose.
You continue deeper to search for the giant snake’s lair. News just came from Plague Town that the young lady needs six hours of rest before she can reopen the spirit energy countermeasures for Lady Aqua’s southern front line. According to this timing, our challenge dungeon time is at midnight tomorrow, we still have one day to complete the preliminary preparations for this backup plan.
Find a safe gathering point, we’ll come join you, it’s a bit too hard to have you explore such a large area alone.”
“F**k, now that sounds more like it!”
Cheche complained.
He continued carefully flapping his wings forward, and after passing the battle area between the gnolls and swamp giant snake, it became very quiet ahead.
There was even a kind of creepy serene beauty.
Cheche felt like he had entered a fantastical realm untouched by anyone for thousands of years.
This lush area was no longer simply swamp terrain, the young vampire saw towering giant trees stretching up into the obscuring clouds overhead, while those vine ladders intertwined between the giant trees, creating a super large three-dimensional natural dome.
Although he wasn’t a nature worshipper, Cheche could still feel some kind of “harmony” existing in this area.
The deeper he went, the more life forms existed in Cheche’s perception. He was surprised to discover this forbidden area didn’t just have the terrifying giant snake.
There were not only other life forms here but quite a number of them.
Swamp tigers, crocodiles, forest bats and some birds with brightly colored feathers flying around the big trees, even strange monkeys swinging back and forth on vines, and deer herds wandering between the woods and water, along with stupid rabbits poking their heads out in the grass.
Like an undisturbed “paradise on earth”.
“This isn’t right!
This completely contradicts what my middle school biology teacher, whom I once secretly had a crush on, taught about ecosystems, the daily food intake of super giant creatures alone would be enough to cause biological extinction here.”
Cheche scratched his head, completely puzzled.
He vaguely remembered that wasn’t how his middle school biology teacher with her mature charm described the concept of ecosystems. Although the scene before him made one feel relaxed from the bottom of their heart, its strange existence instead made Cheche more alert.
He no longer rashly approached those seemingly “normal” things, after all, he was in an “abnormal” place. Following the giant pit-like path left in the mud by Ningkinanka’s movement, he continued forward, and then unsurprisingly discovered
“Damn! Brothers come quick, there’s a large maze here.”
Cheche said frustratedly in the communication:
“I can see my own footprints from just now, this proves I’ve started going in circles, there must be a large maze spell in effect here.”
“Maze spell? Isn’t that just the ‘invisible wall’ set up by the development team?”
Leading Pigeon exclaimed:
“Damn, is there another ongoing test project behind this? Are we reliving Brother Stick’s story? Should you come back first?
To avoid getting a seven-day package like Brother Stick.
If we get banned for seven days at this critical moment of the walkthrough, I think I’ll go crazy.”
“It shouldn’t be that bad.”
Cheche stroked his chin and speculated:
“There’s just a bare mountain behind this, and I haven’t seen anything worth noting, but I have found traces of the giant snake’s movement everywhere, and I even picked up some of its shed scales from the mud.
Its lair should be somewhere in this maze.
You know what, these scales really are like gems, the item identification says they’re high-grade crafting materials with built-in ‘dazzling spell’, even if we can’t find the lair, picking up more scales to share with everyone when we get out would be good too.
Anyway, hurry up and come.
Don’t worry, it’s very safe all the way, I estimate this Ningkinanka giant snake is the only dangerous thing in this area, and now that the gnolls have drawn its aggro, we can pass through here unhindered.”
“Alright, wait for us!”
Hearing Cheche say they could find high-grade crafting materials in the maze, the group of student party members immediately set out.
They completely failed to notice the mischievous Governor Murphy following behind them.
The vampire governor invisibly followed his student party warriors, strolling along all the way like a tourist into the swamp forbidden area that had already been confirmed safe.
He had a strange sense of “achievement” in his heart.
This was a place even Tris the “unlucky traveler” hadn’t been to, ha, he finally surpassed Tris in some area.
Then Murphy found his pursuit was truly pathetic.
Sigh, this must be the downside of having a girlfriend who’s too outstanding?
“Damn, we really can pick them up!”
After the student party members joined up with Cheche, they spread out to search around this large maze, and soon found many giant snake scales discarded in the muddy water.
These crafting materials were marked as “masterwork” quality even in their original state, representing their rarity and value. For a moment, that bit of dejection in the student party members’ hearts was thrown to the nine heavens.
Even if the backup plan couldn’t be smoothly implemented, just taking these scales back to give to Lady Tris would definitely result in a considerable side income.
They enthusiastically became “little girls picking mushrooms”, starting to search around everywhere in this mud swamp affected by the maze spell, but Murphy didn’t pay attention to those hidden treasures.
He frowned upon entering this maze, because his administrator system suddenly prompted him, saying there was an “optional exploration area” nearby.
“What do you mean by ‘optional exploration area’? Could you at least give me an explanation?”
Murphy complained in his heart:
“When I first activated this system, I was amazed by your functions, but the more I use it, the more I find all sorts of problems with this thing, now you’re so lazy you don’t even have explanation entries.
But when the administrator system was officially unlocked before, that [DATA DELETED] said it left some things on this continent to help me better fulfill my mission, so, does this ‘optional exploration area’ represent some ‘aid items’ it left nearby?
Tsk, if it weren’t for the urgent situation with the Plague Town walkthrough right now, I would definitely spend some time exploring here properly.
But since it’s marked as ‘optional exploration’, it proves this thing can be accessed anytime, and most likely won’t interfere with my ‘main quest’ progression.”
Thinking this way, Murphy released his perception within the effective range of this permanent maze spell, passing by those stupid little players spinning around in various parts of the maze, the vampire lord quickly discovered the path leading to the depths of the maze.
It was blocked by a layer of rock illusion, no wonder the student party members couldn’t find the way to continue forward.
Murphy should have gone to explore himself, but considering he only had one life, who knows what kind of “plot” would be triggered by entering the giant snake’s lair?
Therefore, out of caution, he didn’t act immediately but waited in place. A few minutes later, Does the Cyborg Snail Dream of Electronic Trees, who was looking down searching for giant snake scales in the mud while humming a tune, strolled over slowly.
He was already holding a large pile of giant snake scales, with an expression as happy as a chubby kid who had found millions.
His mood seemed quite good, so Murphy decided to give him a “surprise”.
The vampire quietly walked behind him, and when Electronic Snail bent down to pick up scales below, Murphy covered his mouth and flew up to kick Electronic Snail’s butt, making the young vampire lose his balance and flail his arms and legs as he crashed toward the rocks ahead.
This should have made Electronic Snail’s head bleed.
However, amid Snail’s exclamation, his whole body “passed through” the rocks in front and plunged into the giant snake’s lair inside.
“Damn! I found the giant snake’s lair, come quick! It’s so big in here! Just like an underground karst cave, damn, why does this art style feel a bit off!
You guys come quickly!”
Electronic Snail’s exclamations quickly drew the other student party members.
They rushed into the lair blocked by rock illusions, while Murphy outside waited for about ten seconds, and only after confirming there was no danger did the vampire lord slowly walk in while gripping the sword at his waist.
It was indeed a huge karst cave.
But the interior wasn’t dark.
Because there were obviously artificial lights illuminating from above, and when Murphy first saw certain structures of this lair before him, he realized this was definitely not a naturally existing cave.
After all, have you ever seen which natural cave comes equipped with an “automatic feeding machine”?
A huge silver-gray device was embedded in the karst cave wall, its structure similar to a pet feeder prepared for cats and dogs, with a huge button below, just touching it would make gray “large cat food” sprinkle down.
Cheche and Ah Yuen were playing there quite happily right now.
They also discovered how different this “giant snake lair” was. Miaomiao Shark, floating in the air, looked at the pool specially for the giant snake to rest in the depths of the karst cave, as well as some colorful “toys” floating above that pool, and couldn’t help but complain:
“How is this a perilous giant snake lair? This is clearly a pet room! So, is the swamp giant snake actually a pet raised by some mysterious beings?”
“Come look at these bones! These are gnoll bones, I can’t be wrong.”
Spicy Gugu Chicken stood next to a pile of corpses that had weathered into skeletons at the lair entrance. He picked up a bone badge from beside with disgust, identified it and said:
“Item identification shows these few gnolls were ‘guards of King Gnawbone’! They’ve been dead for at least 100 years, why do I feel like this place is a plot exploration area?
We must be able to discover many hidden historical details from it… Damn! This flail is actually a masterwork quality voodoo spirit weapon?
Come quick!
Let’s clean up this place!
We can make more money selling these things to newbies when we take them out, hey, I think I understand the joy of treasure hunters now.”
“Hey! Haven’t you forgotten the main task?”
Leading Pigeon shouted unhappily from behind:
“We came to find something that can lure the giant snake to crash into the gnoll formation, these treasures can be explored slowly later, come over! I found its egg!
I think this thing will definitely work.”
He shouted once, and the others all gathered around. At Leading Pigeon’s feet was a “giant egg” half as tall as a person placed on a special device.
This thing had severely petrified, except for maintaining its smooth egg-shaped structure on the outside, its surface material had almost completely turned to stone.
Ah Yuen went over to touch it and couldn’t feel any life waves from within. He reached out and placed his hand on this giant egg to activate item identification.
After several seconds, the information entry popped up:
Name: Egg that Cannot Hatch
Quality: Special Plot Item
Item Description: 【Ningkinanka is a legendary being, even the continent’s most learned biologists would find it difficult to tell more secrets related to it, let alone unveil the reproduction methods of this kind of swamp giant snake.
Congratulations on discovering an unhatched giant snake egg.
But regrettably, this special creature must hatch with the assistance of special equipment, and now the entire mysterious facility protecting its species has been shut down for nearly a thousand years.
No new life has arrived in the giant snake’s species in a thousand years, this powerful yet fragile lineage has once again reached the end of extinction.
Perhaps, you can try to help Ningkinanka’s nearly extinct species regain new life?】
“Hiss, the information revealed by this egg is bone-chilling when you think about it.”
Ah Yuen withdrew his hand and said to the others:
“I feel like we might have triggered something really incredible, this forbidden area definitely hides a super big secret, this place didn’t become forbidden because of Ningkinanka’s existence! This area appeared precisely to protect this group.
This isn’t any dangerous place at all, this is a ‘wildlife reserve’!
Damn!
Who exactly built it?
Why do I feel like our fantasy-style medieval world background suddenly turned into a ‘post-apocalyptic’ style?
Brothers, I’m a bit nervous now.
Could it be that as we explore further, we’ll discover there was once a super civilization on this continent?”
The others were silently speechless.
They looked at each other without any ideas, but after a few minutes, Leading Pigeon made the final decision:
“Let’s not worry about these things now! Let’s get the Plague Town walkthrough done first, when it’s our turn later, we’ll try using this egg to lure the giant snake out.
I estimate this will definitely be risky, out of the instinct to protect its egg, that giant snake will probably kill us without hesitation, that’s a legendary creature, we’ll be finished if it touches us once.
So everyone prepare to sacrifice yourselves for the cause.
Even if we all die, we must break through Plague Town! Let others see our strength.”
“Good!”
“Who’s going first?”
“Well, how about drawing lots? Cheche don’t be upset, this time whoever’s longer goes first, heh, fair right?”
