vrcanaries Chapter 90 Forced Entry
Chapter 90 Forced Entry
After swallowing the last bite of dried meat, the roasted whole lamb patted the crumbs off his hands and strode towards the lead carriage.
"Don't be nervous, we're all good people." The whole roasted lamb grinned, revealing a set of white teeth. The smile looked particularly ferocious against his mud-covered face. "Boss, I need to make a deal. Can we hitch a ride in the opposite direction to the ruined capital?"
The caravan owner was a plump, middle-aged man.
He wiped the cold sweat beading on his forehead, waving his hands repeatedly, his voice trembling: "Gentlemen, this shipment is going to Pearl Harbor, not to the Ruined Capital. And... and we don't carry passengers..."
Before the whole roasted lamb could finish speaking, he turned around and waved to the players behind him.
Suddenly, a dozen fully armed players surrounded them.
Without a word, they tacitly untied their bags and began piling things onto the fat boss's carriage.
The pungent, acidic smell of green slime, the sharp barbs of tree spirit trunks, several relatively intact animal hides, and even large chunks of wild boar hind leg meat with bloodstains still visible—this jumbled collection of monster materials quickly piled up into a small mountain.
The fat boss was dumbfounded.
"What...what is this for?"
"Buy tickets and get on the train. We don't have any extra money. How about we use these things to pay for the fare?" The roasted whole lamb rested his hand on the hilt of the sword at his waist, his tone casual, but anyone with eyes could tell what he was thinking.
The fat boss was a discerning businessman. Although he was afraid, he immediately noticed something amiss when his eyes swept over the materials.
The edges of these animal hides and chunks of meat were cut very cleanly, clearly not the result of being torn apart by wild animals; it was obviously the work of a skilled skinner.
More importantly, although this group of people seemed chaotic, they had a kind of crazy disregard for death in their bones.
He had no doubt that if he dared to say a single word of dissent, these lawless bastards would absolutely dare to overturn all his goods into the ditch.
"That's enough...that's enough. There are a few empty flatbed carts at the back. If you don't mind, please squeeze in." The fat boss swallowed hard and reluctantly accepted this forced transaction that reeked of banditry.
The massive convoy slowly started moving again.
The fat boss sat side by side with the whole roasted lamb in the driver's seat of the lead truck. Looking at the players lying haphazardly on the back of the truck, fast asleep, the fat boss couldn't help but complain.
"Brother, I can see you're all quite capable. Take my advice, the abandoned city isn't a good place to go anymore."
The portly boss lowered his voice, his face full of worry.
"If the City in the Forest hadn't been so unsettled lately, I wouldn't have risked my life to take this job. You wouldn't believe it, the monsters in the forest have been acting like they've gone mad these past few months. Those monsters that used to only roam the deeper layers are now constantly heading out to the outer areas. Several trade routes have been cut off, prices in the city are rising every day, and even the guards have lost a lot of men. This world is becoming more and more incomprehensible."
This worried complaint, when heard by the whole roasted lamb and the other players who were still awake, turned into the most wonderful rallying cry for the pioneers.
Monsters are rioting around the City in the Forest?
What does this mean? It means tons of experience points, material drops, and a massive amount of quests!
The roasted whole lamb licked its chapped lips, a glint of light burning in its eyes. They were players, the Fourth Calamity, and the least afraid of chaos.
The more chaotic the world becomes, the more justifiable their reasons for expansion become, and the faster they can reap the benefits.
With the added transport capacity of caravans, the speed of the main force's journey saw a qualitative leap.
In just over ten hours, the outline of the gloomy, dilapidated buildings in the abandoned city finally appeared against the gray skyline.
Some players who had been resting on the cart also logged back in and woke up.
"We've arrived! Everyone, get off the bus!"
With a loud, boisterous roar from the whole roasted lamb, the players who had been bouncing along the pallet all the way jumped to the ground like dumplings being dropped into a pot.
Ignoring the relieved caravan guards, they casually stretched their stiff limbs before plunging headfirst into the pungent, foul-smelling sewer entrance without hesitation.
Just as the whole roasted lamb led the way into the depths of the sewer, at the very moment when there was only one last step before the breakwater.
From the darkness deep underground, a terrifying roar, deep and muffled, suddenly resounded, seemingly capable of tearing granite apart.
It was the dying out of some enormous being in agony and rage.
Immediately following, the ear-piercing metallic clang, the dull thud of flesh falling, and the deafening roar of some cheap gunpowder being ignited intertwined to create a deafening symphony of death, which surged upwards with the airflow, making the stalactites hanging overhead tremble.
The whole roasted lamb stopped, and the dozens of players behind him also stopped in unison.
The air seemed to freeze at that moment.
However, this oppressive feeling, strong enough to make the indigenous recruits' legs go weak, couldn't even be sustained for half a breath.
"That commotion! It's definitely a mutated boss with a hidden loot pool spawning! The first hit counts as an assist! Brothers, let's get the first kill!"
In the crowd, someone yelled at the top of their lungs, their voice filled with barely suppressed greed.
Da Niu was rather lazy and stood at the front of the line. Instead of drawing his weapon and staring into the abyss like the other players, he rolled his eyes and reached for the hard leather armor he had painstakingly bought.
With the belt buckle undone, Da Niu skillfully tore off his breastplate and stuffed it into the bag behind him.
The other players nearby were stunned: "Brother Niu, why are you taking off your clothes? To seduce the BOSS?"
"Are you stupid? That's a boss down there that can cause earthquakes! With our current level and these ragged clothes, we'd definitely get one-shotted if we ran into it."
While quickly unfastening his leg guards, Da Niu looked at his companion with an expression of utter disbelief. "Buying equipment is so expensive! If your weapon gets dull, you have to go to the blacksmith to fix it! Now that we have respawn points, we won't even have to run around the map if we die once."
He was shirtless, wearing only shorts, and carrying a cheap, rusty iron sword. His face was full of calculating intent: "Listen to me, take off all your valuable armor and put it in your bags! Go down there naked and pile up corpses! Anyone who goes down wearing proper gear is a complete spendthrift!"
This crude logic, however, awakened everyone.
"Brother Niu is right! The equipment is too expensive!"
"Take it off! Take it off! Everyone is equal before the boss. Wearing an extra layer of clothing is disrespectful to the respawn point!"
Both T-shirts and leather armor were removed at this moment.
In a short time, a fully armed and menacing expeditionary force was stripped bare and reduced to a group of primitive people wearing only shorts.
The whole roasted lamb looked at the group of white figures, its eyes twitched a couple of times, but its hands moved quickly, and it threw its expensive armor into its backpack.