Chapter 11.
At the edge of the glowing mushroom zone, three constructs, two humanoid and one bird, stood admiring their handiwork. Naturally these three were Thorne, Po and Mufasa.
They did want to grind the beehive, but attacking it openly was suicide. So, in the midst of their dilemma, the supreme one came up with a fascinating solution. His idea was to create a bee farm point.
How?
Well that went back for the carcass of the dwarf spider and following Po's instructions, they used its giant heavy body to cover the hole. They did leave an opening at the side, large enough for one bee to come out at a time.
"We're definitely making top 10 with this." Po squealed happily.
Mufasa flapped around happily too. "At least you can be useful sometimes" and he earned himself a glare from Po.
"Alright, Let's begin"
Looking at his two teammates who were already counting their chicks before the eggs hatched, Thorne merely shook his head.
Covering the hole was just the first step. The next one was even harder and what's more, it was dependent on the reckless Mufasa.
This step had to do with forcing the bees out off the hive. Po figured out a way to enrage the bees such that they would move out of the hive and up the hole. That way their farming session could begin.
This theory he proposed was was to compress fire from his starshard into a small volatile ball shielded by a semi fragile ball shield construct from Thorne. Then they would have Mufasa fly back into the cavern and toss flaming wrath (that's what Po named the explosive) at the beehive and then rush back, with a boost from his starshard so he wouldn't be caught up i the resulting explosion.
"Gently..."
Po gradually used up all his energy compressing a fireball. iIt was fluctuating, clearly unstable. It wasn't the best but he had achieved his task. Thorne's turn was next. He conjured up a round shield covering the ball. He couldn't use too much energy since that deviate from the desired result and the ball would probably bounce back if Mufasa smashed it against the wall.
When he was channeling energy into the shield, Thorne made an outstanding discovery which he felt would make their work much easier. He found out that he could directly influence the flame inside the ball or in simple terms, he could insert more energy into the flames by using the ball as a medium. Such an action should have been impossible because because the flames weren't from his starshard.
Still, it was a blessing for them as such a thing would enhance the destructive power of the flaming wrath. So, Thorne went ahead and filled it up until even the round shield construct around it begun to crack.
"Hey what happening"
Po was the first to notice the change. He could clearly sense that the destructive power of the flaming wrath had really increased. He shot Thorne a surprised look.
'How did this fellow do it?'
"Mufasa", Thorne yelled, calling the fellow who was still perched over the carcass of the dwarf spider. He quickly flapped over, casting an excited glance at the flaming wrath.
"Is this our ticket to the leaderboard?" He asked, carelessly attempting to grab it.
"It will be a ticket to our delightful deaths if you're not careful enough." Po slapped him away.
"Listen", Thorne quickly interjected before the two went at it again. He spoke directly to Mufasa.
"Be careful with this"
"RE-lax. I've got this. Those bees wont see me coming"
He grabbed the handle Thorne had made and flew right through the opening in the ground. Thorne and Po both glanced at each other and sighed. Hopefully that fellow wouldn't mess things up.
Po had other thoughts in his head.
'Would these two continue such reckless behavior if they knew?'
He was sure they would find out today. Such a matter was difficult to conceal after all.
When Mufasa figure his distance to the hive was enough, he swung his legs forward, opening his claws and releasing the flaming wrath. Then without spending a second hesitating he activated his starshard and rushed back.
Boooooom!
A massive explosion set off right when he flew out of the hole. Thorne and Po felt the ground tremble under their feet.
[You have killed...]
[You have killed...]
[You have killed...]
All three of them heard numerous notifications ringing and the trio merrily looked at each other. The explosion was way more powerful than expected. Eve parts of the ground had started caving in.
Buzzzz!
Ah. It was the call to farm. Thorne constructed a sword and appeared in front of the opening they had made.
From there, all he had to do was slice any bee that came out. He didn't forget to leave some alive or Po and Mufasa to finish off.
[You have killed...]
[You have killed...]
[You have killed...]
[You have killed...]
It went on until finally....
Ding!
[Game time limit reached]
[Logging Players off]
"You two should log in next time. There's a lot going on that you wouldn't understand."
Po's voice could be heard as they disappeared from Nexus
Thorne didn't wake up to his usual peaceful mornings. Today, the entire place was so loud that he couldn't even hear his own thoughts.
When he opened the windows, he saw, to his shock, a massive crowd surging in a particular direction, all yelling so furiously and loudly that he couldn't hear what they were chanting.
Quickly, he rushed out when the crowd was a distance away and grabbed the shoulders of a passerby who seemed to be tailing the crowd.
"You, what's happening?" He asked.
It was a kid who didn't seem pleased in the least at the way Thorne had grabbed him. He tried yanking Thorne's hand off but the grip was terrifying. Thorne quickly took his hand off seeing that he was hurting the fellow. It took him several minutes of coercion before the kid was sated and finally spilled the beans. What he revealed shocked Thorne so much that he stood rooted to that spot several minutes after the kid had walked away.
'Dying in game meant death in real life!'
He shivered, a chill running down his spine. His mind drifted to all his careless actions inside the game. The stunt he and his comrades had just pulled.
All these times he could have died, he could have actually died.
"Hahaha.."
He gave a hoarse chuckle after he remembered what Po had said. He realized why that fellow spoke so much about not quitting the game. So he knew all along.
Why wouldn't he quit the game? What was there to gain from it? Any strong insect in there could kill him with a good surprise attack so why would he head towards his death? Was his life worth sacrificing just for fun?
Absolutely not!
Ring! Ring! Ring!
He took out his phone and answered after seeing the caller was Old Lu.
"Where have you been kid. Ive been calling for years." Old Lu's gruff voice was heard over the phone. It sounded rushed and Thorne could hear tires screeching in the background. Was he driving?
"I ...."
"Listen to me carefully." Old Lu cut him short. His voice sounded really tensed.
"Wait for me outside your apartment."
"Right outside"
"Don't you dare go anywhere else"
He hung up, leaving Thorne flabbergasted. Just what as going on today.
Moments later, the sound of tires screeching prompted him to look in particular direction. A minibus sped right over and came to a stop dangerously in front oof him. Inside the van were a lot of old people. Thorne recognized that they were old Lu's friends
Old Lu quickly descended from the drivers seat and walked up to Thorne.
"Old Lu, what's happening?" Thorne asked hurriedly before the man could open hs mouth too talk. He was genuinely confused and allowing old Lu to start the conversation would definitely mean that his questions weren't going to be answered.
"There's no time for questions lad." Old Lu spoke hurriedly.
"We have to get out of here before...."
His voice came to an abrupt stop. Thorne looked at him and realized he was gazing at the sky, wide eyed. Looking over in the same direction, he saw what had stunned the old man so. Even he id not know what to make out of their predicament.
Over in the sky. blazing towards New Old York in trails, Thorne saw...
...missiles.
"Everybody on the ground!"
Old Lu ordered frantically
As for Thorne, the moment the missiles hit, something in him clicked. The people behind him, including old Lu, all watched in shock and awe as a majestic golden dome=like shield manifested out of nowhere.
BOOOOM!