Within the company MGC, the virtual world
"When the Dwarves were born, the gods saw that they were a greedy kind, fond of threats and bellowing, and thus they were sent to live in the territory of Svartalfheim, beneath the surface of Midgard's soil. There, they could dig for precious ores and gems, hoarding them as treasures." (Norse mythology)
The CEO with blonde hair was reading a report from the employees with dark-rimmed eyes, from the rush of planning.
An employee from the game planning department reminded the CEO, "Since last year, when we initiated the 'world invasion' project, it was to introduce a new subterranean realm for players to have more areas to venture into, sir. This is because there are an increasing number of businesses from the real world entering the game world, and the culture from the real world is becoming more prevalent and complex, making the game world we created to blend the real world with the game gradually lose the taste of a fantasy game based on Norse mythology. Introducing new areas for players to adventure in, while keeping the fantasy element one hundred percent, is our way of supporting the adventure game experience."
As the CEO read through, he acknowledged the comments about the role of the game planning department needing to pay attention to maintaining the original essence of the game. The reason everyone is paying attention to their MGC game is because it's a "game" in a virtual world, not just a plain virtual world. This game is like another life for users, with a fantasy atmosphere blended with the stress of working and leading a life, and that is their game's selling point.
The CEO certainly agrees with the planning department employees to keep the game's taste and atmosphere intact, so he supports placing this report on the president's desk.
But he also knows the president 's character well.
"Action must get money" is the motto of the president of this company.
Opening new areas without any monetary gain only piqued the interest of both new and old players—it was too difficult to quantify in numbers.
Therefore, something clear and obvious was needed, such as...
"Dwarf emerging from the ground, attacking the human masses"—the new underground world that would be opened would be the land of the Dwarf as per the god legend.
That's not all.
There are also fearsome, supremely destructive weapons added because they are positioned as the most skilled inventing race in the game.
However, last year, following an assessment of the Dwarf ' prowess that was created... it might still not be possible to launch. The employees foresee the numbers estimating the advantages and disadvantages, suggesting that if a balanced war is to be had, there must be five metropolis lords.
5 individuals with a high-level force, sufficient to withstand the attack of the Dwarf, worthy of being the most brutal force in the new adventure area,
The CEO read the initial plan, "Coordinate with the city of Sirius, ready for the first wave of attacks to launch the event."
The game planning department's staff added, "The Dwarf will burrow out from underground beneath the city of Sirius, sir. This city will be destroyed first, and the Dwarf will build a state-of-the-art fortress as their base."
The CEO activated the three-dimensional map function and began to search for the city of Sirius, frowning when he discovered that this city was situated in a dense forest, untouched by civilization. The players living there could be counted on one hand, not to mention companies or stores, as not a single one had opened a branch there. He asked, "Launching it like this, won't it be too quiet?"
All the employees turned to look into each other's eyes and smiled together. The CEO might not know what was so good about this city that made them choose it. But if you look closely, the city is situated in the midst of a dense forest, yet there are still players venturing into it, which definitely means it must be interesting. "In the city of Sirius, there is a temple dedicated to the goddess Freya (the leader of the Valkyries), sir. If one can complete the quest given by the goddess's statue, they will receive the skill [Hawk Feather Cloak] which allows players to fly for 10 minutes. This quest is very difficult. Without three to four parties of level 100 players working together, it's impossible to complete the quest."
"What we want from the launch event is to shoot several PR photos to let everyone know that the event ' Dwarf Empire World Invasion' has started. Looking at the activities in the city now, there are top players from five guilds currently in the city of Sirius, sir. No matter how skilled they might be, it's certain they can't handle the Dwarf AI armed with extremely powerful weapons. Dwarf could wipe out the entire city, and because it's in the midst of a remote dense forest, far from major cities, it gives the Dwarf AI enough time to build an imposing city before the players can group together for the first wave of attack…" Then they began to elaborate on their extensive plan to the CEO.
What will make a noise is specifically those who are in the city of Sirius right now. If they just exterminate a few of those famous players, it'll be quite a launch already. They learnt from Sagittarius that you don't need a spectacular launch. The time this player cleared the main quest, they did it quietly, just the two of them. But once they announced the name...
This promotion was the same.
They concluded that "the reason for coordinating with the city of Sirius is because the group of players in this city are parties of the Templar Knights guild, the Vespertine guild, the guild... which are all major guilds. If we were to have Dwarf assault them abruptly, the company would definitely be cursed by those guilds. So it was thought to use the war function, to have Dwarf declare war on the city first, following the method of conquering a city. But we may ask the CEO to approve the start of the war a bit sooner to make it more exciting."
The public relations employee confidently said, "All five guilds have been hired by billionaire in the real world, parties leveling up, and also looking for good skills and items for them to use. Therefore, if we announce a reward in case the city is defended throughout the span of 1 day..."
"Hehehe," the employees laughed together with evil glint in their eyes. The plan is to lure these people to become sacrifices for promoting the event, which they truly deserve. They had gone to the lengths of designing a game for players to enjoy character development "on their own," yet these players resort to underhanded methods, clinging together in parties to level up.
They indeed deserve to be sacrifices!
Sagittarius on Tour went to meet the four metropolis lords. Now he has arrived at Chang'an, a city styled after ancient Chinese culture, brimming with antiquity.
Sagittarius could not play Go but managed to find a game he was somewhat familiar with, which was Chinese checkers.
After three moves, from being completely outplayed, he began to even the playing field, prompting Guhai Wubian to admire him, "Bro Sagittarius has quite the wit. From not knowing how to play, it took only a few moves for you to adapt to the board."
Sagittarius could only force a smile. Including him, there were three male metropolis lords—one adored alcohol with a passion, and this one was addicted to all kinds of board games. Glancing at the living quarters of the two, other players might think they've found a treasure hoard, something to steal and sell for real money, ensuring a comfortable life forever. But in truth, at the city of Achara, there were only wine bottles, and here, only boards and pieces of various kinds. And when he looked back at his own lord's quarters...
It's worse than both of the things.
Nothing at all!
An empty room
The rooms of the three male lords were incomparable to the treasury in every way.
Guhai Wubian asked directly, "Bro Sagi, what are you going to do after this… just leveling up for real?"
As for the remaining town masters other than sister Mewku Mewku, Sagittarius was still not trusted, so he maintained a distance and said, "Apart from leveling up, I plan to travel as well. I have no idea how much the game has developed, it would be eye-opening."
Guhai Wubian, with a variety of expressions asked "I don't know if I am prying too much into Bro Sagi's affairs, but regarding the recent seizing of Seven Lakes town, Sachi, how much did it cost you?"
"Why is that?" Sagittarians hurriedly took a defensive posture, watching to see from which angle the other party would approach, or whether this man was the one behind Columbus 1492.
Guhai Wubian was not behind anyone at all. Just taking care of his own city of Chang'an was almost too much for him to handle, let alone trying to expand his city further. What he wanted to know was, if he increased the number of NPC city officials, similar to the cities in the system and his younger brother's city in front of him, his workload as the city's lord might be reduced. He wouldn't have to mediate conflicts between players and, even though the wage rates for NPCs were sky-high, if it was within the range he could afford, he was willing to pay to reduce problems from each human's opinions.
These last three months, there was no need to even mention expanding the city. He hardly even had time to play chess.
Managing the chaos caused by humans was the most time-consuming thing of all.
Sagittarius listened intently to the candid explanation of Guhai Wubian and smiled surreptitiously as he was about to quote the astronomical price he had been carrying. The AI assistant promptly came in to open the news channel for them to see.
It showed a giant metal golem erupting from the ground, leveling a city to rubble.
"Eh! Isn't that the Blazing Knight, the guild leader of the Templar Knights?" Guhai Wubian remarked, and the image then showed a knight in a beautiful blue and gold-trimmed armor, holding a sword and a lavish shield, standing rigid, shrieking in a shrill, terrified voice, as he was being flattened by the massive foot of the Gundam...
Boom!
The Dwarf which was confined within the transparent glassy head of the golem mocked humanity's "weakness" with a derisive laugh. Then, it turned to trample over player after player.
The scenes of the draft riding Gundam and razing cities from various perspectives were projected like a movie trailer, then condensed into text to herald the event
"world invasion"
"Ah, it's the event advertisement," Sagittarius understood with a nod after watching, his mind filled with images of the Dwarf's golems, brimming with fascination.
When this event advertisement appeared, Guhai Wubian kindly suggested to Sagittarius, "With our current popularity, it would be better for little Saji to hurry back to town."
A few days later,
"This game is so realistic, I can even smell the sea," said Melon-chan, standing on the deck of a large ancient ship. She took a deep breath, enraptured by the vast ocean's scent.
Saturday, Sunday, Monday were her days off, so she took advantage of these three days to travel to Chandra Bay, go out to sea, and level up her warlord profession in the dungeons on various rocky islands in the southeastern sea.
Melon-chan was quite surprised; she had been playing this game for a decent amount of time, but only recently did she discover that at Chandra pier, there were packages for sale that included dungeon delivery services. The service would take passengers to different dungeons for a flat fee, which suited her perfectly.
Melon-chan gazed towards the crystal-laden island, which was her first destination. She was very excited and incredibly curious about how powerful the warlord profession would be.
Waves…
"Shore!" The sound of the waves crashing against the white sand mixed with the crystal-reflecting surface sparkled.
The young lady stretched out both arms wide open, inhaling the scent and the sea breeze unabashedly. But when she focused her eyes towards the horizon, she saw something moving towards her!
The color was rust-like, intersected by lines of green...
Once she saw it clearly, Melon-chan was stunned. She had seen the commercial released, World Invasion The Empire of Dwarf; she knew the skin of the metal golems that the dwarfs used to ravage the small cities, causing the great guilds to fall in utter defeat.
It was that color!
"Can it be!?"
But when there was an advertisement indicating it as the onset of a Dwarf's world bombardment, it wasn't surprising to find that object in the middle of the sea, and it was approaching...
Right?
But when Melon-chen thought about another matter, it was... would they be bombarded just like that small town?
"This is bad," Melon-chen quickly turned to the players who were embarking on the boat, and walked straight towards the island's dungeon, shouting, "Everyone look over there!!!"
The players all turned to look at Melon-chan, and followed with their eyes the direction that Melon-chan was pointing at—one single way. Then their faces turned pale. They too had seen that clip, and the ending of the Templar Guild leader, who shrieked at the top of his lungs, was still etched in their memories.