Hu Wan cracked a smile, just about to say something more when suddenly a pop-up flashed before his eyes.
[Alert: Monster siege!]
[Description: A large wave of ratmen is approaching the Demon King Territory! All players nearby are requested to immediately pick up their weapons and assemble in the core area of the Demon King Territory!
Successfully defending against the attack will result in a hefty reward of Joss Paper and Contribution Value. Failure will result in the forced closure of this beta testing event!]
Seeing the phrase 'forced closure,' Hu Wan felt his heart move up to his throat...even though his character didn't have a heart.
"Monster siege?!"
"I just logged off for a moment to check the forums. I was planning to record some reflections when I saw a player report saying thousands of rats were moving towards Demon King Ridge," staring at that serious skull face, Yiye Zhiqu paused, "Looks like the online notification has popped up too."
Hu Wan hastily asked.
"Who is that player?"
"Apparently called the Minotaur Warrior."
"...What kind of name is that?" Hu Wan muttered before continuing to stare at Yiye Zhiqu, "Where is he now? Can you determine his location?"
Yiye Zhiqu shook his head.
"I doubt it, that mine is all twisted up, without any markers. Given his confusing statements, I even suspect whether he can find his way back..."
Hu Wan pondered for a long while.
"What do you say, head back and help?"
"We definitely have to go back and help."
Yiye Zhiqu looked back at the cobweb-covered great hall, where he and a newly acquainted friend had been battling all afternoon.
"If the home is gone, nothing matters anymore."
...
"Boom—"
The ground was trembling!
The ratmen were roaring!
Eat everything, devour everything—
The helpless humans ran!
That was one of the Doomsday Four Scenes hanging inside the Holy City Cathedral's confessional.
Thousands of ratmen soldiers from the depths of Hell had overrun the walls of the Doomsday Fortress!
Facing the action of the ratmen's deadly charge, the followers of Saint Sis called it "Rat Tide"!
It was a folly above the instinct of biological survival, with rats swarming and stepping over each other, destroying the enemy and themselves.
Bathed in the corrupt light bestowed by the Three Rat Gods, these creatures, which usually scatter when overpowered, would not run away this time! There was absolutely no chance of retreat!
With just a slight delay,
They would be trampled into a mash by their comrades rushing up from behind!
"Charge!"
"Smash those skeletons!"
"Snap those human necks!"
"For Gerro!!!"
The ratmen, with eyes bloodshot, had gone mad, filling the entire mine like a rolling torrent.
Hearing the screams, Luo Yan's facial expression slightly shifted.
Gerro!
The Rat of Gluttony!
Upon hearing this name, he, coming from the deepest pits of Hell, had understood everything.
In the depths of this mine, a group of slave rats driven out of the labyrinth had completed the ritual to please Gerro under extreme circumstances, producing an enormously fat "Chosen Rat"!
Luo Yan remembered studying in Demon King Academy that the conditions for the ritual were extreme starvation and an immense abundance of food, along with a slave rat whose soul and personality were twisted to the extreme!
The chance of a successful ritual was incredibly low, after all, Gerro's temperament was as contrary as his children's.
Typically, these twisted monsters were created by the Demon King to make trouble for adventurers venturing into the labyrinth!
However, due to the low success rates of the ritual, not many Demon Kings bothered using it.
As for the Demon King personally combatting a berserk Chosen Rat...
He had never even heard of such a thing!
"Shit, why do these messy situations always fall to me..." Luo Yan cursed under his breath, raising his wand to begin preparing a spell, as energies of the undead and elemental earth converged beneath his feet.
Facing the surging Rat Tide, [Knowledge Explosion], standing at the front line, widened his eyes in surprise – a pity that his skull face lacked expressions, otherwise, it would look utterly shocked.
"Holy shit! So much experience—" His words had not yet settled when the tidal wave of flesh and blood overwhelmed him.
His pale skeleton was shattered into pieces, and "Pandemic OL" had finally seen its first player death in combat!
Having sacrificed a [Knowledge Explosion], the players behind immediately realized the unusualness of this group of ratmen, becoming more alert.
"Don't be afraid, brothers! They're just bunches of experience! Close the ranks! Brace the spears!"
Someone among the sea of skeletons shouted, a few skeletons moved first, and then the other players quickly followed, cramming together into a spiked bone wall in the not-so-spacious mine.
No fancy tactics.
Just a clash of blood and bones at this moment!
The skeletons at the front were crushed to pieces, but fortunately, they were supported by the skeletons from behind, stopping the relentless momentum of the charging Rat Tide.
"Squeak—"
The leading ratmen were skewered into a kebab by the spears, dark blood plasma spraying from the broken heads.
And then—
There were the bone spikes and stone pillars shooting up from the ground!
Just when it seemed they might stop the ratmen's charge, the latter smashed through them with pickaxes and bludgeons!
Luo Yan, holding his wand, was carefully considering which spells to use, aiming to maximize the damage to the rat horde while avoiding burying himself and the other players alive in the mine.
Continuously piling bodies formed a ramp, and the blood-crazed rats continued forward, stepping on the bodies of their fellows to climb upwards, attempting to surmount the formidable bone wall!