And the sea of skeleton soldiers that filled the entire mine had successfully scared the ratmen, who were half-heartedly holding daggers and short spears, half to death.
There was no need for any fancy tricks.
The frontline skeleton soldiers were simply swinging their mining picks, heedlessly striking the bodies of those giant rats; not to mention that the ratmen's shields were made from dismantled door panels, even iron shields couldn't withstand such a beating!
After all, these ratmen were just cannon fodder in the maze, normally they would only bully beginners by relying on their numbers.
And this time, they just happened to encounter a horde of beginner players, locked in morale, a mountain of players...
In just an instant, they were stupefied by the overwhelming numbers that matched their own!
"Squeak—!!!"
Finally, one ratman could no longer bear the fear in its heart and turned tail towards the darkness.
Then, more and more ratmen started to flee... these experienced cannon fodders were actually scattered by the beginners who were fighting for the first time.
"Don't run!"
"Stand your ground!"
"My experience! My experience!"
Watching the walking experience bags fleeing, the players at the forefront immediately chased after them.
The undead inherently have night vision and can sense the presence of the living.
Even when they left the area illuminated by torches, they could still move about as if nothing was wrong.
However, some players stopped in their tracks, not daring to chase further into the depths of the mine.
After all, if some brothers had guts, naturally there were also those who didn't.
Many of them were seeing half-human-sized rats for the first time.
Even if the game's programming had toned down the horror of these creatures, they still needed some time to overcome their fear.
"It's so, so terrifying... how can there be such fat rats?!" Chris hugged a skeleton's head and squatted in the corner, shivering nervously.
If it were goblins or dragons, she might not have been so afraid.
But rats...
This game is way too bizarre!!!
Soon, some curious players noticed her and went over with a cheeky grin, dragging the tail of a large rat that hadn't quite died yet.
"Bro, you want experience? There's still one here that hasn't kicked the bucket—"
"Go to hell!!!"
"..."
"Not bad, pretty decent, I'd give it an 80 out of 120."
Luo Yan was quite satisfied with the quality of the players and took note of a few IDs that were particularly extraordinary—or should I say, heaven-defying.
Even though these skeleton soldiers all looked the same, when his gaze focused on them, he could see their nicknames above their heads, and by staring a little longer, a status panel with a health bar would appear.
He wondered what the players' point of view looked like.
Whether they could also see their own health bars.
The first day was a period of adjustment, Luo Yan didn't intend to assign too many tasks to the players but gave them the initiative to freely explore North Peak Mine and the Underground Maze.
After all, firstly, he didn't know enough about the abilities and characters of these players, and secondly, he still had to further explore the functionality of this calamity system.
Anyway, he had more observing to do.
Seeing that some skeleton soldiers were trying to pull down Chris's pants, Luo Yan was originally too lazy to care, but for the sake of decency, he still shouted a command.
"Enough! These people are my captives! If you want captives, go catch your own!"
The skeleton soldier named [Knowledge Explodes] jumped back at once and, seeing several pairs of eyes looking over, hurriedly waved his hands and explained.
"I was just trying to—"
"Looks pretty real, doesn't it?" the [Pig-headed Knight] chuckled, hooking an arm around his shoulder, "I get you, bro!"
"Equipment! I'm talking about the equipment!!!"
"Alright, alright, everyone who gets it, gets it, let's do this while this NPC is away..."
Luo Yan: "..."
I understand Chinese!
Forget it.
Luo Yan couldn't be bothered to explain to them and simply added two new rules to the server regulations, to prevent these players from making his captives disappear.
Only living beings can contribute faith power, and most Demon Kings who can capture people alive generally don't kill them, but being tortured to the point where life is worse than death is another story.
In any case, he still had some use for these captives.
"I need to make a cage to lock them up."
Let's try the steel-grade magic.
Luo Yan took out a thin wand and waved a dark yellow light toward a wall not too far away.
"Stone Prison!"
The earth trembled slightly, and thick stone pillars, as big around as thighs, rose from the ground, intertwining with each other to form a cage against the wall, enclosing several disarmed adventurers separately.
Although he was an Undead Mage, what he knew wasn't just Undead Magic; he was also quite adept at Earth Magic, a close relative of the Undead branch.
Beyond the Stone Prison, Luo Yan set up some bronze-grade magic circles as traps to ensure the captives couldn't escape.
Then there was the core of the Demon King Territory.
Although it was unlikely for a few skeleton soldiers to damage it, Luo Yan still added several automatic kick-off rules through the system to prevent any players from getting frisky, and he deployed several defensive spells around that stone statue.
How to protect the core of the Demon King Territory was indeed a compulsory course at the Demon King Academy.
Having finished these tasks, Luo Yan dusted off his hands, then looked towards the Stone Prison with satisfaction, observing "Grey Dog," who was watching him with fearful eyes.
This guy was the only one awake.
And he had witnessed the entire "coronation" process.
Enjoying the timid expression, Luo Yan smirked slightly and said with a threatening tone,
"If I were you, I wouldn't try to escape from here. Dying is a trivial matter, but becoming Undead... that would be unfortunate, wouldn't it?"
The thin man nodded nervously, almost swearing on Saint Sis's name.
Luo Yan didn't bother with him anymore and just gave him a meaningful gaze, then picked up a torch that had fallen on the ground and left the gloomy mine.
Although he was an Undead Mage, he had no intention of spending the night in a graveyard.
Especially since this mine wasn't just full of Undead, but also roamed by numerous monsters.
Moreover, there was an abandoned inn right at the entrance of the mine.
While the building appeared to have been derelict for many years and looked like a haunted house from the outside, Luo Yan didn't care.
The dormitory at the Demon King Academy was far scarier than this place.
Man-eating plants and lava fountains were the least of his worries.
Sometimes, he would be washing his face in the restroom, look up, and see a disheveled woman standing behind him in the mirror—that was just par for the course.
After finding a room that was barely draft-free, Luo Yan tossed his suitcase next to the bed, pulled out his wand, and casually recited a few warning and defensive spells before lying down on the hard wooden bed.
I'll make do for tonight.
After flying across several time zones to this forsaken place, he had been overwhelmingly sleepy by the evening, and he could finally get some sleep.
However, just as Luo Yan was about to fall asleep, something in the corner of his eye, a white shadow, flickered in the mirror beside him.
A chilling sensation instantly shot up to the top of his head, and Luo Yan flipped out of bed, wand in hand.
"Who's there! Come out!"