Chapter 803: The Great Monster War
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
As money was poured into the rapidly expanding Shangri-La project, the largest Great Monster War in history broke out.
All monsters in the world, from level 1 white-named monsters to level 200 purple-named bosses, mobilized and gathered into countless hordes. They came down on the three player-occupied Continents like a tidal wave.
Even the monsters in the North Pole Continent went crazy. They went to great lengths to cross the ocean to invade the three Continents.
The major cities were overrun. Corpses were spread out all over the cities. It used to be players who did the killing, but now it was the monsters’ turn to guard their bodies.
The buildings were destroyed, the teleportation doors were in ruins, and traffic came to a complete standstill.
It was hard to fathom…
Soon, players from the three Continents organized and tried to counterattack the monsters. However, their counterattack was quickly shown to be ineffective. It was not the strength of the players that was the issue, there were simply too many monsters. Even a Territory Master could not oppose the overwhelming number of monsters that came like ants.
During the Great Monster War, the bosses could not be seen in the world but at the main cities, each leading their armies to destroy everything.
Players who were busy in the Foreignland and the Ancient Kings Dungeon Series temporarily stopped and returned to a.s.sist their homeland.
If the Continent was in trouble, everyone would help out. If the main city was destroyed, any experience gained would gradually decrease. Additionally, the cost of item repairs and NPC store taxes would drastically increase.
“Repel them, brothers, together!”
“Brothers of the Ninth Continent! Gather at the Celestial Capital. We’ll clear these monsters out of the Celestial Capital! Make haste!”
“Citizens of the Fluttering Snow Continent! This is a matter of national importance. I urge you to postpone your leveling and unite to defeat the monsters attacking the city! The Iron Wall City needs you!”
The World Channel was filled with shouts and cries for a period of five days. Players did nothing but clean up their cities when they came online.
The monsters continued to attack, with new ones sp.a.w.ning in to replace the dead. After five days, the players had only managed to take back the capitals of their respective Continents, which was the heart of their country. The remaining main cities were still under the control of the monsters.
During this period, Jiaojiao led the defense of the Celestial Capital, while Li Yi ran around and was busy with his own affairs.
He was the one responsible for the Great Monster War, but it was now out of his control. The reason was simple. Once the Emperor of the Continent appeared, the War would follow. It was only natural that this matter could not be controlled at all.
The reason why the Pantheon arranged such an incident was to allow the new Empress an opportunity to show her strength and drive the monsters out of the main cities to build her prestige.
It would be easy to end this war if Li Yi used his Imperial Authority, but he did not do so in order to destroy Tyrant Sword King the Fifth.
The war was not a bad thing. Although the main cities were seriously damaged, players would have an endless supply of monsters to kill right after they went online. The experience earned would be quite a lot, and it would help foster solidarity.
The two major Alliances in the Invincible Continent had been at each other’s throats, but now they had united to defend their main cities.
Because of the war, the Shangri-La project had suffered ma.s.sive losses. Its number of customers was significantly reduced. The teleportation doors of the major cities were destroyed by monsters and traveling on foot was too dangerous.
Tyrant Sword King the Fifth was the most eager to get rid of the monsters. No one saw him ever taking a break.
It was only natural. The Shangri-La project was his future. He had invested significant amounts of money into it and no more mistakes could be made. In other words, he could not afford any losses.
If Li Yi did not add fuel to the fire, Tyrant Sword King the Fifth would eventually solve this crisis, but would Li Yi give him this opportunity?
Of course not!
His constantly antagonized Li Yi and was forcing Lin Qian to marry him. He had long pa.s.sed the point that Li Yi could tolerate.
In order to bring down Tyrant Sword King the Fifth, Li Yi asked for help for the first time. This might be nothing in the eyes of others, but it filled him with shame.
If he were to wait until the players’ average level to reach around 180, Li Yi had the confidence to beat the Tomb of Kings with a normal strategy. However, it would delay his efforts to claim the Emperor’s throne.
Li Yi did not go directly after Tyrant Sword King the Fifth as such acts were beneath him. He ordered the three tribes of the North Pole Continent, the Centaurs, the Tuhrs, and the Snowpeople to launch a coalition attack on Shangri-La while he hid in the dark and enjoyed the show.
The privilege of being an Emperor was not only reflected toward the players, but also the right to mobilize the NPCs.
Without such privileges, would the Emperor of the Continent even live up to its name?
Since everyone was a player, there would still be many players who would not obey, even after a player had been named Emperor. They did their own thing, no way would they let anyone order them around.
This was the thought process of many people, Li Yi included. When others became monarchs, he thought the same way. They could do whatever they wanted as long as he was not involved. He would not accept orders from anyone.
For this reason, the Pantheon had established a system to highlight the supreme rights of the Emperor of the Continent, and the Emperor had the right to mobilize NPCs within the Continent.
Of course, there were limits to mobilizing the NPCs. It could only be done when the Affinity with the NPC camp was at Wors.h.i.+p, or they would not obey commands at all.
Among the NPC camps on the North Pole Continent, only three tribes reached Wors.h.i.+p with him. Without that restriction, he would have summoned at least a hundred more tribes to wreak havoc on Shangri-La.
Fortunately, apart from the North Pole Continent, Li Yi still had reached Wors.h.i.+p with many other NPC camps on the other three Continents. Aside from the NPC camps that were friendly to his own country, the others were entirely okay with fighting their own people.
No one knew that Li Yi was the reason the monsters were obsessed with Shangri-La. They kept coming and there seemed to be no end to them.
After Li Yi got everything done, he immediately returned to the Invincible Continent to help Jiaojiao clear out the monsters and liberate the main cities.
When the red-named NPC camps approached Shangri-La, Tyrant Sword King the Fifth began to have a headache.
Before the player had a good relations.h.i.+p with the NPC camps, they would be hostile, but monsters from an NPC camp were stronger than regular monsters.
A level 150 NPC camp was not that frightening, but a level 200 camp…
Tyrant Sword King the Fifth in his Sovereign Equipment Set could barely resist the fierce NPC attacks. Getting attack over and over again, he felt more dead than alive.
Until now, he still did not know that this was a man-made disaster…
Li Yi was insidious. He did not only attack Shangri-La, he merely focused his forces there. There were many other irrelevant places that he ordered the NPC camps to attack to cover up his actions.
The surroundings of Shangri-La were swarming with monsters. Soon, Tyrant Sword King the Fifth was broken.
The operation of Shangri-La required a huge amount of expenses per day. The maintenance costs of the map, security systems, costs of labor. Together, they formed a large number.
If there were customers, these costs meant nothing. Unfortunately, his customers were currently barred from entering. The advertis.e.m.e.nt for Shangri-La had just started, and there were very few loyal customers. Most were only dropping by. After ten days, the monster siege had not ended, and the project had lost 10% of its revenue…
This was unprecedented, even Tyrant Sword King the Fifth had never thought about the possibility of this happening.
The management of the w.a.n.g Enterprise panicked and convened an emergency meeting to discuss the withdrawal of funds.
However, now that a large sum had been invested, it was not easy to withdraw. The hiring of various Miss Worlds, B-list and C-list celebrities, and other advertising expenses at extravagant prices, along with various other expenses were completely unrecoverable.
The finance department worked as fast as possible to calculate the losses that would be incurred if they withdrew their funds and had determined that it would cost 70% of the total investment!
If one were to quit now, the company would almost have to declare bankruptcy…
“Motherf*cker!”
w.a.n.g Leitian slapped w.a.n.g Sheng during the extraordinary general meeting, and it shook him.
This was the first time his father had ever hit him, but his father was not wrong.
“What do we do now? Tell me what to do!”
“Facing losses in business is normal for us, but this one is so bad that I have nothing left to say.”
“Don’t look at me, the Board decides together, the most I can do is nod.”
“w.a.n.g Sheng kept bugging me, otherwise I would not even be on board with this.”
The major shareholders had started pus.h.i.+ng away responsibility, making w.a.n.g Sheng even paler.
Bam!
w.a.n.g Sheng slammed his hands against the desk and it immediately fell quiet. All of them turned and looked at him.
“Complaining won’t make the situation any better. I have found out that the main cause of the siege is due to the appearance of the Emperor. It is not our fault. I have appealed to Pantheon, and we will receive a reply in two days!”
After that, he turned and left.
Two days later, the Pantheon him sent a private mail.
“Greetings, respected player. We are grateful for your support for the ‘King of Pantheon’. Kindly be informed that the Great Monster War is an event which occurs after the Emperor of the Continent has appeared. The monsters are not difficult to deal with. We strongly believe that you and your allies will be able to drive the monsters out of your home. We thank you again for your support. The Pantheon Company wishes you happy game.”