Chapter Twelve: Story Quest Item 3
After being bitten and castrated, Bai Zhantang ripped the little lizard off, but still couldn't snatch the treasure back from its mouth, and had to painfully kill the lizard.
After only a few minutes, he died on the spot from excessive bleeding and various bacterial infections. His soul emerged looking depressed, overwhelmed with shame and indignation, and instead of resurrecting, flew straight towards the Heavenly Temple above the dome.
How embarrassing!
All those years of watching Animal World were for nothing!
I'll go chat with Old Black to clear my head...
The remaining players were all terrified by this bizarre and tragic encounter, instinctively holding their weapons and tools in front of their crotches.
However, after confirming that the inside consisted of little lizards, the group of players no longer hesitated.
They quickly made torches out of branches, lit them, and, holding the torches, went into the cave to eradicate the remaining lizards.
The nests dug by these black-scaled monitor lizards were incredibly spacious, resembling a vast, interconnected underground network.
There were dedicated ventilation tunnels and food storage rooms, filled with bones scattered throughout.
There were dedicated resting areas, the floor littered with scales rubbed off by the monitor lizards, along with their shed claws and teeth.
There was a dedicated nursery, where dozens of baby lizards hid, immediately attacking and tearing at the human players with ferocity upon discovering them.
After paying the price of over a dozen players being bitten to death, the human players annihilated the swarm of baby lizards.
The lizards' souls, light and graceful, floated into the sky.
They had originally considered keeping a few as pets, but given the lizards' frenzied bloodlust, it was simply unrealistic.
They were untamable.
"Tsk tsk, although I've praised it countless times, I still have to say, the game design team really put their heart into it. Even a simple monster lair is so exquisitely designed; they've really put their heart into it."
"Exactly! Look at all these little lizards, each one is different. How many artists must have been exhausted by this?"
"Don't you guys think dividing the lizard lair into functional zones is even more impressive?"
"It's a pity these lizards can't be tamed. Otherwise, catching a bunch of little lizards and raising them into adult lizards as battle pets would be really exciting."
"It's already quite good. After all, if these monsters had too high an AI level, the server probably couldn't handle it."
"Everyone, be careful and don't miss anything useful. Maybe you can take it back and hand it over to Old Black to get honesty coins. That's much more profitable than working."
The players chatted as they explored the lizard lair, quickly reaching its deepest point.
The environment here was essentially constant in temperature and humidity. Illuminated by the torchlight, the ground appeared a pristine white.
It was a patch of black-scaled monitor lizard eggs!
Hundreds of black-scaled monitor lizard eggs lay flat in a hole resembling an incubator. Each egg was about the size of a goose egg, radiating a soft, white glow.
"Wow, we're rich! We're rich! Do you think Old Hei will buy the lizard eggs? If we can sell all of these to him, how much could we get for them?"
"There are too many eggs. I doubt Old Hei will buy them..."
"It's okay if Old Hei doesn't buy them. We can keep them to incubate. Baby lizards are hard to tame; we can start taming them from the eggs, right?"
"They say the first creature a lizard sees after hatching is considered its mother. Am I going to be a mother?"
The group chattered excitedly, their hands busy stuffing the lizard eggs into their pockets, each taking several.
In the blink of an eye, the lizard eggs were all gone.
Soon, the players noticed that beneath the lizard eggs was a dense layer of chewed bones, likely the bones of some prey, used as a floor.
Zaiwanchod, having also collected a few lizard eggs, was about to leave when he caught a glimpse of a light in the corner of the hatchery.
He went over and nudged the bones with his foot, immediately seeing a flash of golden light—something was revealed!
The soft golden light illuminated the entire hatchery, much brighter than the torches the players held!
The players were immediately drawn to it.
Zaiwanchod reached in and pulled out what was underneath—a sword covered in intricate patterns!
To be precise, it was a broken sword!
This broken sword, its age unknown, emitted a soft glow, but its surface was pitted and corroded, as if it had been eroded by some kind of acid.
There was also a patch of dark brown, oily substance on its surface.
"Oh, oh, oh, it's a story item!"
"As expected, this lizard's lair has something special!"
"This story item will definitely get us rewards; if we play again, Teacher D is going to be rich!"
Those present were all veteran players who had been immersed in various games for many years, and they immediately recognized that this was definitely a story item in the game, but they didn't know what kind of story it would trigger.
However, judging from the level of rewards in previous games, the rewards this time would definitely be substantial, perhaps even a direct reward of 10,000 gold coins.
Take a moment to examine the ornate broken sword in his hand, and he had a vague feeling that it was almost alive.
While marveling at the game's realism, one player quickly waved his hand and said,
"These are everyone's spoils. How can I keep them all to myself? Without the brothers fighting off the Blackscale Giant Lizard, I wouldn't have been able to get in. We'll definitely split any rewards equally. By the way, everyone, check if there are any other items. We should thoroughly search the entire lizard's lair again."
"PlayD's teacher is so generous! I'm a fan now!"
"Haha, Teacher D is right, let's take a look."
Without needing PlayD's reminder, many players had already started searching the lizard's lair.
A short while later, a palm-sized fragment of broken metal was found. Judging from its shape, it seemed to be the blade of a knife.
At the same time, there were some glowing fragments in the lizard's lair, which the players also collected.
Among them were a jade pendant with only a corner remaining, a broken red bead, a glowing bone, two stiff feathers emitting a blue light, and a strange piece of cloth about the size of a palm. 1
Everything was glowing.
With their extensive gaming experience, the players naturally recognized these as plot clues!
The entire lizard's lair, inside and out, was instantly filled with joy.
2
Just as the players were collecting their loot in the lizard's lair, Bai Zhantang, who had been killed on the spot by a little lizard, had drifted to the Heavenly Temple atop the Divine Realm's dome.
He had originally intended to chat with Old Hei to ease his awkwardness, but upon arriving at the Heavenly Temple and seeing what lay before him, he was utterly dumbfounded.
The magnificent temple was now reduced to four bare pillars, standing there abruptly.
Where's my temple? It was so big, and it was just there a moment ago!
The walls of the temple, covered in all sorts of bizarre patterns, the resplendent golden dome, even Old Hei's magnificent throne—everything had vanished without a trace! Meanwhile, the NPC, Old Black, the God of Darkness and Earth, stood satisfied in front of the four pillars, gesturing wildly with his hands, seemingly preparing to dismantle the remaining pillars.
What happened?!
Was the game updated?
Why was that magnificent temple removed? What are the game developers doing?
Old Black even seems to have a smile on his face. Could it be a game bug, or a programming error on the NPC?
Looking at the strange behavior of Old Black, Bai Zhantang was completely bewildered, having no idea what was going on.
He'd heard of people working hard to perfect the game's background setting, but this was the first time he'd encountered something so meticulously crafted being completely dismantled.
That temple was truly magnificent; it looked incredibly expensive.
Don't the art team have money to burn?
This game company is incredibly wealthy.
Ren Zha had already sensed Bai Zhantang's soul appearing above the dome. Now, having dismantled the last four pillars of the temple, converting them all into divine power and merging them into the divine realm, he spoke to Bai Zhantang in a broadcasting voice:
"Ah, fearless warrior who worships darkness and the earth, you have sacrificed your precious life for your faith, worthy to be the best servant of the god of darkness and the earth! If you wish, you can become a servant of the gods in this Heavenly Temple, sharing eternity with them!"
Looking at the dome, now completely bare, Bai Zhantang twitched his lips and asked:
"Honorable deity, why did you dismantle the Heavenly Temple? Is your company so rich you're just wasting your time?"
After asking, he chuckled self-deprecatingly. Old Hei was just an NPC; how could he possibly answer such a question completely beyond the comprehension of artificial intelligence?
He found himself somewhat ridiculous.
Unexpectedly, the old black man blinked, chuckled, and said to him:
"Of course, it's to pretend to be poor."
Bai Zhantang was completely bewildered. He hadn't expected the old black man to answer, but what did "pretending to be poor" mean?
Just then, the old black man suddenly gave him a lecherous look, letting out a blissful groan, as if something strange had entered his body. He muttered something like, "So many black-scaled giant lizard souls, it's so awesome!"
Could this NPC really be bugged?
Just as Bai Zhantang, looking utterly bewildered, was about to ask again, a flurry of shouts erupted from below:
"Old Black, we're back! We need to hand in our story items!"
"Old Black Daddy, come quick! We found something thick, long, and hard—you'll love it!"
"Old Black Daddy, we're here to sell junk for money! I want honest gold coins!"
"We're rich! Lizard meat, lizard eggs, and lizard skin! Everyone can get a lizard skin swimsuit!"