Chapter 60: Monsters Rage, Three Players Return Home.

East realized that he was too naive to think the situation wasn't chaotic enough that day; true chaos never gives people many warning signs.

East looked at the letters requesting help being handed to him, his head throbbing slightly.

The monster seal cracked faster and faster as time went on, and even if Ister did nothing, the monster seal could not stop loosening.

Three days ago, another major wave of monster loosening occurred. According to the system, it's at least more than the previous total. The monster seal has already cracked by nearly 10%, and the rate of cracking will only increase. In the end, it will break completely, which is an unavoidable and irreversible event.

Half a month has passed since the cooperation agreement was signed with the Merfolk. Most players went to sea ten days ago. The newly logged-in players are all too low-level, and it takes a lot of effort to deal with each monster. In addition, many players have invested in the daily construction of Manhattan Port, such as renovation, mining and weapon forging, which has led to the current shortage of manpower. If the various clans in the country had not dragged their feet, the situation would not be so serious.

"Host, let's open up more slots," the system suggested. Things are already chaotic enough; a little more won't make a difference.

East twirled the letters between his fingers. “Humans are really strange. They can often create miracles when faced with life-or-death situations, but when they are not forced into that situation, they are often keen on internal strife, division, and courting their own demise. Are interests really that important?”

[Host, I am the system.] The system indicated that it didn't understand either.

"Open it up." East couldn't remain indifferent while he could.

[Host, how many will be available?] The system was even considering whether to just issue a public beta announcement directly.

“It’s not the right time yet,” Easter seemed to know what the system was thinking. “Too many players would consume too much energy, and we can’t handle it for the time being.”

The system has been getting too carried away with its faith lately, even daring to dream of a public beta. If it were to actually go public, I'm afraid even if you squeezed the whole system dry, you still wouldn't get enough power.

"How about 100,000?" The system gave him the maximum amount he could afford at the moment.

“Alright, let’s set the date for tomorrow.” East got up from his desk, opened the window, and a cold wind swept in. He had come to this world in the sweltering summer, and now it was almost winter. He didn’t have the energy to lament the passing of time, because the real challenge would come in the dead of winter. Fortunately, he had bought a lot of supplies from Campbell’s merchant, and with the food promised by the twelve court officials, he wouldn’t be in dire straits.

“If possible, build defensive lines and don’t let monsters affect the lives of normal residents too much,” Ister said, resting his hand on the windowsill. “Issue quests so that experienced players can help new players quickly get familiar with the monster-killing process. For experienced players who are close to reaching the required level, reward them with magic wands and swordsmen’s swords. If you can arrange the magic and sword skills they can use, try to provide them with a complete system.”

【No problem.】The system had been idle for a while, and was overjoyed to have something to do.

Easter knew that this was a suitable opportunity, even more suitable than he had initially planned.

[Host, those three players will be back soon.]

Easter's thoughts were interrupted by the system's question, "How's the situation?" Those three must be having a tough time, Easter thought.

They were supposed to return on the day they confirmed they were in the Kingdom of Ramon, but a small accident occurred. It seemed something had happened, and the dark mages began to relocate as a whole. During the relocation, more dark mages gathered around, and these dark mages were accompanied by other species to varying degrees. In order to find out their final destination and their ultimate purpose, the three players had no choice but to stay a little longer.

[Host, see for yourself.] The system conjured a light screen in front of Easter.

What appeared before Ister was an extremely chaotic scene: different kinds of magic were being cast, houses were collapsing, and the ground was blasted open with huge craters.

East saw two familiar faces, one was Cyril, and the other was Pearl. It was obvious that the side they were attacking was the dark magician.

The scene then shifts to the players.

East had seen countless black magic spells in the manuscripts of black magicians, and the cruelty within could be glimpsed from the pages. When East actually witnessed what the black magicians did, he understood those who deeply hated black magicians.

Cruel, inhuman, and devoid of any empathy—that's what black magicians are like. They manipulate the lives of others based on their own likes and dislikes, showing absolutely no reverence for life.

What the black magicians did was even more terrifying and nauseating than straightforward gore. Everyone says that demons are evil and terrifying, but compared to what the black magicians did, demons can be called good, kind, and beautiful.

The screen displayed a large underground space covered in grayish-black bloodstains, with many fresh bloodstains, which looked terrifying under the dim lighting.

Various species are imprisoned in cages: common humans, orcs, and goblins; rare and precious fairies, butterfly races, and rock races; and mermaids and elves who should not be here at all. They have large and small wounds on their bodies, some are missing limbs or organs, and lie dying in their cages with their eyes closed as if they were dead. Those that can be seen with their eyes open all have numb, gray, and lifeless eyes.

The three little firemen were in the best condition among them. They were kept in the same cage, and the white lines on their bodies showed that they had also been abused. However, due to the nature of the players, they were not really harmed and still had good arms and legs.

As the scene shifted, East knew where their missing organs had gone: organs soaking in an unknown solution were displayed in transparent glass bottles, half-used organs were placed on the alchemy table, and test tubes contained a thick, strange red liquid.

East felt nauseous and wanted to vomit.

"I remember that such scenes were pixelated from the player's perspective?"

"Don't worry, host, it's just pixelated," the system replied.

[The battle outside is almost over.] The image on the screen changed accordingly.

East saw many corpses lying on the ground, and also saw several figures fleeing in panic. In the end, the merfolk were victorious.

East stopped watching, went downstairs to the kitchen, and asked Cai Cai to prepare some food. Soon his three players, who had been working hard for so long, would be going home.

Before long, the three players were teleported back to the living room.

"This task is inhuman! Do you know how much psychological damage it has done to me?" Guagua complained. "If the reward isn't good enough, I won't take on a task like this next time, even if I'm just going to fight monsters."

“If you don’t answer, plenty of others will,” Meimei replied.

"Isn't this too horrible to look at?" said Guaguagua. "A kind-hearted person like me can't bear to see this."

“Indeed, those who do not respect life deserve to die,” Yun Mu said. “If I were not so weak, I would have made them experience the pain of being torn to pieces.”

“Three brave little fire warriors, you’ve worked hard, welcome home,” Easter said, patting the three little ones reassuringly. “It’s all in the past, don’t dwell on it too much.”

"Baby, have you been taking good care of yourself?" Yunmu hugged Ister.

Having gone through this ordeal, they could better understand the feelings Esther had when he said those words: "This world is rotten to the core."

This was just their first encounter. What about their king? How many times had he seen and experienced that he would repeatedly tell them about the world's misery?

“I will definitely take good care of myself; it’s you who are suffering,” Easter said. “I asked Cai Cai to prepare some food, which is just enough for you.”

"Sweetheart, you're so thoughtful! I wonder who will benefit from this in the future?"

Yunmu's unintentional remark nearly made Cai Cai, who was carrying the dishes, drop the tray. She thought to herself, "Who else will benefit? That scheming big bad wolf, of course."

"Is this reward a joke?" Guagua exclaimed in surprise, unable to control his voice.

Yunmu and Easter were chatting, while Guagua wasn't really involved. He was checking his game panel and rubbed his eyes in disbelief when he saw the reward from the task completion. That's why he said that.

"What's all the fuss about?" Yun Mu said fiercely. "This game has always been generous with its quest rewards, what's so surprising?"

"But this time, isn't it a bit too generous?" Guagua muttered.

Yunmu felt something was off, so she called up the game panel to check. After reading it, she could barely understand Guagua's surprise. Each level between level 11 and 20 required 10,000 experience points. The experience points given by this mission allowed her to jump directly from level 11 to level 12. The experience points were secondary; what was even more surprising was that the ten swordsmen's swords in her backpack could now be used, and she also had a slot for customizing weapons.

"That's a bit too generous," Yunmu said. Before, there were no weapons available, but now weapons are being given out in bulk as rewards.

"I can use magic now! I can finally use magic!" Guagua was as happy as a two-hundred-pound fool, clutching the magic wand in his short, chubby little hands.

"I want to try going outside," Yunmu said, recovering from her surprise. "We're still in the living room, what do you want to do?"

Guagua sheepishly put away his magic wand. "I've been playing this game for months, and now that I can finally use magic, I just couldn't resist."

“That’s how it is when you level up in games,” Meimei said, eating the dumplings Cai Cai had prepared. “You’ve played so many games, don’t you know that?”

The child ate his bowl, saying, "This is one too."

Yunmu also buried her head in her food, saying, "Baby, don't just watch us eat, you should eat too. Cai Cai's cooking is really good, much better than the takeout I ordered."

East took two sips of the soup with a spoon. It was very delicious. The dumpling skins were thin and the fillings were generous. The meat inside was very chewy and made from a mixture of wild vegetables and fish. It was so delicious that it was irresistible.

East used to dislike eating fish, or rather, he disliked any food with a strong fishy smell. Now he realizes that it wasn't that he didn't like it, but that he hadn't met a good cook.

A bowl of hot dumplings dispelled the fatigue of the three players' journey, leaving them slumped on the sofa, unwilling to move.