My Players Are So Fierce

The testing operation in the dungeon ended half an hour later when Murphy left with the entire harvest from the underground vault, while the Meow trio was almost overwhelmed by the spawned abominations and completely exhausted.

They were carried out of the “Monster Wild Zone” by Murphy, one in each hand.

The other two teams were in similar situations.

Under the “protection” of the Young Lady and Lady Adele, the little players did not suffer any casualties, but they collapsed after being thrown back to the forward defensive line established by Maxim and the Self-Rescue Army.

The distribution of recruit armor and matching weapons improved their combat capabilities, but unfortunately, this small boost did not fundamentally change the difficulty in the face of the massive onslaught of monsters. However, due to the unique experience and leveling system design in《Reality Realm》, the more intense the battle, the more it increased the players’ skill proficiency and control over their abilities.

After a round of dungeon clearing, each player leveled up on average.

This efficiency cannot be called unimpressive.

The Young Lady and Lady Adele’s side also had astonishing gains. Though there were no armor or weapons in these three clan vaults, they contained vast quantities of various materials.

From sturdy and durable rolls of cloth to leathers specifically for making armor, and even common Dwarven gunpowder for explosives and all sorts of metal fittings obtained from black-market dealers.

According to the Young Lady’s calculations, the resources from the four vaults were just enough to support the long-term operations of two hundred-person teams.

This must have been the original plan of the clan!

After Kadman City was invaded, they dispatched clan guards to engage the invaders in street battles in the lower city districts. Unfortunately, man proposes, but God disposes.

The invasion of Kadman City did indeed happen, but there was no such thing as street battles.

The enemy directly employed weapons of mass destruction, instantly wiping out the Blood Vulture Clan.

What era is it now, still fighting traditional street battles?

That’s so outdated!

“Time was pressing, so some resources were left behind in the vaults before they could be taken away.”

Murphy stood at the defensive line and said to his players, who were sitting on the ground eating dry rations and drinking water:

“If you have energy left later, you can come to me for Blood Vulture Clan members’ blood to unlock the secret vaults, then try going back to search for any supplies you can use.

I know this is difficult, warriors.

But in this current difficult stage, we must learn to make proper use of all available resources.”

“Hmm?”

This statement made Meow blink his eyes. He nudged the Joy Stick next to him, who was maintaining his firearms, and whispered:

“This sounds like the rhythm of a daily dungeon, it seems the dungeon testing went smoothly.”

“Smoothly, my ass! These NPCs are so stingy, we escorted them in, but they won’t even let us into the vaults to scavenge,” Joy Stick complained ruefully.

“How are we supposed to replenish all the ammo we expended this time? I really regret choosing the gunner job now. I just talked to Maxim and found out that besides a place called West Cove in the northern part, firearms are rarely used in the rest of Transia.

People in the Kadman region mostly prefer bows and crossbows, damn it.

Thankfully Miss Miriam can maintain and make simple modifications to hunting rifles, otherwise I’d be dead worried.”

“Meow, stop whispering over there, hurry up,” Three to Five Pecks, the “stamina freak” who benefited from his character’s rapid recovery trait, had already shouldered his crest shield and called out to his boss:

“The vault mission is done, but the rescue mission isn’t. While the area hasn’t respawned after we killed that wave of monsters, let’s go in and take a look. Our main storyline rescue mission has a time limit, only 48 hours left.”

“Damn, don’t we get to rest?”

There was a commotion among the student group as they cursed about how realistic this game made even fatigue, but they still picked up their weapons to regroup and re-enter the area near the vaults to search for any survivors while the forward area had not “respawned” monsters yet.

Meanwhile, at the defensive line, a young militia member stared wide-eyed as Lord Murphy’s warriors joked and chatted as they walked into that ominous area. He gulped and whispered to the person next to him:

“These mountain folk from the north…aren’t they afraid of death at all? They just fought their way out of those monster hordes, yet they don’t even rest and…”

“They are Lord Murphy’s warriors!”

The low voice of Maxim, commander of the “Kadman Civilian Self-Defense Force”, came from behind, making the young militia member instantly shrink his head.

He still remembered the scene from last night when Maxim, this peculiar and cold-blooded vampire blood servant, executed seven deserters at the survivor camp, leaving everyone with a very fearful impression of him.

But at this moment, Maxim did not rebuke the militia under his command.

Leaning on his spirit-imbued poisoned blade named “Ambition and Dream” found in the vault, he watched the players’ figures disappear into the roiling astral shadows with a strong sense of admiration and a tone of respect as he said to the young militia member:

“Their disdain for death is worth learning from all of us. They are true warrior role models! I have fought side-by-side with them, but I still do not have a clear understanding of the limits of their will.

They seem to never feel fear.

Only such people are worthy of being called ‘warriors’. Compared to them, we fall far short.

You all continue guarding here!”

Maxim had rested for a while after fighting all night last night and felt somewhat recovered. He told his squad leaders:

“I’m going in to search for survivors. If I return and see you retreating, go ahead and commit suicide! Lord Murphy has no need for cowards under his command!”

With that, the vampire warrior grabbed a sturdy veteran’s shield and, under the reverent gaze of the militia, also disappeared into the swirling astral shadows following the players’ footsteps.

Since following Lord Murphy not even fifteen days ago, although a short time, the scale and intensity of the battles Maxim has experienced already surpassed those of many self-proclaimed veterans.

He was a naturally talented swordsman, and years of training combined with his reinforced will allowed his progress to be on par with the players.

He could feel himself getting closer and closer to the Black Iron Body rank, and although he claimed to be indifferent about Lady Adele becoming Lord Murphy’s progeny, the joining of that powerful and cold lady still put immense pressure on Maxim.

He had to become Lord Murphy’s most loyal and sharp sword, so naturally, he could not fear any danger.

He had to learn from the players!

——

At noon, in a secluded location below the ruined city wall defensive line, Tris, wearing a fresh red cloak and having changed into a fitted red dress from somewhere, looked on with curiosity as Murphy prepared to cast a spell.

She was interested in the “Otherworld Warrior Summoning” that Little Murphy mentioned.

After hearing that Little Murphy had once again established contact with beings from another realm and would summon them to this world today, she ran over to observe.

Of course, it was not just mere observation.

Tris held an exquisite “dog tag” in her hand, fashioned into the classic soldier badge design under Murphy’s guidance, suspended by a silver chain and adorned with some vampire-style runes.

These were spirit items Tris had just crafted.

They were alchemical objects meant to provide life-force camouflage and physical projection stabilization for Murphy’s otherworld warriors. The principle was not complicated, but required extremely high alchemical mastery to produce.

At the very least, the Young Lady would not have been able to make so many spirit dog tags in such a short time.

This fully demonstrated that beneath Tris’ unassuming demeanor, she was indeed a former expert, casually solving problems that had Murphy stumped.

“These things will actively absorb stray spirit energy to help your warriors better stabilize their physical projections. They can also maintain their bodies in a corpse-like state for at least three hours after death to prevent anyone from noticing.

The attached spell will alert them when others try to detect them, and they will bleed more when injured, but it won’t actually weaken them further.

As per your request, everything is designed to make them appear more ‘real’, so I’ve sacrificed the protective spells these should have.”

Tris handed Murphy one of the dog tags.

She said, “They can carve their own names on it, which isn’t difficult. They’re also easy to recover, but if destroyed, they’ll need to be remade.”

“Thanks,” Murphy said softly.

Tris lightly tapped his head in response and pouted, “Say ‘thank you’ to me again and I’ll hit you! You’re my blood descendant, this is what I should do for you. Now enough talk, let me see how your summoning works so I can identify any potential risks.”

“Mmm.”

Murphy’s heart raced a little.

He knew this was not actually a summoning at all, but a cheat code from the system admin, yet he could not refuse Tris’ request.

He could never reject Tris’ demands.

Whether spending money on booze or whatever she wanted.

Murphy took a deep breath and made the casting motions typical of a summoning spell. He then activated his summoning talent to summon the 24 fresh, rosy-cheeked newbies from another world who had already received invitation codes and game helmets, all at once before him.

The process was no different from before.

Spirit lines danced and traced out the players’ forms, tall and short, fat and thin. To him, everything seemed normal, but Tris’ gaze from beneath her hood grew ever deeper.

Just now, she had truly felt Murphy’s spirit energy open a connection to an unfamiliar dimension in a way she could not comprehend at all.

The smoothness of it was unprecedented in her life!

This fully proved that Murphy’s claim of not understanding the principles behind this summoning was likely true. Such a level of summoning had already surpassed the scope of what could be contained within the definition of “otherworld summoning.”

It could even be called a unique talent!

Perhaps his “blessing” from the astral realm, or an even more mysterious and profound sub-space, was indeed a fortunate consequence of that evil incident meticulously set up by Salrokdar.

“You must conceal your ability!”

Tris placed her hand on Murphy’s shoulder and said in a solemn, hushed tone:

“Others cannot be allowed to see it.

Maxim’s loyalty to you can be confirmed, but Miriam is a threat! I suspect that girl Femis has probably already guessed the truth. Her spirit talent is not as high as mine but still formidable.

You must find a way to make them keep your secret.

Your life depends on it!

The Circle Tower, the Castilia Great Tree, the Winter Wolf Church, even the Sun and Moon priests of the distant Sanghai Empire, those draconic mages living in the eastern ancient Karlem nation…

Any sufficiently capable spirit practitioner on this continent would have immense interest in your talent.

You are almost the only person I’ve heard of capable of establishing such a stable connection with other realms, an excellent, truly unique specimen.

This alone puts you in danger.”

“I understand.”

Murphy placed his hand on Tris’ hand on his shoulder and said:

“I’ll protect myself. Now I need to have a conversation with my new warriors, and I’ll speak their language. Do you want to continue listening in?”

“I have this to translate,” Tris grabbed the computation bead Murphy had given her, but Murphy just shrugged.

The bead’s translation function provided vague translations.

Murphy had modified its parameters using the powerful system admin abilities, ensuring vague translations would filter out anything “NPCs” should not hear.

Especially information about the true nature of the other world.

So unless Tris suddenly learned the language of these “otherworlders” from scratch, she would not be able to fully understand their origins, habits, and traditions.

To learn Chinese and Mandarin from nothing, without a dictionary or teacher’s guidance?

Tsk tsk, the difficulty would be comparable to becoming a Spirit Sovereign!

The 24 little players’ forms had finished taking shape, including 23 males and 1 female.

As the gentle white light from the game helmets dissipated, the players opened their eyes in this world for the first time. After that instinctive first breath, they became fully awake.

What met their eyes was the broken gap of a city.

Further away, the roiling, ominous astral shadows covered the horizon, blocking out all sunlight. The oppressive atmosphere and polluted spirit-laced winds battered them, causing the players in front to instinctively raise their hands to shield their eyes.

Then they saw the true-to-life details on their fingers, the wrinkles in their skin, the feeling of their nails, even distinct body hair.

They could block the wind and sand simply by raising their hands, that utterly realistic tactile sensation and world perceived through their senses made all their doubts about this so-called 100% realistic world disappear in an instant.

“Holy shit!”

“Awesome!”

“66666”

“Damn hot!”

All sorts of screams and exclamations rang out, to which Murphy was long accustomed.

Feeling the weakened spirit force within, he looked on with satisfied amusement as the little players frolicked about like kindergarteners on a field trip, appearing utterly disorderly. He did not see anything wrong with them, but rather thought the quality of this batch of new players was quite good.

At least none of them immediately dropped their pants like Leading Pigeon did.

For Murphy, who urgently needed manpower, this was enough. As long as they could run, jump, and talk, each one brimming with energy like fresh sprouting leeks, it filled him with the urge to cultivate their growth.

What more could he ask for?

But to Tris, this scene exuded an incomprehensible strangeness. Like that tall guy lying on the ground licking dirt over there…

This… is an otherworld warrior?

Uh, it felt rather unreliable.