Gamers of the Underworld (Web Novel)
chapter-36

Chapter 36: I Have a Bold Idea

Sherlock thought that after the mission announcement, the gamers would scream “Waaaa!” and charge towards the Houndhead Men. After being annihilated, they would carry bricks, train their skills, and purchase equipment before shouting “Waaaa!” and dying under the Houndhead Men’s clubs again.

After ten to twenty cycles, the Dungeon would expand to twice its size, and the gamers would have defeated the Houndhead Men and received generous rewards.

Perhaps the Houndhead Men would be frightened by the fearless Goblins and retreat deep into the Spiders’ Lair. Sherlock already made plans to capture the Houndhead Men by using Mana if they escaped. Then the gamers could continue to challenge the Houndhead Men until they completed their Main Plot Mission.

He didn’t expect that the Main Plot Mission would bring him lots of trouble.

It went like this…

“Simba, could you tell me about the Houndhead Men? It’s that notorious leader of the Houndhead Men, Cramer! As a highly-skilled Blacksmith, do you have rich adventuring experience from when you were young?”

BurningChestHair asked Simba casually as he handed his Hiltless Short Sword to Simba to get it improved to Level 4.

He was being hunted by the Houndhead Men because of his Winterfell Short Sword, which he dropped at the Spiders’ Lair entrance. The Short Sword was now the prize of a Houndhead Man, who would be showing it off.

“Pa!”

Simba broke the Level 3 Hiltless Short Sword viciously and threw the broken Short Sword into a furnace by the side before he said coldly, “Your sword’s broken.”

“No—!”

As BurningChestHair howled in despair, Simba put away his hammer, extinguished the flame in the furnace, and closed down the Blacksmith Shop. Under the gazes of the other gamers, he walked towards the Dungeon Core Main Hall.

Sherlock was planning the future development of the Dungeon when he saw Simba walk in. Sherlock sat down, supported his chin with his hand, and asked, “Simba, were you harassed by the Goblins again? I told you to ignore them. Soon, they won’t bother you.”

“Lord Sherlock! While I was forging, I casually mentioned that Houndhead Men are low intellect creatures. Within an hour, the Goblins whose heads show strange green words gathered and asked me twice. Every time, they would ask the same question about the Houndhead Men’s leader, Cramer! The notorious leader who instilled fear in Underworld citizens since young!” Simba was puffing with such anger that his beard flew up.

He shouted furiously, “If I knew that one day I would be harassed by the Goblins due to Cramer, I swear with the honor of my ancestors that I would have hammered Cramer when I was young!”

Sherlock watched the hot-tempered Simba and gave him a cup of bloody chrysanthemum before calming him. He said he would chide those pestering Goblins and reminded Simba to ignore them. Once Simba had cooled down, Sherlock sent the angry Dwarf out.

This wasn’t Simba’s first complaint, but it was the first time Sherlock felt for him.

This was because the gamers also pestered Sherlock. Within two hours of the announcement, tens of gamers tried to obtain information about Cramer from him.

The gamers asked all the “NPCs”—Simba, Moroes, Little Fairy, and Sherlock.

They asked again and again.

“Do you know the Houndhead Men? Do you know their leader, Cramer?”

Simba was harassed for an hour because he uttered the words “Houndhead Men are low intellect creatures”.

Moroes adhered strictly to Sherlock’s suggestion and kept quiet on all topics other than combat skills, so he was spared the harassment.

No matter what questions were posed to the little Fairy, she would reply, “Even if I die and rot in the soil, I’ll never help you evil Devils!”

The gamers had new plans after they harassed the NPCs for two hours.

Twenty gamers stripped themselves of equipment and left all their metal coins in the Dungeon. They asked other gamers to look after their belongings and set out wearing their initial shorts and shirts.

Sherlock didn’t understand what the gamers were doing as he used Mana to observe the unarmed gamers setting out. They ran to the Spiders’ Lair entrance and shouted “Waaaaa!” as they charged at the Houndhead Men.

A massacre ensued. Some gamers were hammered to the ground, while others escaped to the “Safe Zone”, which was within Sherlock’s radius of dominance. The Houndhead Men hollered helplessly and left at that point.

Sherlock thought that the surviving gamers would escape back to the Dungeon. Instead, they held a short discussion at the safe zone before charging at the Houndhead Men again. They were massacred. Sherlock saw the gamers fleeing all over before being hammered to death. The Houndhead Men dragged most of the corpses back to the Spiders’ Lair, while some of the corpses became their food.

A series of Teleport Portals appeared at the Dungeon Core Main Hall, and the gamers walked out. The otherworld gamers made use of Sherlock’s Mana to create new characters.

“What are they doing? Is that the otherworld’s way of playing games?”

Sherlock was puzzled. Although the gamers loved cruel and exciting battles, he didn’t know they enjoyed being slaughtered while naked and defenseless.

“They are probing.”

Bru began to explain.

“This is one way to probe a BOSS in the otherworld. When they have no strategy, they will fight numerous times with the BOSS to determine his skills, attack interval, and his movement patterns before designing a combat strategy. For example, in “World of Warcraft”, “Online Swordsman 3”, and “Final Fantasy”, gamers would use probing to discover the weaknesses of a BOSS. Using this method, they could defeat superior opponents.”

Sherlock didn’t understand completely, but he got the gist of it.

“The gamers make use of repeated battles to familiarize themselves with their opponents before coming up with a combat strategy?”

“Lord Sherlock, you seemed prejudiced against the otherworld’s gamers. In the otherworld, they have aliases such as “Fourth Calamity”, “Terrifying Apeman”, and “Invincible Kicking Man”. This isn’t the first time they used such methods. When they couldn’t defeat the Spiders, they familiarized themselves with combat skills before defeating Spiders by using teamwork. It’s the same principle with the Houndhead Men,” Bru said.

Sherlock witnessed the teamwork of the gamers when they fought the Spiders, but he attributed their success to Moroes’ combat training. After Bru’s explanation, the gamers’ capabilities were beyond his expectation.

Sherlock initially treated the Goblins like hard laborers. He opened up the Spiders’ Lair for the gamers to train their combat skills and provide an entertainment outlet for them. Though the gamers had to work hard carrying bricks, they had a chance to relax.

The other Dungeons had similar entertainment outlets, but the normal Goblins preferred watching performances, wrestling, and playing with mud. The otherworld Goblins preferred adventure.

Sherlock thought that there wasn’t much of a difference, though the adventurous Goblins saved him considerable Magic Stones.

As long as they worked hard and didn’t cost Sherlock many Magic Stones, he was nonchalant about their entertainment preferences.

Sherlock didn’t see the Goblins as warriors but as cheap laborers that he could exploit. He could also enjoy their interesting discussions on the official website and discussion forum.

The Goblins were able to proactively gather information and find out about their opponents using combat before devising a combat strategy. Most importantly, they had unlimited revivals.

Sherlock gazed at the naked revived gamers who were wearing their clothes and joking at the same time.

“Bru, I have a bold idea,” Sherlock said.