Tonight's Muster Roll Is Posted: Murphy Calls the Roll, 33,000 Slots-Surely One Has My Name

Midnight. The "True Otherworld" update would finish in six hours.

Murphy had been invited to Old Qin's command center. He was just in time to see Master Qin eject himself from the experimental "Astral Warrior" power armor.

The black-and-red armor was covered from head to toe in insect blood and severed limbs, as if it had taken a roll in a pool of red and green gore. Even its standard-issue Sentry chainsword had overheated twice, a clear sign of just how brutal the battle on the Locust Great Wall had been.

"The nearby swarm launched an all-out assault. At the most dangerous moment, they dug two tunnels beneath the Great Wall, but the players and their Gnoll Construct Guardians drove them back.

"Hogg and Bobok led a desperate charge with support from the Lightchaser. With help from the elven druids, the Gnoll sage managed to kill the Nest Master, which had evolved to the fifth stage. That finally broke the swarm."

Old Qin sat down heavily in his chair. Rubbing his aching forehead, he said to Murphy,

"The barbarians and Northerners performed exceptionally well this time. Commander Frode held the front line of the Great Wall with a battalion of the barbarians' 'Steelheart Berserkers.' Marshal Baldwin sacrificed his flagship to hold off the flying insects' suicide attacks.

"The soldiers are celebrating.

"But the truth is, if the fighting stays this intense, there's no telling whether this wall can hold for even a month.

"Lord Murphy, we can't keep throwing away lives!

"This horrifying casualty rate will upset the gnolls' life-and-death balance. My recommendation is to equip our soldiers with steel armor immediately. If flesh and blood can't defeat a powerful enemy, then steel will have to carry our fighting spirit.

"Exoskeletons, imitation power armor, or even things like Steel Bears—we