That night, Murphy opened the ruins of the Mejewa Arena to players as a new "skill trial" map, and it immediately drew plenty of interest.
The players already knew they would have to stay near the Mejewa Hive City for several days while the fallen were revived and the ratmen warlords consolidated their forces. They could explore the Eternal Rift freely, but the shadow elves in the surrounding area had long since fled, and the whole region was ratmen territory. To be honest, there wasn't much entertainment to be found here.
Opening an arena at a time like this was perfect. Battle-crazed players immediately rushed off to fight the ghost of Murphy's father-in-law, only to discover that Blackfurs, that bastard, had posted some ratmen there to collect "admission fees."
Well, well. Charging an "admission fee" for a trial was a classic setup. It was just a matter of paying a little money. The problem was that the ratmen didn't want money. They wanted food.
For every portion of food a player handed over, they could enter the arena once. If they really had nothing to spare, they could help the ratmen hunt nearby for provisions for the coming march.
But players had a hunger meter. It was really just there to ensure that nutritional deficiencies wouldn't weaken their combat ability in the game, but players were picky eaters, too. What's more, these veteran players all had bags full of snacks and even various canned foods from Old Huo's food factory. As a result, Blackfurs's ratmen took in hundreds of portions of all kinds of delicacies in just one morning.
Blackfurs kept all this food for himself, but not to enjoy it.
As a ratman leader with grand ambitions, Blackfurs used the delicacies to win over the mid- and upper-ranking ratmen