Underground Ruins

Duanmu Huai was not surprised by the dwarfs' request. In fact, many long-running quests players encountered had similar plots.

Accept Quest A to lead NPC A to find NPC B. NPC B was absent, so you accepted Quest B to find them. Then you found NPC B, but they still could not return. If you wanted them to go back, you had to complete Quest C given by NPC B. But to complete Quest C, you first had to finish prerequisite Quest D... Yeah, his blood pressure shot right up.

Of course, for players, most of these quests could generally be simplified into: "Who do I kill?" "Where do I kill them?" and "How many do I kill?"

The same was true for Duanmu Huai now.

"We recently dug up some ancient ruins underground!"

Where to kill was no longer a problem.

"But what we didn't expect was that there was a bunch of damned vermin Ratmen inside! No idea where they came from, but they actually Set Up Camp right under our noses!"

Who to kill had an answer too.

"We plan to wipe out those vermin for good! But we're short-handed at the moment. If you're willing to help, we'll make an exception and let you pass through to Bartonia!"

The question of how many to kill had been settled as well.

Timed Quest Activated: "Disinfection"

Quest Objective: Destroy the Ratmen camp

The Ratmen camp beneath the Gray Mountain Range is a thorn in the dwarfs' side. Wipe it out completely and eliminate the threat forever!

"Fine. No problem."

Seeing the quest notification appear before him, Duanmu Huai gave his answer without hesitation.

"I should make this clear, it isn't that I... What did you say?"

Duanmu Huai's attitude genuinely caught the dwarf off guard. He had thought he would need to do some convincing, but Duanmu Huai had agreed remarkably readily.

"Are you sure? This isn't an easy task. Let me make this clear: those Ratmen aren't easy to deal with..."

"But only then will you let us cross the Gray Mountain Range and head to Bartonia, right?"

Duanmu Huai could not be bothered with beating around the bush and went straight to the point.

"Or can you offer a different condition?"

"Urgh..."

Hearing Duanmu Huai's rebuttal, the dwarf pondered for a moment before suddenly slapping his thigh.

"Fine, it's settled then! Big guy, don't let me down!"

Duanmu Huai had no interest in causing trouble, and the dwarf had a straightforward, fiery temper. The two sides quickly reached an agreement—Elisa and the others could rest in the dwarfs' fortress for now, while Duanmu Huai would take Okegis and join the dwarfs in attacking the Ratmen camp underground. Duanmu Huai trusted the dwarfs' honor. Though they could be hot-tempered and stubborn as stone, they kept their promises and never went back on their word. That was why he had agreed so readily to join them in exterminating the Ratmen. If it had been another race, Duanmu Huai might have had to consider what Schemes and Tricks they had in mind.

"Please be careful, Knight."

Before Duanmu Huai and Okegis departed, Elisa and Christine watched him anxiously and offered their blessings.

"Don't worry. It's only a small group of Ratmen. I can handle it."

Duanmu Huai appeared quite calm. After comforting Elisa for a few moments, he turned to the Old Knight and the Elf Scout.

"Then I'll leave them to you. Though I doubt there'll be any danger in dwarf territory."

"Leave it to us. This is also a good opportunity to buy some supplies."

The Elf Scout replied with a cheerful smile, while the Old Knight, Kado, nodded.

After that, Duanmu Huai left once more to meet up with the dwarfs.

"Big guy, you're right on time!!"

Seeing Duanmu Huai again, the leading dwarf was delighted. He laughed heartily and waved at Duanmu Huai. Behind him stood heavily armored, fully armed dwarf warriors. Clearly, the dwarfs were just as swift and decisive in their work, never sloppy or half-hearted.

Duanmu Huai's arrival stirred up the dwarf warriors. Some of them even mistook him for a Greenskin Orc wearing armor... Well, Duanmu Huai could only pretend he had not heard that.

Once both sides had joined up, they set off together through the tunnel toward the underground ruins.

Fortunately, although Duanmu Huai was tall, the passages dug by the dwarfs were equally spacious rather than narrow tunnels, so they did not cause him much trouble. He followed behind the dwarfs through the excavated passageways. After who knew how long, the world before him finally opened up.

Before Duanmu Huai was a vast, deep underground hollow several football fields in size. It was filled with all manner of ruined structures. Under the sickly green glow, Duanmu Huai could clearly see Ratmen happily rummaging through junk in the depths of the ruins.

Yet Duanmu Huai was not concerned with those Ratmen. Instead, the moment he entered the ruins, he was immediately drawn to their style.

Hmm? This style was...

"Big guy, do you see them?"

Before Duanmu Huai could inspect the ruins more closely, the dwarf's voice rang out again and pulled him back. He lowered his head and looked at the dwarf by his feet—this was the lord of the place, Brock Stone Trough.

"Yeah. What's your plan?"

"We want you to go in first and draw the Ratmen's attention, then we'll launch a surprise attack! Catch them completely off guard!"

As he spoke, Brock stared up at Duanmu Huai with his beady eyes. Duanmu Huai nodded without hesitation.

"No problem. Leave it to me. Just follow behind."

Although Brock's plan sounded somewhat like he was sending Duanmu Huai out to take the bullets, Duanmu Huai did not care. This was his combat style anyway. Besides, at two and a half meters tall and clad in Power Armor, was he supposed to sneak around and take potshots from the shadows instead of charging forward as the vanguard?

Never mind whether that would fit the aesthetic; his shooting skills... were genuinely terrible.

In fact, among the players' starting equipment, aside from the Power Hammer and Chainsaw Sword, there were also ranged weapons like Bolters to choose from. But Duanmu Huai had never picked them. For some reason, his shooting was abysmal. He was the kind of human outline artist who could aim forever in an FPS and still miss. That was one of the reasons he had chosen the melee Rage build in the game.

The only ranged weapon he could use now was the grenade launcher built into his Power Armor. He occasionally tossed out a Sonic Grenade to control the field—its area of effect was so large that it did not matter whether he hit anything.

The second reason was... firearms did not deal much damage to Chaos Demons.

According to the game's explanation, Chaos Demons were products formed from the most primal emotions and soul power of living beings. Thus, as ancient fears lurking in the deepest reaches of the soul, only weapons like blades and swords could truly harm them, while firearms were far less effective.

The players had argued fiercely over that. By that logic, wouldn't bows, slingshots, and spears deal high damage too?

Or if I grabbed a bone club, wouldn't its damage go through the roof? After all, the attack power of a bone club was roughly equivalent to a spaceship, wasn't it?—Anyone saying that had clearly watched 2001: A Space Odyssey too many times.

Although players had plenty of complaints and grumbles, they ultimately had no choice but to obediently equip melee weapons... After all, melee weapons were very useful in many situations.

Especially when they ran out of ammunition.

"Then I'm going in first!"

As his words fell, Duanmu Huai leaped into the air. At the same time, his Jetpack erupted with a fierce blast of air. Duanmu Huai shot through the sky like a meteor and crashed directly into the Ratmen camp!!

"Skreeeeee!!!!"

The suddenly attacked Ratmen camp instantly erupted into chaos. The Ratmen who had been happily digging through trash in the ruins sprang up as if someone had stabbed them in the backside, shrieking as they charged toward Duanmu Huai.

Seeing this, Brock raised his battle axe high and gave the order.

"Attack!!!"