Dark Plains - Dragonflame Mountains.
Towering into the clouds, the peak of Dragonhead Peak overlooked the vast plains below that resembled black charcoal.
The dragon scales on the black dragon gleamed with an obsidian-like luster under the dim sunlight, and its majestic wings spread wide, casting a massive shadow upon the ridge.
The dragon's neck curved slightly, making it look like a statue, seemingly pondering some profound question.
Its dragon eyes opened slightly, and the vertical pupils unique to reptiles shone with a fire-like luster.
Death Shadow Murphys (Black Dragon Lord), Disaster Tier boss, level 80, final boss of the Dark Dragon Nest dungeon, and one of the thirteen Black Dragon Lords of the Black Dragon Legion.
Behind the black dragon were dense crowds of monster minions, goblins, gnolls, kobolds... bustling and crowding together. A few massive ogres and bugbears dragged large wooden clubs, yawning boredly. Although entirely impatient with waiting like this, under the radiation of the dragon might, these simple-minded creatures had no thoughts of protesting whatsoever.
A few black wyrmlings stood side by side on the edge of the cliff, mimicking their uncle's posture as they gazed into the distance. On the horizon in the distance where the Dark Plains and the Emerald Forest met, tiny black dots resembling ants could be vaguely seen gradually approaching.
Those were adventurers, brave adventurers, fearless adventurers, greedy adventurers...
The wyrmlings were quite interested at first, but soon grew bored.
A dragonkin vanguard crawled out from the crowd and cautiously asked, "Great Lord Murphys, the enemies have appeared. Should we go down and make preparations?"
The black dragon did not answer, and this wordless silence caused a bead of sweat to pop out on the dragonkin vanguard's forehead. It did not dare to continue probing, cautiously and silently retreating.
A few black wyrmlings whispered among themselves.
"Lord Murphys's dragon might is getting more and more intense."
"Yeah, yeah, what do you think Lord Murphys is thinking about?"
"I bet he's offering a divine prayer. It's said that powerful dragonkind can communicate directly with the Dragon God. Who knows, maybe the Dragon God is issuing a divine decree to Lord Murphys right now."
"I think Lord Murphys must be considering whether to launch a new dragon calamity. Our lair was built almost half a year ago, and those adventurers come to pick a fight every few days. It's time to destroy their cities and plunder their wealth!"
"You guys are all thinking too complicated. Maybe Lord Murphys is just thinking about what to eat tonight. I really want to eat dragon-fire roasted mutton..."
However, the thoughts of the black dragon Murphys were completely unrelated to their guesses.
(*What the hell, is today a holiday or some kind of game event? Why are so many adventurers here? And marching brazenly right through the front of the Dark Plains? Do they not know how I got the nickname 'Death Shadow'?
Oh well, the more that come, the more satisfying the slaughter. As long as no heroes are leading the charge, these adventurers will die no matter how many show up. Speaking of which, the livestream room should be opening soon. I'll just pull off some hardcore stunts in a bit and farm a wave of donations.*)
That's right, the black dragon Murphys was a player, and moreover, a game streamer.
Do not think it strange for a player to play a boss. In this game called Skyworld, players could play any kind of role. Let alone bosses, even sewer rats, deep-sea behemoths in the ocean depths, and even gods in the divine realm might be played by players.
The game Skyworld replaced traditional time-card and item-based fees with a template-based pricing model.
There were dozens of different character templates for players to choose from throughout the entire game, which could roughly be divided into three types based on the payment model.
The first type was the free template, where players could play freely without spending money.
Monster Template, where players could become skeleton zombies, beasts and birds of prey, goblins and murlocs, or even bizarre lifeforms like slimes and man-eating flowers.
Soldier Template, where players played ordinary foot soldiers of various kingdom factions, guarding cities, patrolling the countryside, purging monsters, participating in wars between kingdoms, and serving as cannon fodder on the battlefield.
Civilian Template, which possessed no combat abilities whatsoever, but allowed players to travel around, learn crafts, do business, open shops, and experience civilian life in a fantasy world...
The second type was the paid template. Players needed to pay time-cards to purchase game time.
Adventurer Template, the gameplay closest to traditional game modes: fighting monsters and leveling up, slaying bosses for gear, accepting quests, grinding reputation, and currently the type with the largest player count.
Explorer Template, delving deep into ancient ruins and wastes, exploring ancient secrets, and unearthing legendary treasures...
Vassal Template, which allowed players to own their own manor, farm and develop, lead troops into battle, serve a lord, and participate in wars...
The third type was the VIP template, the most fun and most expensive way to play.
Lord Template, where the gameplay was somewhat similar to real-time strategy games. Lords possessed their own castles and territories, could farm and reclaim wasteland, assemble armies, wage war with other kingdoms, expand territories, and could also lead massive armies to repel the invasions of orcs, undead, and demons to build meritorious service, or even establish their own kingdoms.
Hero Template, where players could play legendary heroes possessing noble bloodlines, prominent backgrounds, and legendary lives. They could adventure alongside adventurers, slay powerful boss overlords, hobnob with kings and fight side by side, or roam between town taverns, romance elves, and drink merrily with dwarves.
Not only did it have the highest degree of freedom, but the hero template also possessed five times the attribute growth of ordinary adventurers, truly being able to take on five at once.
The best part was that heroes could personally participate in various epic storyline events and even directly change the trajectory of the plot. For example, the Dark Portal opening event that happened a month ago—it was rumored that the player who killed the orc chieftain Blackhand at the Dark Portal was a player with the hero template, and the Stormwind Kingdom even erected a statue for this player for the world to look up to and revere.
When this player walked into the city, the guards of Stormwind City would drop to one knee before him to express their respect...
Boss Template, where players of this template could establish their own monster factions, sweep through villages and towns, make enemies of kingdoms, build dungeons, and battle greedy adventurer raid teams.
The single-target combat power of the boss template was the strongest, and some world-tier mega bosses could even take on a thousand single-handedly and wipe out a country alone.
And the most powerful bosses could even instigate a world-ending catastrophe, attempting to destroy the entire Skyworld—the reason it was only an 'attempt' was because every time the world was on the verge of destruction, heroes would appear to save the world and prevent its destruction, so until now no boss had ever truly succeeded in ending the world.
It was rumored that above the VIP templates there was also a deity template, though this feature had not yet been opened in the game. Many players guessed that the game company used it to control the game's storyline, existing as something equivalent to a GM, but for now that was only a guess.
Of course, although it was extremely fun to play, the fees for the VIP templates were also extremely exorbitant. Lords, heroes, and even bosses had tier divisions. Even the lowest bronze-tier hero, or the weakest skeleton-tier boss, required an investment of over one hundred thousand RMB just to unlock.
Usually only tycoon players could afford to play this mode.
Murphys played the boss template, and moreover, was a disaster-tier boss.
(Boss levels were divided into five grades: Skeleton Tier, Terror Tier, Disaster Tier, World Tier, and World-Ending Tier.)
Of course, he was no tycoon player; his black dragon boss character had upgraded bit by bit entirely through his own hard work starting from a tiny black wyrmling.
And this brought up another design in the game—template advancement.
As long as certain conditions were met, a low-tier template could be advanced into a higher-level template.
From a grunt to a vassal, from a vassal to a lord, from a monster to an elite, from an elite to a boss, from a boss to a grand boss...
Of course, template advancement was no easy feat, as the slightest lapse in attention would turn one into a stepping stone on someone else's path to promotion. Mo Fei had brushed shoulders with death countless times during his advancement process, and being able to reach where he was today was, on one hand, a matter of luck, and on the other, a reflection of his gaming skill.
To this day, across the entire Skyworld section of the Starlight Streaming Platform, he firmly held the position of the Monster District's number one big brother, and he could be considered quite a celebrity in the gaming circle of the entire Skyworld.
However, fame came with its own troubles; wouldn't you know it, every few days players would team up to crusade against him, wanting to drop his equipment, clear his dungeon, and use him to make a name for themselves.
Lord players even brought large armies over to trigger 'story campaigns', wanting to use his dragon head to earn reputation and story points.
Ever since he established his dragon nest in the Dragonflame Mountains three months ago, this situation had become even more frequent, reaching a climax when three massive waves of adventurers arrived in a single day.
Mo Fei fought every single day and campaigned daily. In the span of three months, he had fought a solid twenty-plus crusade battles, killing countless adventurers—among whom was even an elite team led by two hero players.
That battle was earth-shattering and ran rivers of blood, ultimately ending with the two heroes dying heroically in battle.
Ever since that tragic battle ended, not a single organized group of players had visited this place for a full week.
It was just that today, the moment Mo Fei logged on, he noticed that the Burning Steppes were a bit lively, which inevitably made him somewhat excited.
Tsk tsk tsk, this bunch of greedy adventurers really never learns. Are you here to deliver equipment and feed kills again? Fine, today I'll teach you a good lesson: beating a boss isn't something you can win just by having more people.
He slowly turned around, sweeping his gaze across the monsters under his command one by one, finally landing on his subordinate, Dragonkin Warlord Boraxus.
Murphys (Black Dragon Lord): "Go make preparations, Borlax. Strike at the old location, bring all the minions, don't let a single adventurer escape, and do not disappoint me."
Boraxus (Dragonkin Warlord): "As you command, great Lord Murphys. I will not let you down—did you all hear that? Move it, you lazy bastards, if you mess up Lord Murphys's business, I'll skin you alive."
The dragonkin warlord brandished his flaming whip, driving the monsters as they headed down the mountain.
Murphys was in no hurry to move out, however. He could fly and join the battle at any time, so he could wait until the monsters were in position for the ambush. Most importantly, he was a streamer; playing a black dragon was awesome, but he still had to do his proper job.
Seeing that it was almost time, he turned on the streaming system, adjusted the angle, and started today's gaming stream.
Before you continue