Story Campaign [Song of the Dragon Slayers]

That voice was low and echoed heavily, sounding exceptionally familiar.

"Murphys?"

"Who else could it be? You idiot, you still have the mind to sleep when danger is already at hand, you sluggish fool."

Mo Fei realized then that he was dreaming. Ever since he had started playing Skyworld, perhaps because what occupied his thoughts by day appeared in his dreams at night, he often dreamed about the Black Dragon Murphys. Sometimes, he himself was the Black Dragon in those dreams, though he did not have much control over his body.

At other times, the Black Dragon appeared as a separate individual in his dreams and even chatted with him.

But the Black Dragon's attitude was usually terrible. Every other word was "stupid human" or "lowly ant," exactly like the way he spoke during his streams.

After a while, Mo Fei got used to it. He guessed it might be some reflection of his subconscious, or perhaps he had immersed himself too deeply in the game and his thinking had been affected.

Even so, he was not particularly worried about it. He actually found it rather interesting. Listening to the Black Dragon's foul mouth now, he was not angry at all and instead asked curiously, "What danger are you talking about?"

"Heh heh, do you even need to ask me? Haven't you noticed anything? I'd wager you have already sensed it. It's just that you hypocritical humans excel at deception, deceiving others and yourselves. You never dare face the problem head-on."

"Hey, could you be a little clearer? Can't you give me a hint?"

"You'll know soon enough. Now—wake up!" As the Black Dragon spoke, he suddenly revealed a vicious smile brimming with malice.

Mo Fei immediately sensed trouble. "Wait, don't use that move again."

But it was already too late. The Black Dragon opened his bloody maw, and scorching dragonfire surged toward him, instantly engulfing his entire body.

Mo Fei felt agonizing pain as though his whole body were burning. He jolted awake from his dream and sat in the darkness, drenched in cold sweat.

He wiped the sweat from his face. Damn it, why did he use this trick to scare him awake every time? Was there something wrong with him?

Had he burned too many people in the game, causing guilt to emerge from his subconscious? Or had his mind become twisted, making him uncomfortable if he did not burn people? Damn it, he needed to see a psychiatrist someday. Playing a nonhuman character too deeply seemed like it could leave psychological scars.

He had seen plenty of news about actors going mad because they could not break free from the roles they played. I'm not going to end up like that too, am I?

Just as he was thinking about it, the music of Dragonkin's Song suddenly rang out. It was his phone ringtone. He picked up his phone and glanced at it. It was the supervisor calling.

"Hello, what is it?"

"Mo Fei, get up, now! Something huge has happened! Someone has kicked down the door to your instance! The other side is led by a Hero called Dawn Divine Sword, and they've already triggered a story campaign! The campaign is called [Song of the Dragon Slayers]. They're obviously coming for you, so hurry over!"

What? Mo Fei instantly woke up completely.

He quickly got dressed, splashed cold water on his face, and rushed straight to the streaming room. On the way, he got a general understanding of what had happened from the supervisor.

Just ten minutes earlier, around three in the morning, a full Adventurer party had suddenly appeared at the entrance to the Dark Dragon Nest instance. Without pausing for even a moment, they had cut their way straight up Dragonfire Peak as if slicing through vegetables.

The elite Dragonkin guards at the instance entrance had not even lasted five minutes before being wiped out. By now, the Adventurers had entered the instance and triggered a story campaign.

So that was it! So that was it!

Mo Fei finally understood why he had felt that something was off earlier. That entire guild had been bait meant to draw his attention. The real killing move had been waiting here all along.

This required some explanation.

Story campaigns were special game events that could only be triggered once certain conditions were met.

The most common kind was a showdown between a Hero and a boss. If it was merely a party of Adventurers attacking an instance, a story campaign would not be triggered.

From the perspective of the game's story, Adventurers did not exist as individuals. They were merely background elements. Therefore, no matter how many times Adventurers killed a boss, that boss could revive again.

Heroes were the same. It did not matter if they were killed by monsters in the wild. They could wake up in their own bedroom the next moment, lie around for a few days, and soon be jumping about full of life again.

But once a story campaign was triggered, the situation became entirely different.

Skyworld had a system called the Sky Annals. All sorts of events that occurred in the game would be recorded in the Sky Annals, and the development of the game's entire storyline progressed according to those records.

If a boss was killed by Adventurer players, then as far as the game's story was concerned, it had never happened and would not be recorded in the Sky Annals. In the story, Adventurers were only background elements. Although such a group truly existed, they did not exist as individuals.

After all, there were countless Adventurers and they could revive infinitely, while the number of bosses was limited. If bosses truly died after being killed, no number of bosses would be enough for Adventurers to slaughter. It would not make sense in the story either. Say some Demon King wanted to destroy the world, then got killed by a group of Adventurers led by someone called Li Gou Dan, Wang Er Mazi, or I'm Your Second Uncle. Who could accept a storyline like that?

So in previous games, no matter how many times players killed a boss, once the instance reset, that boss would pop up again alive and kicking. In the game's story, Adventurers had nothing to do with it at all. Bosses could only be killed by heroic figures in the storyline.

Skyworld followed the same principle. It was no big deal for a boss to be killed by Adventurers, but if a named boss or Hero was killed during a story campaign, the event would be recorded in the Sky Annals and become part of the game's history. It could never be changed, and naturally, they could never revive again. This kind of death was also known as a story kill.

Just like now. If Mo Fei killed this Hero player called Dawn Divine Sword, the Skyworld Annals would record that on a certain day of a certain year, the Hero Dawn Divine Sword led a group of Adventurers to attack the Dark Dragon Nest and was killed in battle by Black Dragon Lord Mephisto.

From then on, that character would disappear completely. Of course, the reverse was also true. If Mo Fei was killed by the other side, he would truly die as well.

The Sky Annals would record it.

The Hero Dawn Divine Sword led a group of Adventurers to slay the evil Black Dragon Lord Mephisto and rescue the princess...

The risks were enormous, but naturally, so were the rewards. Killing a named boss or Hero during a story campaign, including certain special NPCs and elite monsters, granted a large amount of story points. Those were crucial for Heroes and bosses to raise their rank. The more famous the enemy killed, the more story points gained.

Mo Fei had advanced to Black Dragon Lord, a Disaster Tier boss, because quite a few Heroes and bosses had died at his hands.

Furthermore, killing a boss or Hero in a story campaign allowed one to obtain all of the other party's relics, including related story items. For example, Mo Fei had once killed a human Hero and obtained a story weapon, [Frost Blade]. That weapon was now on his drop list. If Adventurers killed him, there was a 7% chance that a knockoff version of the weapon would drop.

But if a Hero killed him, the original weapon would drop with a 100% chance.

For bosses, the greatest use of these story items was strengthening their loot pool. Good drops attracted more Adventurer parties to challenge them, while also reducing the loss of loot points when they were defeated. Drops generated by story items consumed only 50% of the loot points.

For Heroes, including humanoid bosses, these story items were genuinely powerful weapons that could be used directly. They were also much stronger than the knockoff versions used by Adventurers and even possessed extraordinary powers those knockoffs lacked.

Take the [Frost Blade] in Mo Fei's hands, for example. The weapon effect of the knockoff version used by Adventurer players was—Frost Power: Freeze and slow one target for 3 seconds, dealing 100 Frost damage.

But the genuine Frost Blade had a weapon effect called Froststorm: Create a Froststorm that continuously freezes all enemies within 100 meters, dealing a total of 1,000 Frost damage over 30 seconds. Remaining within the Froststorm for 6 seconds also triggered a freezing effect.

It was the true difference between seller photos and buyer photos.

And that was only one of Mo Fei's many spoils.

Because the rewards were so immense, as long as they were confident they could kill the other side, Heroes and bosses would often strike without hesitation. Win, and soar to the heavens. Lose, and delete the character and start over.