Chapter 26: Chapter 26: Assembling the Bed Crossbow (Additional Update)
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Xiaoyao Studios being ranked fourth doesn’t mean they lack top-notch strength.
On the contrary, this studio follows an elite strategy, only recruiting like-minded brothers. Of course, to become one of their “brothers”, you have to be exceptionally talented.
To join Xiaoyao, you must get approval from four fifths of its members. And they have a seemingly ridiculous rule – every time a new member joins, the shares are evenly re-distributed amongst everyone.
Many people have mocked this seemingly idealistic model, but this studio has passed the test of time, its influence growing ever stronger.
The studio ranked fifth has several times more members, but they still fall behind Xiaoyao.
This studio is incredibly united, people jokingly refer to it as the “Brotherhood”.
All members are employees, but everyone has their role, and they all own an equal share of the company.
Years ago, Li Yao switched from a thief to a hunter, and managed to survive a year or two in the studio. His dream was to join the Brotherhood and use this power to challenge the Prosperous Era.
But back then, Li Yao was not the quasi-god level expert he would become years later. He was just an overlooked little hunter, who, although promising, did not stand out much.
Back then, Li Yao was humiliated by the Brotherhood. Many brothers laughed at his overconfidence, making him want to die of shame.
That humiliation made Li Yao realize another kind of cruelty in the game.
The person who led the mockery of Li Yao was Xiaoyao Third Brother, the leader of the second team in Xiaoyao Studios.
The person responsible for overall management and daily operations in Xiaoyao Studios is known as Big Brother.
The leader of the first team is Xiaoyao Second Brother. Although Xiaoyao Third Brother is ranked third and leads the second team, his commanding capabilities are almost on par with Second Brother. The fact that he can lead the second team shows his abilities – even in China, his commanding capabilities are among the top fifty.
When Li Yao looked down, the team of over twenty was on the brink of collapse.
Mine Puppet Moka is a true outdoor Boss, the more people that fight him, the more health he has. With twenty-five people, Moka’s health reached fearsome levels. As a large mechanical puppet, its defense, attack, and group attack are all abnormal.
Even though they lured Moka to the open space in the mine, which is on the edge of the first and second tiers, the field was still not large enough.
After operating for five years in his previous life, when Moka couldn’t challenge the players, people concluded that a team of ten was the limit.
Any more than that, and they would be unable to move freely. Every additional person would make the task more difficult.
Even though they were all elites, and Xiaoyao Second Brother’s command was excellent, the combination of a mass of skills, the small space, and many players caused one mistake to lead to a chain reaction.
Moka, a giant puppet reaching five or six yards high, has a huge hammer that shines with arcs of electricity on its left arm and a huge chainsaw on its right.
When the left arm hammer hits the ground, it’s earth-shaking, scattering rocks everywhere. And when it’s swung around, it emits dazzling flashes of lightning. The chainsaw on the right arm can reduce a heavily equipped tank to critical health with one hit, while one swing can send a cutting wheel flitting out, instantly killing a cloth armor wearer with low defense.
The healers were under immense pressure, completely overwhelmed.
As more and more elites fell, Xiaoyao Third Brother’s expression became increasingly gloomy.
In reality, Li Yao didn’t know that he wasn’t the only witness to this massacre. Hidden in a concealed crevice below were two invisible thieves.
They were game reporters from the official website.
“It’s a shame. Xiaoyao Third Brother’s command is on point, and the members of Xiaoyao Studios are all level four experts. It’s just unfortunate they have lost the battle twice and dropped to level two. This is a real heavy loss. Even if they want to try again, it is now impossible,” Shadow Trace messages his fellow invisible thief, Invincible Truth, via private chat.
Invincible Truth, eager to get started, says, “I really want to interview Xiaoyao
Third Brother, ask him about his feelings. If we could interview Xiaoyao Third Brother, our points for today could be significantly boosted.”
“Dream on! Didn’t they just ignore us when we went to interview them earlier? Now that they’re in an even worse mood, they might even kill us. We spend our days busy searching for material, levelling up isn’t easy, let’s not mess around,” Shadow Trace advises.
“What’s there to show off about? They can’t even beat the Boss, what’s so great about that? They’re far behind Starfire, ” Invincible Truth complains.
Shadow Trace patiently explains to his new reporter partner: “The way you put it, up till now, only Starfire God can defeat a Boss. Who else could do it? Not just in China, but anywhere else. There were loads of groups fighting Bosses today. But did you receive any system notifications? Look at the Qionghua people, they’re flying high, but without Starfire God, they can’t beat the Boss either.”
“It would be nice if we could run into Starfire God. As long as we can get a video of Starfire God fighting the Boss, we’ll become famous. I’d surely become an official reporter for the website, ” Truth Invincible dreams.
“You’re thinking too much. There are people all over the world looking for Starfire right now, but no one knows where he’s coming from. Forget about finding him. Just about everyone has been defeated and revived, they probably won’t challenge the Boss again. Even though they failed, it’s still solid material.
Xiaoyao Studios is undoubtedly top-tier, with strong strength and Xiaoyao Third Brother’s commands are also impressive. But the Boss is just too difficult, it’s not their fault.’
After the two of them had their chat, the dead who had run away were all revived and chose to return to the city.
“Let’s head back too. We can edit the video and upload it to the official website. After all, it’s a video of Xiaoyao Studios. We should be able to make it within the top 100,” Invincible Truth suggests.
Just as Shadow Trace was about to agree, he suddenly noticed a figure appearing in the hall: “Wait, there’s a solo player. How did he manage to get to this sort of place all by himself?”
“What’s so interesting about a player? Let’s leave, and get the video done soon.”
“You, are so impatient. You should know that as journalists, material can be found anywhere. Based on my years of experience as a game journalist, this person is no ordinary one, let’s wait a bit more.”
“Okay, I will listen to Brother Shadow’s.” True Invincible truly disagreed in his heart, but who let him follow him now? Whether he could become a formal journalist and obtain a press card, Shadow Trace’s assessment is crucial to having a second identity in the game.
Li Yao jumped into the hall, completely unaware that there were still two journalists concealed in the shadows.
“Getting the contract is the priority.” Li Yao began to survey the terrain.
Li Yao was not surprised at all about the disbanding of the Free and Easy Studio. You should know that although most bosses in the Beginner’s Village are called bosses, strictly speaking, they’re just elite templates.
This is a broad term; the game’s officials neither confirmed nor denied it.
Monster templates are divided into ordinary monster templates, elite templates, boss templates, faction boss templates, and world boss templates.
The field bosses of the Beginner’s Village are in fact elite templates. They’re for teaching purpose; only much later did the players realize that the bosses in the Beginner’s Village were the easiest.
Like the successor of the Windrunner Family, who exterminated millions of Light Faction players, was merely a faction boss template.
This Mocca possesses a boss template, a nightmare for the novices.
For players to complete this task, brute force is basically not feasible.
But this task is not an NPC scamming players’ task, it usually requires skills for individuals to complete.
For example, if a thief has this task, as long as he is proficient in stealth, and practices his theft skills to intermediate level or above, he has one hour to steal while the Mechanical Puppet is absorbing magic energy.
Engineering players can disassemble the back armor while it is filling up with magic energy, and they also have a chance to obtain it. Of course, you can’t attack the Puppet during the special period it’s recharging.
Moreover, to enter the recharging place requires a key, which can only be obtained from killing monsters in the mine by players who have accepted the task.
Li Yao held the key, gazed at the patrolling boss, and frowned slightly. It was enraged just now, and it would be at least two hours until the next recharge. “It’s a waste of time. I might as well kill it and save all troubles, plus I can earn a lot of experience and equipment.”
Once this idea came up, Li Yao couldn’t suppress it, the temptation to kill the boss was too great. Playing step by step according to others’ guides after reincarnating once was simply too unchallenging and uninteresting.
“Once a legendary player who had worked out countless wild boss strategies said that killing a wild boss is often easier with one person than with a hundred.”
Going head-to-head is definitely not an option, it’s just seeking death.
Li Yao held the key in his hand and his eyes lit up. When players of the previous life figured out how to defeat this boss, this mine already had an owner, and its appearance had changed. But now it remains basically in its original state. Since players do not even know about the sub-occupations yet, they basically can’t take anything away.
Li Yao turned his gaze on the door of the recharging room. When the boss was patrolling to the other end of the mine, Li Yao quickly opened the door of the recharging room.
After glancing at the things inside the recharging room, Li Yao’s eyes brightened slightly.
“I didn’t expect this thing to be here, I’m so lucky. I hope it hasn’t corroded.”
The recharge room is only a few hundred square meters, filled with a lot of junk, it’s simply an engineering workshop, filled with old parts, antiquated ores and several damaged crossbows.
Li Yao was a master engineer in his previous life, he was naturally very familiar with the crossbows of warfare engineering. Li Yao carefully disassembled the decrepit crossbows and put the usable parts into his backpack.
His movements were incredibly smooth, disassembling several crossbows in less than half an hour. The broken parts were left on the ground while the intact parts were placed in his backpack.
“Brother Shadow, what do you think he’s doing? It could be that the parts he’s dismantling are worth a lot of money, should we…” True Invincible suggested.
Shadow Trace pulled him back and said, “Stop making a fuss, focus on filming. I have a hunch that we’ll get some great material.”
True Invincible continued filming reluctantly, beginning to grumble in his heart, ‘you don’t want to make money, and you’re even stopping me from making money.’
Li Yao naturally didn’t know about this, he stepped outside and carefully observed the surrounding environment again, imprinting every detail in his mind.
He then started to assemble the crossbow, the string was too old and absolutely unusable, but Li Yao had excellent beast tendons dropped by elite monsters. In less than five minutes, a complete crossbow was assembled.
“Not bad, it should be the third-generation military crossbow of the High Elf Fire Hawk Legion, I didn’t expect those scrapped parts to be able to assemble this.”
Naturally, the high elves care about beauty, and although the crossbow that Li Yao assembled was already old, it was still in the shape of a spreading hawk. One can imagine how magnificent this crossbow must have been when it was first manufactured.
Li Yao was overjoyed, at the same time, a miniature dragon with a metallic luster faintly appeared on his arm….