166: Chapter 166 Bait

Night fell over the Fire Seed Shelter, and players entered the peak time for logging off.

Meanwhile, on real Earth, it was bright and sunny during the day.

With "warhammer 40,000" continuing to explode in popularity in the holographic gaming scene, its current level of attention had reached a staggering point.

Not only were ordinary players flocking to it, but major official institutions and influential capital forces were also entering the fray, causing the hype to continue soaring.

Apart from the official main forum, various wikis, tieba-style forums, and data analysis platforms spontaneously built by players emerged like bamboo shoots after a spring rain.

All of this was simply because the benefits within this game were truly immense.

Due to Shelter's tech tree far exceeding reality, coupled with its one-hundred-percent realistic physics engine.

The Fire Seed points within the game had already acquired the attributes of hard currency in reality.

Trading posts offering cash premiums to purchase points appeared one after another.

Of course, due to the massive amounts involved, private transactions between ordinary players were easily susceptible to scams.

People even began to seek out legitimate banks or trust companies in reality to facilitate guaranteed transactions.

Amidst this wave of dividends, many quick-witted veteran players simply opened full-time interstellar trading companies in reality.

For example, the "Warhammer Points Guaranteed Trading Platform," jointly built by players from the two large guilds [ikun True Fan] and [Miracle Walker], had become the best-reputed intermediary in the industry due to its good credibility.

At this moment.

In a private channel of this trading platform, the player [I Think The Emperor Can Stand Up] had just completed a points settlement with a wealthy buyer in reality, and ten W had been nicely deposited into his account.

"Feels good."

I Think The Emperor Can Stand Up looked at the bank notification and stretched.

As the only rare alien player on the entire server currently sporting the body of a miniature Ork.

I Think The Emperor Can Stand Up's gaming experience over the past few months could be described as absolutely explosive.

He did not go to Shelter to mingle with the main group.

Instead, he went solo, deep into the northern wilderness of the Outpost Planet, and completely infiltrated the interior of an Ork tribe!

His daily routine was to lead large groups of Orks to fight and hack at other Ork tribes, or to go find mutated beasts in the wasteland to practice on.

This kind of pure physical salvation allowed him to accumulate a massive amount of combat merit points over the past few months.

Yet, being an Ork, he couldn't use the precise Power Armor and weapons in Shelter, so with nowhere to spend his points, he could only list them for sale in reality for hard cash.

After completing the transaction, I Think The Emperor Can Stand Up boredly opened the official forum to post some spam.

He didn't know until he looked, but once he saw, he was nearly scared to death.

Mudslide's merchant squad was analyzing industrial world prices and tips for scalpers in a post;

In the post about the terraforming of a liquid methane planet posted by ikun and his group, the first batch of high-pressure compressed ultra-pure fuel had already been shipped back home;

The old mage [Nikon Da Niao] was using his newly purchased shuttle to check in and take selfies in every corner of the galaxy;

Even the newbies who had only been on the server for a few days were showing off the large armed merchant ships they had just seized in boarding battles on the forum.

Watching these colorful interstellar lives, I Think The Emperor Can Stand Up was full of envy.

"Damn, fighting with this bunch of Orks who only know how to hack people every day, I'm getting a bit sick of it."

I Think The Emperor Can Stand Up sighed,

"I also want to go to space and play with something different on other planets. I can't just keep hunkering down in this crappy wilderness being a mountain king."

Actually, with his current strength and reputation.

Among the Orks in the north of the Outpost Planet, he was practically already an invisible warlord controlling hundreds of thousands of Ork Boyz.

Then why hadn't he been formally honored as a warlord by the Orks?

The reason was simple, and very Ork-like.

Because this body of I Think The Emperor Can Stand Up was a miniature Ork.

He was a head shorter than the other adult Ork bosses.

In the simple and brutal social logic of the Orks, not being big enough was proof of not being tough enough!

Even if I Think The Emperor Can Stand Up could beat his opponent to the ground in a one-on-one fight, as long as you were shorter than him, or your war cry was quieter than his, that beaten Ork would still feel in his heart that you weren't tough enough and didn't deserve to be a warlord!

I Think The Emperor Can Stand Up scrolled through the forum for a while and felt a bit bored.

After eating some takeout in reality, he logged back in.

...

Warhammer world, northern wilderness Ork camp.

I Think The Emperor Can Stand Up opened his eyes.

His vision was pitch black, and the air was foul.

This was a small iron coffin welded shut with thick adamantium plates and sealed tightly.

This was his exclusive offline safety pod.

"Hey!"

I Think The Emperor Can Stand Up's arm muscles bulged as he pushed open the metal lid, which weighed several tons, and crawled out of the iron coffin.

As usual.

Every time he logged back in after logging off, there would definitely be a large group of heavily armed Ork bosses surrounding the iron coffin.

These guys were staring with those violent red eyes, watching the coffin intently, waiting to see if I Think The Emperor Can Stand Up would crawl out of it again.

This couldn't really be blamed on the Orks.

Because in the genetic programming of the Orks, they almost never needed to sleep.

As long as they weren't hacked to death, they would remain in an excited state, with their minds always filled with thoughts of how to fight and how to find a bigger WAAGH.

In their cognition, if an Ork closed his eyes and lay on the ground motionless, that meant he was dead.

Therefore.

When I Think The Emperor Can Stand Up first logged off on the spot in the Ork camp.

A passing Ork boss saw him lying on the ground dead and very conveniently smashed his head with a club, wanting to pull out all his teeth to use as money.

Which caused I Think The Emperor Can Stand Up to be forced to lose a level, and after respawning, he ran for more than half a month before finding the tribe again.

Since then, I Think The Emperor Can Stand Up had learned his lesson.

He found a Mekboy to specially weld this iron coffin that weighed several tons, and locked himself inside it for protection every time he logged off.

"What are you looking at!"

I Think The Emperor Can Stand Up kicked the coffin lid open and jumped out.

A crowd of Ork bosses saw that he had revived unscathed, and immediately let out a sigh of disappointment, turning around and preparing to run away.

I Think The Emperor Can Stand Up was quick-eyed and nimble-handed; he grabbed the back of the neck of the Ork boss who was running the slowest and knocked him to the ground with a heavy punch.

"Idiots! How many times have I told you!"

I Think The Emperor Can Stand Up stepped on the boss's chest and roared,

"When I lie on the ground and close my eyes, I'm not dead! That's me absorbing the divine power of Gork and Mork, I'm getting stronger! Don't you understand?!"

The boss who had been knocked to the ground scratched his bald green head and replied in a muffled voice:

"I Finks... lying on the ground without moving, you'll get stepped to death by others. I Finks that's not tough."

"Bang!"

I Think The Emperor Can Stand Up gave it another punch in annoyance and pointed to a large rock nearby, cursing,

"That just means your brain isn't tough enough! Look at that big rock at the camp entrance, I step on it every day, and it hasn't died, has it!"

The boss, after hearing this twisted logic, seemed to find it very logical.

It nodded as if it understood, climbed up from the ground, patted the dust off its butt, and walked away mindlessly.

Watching this bunch of simple-minded underlings, I Think The Emperor Can Stand Up sighed helplessly.

He didn't intend to take the Ork Boyz out to fight today.

He was going to the back of the camp to find those Mekboyz who were addicted to banging on scrap metal and get something big that could fly!

I Think The Emperor Can Stand Up strode with his thick, short legs to the large repair shop exclusive to the Mekboyz.

Sparks from hammering metal and electric welding were everywhere.

Due to the bloody battle outside Coastal City earlier, a large number of Ork Boyz had witnessed the shocking scene of Lin Li burning with golden flames all over his body, hacking down the Greater Daemon Valtosh with one sword.

Under the influence of Waaagh! Energy.

The Mekboyz were currently working day and night to paint all those old vehicles, tin cans, and crude Gorkanaut mechs with the lowest quality yellow paint to make them gold!

"I Finks, that golden flame that can burn stinky humies (Chaos Space Marines) is very tough!"

A Mekboy shouted while painting,

"As long as we paint ourselves gold too, it will definitely be super effective against those stinky things!"

I Think The Emperor Can Stand Up ignored this bunch of guys obsessed with painting.

He walked to the center of the factory, took a deep breath, and suddenly let out a deafening war cry, gathering all the Mekboyz.

"Stop banging! Listen to me!"

I Think The Emperor Can Stand Up stood on an old tire and announced loudly,

"I Finks! Those stars in the sky that can hang there without falling must be very tough!"

"So, I Finks! We should build a big star that is tougher than them and can fly! Then we fly it up to the sky and fight those stars!"

As Orks with very barren thoughts and only melee hacking in their brains.

When they heard this outrageous idea about building a star, all the Mekboyz in the factory stopped what they were doing and fell into a long silence.

After a long while.

A Mekboy holding a large wrench shouted somewhat unconvinced:

"Boss! I Finks the stars in the sky look only as big as a palm! Not tough at all! Fighting them would be too embarrassing!"

I Think The Emperor Can Stand Up was stunned for a moment.

Looking at this group of illiterates who didn't even understand the principle of perspective, he directly slapped one with a big ear-box.

"Idiot!"

I Think The Emperor Can Stand Up pointed at the sky and cursed,

"Since the small stars aren't tough enough! Then we go fight that biggest, most purple star hanging in the sky at night!"

As soon as this was said.

The Mekboyz around all looked up.

They recalled the incomparably huge purple-red gas planet that would hang on the horizon every night.

That was the largest target they could see with the naked eye!

The eyes of this group of Mekboyz instantly lit up, and they immediately felt that the boss's proposal made a lot of sense!

"Boss is right! That purple star is the biggest! Most tough!"

The Mekboyz waved their wrenches one after another, howling excitedly,

"We should melt down all our scrap metal! Build a star as big and as tough as that purple star! And go have a fight with it!"

Watching the Mekboyz, who had been successfully bamboozled, start drawing blueprints (actually just random scribbles) with great enthusiasm.

I Think The Emperor Can Stand Up finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Done."

I Think The Emperor Can Stand Up secretly rejoiced in his heart,

"As long as I set up a big enough imaginary enemy for these guys. With the Mekboyz's Waaagh! Energy that ignores the laws of physics. I reckon they'll be able to whip me up an Attack Moon pretty soon!"

Gorgon Industrial World, steel surface.

When Cain led the combat squad consisting of twenty high-combat-power players and landed in an abandoned factory area by shuttle.

The star of this planet, radiating a dark red light, had just pierced through the blue-purple toxic haze and risen from the horizon.

It was a coincidence.

The twenty-person combat squad led by [Qianlong Wuyong] had a very special background.

Except for Qianlong Wuyong himself, who was a researcher at the official Academy of Sciences, the other nineteen players were all elite veterans, active-duty SWAT officers, or firefighters in the real world!

This resulted in the squad's military literacy and tactical execution in the game being professionally outrageous.

"Click."

The player [Leigong Zhuwo] skillfully pulled the bolt, checking the cooling grille of the brand-new plasma rifle in his hand.

He turned his head and said in a low voice in the squad channel:

"I mean, this mission to protect the NPC while treasure hunting, the prepaid reward is too generous, right? This red-robed oil-guy gave each of us a personal plasma cannon! It's just ridiculous."

Beside him, [Forest Wolf] held his gun, vigilantly scanning the surrounding steel ruins.

As a former special forces king, he still maintained that cold demeanor.

"The more generous the reward, the more dangerous this place is."

Forest Wolf responded calmly,

"This mission is definitely not simple, everyone stay sharp."

"But having said that."

Leigong Zhuwo looked up at the endless steel jungle,

"This planet is bigger than Earth, and there's metal junk everywhere. He doesn't even have a specific coordinate, how are we supposed to find that so-called STC treasure chest?"

Old Cain walked at the very front of the team.

He seemed to have heard the players' whispers, stopped, and decided to respond to their questions with actual actions.

Cain took out a few things directly from a lead metal box he carried with him.

Leigong Zhuwo curiously leaned over to look.

Cain first took out a ghastly white servo-skull.

This human skull not only had anti-gravity engines embedded in it, but also had several red prayer candles lit on top, and its forehead was covered with parchment prayers depicting gear patterns.

Immediately after, Cain took out five quadcopter drones from the box, which had a very modern, high-tech appearance and were equipped with various optical scanning instruments.

The servo-skull and the drones ascended into the air simultaneously.

On one side was the superstitious candle-skull, and on the other was the cold, high-tech scanning probe.

Seeing these two things with completely clashing styles appear at the same time.

Leigong Zhuwo couldn't help but gasp, and complained:

"Good grief! This guy is really grabbing both theology and science with both hands."