Cathulhu Online, MUNYA!

Chapter 32 – Cat Dad's Serious Dungeon Raid (2)

After eliminating the first unit, Xiaomao and Slave One went for the second patrol unit.

Xiaomao improved his strategy. Instead of letting Slave One jump into the fray head-on, Xiaomao made a torch and let Slave One hold it.

As the torch illuminated in the dark, it was easy for patrolling gnoll to spot him. They howled and charged at Slave One with their lives depending on it.

Slave One ran away per Xiaomao's order.

Meanwhile, Xiaomao latched onto the wall like a Spiderman. He loaded an explosive bolt on his crossbow and fired at the pursuing gnolls.

Xiaomao didn't fire only one to injure them. He fired two bolts consecutively.

Explosions scattered dirt and gnolls everywhere. A portion of the ceiling rocks fell down and hit the gnolls' heads.

The group of 20 monsters was down to five, including the elite gnolls.

At that moment, Slave One turned around and fired water bullets. Xiaomao also focus-fired on the elite monsters and cleaned the mess.

The second attempt only took two minutes to wipe out the party of 20 gnolls, which was a huge improvement.

Slave One drank a healing potion, replenishing his health. Then, the two-man party traveled further in.

The cave was a linear passage with patrolling gnolls in each section. And because of its narrowness, Xiaomao and Slave One could take on one unit of patrolling gnoll at a time without getting ambushed.

30 minutes later, they killed 10 parties of patrolling gnolls and 10 elite monsters. Equipment items filled their inventory slots. Yet, they kept heading further inside the cave.

After slaughtering 12 groups of gnolls on the first level, the cave became empty. Xiaomao and Slave One reached a stair, leading down toward the second level of the dungeon.

Xiaomao was satisfied with their progress. Currently, he was level 13 while Slave One's level reached 33.

Slave One couldn't gain any EXP from killing Dirty Gnoll Level 22 anymore. He still gained some EXP share from killing elite gnolls, but they needed to kill five of them to raise Slave One's level by one.

Xiaomao didn't have enough time to wait for elite gnolls and their minions to respawn. He decided to go further down.

"Slave One. Discard all equipment items you get from the monsters here, munya. They will get in the way if we carry everything, munya!"

"…"

Xiaomao and Slave One discarded the newly acquired Hyen Boots and equipment at the corner of the cave. As no gnoll would patrol here, they used this place as an item gathering point.

Slave One secretly glanced at his system notification messages from his contracted fairy. She urged him to sacrifice 200 max MP to increase her strength by another tier.

But Slave One chose to postpone the upgrade at the moment.

Walking down the stairs, they came across a long corridor with prison rooms on the sides. Nothing was inside the cells but skeletons of humanoid creatures.

In front of the corridor, four elite gnolls noticed Xiaomao and Slave One's arrival. They raised their spears and prepared for battle.

Unlike the other elite gnolls, these guys wore half-plate armor and wielded rusty spears. Their red names displayed "Warden Gnolls, Level 40".

Slave One took the vanguard role as usual. Xiaomao fired barbed bolts at all four gnolls, hitting their foreheads.

125!

Hitting the gnolls to the head couldn't instantly kill them with Xiaomao's current level and strength. Its HP bar only decreased by 5%. However, the barbed bolts made the gnolls pause and stagger for a moment.

The wardens pulled out the barbed bolts from their heads, causing blood to gush out.

HOWL!

As soon as the blood dripped on the floor, the hyena-like howling voice of other gnolls echoed from the depth of the dungeon.

"Back to the stairs, munya! The second floor's mobs have a sharp nose for blood. Every monster in a radius of 100 meters will gather here, munya!"

Xiaomao ordered Slave One to retreat back and waited for the gnolls by the stairs.

Both men retreated back to the staircase. Xiaomao stood on the higher ground while Slave One blocked the narrow passage.

Soon, the four wardens chased after the party. Behind them, more gnolls with clubs and knives dashed as if they were hunting wolves.

Xiaomao glanced at the crowd, which followed behind the wardens.

Gnoll Warrior, Level 28

Gnoll Fighter, Level 29

Gnoll Hunter, Level 30

The mob looked intimidating. But they didn't hold a candle to the giant behind them.

Behind the crowd of 50 gnolls, a 3-meter tall female werewolf followed them. She had no weapon, but she wore full leather armor, leather bracer, and leather pants.

Mama Warden was her unique name. She was the roaming floor boss, who protected the second level of the dungeon. The number behind her name "level 40" told Xiaomao that she wouldn't be an easy game.

But Xiaomao came prepared for this situation. He set his default ammo to explosive bolts and fired at the center of the crowd.

BOOM

The bolt hit the nose of a gnoll hunter, dealing 140 damage. Then, it exploded, inflicting extra damage to the area.

The bomb stunned the mob and stopped their movements. However, the wardens were out of range. They thrust their spears at Slave One.

Slave One swung his wok and deflected the strikes, but one of them hit his chest.

150!

Slave One's face was ashen.

Even with a high defense and the top leather gears for a level 20 character, the spear still penetrated his leather armor and stabbed into his chest.

Xiaomao also clicked his tongue. Leather armor sets were not suitable for tankers, so it was an obvious outcome.

"Keep running up the stairs, munya!"

Slave One let out a sigh of relief. He turned around and ran.

"While you're running, point your fingers and used your bullets, munya!"

Slave One was enlightened. While running, he pointed a finger at the nearest warden and fired a water bullet.

154!

It worked. The bullet punctured through the nearest warden's chest and forced it to take a step back.

But three other wardens and the uninjured gnolls bypassed the first warden. They climbed the stairs, chasing after Slave One and Xiaomao.

Xiaomao aimed at the feet of the gnolls and fired another bolt.

BOOM

The explosion knocked the chasing crowd off the stairs. The falling gnolls collided with the pursuers and hindered their movements.

The moment was what Xiaomao had been aiming for. He fired another explosive round.

BOOM

Red numbers appeared and they were sent flying randomly.

"Drink healing potions and get ready to fall back, munya."

Slave One nodded and drank the potions that Xiaomao had given him. While he was at it, he kept firing water bullets at the nearest warden whenever the cooldown time was reset.

BOOM

BOOM

As the gnolls struggled and tried to reach the stairs, they crowded in one spot and became a big target.

Xiaomao's explosive bolts kept disrupting their progress and decreasing their HP. Everything went according to plan. If Xiaomao could keep this up, the entire group of gnolls would die from the repeated explosions.

After bombing the gnolls for 10 seconds, the Mama Warden reached the stair. She took the lead and menacingly walked toward Slave One as if she was Mr. X, who was chasing after Leon Kennedy.

BOOM

The explosive arrow hit her face and exploded. Yet, Mama Warden didn't flinch. Her HP also only decreased by 75!

The explosion couldn't stun her!

Xiaomao dryly smiled. It was time to bail.

"Retreat, munya."

Slave One kept running up. Xiaomao also abandoned the fight and went back to the ground floor.

…

Mama Warden only glared at Xiaomao and Slave One, who had left their floor. Then, she grudgingly stared at the invisible barrier, which stopped her and the other gnolls from going upstairs.

The surviving gnolls turned around and walked back toward their spawn location as if they were robots. As for elite wardens, they disengaged and returned to their posts. Their HP bars instantly recovered to the fullest.

As for Mama Warden, she snorted and turned around, going back to the inner area. However, his expression turned ugly.

Nobody knew what she had been thinking, but the pupils in her eyes contained some intelligence.

…

California, L.A.

Pangu Incorporate held a press conference to satisfy their players and the presses, regarding their game developments and the benefits of the game world.

It had been months since the game had officially launched. However, nothing similar to the first series, aka Pangu Online, had once offered - No human had improved their physical strength, experienced age-regression, or become smarter.

The gamers had been doubting the Pangu Incorporate for a long time that the company was involved in some Illuminati Conspiracy as they kept hiding the perks and the incidents from the first game. Now that the second game had been launched for a while, the gamers and the presses were curious about the unanswered scandals of the previous game.

Pan Xian, the CEO of the company, sat at the press-con table with 30 microphones, cellphones, and recording mics from unknown journalist organizations. His pokerface and faint smile looked natural as if he had done this a million times before.

The CEO had been talking about the A.I. of the game, which was improved from the previous game.

"Although the regular monsters still behave robotically for the sake of entertaining casual players, unique monsters, such as named bosses in dungeons, world bosses, event characters, and all NPCs are now operated by our latest A.I. – Karmic Soul. They can react, learn, adapt, and analyze the players' purposes and behaviors to grow stronger and survive in the game to add the spice of realism to the game."

One of Pan Xian's assistants displayed a clip, which showed a roaming boss monster on a massive continent. Pan Xian pointed the laser pointer and highlighted a certain gigantic crocodile dinosaur, who had been taking a nap while a thousand fairies planted strange flowers on its back.

It was Cernun!

"For example, this is Cernun. He's a level 5,000 world boss of this archipelago, and obviously, he comes with the Karmic Soul A.I. He doesn't always attack any player. But when he does, oh boy, he is merciless."

Pan Xian almost couldn't suppress his smile as he looked at a clip on his laptop, which showed how Slave One offered tributes to Cernun.

But before Pan Xian could continue, one of the journalists raised his hand. He spoke without permission.

"Sir, with all respects, we're here for the news relating to the side effects of Pangu Online 2. Can you confirm that the second franchise will have similar benefits that the first game of the series had, such as physical enhancement or age regression?"

The secretary, who had been sitting next to Pan Xian, leaned closer to her mic. She scolded the journalist.

"Please wait for the Q&A session, sir. We will not answer any question."

But the journalist persisted. Many attendees also raised their hands, pencils, and their phones.

"Mr. Pan Xian! Can Pangu Online 2 cure cancer like how Pangu Online 1 did?!"

"Sir! There were reports that a player from Japan couldn't log out from Pangu Online 1 game, and his character and consciousness got stuck in the game for decades until today! Have you discovered the cause of this?!"

"Mr. Pan. There were rumors that Susano, who died while playing the game a decade ago, has been sighted during the Beta Test period and testified to be trapped in there because of the game system. Do you have any opinion, sir?!"

The journalist bombarded Pan Xian with difficult questions, which all related to the first game that had been shut down years ago.

Pan Xian's pokerface slightly darkened. He deeply inhaled and thought of excuses.

But then, his son, who had come to the conference with him, stood up and answered the questions.

"My name is Pan Mei. I'm the chief game administrator, and I'm responsible for the debugging of both games. I shall answer your concerns regarding the first game. First off, regarding the famous pro-player, Mr. Kirin Susano incident, everything was a fabricated joke, created by internet trolls. Mr. Kirin Susano's case has been investigated and discovered that the player had a weak heart, and the cause of death was heart disease. The record showed that he died after playing the game for 70 hours consecutively without a wink of sleep or a meal. As for the log-out incident, the bugs have been fixed, and…"

The press conference continued as Pan Mei covered the game company's mistakes.

Pan Xian leaned back in his chair and sipped some water. He inwardly sighed.

'You mofo know nothing. Soon, you all will beg me to play the game. I'm your salvation, you fool.'