Gamers of the Underworld

Panda Novel

After Sherlock forged his Archaeology certificate, he returned to the Eternal Kingdom.

Eternal Kingdom was covered with a huge pile of useless items.

They included rusty metals, crushed metal pieces, tiles, ceramic pipes, wooden planks, metal parts, bones, and even grass.

Those were the items collected by the gamers from the Instance Dungeon.

They were the props from the Specter College Drama Society, but they were dismantled and brought back by the gamers.

The gamers carried the trash and gazed at Sherlock in anticipation as they said, “Sherlie! Do you want this?”

“Sherlie, could the wooden planks be used to make handles? I took them to Mufasa, but he doesn’t want them.”

“Sherlie, take a look at this ceramic tile. Is this a Magical Item?”

“Can this item be appraised?”

“Sherlie, do you want these items?”

“Low prices are accepted. I’ll sell them to you.”

Buy? Buy this trash? Since when did I ask the gamers to collect trash?

Wait, the color of the wooden planks looks good, and they have a smooth texture. Could it be wood from the Underground Gray Forest? Specter College is rich, but it’s a pity the wood was made into planks.

Sherlock informed Bru to collect the wooden planks but not the other useless trash. The wooden planks were of high quality and could be used to make wooden boxes.

They could be sold to the gamers for them to store their personal items. Perfect.

The wounded Arthur and NotWearingPants dragged the corpses of their comrades while their bodies were laden with a noisy pile of equipment. Who knew how they managed to secure that much equipment to their bodies.

The surrounding gamers became rowdy.

“That equipment looks cool. Can they be exchanged for fitting equipment? Are they considered Legendary Equipment?”

“Sherlie, can Peasant be revived given his current state?”

“Sherlie, can you revive a decapitated gamer?”

“Sherlie, this gamer perished from her bleeding buttocks!”

“Sherlie…”

Sherlock looked at the surrounding Goblins, who were about the height of his knees. They gathered around Sherlock regardless of whether they had a request or not.

There were only a hundred of them, and Sherlock felt a splitting headache. Once the Dungeon Core leveled up, the Second Beta would start, the gamer count would rise, and his workload would increase a lot.

If the workload increased, he wouldn’t have leisure time to explore computer games. He wouldn’t be able to understand the otherworld’s culture and upgrade the gamers’ experience in the online game. This would cause the gamers to quit playing en masse. Hence the development of the Dungeon would come to a halt, and he wouldn’t be able to enjoy this leisure time.

If he couldn’t enjoy his leisure time, he wouldn’t be able to research computer games!

Oh God! The consequences were serious.

Sherlock was racking his brain on how to decrease his workload as he healed and revived the gamers. He let Bru appraise the weapons that could be used immediately. Bru would come up with a name based on the quality and appearance to bluff the gamers.

Perhaps to make them happy?

As for the equipment that was too large for the Goblins to use…

“Collect the equipment and create fitting equipment for sale like last time. Could that work?”

When the gamers looked at Sherlock, he was talking with Bru on the distribution of the Instance Dungeon loot.

“Lord Sherlock, perhaps you don’t understand these gamers. They accumulated so many metal coins so that they could have quality equipment, cool skills, luxurious houses, or transportation tools that could show their status. With only money, a game that doesn’t allow status upgrade is not playable.”

Bru explained patiently, “There’s a difference with the equipment from the previous world BOSS. Collecting the equipment from the world BOSS for auction was understandable since most of the gamers helped to defeat Cramer.”

“However, if we collect the equipment from the Instance Dungeon and sell it, then the rich gamers don’t need to conquer the Instance Dungeon. They can simply use their otherworld money to obtain the Instance Dungeon equipment. For the poor gamers, if the equipment is collected by us after they spent lots of effort, they will be angry if they have to then spend money like the rest of the gamers to purchase the equipment. Once the capability gap between them widens, the game will become imbalanced, and the gamers will quit the game en masse.

“None of the commoner gamers will be willing to use broken equipment while the rich gamers are equipped with stellar weapons and armor. Though there’s no Player Versus Player fighting, if the commoner gamers are unable to be proud of their equipment, the consequences will be dire. Lord Sherlock, please reconsider. The main labor force developing your Dungeon are those commoner gamers who work the missions day and night!

“If they are unable to retain the Instance Dungeon equipment, their motivation to conquer the Instance Dungeon will be very low. If no gamers are willing to conquer the Instance Dungeon, then your Magic Stones income will be severely reduced. You might even have to renege on your contract with Specter College. I don’t think you want that to happen, do you, Lord Sherlock?”

Sherlock pondered and looked at Arthur, NotWearingPants, the revived Sylvanas, BurningChestHair, and Peasant, and the surrounding gamers who were staring at him. Then he said, “Well done, brave warriors. You’ve successfully completed the Non-Existing Intelligence Organization’s mission. The loot might not fit, but it’s alright. Follow me, I’ll bring you to Simba and see if the equipment can be refitted. True warriors require quality equipment.”

The gamers cheered wildly.

“A plot, this is the plot after conquering the ‘Specter College: Training Grounds’ Instance Dungeon!”

“Too strong, those five are d*mn strong…”

“Nonsense, that’s Arthur, the gamer who killed a Spider single-handedly, the hero that gave Cramer the fatal blow, and the owner of three pieces of Legendary Equipment. That team of theirs possesses five pieces of Legendary Equipment. They are rich, diligent, and capable. You can’t help but envy them.”

“Follow them, follow them!”

The group of gamers followed behind Sherlock noisily as they walked towards the Blacksmith Shop.