Chapter 10: The Hope of the Entire Village

Their intent to strike against him implied a certain degree of confidence, which only escalated his anxiety.

As soon as Mo Fei stepped through the company doors, he saw the supervisor already waiting at the entrance.

"Hurry, hurry, they are still wandering in the maze at the entrance and haven't started on the first boss yet, there's still time to prepare."

"How do you know they haven't reached the first boss?"

"Nonsense, they've started the live broadcast. The people from Lan Yu Company, ever heard of the Midnight Mage?"

"The Elven Mage? Damn!"

Mo Fei immediately understood. The Midnight Mage was also a well-known game streamer, who played a hero template of the Elven Race from Quel'Thalas, a member of the royal family, no less. Coupled with the handsome appearance intrinsic to elves, his popularity was sky-high, with a massive fan base of infatuated girls.

However, this guy wasn't a streamer for Starshine Company; instead, he was a popular streamer on the rival platform Lan Yu Live Broadcasting.

Starshine and Lan Yu Live Broadcasting were currently the hottest two streaming platforms for PC, with highly overlapping broadcast content and fierce competition.

Since the launch of "World of Sky," the competition had reached a fever pitch, with both sides investing considerable resources. Now, Lan Yu's hero had come to Starshine's boss territory to trigger a plot campaign, clearly aiming to take down Starshine's top monster zone ranking to enhance Lan Yu Company's fame.

Having grasped the underlying issue, Mo Fei knew that today's events couldn't end amicably. Negotiations and communication were off the table; it was a matter of kill or be killed.

Following the supervisor into the company building, Mo Fei saw that the lobby was already packed with people. Normally in the later part of the night, due to fewer people watching the live streams, the company would be almost empty. But now, everyone had gathered here. Mo Fei even spotted Wang Ziheng, sipping coffee amidst the crowd, as everyone looked at him expectantly, as if he were the last hope of the entire village.

"Here he comes, the Dragon Bro is here!"

"Mo Fei, hurry up, we're all depending on you this time."

"Wipe out that trash from Lan Yu; Dragon Bro, Starshine is counting on you."

Hearing everyone's comments, Mo Fei felt the heavy burden on his shoulders. Without wasting words, he made his way through the crowd to the live broadcasting room. The crowd parted for him, and upon entering, he found the gaming helmet and chair already adjusted and ready.

He didn't beat around the bush, just sat down on the chair, put on the helmet, turned back to make a gesture to the supervisor outside the door, who immediately closed the door used during live broadcasts.

This also shut out the noise from outside as Mo Fei donned the gaming helmet, took a deep breath, and launched the game.

The screen before him went black, and Mo Fei entered the game, appearing within the dark and gloomy Long Sleep Cave.

As soon as he opened his eyes, Mo Fei heard the system's voice.

[System Prompt: You have entered the plot campaign "The Ballad of the Dragon-slaying Brave". Your identity has been determined to be 'Plot Antagonist/Final Boss'. Please prepare for your entry.]

The situation didn't look good, Mo Fei thought. The name of the plot campaign was usually generated directly by the system, which would name it based on the specific participants and contextual scene elements involved.

If his power far surpassed that of the other party, the campaign's name could very well have been "The Dirge of the Dragon-slaying Brave."

If the opponent was far stronger than him, then the campaign name could likely be "The Doomsday of the Black Dragon Lord."

Judging from the current campaign title, the system apparently perceived the opponent's advantage to be larger, albeit not by much.

However, he still had a chance to win. The gap in strength could be bridged with superior skill. When setting up the dungeon, Mo Fei had anticipated the possibility of a surprise raid, so he had deliberately laid out certain arrangements in the dungeon's design.

The raid team entering the Dark Dragon Nest would first come through a corridor labyrinth called the Dragonfire Corridor. This tunnel was extraordinarily long, occupying nearly half the inside area of the dungeon and winding in every direction. Not only was the map complicated, but it was peppered with monsters, traps, and even puzzles.

All these arrangements had one purpose: to delay the invaders and buy Mo Fei ample time to set up his defenses.

It seemed now that his effort had paid off. Mo Fei activated the dungeon monitoring system and could see that the team was still entangled with swarms of minor monsters in the tunnel.

Although their speed of clearing monsters was frightening, they would need at least a dozen minutes to advance to the room of the number one boss due to the layout of the terrain.

Mo Fei issued an announcement directly within the dungeon system.

Morphis (Black Dragon Lord): "Our domain has fallen under the sneaky invasion of despicable enemies. My loyal minions, hold your positions, do not let the enemy pass easily. Even in death, you must stand your ground. All monster leaders and elite monster bosses are to come to the Long Sleep Cave for a meeting!"

After issuing the summoning command, Mo Fei began to observe the opponent's lineup. There were two level-eighty hero players, one called Dawn Divine Sword, a Dragon-Slaying Swordsman, and the other was none other than the famous Midnight Mage (Grand Elementalist). Both were Golden Rank heroes, on par with Morphis in rank.

Hero players would count as five people each in dungeons, so in a forty-person raid team, aside from the two heroes, there were 30 Adventurers, all over level fifty high-end players.

Among these thirty people, roughly half were from Mage Classes, with every kind of healing and support class present. The abundance of Mage Classes meant an abundance of BUFFs, and with over a dozen BUFFs enhancing the Dawn Divine Sword, he was like a human meat grinder, wielding the Dragon-Slaying Greatsword as he charged through the battlefield. Any monster that tried to intercept them would meet their demise with a single slash of his sword.

Beyond the fifteen diverse Mage Classes, the most noticeable were the ten Sharpshooters. Sharpshooters were a purely functional class, completely relinquishing close combat and survival abilities in exchange for the strongest long-range physical damage in the game.

At that moment, the ten Sharpshooters stood in a line, unleashing a hail of arrows on any monster that appeared, turning them into porcupines.

The remaining five consisted of three Rogues and two Scouts, who were specifically responsible for reconnaissance and pathfinding, searching everywhere for hidden monsters and traps, and finding the right path to ensure the large group wasn't ambushed. Their search unearthed many well-hidden monsters that had been lying in wait, rendering them useless.

Morphis looked somber, as the opponent's formation was clearly arranged with them in mind, and their coordination was extremely skilled, obviously well-practiced. Clearly, they had been planning for a long time—this story battle wouldn't be easy.

He remembered the first time he fought in a story battle. It was during the third Dragon Plague initiated by 'Deathwing' Nesario, targeting the significant town of Bran City in the Kingdom of Lordaeron. At that time, he was just a level 35 black dragon whelp following the Black Dragon Legion into the city, clueless about what to do, randomly launching fireballs from the sky to bomb the fleeing NPC civilians.

Then, he was inadvertently hit by an anti-aircraft crossbow from the city walls, almost getting him killed on the spot.

Severely injured, he bravely cleared out those anti-aircraft crossbows, earning Deathwing's high praise and over a thousand Plot Points, which helped him to advance to a BOSS—the hard way he learned that in story battles, dying meant true death, the kind that deletes your account.

After learning this, he couldn't help but shudder in fear; from then on, he became extremely cautious about his life. When establishing the Dragon Nest, he intentionally chose the forsaken land of the Dark Plain, thinking it would be easy to make an escape, and yet he still ended up cornered.

While Morphis was reminiscing about the bitter and the sweet, several of the dungeon's monster leaders had already rushed over, along with a plethora of elite monsters and monster leaders. Seeing the gathering of ghosts and demons below, Morphis felt somewhat reassured—these were his assets accumulated over the past half year, a lineup of BOSSes scraped together from here and there. Although most were recruited as free labor due to his notoriety, a BOSS was still a BOSS and inherently possessed some combat strength.

Among them, there were truly four who could be considered raid-level BOSSes.

BOSS No.1—Hilde Sankes (Black Dragon Wanderer)

BOSS Introduction: This is a young black dragon who wanders around. Attracted by your notoriety, it now serves under you, obeying your commands. Hilde Sankes has the standard attributes of a young dragon, with the ability to engage in melee combat and breathe dragonfire.

Exclusive Skills: Hilde Sankes's Shadow Flame.

BOSS No.2—Borax (Dragonkin Military Governor)

BOSS Introduction: A powerful and experienced Dragonkin leader skilled in command and control, assigned directly to your service by the Black Dragon Legion. Accepting its loyalty will improve your relationship with the Black Dragon Legion, whereas a refusal will reduce their favor towards you.

Exclusive Skills: Domination Aura, which increases the Health Points of nearby friendly units by 10%, with an additional effect on Dragons and Dragonkin.

BOSS No.3—Santazack (High Priest of the Dragon Worship Cult)

BOSS Introduction: The Dragon Worship Cult is a special religion that widely reveres Dragons. Legend has it that the founder of the cult received a divine revelation from the Dragon God, leading to the establishment of this sect. The Dragon Worship Cult worships the Dragon God and is dedicated to serving powerful Dragons. Their priests can be found among various Dragon powers.

Exclusive Skills: Prayer to the Dragon God.

BOSS No.4—Duri El (Dragonvein Ogre Mage)

BOSS Introduction: Dragonvein Ogres are the descendants of Dragons and Ogres. Although the Dragon blood in their veins is not pure, Duri El has always prided himself as a descendant of Dragons and held contempt for his Ogre kin. When he learned that a powerful black dragon had taken over the Dragonfire Mountain Range, Duri El hurried to swear allegiance to you.

Duri El is a powerful Mage capable of casting standard Mage Magic as well as the exclusive Dragonvein Mage Dragon Language Magic. Like many Ogre Mages, he is also a formidable melee fighter.

Exclusive Skills: Lightning Storm.

After a brief contemplation, Morphis decided on the arrangements for the BOSSes.

These BOSSes would definitely not be able to stop that group of high-end players, but they could at least probe the enemy's skill level, and perhaps even kill a few Adventurers to alleviate some pressure for the final battle. The Dragonfire Mountain Range had no revival point, so the dead Adventurers surely wouldn't have time to run back to their corpses.

Morphis (Black Dragon Lord): "Borax, my mighty Dragonkin Military Governor, go defend the Dragonfire Plaza. Command my Dragonkin forces and make sure to hold the enemy there.

Duri El, the wise Ogre Mage, my advisor, I entrust the Goblin Pyromancers and the Ogre Warriors to your leadership, to do battle with the enemy in the Obsidian Hall.

Santazack, my loyal servant, your mission is the most important. Lead your priests to the Sacrifice Hall and appeal to the glorious Dragon God with your Dragon Language Magic. Do whatever it takes to eliminate my enemies!

Go, my servants, for my will shall be with you!"

"And what about me, Lord Morphis? Let me join the fray!" the black dragon Hilde Sankes eagerly asked.

"I have another arrangement for you."

In reality, it was simply because there were not enough BOSS slots. When creating the Dark Dragon Nest dungeon, he only purchased four BOSS slots, and he had to keep one for himself, relegating Hilde Sankes to a reserve position.

It was a pity that due to game rules, the dungeon BOSSes could only confront the players one by one. Otherwise, with so many BOSSes and elite monsters setting upon them all at once, they would surely win any fight outright.