Gamers of the Underworld

Dragonborn sat up from the ground.

Beside him, many other gamers sat up.

They had Superior Equipment, their bald heads were shiny, and their eyes were filled with vigor.

This was the Guild location for Springfield Flower Kindergarten. All of the Guild members stayed here. For the upgrade of the Third Beta Testing, all Guild members went offline from here. The one-hour maintenance had elapsed, and the game had restarted, so Dragonborn and his members reconnected to the game.

There was no new CG Animation, and there was no new amendment to the log-in interface. If the game official hadn’t announced the Third Beta Testing, Dragonborn would have thought it was just offline maintenance.

“Let’s pull out our banner. Dragonborn, let’s go!”

Dragonborn was feeling groggy. Beside him was a Houndhead Man, SealHeadLingChong, who was also the deputy chairman of Springfield Flower Kindergarten. He was carrying a flag with the words “Springfield Flower Kindergarten” on it. From the looks of the words, it appeared the gamers wrote them.

The other members were also carrying flags or horizontal banners. They were publicity materials for recruiting new members.

“Coming, they’re coming.”

Dragonborn was wearing full body armor. When he got up, the armor made clanking noises. He went to a corner to wash his face in a water jar. Then, he followed everyone out of the house.

“Dragonborn, walk forward. I’ll help you polish your armor.”

TakeASpearHit took a dirty rag and polished the stained armor. Before going offline, they were maintaining their equipment.

“Ah, let the flag bearer walk in front. It’s normal practice in sports competitions.”

Dragonborn pointed at SealHeadLingChong. Then, other gamers spoke up.

“It’s different. You are the mascot of our Guild.”

“Yes, you are the runner-up of the Dark Rider Tournament. You have to walk in front. In mafia movies, the boss is always at the front.”

Dragonborn didn’t decline the suggestion. They quickly obtained a good location. Soon, the new gamers would be coming in. They wanted to recruit new blood.

The horizontal banners and flags were for recruiting new members.

When Dragonborn arrived at the Dungeon Lord Main Hall, a few Guilds had already occupied good locations. They even constructed recruitment booths. The Guilds were Dragon Raja, the Meat Vegetable Rice Alliance, the Pioneer Alliance, and other large Guilds.

The feeling was like a recruitment exercise for first-year university students.

…

Moroes was with Simba and Mufasa, sitting in Mufasa’s Carpenter Workshop. From this vantage point, they could observe the movement of the green-skinned creatures.

Today was the day for the new members to arrive in the Dungeon. The green-skinned creatures looked very excited.

Simba smoked his red hot metal stick. As he sipped the bloody chrysanthemum tea, Moroes suddenly shouted, “Coming! They’re coming!”

In front of them, numerous Teleport Portals abruptly appeared. New Goblins who either looked excited or dazed walked out of the portals. They had green symbols above their heads.

The prepared veteran gamers shouted, “Recruiting new members! Recruiting new members! The largest online Guild in China, Dragon Raja, welcomes you to join in!”

A few Gnomes with gorgeous armor, as well as Houndhead Men who were wearing non-magical robes and high hats, stood in front of a recruitment booth. The recruitment booth was small compared to the size of the armored gamers. They had no choice as Sherlock only leased out a small space for them.

When he discovered that the Guilds planned to construct booths to recruit new blood, Sherlock created a detailed leasing plan.

The recruitment locations at the Dungeon Lord Main Hall entrance were categorized according to the sizes of 2, 4, and 10 square meters. The rental costs were 5, 10, and 20 Magic Stones respectively.

Most of the Guilds selected the 10-square-meter locations for their recruitment drives.

What? Two Guild applications to increase the size to 20 square meters? Would Sherlock allow the gamers to exploit this loophole? Of course not!

Each Guild was only allowed to have a single application.

Members of the large Guilds had to rack their brains to create their booths in the small areas of 10 square meters to attract new blood.

The simplest and most perfunctory method was what Springfield Flower Kindergarten had done. They used a mascot, flags, and horizontal banners for publicity.

The richer Guilds like Dragon Raja and the Meat Vegetable Rice Alliance had gamers who wore Superior Equipment stand outside. Most importantly, they used rich benefits to attract new blood. For example, Dragon Raja’s benefits were:

After joining the Guild, gamers would receive a full set of green armor and a Winterfell standard Short Sword. The weekly payout was 200 Renminbi. The Guild would conduct equipment maintenance, and the costs would be shouldered by the Guild. Also, each enemy Guild member killed in a Guild war would earn 100 bronze coins as a reward.

When Dragon Raja publicized its benefits, the adjacent Meat Vegetable Rice Alliance was unhappy. The chairman immediately changed his publicity slogan:

After joining the Guild, gamers would receive two full sets of armor and a Winterfell standard Short Sword or a standard Pike. The weekly payout was 220 Renminbi. The Guild would conduct equipment maintenance, and the costs would be shouldered by the Guild. Each enemy Guild member killed in a Guild war would earn 150 bronze coins as a reward.

The benefits of joining the Meat Vegetable Rice Alliance had to be higher than Dragon Raja!

In response, Dragon Raja taunted, “Do you have money? Don’t close your eyes and offer the sky. Make sure you can pay. If you owe your members salary, you will become a laughing stock!”

The Meat Vegetable Rice Alliance refused to take the insult and started bickering with Dragon Raja. It looked like they had to settle their grievances in the arena again.

Besides these two violent Guilds, most of the Guilds were friendly.

The most popular Guild was the First Beta Gamers’ Pioneer Alliance. They had the 100 most powerful gamers in the game. Almost everybody had heard of their names. The gameplay and Strategy Guides were mostly provided by the First Beta Gamers as well. The Pioneer Alliance also made the best progress in the 15-member Instance Dungeon of Specter College!