Chapter 839: Underground World Exploration
Translator: ryangohsff Editor: Nora
4th month, 1st day, afternoon, Nanjiang Governor-General House reading room.
Ouyang Shuo called to see Industrialization Director Chen Bingguang and asked, “Old Chen, how long till the Z1 Type Warships can enter the waters?”
Although Old Chen was surprised, he answered in detail, “The main body of The Emperor has been constructed and can enter the water in a week. After that, we will do water tests which will take another month.”
The Emperor was the first Z1 Type Warship crafted from the bones of the black dragon and was Ouyang Shuo’s new flagship. In the next half a year, Ouyang Shuo planned to go for another voyage with The Emperor.
“One month?” Ouyang Shuo frowned slightly and asked, “Can you speed it up slightly?”
“Is the Monarch in a hurry to use it?” Old Chen did not understand.
Ouyang Shuo shook his head and roughly introduced the country establishment quest to Old Chen.
Old Chen understood, and his face showed obvious excitement as he said, “That’s great. Do not worry Monarch, I’ll ask the Shipbuilding Division to quicken the pace and try to complete all the tests on The Emperor in half a month.”
Ouyang Shuo smiled and nodded, “Thank you for your hard work Old Chen.”
“My pleasure! My pleasure!”
Old Chen’s footsteps were floaty when he left. To a scientist, to be able to witness the rise of a huge empire and personally participate in its establishment was a truly meaningful matter.
After sending away Old Chen, Ouyang Shuo still was not relaxed. In an afternoon, all three quests were started and Ouyang Shuo had already given his instructions.
Out of the three quests, the quest regarding recruiting the foreign races was the most uncertain, the time was uncertain, the location was uncertain, and even the goal was uncertain.
Ouyang Shuo had already instructed Dongchuan Prefecture Governor Cao Can to work with the Honglu Temple envoy to come into contact with the Qiang Tribes to try to get a few big tribes to move into Shanhai City. With the way Gaia did things, if he attracted too little of them, Gaia would not recognize it.
The 2nd quest was the one that gave him a headache.
At the moment, the quest that seemed the most possible was the Z1 Type Warship.
Ouyang Shuo thought back to the Heaven’s 10 divinations that Song Jia gave him. He had already passed it over the Xinan University to ask all of them to work together to break through the 10th divination.
Xinan University was where all the top scientists in the Federation were gathered, and they definitely would be able to find a way to solve it.
If they could succeed, it could be considered an academic breakthrough.
As for the last technology, Ouyang Shuo had no idea. Ouyang Shuo looked for Liu Mo to see if the No.7 Research Institute could combine the western alchemical methods to come up with a new technique.
All this needed time.
The 3rd quest would take the least time and there was no rest.
Ouyang Shuo had already instructed the Honglu Temple to start making invitations. Once the 1st and 2nd quests were about to be completed, they would set a date to send out all the invitations.
The Culture Division had also started to prepare for the ceremony of that day.
Before the event, Honglu Temple was going to be really busy.
Seeing that the news of Shanhai City establishing a country was spreading through the wilderness, some people probably wanted to make a joke out of them. Ouyang Shuo naturally could not take it and needed to keep up his aura.
The crowning ceremony was the moment where Shanhai City would show its influence. … In the next few days, none of the quests had any progress, making Ouyang Shuo really worried.
On the 4th month, 5th day, Blood Shadow Alliance guild leader Moon Shines over the River came to find Ouyang Shuo.
A day ago, the headquarters of Blood Shadow Alliance had smoothly moved to the Satellite City. Shanhai City had also signed an official agreement with Blood Shadow Alliance.
Same with the imperial city satellite cities, all of the properties and shops would be ran by Blood Shadow Alliance. The only difference was that Shanhai City would take 60%, 10% more than the imperial city.
With the current player scale in the city, the Financial Bureau calculated that the 60% profits along with business tax would allow then to earn 300 thousand gold each month from the Satellite City.
It was not Ouyang Shuo being greedy. After all, if he wanted to, he could arrange his own officials to deal with it and reap even more profits. Ouyang Shuo wanted to stick to a win-win situation, so he did not interfere with Satellite City matters.
Sometimes, one could not stretch their hands too far in.
Furthermore, Shanhai City was not good at the management of adventure gamemode player.
Moon Shines over the River went to find Ouyang Shuo to ask for an army to be housed inside to help them in managing the city.
Each imperial city Satellite City would have 10 thousand troops guarding it that were spawned by Gaia. The player territory ones did not have such treatment and could only be arranged by the Lord himself.
Ouyang Shuo listened to his request and smiled, “Do not worry, the 5th legion of the Leopard Legion Corps is housed outside Tianjing City, so we will just arrange a division to move into the Satellite City.”
“That’s great!” Moon Shines over the River was delighted. Moon Shines over the River had the utmost confidence in the skills of Shanhai City Army, and it was probably stronger than the ones spawned by the NPC army.
After talking about official matters, they continued to talk casually. As they did, they mentioned the underground world that was already opened.
Ouyang Shuo asked curiously, “So what’s the situation with the underground world?”
Along with the nine satellite cities opening up, there were many pieces of relevant information released online. Gaia even opened up a forum column just for the underground world.
As what Gaia promoted, be it in terms of numbers, types, and even level, the monsters were all better than those in the wilderness.
However, the current underground world was a forbidden zone to normal players. Only after the huge guilds entered could they follow behind; if not, being wiped out would be common.
Even the exploring elite forces would suffer heavy losses. In the words of the elders of the guilds, the maps they drew so far were all exchange for the fresh blood of their elites.
Of course, the huge guilds were not making sacrifices for nothing. As the people at the front, be it attacking bosses or collecting ingredients, they had the first opportunity and earned bucket loads.
They were the first to have any fortuitous encounters, so they would not be shortchanged.
Ouyang Shuo asked Moon Shines over the River about the situation regarding the underground world. As the underground world was extremely huge, the monsters that appeared in different imperial cities varied.
Moon Shines over the River smiled and said, “They really are savage; if you get the chance, I recommend you take a look for yourself.” He continued by describing some of the interesting happenings of the elite squad.
Ouyang Shuo’s interest was perked; he was really curious about the mysterious underground world. He nodded, “Why not? Let’s take it as a relaxing trip.”
Since there had not been any progress in the country establishment quests, there was no need for Ouyang Shuo to keep remaining in Shanhai City. Who knows, he might have a fortuitous encounter in the underground world.
One must not forget that Ouyang Shuo was a really lucky person now.
“Great, when will you come? I’ll make arrangements.” Moon Shines over the River smiled and said.
Ouyang Shuo nodded, “The day after tomorrow then!”
“No problem!”
The two of them chatted for a while before they went their separate ways. ************ 4th month, 7th day, Satellite City.
Ouyang Shuo sudden appearance in the Satellite City with three thousand Divine Martial Guards instantly caused a commotion. There was a high level of excitement and everyone squeezed to try and take a look and meet this legendary figure.
Luckily, Blood Shadow Alliance was prepared and had arranged for five thousand players to make a path. The Satellite City was pretty much a smaller version of Shanhai City, so there was not much for Ouyang Shuo to view and tour around.
After entering the Satellite City, they did not stop and went straight for the underground world entrance. Moon Shines over the River specially arranged an elite force a guide, and the leader was known as Heartbroken Pirate.
“Monarch, I am Heartbroken Pirate!”
Heartbroken Pirate smiled and ran over, like he was familiar with their group.
Along with the Blood Shadow Alliance moving into the Satellite City, the million members all treated themselves as members of Shanhai City. When they saw Ouyang Shuo, they all called him their Monarch.
Actually, to the current players, to be able to talk to Ouyang Shuo was a huge honor. Heartbroken Pirate was even chosen to be the guide, so who knows how many brothers were envious of him?
Ouyang Shuo smiled, “Thanks for your help, I’ll just call you Pirate then!”
Heartbroken Pirate smiled too, not knowing how to reply as he turned around and led the way. It seemed like there was an interesting story behind this unique name.
The entrance steps were made from stone and the deeper one went the darker and damper it became. There were many vines brimming with vitality that were growing on the walls of both sides.
After walking for close to 10 minutes, a chilly air spread out, sending a chill down ones’ spine. The surrounding environment was extremely dim, like something was covering the sun.
Ouyang Shuo could not help but think back to the stories of hell, this was probably like that. When one headed even deeper, one could hear the sounds of the wind, bringing with it a cold breeze, creating a terrifying experience.
When the Divine Martial Guards saw this, they all picked up their focus.
“Monarch, we are about to arrive!” Heartbroken Pirate at the front said.
The moment his words landed, one could see small bundles of white light spreading out from the darkness, slightly lighting up the terrifying space. At least one could look around normally now.
As expected.
If the underground world was truly pitch black, how would players even explore it? One could not make them take torches all the way, that was impractical.
The party walked for less than 20 meters before they arrived at an empty ground.
Looking out, no one would be able to imagine that this was actually an underground world. Just the space here alone was bigger than 10 football fields, and outside of the empty space, there were many tunnels connecting to unknown places. A chilly breeze spread out from all these tunnels, and one could even hear the sound of water dripping from within.
Heartbroken Pirate ran over and smiled, “We set up a temporary base here. In the future, we would like to build a fixed resource base. The entire underground world is connected like a huge net through these tunnels, and the empty space is the node and is the main place where the monsters swarm.