32 - Mechanical City (I)

Chapter 32: Mechanical City

“Hehe, how do you like our team? It’s not bad, right? I’m not treating you unfairly?” Liuli Meng bragged in a private chat.

“Jiejie, you’re too modest.” Xiao Ran decisively and quickly signed his full name on the scroll, then sent it back to Liuli Meng.

The maximum team size for world quests was ten people. Currently, there were already seven player IDs listed. After writing down the last player ID, the contract would take effect, indicating that the ten people would be bound together in team mode until the completion of the first stage of the world quest. Teammates cannot be changed; if someone wants to leave, it’s equivalent to giving up the current team’s task progress and starting over with a new team from the first stage.

This contract scroll was obtained by the team leader when receiving the first stage mission of the world quest from the NPC. It’s unclear how Liuli Meng managed to get one already.

“I’m looking forward to our future cooperation.” Liuli Meng retrieved the scroll, bid farewell to Xiao Ran, and then ended the voice call.

After ending the call, Xiao Ran continued towards the destination in Qiyang City.

Xiao Ran’s current mission is a legendary-level task called the “Hall of the Thousand Lost Machines.” The reason it can be called legendary is naturally related to top-tier golden equipment and martial arts.

At the end of the Thousand Machines questline, the legendary weapon he was aiming for was none other than the ultimate masterpiece of the Yanjia Brush series, the golden weapon Cang Feng.

The founder of the Hall of the Thousand Machines, Song Kang, was exceptionally talented and intelligent. In his youth, he was undoubtedly the most outstanding among the younger generation of the four major families in Yanshi. However, due to persecution from his own clan, he had to flee into the vast yellow sand with his friend, the great artist Ban Ling, and establish the Hall of the Thousand Machines. The Hall of the Thousand Machines broke the tradition of the four major families not accepting disciples from outside, opened up recruitment, and within ten years, it showed signs of surpassing the four major families. In the same year, the “Song Kang Armor” he created became the final straw that broke the camel’s back. In order to obtain the legendary secret technique that could create the armor without the need for the Yanjia heart, the four major families joined forces to attack the Hall of the Thousand Machines. In the midst of life and death, the deeply aggrieved Song Kang triggered the mechanisms of the Hall of the Thousand Machines, burying everyone in the yellow sand. The disciples who managed to escape carried deep hatred, but they were afraid of being discovered by the people of the four major families, so they scattered and fled, living in fear and anxiety day after day…

This is the background of the Thousand Machines questline. A month ago, Xiao Ran completed the first stage of the mission, obtained the status of Song Kang’s successor, and acquired the sect’s divine artifact, the Heavenly Craftsman Scroll. As long as he completes the next tasks, finds the Hall of the Thousand Machines under the yellow sand, and opens it, he will have the opportunity to inherit Song Kang’s legacy. Not only will he obtain the legendary golden weapon, Cang Feng, but he will also smoothly advance to the dual-class profession of Shen Bi + Puppeteer, known as the Heavenly Craftsman.

Advancing to a higher-level profession is very difficult, but the power that comes with it is extremely formidable. Yiye Feihua’s Dragon of the Abyss was an advanced profession. In the entire time since the opening of the Fengdu server, he is the only one who has successfully advanced, so the difficulty of the upgrade mission could be clearly seen.

Xiao Ran spent a lot of effort completing the first stage of the mission, but the second stage could only be carried out after completing the breakthrough task.

So, as soon as he completed the breakthrough task, he prioritized this matter.

Following the mission’s instructions, Xiao Ran entered a nondescript alley in Qiyang City where an ordinary household could be found in plain sight.

Crossing the threshold, Xiao Ran saw an NPC woman hanging clothes in the courtyard.

“Excuse me, madam, are you Su Ning?” Xiao Ran’s clear voice rang out in the courtyard. Su Ning was the NPC name given in the mission prompt and was also one of the survivors among the fleeing disciples of the Hall of the Thousand Machines.

The woman’s hands trembled slightly as she hung clothes, then she continued her actions naturally, saying, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Xiao Ran was prepared for this situation. He took out a white jade scroll core from his package, a scroll with a golden-red satin surface, and said, “I have been entrusted by Elder Su of Rongshan Village to bring the Heavenly Craftsman Scroll to visit Su Ning-qianbei.”

Upon hearing the words “Heavenly Craftsman Scroll,” the woman paused, then turned around and walked to Xiao Ran, snatching the scroll from his hands excitedly. She carefully examined it and kept repeating, “It’s really the Heavenly Craftsman Scroll,” “It’s really it,” for a few seconds before realizing the impropriety of her actions. She awkwardly returned the scroll to Xiao Ran and spoke in a much more polite tone.

“Gongzi, please follow me to the house to talk.” Su Ning’s attitude changed drastically after seeing the token, and she invited Xiao Ran into the room for a deeper conversation.

Next was a very typical task dialogue. This stage of the task process wasn’t that complicated, but the difficulty level of the items to collect was quite high.

Su Ning needed Xiao Ran to go to the largest dungeon in Qiyang City, the Mechanical City, to find an Eye of Wisdom and three hundred Charged Crystal Stones.

Xiao Ran walked out with a face full of melancholy after receiving the task.

An Eye of Wisdom, wow! A gold-quality item! Was it really necessary for the difficulty to be this high right from the start!

Moreover, the drop rate of Charged Crystal Stones wasn’t high either, similar to red equipment. For three hundred of them in total, he really didn’t know how long it would take to collect them.

But there was no other way. Being able to receive a legendary-level task was already incredible luck. There was no option to give up. Even if he had to kneel down, he had to complete it! QAQ!

Xiao Ran sighed and dragged himself out of the alley towards the teleportation point in Qiyang City, then directly teleported to the outskirts of Mechanical City.

Setting teleportation points directly in the instance area was a relatively rare occurrence in the game, but Mechanical City was the largest leveling area related to puppeteers, covering a vast area that included monster levels ranging from 40 to 60. It was one of the largest leveling and instance areas in Shenzhou, along with Dunhuang’s Mogao Caves, Ling Mountain’s Rumbling Thunder Temple, Huazhou’s Gentleman’s Valley, and other areas related to the eight major professions, collectively known as the “Eight Major Regions.”

So when Xiao Ran arrived in the teleportation point, he saw a vast expanse filled with puppeteer players and their mechanical pets.

Although there were no restrictions on player professions that could enter Mechanical City, the drop rates here for puppeteer skill books and equipment were higher than other places. Even the materials for puppeteer pets are readily available, so the area had become a constant battleground for puppeteers.

As Xiao Ran emerged from the teleportation point, he faced a vast rocky terrain. Faint sounds of gears turning emanated from within the stones. This was the 40-45 level leveling area on the outer perimeter of Mechanical City, known as the Mechanical Stone Array.

Mechanical City consisted of three main areas: the outer Mechanical Stone Array and the central Mechanical City were the leveling areas. Below Mechanical City were three layers of underground dungeons, belonging to the instance area. The Eye of Wisdom that Xiao Ran needed could only be obtained by defeating hidden bosses inside the instance. As for the Charged Crystals, they could be found both in the leveling area and the instances.

Xiao Ran couldn’t even enter the first level of the Mechanical City instance, which had a level 45 requirement, so he settled down comfortably in the Mechanical Stone Array, farming small monsters while leveling up and collecting charged crystals.

The Mechanical City was crowded, but the area was especially large with many monsters. There was rarely a need to fight over monsters. Xiao Ran, being a spellcaster, didn’t need to dive into the midst of monster groups. He simply cast a Frangipani Art in the direction of concentrated monsters, attracting quite a few towards him. Glancing at the four mechanical puppets with tilted heads, floating towards him, he didn’t hesitate to turn around and cast another skill at a different group of monsters. He maneuvered skillfully, using Vine and Vine Wall to gather more monsters. Soon, he had around twenty mechanical puppets following him.

Xiao Ran led the monsters to a slightly wider area. With a flick of his Langhao Brush, an inconspicuous white cloud appeared out of nowhere among the puppets.

Paintings Become Reality! Illusion-Breaking Brush! Hidden Thunder!

The Hanfu-clad youth’s figure flashed, instantly creating a large distance between himself and the puppet mobs. At the same time, the white cloud exploded in the center, scattering fog that caused the advancing puppets to lose their direction, pausing in confusion.

Suddenly, the white fog darkened, and a bolt of lightning flashed out from the cloud layer. The presence of the cloud made the originally slender lightning chain thicker by several magnitudes, striking one of the mechanical puppets on the head, instantly forming a sizzle of sparks.

Then, as if infectious, this chain of lightning connected all the mechanical puppets one by one, leading to the release of black smoke.

Electrical attacks had a bonus against mechanical products. Coupled with Xiao Ran no longer wearing his original set of armor but actual damage-output gear, this combination of skills reduced the puppets’ life by an entire quarter.

As the white fog dispersed, the enraged mechanical puppets, charred and dizzy from the electricity, chased angrily after Xiao Ran. But after casting his skills, Xiao Ran ran away and had created enough distance again. When they caught up to him next, his combo skills had all cooled down.

It was like a perfect loop. Every time the mechanical puppets were about to catch up to Xiao Ran, they would lose their aggro due to the white fog while simultaneously suffering damage from the electric AOE attack. After a few times, Xiao Ran had surprisingly killed the twenty-plus mechanical puppets without a scratch.

The ground was littered with glittering items.

Xiao Ran was surprised. He didn’t expect the drop rate of kills in the Mechanical City to be so high.

He hadn’t even had time to be happy for two seconds when he approached and discovered that they were all materials for making puppeteer armor, ranging from the lowest-level Iron Bear Puppet to the advanced Flying Puppet Armor, all complete.

He was happy for nothing.

Xiao Ran was speechless.

Xiao Ran picked up the scattered materials one by one and put them in his inventory. After carefully searching, he finally found one piece of Charged Crystal.

The Charged Crystal was a small blue crystal, now lying lonely in the corner of his inventory. Like ink for the Shen Bi profession, it was the most important power source for a puppeteer’s products. It could be considered a battery; without it, a puppeteer’s puppet would be nothing but scrap metal. Even the legendary item, the Eye of Wisdom, required a Charged Crystal to operate.

Seeing the frustrating drop rate of the Charging Crystal, Xiao Ran sighed softly and then continued with the next round of monster hunting.

In the bustling Mechanical City where groups of monsters roamed, a small cloth-wearing spellcaster fearlessly maneuvered like a tank, impossible to ignore.

A passing player stopped in their tracks.

Another passing player stopped in their tracks.

More and more players halted, widening their eyes in disbelief as they watched Xiao Ran dart in and out of monster groups.

“Instant AoE skills? And such high damage! Wow! Who is this guy, soloing groups as a spellcaster? How is he so powerful!” exclaimed a spellcaster player.

“Who is this guy? A spellcaster soloing group mobs? He’s practically soaring in the sky!” another spellcaster player said, sounding a bit envious.

“Record this, record this!” more players chimed in.