Chapter 3

Time rewinds, two months ago in the Elwynn Forest, in the evil cave that never sees sunlight, all players of the Silver Moon League in "Dungeons and Dragons" had once fought here to defeat the Corpse Fire.

— A tribute to all players who posed with the decapitated, rotting head of the Devil Zombie boss!

............

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Two dim lights flickered rhythmically in the dim cave. Several Infernal Imps, with red skin and short horns, about the height of human children, swung their small axes and walked back and forth a dozen meters away from the lights. They occasionally glanced at the flickering lights and spoke in their sharp, incomprehensible Infernal language.

Of course, if there was a Mage with a few points in [Language Proficiency], they could still discern a few obvious roots, such as "again," "fast," "pain," and so on—

—These 6-8 level monsters were somewhat inarticulate.

Clearly, these Infernal Imps were discussing the two lights. However, these lights were not magical flames or ghostly fires, but rather paper rolls slowly burning in the mouths of two individuals.

On a planet with highly developed modern civilization, these paper rolls containing dried plant leaves are called cigarettes.

"Smoke slowly, there's not much left..."

A somewhat slender man said to the Corpse Fire, who was sitting cross-legged opposite him.

The latter greedily sucked on the nearly depleted cigarette with his rotting, tooth-exposing lips, enjoying the pale green smoke rings that emerged from his maggot-infested nostrils.

Indeed, this was the Devil Zombie boss deep in the Elwynn Forest's evil cave, strong and powerful, with fists full of icy magic energy, capable of dashing to a target in an instant and delivering a fatal [Ghostly Strike].

The Devil Zombie boss exhaled a thick cloud of smoke and a few maggots from his mouth, half-closing his eyes as he replied:

"I've heard that long-term use of this invigorating plant can indeed lead to impotence...

...Alpha, why don't you give me the rest of the cigarettes? I'll tell you the movement pattern of Andariel's [Toxic Nova]."

The Corpse Fire took a few more satisfying puffs, reluctantly drawing in the last bit of the cigarette, completely ignoring the burning tip that had reached his lips—

—Zombies are not sensitive to temperature changes and have no concept of heat, and Devil Zombies are even less so, especially since the Devil Zombie here was merely a projection of Corpse Fire's far-off Hellish Devil form.

"I've seen videos of the Eighteen Hells fighting Andariel. At that level of toxin coverage, I could dodge it with my eyes closed."

The man deliberately closed his eyes to show he was telling the truth, then continued with a hint of a mischievous smile:

"As for sexual ability, you should ask yourself—does smoking through a projection really give the original body a sense of satisfaction?"

"Of course, it's very... pleasant..."

The Corpse Fire thought for a moment, seemingly making a comparison, then made a gesture as if twisting something:

"...Just like when I see my clumsy projection wrenching off an adventurer's head with bare hands, it's equally pleasant."

"The original body gains pleasure by observing the projection; this behavior is scientifically known as masturbation."

The man shook his head dismissively, and the Corpse Fire shrugged like a normal person:

"I'm sorry, but I don't need to masturbate. The succubi in Hell who want to be favored by me could fill 100 evil caves.

—From a sensory perspective, the perception gained through a soul connection and through personal experience is the same. Corpse Fire is a soul projection of Constantin, so when Corpse Fire smokes, it's as if the great Constantin is smoking. But to be honest..."

The Corpse Fire made a gesture of dissatisfaction:

"...I hate this pile of rotten flesh!"

From the Corpse Fire's speech and logic, you wouldn't believe this was a zombie with hardly any flesh left.

In fact, if you knew Corpse Fire's status in Hell—Lord Constantin, the ruler of the Cold Zone, and Constantin's original form being one of the most "tall and mighty" Abyssal Fiends—it's not hard to understand why Corpse Fire, or Lord Constantin, "hates this pile of rotten flesh."

It must be said that projecting as a ragged living dead to the mortal world is somewhat embarrassing,

Especially since this Corpse Fire isn't even a true projection, just an extension of Constantin's power and consciousness. The true material plane projection of Lord Constantin should be at least a 125-level demigod, if Constantin isn't lying—any creature or player reaching level 120 or higher can be called a demigod.

The same goes for the half-spider, half-human Andariel and the legendary insect-killer Duriel in the Arreat Desert. Their material plane forms are vastly different from their original forms:

—All these powerful beings condescend and debase themselves to project into the material plane solely to obey the orders of higher-ranking leaders in Hell. This is the most commendable aspect of devils; they choose absolute obedience to an unchangeable order rather than ignoring all rules like their abyssal neighbors, the demons.

Of course, as compensation, when their material plane projections are defeated, causing damage to their original forms, Asmodeus, the Lord of Baator, will compensate them in some way to maintain this mechanism in a positive and orderly manner.

After boasting a bit about his "charming" status in Hell and complaining about the projection task, the Corpse Fire suddenly seemed to remember something:

"...Alpha, why haven't you gone to face Andariel yet? I remember that defeating my projection allows you to apply to the sheriff, what's his name... George, to clear the Scarlet Monastery. That muscle-bound woman keeps asking about you; she's very interested in you, in everything."

Andariel? The devil nun in the monastery's dungeon, one of the strongest enemies for new players.

Thinking of the "muscle-bound woman" who was once known as the most beautiful woman in Cynas, now with a terrifyingly large and deformed body, Alpha—the slender man who gave the Corpse Fire cigarettes—felt a bit uncomfortable and shrugged:

"From an aesthetic standpoint, I have no interest in her, at least not in her material plane projection.

—More importantly, you know my situation. What are the chances of a cursed, non-mage wizard like me defeating Andariel in hand-to-hand combat?"

As he spoke, Alpha waved the novice longsword in his hand, dealing 4-7 damage, which was decent. Of course, if you add the 5-8 damage, 2-second auto-reloading, and 8% chance to deal an additional 20 damage to the target from the [Pale Hand Crossbow] on Alpha's waist, it would be even better.

The [Pale Hand Crossbow] was a reward from Alpha's 13th defeat of the level 9 Corpse Fire, the material plane projection of Lord Constantin.

It was during that time that Alpha showed the Corpse Fire the magical properties of cigarettes, making the Corpse Fire completely obsessed with the Dragon's Breath cigarettes, which cost only one copper for ten at Old Joel's General Store in Goldshire.

...What a mighty name.

Of course, since then, Alpha and the Corpse Fire have become friends who can sit and chat,

—Being friends with a level 10 elite boss is probably a unique story that can't be found anywhere else in "Dungeons and Dragons."

As for the "cursed, non-mage wizard" Alpha, his unique experience is another rare story:

The adventure began when Alpha first entered the game.

It must be said that in the first 10 minutes of entering "Dungeons and Dragons," Qin Yu, or Alpha in real life, had quite good luck:

He randomly got a name that wasn't bad and fit the Western sword-and-magic-themed MMORPG, and he received extremely high initial attributes.

However, Qin Yu himself was completely unaware of his good luck, except for thinking that "Alpha" was a decent name. As a result, he didn't even look at the various classes like Mage, Paladin, Monk, etc., and simply followed the system's default "Next" option.

In fact, anyone who has played a bit of games wouldn't be like Qin Yu, who had no idea what the following stats represented:

Strength: 14, Agility: 20, Constitution: 20, Intelligence: 5, Willpower: 19, Charisma: 5

If it weren't for the boredom of renting a house off-campus and his buddy Bald Li's persuasion, saying that this was a "cross-century" MMORPG that had been running for over three months and was called "an infinite business opportunity for any group," Qin Yu might still not know what "Dungeons and Dragons" was, let alone understand what these stats meant:

—A total attribute sum of 83, 8 points higher than the highest random value of 75 points announced online!

In a game where the average attribute sum is around 65, the significance of these 8 points is evident.

In "Dungeons and Dragons," each point of initial attributes is extremely valuable, let alone 8 points—meaning that the best initial attributes in "Dungeons and Dragons" were in the hands of a completely inexperienced player, Qin Yu. Even more frustrating, Qin Yu chose the Mage class by default.

It's no wonder that when Qin Yu casually experienced the game for a few minutes, went offline, and called Bald Li to detail his experience, Bald Li, who was still excited a second ago, suddenly let out a wail and then a string of curses:

"You damn fool, why did you choose a Mage?!!!"